Tuesday morning roundup

I'm sorry, Egyptian youth, but not knowing what you want--only knowing you don't want what you have--is a recipe for disaster. On that note Richard Cohen and Roger Cohen attack the same question with widely different interpretations.

In Russia, human rights activists count the small victories.

This review is spot on: the concert was good, Dar has an amazing voice and she can't go wrong... but there was something just slightly off.

Miss Manners is pleasantly surprised.

Discuss

Much to think about in this piece on H.G. Adler's writing about the Holocaust, the key issue being the ethics of writing about horrible things. I have a hard time even understanding the contrarian perspective, that you can't write about tragedy. How not, why not?

The day in food

The new dietary guidelines are out, and they're about as revolutionary as these activity guidelines (except the former are no joke). You have to take care to tip-toe around the food industry, especially if you're trying to shed your anti-business reputation. Unfortunately, as usually happens when lobbyists win, the rest of us lose.

By the way, here's what other ingredients you can find in Taco Bell products. What's even more disturbing, though, is that Taco Bell is hardly alone in its embrace of maltodextrin--it's in pretty much everything, including many Whole Foods and Trader Joe's products.

Anyway, you can one-up the new food guidelines: don't just eat your vegetables; wear your vegetables (and your chocolate), like these people.

Monday morning roundup

Anne Applebaum on why Egypt's (pre-uprising) status quo in no way constituted stability.

By way of inflation and labor shortages in China, there's hope for the trade deficit.

Can the District keep the control board away?

John Kelly, Panda Father. On a related note: a CEO discourages rock star culture:

Probably the biggest lesson I learned as we started to grow was — and this is a more sanitized version of the expression we use — “Don’t hire jerks, no matter how talented.” I became very attuned to this early on, when we were still a small start-up, and you’re doing everything you can to maintain a positive framework. So I’m looking for people I like, because I’ve seen how, no matter how talented they are, the negative is always going to pull down any positive. The second- or third- or fourth-best candidate who isn’t a jerk is going to ultimately provide way more value. Because we learned that early on, we’ve always guarded against that sort of rock-star culture.

And on a related note to that, see "The Talent Myth", an oldie-but-goodie from the New Yorker.

Toles draws it like it is.

Sunday evening roundup

Definitely do not try these at home. Wow.

Also: Stephen Colbert on what's in your taco:

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Ice on the Potomac, from the Key Bridge on Friday

Sunday morning roundup

What to do with Belarus and Tunisia. Don't ask about Egypt. In their own words: Baby Doc and Yanukovich. Also: An Arab identity develops around the crises of governance, and Tunisia's excesses remain on display.

Turkey's Kurds campaign for language rights.

Progress against the kamlari system--indentured servitude for girls--in Nepal.

You already knew that our sugar policy is f*ed up.

Is Google losing the war on spam and losing business to content farms?

Pearlstein on Davos, globalization, and inequality. See also what Moises Naim has to say.

Chew very gently whenever you're eating something that may, but shouldn't, contain an olive pit.

Virginia students increasingly find themselves shut out of Virginia's top schools.

DC drivers had a very rough week.

A preschooler is shut out of daycare for a month for having had one accident too many.

Americans are increasingly eschewing singular identity labels.

Thin people make more money.

Yes, more doors, more standing room. F* no to "kid-themed seat covers or wall decorations, absence of mid-aisle poles, etc." You do realize that mid-aisle poles are essential on a crowded train so people have something to hold on to??

Someone at the Post is on crack--"Stomp" was amazing, so much better than what's conveyed in this review.

How Friday turned tragicomic

I took yesterday off. The last two weeks of work--including this weeks trip--were very intense, and I had things to do. Like submit my visa application, to an office in Georgetown (not near any metro, because decades ago, area residents opposed having a metro stop, arguing it would bring in the rif raf). So I went first thing in the morning--walked through the snow, stood in line, dropped off the application... walked to the Kennedy Center because a friend had mentioned that we should go see Alvin Ailey. Got the last two tickets under $99 each, walked back to the metro... discovered my SmartTrip card was shot, would have to get another one--although they let me through to get home.

