Category: Manhattan

Presidential candidates’ personal preferences.

A rather amusing article reviewing the release of the DVD of Season 1 of “Hawaii 5-0.”

NY Times’ Mark Bittman on getting the best steak frites in Paris. Mmm. Fries.

Plus, Bittman with a risotto recipe, along with the accompanying video. The butter and oil that chef Mario Batali put into his risotto – goodness. But, looks tasty and otherwise, Bittman and Batali made it look easy. Almost makes me want to cook. Umm, yeah, right…

A profile on Allyson Hannigan, the ex-Willow of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” fame, and currently Lily on “How I Met Your Mother” on CBS, a pretty darn good comedy. And, I agree – Lily and Marshall are probably the only couple in the TV multiverses who are in a healthy relationship – heck, they’re surviving Marshall’s time as a Columbia Law student. All they have to do is get through Marshall’s bar review experience, and they’re golden.

Serious note: Law Day – celebrating rule of law, not about celebrating lawyers, the NY Times editorial on May 1 notes. I’ll applaud that.

But, meanwhile, I found it highly disturbing that the Daily News spent Sunday and Monday on a Special Exclusive on the city’s alleged worst lawyers – people who resigned or were disciplined because they seriously screwed up. That’s nice to know, but not quite sure what else Daily News was trying to do – as if people didn’t already have little faith in the system as it is – as if we don’t learn what not to do.

Interesting article on the current trends on Civil Rights history, Southern history, and American conservatism – as a new generation of historians consider examining the Civil Rights era from the lenses of the White moderates. Patricia Cohen writes:

Conservative appeals to limit the government’s reach and emphasize individual freedoms resonated not only in the South, but in the North as well, said Joseph Crespino, 35, whose book, “In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution” (Princeton University Press), was just published.

The racial and religious conservatism of whites, for instance, “converged in unexpected ways in the fight over federal tax policy toward Southern private schools,” Mr. Crespino writes. He said that while many Southern whites set up “segregation academies” for the sole purpose of avoiding school integration, others were genuinely interested in sending their children to church schools for religious reasons. “By the late ’70s, this issue of defending church schools against harassment by the federal government and the I.R.S.,” Mr. Crespino explained in an interview, led to the “mobilization of evangelical and fundamentalist Christians.”

Mr. Crespino, who grew up in rural Mississippi, said his research was partly inspired by his experience. Many of the African-Americans he met in the deeply segregated precincts of Chicago while he was an undergraduate at Northwestern University had come from his home state and were struggling with the same issues they had had down South. “Rather than treating white Mississipians as these racist pariahs in larger postwar liberal America, I wanted to treat them as part of a broader popular reaction against modern liberalism,” he said. “I wanted to show how central the resistance to civil rights policies were in shaping modern conservative policies.” [….]

Like Mr. Crespino, Matthew D. Lassiter was motivated to research his own Southern roots. He found a gap between the history he had learned in school and his experience growing up in its wake in Sandy Springs, a white, middle-class suburb of Atlanta. “I was trying to find my own people, my parents and grandparents,” said Mr. Lassiter, 36, who wrote “The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South” (Princeton) published last year. “There were a few white Southerners who were liberals, a larger number throwing the rocks with the rioters and the vast group in the middle were left out of the story.”

As a graduate student at the University of Virginia, he taught undergraduates and assigned the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” in which he wrote, “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride towards freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than justice.”

Reading this just tempted me to go get the books; really reminded me of what I studied back in college and discussing the course of post-World War II America with the TA’s. … ok, pardon, geeking out as the former history major that I am. 😉

But, it is interesting to wonder – what is the moderates’ position in society? Are moderates more a threat than they realize, by virtue of what they hold as priorities? Or are they too busy concerned about stability and status quo (maybe even too scared shitless) to dare pursue a course of justice and a better world?

Hmm. Kind of makes me question why I consider myself a a left-of-center moderate. Kind of.

