Found this here, which found it here, after I tracked the list down after reading about it on BlogPulse.
There's a film roll floating around somewhere as well. Maybe I'll track that one down and mark it up.
Or not.
I realized last night, watching What Women Want with the younger younger guy, that I'd seen the movie before, after watching half of it. I must've seen it on an airplane, because I don't watch much TV and hardly ever go to movies. What a dumb dumb dumb movie (except for Helen Hunt, Judy Greet, and Ashley Johnson, who were superb).
Is it just that I really don't much like Mel Gibson?
The younger, younger guy can't understand my strong negative reactions to Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman, and the like.
"They're just actors, Mom," he tells me.
Well.
So, how does this book roll stuff work?
Take the list.
Italicize those you've read part of.
Bold those you've finished reading.
Underline those you own.
Add three to the list.
1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. 1984, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Sorcerers Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alices Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas -- the unabridged version in the English translation
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Susskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
103. The Beach, Alex Garland
104. Dracula, Bram Stoker
105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz
106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks
109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson
111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy
112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 1/2, Sue Townsend
113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat
114. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson
117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson
118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
119. Shogun, James Clavell
120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham
121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson
122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy
124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett
127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
129. Possession, A. S. Byatt
130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
131. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl
133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck
134. Georges Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl
135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson
140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson
141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson
143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
144. It, Stephen King
145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
146. The Green Mile, Stephen King
147. Papillon, Henri Charriere
148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett
149. Master And Commander, Patrick O'Brian
150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz
151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett
152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett
153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett
154. Atonement, Ian McEwan
155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson
156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling
160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
162. River God, Wilbur Smith
163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon
164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx
165. The World According To Garp, John Irving
166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore
167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson
168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye
169. The Witches, Roald Dahl
170. Charlotte's Web, E. B. White
171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams
173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco
175. Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder
176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson
177. Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl
178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach
180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson
182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay
184. Silas Marner, George Eliot
185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Gross-mith
187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine
189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri
190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. Lawrence
191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons
193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett
194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells
195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans
196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett
198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White
199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews
201. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
202. The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan
203. The Great Hunt, Robert Jordan
204. The Dragon Reborn, Robert Jordan
205. Fires of Heaven, Robert Jordan
206. Lord of Chaos, Robert Jordan
207. Winters Heart, Robert Jordan
208. A Crown of Swords, Robert Jordan
209. Crossroads of Twilight, Robert Jordan
210. A Path of Daggers, Robert Jordan
211. As Nature Made Him, John Colapinto
212. Microserfs, Douglas Coupland
213. The Married Man, Edmund White
214. Winter's Tale, Mark Helprin
215. The History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault
216. Cry to Heaven, Anne Rice
217. Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, John Boswell
218. Equus, Peter Shaffer
219. The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten
220. Letters To A Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke
221. Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn
222. The Vampire Lestat, Anne Rice
223. Anthem, Ayn Rand
224. The Bridge To Terabithia, Katherine Paterson
225. Tartuffe, Moliere
226. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
227. The Crucible, Arthur Miller
228. The Trial, Franz Kafka
229. Oedipus Rex, Sophocles
230. Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles
231. Death Be Not Proud, John Gunther
232. A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen
233. Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen
234. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
235. A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry
236. ALIVE!, Piers Paul Read
237. Grapefruit, Yoko Ono
238. Trickster Makes This World, Lewis Hyde
240. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
241. Chronicles of Thomas Convenant, Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson
242. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
242. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon
243. Summerland, Michael Chabon
244. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
245. Candide, Voltaire
246. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, Roald Dahl
247. Ringworld, Larry Niven
248. The King Must Die, Mary Renault
249. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
250. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L'Engle
251. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
252. The House Of The Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
253. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
254. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
255. The Great Gilly Hopkins, Katherine Paterson
256. Chocolate Fever, Robert Kimmel Smith
257. Xanth: The Quest for Magic, Piers Anthony
258. The Lost Princess of Oz, L. Frank Baum
259. Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon
260. Lost In A Good Book, Jasper Fforde
261. Well Of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde
261. Life Of Pi, Yann Martel
263. The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
264. A Yellow Raft In Blue Water, Michael Dorris
265. Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder
267. Where The Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls
268. Griffin & Sabine, Nick Bantock
269. Witch of Blackbird Pond, Joyce Friedland
270. Mrs. Frisby And The Rats Of NIMH, Robert C. O'Brien
271. Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt
272. The Cay, Theodore Taylor
273. From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg
274. The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
275. The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin
276. The Kitchen God's Wife, Amy Tan
277. The Bone Setter's Daughter, Amy Tan
278. Relic, Duglas Preston & Lincolon Child
279. Wicked, Gregory Maguire
280. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
281. Misty of Chincoteague, Marguerite Henry
282. The Girl Next Door, Jack Ketchum
283. Haunted, Judith St. George
284. Singularity, William Sleator
285. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
286. Different Seasons, Stephen King
287. Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
288. About a Boy, Nick Hornby
289. The Bookman's Wake, John Dunning - read this past weekend
290. The Church of Dead Girls, Stephen Dobyns
291. Illusions, Richard Bach
292. Magic's Pawn, Mercedes Lackey
293. Magic's Promise, Mercedes Lackey
294. Magic's Price, Mercedes Lackey
295. The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Gary Zukav
296. Spirits of Flux and Anchor, Jack L. Chalker
297. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
298. The Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices, Brenda Love
299. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace.
300. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison.
301. The Cider House Rules, John Irving.
302. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
303. Girlfriend in a Coma, Douglas Coupland
304. The Lions Game, Nelson Demille
305. The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars, Stephen Brust
306. Cyteen, C. J. Cherryh
307. Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco
308. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson
309. Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk
310. Camber of Culdi, Kathryn Kurtz
311. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
312. War and Rememberance, Herman Wouk
313. The Art of War, Sun Tzu
314. The Giver, Lois Lowry
315. The Telling, Ursula Le Guin
316. Xenogenesis (or Lilith's Brood), Octavia Butler
317. A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold
318. The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold
319. The Aeneid, Publius Vergilius Maro (Vergil)
320. Hanta Yo, Ruth Beebe Hill
321. The Princess Bride, S. Morganstern (or William Goldman)
322. Beowulf, Anonymous
323. The Sparrow, Maria Doria Russell
324. Deerskin, Robin McKinley
325. Dragonsong, Anne McCaffrey
326. Passage, Connie Willis
327. Otherland, Tad Williams
328. Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay
329. Number the Stars, Lois Lowry
330. Beloved, Toni Morrison
331. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christs Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore
332. The mysterious disappearance of Leon, I mean Noel, Ellen Raskin
333. Summer Sisters, Judy Blume
334. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo
335. The Island on Bird Street, Uri Orlev
336. Midnight in the Dollhouse, Marjorie Filley Stover
337. The Miracle Worker, William Gibson
338. The Genesis Code, John Case
339. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson
340. Paradise Lost, John Milton
341. Phantom, Susan Kay
342. The Mummy or Ramses the Damned, Anne Rice
343. Anno Dracula, Kim Newman
344: The Dresden Files: Grave Peril, Jim Butcher
345: Tokyo Suckerpunch, Issac Adamson
346: The Winter of Magics Return, Pamela Service
347: The Oddkins, Dean R. Koontz
348. My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok
349. The Last Goodbye, Raymond Chandler
350. At Swim, Two Boys, Jaime O'Neill
351. Othello, by William Shakespeare
352. The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas
353. The Collected Poems of William Butler Yeats
354. Sati, Christopher Pike
355. The Inferno, Dante
356. The Apology, Plato
357. The Small Rain, Madeline L'Engle
358. The Man Who Tasted Shapes, Richard E Cytowick
359. 5 Novels, Daniel Pinkwater
360. The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Juliet Marillier
361. Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier
362. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
363. Our Town, Thorton Wilder
364. Green Grass Running Water, Thomas King
335. The Interpreter, Suzanne Glass
336. The Moors Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie
337. The Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson
338. A Passage to India, E.M. Forster
339. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
340. The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux
341. Pages for You, Sylvia Brownrigg
342. The Changeover, Margaret Mahy
343. Howls Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones
344. Angels and Demons, Dan Brown
345. Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo
346. Shosha, Isaac Bashevis Singer
347. Travels With Charley, John Steinbeck
348. The Diving-bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
349. The Lunatic at Large by J. Storer Clouston
350. Time for Bed by David Baddiel
351. Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
352. Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre
353. The Bloody Sun by Marion Zimmer Bradley
354. Sewer, Gas, and Eletric by Matt Ruff
355. Jhereg by Steven Brust
356. So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane
357. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
358. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte
359. Road-side Dog, Czeslaw Milosz
360. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
361. Neuromancer, William Gibson
362. The Epistemology of the Closet, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
363. A Canticle for Liebowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr
364. The Mask of Apollo, Mary Renault
365. The Gunslinger, Stephen King
366. Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
367. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
368. A Season of Mists, Neil Gaiman
369. Ivanhoe, Walter Scott
370. The God Boy, Ian Cross
371. The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Laurie R. King
372. Finn Family Moomintroll, Tove Jansson
373. Misery, Stephen King
374. Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters
375. Hood, Emma Donoghue
376. The Land of Spices, Kate OBrien
377. The Diary of Anne Frank
378. Regeneration, Pat Barker
379. Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
380. Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina Garcia
381. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
382. The View from Saturday, E.L. Konigsburg
383. Dealing with Dragons, Patricia Wrede
384. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss
385. A Severed Wasp, Madeleine LEngle
386. Here Be Dragons, Sharon Kay Penman
387. The Mabinogion (Ancient Welsh Tales), translated by Lady Charlotte E. Guest
388. The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown - haven't finished this one yet, it's in a pile somewhere.
389. Desire of the Everlasting Hills - Thomas Cahill
390. The Cloister Walk - Kathleen Norris
391. The Things We Carried, Tim O'Brien
392. I Know This Much Is True, Wally Lamb
393. Choke, Chuck Palahniuk
394. Ender's Shadow, Orson Scott Card
395. The Memory of Earth, Orson Scott Card
396. The Iron Tower, Dennis L. McKiernen
397. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
398. A Ring of Endless Light, Madeline L'Engle
399. Lords of Discipline, Pat Conroy
400. Hyperion, Dan Simmons
401. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, Jon McGregor
402. The Bridge, Iain Banks
403. Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit, Daniel Quinn
404. Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner
405. The Gold Coast, Nelson DeMille
406. The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
407. Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis
408. Lost Horizon, James Hilton
I can't really say for sure exactly which books I own and which I don't. I erred on the conservative side. I inherited a lot of books, tons of Pratchett, from Casey. The reason the books are waiting to be sorted is so I'll realize which books I have multiple copies of, which books I own, so when I go into a bookstore I won't buy a third copy of Golden Compass.