Not half an hour after getting home, got a call from the visa place, saying they needed another document... that I had with me this morning but they didn't ask for. So I had a quick lunch and schlepped back, by way of King Street, because I needed a new SmartTrip. Finally got there, walked back to Rosslyn--which had some beautiful, clean ice sheets that I snapped with my phone--will post the pictures later. On my way down the Rosslyn escalator, which is formidable, felt a pain in my left knee. Continued to wobble down the escalator, waited 12 minutes for a train during rush hour, got home... just in time to briefly do a few things and scan the Express, before I had to leave for girls' night. Decided I would drive, on account of my leg. Scanning the Express, I saw that Dar Williams would be performing on Sunday, so I called Marisa, noted that if she were game, we could repeat the triple-whammy weekend of two Mays ago, when we saw each other three days in a row. She was game, so I stopped at the box office on the way to dinner, got tickets. (Yes, that does make for Stomp today, Dar tomorrow, and Alvin Ailey on Tuesday). Drove a bit down, found parking just as she called. I said go ahead and find a restaurant, then call me and I'll meet you guys. So I approached the Courthouse metro on foot, only to realize I'd left my phone in the car. Schlepped back, got phone, found out where they were having dinner. And here's the best part: walked around for the better part of the next hour trying to find the place. All because I'd driven--because I didn't want to walk--whereas if I'd metro'd, I'd have just met them at the metro. It was awesome.

Anyway, time to get a head start on my crazy day. Have a great Saturday!

Saturday morning roundup

What will Dr. El Baradei's role be in all this? For some excellent context on the issue, see this report from April's New Yorker.

Boris Nemtsov is out of jail and standing up to repression in Russia.

Stronger regulation is in the best interests of the oil industry as well as the public.

Various crises afflict youth in this country, but teen pregnancy is not one of them. On that note, did the President, in his SOTU, snub the poor?

How long can Glenn Beck keep doing what he's doing?

Americans are weary of globalization, the President, and Congress.

Designers who slammed Michelle O for wearing McQueen are missing the point.

The Arena Stage contemplates the future of theater.

I'm a big believer in the power of meditation, but I think two hours a day is overboard. The Vice Abbott who taught our meditation class in Kyoto said there were diminishing returns after 20-30 minutes.

Those cooking habits are really gross.

Friday morning roundup

How close was a Middle East peace deal? Can a new deal on the Golan roll back Hezbollah's growing influence? What's going on in the rest of the region? Might public outrage focus on imprisoned dissidents, which are legion, rather than causes celebres?

David Brooks debates the State of the Union with himself.

Petri and Stromberg: "WTF???" Meanwhile, how annoyed do you think Dana Milbank is that he called that moratorium on Palin coverage?

The snowstorm stranded a lot of people.

Thursday evening roundup

The Economist debates natural gas vs. renewables.

Collins on guns.

Rabbis against nazi-related rhetoric.

I will miss The Minimalist, but I'll look forward to Mark Bittman's other columns, especially if he continues to share wisdom like this, which appeared in the above-linked goodbye column:

My growing conviction that the meat-heavy American diet and our increasing dependence on prepared and processed foods is detrimental not only to our personal health but to that of the planet has had an impact on my life and on that of the column... In part, what I see as the continuing attack on good, sound eating and traditional farming in the United States is a political issue.

On that note: support organic farming--contact your elected representatives.

***
I can say with minimal sarcasm that whoever invented noise-canceling headphones should be in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize. On the flight back, they blocked out most of the screaming kids, most of the time. They were not powerful enough, unfortunately, to block out a twenty-minute or so conversation between the guy sitting behind me and another guy who came up to talk to him. In German. It wasn't pretty (but it was loud).

***
I watched "Easy A," and it was actually a lot of fun. It's sort of "Saved" meets "Mean Girls" (and I've heard the second "Mean Girls," which was not written by Tina Fey, is quite bad).

Quick light roundup

The Onion on Olberman.

Thanks, Elisabeth, for pointing out this cause to rejoice. Hope it's not disappointing!

Tuesday morning roundup

Political repression in Russia has not begat security. While we're here, let's take a historical perspective at Eastern European horror stories.

Will the Al Jezeera leaks shock the system into progress or regress?

The transformation of USAID.

Bush administration Hatch Act violations.

The Ryan Roadmap falls short of addressing our massive naitonal debt. Also: Eugene Robinson on the tradeoffs. And how health care reform is already starting to pay for itself.

State of the Union mentions: where are they now?

Sleeping next to your pets can be harmful.

USA Today covers some 2011 marketing trends. Comments later.

Knowledge is power

I love California's nutrition information law.

