Monday, April 30, 2007

The Other Boleyn Girl

Even though I'm a pretty big fan of historical fiction, I didn't get around to reading Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl until sometime last year. I quite enjoyed the premise and the fresh viewpoint, if not always the writing.

Just this week, I found out that BBC Films has already finished shooting the movie version, starring Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn and Scarlett Johansson as the titular Mary Boleyn. Yet another reason to get Netflix.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

maze trouble

Looking at these photos of the broken sections of the MacArthur maze this morning, I had flashbacks of watching the news after the Loma Prieta quake. This particular photo even recalls the Bay Bridge collapse, a little.


I wonder if it's possible to avoid going to the East Bay for the next few months; I'm sure both 580 and 880 traffic is going to be even more horrible than usual.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Olympic politics

I've refrained from commenting on the Taiwan Olympic torch controversy until now, but I thought this map was pretty revealing (then again, I'm heavily biased):


China claims that it's not trying to be political about the torch route, but if so, just looking at the map, wouldn't it make more sense geographically for the torch to pass from North Korea to Taiwan to Vietnam, and then to Hong Kong, rather than going to Vietnam first, and then backtracking to Taiwan?

Sunday, April 22, 2007

done with April weddings

Yesterday was the last of the weddings for this month. After two weeks of out-of-towners, I was glad this one was local, and involved no rental cars, hotels, or airplanes.

Some thoughts on weddings after this last batch:

- After going to so many weddings, certain things seem to look and sound familiar. For instance, I'm not a Christian, but I can practically recite that verse from the Corinthians by now, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs." Okay, I lied, I forget the rest. Not bad, though?

- I'm not sure why, but sometime during the 90's, it became standard bridal attire to wear a strapless wedding dress. This style looks great on slender women with good shoulders and toned arms who don't slouch, and is not super flattering otherwise. I really am curious as to how this look became de rigeur.

- Wedding cakes seem to come in two varieties: those that look good, and those that taste good. Heavily decorated cakes tend to have too much sugary frosting that weighs down the cake itself. The best wedding cake I ever had was at a wedding in Seattle last year; the bride's med school friend baked three scrumptious cakes, one carrot, one lemon, and one chocolate. Unfortunately I only got to try the first two, since the chocolate one ran out so fast.

- I'm not a big fan of tradition, myself, so perhaps this complaint is unique to me, but I feel a lot of wedding receptions go through a laundry list of "must-do" items. There's the introduction of the wedding party, the first dance, the father-daughter and mother-son dances (I always feel like the mother of the bride and the father of the groom are getting ripped off), the speeches, the cake cutting, the bouquet/garter toss (always awkward since no one ever wants to catch it), etc. I don't include the table toasts in this list because that's the only activity that actually involves the bride and groom getting to spend time with their friends and family.

- Wedding DJs tend to be really loud and really perky. No further comment.

I realized I'm making it sound like I hated all the weddings, which is totally untrue. So, here are a couple of the highlights from this month's weddings:

- I do think it's pretty risky to plan an outdoor ceremony in April, but things worked out okay for both outdoor weddings, so there was some gorgeous scenery. One venue even provided cute Japanese umbrellas for the guests to ward off the few sprinkles.

Greystone Park, Beverly HillsThe Bridges Golf Club, San Ramon


- For one of the bridal showers, we had afternoon tea in a private room at the Beverly Hills Peninsula. Although the food was not as impressive as the Hong Kong Peninsula (to be expected, I suppose), the decor and the service was amazing.


- One of the slideshows that we saw was extremely professional-looking; it used off-center zoom transitions between photos, and had a "scrapbook" sequence with framed images. Later I discovered the groomsman who put it together works at Shutterfly.

- One of the receptions was on the 48th floor of a high-rise in downtown Dallas, which made for great views. (I'm told the glowing ball on a stick is called Reunion Tower.)
Dallas by dayDallas by night


- At the end of the Dallas reception, the guests were given 3-foot-long sparklers, to help "send off" the bride and groom. This may have been a bit dangerous, given the preceding four hours of open bar, but it appealed to the pyro in me.


