Blog

– Men’s NCAA Basketball Final Four: Georgia Tech v. Oklahoma State; Duke v. UConn. The only thing I got right was Duke, and I didn’t even pick Duke to be the final two or final one. Oh, well. Should be an interesting pair of games – wonder if UConn will beat Duke…? (the only “local” team left is UConn…)

– This weekend, I finished reading “An Antic Disposition” by Alan Gordon. Great, great book of a great series. Series summary: the series takes place in the late 12th century Europe; the protagonist the mysterious jester Feste of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” is more than meets the eye, in acting not just as a comedian but as a catalyst of geo-political matters of the times). The latest book is a version of “Hamlet,” picking up themes that Mr. Gordon has put in place in the series – and it’s such a wonderfully emotional story. Lest ye think that this isn’t blog-relevant, be advised that according to the bookjackets of each book in the series, Mr. Gordon is an attorney for Legal Aid Society in Queens – a member of the profession with remarkable talent.

– Actor/writer/humanitarian Peter Ustinov passed away yesterday. He will be remembered for a lot of things; I enjoyed watching him in one or two PBS documentaries, where he had such a sophisticated air and lovely plummy accent while regaling on the romance of the Orient Express. One of his more famous roles was as the famous fictitious Orient Express detective, Agatha Christie’s Hercules Poirot.

– On a pleasant note, baseball season is coming, baseball season is coming!!!

In honor of the upcoming event at the alma mater law school (and, anyway, some American universities, including my undergraduate alma mater, will be celebrating Asian/Pacific American month in April), I will (try to) be a better Asian-American and thus, consider the following observations for this blog entry:

– So, Michelle Kwan is a bronze medalist at the World Championships in figure skating? Ah, well.

– I so like the diversity and complexity of Asian art – as the NY Times’ art write Holland Carter notes:

“Asia Week is a fast-moving feast, and you have to move fast to keep up with it. Delectable objects, trailing price tags behind them, whiz into town and are gone. The meal itself requires marathon sprints between Manhattan art fairs, auctions and galleries, not to mention Asia-intensive institutions like the Metropolitan Museum, Japan Society and Asia Society, all with new shows this spring. By the end of the week, if you’ve stayed the course, you may or may not have had your fill of art, but you will certainly have touched down in more Asias than you ever knew existed.”

Now, if only I had time to check out all this stuff. Sounds so great.

– NY Times’ article on Japan’s mixed feelings about Asian foreign students, and the Asian foreign students’ mixed feelings about being in Japan – this was an interesting read. Not sure what it necessarily says about intra-Asian relations – yes, Japan knows it needs an influx of new ideas and strengths and labors – but doesn’t necessarily welcome those who aren’t Japanese; yes, others Asians would like to benefit from higher education offered in Japan, but if they’re not welcomed, they’re not inclined to stay in Japan. Hmm.

– I thought that there are some way-too-dedicated NY Yankees fans out there, but apparently the Japanese arguably take baseball more seriously than anyone else – way too seriously.

– I know next to nothing about cricket, that other sport involving a stick and a ball, but apparently it’s real popular in the Asian subcontinent – and maybe it can pave the way to peace in that region. Personally, I think India and Pakistan competing over their cricket is infinitely more preferable to fighting with nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.

Enjoy yet-another-work-week and congratulations on getting through yet another Monday.

I love this article in this week’s NYT Magazine about a high school coach. Brought back a lot of fond memories of my teachers in high school.

I was moved to post a reply to the thread. And am moved to talk about it here. I think he’s a hero and one of the few old school teachers out there. Did any of you guys have a teacher like him? I had one and will never forget him.

=YC

TGIF.

Brooklyn doesn’t have the same cachet of exciting diversity and synergy that, say, Flushing has. But, today’s NY Times has an interesting article about the ethnic diversity right on Coney Island Avenue. On Coney Island Avenue, you could have a Jewish nursery school near a mosque – but notably, maybe Brooklyn doesn’t have Queens’ famed tolerance – since, as the Jewish woman tells the reporter (I’ll paraphrase) “Being next to a mosque is scary.” Hmm. In my own Brooklyn neighborhood, there is an Islamic center housed in a building that was once a Jewish school (a change that happened the past 15 years – and I remember seeing the little Jewish kids wearing yarmulkas and playing around that school, so think how old I feel) – and, indeed, its cornerstone still has Hebrew etchings on it, but painted over white as if to white-out the past. What does this say about changing demographics in Brooklyn? Hmm.

