A "Thank You Card" Thanksgiving

On this here day of thanks I give you heretofore a sampling of my thankings. Thankings that should have arrived in the mail yesterday, to thankees I shall be seeing today. Calculated I assure you.



My Nana was disappointed that I donated her money to Mr. Obama's re-election campaign and expressed hope that I might not do the same with my birthday money. I followed her advice, in a manner of speaking.

Cambridge, it's what's for dinner.

Why does Cambridge, between Blanche St. and Albany St. on Mass Ave smell like a whole bunch of these?


No really just go stand by the gas station (maybe stand across the street so you aren't getting high off the gas fumes) and take a big sniff. Am I right or am I right? It doesn't matter what you think, because I'm right.

What I Just Read: On The Grand Trunk Road

Steve Coll and Mr. Staggs (yes I just Googled a High School teachers name and I got his Twitter page in under a minute, the world we live in is bizarre. I also got his blog and Linked in page, as a result I now know pretty much everything about the guy since I last saw him 6 years ago) are the two main reasons why I chose Political Science as my major. Thomas Friedman is another reason but I like to forget about that time in my life.

Anyway, as a result of my love of all things written by Coll it was inevitable that I would stumble across On The Grand Trunk Road at the Derby Square bookstore and therefore force myself to buy a book that was published in 1994. So what if most of the info on India and Pakistan is out of date and the Tamil Rebels are no more, I still enjoyed learning more about India and Pakistan than just Nehru and Jinnah (not to mention learning anything at all about Sri Lanka, for one I had no idea India occupied Sri Lanka for a few years).

My favorite part of the book was Coll's work on the question's surrounding General Zia's death. Besides it being perfectly obvious that Zia was assassinated by his own men it shows exactly to what lengths Coll will go to in order to find the real story. My understanding for what drives Coll is much clearer as a result.

Though I ended up not reading the end of the book because it contained only a fraction of the insight Coll gave in his book Ghost Wars a decade later (10 years works wonders, especially with the help of a research assistant or two), I would say that the book was worth reading even if time has given it quite a beating. His first hand accounts and the present day feel of events that happened 20 years ago make reading the history easier than it would be if I were sitting in a history class.

Like the majority of non-fiction books this book did little for me when it came to the cover. And why should it have? It's is about actual events and not some parallel universe which allows the imagination to do whatever it wants with the cover as long it is remotely linked to the story in some way. He is a journalist not a creative thinker.

In summation: Do I like the cover? Not really. Do I think it could have been better? Certainly. Do I care to spend another line talking about how much better it could have been? No.

Cat-Day +365

..... and still as pitiful a hunter as ever.

On TV

I'm a sucker for a good story line. That's why I read the final Harry Potter book from the moment I got it at 1 PM to 8 AM the next morning, that's why I go on This American Life binges, and that's why it took me a matter of weeks to watch every episode of The Wire. I can't help it, good books, good television, good radio, and even movies are all the same to me; they are stories.

It's funny how adult's always tell you that books are superior to television, and that the path to success, and therefore enjoyment, is paved with books. Of course there may be some truth to that, hours upon hours of watching reruns of Friends and Frasier may do little more than occupy your time, but the same can be said for trashy Romance novels and endless loops of Top 40 hits.

Everything is good in moderation, and everything has it's good and it's bad. But something that grasps your attention, makes you experience emotions beyond a simple chuckle, makes you understand yourself and others around you a little better, no matter what medium it travels, is worth the time.

Don't blame me, blame Battlestar Galactica.

No, Thank You.

Since I was a small child my mother required of my brothers and I that we write thank you notes whenever we were given a gift or a some of money. It would take weeks of constant nagging and threats to get us to write them, it was like pulling teeth. As a result of all those years of writing I have since come to the conclusion that if you are going to write a Thank You Note you might as well make it interesting and memorable. So here I present for your perusal a few notes I wrote in thanks to my family for cutting me a check that I promptly turned around and paid off some debt with. Enjoy.

It should be noted that my Nana is not a fan of President Obama and wrote of such fact in her card to me. Just some perspective.

The Kindness Of Strangers

This past weekend Katy, her cousin Kevin and myself went to the Harvard Natural History Museum which was an all around good time. Upon returning back to our apartment to pick somethings up I received a Facebook message from someone named Elisa claiming that she had found my license and how would I like it returned to me. I quickly checked my wallet only to find that in fact my license was missing and I had been driving around for the past hour without it.