Leading to an interesting question, which NBC’s “Heroes” made me wonder: “If You Could Save Millions of Lives, Wouldn’t You?” Would you dare to save the world? … Well, Monday’s episode was just plain awesome. And, reminds me once again why time traveling episodes drive me a little nuts (the possibilities of paradoxes astound me). Actors Masi Oka (as Future Hiro and Present Hiro – thumbs up!) and James Kyson Lee (as Hiro’s sidekick Ando) play well as Asians/APA’s on tv. Oh, and finally (even if it was in the future) the character Dr. Mohinder Suresh takes a heroic action ( I won’t say more, in case others haven’t watched yet)… once we head back to the present, well, surely the hard part’s coming…

More cool space stuff: pictures from Jupiter.

On the local side of things:

The planned arts library in Brooklyn is hitting a snag; not easy when the Brooklyn Public Library is experiencing another change in leadership. Guess I can only hope for the best for BPL, since libraries in the city need better hours and facilities as a basic matter.

And, last but not least: Frank Bruni reviews Max Brenner. I did like the Union Sq. one myself, but he’s right – it can be a bit much.

Last Wednesday, managed to catch the Design Made in Africa exhibit at the World Financial Center, co-sponsored by the Museum for African Art. Fantastic looking and very utilitarian pieces of furniture and other object des arts – modern Africa heading towards the 21st Century – at the Courtyard Gallery in the World Financial Center from April 12 to June 24.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D., Ore.) is trying out an experiment: can he live off of food stamps for a week? Apparently, he’s trying to raise awareness as to how not very good the food stamp program is to feed people in need. Part of it is indeed a question of when was the last time the governor actually did his own food shopping, but I’d still applaud him for trying – imagine if we made all the politicians perform this experiment. Perhaps it’d force them to really think about ways to really help people.

Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick on the oral arguments at the US Supreme Court on the whole question of campaign reform. The article was quite funny, in a sad way (sad, well, in terms of political thinking, and depending on where one is on the political spectrum…).

9/11/01 remnants for archivists’ subject material.

FC, P, and I saw “Hot Fuzz” on Saturday. In the movie, Sgt. Nicholas Angel, a cranberry juice drinker, is sent to the boondocks because he’s too good a cop for his superiors in London to accept (because, well, he makes them look bad). However, Angel finds out that there’s more to the boondocks than he would have thought. Much more.

Slate’s movie critic Dana Stevens says, “Hot Fuzz is like an Agatha Christie novel directed by Michael Bay and adapted for the screen by P.G. Wodehouse.” Well, I’d agree on the Michael Bay part; less so on the Agatha Christie (unless you’re thinking of Christie’s creation of Miss Marple and Miss Marple’s town of St. Mary Meade, where – you guessed it! – the town’s murder rate is kind of ridiculous and Miss Marple’s probably a closet psychopath); and really less so on P.G. Wodehouse (well, unless you’re citing Wodehouse as the source of wacky British humo(u)r; I’d say Monty Python would’ve been a better reference). Honestly, I’d expect good old Inspector Morse walking into “Hot Fuzz.” The whole beer thing would’ve been perfect for him; but not, say, the gun thing. No, that’d still be in the realm of Michael Bay.

All in all, thumbs up to the movie.

FC, P, and I later had afternoon tea at Sweet Melissa Patisserie, across from the movie theater. We managed not to give in to the sweets – but they looked soo good.

Daily News publishes Mario Cuomo’s thoughts on the recent Democratic debate – with his idea that there ought to be a permanent debating system to let the candidates talk about actual ideas. I thought there were some good thoughts. Personally, I kind of feel for the candidates who aren’t likely to make headway – Joe Biden actually does have real ideas on Iraq (not that I’ve read up on them enough, but he certainly knows what he’s talking about) and Bill Richardson has quite a resume – he’s now a governor and was a UN Ambassador and is Latino (although, his tenure as US Dept. of Energy Secretary included the debacle toward Wen Ho Lee – something APA’s aren’t going to quite forget – at least I haven’t). The candidates are many; the competition will be rough.

“Heroes” – a bit caught up. The episode of 4/30/07 will be interesting…

What lovely weather – finally spring outside, not reserved to the tulips in my office at work.