Slate.com has an interesting assessment on… Scooby Doo. Of all cartoons still capturing kids’ imagination… I confess that I had my own Scooby Doo thing back when I was a kid (and maybe still do? – well, no – I don’t really like the current incarnation of the cartoon on WB). The most amusing thing from this article – the revelation that Casey Kasem is still doing the voice of Shaggy. He retires from taking long distance dedications (handing his radio Top 40 gig to that “great” DJ Ryan Seacrest) and yet still finds time and energy to be Shaggy, even in the current Scooby Doo incarnation on the WB? Wow. Kudos to Kasem’s longevity.

Plus, last night’s local tv news on Channel 4 (WNBC) honored the local anchorman Chuch Scarborough for his 30 years on Channel 4. Salute to Chuck – his longevity on one station is incredibly admirable, especially in an age when just about every local tv news personality has traveled to each station (all these musical chairs thing can be confusing – ex., weather personality Dr. Frank Fields has done all the channels, and a lot of the old timers aren’t even on the air anymore). (Plus, kudos to the others who share the news desk with Chuck at the 11pm time slot – Sue Simmons, co-anchor, and the sports anchor Len Berman, almost rival Chuck in terms of longevity – the familiarity with them and their hijinks makes them a comfort to watch, even if they’re not perfect news folks).

World Championship ice skating threw me off the March Madness last night (not so much fun anyway, when the brackets are ripped up, but I’ll be back to enjoy college b-ball viewing again, I’m sure). Last night’s same-day tape delay on ABC of the men’s final round: Russian man Evgeny Plushenko won the gold medal, considering that he did so many of the quad jumps and bounced back from a fluke of a fall. French man Brian Joubert (whose name sounds like a hockey player, not a figure skater) got silver doing a Matrix (yeah, that Keanu Reeves movie) adaption. German Stefan Lindemann got bronze, a nice prize for a strong performance and home field advantage (i.e., the championships are taking place in Germany). Americans Johnny Weir and Michael Weiss got 5th and 6th places – mostly because they didn’t throw in quads. The Europeans have incredible depth, I must say. Tomorrow, ABC will show the women’s round – will Michelle Kwan do it? Or is it time for the next generation? Hmm.

Enjoy the weekend; the week was long enough.

I’m leaving for San Diego tomorrow morning with P– for the second half of my California travels in search of that American Airlines free ticket ™. YC is driving down from San Jose to rendezvous with my friends in Newport Beach. Later, we’ll drive just over the border. More movement on the “where in the world are we now” meter!

Today, the weather was decent – it actually felt like spring or something like it. Anyway, beware; long blog ahead, since it’s been awhile and there’s been a crop of interesting news and articles.

NY Times Quotation of the Day:

“‘I want the truth.’ – Bob McIlvaine, who attended a hearing of the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks.”

We all want the truth; sadly, it doesn’t mean we’ll get it, because (like in historical research) the truth is never so simple, since it depends on who’s telling the story. Watching the news about the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks (a.k.a. the 9/11 Commission)’s public hearings is interesting television, if I can say that; as some of the commissioners pointed out on the Lehrer Newshour on PBS today, the purpose of the public hearings is to make a point to the public. It may be all for the sake of appearance, but the appearance is a powerful one. The intruiging moment for me was seeing former Senator Bob Kerrey make his pointed remarks (to Albright, he says: “I keep hearing the excuse we didn’t have actionable intelligence. Well, what the hell does that say to Al Qaida? Basically, they knew — beginning in 1993 it seems to me — that there was going to be limited, if any, use of military and that they were relatively free to do whatever they wanted.”) [N.B. – I plugged the lines off of NY Times’ transcript, as it obtained from the Feds; it’s fair use, I’m sure….]. Hmm. Kind of weird that this Kerrey isn’t in the political business like he used to be, while we get the other Kerry (and really, I won’t say more than that and will reserve all rights from saying more about Kerrey/Kerry)…

A depressing March Madness storyin the NY Times: “Graduation Is Secondary for Many in Final 16” – only 4 out of the still-remaining-in -play Sweet Sixteen schools have graduation rates of better than 50% among their men’s basketball players – Duke, Kansas, Vanderbilt and Xavier. Sigh; what does this say about the state of undergraduate education and athletes?