I guess my point is Elisa did not have to search me out on Facebook and mail me my license she could have just as easily thrown it away, or stolen my identity. But she did not, she wrote me a note and sent it to me the next day in the mail. Very kind of her. Thank you Elisa.

The Interview That Got Away

On my way to the North End today to have lunch at Galleria Umberto's I decided to get off at the Government Center T stop and walk across City Hall Plaza. As it would happen at the same time I was walking across the plaza Councilman Flaherty and Sam Yoon were giving a press conference to a handful of reporters and television cameras about the absurd political scandal that is the email deletions at city hall.

I'll get into Flaherty, Yoon and the emails later, but what struck me was the proximity with I had found myself to someone I could have voted for and someone I have the chance to vote for in the future, something which has only happened to me once when I listened to Governor Deval Patrick speak at a house event in Gloucester. It's an interesting feeling being in the presence of someone you only see on TV screens and in Newspaper articles, who have positions and agendas that appear to be black and white. Then you meet the man (or in this case men) and he is not a robot, he is not unplugged and wheeled away when the interview is over. No they make small talk, shake hands, laugh, look awkward, even nervous. It's weird, or maybe it's normal. Either way they are like everyone else, just in a different situation.

Of course me being me I thought after the press conference was over the reporters would fan out and do an interview or two with a random bystander. Myself being the only bystander I thought I stood a pretty good chance of being interviewed. It was not to be. But you the reader should not suffer for journalistic reluctance so here I present to you the "Interview That Got Away":


Underling: First of all I would like to say to my mother as well as any potential employers out there I don' look like this all the time. I usually shave and walk around with my hair combed and clean clothes. Today is an anomaly.

Reporter: What brings you here today?

U: I was just heading over to the North End for some Arancini and Sicilian Pizza, I happened upon the press conference and decided to stick around just in case I got interviewed.

R: Do you go to school in Boston?

U: I studied political science at THE Northeastern University, but currently I work at Bartley's in Cambridge as a line cook, because of the economy of course.

R: As a student of Politics what is your take on this whole "Emailgate" thing?

U: First of all can we please just agree that nothing should have the ending "gate" on it any more?

R: Ummm....

U: I'll take that as a yes. But coming back to your point I think this whole thing is a non-issue, the emails if they contain anything of relevance have little to do with the day to day running of the city nor any of the real issue the city is facing. That being said this is a great issue for Councilman Flaherty and Mr. Yoon to jump on. On the one hand they can label the Mayor as out of touch and his staff as ill equipped to deal with the technological advancements being made in goverment. On the other hand they can label the Mayor as an obstructionist of the law, someone with something to hide, a crook.

R: How do you think the Mayor's camp has handled this so far?

U: Poorly. I mean they could have killed this early by simply firing Mr. Kineavy and appointing a special investigator who answered to the City Council and had full access to anything and everything. Instead the Secretary of State and the Attorney General are not competing for face time 0n the issue and the Flaherty - Yoon campaign does not have to make us care about issues, they simply just need to express their outrage and demand accountability. This is just bad for the Mayor.

R: And you work where?

U: At a burger joint.

Mongolian OCD

I have somehow over the past few weeks embraced my inner prep cook and started doing things like this; cutting and measuring out every part of the Mongolian Beef dish I am going to make for dinner tonight (which I am convinced was created by someone working for the Beef industry who needed a reason to get rid of flank steak which is 33% fat). It may have something to do with working in a kitchen or being hungry or my need to be organized or finding myself wanting to cook dinner but having to wait for Katy to come home in order to do it. Either way I'm some where between a Chef and the manly version of a house wife, I can't decide.

And yes if you click the picture it is a full res JPEG. I know how to shrink it, yet I don't care. That goes for you people with 56k, I just do not care that it may take you 3 minutes to load that picture, upgrade or move.

Pedestrians ‡ Bikes | Cars || Cars | Bikes ‡ Pedestrians

Regardless of what Dennis said on last week's It's Always Sunny (great show by the way, if not completely pointless) no you should not ride your bike on the side walk because it is in fact against the law, and your doing so may result in me slashing your bike tires (or a donut thrown at your chest from a speeding vehicle, oh it could happen to you).

You only think I'm joking.

The older I get the better off the world is that I did not go to school to become a cop or there would be a surge in bikers being ticketed and smokers getting random tickets for littering, disturbing the peace, and loitering.