- The cake from yesterday's reception, was one of the prettiest wedding cakes I've seen:


Also, one great thing about going to so many weddings is that I never lack for fresh flowers. Currently I have one centerpiece on my dining table and two small decorative bouquets in my living room. Those should last me until mid-May, which is when I'm off to the next wedding, this time in rural Minnesota.

Friday, April 20, 2007

studies confirm yet again...

I try to keep an open mind towards religious conservatives (like I said, I try), but sometimes I just don't think there are really two sides to a debate.

For instance, when it comes to abstinence-only education vs comprehensive sex ed, the evidence against abstinence-only seems too overwhelming to deny. What part of it doesn't work don't these people understand?

Here is the telling statistic in this latest study:
In the Mathematica survey, which was released by sex education activists after the health department sat on it, the mean age at which the control group, that had been taught about contraception, lost their virginity was 14.9 years. That seems strikingly low, until you look at the mean age of first sexual experience for the abstinence control group - 14.9 years.

It's all well and good to theorize that promoting abstinence will reduce sexual activity among teens, but it's been tried and done, and the facts don't support the theory. At this point, wouldn't it make sense to stop pouring money into an effort which is yielding zero results?

Thursday, April 19, 2007

chili overload

We had a chili cookoff at work yesterday, and one of my coworkers signed me up to judge (along with the rest of our team). There were five categories, and each category had somewhere between 7 and 15 entries. I volunteered for the "Traditional Meat Chili" category, and ended up having 3-5 bites of 15 types of chili. That may not sound like a lot of food, but trust me, it is.

In the end, I voted for two entries. The first was a beef brisket-based entry which had a perfect degree of spiciness, nice tender chunks of beef, and a good variety of vegetables and beans. My only complaint was that there was a bit too much grease, making the chili slightly more watery than ideally. The second (surprisingly) relied on ground turkey and ground chuck, and was lighter than a standard chili, but had good flavor and texture. It was slightly less spicy than I would have liked, and I think it would have been even better with added beef, but overall I was impressed.

There was one other entry that I liked best for pure flavor, but it was a little hard to call it chili; it was more like tender chunks of steak with sauce on top. If I had to choose a dish to eat for dinner, though, that would have been it.

After I finished judging my category, I was only able to eat one additional sample, which was a duck chili, with bits of corn and duck cracklings in it. Maybe I was sick of beef by that time, but I think I enjoyed that last chili most of all. Then, I was unable to eat another thing until six or seven hours later, when I had a bunch of grapes before going to bed.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

another awesome Sports Guy article

I love this guy. Reading one of his longer articles is like biting into a nice juicy steak sandwich. That particular comparison probably makes sense to no one but me.

My favorite bits from his most recent article, The NBA, from LVP to MVP:

401. Eric Snow
Every time I complain about the Celtics in a column, I get a few counter-responses from Cleveland fans (independently of one another) that specifically mention the agony of rooting for a superstar-led playoff team that plays Eric Snow 25 minutes a night. In a weird way, they say it's worse than rooting for a bad team. Look, I'm with you guys ... if my life were at stake and I had to pick any NBA player to miss a 20-footer that he was trying to make, or else I'd be killed, I'd pick Eric Snow and rejoice as he bricked a set shot off the side of the rim. But at least you get to watch LeBron. Come on.


I know one particular person who, whenever his team plays Boston, is always calling for Snow to get the ball. It's exactly the same sentiment.

287. Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy (tie)
The lesson, as always: Anytime you're considering a six-player NBA trade in which you end up with both overpaid white guys in the deal ... you might want to rethink that baby.


Here in the Bay Area, we could not have been happier about this trade. I'm talking the day it was announced. I am normally very skeptical about trades, and in fantasy sports I pretty much never pull the trigger because I'm afraid I'll regret it, but in this case I felt nothing but optimism when Dunleavy and Murphy went on their way. Now, the Warriors are one game away from the playoffs. I'm still too scarred by the past 15 years to call myself a Warrior fan, though.

And, on the other side of said trade...