Time Magazine’s Lisa Takeuchi Cullen posts on her blog the Asian-American journalist’s dilemma in covering the Virginia Tech story. It made a lot of sense to me – you don’t want to make race/ethnicity the issue, but then again, you want to present a full picture. And the dilemma doesn’t make it easier when you feel personal about it – you may feel relieved if the shooter isn’t from your own ethnic group (since, after all “Asian” covers a lot), but in the end, the shooter is still from your group (“Asian” to the outsider is just “Asian” – as if the outsider cares whether one is Korean, Chinese, or what – we are all going to be seen as the “foreigner,” the marginalized, etc.).

Charlie Rose interviewed a panel on Thursday night that included Columbia Law Prof. Patricia Williams, Time’s Managing Editor Richard Stengel, and others, covering the Virginia Tech story, the Supreme Court’s decision on (so-called partial-birth) abortion, US AG Alberto Gonzalez, and the presidential election in France. I thought Time’s announcement on putting the Virginia Tech kids on the cover to be a good idea and Stengel’s argument on Rose’s show was persuasive: put the emphasis on the loss – the pride of potential – not on the murderer (who has his own issues, to be certain). I’d also say let’s not forget what we as a society may have to figure out. NY Times had a similar approach – and it resembles the Profiles in Grief that they had done after 9/11/01.

The pictures of the Virginia Tech struck at me for being a portrait of the diversity and spirit of American universities today – from the professor who was a Holocaust survivor and survivor of Communism and protected his students, to the RA who was a band guy and a soon-to-be engineer, to the hardworking Asian-American freshman and so on. It reminded me of how it was when I was in college, and how we can all empathize over what had happened at Virginia Tech – goodness, it could have been anyone. Crime on campus is not what we want to imagine, when we look to academia as our safe haven.

Slate’s Explainer explains why the media hasn’t quite figured out whether to put out the Virginia Tech shooter’s first name first or last name first (Asian style); apparently, ABC went with the American style in a quicker manner, after consulting with its own Korean/Korean-American staff. I think ABC made the better decision – it’s not like the guy was a foreign student – he was a green card guy – which means first name first, last name last (at least for the purposes of being in this country). Perhaps I’m being narrow-minded in that line of thinking – but it did kind of bothered me that the media seemed act like it was trying to be “sensitive” about the nationality thing – as if they were thrown off by Cho’s non-English name. If his name was “John” Cho, would they have gone with Cho John? I’d doubt it, but I guess his lack of an English name put him in even more isolation, which is sad to think about.

Come to think of it – Friday’s Slate has a lot of interesting articles. One fascinating feature – a slide show essay by David Segal on the history of racist advertising mascots, in light of the new portrayal of Uncle Ben (of Uncle Ben’s rice) on the company website as Ben, CEO, of the rice company (thanks to Slate and Segal for the link). Almost laughable, if it isn’t kind of sad. Segal observes that this is apparently also consistent with, say, the evolution of Aunt Jemima, who no longer wears a kerchief – but wears pearl earrings because, well, she too is the fictitious CEO of the company (okay, maybe not quite, but check out the website, where they –profile the history – that in 1989, they ditched the kerchief and in 1992, “During a frozen package redesign Quaker tilted Aunt Jemima’s head into a more upright position,” and notes that, today, “The Aunt Jemima products continue to stand for warmth, nourishment and trust – qualities you’ll find in loving moms from diverse backgrounds who care for and want the very best for their families.” Diversity wins, hands down, thank goodness; but, hey, Jemima still wants you to eat well).

Hell, Madison Avenue even did it to Betty Crocker (we just don’t have the same racial connotations with Betty Crocker – no, just sexist ones) – transforming her from housewife to CEO… who still bakes brownies. (thanks to Wikipedia for the link to the website on the evolution of Betty Crocker; can’t seem to track down the latest image of her as a multi-ethnic woman; the official website of Betty Crocker seems to have a treasure trove of recipes and stuff – I won’t criticize, as I don’t cook/bake/etc., and I grew up on that stuff, so really, I can’t criticize!).

Met’s re-opening of the Greek-Roman galleries – having removed the old cafeteria, we can now see the Romans in their better glory – well, the NY Times’ Michael Kimmelman previews it – and it looks great, at least from the Times’ website feature anyway. So looking forward to going up there soon and seeing it!