Yet I guess if you are afraid of getting hit by a car (or by a beer bottle) you should probably ride on the sidewalk when it comes to busy streets. Though I am ethically opposed to it I guess it can be excused in the name of less dead bikers.

That is unless you are riding over the Mass Ave Bridge where you don't in fact
have to ride on the sidewalk. Why you ask? Because believe it or not there is a dedicated fucking bike lane! No I can assure you it is not for Smart Cars, its made so people like you don't have to choose between being killed by a car or killing a pedestrian. Consider yourself educated

What I Just Read: Coming Up For Air

This was the book I was supposed to finish on our last trip to New York, that was about a month ago. I have no excuse except that that bed was so damn comfy looking.

One can never go home again, that's what I took away Coming Up For Air by George Orwell. The first half of the books is the recounting of the dull life that was and still is George Bowling, his parents, his first sexual experience, his love for fishing, serving and not serving in WW I, and about how fat he is. This mostly boring first half of the book is almost made up by the fact that the second half is devoted to him realizing that everything he remembered and held in such high regard has either vanished, changed into something he despises or may never have existed in the first place.

Yet underneath the mundane and nostalgic life of George Bowling is a classic Orwell undertone; the haves abuse the have nots and that is never going to change.

My favorite scene in the book is when George goes with his wife to listen to a famous Anti-Fascist give a lecture. George is not that interested in the lecture because he knows Hitler is a bad man and he does not need to be told so by a man spewing hatred. The thing is George does not care what type of system is in charge be it fascists, democracy, communism or whatever, he is still going to be making a few pounds a week and have to listen to his wife complain about the price of butter. He sees the arguments between the Communists and Trotsky supporter in front of him as nothing but rearranging chairs on the Titanic. Nothing matters.

Through George, Mr. Orwell is taking note of the pre WW II political landscape and saying he really does not care for it. There is going to be a war, people are going to die, England may end up under fascist rule but in the end will anything really change? Politically of course, because if Coming Up For Air tries to prove anything it's that though many things change, most things stay the same.

Though this book was fairly boring and at times difficult to get through there are very good parts to the book. In addition to the scene at the lecture, there is an almost prophetic sequence in which George describes the London Blitz with houses reduced to rubble and for the most part all out destruction. The thing is Coming Up For Air was written in June 1939 a full year before the Battle of Britain began, a truly amazing imagination.

I have always enjoyed Orwell, but then again who does not like Animal Farm and 1984. If it was not for the fact that I read Down and Out In Paris and London and loved it I do not think I would have bothered reading Coming Up for Air. I like Orwell's bleak outlook on mankind, his pessimistic view that power undoubtedly corrupts and the greedy always vanquish those who are not. It may be bleak and glass half empty , but I enjoy it.

The book design is fairly modest, a white background with gold trimming and a neat black and white picture of a man vaulting a large puddle which Katy says looks a lot like a photo that Henri Cartier-Bresson would have taken, neat none the less. I like it despite the misleading title and the hopeful picture.

I have one other Orwell book in my possession that I have yet to read, Homage to Catalonia, which is a work of non-fiction about the Spanish Civil War, I plan on giving it a try in the near future.

Jon • Kate + 8 = Why Procreation Isn't For Everyone

I really should be doing wedding things for Katy right now but I just had to tell you; Jon and Kate have a dysfunctional relationship. I know this might come as a surprise but if you throw a couple with 8 small children on TV things are not going to end well.

Enough of the trying to be funny and saying something new, I could not care less about Jon and Kate or the Angelina/Brad/Jen love triangle that occasionally turns into a rhombus when Jen finds a man (or in John Meyer's case a boy). My question is why do I need to know about Jon's hot and steamy second affair with the nanny and how they have sex when the kids are in the other room? Why do I need to know that this time Jen is over Brad for real now that she has Gerard Butler in her life (and really going for King Leonidas? So cliche.)

The answer is I don't know, and there will always be room for useless gossip in American culture, you can not get rid of it. The truth is I am fascinated by this in a way, Brad and Jen split up in 2005, or so my research says and yet we are still talking about them. They are either incredibly weak when it comes to their emotions or their is a vast conspiracy in the entertainment industry to keep this story going to make us forget about the fact that Jennifer Aniston's career ended when Friends ended. Regardless the 4 years of Star magazine covers is not ending any time soon.