I don't, as a rule, count calories, and I didn't go into Baja Fresh expecting to, but it was really good to have that information. It was perfect for my purposes: getting just enough food to tide me over for dinner, and not so much that I wouldn't need to eat until the middle of the night. Without that information, I wouldn't have been able to tell a 300-calorie grilled mahi taco from an 800-calorie bean burrito, in terms of what I needed. Also, what I do count these days is sodium, because so many macrobiotic staples are quite high in it (miso, ume vinegar/ume plums, sea vegetables, etc.). So it was great to know how much sodium I was (and was not) ordering.

So good for California (or is it just the Bay Area) for requiring the information and for Baja Fresh for having a healthy taco option.

Quick hello and rant

I love hotels with business centers, particularly when I have time to use them, and something to kvetch about.

F*ing Dulles.

In all fairness, I'm really spoiled, living so close to National, and National's being a pretty small airport. I'd anticipated that driving out to Dulles would take time, and I actually allowed more time than I'd needed, which was a good thing, because it took me as long once I got there to actually get to the gate. Never mind that United's check-in counter was the farthest from the garage, and you couldn't just go up to any kiosk, etc. Then you have to navigate the security clusterf*, then take a train that goes all the way around the f*ing airport, and then walk a mile or two to the gate. I got there just in time for boarding, and to sit on the tarmac for an hour while the flight crew realized that the wings hadn't been de-iced, then waiting for a de-icing truck (apparently, they'd been put away for the morning), and then waited for another one because the first one broke. I know--not a huge hassle in the scheme of things, but given how nice it would have been to sleep in for that hour, it was somewhat annoying.

Thanks for listening.

Quick Monday morning roundup

Hey guys! I'm scrambling to get to the airport (business trip) so I'll be away for most of the week. In the meantime, a few links:

Selective historical revisionism through art in Zimbabwe.

Do girls need a princess phase?

American food in India.

That's it. Have a great week!

Sunday evening roundup

Jill Lepore on the Constitution, the intentions of its authors, and the debates among everybody else ever since.

In light of the skills American students increasingly lack, tiger parenting is not what we need more of.

Adam Gopnik on dessert.

Some of these "Dear Blank: Please blank" Style Invitational entries are quite good.

Sunday morning roundup

India's Freedom of Information law only goes so far before activists get killed. The law itself, however, squares pretty well with William J. Dobson's Dictatorship for Dummies advice.

It is horrifying and hard to believe that a rider was attacked at L'Enfant on a Sunday evening. He's right: why didn't anyone do anything?

Also, here's a discussion about yielding seats to those who need them. There was another letter in the print edition--a man who was on crutches wrote that women unfailingly yielded their seats, but men never did.

I'm going to take this opportunity to again complain about metro etiquette. You know that I hate missing my train, especially when there's a long wait for another one, but there are some situations where missing the train is worth it. One of those situations: when the alternative is knocking down a blind or mobility-impaired passenger. Yes, I know it's the same wait, but there is a difference between missing a train because some idiot is standing to the left on an escalator, or stops once he or she gets to the bottom, without getting out of the way, and missing a train because a fellow passenger is inherently slow-moving and needs space to get around. So please, fellow passengers, stop tripping those people.

The Post's departing ombudsman--agreeing that the paper's journalistic quality has gone down hill--writes that it may yet restore its tradition of excellence.

Job interviewees want to be noticed, but not for this kind of thing.

Be wary of farmwashing and humanewashing. On that note, most Americans also fall prey to wholegrainwashing.

What's so modern about Modern Family?

Nodding

I called my parents this morning to wish dad a happy birthday. He and I chatted for a while; at one point (or several), he called out to mom and suggested that she pick up the phone, but, from what I gather, the response was something like, "huh? whatever, yeah."

Dad: What are you up to today?
A.: I'm going to see "Cymbeline" in the afternoon...
Dad: What's that?
A.: Shakespeare...
Dad: What is it in Russian?
A.: It's not. It's a name.
Dad: Any other plans?
A.: Well, Mirella invited me to go see a Peruvian dance concert, but I don't think I'll be up for it.
Dad: That actually sounds really good. It's at the same time as the play?
A.: No, but there's only so much artistic stimulus I can take in in a day. That and it's a trek out to George Mason.
Dad: That's too bad--it sound interesting.
A.: I'm sure it is. I'll try to catch them another time.

A bit later--just as I was getting out of the shower--mom called me.