I am not as well read as some people I could name. I can't even really say which books I've read part way and put down. So many ... and so many years.
How much is "part way" and how much is "I started a page or two but decided to read something else instead that day"?
Oh, well. This exercise took far longer than I thought it would, but after investing a chunk of time and still being a ways from the end, I slogged through so I'd at least wind up with a list of books I haven't got around to reading and maybe should.
Just look at all those books on this list that I own and haven't read. If I get TB or break my back, I'll have enough books on hand to keep me going for months.
Currently reading: Amy Tan's The Opposite of Fate and Gerry Spence's 7 Simple Steps to Personal Freedom
Monday, June 14, 2004
Chicago Tribune | Sex case pits library against cops
[registration required for the Tribune's story]
This isn't a Patriot Act library story -- it couldn't be because the library and librarians couldn't have spoken about a Patriot Act story. This is a different story, from the Chicago Tribune:
Sex case pits library against cops
In Naperville, librarians cite state law--and the Constitution--in forcing police to get a court order before releasing the identity of a man accused of looking at Internet porn
By James Kimberly Tribune staff reporter
Published June 11, 2004
This story contains corrected material, published June 12, 2004.
When three teenagers in Naperville's Nichols Library reported seeing a man fondling himself while looking at Internet pornography, library workers called police.
The man left before officers arrived, so police asked to see who was logged on at the computer. To the surprise of police, the library refused, opening another chapter in the controversy over how much access law enforcement should have to library records.
"We think it is incumbent upon them, since they're in the business of providing a safe environment and we're in the business of providing public safety, to cooperate with us," said Naperville Police Capt. Ray McGury.
The library stood behind the Illinois Library Records Confidentiality Act, which says patrons' privacy must be protected unless there is a court order to release information.
What I find disturbing is the Naperville police reaction to the library telling them that according to law the police must provide a court order before the library can release information about a patron.
The police reaction was sort of a 'Well, sure that's the law and that's all well and good but we're talking about safety here, law breaking. What if we really need the information and we want it !now!! You mean to say you won't give it to us?'
The Naperville Police Department believes the confidentiality law was intended to keep it from spying on people, not to prevent library employees from helping officers solve crimes, McGury said.
"I asked them, 'If a child is snatched from this library do I have to get a search warrant to get information on who was here?' and they said, 'Based on the state law, yes.' God forbid that happens."
The law says that it's not up to the police to determine when they do and don't need a court order. If they feel their need for information is justified, just go get the court order already.
This isn't a Patriot Act library story -- it couldn't be because the library and librarians couldn't have spoken about a Patriot Act story. This is a different story, from the Chicago Tribune:
Sex case pits library against cops
In Naperville, librarians cite state law--and the Constitution--in forcing police to get a court order before releasing the identity of a man accused of looking at Internet porn
By James Kimberly Tribune staff reporter
Published June 11, 2004
This story contains corrected material, published June 12, 2004.
When three teenagers in Naperville's Nichols Library reported seeing a man fondling himself while looking at Internet pornography, library workers called police.
The man left before officers arrived, so police asked to see who was logged on at the computer. To the surprise of police, the library refused, opening another chapter in the controversy over how much access law enforcement should have to library records.
"We think it is incumbent upon them, since they're in the business of providing a safe environment and we're in the business of providing public safety, to cooperate with us," said Naperville Police Capt. Ray McGury.
The library stood behind the Illinois Library Records Confidentiality Act, which says patrons' privacy must be protected unless there is a court order to release information.
What I find disturbing is the Naperville police reaction to the library telling them that according to law the police must provide a court order before the library can release information about a patron.
The police reaction was sort of a 'Well, sure that's the law and that's all well and good but we're talking about safety here, law breaking. What if we really need the information and we want it !now!! You mean to say you won't give it to us?'
The Naperville Police Department believes the confidentiality law was intended to keep it from spying on people, not to prevent library employees from helping officers solve crimes, McGury said.
"I asked them, 'If a child is snatched from this library do I have to get a search warrant to get information on who was here?' and they said, 'Based on the state law, yes.' God forbid that happens."
The law says that it's not up to the police to determine when they do and don't need a court order. If they feel their need for information is justified, just go get the court order already.
So call me easily amused
When times are slow and/or I'm waiting for something or someone, I sometimes check in with SiteMeter to see who's been visiting the blog and from whence the visitor(s) came.
My most recent check, within the last hour, served up the following:
paulalight.blogspot.com still reigns supreme of all referers. Thanks, Paula!
Someone stopped by with an MSN search for /aligngifcentre/.
Someone else found the blog with a Google search for /stuart brioza/ -- he, who with Nicole Krasinski, makes Rubicon such a fine place to dine. We're eating there Friday night with Steve and Paula, have I mentioned? (No, not that Paula.)
A Google search for "skate wing" brought a visitor. Arleen (Tuesday's Child) sent someone along, mayhap herself.
An Eniro.se search for /Chile Prospects hells angels/ brought someone to the blog. Bet they were surprised.
Someone else found me with an MSN search for /wwwnews 11.com/ Hm. I'm sure they were looking for the ABC affiliate in the Bay area but they got a little number about Tim B-L's blog instead.