As for Jon and Kate who thinks having 8 kids is a good idea? OK, and who thinks having camera crews and producers follow your every movement is a good idea? Now let's combine those two ideas. If you came anywhere near the word "moronic" then you are correct. These people are egotistical maniacs! They had 8 children for Christ's sake, talk about narcissistic (and do not blame the fertility drugs, they already had two kids, they knew the chances of having too many kids and they could have helped the world out and adopted). Then they went on TV? When has reality TV ever led to good things? The first winner of Survivor went to jail, and have you seen Flavor of Love?

I don't know where this is going so I'm just going to stop here, but before I go I just want to say do not have 8 children, do not lay your relationship out for all of America to see, and do not under any circumstances date Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, or Jennifer Aniston.

Not Every Kitchen is Hell, Just the Two I've Worked In

Working in a busy kitchen is one of the most stressful environments anyone can work in. The only way one can have more stress is if they have someones life in their hands, have millions of dollars at risk, or they are getting shot at. I know what your saying, "But I have a deadline for a report for Friday", yeah well in a kitchen you have a deadline every 5 seconds and if you miss it the boss is hollering at you, which tends to add to the stress of the next order and it's all down hill from there.

A few summers ago I worked at Woodman's of Essex, the place where the fried clam was invented by a man who was not so ironically called "Chubby". Woodman's is a family run business so as a result there are something like 25 people you have to listen to. Though I may not have liked the way they treated their employees or how they seem to think you should pay for the honor of eating at a hot and sticky clam shack where you have to pick your food up at a window, I still count it as a large and fairly positive experiment in my life. For if it wasn't for Woodman's I wouldn't have learned how to fry, to mop, to wake up at 5 AM, what it's like to smell like fried food for days, or the amount of time and effort that goes into preparing a restaurant each day. Nor would I be working for Bartley's where the only reason I was hired was because "I've never worked with someone who worked at Woodman's before, so I guess I'll have to give you a try."

Bartley's is a whole different animal then Woodman's. First off I actually like the food we cook (Burgers), second, all I do is put the toppings on the food and place it in the window, no burning myself required. The biggest thing of all to me is that the guy who does all the hollering and demanding actually works in the kitchen and the kitchen would not be able to run without him. I admit it sucks getting yelled at, but when it's coming from someone who is doing something much harder than you and not just standing around dictating then there is nothing you can do but shut up and do it right.

Yeah I stand on my feet all day and yeah I get paid far less than I would if I was sitting in an office at a computer with a fraction of the stress and physical labor but in a small way it's rewarding and eye opening. Yes I will keep telling myself that.

Freaks + Economics

Even though I worked at a Borders and therefore know that all those "sales" and "deals" are just scams it does not mean I'm smart enough to not fall for it. As a result I walked away with Freakanomics by Levitt and Dubner, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson as well as Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I went in there with a 40% coupon looking only to get Neverwhere, make you own judgments.

In my defense I have always wanted to read Freakonomics, but because they decided to reissue it 2340239 times in hardcover form I had decided to pass on it for the past 37 years.

Quick side note on why I prefer paperbacks to hardcover books.

1. Paperbacks are cheaper
2. Paperbacks have art work directly on the cover where as hardcovers tend to be bland and indistinguishable from one to the next.
3. Dust jackets, the bane of my existence.

I may have bent your ear about my hatred for dust jackets before, and if I have feel free to stop me. Dust covers suit one purpose, to look stupid. Why would one cover a perfectly good solid book cover of cardboard and cloth with a flimsy easily rippable piece of paper and think that its going to do anything but fall apart? Let me let you in on a little secret: Hardcovers are a scam and serve very little purpose besides being a collectors item.

And now back to our regularly schedule program

What appealed to me about this book, aside from the fact that I always liked the blog that was based on this book, was that it seemed to a easy way to explain economics to a kid who got a C- in Economics. That and it's full of random facts and as you all know I love random facts, much to the detriment of social situations.

Because this book is just a bunch of random facts and tidbits I am going to give you my observations and points in the same fashion.

- This book brought about an argument between my mother and myself that involved African American women from the South Side of Chicago, crack, and me calling my mother stupid (though I continue to believe the phrase "you do not know what you are talking about" is not an insult as much as a statement of fact).

- My favorite part of the book was when they debunked the theory of broken windows used to fight crime in NYC during the 90's. If you are one of the hundreds of people who have had to listen to me talk about how great broken windows is, I'm sorry and no you can not have that 20 minutes of your life back. No you can not speak to a manager.

- Rudy Giuliani is a fraud.

- I need to start following Sumo, Japans national past-time. Apparently the game of fat men is so important to Japan players cheat, sort of like Baseball in America. For those of you keeping score at home I now need to get into Sumo and Soccer.