69. Stephen Jackson
Gave us a little bit of everything: He had the best off-court incident (allegedly getting hit by a car outside of a strip joint, then firing gunshots in the air); he has a legal trial that starts May 10 and could coincide with the second round of the playoffs if Golden State upsets Dallas (not out of the question); he caused the fading Pacers to make one of the worst deals of the decade because they were so desperate to dump him; he turned his career around by embracing NellieBall, even giving point guard a whirl for a few games (now that was a sight); and if that's not enough, the fact that he's living in Oakland doubles as the most dangerous running subplot in sports right now that doesn't involve Pacman Jones. I haven't been this excited since Tupac got out of jail.


15. Amare Stoudemire
The guy who created microfracture surgery is rejoicing right now.


I'm not sure I like the Suns as a team (my roommate has it in for Raja Bell and it's hard to cheer for them when she's yelling "You suck Raja!" every five minutes) but I do like watching Amare play. It's great to see him back.

D. Wade: Takes an Iversonian punishment every game, only he's not a freak of nature like Iverson was/is. If Wade doesn't start picking his spots, he'll go Earl Campbell on us and be gone from the league by 2011. This would be bad. This summer, Wade might need to take summer courses from LeBron ("The Art of Mailing In Half The Season") and Carter ("How to Spend Entire Games Pretending to Drive But Settling for 20-foot Jumpers").

I think Wade may be my favorite NBA player. He just seems like a good guy, not to mention that whole being awesomely good thing.

4. Tracy McGrady
The lost MVP candidate this season. Lemme know if any of these tidbits interest you:

A. The Rockets were 50-21 when he played this season and 2-8 without him.

B. When Yao went down for 32 games with a fractured kneecap, T-Mac carried the team to a 20-12 record and boosted his stats to a 29-6-6 for that stretch.

C. Other than Yao, his best teammates were Shane Battier, Luther Head, Rafer Alston, Chuck Hayes, Juwan Howard, Dikembe Mutombo and Yugoslavian gunner Turdo Sandowicz.

D. On a personal note, I don't trust basketball stats beyond a certain level because they can't interpret somebody's general impact on a game. Tim Duncan averages a 20-10 every night with two blocks ... does that measure everything he does for the Spurs? Of course not. Along those same lines, T-Mac and his cousin finished this season with almost identical numbers (a 25-5-6 for T-Mac, a 25-6-5 for V.C.), but unless you watched the games, you wouldn't know that Vince happens to be a streaky offensive player, a moody teammate and a defensive liability, and T-Mac happens to be a great teammate and superb all-around player who only goes for his numbers when absolutely necessary (like when he recently bumped his numbers to push Houston into the fourth seed).

If you asked 100 NBA players who they'd rather play with between Kobe, Vince, Arenas and T-Mac ... T-Mac would win the vote in a landslide. You win with Tracy McGrady. Wasn't always the case, but it's the case now. He's a true superstar. Now he needs to prove this in the playoffs. Please.


The Rockets being my adopted team, I can only hope Bill Simmons is right about T-Mac. Down with the Jazz!

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

heroism

I just read this in an AP article regarding the Virginia Tech shootings:

Liviu Librescu survived the Nazi Holocaust. He died trying to keep a gunman from shooting his students in a killing spree at Virginia Tech — a heroic feat later recounted in e-mails from students to his wife.

Librescu, an aeronautics engineer and teacher at the school for 20 years, saved the lives of several students by using his body to barricade a classroom door before he was gunned down in Monday's massacre, which coincided with Holocaust Remembrance Day.


Apparently Prof. Librescu's act allowed several students to jump out of a window, thus avoiding the gunman. That's just so tragically heroic, that I don't even know what to say.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

a few hours in the woods

One of the things I love most about the Bay Area is how we have the best of both urban living and natural beauty, all within easy driving distance. We can easily drive up to Tahoe or down to Yosemite for a weekend, there are myriad overnight camping possibilities, and the beautiful Pacific coastline is a half hour away.

After dining at French Laundry and spending the night in Marin, we got up bright and early, grabbed a quick breakfast, and drove out to Muir Woods.