An AOL search for /www.anss.org/ brought someone interested in seismology. A visitor referred by sceloporus hippolytis, another from Arleen, multiples from Paula.
What to make of it all? Nothing much. I'm simply curious, poking through the referrals, reading the entrails, wondering about my visitors.
El Raigon searches bring the highest percentage of random searchers these days.
I continue to be intrigued by the steadfast faithfulness of 67.180.7.99, who visits often to check out my blog updates.
Gee, a fan. ... from Philadelphia. No, not W.C. Fields. Hi!
My most recent check, within the last hour, served up the following:
paulalight.blogspot.com still reigns supreme of all referers. Thanks, Paula!
Someone stopped by with an MSN search for /aligngifcentre/.
Someone else found the blog with a Google search for /stuart brioza/ -- he, who with Nicole Krasinski, makes Rubicon such a fine place to dine. We're eating there Friday night with Steve and Paula, have I mentioned? (No, not that Paula.)
A Google search for "skate wing" brought a visitor. Arleen (Tuesday's Child) sent someone along, mayhap herself.
An Eniro.se search for /Chile Prospects hells angels/ brought someone to the blog. Bet they were surprised.
Someone else found me with an MSN search for /wwwnews 11.com/ Hm. I'm sure they were looking for the ABC affiliate in the Bay area but they got a little number about Tim B-L's blog instead.
An AOL search for /www.anss.org/ brought someone interested in seismology. A visitor referred by sceloporus hippolytis, another from Arleen, multiples from Paula.
What to make of it all? Nothing much. I'm simply curious, poking through the referrals, reading the entrails, wondering about my visitors.
El Raigon searches bring the highest percentage of random searchers these days.
I continue to be intrigued by the steadfast faithfulness of 67.180.7.99, who visits often to check out my blog updates.
Gee, a fan. ... from Philadelphia. No, not W.C. Fields. Hi!
Thursday, June 10, 2004
10 Super Foods You Should NEVER Eat!
From those laugh-a-minute folks at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, 10 Super Foods You Should NEVER Eat! and the reasons why.
Bugles? I think maybe the one and only time I had Bugles was back in 1970 or so, but Alfredo sauce. mmmmmmmmmmm.
Bugles? I think maybe the one and only time I had Bugles was back in 1970 or so, but Alfredo sauce. mmmmmmmmmmm.
"The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle"
I've been having fun today, checking the weather in Seattle from the Space Needle Webcam, which you can move from here to there and zoom with buttons.
Not the spirit. Not the letter either.
There's all sorts of turmoil in alt.fiction.original and alt.writing. The turmoil is spilling over into misc.writing. The controversy swirls around Dr Zen, as is often the case. The controversy is over Zen's critiques of work posted for critique in AFO.
"But they're posted for critique!" you say. "How could it be controversial to critique them?"
Well, Zen crossposts his critiques to alt.writing, which is where he stashes interesting threads he finds elsewhere. Crossposting is a bit of the controversy, it seems. ("I only intended AFO to see this piece, not the world!")
The big flap, however, is over Zen posting without using the x-no-archive=yes flag which tells Googja not to archive his post when the original poster used the x-no-archive flag originally, intending to keep the work out of the Googja glob of posts.
"What does it matter?" you say.
Well, first off, if you use the x-no-archive=yes flag, not only won't Googja store your post, but no one using Google to read Usenet posts will even see your post. If a work for critique and all critique thereof is shielded behind the x-no-archive flag, folks using Google are missing out.
"So, what?"
The Zens of the world are providing their critique advice not only to the individual with the request but also to lurkers and readers above and beyond the person whose work they're critiquing. If Zen wanted to provide one-on-one critiquing, he could do so with e-mail. As it is, if someone uses Google to read Usenet, Zen's work is unavailable, if he shields it -- as some are requesting -- with the x-no-archive flag.
But he isn't, and there's the rub.
One of the AFO posters commented, "But the no archive thing. Jee-sus. How self-obsessed can you be? People use this group for stories they may try to publish. Publishers search Google sometimes. I was barred from a competition I'd won exactly because of that."
So cheat, this fella says. Post to Usenet for help and critique and feedback, but use the x-no-archive flag so publishers and competition judges won't be able to track you down.
Lovely.
These spotlessly honest folks complaining about Zen and x-no-archive want critiquers of their x-no-archive'd work to x-no-archive as well, so that even a hint of their work won't show up in the Googja archives. Please critique, but don't archive your critique because your critique will reference my work as well and I told the publisher it had never been published.
Some publishers don't consider a Usenet post publication. Others do.
The guidelines at OnSpec specify, "We do not read E-mailed or faxed submissions, and we do not buy work that has appeared in print or on the Internet." There are no fuzzy waffling words defining a different "is it published?" status for publishing on a web site, webzine or Usenet newsgroup.
For this publisher, publishing "on the Internet" means "published" and they won't buy it.
My take is, if you want to workshop your work before submitting it for publication and you deal with publishers who consider any appearance on the Internet as publication, don't post the work to a Usenet newsgroup. Find some other venue: a private mailing list, e-mail.
Is it legit to post your work on a Usenet newsgroup for critique, using the x-no-archive flag to tell Googja not to archive it so you can later fib about whether it was ever on Usenet? Is it legit to skate around an editor's requirements by using x-no-archive so you can lie about the status of your work, so that an editor, searching for your story on the Web won't see that you've already shared it with the untold millions of lurkers?