- Conventional wisdom is usually wrong.

Overall a very enjoyable read, I had a hard time putting it down. I would recommend it to anyone who like myself has a hard time visualizing economic theory and the day to day effects of social factors on the economy. And no I have no idea what I just said. It was a good book, read it if you get the chance.

The cover of this book has potential and I'm sure when they first made the cover, with just the Orange/Apple on the front it looked great. Then they added the title and the authors, normal enough. Then they added the subtitle, a quote, the lines "New York Times Bestseller" "Finally in Paperback" and "With New Material" and the cover starts to look like every other book in the business section. With all that said I like that they kept with the colors of the Orange/Apple in regards to everything on the cover.

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Note to any of you readers who actually borrow books from me. You can't anymore. I'm done sharing with you paper folding bastards. Of course I don't mean that, part of the reason I buy all my books, besides from my capitalistic obsession to own everything I touch, is so I can give the books to other people to enjoy. So to make that easier and to give me a reason to play "Librarian" every once in a while I have started cataloguing all my books.

What I Just Read: The Grapes of Wrath

My pledge to avoid all things trendy and hip has brought me to The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. The Grapes of Wrath is the foremost novel cataloging and illustrating the effects of The Depression of the early 20th century. Don't worry, I'm a step ahead of you, I realize what could be more trendy than a book about The Depression when the American economy is in the worst recession since the early 20th century. My answer is, probably nothing. If anyone were to see me reading this book they would probably think "he must be worried about the economy". Blast! Foiled again!

No I am not in fact reading this because I might be heading Californy way because my crops failed and my Political Science degree holds no value (though with recent headlines California may not be a viable option). In fact I read (or was supposed to read) The Grapes of Wrath in my AP English class. It being a large book as well as my mothers favorite book, and wtih me being a rebellious teenager and there being something called SparkNotes, I took a pass. Being a little older, and a little geekier (or maybe its embracing my geekyness) I have decided to revisit books that I passed on in High School, this being the first one.

I really enjoyed reading it this time, took me a bit to get into it, but once I got past the part where I stopped last time I started to get into it. I particularly enjoyed how with every other chapter Steinbeck takes a different approach to the story. By that I mean every odd chapter is a sort of short story, mirroring the way he writes in The Pearl, except when he does so it is setting up the scene for the next chapter where the story of the Joads continues. A story of poverty and what that poverty does to those in it and those outside of it.

It's actually a very pertinent book in respect to my situation right now, granted I have a roof over my head, food to eat and if it came to it I always have my parents. That being said, the past few months have been like the Joads heading to California, thinking about working, thinking about what I'm going to do when I graduate. Tom Joad's parole is like my Logic grade, I'm just waiting to get caught, and the Joads finally reaching California is like me taking my last final, now I really need a job.

It may have been that weak connection with the book I just mentioned or it might be that I realized Steinbeck isn't that wordy after all. Regardless I think I like the man.

******

This is the most common copy of the book in bookstores today. It is a paperback, not a hardcover, so therefore it does not have nor does it need a dust jacket (I hate dust jackets). For some odd reason Penguin Books got it into their heads that they should sully some of their books by making it appear as if it does in fact have a dust jacket on it. They do this by elongating the front and back covers of the book (so the covers are double the size of the book) and then folding the outer half of the cover in upon it self, making it resemble a dust jacket. The reason for this is twofold; one is to add more information about the book to the inside cover, and the second reason is to infuriate me.

I would remiss if I did not tell you that I have contemplated removing the inside portions of all these books with a razor blade. Not just my books (for which I have and never will have any such monstrosities) but all books such as this, a crusade of sorts, a crusade to purify the ranks of books.

And so this is why I purchased a Penguin Classic version of The Grapes of Wrath. Now Penguin Classics are not the most desirable versions of a book to buy, mostly because the format is the same for every book (black background, white trim complete with orange and white font, only the upper two thirds of the front cover differing from book to book) and the quality of paper is only a step above Bible paper (Bible paper is incredibly thin in order to make the thickness of the book as small as possible, the offset is easily tear-able and partially see through paper). I only buy them when every other copy of the book is undesirable to me.

That being said, I do like this cover (upper 2/3) for the artwork. Not being an art critic, I cannot tell you why I like it (if I was to tell you I would say it is for the burnt tones of the piece), I just do. Though I think it might have something to do with the simplicity.