Mom: I guess you were on the phone earlier? Dad said he told me, but I didn't hear him. He said [ya tye' kivnul]--you know that joke?
A.: Uh-huh.
Mom: Anyway, he said you were going to see a Shakespearean play instead of a Peruvian dance concert? I think you should go to the concert instead.
A.: It's not an either-or thing; I've had the Cymbeline ticket for weeks, and Mirella just called about Peru Negro yesterday. I could go to both but I'm just not up for it.
Mom: Huh? What's the name of the play in Russian?
A.: There isn't one--it's a name. Of a king.
Mom: Oh. Anyway, I'd better get going on dinner.

***
I know that joke--the "ya tye' kivnul'", i.e., "I nodded" joke--because it comes up all the time in my family. You'll likely be underwhelmed, but it's very Russian. It goes something like: a woman opens her front door one morning to find her husband asleep on the other side.

Woman: Kolya! What are you doing there?
Husband: Well, you could have let me in last night when I banged on the door!
Woman: You didn't answer when I asked, "Kolya? Is that you?"
Husband: I did answer--I nodded!

My dad invokes that punchline--"I nodded"--often, because mom often makes similar statements. Sometimes it's directly analogous--she'll say something when we're out of the room or otherwise out of earshot, and then express amazement if we didn't hear her (sometimes, there's also amazement that we haven't fetched whatever "that thing" she asked us to fetch, while we were out of earshot). Sometimes it's less direct--like this morning, for example, when mom didn't listen when dad told her that I was on the phone, and later asked why he hadn't told her that I was on the phone--but they're in that genre. Remember, also, when I was up there for Labor Day weekend, and I was slicing some vegetable or another? I asked mom how thickly to slice, she said, "whatever," and later said, "those should be sliced much more finely!" It's all a variation of nodding when you're not visible to the person you're talking to (or when you leave the room, leaving them nodding at you).

Year Eleven?

I intended to stop hosting anti-Valentine's Day parties many years ago, but I succumbed to friends' encouragement, one year at a time, to keep going. I'll spare regular readers (both of you?) by not rehashing the history, but you can read my past musings here, here, and here, and MP Dunleavey's take here. I always ended up having the party--even last year, when I'd returned from Hawaii the day before, and it was the last thing I felt like doing--and it was always worth it afterward. But I started to resent being expected to have it, especially since some people can't even be bothered to RSVP, because it's not like that makes a difference in one's planning. People started to offer to help--the party meant that much to them--but then always backed out at the last minute, so it always came down to just me and a gazillion appetizers to make. But I digress.

So I said I'd go to ten, and then stop, and this year would be eleven. In past years, I'd start thinking about the party in December, start sending save-the-dates about now, which means I guess I'd better make a decision. As usual, I've been leaning toward not hosting, but then I was drawing up an invite list, and it occurred to me that I would never see some people, including close friends (or maybe not see them for another six months), if I didn't have this party.

Then again, there's a lot of good stuff going on on the 12th, which is when it would be. Do I want to commit myself out of an Alexandria Symphony Orchestra concert and/or a Howard Fishman CD release party to put together a party when all the guests might not only prefer to go to one of those two events, or similar--which is fine--but not even bother to tell me? The only reason I'm even considering it is that Alvin Ailey is the week before. Which reminds me, I'd better get tickets next week.

It--if it happens--is going to be a very different party, food-wise. Say what you will about dairy in terms of cruelty and health, but it does wonders for appetizers. So no rocquefort grapes this year, or hazelnut/blue-cheese endives. Or tiramisu, or fondue. I figure I can make the ever-popular pea dumplings with silken tofu and nutritional yeast, and no one will know the difference (or see if I have frozen marscapone left, which I may as well use if it's there). I guess maybe I can take a crack at vegan tiramisu, but I probably won't. Maybe I'll do black bean brownies with green tea pudding (or ice cream, if I get an ice cream maker by then) for dessert. But if I make black bean brownies, would that be too much black bean, considering I'd also make sliders? No one has to know what's in the brownies. Anyway, here's what I'm thinking for the menu:

Ready-made appetizers: olives, grape leaves, edemame, mini heirloom tomatoes, other raw veg

Other appetizers: black bean sliders (with mango salsa?), falafel with tahini sauce, marinated tofu/vegetable skewers, spring rolls with hoisin sauce, eggplant rolls (stuffed with roasted pecans and sun-dried tomatoes), azuki-kabocha dumplings, pea dumplings, and maybe nori rolls. I'd make mochi in nori, because it's amazing, but it has to be consumed almost immediately, which doesn't make it a great party food.

Desserts: green tea ice cream (or pudding), black bean brownies.

Thoughts? Ideas?