Another AFO poster claimed he was using x-no-archive not because he was trying to scam publishers but because he didn't want his family reading something he'd written. My advice there? Don't publish anything to Usenet you wouldn't want your mom or Aunt Emma to read. Just don't. If you plan to do so and plan to use the x-no-archive so Mom and Aunt Emma can't find your post in Googja, you must realize you have no guarantee that someone won't follow up on your post and leave off the x-no-archive flag.
You also have no right to tell someone else that they must not archive their own posts because they reference one of yours.
When Steve Madere and his wacky crazy crew began archiving Usenet in 1995, they started from scratch and they started small. At the beginning, they didn't archive alt, talk or soc. They started from Day One. Only later, after the Deja archive was well underway, did they begin archiving alt, talk and soc and also begin reaching back, creating an archive of older posts from backup tapes held by institutions, companies and individuals.
When Google bought Deja, they found even older resources and pushed the archives even further back.
No one in 1985 dreamt that in 2004, someone could retrieve comments they made in Usenet in 1985, but as Madere said way back in 1995, "When you post to Usenet, it automatically gets propagated to tens of thousands of computers. So anybody who posted something to Usenet and then later on has any kind of privacy concerns about it must have seriously misunderstood what they were doing."
Instead of using x-no-archive=yes and yammering on (and on and on) that anyone referencing your post should do the same, Just. Don't. Post. To. Usenet.
"But they're posted for critique!" you say. "How could it be controversial to critique them?"
Well, Zen crossposts his critiques to alt.writing, which is where he stashes interesting threads he finds elsewhere. Crossposting is a bit of the controversy, it seems. ("I only intended AFO to see this piece, not the world!")
The big flap, however, is over Zen posting without using the x-no-archive=yes flag which tells Googja not to archive his post when the original poster used the x-no-archive flag originally, intending to keep the work out of the Googja glob of posts.
"What does it matter?" you say.
Well, first off, if you use the x-no-archive=yes flag, not only won't Googja store your post, but no one using Google to read Usenet posts will even see your post. If a work for critique and all critique thereof is shielded behind the x-no-archive flag, folks using Google are missing out.
"So, what?"
The Zens of the world are providing their critique advice not only to the individual with the request but also to lurkers and readers above and beyond the person whose work they're critiquing. If Zen wanted to provide one-on-one critiquing, he could do so with e-mail. As it is, if someone uses Google to read Usenet, Zen's work is unavailable, if he shields it -- as some are requesting -- with the x-no-archive flag.
But he isn't, and there's the rub.
One of the AFO posters commented, "But the no archive thing. Jee-sus. How self-obsessed can you be? People use this group for stories they may try to publish. Publishers search Google sometimes. I was barred from a competition I'd won exactly because of that."
So cheat, this fella says. Post to Usenet for help and critique and feedback, but use the x-no-archive flag so publishers and competition judges won't be able to track you down.
Lovely.
These spotlessly honest folks complaining about Zen and x-no-archive want critiquers of their x-no-archive'd work to x-no-archive as well, so that even a hint of their work won't show up in the Googja archives. Please critique, but don't archive your critique because your critique will reference my work as well and I told the publisher it had never been published.
Some publishers don't consider a Usenet post publication. Others do.
The guidelines at OnSpec specify, "We do not read E-mailed or faxed submissions, and we do not buy work that has appeared in print or on the Internet." There are no fuzzy waffling words defining a different "is it published?" status for publishing on a web site, webzine or Usenet newsgroup.
For this publisher, publishing "on the Internet" means "published" and they won't buy it.
My take is, if you want to workshop your work before submitting it for publication and you deal with publishers who consider any appearance on the Internet as publication, don't post the work to a Usenet newsgroup. Find some other venue: a private mailing list, e-mail.
Is it legit to post your work on a Usenet newsgroup for critique, using the x-no-archive flag to tell Googja not to archive it so you can later fib about whether it was ever on Usenet? Is it legit to skate around an editor's requirements by using x-no-archive so you can lie about the status of your work, so that an editor, searching for your story on the Web won't see that you've already shared it with the untold millions of lurkers?
Another AFO poster claimed he was using x-no-archive not because he was trying to scam publishers but because he didn't want his family reading something he'd written. My advice there? Don't publish anything to Usenet you wouldn't want your mom or Aunt Emma to read. Just don't. If you plan to do so and plan to use the x-no-archive so Mom and Aunt Emma can't find your post in Googja, you must realize you have no guarantee that someone won't follow up on your post and leave off the x-no-archive flag.
You also have no right to tell someone else that they must not archive their own posts because they reference one of yours.
When Steve Madere and his wacky crazy crew began archiving Usenet in 1995, they started from scratch and they started small. At the beginning, they didn't archive alt, talk or soc. They started from Day One. Only later, after the Deja archive was well underway, did they begin archiving alt, talk and soc and also begin reaching back, creating an archive of older posts from backup tapes held by institutions, companies and individuals.
When Google bought Deja, they found even older resources and pushed the archives even further back.
No one in 1985 dreamt that in 2004, someone could retrieve comments they made in Usenet in 1985, but as Madere said way back in 1995, "When you post to Usenet, it automatically gets propagated to tens of thousands of computers. So anybody who posted something to Usenet and then later on has any kind of privacy concerns about it must have seriously misunderstood what they were doing."