Prof. Michael Dorf of Columbia U’s Law School presents “Justice Scalia’s Persuasive But Elitist Response to the Duck Hunting Controversy” – that J. Scalia’s memorandum is striking for showing how America’s government is reliant on elite people. And, considering how the legal profession itself is emphatic about “networking,” Dorf notes that Scalia is right – it’s not about what you know, it’s about who you know – and Dorf thinks that’s a real sad thing, since it shows how alienated the elitists are from them regular folks. I thought Dorf had good points. This NY Times’ op-ed by the Yale professors about Scalia’s remarks in the memorandum about the airline tickets were funny (although my experiences in buying airline tickets isn’t nearly as great as Scalia’s or the professors, so I wonder how “funny” is “funny” here – haha funny or sarcastic funny, or are the profs serious suggesting that Scalia had committed promissory fraud by purchasing round-trip tickets that he didn’t use because he got on the vice president’s plane for the duck hunting??).

Speaking of Scalia, the news about the case where he did recuse himself has been intruiging. Lehrer Newshour reported that Michael Newdow, the doctor-lawyer-atheist who’s against making his daughter say the Pledge of Allegiance “under God,” didn’t do a bad job in representing himself and the Supreme Court treated him professionally and in as civil manner as could be (check out the commentary Marcia Coyle provided to Gwen Ifill on Real Audio on the Lehrer Newshour website) . Law.com noted that Newdow had as much preparation as was possible to aim for some kind of competence, even if he isn’t a practicing lawyer. So, he managed to downplay the kookiness that he had otherwise demonstrated in his prior public appearances and his arguments seem clearer and persuasive – I mean, really – even the conservative William Safire says Newdow isn’t completely wrong. Scary; although, like with the Kerrey/Kerry thing, I’ll reserve my actual opinions about the Pledge (assuming I have made any opinion on it anyway) – except to say that I think I do agree with Safire on his closing comments; Safire says:

“The only thing this time-wasting pest Newdow has going for him is that he’s right. Those of us who believe in God don’t need to inject our faith into a patriotic affirmation and coerce all schoolchildren into going along. The key word in the pledge is the last one.

“The insertion was a mistake then; the trouble is that knocking the words out long afterward, offending the religious majority, would be a slippery-slope mistake now.

“The justices shouldn’t use the issue of standing to punt, thereby letting this divisive ruckus fester. The solution is for the court to require teachers to inform students they have the added right to remain silent for a couple of seconds while others choose to say ‘under God.’”

A fascinating article on grits, that Southern specialty. Not sure that it’s going to make me try the stuff, but at least I have a better sense of what it is.

In a prior blog entry, I noted that the recent NHL incident wherein the Vancouver player smacked an opposing player real hard; as I expected, Findlaw.com has a law student get around to doing the analysis over whether this is a mere tort or something even worse (he argues that it’s a matter of criminal battery, perhaps). The law student here did a nice job, I thought, for a 1L – tight writing, applying black letter law, and arguing policy. Maybe he had a good editor? Nonetheless, I applaud – he’s understandablylaying the groundworks for his legal career. Plus, it makes me smile knowing that this guy is from Alma Mater (and Findlaw.com even notes who his professor is, and the identity of the prof was not a great surprise)…

Let’s hope the nice weather in NYC stays around long enough to be enjoyed.

Sorry folks, I don’t know anything about March Madness. I barely have enough interest to track one team from one game to the next; keeping track of 4 teams through 64 games is just not going to happen for me. However, if you do want to know how it works, How Stuff Works has the answer.

Good grief — two of my Final Four picks are gone – Gonzaga and Stanford. Worse – I had picked them to be the final two; and Stanford was my ultimate champion. That’s March Madness for you (and proving that I’m no prognosticator). Perhaps it’s no surprise that Stanford would have fallen so soon – it had a great regular season, but had to be ultimately tested. And, Gonzaga – well, it’s not the Cinderella darling it once was, so perhaps it too was bound to drop off in the brackets. Is Alabama, which beat Stanford, on its way to something? Hmm.

The two local schools, Seton Hall and Manhattan, lost to the ACC schools, Duke and Wake Forest – in North Carolina. I didn’t expect Seton Hall to get passed Duke (and didn’t pick Seton Hall in my brackets), but went with my heart in picking Manhattan to be the upset over Wake Forest in my brackets. Of course, that was a Cinderella pick that didn’t work out. In further hindsight, it just seems a little unfair – Duke and Wake Forest were in their home area of Raleigh, NC, so perhaps they had the home field advantage. But, give Seton Hall and Manhattan credit for trying.

Let’s see how Round 2 goes tomorrow.

Well, I get on the plane and then the next day there’s a few substantive blogs to read. Woo, I should needle more often hehe….

