The coldest winter I ever spent
Archive for the ‘General’ Category.
I went to a newish event called “Feast of Words” at Somarts last week. It rocks. The idea is straightforward enough. A monthly dinner party where writers and foodies come together to eat, write, and share. I’ll be back!
My sister asked me about the people we used to live near as a child, the Iannis. We never knew much about them but they always seemed really cool and mysterious. Every now and then they’d drive down our dead-end street in their Land Rover (They had a Land Rover waaay before it was cool to have one). Mr and Mrs were both very fair skinned with white hair. I sometimes envisioned them as vampires holed up in their castle or some-such but the reality was that they were always very nice, if private. Their home certainly held terrific fascination. At the end of our dead-end street, the blacktop changes to cobble stone. The beginning of the driveway is saddled with stone pillars that hold hinges to what used to be a gate. About 15 yards down the road, there was a small house that looked in disrepair; a peep in the window showed a rustic interior. I couldn’t ever tell if it was a storage place or crazy crowded guest house. Go down the road another 20 yards and you come to the house. I only remember going in once… it was with my folks. They had all kinds of cool adult stuff. There were stuffed animals (a bear? My memory fades), an indoor waterfall fountain, lots of dark hues. I remember that the two of them always looked like they were going off on some awesome, grown-up adventure in that Land Rover of theirs. They both had a smile that conveyed intelligence, worldliness, and adventurousness.
I did a little research and found a couple things. Mr. Ianni wrote, among other things The Search for Structure. It’s curious that the first words of the book are “The lives of adolescents hold a fascination for all of us.” In a manner, we were those adolescents.
The Teachers College website reports, “Dr. Francis A. J. Ianni is Professor Emeritus of Education at Teachers College Columbia Univesity. He earned his degrees from Penn State, completing his B.S. in 1949, his A.M. in 1950, and his Ph.D. 1952.”
Most curiously, the Teachers College article mentions:
Dr. Ianni suggested that immigrants from Italy and their children lacked an ethnic identity based on their common national ancestry when they came to the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. In his view, when they eventually acquired the consciousness of being Italian, such an outcome was “an invention of the new world” (202). Ianni’s interpretation of the changes in Italian Americans’ ethnicity resulting from their interaction with the adopted society can be easily placed in a broader perspective with implications for other immigrant communities in the US as well.
Yes, I understand and feel that. But it’s ok.
Here’s a nice dump of my iphone camera photos from the last few months showing where I’ve been and such. Click to enlarge any of them.
Open air restaurants are certainly one of the great joys of Parisians. Here are some of the delightful street sounds I heard as I walked past Café le Piquet in Paris one late summer night.
Did you know that they have permanent signs along Route 80 between Sinclair and Cheyeene WY so they just have to turn on the blinky lights to indicate when the highway is closed? The lights were blinking last night!
Earlier this week San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 to ban toys in Happy Meals. Mayor Newsom vetoed it. But they might have enough votes to institute it anyway.
This NPR article about the Happy Meal ban goes into it pretty well.
This week, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to ban McDonald’s Happy Meals as presently constituted, including the toy. Yesterday, Mayor Gavin Newsom vetoed the ordinance, saying, “Parents, not politicians, should decide what their children eat.”
But the board has the votes to override him. By December 2011, people may be able to buy medical marijuana in San Francisco, at places called The Vapor Room and Goodfellows Smoke Shop – but not a Happy Meal.
Supervisor Eric Mar, who introduced the ordinance, worries that children who crave a toy, which is frequently tied to a movie promotion, will urge their parents to buy them a Happy Meal.
“From San Francisco to New York,” says Mr. Mar, “the epidemic of childhood obesity in this country is making our kids sick.”
Right now, a Happy Meal contains a small hamburger, cheeseburger or four Chicken McNuggets; french fries or sliced apples; and juice, milk or a soft drink.
Mr. Mar hopes to spur McDonald’s into reducing sodium and fat in the items it bundles into Happy Meals, and include more fruits and vegetables.McDonald’s sent its chief dietitian to San Francisco to point out that Happy Meals already offer fruit instead of fries, and even with fries, meet current federal nutritional guidelines that cap children’s meals at 600 calories.
Will Happy Meal Prohibition work any better than Prohibition? In fact, I wonder why some people who question the logic of laws that label marijuana a drug, but license alcohol as a beverage, seem confident that some new anti-fatty food Prohibition will keep Happy Meals off the streets of San Francisco. After all, the golden arches of Daly City, Oakland and Milpitas are so close by.
I know parents who vow to never let their children eat sugary, salty, franchise food, and I admire them. I think this bill was probably aimed at those of us who try to make sure our children eat healthy food, but don’t begrudge an occasional treat. As Julia Child once said, “Moderation. Small helpings. Sample a little bit of everything. These are the secrets of happiness and good health.”
It’s been my parental experience that many children tear open a Happy Meal to find the toy and eat the fries. In fact, I know of some parents – all I have to do is look into the mirror – who order a Happy Meal with fruit instead of fries, then also order fries, because that’s their children’s favorite part. There’s a reason why they serve steak frites, and not steak fruits, in the bistros of Paris.
Maybe you can pass a law that will bring children a Happy Meal with fruit and vegetables. But you can’t make them eat it.
I just wrote to David Campos, my Supervisor
Parents right now have the choice to give their children healthy food or junk food. They have the voice to tell McDonalds what foods they want to buy. Please do not take their rights away. Please do not take their voice away.
Thank you for representing me,
Lee Sonko
District 9
From November 15-22nd I’m driving across this grand land of ours, almost from the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters!
I’m taking pictures of states with my company’s camera rig.
If all goes well, I’ll be sleeping in
If you’re along the route, give me a call and I’ll stop to say hello!
I’ll be taking pictures of places like Salt Lake City, UT; Cheyenne, WY; Denver, CO; Kansas City (Kansas & Missouri); Chicago, IL; Benton Harbor, MI; Cleveland, OH; Pittsburgh, PA; Fredericks, MD.
I reiterate, don’t trust your data to Facebook.
Google will no longer let other services automatically import its users’ email contact data for their own purposes, unless the information flows both ways. It accused Facebook in particular of siphoning up Google contact data, without allowing for the automatic import and export of Facebook users’ information.
Google said that while it makes it easy for other Web services to automatically import a user’s contact data, Facebook was not reciprocating.“We have decided to change our approach slightly to reflect the fact that users often aren’t aware that once they have imported their contacts into sites like Facebook, they are effectively trapped,” Google said in an emailed statement.
“We will no longer allow websites to automate the import of users’ Google Contacts (via our API) unless they allow similar export to other sites,” Google said.
Our equipment hasn’t come in yet. Who knew importing near-military grade GPS equipment to Saudi Arabia would be problematic?
We’ve been twiddling our thumbs 8,000 miles from home for 3 days. Our hosts are great, the food is excellent, the accommodations very nice. It still sucks to be just sitting here.
285 cable channels, 15 in English. There’s nothing on. Though there is the Mecca channel… all Mecca all the time, with these long slow pans of the place. And there’s like 150 channels of religious singing, 60 channels of unintelligible (to me) talking heads with headdresses…
I really need a portable mouse. The trackpad on my laptop is getting old.
I’m not getting over jetlag nearly as fast as I would if I weren’t sitting around all day. Ugh, a 10 hour time difference!
High points so far
If you care to, email or comment on this post to allay my homesickness. Please don’t call my cell, it’s $2.50/min whether I pick up or not. But I can call you via Skype when I have wifi…
From the roof of our apartment in Riyadh
The sound of all the prayers being sung from the innumerable mosques just after sunset is indescribable.