Instead of using x-no-archive=yes and yammering on (and on and on) that anyone referencing your post should do the same, Just. Don't. Post. To. Usenet.
Hazardous waste. Dump.
Chuck came over yesterday afternoon, right on schedule, and we discussed ... prices -- what prices homes had gone for, what homes currently on the market were priced, what prices people had asked and what prices they'd accepted.
The price he thinks we'd get for this tree lush flat acre, in one of the best school districts in California, nestled in the verdant foothills of the majestic (or so the real estate agents say) Santa Cruz Mountains, is more than I would've thought possible back before the boom/bust of the early part of this decade. The price Chuck thinks we'd get is far less than what his nibs is hoping for, based on a couple recent sales in the immediate neighborhood. We'll see who's guesstimate is right.
You live in a place for twenty-going-on-seven years and you develop an affection for it. I'm sad to think that whoever buys this place will probably scrape it, fill in the pool, put up an ersatz Il Lago Como villa with, perhaps, a basement home theatre and a new pool a bit further to the back of the property.
It'll be lovely I'm sure.
For his nibs, the tugs are, of course, even more painful. His dad built this place in the late forties and, except for a gap when he went off to university and then to grad school and then taught at university for four or five years or so, this place has been his home. That makes what? Fifty-five years minus a multi-year gap over a quarter century ago.
The three bedrooms and two baths upstairs were built with his own hands and a bit of help from a carpenter friend and the carpenter's painter brother. Sure he's attached to this place. I helped him lay a parquet floor on the second story back in our courting days. The house is part of me too.
Chuck asks again, "Are you sure?" He doesn't want to deal with seller's remorse when the offers come in.
We have the escrow in Dogpatch closing near the end of the month if all goes well. We have a week at Sierra Camp too. This year the older younger guy and his spouse will be joining us. June is pretty well shot, time-wise, for any intense house fixingup.
Plan is, as of yesterday, to start prepping Dale for sale starting the first week in July. We'll need to clear out the dreck and have everything ready to show. Plan is to have all inspections and reports complete and all paint touchups, yardwork and carpentry repairs finished by August 1, at which point we'll throw the house on the market and see who's interested.
Today, I hauled all the half-empty, half-full, almost-empty, almost-full cans of paint and varnish out of the shed out by the horse corral, out of the pool's pump house, out of the tool shed, out of the garage. I called and made an appointment tomorrow at 10:45A with the Hazardous Materials folks. Our younger son, my steady helper, will show up and turn in as much old paint as possible. Being as paint is considered a hazardous waste, we can't move more than fifty pounds at a whack in a single vehicle -- about eight fairly full cans.
We're going to need more than one drop-off appointment, obviously. Tomorrow, I'll tag along in a separate car, carrying another fifty pounds of old paint. Then we'll see how many more appointments we'll need before we'll have disposed (properly! legally!) of the cans of old paint that seem to accumulate as years go by.
The fix-up process to prepare Dale for sale really began when we started sorting through the piles of stuff from Casey's place and the stuff we brought out of Customs before it sold.
With the sorting and dumping of old paint scheduled for tomorrow, though, I really feel like the process is no longer a game and a bit of dreaming but is well and truly under way.
Oh, my.
The price he thinks we'd get for this tree lush flat acre, in one of the best school districts in California, nestled in the verdant foothills of the majestic (or so the real estate agents say) Santa Cruz Mountains, is more than I would've thought possible back before the boom/bust of the early part of this decade. The price Chuck thinks we'd get is far less than what his nibs is hoping for, based on a couple recent sales in the immediate neighborhood. We'll see who's guesstimate is right.
You live in a place for twenty-going-on-seven years and you develop an affection for it. I'm sad to think that whoever buys this place will probably scrape it, fill in the pool, put up an ersatz Il Lago Como villa with, perhaps, a basement home theatre and a new pool a bit further to the back of the property.
It'll be lovely I'm sure.
For his nibs, the tugs are, of course, even more painful. His dad built this place in the late forties and, except for a gap when he went off to university and then to grad school and then taught at university for four or five years or so, this place has been his home. That makes what? Fifty-five years minus a multi-year gap over a quarter century ago.
The three bedrooms and two baths upstairs were built with his own hands and a bit of help from a carpenter friend and the carpenter's painter brother. Sure he's attached to this place. I helped him lay a parquet floor on the second story back in our courting days. The house is part of me too.
Chuck asks again, "Are you sure?" He doesn't want to deal with seller's remorse when the offers come in.
We have the escrow in Dogpatch closing near the end of the month if all goes well. We have a week at Sierra Camp too. This year the older younger guy and his spouse will be joining us. June is pretty well shot, time-wise, for any intense house fixingup.
Plan is, as of yesterday, to start prepping Dale for sale starting the first week in July. We'll need to clear out the dreck and have everything ready to show. Plan is to have all inspections and reports complete and all paint touchups, yardwork and carpentry repairs finished by August 1, at which point we'll throw the house on the market and see who's interested.
Today, I hauled all the half-empty, half-full, almost-empty, almost-full cans of paint and varnish out of the shed out by the horse corral, out of the pool's pump house, out of the tool shed, out of the garage. I called and made an appointment tomorrow at 10:45A with the Hazardous Materials folks. Our younger son, my steady helper, will show up and turn in as much old paint as possible. Being as paint is considered a hazardous waste, we can't move more than fifty pounds at a whack in a single vehicle -- about eight fairly full cans.