I feel… traveled out (I think that can be a feeling or emotion?). About 7 weeks out of the country going from one place to another and now I’m back. Not sure how I should be feeling other than…. tired ? I’m glad I wasn’t hassled at SFO immigration and customs. I get off and while immigrations was easy, “Hi, Mr Blah, Bleh?” “Yes,” [stamp] “Thank you”. I saw a huge line in customs “Nothing to Declare” Line. The custom’s officer seeing my 2 large suitcases and carry on says, “Please exit” when I try to head to the big line. Cool! I feel bad for all those people probably still waiting to get cleared from customs.

I don’t know but the airlines look pretty full to me. All my Asian flights were fully booked and no detection that there’s an airline slump. I flew EVA unfortunately not a UA code share partner. I will try to see if I can get my trip miles post flight. I worry that all my air miles will go poof when UA decides to go out of business. I think it’s about 75% sure in 2-3 years. They just can’t seem to get themselves fixed up…. Oh, and why is Boeing getting their lunch eaten by Airbus? Because those seats are simply too small!!! I flew the Boeing 747-400 and sorry, it was really uncomfortable. Now, I know I’m a pretty big guy by comparison but people are getting bigger all the time. Boeing hasn’t kept up with the times and will soon be obsolete too.

I’ve survived my trip not having totally gained back all the weight I lost going there… Now it’s sorta back to semi-normal US California life although it’s sort of weird to say that since I have no idea what that means anymore. Given that I am going back to my “un-rooted” phase of life again, I guess emotionally, I can’t be attached to any one place. From the East Coast, I’ve moved out West for almost 5 years. I’ve made a number of friends and have started to get completely used to the lifestyle here. I’ve always missed the NYC Metro area and my friends there. In the back of mind, I’m still in NYC. I’ve traveled and moved to many places that making friends and keeping them is really tough. One of my oldest friends is returning to his roots, and moving to Chicago with his wife and kid. Without IM, e-mail and hopefully soon for more people, video-cam; I’m not sure how to keep it all together. It’ll be so much harder as I’m moving to Taiwan in May.

=YC

I’m awake and a game is on tv – Duke v. Seton Hall. In my brackets, I picked Duke, but Seton Hall’s a sort of hometown team – I feel almost torn. CBS has also showed way too much Duke stories on tv – good grief, they’re like the NY Yankees – on all the time.

NY Times has a nice story on the two NY metro area Catholic schools (who are both strangely detached from the urbanities of their connected areas) – Seton Hall (leafy university campus far from Newark, although the law school is still by the PATH station in Newark) and Manhattan College (which is actually in the lovely land of Riverdale, Bronx).

For the record, I’ll let you all know that my final four picks are: Gonzaga, St. Joseph, Duke, and Stanford. Unknown if it’ll happen, but each team is still alive at this hour. The only corner in my bracket where there’s much still standing is the Phoenix (West) region – only one out of 16 picks wrong – not bad. Not an altogether bad bracket this year. But where’s a Cinderella I can be content with?

And, no, I’m not that big NCAA junkie – just a mildly interested one (if I were a real junkie, then I ought to have followed all season, not just in March).

Historiography in action – what is history and what does the history of history reflect, and what does it mean when politics uses history for its own purposes? In an article for the NY Times, Antonio Feros shows how it’s getting messy when Spain’s elections seem to suspiciously recall its civil war of 70 years ago:

“But many historians in Spain are still troubled by the trend toward using history as a weapon in political debates. “The use of the civil war to interpret the present is very dangerous,” [Enrique Moradiellos, a historian at the University of Extremadura, Spain] warns. ‘And I am afraid that if we continue to do this we might provoke a radicalization of the political situation that could bring unwanted results.’”

Interesting point.

Other interesting questions about historical (so to speak) research: more on the Blackmun papers, and wondering whether they really reveal much at all, according to one of his former clerks , (who is very much a direct source as we can probably get for now).

In a NY Times op-ed, William B. Rubenstein, UCLA professor of law, goes into an interesting analysis on politicians’ use of framing arguments along Constitutional lines (i.e., asking how we keep within the governmental structuring), rather than getting to the heart of an issue (i.e., discussing what we want society to be and to do). He notes that maybe this Founding Fathers of the USA made the political system as it is to raise possibilities of compromise (evade the harder discussion of what kind of society we want by making us talk about the “easier” one – how do we stay within the Constitional frame – first; the Founding Fathers’ plans certainly would keep (and already have kept) the country stable before we tumble into disarray over the battle of issues). But, as Rubenstein notes, it is a real odd way to “discuss” politics.

Taiwanese election results just out; curious developments there.

Back to basketball…