Category: Manhattan

Florida Gators win NCAA Men’s tournament. Pretty good game, actually, even if Ohio State (with the quite good Oden and Connelly) couldn’t quite beat Florida (where the guys played like a team – what spirit, really). And, scarier – my bracket survived: I had picked Florida… now if only I can win the lottery; then I’d be set for life!

Too bad about the Rutgers’ Womens basketball team – Tennessee bested them in the NCAA Women’s tournament. Ah well. At least the ladies had the metro area a little more excited about Rutgers athleticism.

In the category of “good grief”: KITT 2000 – KITT of the old ’80’s show “Knight Rider” – is up for sale. Or, at least, a version of him that was filmed for tv and that doesn’t go into Super Pursuit Mode or make snide remarks in the voice of actor William Daniels (aka Mr. Feeney of the 1990’s tv show “Boy Meets World” – is there any other actor that has captured the imagination of the young for two decades?). Personally, I had no idea that Williams Daniels is a Brooklyn native – imagine KITT with a Brooklyn accent.

Oh God. I actually remember “Super Pursuit Mode.” Man, did I watch too much Knight Rider back in the day.

Prehistoric whale fossil… in inland Italy?

Was Jane Austen pretty… and does it matter?

Monday night: I attended NYU Law School’s APALSA’s Korematsu Lecture – speaker: Judge A. Wallace Tashima – he discussed the Japanese Peruvian experience of being interned in the US during World War II and briefly his own childhood experience at an internment camp during World War II. Apparently, during the war, US pursued a policy of protecting the Western hemisphere by interning persons who seen as the enemy (I think the Monroe Doctrine made that work, even though various Latin Americans countries were officially neutral on the war), forcibly removing Japanese Peruvians to Americans camps.

Things didn’t get that much better when the war was over, because Peru didn’t want the Japanese Peruvians back (talk about racism there), and the US viewed the Japanese Peruvians as “illegal aliens” (never minding that the US brought them to the country in the first place). The status became the loophole that prevented the Japanese Peruvians from collecting a larger amount in the reparations in 1988. It’s an interesting story, and thought it was fascinating that Judge Tashima discussed it and demonstrated the parallels to the current usage of Guantanamo Bay. History repeating itself; dare we learn from our past? Hmm.

Coincidentally, the NY Times published an article on the parallels of the Japanese-American internment and the experience of Muslim immigrants.

It’s that time of year: college acceptances out to the nervous high school seniors. Loved this headline in the Times: “Rejected by Harvard? Your Valedictorian Probably Was Too.” It’s getting really competitive when Alma Mater’s admissions rate is down to slightly less than 9 percent, or you have the realization that Harvard rejected 91% of applications. Every year it gets crazier – you got to save the world first before you can get to college? You apply on-line to more than 10 colleges? And, then you complain when NYU, Wesleyan, and UMichigan accepted you, but – say – an Ivy didn’t? Relax: NYU, Wesleyan and UMich aren’t exactly low tier and you might have ended up where you meant to be. Besides, the riches of choices for the colleges are making us alumni look embarrassing, the second linked article notes (and certainly highlighted what I’ve wondered):

The competition was ferocious not only at the top universities, but at selective small colleges, like Williams, Bowdoin and Amherst, all of which reported record numbers of applications.

Amherst received 6,668 applications and accepted 1,167 students for its class of 2011, compared with the 4,491 applications and 1,030 acceptance letters it sent for the class of 2002 nine years ago, said Paul Statt, an Amherst spokesman.

“Many of us who went to Amherst three decades ago know we couldn’t get in now; I know I couldn’t,” said Mr. Statt, who graduated from Amherst in 1978.

Life is busy – sigh.

Belated link: Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter on the coverage of the Edwardses’ story – Elizabeth’s cancer, and John’s continued presidential campaign – from last week. He picked up on the Daily News’ publication of Jane Ridley’s writing on how she felt disturbed about what she thought was the Edwardses’ selfishness. Alter notes:

I’m paid to judge other people, but some things should be beyond judgment. I’d put John and Elizabeth Edwards’s decision to keep campaigning in that category. Anyone who, like me, has had cancer knows this. Tony Snow, whose colon cancer has spread to his liver but who plans to come back to work, gets it. Radio talk show host Laura Ingraham, herself a breast-cancer survivor (and, like me, in remission), said as much on the TODAY Show Tuesday. When it comes to cancer, judge not, lest you be judged someday, if you should be so unlucky. [….]