We're going to need more than one drop-off appointment, obviously. Tomorrow, I'll tag along in a separate car, carrying another fifty pounds of old paint. Then we'll see how many more appointments we'll need before we'll have disposed (properly! legally!) of the cans of old paint that seem to accumulate as years go by.
The fix-up process to prepare Dale for sale really began when we started sorting through the piles of stuff from Casey's place and the stuff we brought out of Customs before it sold.
With the sorting and dumping of old paint scheduled for tomorrow, though, I really feel like the process is no longer a game and a bit of dreaming but is well and truly under way.
Oh, my.
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
[FOOD] Lüx, Luke and Kitty Sung's new place on Chestnut
We got the word yesterday in e-mail.
Today we are excited to announce Luke and Kitty Sung's new restaurant, Lüx, which will open on June 8th.
Lüx will be serving Asian small plates from a French chef's point of view.
Lüx is located at 2263 Chestnut Street, between Pierce and Scott, in San Francisco. We will be open Monday through Saturday for dinner from 5:30 until 11:00 beginning on June 8th.
Lüx will be open Monday through Sunday for lunch from 11:30-3:00 beginning on June fifteenth. To make reservations call us at 415.567.2998
We look forward to seeing you at Lüx!
Luke and Kitty Sung
Our younger son is spending part of each week in San Francisco as an unpaid intern at a non-profit at the Presidio. "Wanna come?" we asked. He did, so his nibs made a reservation for 8:30P and we walked over. (Fifty minutes to walk over. Fifty minutes to walk back. At least it makes some dent in the calories consumed.)
The place was rocking, packed full of people. Some had been drawn by an e-mail from Luke and Kitty. Some had stumbled over the place, not realizing they were attending a first night.
Luke came over and introduced himself to our son when we came in. Luke hadn't been at Isa last summer when the three of us ate there. "Hi, I'm Luke," he said, offering his hand. "Hi," the younger younger guy replied, giving his name in return. "I've heard a lot about you."
Dinner was filled with good things. Our son was suitably enamored. No foie, alas. Luke had told us that the closest thing to foie on the menu was a chicken liver dish I might like. The point of Lüx is to have a less formal restaurant experience, with light Asian/French fare. Less cream and rich foods, more seafood, more citrus.
When Luke came by to talk, we were reminiscing about the day we'd discovered Isa in spring 2001, nine months or so after he'd opened. We'd been drawn in by the menu he had posted on his window, drawn in by the fact he had both foie and sweetbreads on his menu.
Ah, he said, his eyes lighting up. Those are two of my best dishes, but I can't have foie on this menu. This menu has lighter fare than Isa and foie wouldn't fit. ...Sweetbreads, though. ... Maybe a sweetbread salad with mixed greens, arugula, a light fruity vinaigrette ... ah, he said. You could see his mind whirling about the possibilities of a sweetbread salad, light enough to suit the menu.
Luke and Kitty closed Isa for the next two weeks while they concentrate on Lüx. They've brought staff from Isa to supplement their new staff. Our waiter was the same waiter we'd had a couple weeks ago at Isa.
We ordered eight plates, but I wasn't keeping track so I can't give the ins and outs of flavors and decorative pieces of green. Here are my memories, brief as they are:
ceviche - yummy. The broth was spicy and when spooned up after the fish was gone, tasted very gazpacho-ish. The youngest of us doesn't much care for seafood, so he tried this dish and left it to his elders to split the rest.
chicken livers on a mixed green bed - delicious. Grilled -- with bacon fat? Tasted like it. Even better than the chicken livers I had on Monday night at The House.
wonton filled with warm goat cheese served with a relish made with dried apricots - yummy. We squabbled over how to split the plate equitably.
crab soup with corn - my least favorite of the dishes, but being as the rest were so extraordinary, this isn't to say the dish wasn't good. The soup was thickened with egg swirled into the broth. Our non-seafood eater had several spoonfuls and left the rest for us. Unlike Isa, Lüx doesn't arrange to split bowls of soup, so if you don't want to spoon out of the same bowl, you need to order separate bowls. We were just in a tasting mode, though, so we shared the same bowl.
zucchini croquettes - melt in your mouth. "This is the way you'd like to always eat vegetables, isn't it, Mom?" Oh, indeedy it is, I thought. The croquettes were served simply, on a black napkin set on a plate. There were five. How do you divide five by three? Very carefully.
Peking duck wraps - delicious. The Peking duck came with a touch of hoisin. The "wraps" weren't really. The hoison-flavored shredded duck meat was served in lettuce cups with pinenuts and shredded cabbage. A hit with all three of us.
hanger steak - deliciously spiced. Served in three pieces so it was easy to share. Cooked medium rare. I gave my son an extra portion of mine, being as he'd given up his fair share of the ceviche and the crab soup. The steak could've been more tender or the steak knives sharper, but the flavor was superb.
flash deep-fried green beans - called green beans tempura, iirc. Can't say what the flavoring was, but these beans were delicious. Thin, very thin green beans. The beans were tossed in the hot oil just long enough to crisp the outside and warm the beans through. Despite that description, the beans weren't greasy. The spices were perfect.