We spent a few hours wandering the trails and snapping photos, and were crossing the city by noon-ish, pausing briefly to buy fresh fish for a sushi-making party later that afternoon. How amazingly convenient is that?

Thursday, April 05, 2007

French Laundry play-by-play

Since I had the reservation, and I managed to find other people who were willing to spend the money, I ended up going to French Laundry after all.

In order to make sure that I would be able to consume the full nine courses, I ate a suitably large but light dinner the night before (theory: stretch the stomach) and then subsisted on cereal and yogurt on the day of the meal (theory: only eat quickly digestible foods). By 7:30pm, I was suitably hungry, but not starving, which was exactly what I wanted.

The front of the restaurant is pretty understated. In fact, we missed it entirely the first time we drove by, and had to U-turn back.


There is a cute little courtyard with a garden outside the door, and as soon as we arrived, we were promptly seated, even though we were fifteen minutes early.

Disclaimer: I usually take photos of food with flash, but we were seated in a very cozy back room with only two other tables, and I felt a little bad disturbing the other patrons, so I went without flash, which is why these photos are a little dim.

We started with Gruyère Cheese Gougères, which are like super-light cheese puffs.


Next, we were treated to tiny cones of salmon tartar. This was one of my four favorite dishes during the meal. (By the way, the much longer, official name for these? Black Sesame Cornets of Atlantic Salmon Tartar with Red Onion Crème Fraiche.)


After those few scrumptious bites, we started on the official menu, with the famous Oysters and Pearls. The pearls referred to both the warm tapioca inside the pudding, as well as the caviar. I really enjoyed how the textures of the two types of "pearls" were so similar but the tastes were completely different. This was another of my four favorites.


Next up, a mushroom salad. I wasn't that impressed by this one. Maybe I just don't like Honshimeiji mushrooms? I've never had them before.


I don't know what a Salade Nicoise normally looks like, but this particular salad was gorgeous to look at and delicious to eat. I normally hate artichoke, but I ate the artichokes in this dish. This was the third of my four favorites.


At this point the waiter started to serve bread. Over the next three courses, I managed to taste six different types of bread, but I've forgotten what kinds they all were. One was a mini-baguette, and one was an Italian bread that was particularly good.

I love both crab and lobster, and they taste especially good to me if they're prepared so I don't have to extract them from the shell myself. Here's the last of my four favorite dishes; three small bites of lobster dressed with potato and asparagus. I wasn't able to bring myself to eat the asparagus, though.


The meat courses were a fatty pork dish which had an almost Chinese flavor, and a lamb rib-eye. Both were good but not among my favorites.



The dessert courses began with a cheese dish. Interestingly, the cheese was presented together with the accompaniments (leeks and onions), rather than as on a traditional cheese board. I wasn't especially blown away by the cheeses themselves, though.


Next was the palate cleanser, a raspberry sherbet. I particularly liked the dish on which the sherbet was served.


There were two desserts. I had the white chocolate mousse, which had a hint of green tea flavor, and came with an intensely tart passion fruit jelly. I love sour foods, so I liked the jelly even more than the mousse, but I think it was a little too sour for some people. The other was baked Alaska; I tried a small bite, and decided I liked my own dessert better.



We were then treated to one of two additional desserts not on the menu. I had the Tahitian vanilla crème brulee, and also sampled a spoonful of the Meyer lemon pot de creme.



The menu mentioned "mignardises" but I wasn't sure whether to expect anything more, so when the waiter showed up with chocolate caramel macadamia nuts, I had three of them, to go with my coffee.


This was somewhat unfortunate, because he then came back with some orange-y, tuile-like crisps and a tray full of chocolates. Since I had just had three macadamia nuts, I limited myself to only six chocolates.



Here's a photo of the complete official menu, although it doesn't have any of the amuses or post dessert treats on it.



Apparently the waiter was impressed we were able to eat everything. I did notice the two tables behind us packing away most of their desserts, but I thought that was because they were both parties of older customers.

Anyway, I went home with a copy of said menu, the rest of the macadamia nuts, and an additional parting gift; a package of four small shortbread biscuits that I ended up eating for breakfast for the next two days. Yum.

 

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