Ridley’s core argument—a fairly common reaction—is that the Edwards’s invocation of service “rings hollow to every mother in the land.” Every mother? This isn’t about ambition trumping love of children and it takes a lot of nerve to suggest that it is. It’s about how to cope with the worst news imaginable. Ridley and the other know-it-alls around the water cooler are essentially telling Elizabeth to give up. “If I had given up everything that my life was about, I’d let cancer win before it needed to,” Elizabeth told Couric. She said she wasn’t ready to “start dying.”

That’s not ego speaking, but a genuine reaction to her predicament. No one can say how you—or anyone else—will react until actually faced with a devastating diagnosis. In my case—and Tony Snow’s, Laura Ingraham’s, Jay Monahan’s (the late husband of Katie Couric) Elizabeth Edward’s and hundreds of thousands of others—the choice was to try to hold onto as much of our old life as humanly possible. Don’t judge that.

I remembered reading the Ridley writing in the Daily News and feeling rather shocked by how – well – visceral? judgmental? – the sentiment was. There are those who have personal misgivings about what the Edwardses are doing, but I’d have to agree: who are we to judge? At most, our duty is to vote on whether Edwards can be president; what about his wife or their kids – well, is it really for us to say? It’s not nearly as simple as we might think, and it’s their decision, so it’s not as if we’re privy to what’s going on in their minds or hearts.

I didn’t think Katie Couric did a bad job with the “60 Minutes” interview, since she asked hard questions (I was more concerned that she’d end up asking softball questions) that had to be asked (and the Edwardses did good jobs answering them, clearly demonstrating that they’re lawyers who prepare, prepare, prepare – not crumple over the hard questions and bravely heading forward – and still came off feeling like human beings who you wouldn’t wish this to happen) and then I was struck by remembering how Couric’s husband had passed away because of cancer and she has her own crusade against cancer. The Edwardses and Couric, and Alter – models of life moving on, putting aside what we may think politically or whatnot. Time’s Swampland blog in March had some great commentary on this topic too, with Jay Carney and Ana Marie Cox discussing what the Edwardses’ actions mean (apologies for not posting the direct links).

And, in light of the condition of White House press man, Tony Snow, and how cancer is something testing our world today, perhaps it’s no surprise that Alter’s experience gets this coming week’s cover of Newsweek – it’s very well-written, I have to say.

Went to the Opening Ceremony of Asian Pacific American Awareness Month (APAAM) at Alma Mater on Wednesday night. Great keynote speaker: Evelyn Hu-DeHart of Brown University, reminding us of the historical struggle of APA in becoming part of America. Entertainment was pretty cool – spoken word by Giles Li, and performance by the student bhangra group. Bhangra? The group was terrific – great enthusiasm, great dancing, and certainly highlighted the diversity of APAs; where were they when I was an undergrad? 😉

Saturday: Of course, putting up with the usual weekend vagaries of MTA subway service into Manhattan. Ah, well – wasn’t so bad, since I got out of Brooklyn way early in the morning (sick, I tell you). Attended Dean’s Day at Alma Mater, where there were (a) free access to Internet at terminals (ah, institutions of higher learning!); (b) terrific lunch (chicken, asparagus; dessert! thanks to some kind of donation or other); and (c) closing reception with even more food. Oh, and lectures from amazing professors on developments of literature, environment, history, etc. I had the good fortune of picking some interesting stuff to attend, I have to say, and the networking was interesting.

Ah, another week ahead.

AS returned to the land of the rising earthquake today. He was still experiencing culture shock as of last week, when we went to PJ Cooke’s, an American diner type place. He just flew back from Miami, and was having a little trouble reading the English menu, I guess because he’s been in Asia for like 7 years. I was trying to help him out with a little translating:

Waitress: What do you want to order?

AS: [Hopeless trying to read the menu, grunts, finger pointing]

FC: This part of the menu are the hamburgers and here are the brunch specials….

AS: Huh?

FC: Je ge hai ham bo pou…

AS:???

FC: Esto es hamburgesa con queso, y eso es huevos rancheros…

AS: Oh. [Having a double take] Wow, the menu actually says “huervos rancheros”!

…..

Went to Sobaya tonight with P- for Japanese Restaurant Week. I had the duck soba, and she had the chirashi udon. Both very good – rich broths, handmade noodles with bite – impressive. What was more impressive was the starters, especially the yuba “sushi”, which was bean curd skin wrapped around fresh soft tofu, and then offered with real wasabi and dumpling soy sauce. Outstanding, and 20% off this week. Recommended. Afterwards, P- had a chocolate craving, which was satisfied by going to Max Brenner’s Chocolate by the Bald Man, the neighborhood edition. This new cocoa outpost around the corner is way less crowded than the flagship store, but just as audacious. We had crepes to top off desert, but it was just way too rich. Maybe we should have had the ice cream at Sobaya instead.

Trip on Saturday to DC, woo hoo. P- gets a 5 day girls night out….