We each had a creme caramel for dessert. Our son had ordered a chocolate mousse, but they'd run out so Luke comp'd him a creme caramel in exchange. When we got our bill we found out that Kitty had put all our desserts on the house. Eight dishes, comp'd desserts, coffee for two of us and a bottle of wine set us back $$$, which was approximately what we'd paid for the exceptional dinner we had on Monday night at the House.
Our younger son much preferred Lüx and I'd make the same choice, if I had to choose. The nice thing is we can eat at Isa or Lüx, if we don't mind walking fifty minutes each way or taking the bus or calling a cab, but we also have the House serving up delicious food in North Beach within a ten-minute walk of home.
Luke seemed pleased with the opening night. There were things, he said, he was already thinking of changing. I hope he adds the sweetbread salad. I also hope he opts for a new menu design. The menus last night had black lettering on a roast coffee brown background. Pretty, but the contrast was insufficient, making the menu hard for older folks like me to read in the subdued lighting.
Yummy dinner. We'll definitely be back on a regular basis to see whether a sweetbread salad appears on the menu, but there are so many other places we haven't been.
A restaurant must be above average, usually far above average, for us to return. Lüx definitely meets that criteria. Isa. Aqua. The House. Piperade. Zarzuela. Others...
We're going with friends back to Rubicon next week. Going with other friends back to Isa in July. We're taking our older son and his husband out to dinner somewhere this weekend. We'll see how adventurous they're feeling, and how far they're willing to walk.
Today we are excited to announce Luke and Kitty Sung's new restaurant, Lüx, which will open on June 8th.
Lüx will be serving Asian small plates from a French chef's point of view.
Lüx is located at 2263 Chestnut Street, between Pierce and Scott, in San Francisco. We will be open Monday through Saturday for dinner from 5:30 until 11:00 beginning on June 8th.
Lüx will be open Monday through Sunday for lunch from 11:30-3:00 beginning on June fifteenth. To make reservations call us at 415.567.2998
We look forward to seeing you at Lüx!
Luke and Kitty Sung
Our younger son is spending part of each week in San Francisco as an unpaid intern at a non-profit at the Presidio. "Wanna come?" we asked. He did, so his nibs made a reservation for 8:30P and we walked over. (Fifty minutes to walk over. Fifty minutes to walk back. At least it makes some dent in the calories consumed.)
The place was rocking, packed full of people. Some had been drawn by an e-mail from Luke and Kitty. Some had stumbled over the place, not realizing they were attending a first night.
Luke came over and introduced himself to our son when we came in. Luke hadn't been at Isa last summer when the three of us ate there. "Hi, I'm Luke," he said, offering his hand. "Hi," the younger younger guy replied, giving his name in return. "I've heard a lot about you."
Dinner was filled with good things. Our son was suitably enamored. No foie, alas. Luke had told us that the closest thing to foie on the menu was a chicken liver dish I might like. The point of Lüx is to have a less formal restaurant experience, with light Asian/French fare. Less cream and rich foods, more seafood, more citrus.
When Luke came by to talk, we were reminiscing about the day we'd discovered Isa in spring 2001, nine months or so after he'd opened. We'd been drawn in by the menu he had posted on his window, drawn in by the fact he had both foie and sweetbreads on his menu.
Ah, he said, his eyes lighting up. Those are two of my best dishes, but I can't have foie on this menu. This menu has lighter fare than Isa and foie wouldn't fit. ...Sweetbreads, though. ... Maybe a sweetbread salad with mixed greens, arugula, a light fruity vinaigrette ... ah, he said. You could see his mind whirling about the possibilities of a sweetbread salad, light enough to suit the menu.
Luke and Kitty closed Isa for the next two weeks while they concentrate on Lüx. They've brought staff from Isa to supplement their new staff. Our waiter was the same waiter we'd had a couple weeks ago at Isa.
We ordered eight plates, but I wasn't keeping track so I can't give the ins and outs of flavors and decorative pieces of green. Here are my memories, brief as they are:
ceviche - yummy. The broth was spicy and when spooned up after the fish was gone, tasted very gazpacho-ish. The youngest of us doesn't much care for seafood, so he tried this dish and left it to his elders to split the rest.
chicken livers on a mixed green bed - delicious. Grilled -- with bacon fat? Tasted like it. Even better than the chicken livers I had on Monday night at The House.
wonton filled with warm goat cheese served with a relish made with dried apricots - yummy. We squabbled over how to split the plate equitably.
crab soup with corn - my least favorite of the dishes, but being as the rest were so extraordinary, this isn't to say the dish wasn't good. The soup was thickened with egg swirled into the broth. Our non-seafood eater had several spoonfuls and left the rest for us. Unlike Isa, Lüx doesn't arrange to split bowls of soup, so if you don't want to spoon out of the same bowl, you need to order separate bowls. We were just in a tasting mode, though, so we shared the same bowl.
zucchini croquettes - melt in your mouth. "This is the way you'd like to always eat vegetables, isn't it, Mom?" Oh, indeedy it is, I thought. The croquettes were served simply, on a black napkin set on a plate. There were five. How do you divide five by three? Very carefully.
Peking duck wraps - delicious. The Peking duck came with a touch of hoisin. The "wraps" weren't really. The hoison-flavored shredded duck meat was served in lettuce cups with pinenuts and shredded cabbage. A hit with all three of us.
hanger steak - deliciously spiced. Served in three pieces so it was easy to share. Cooked medium rare. I gave my son an extra portion of mine, being as he'd given up his fair share of the ceviche and the crab soup. The steak could've been more tender or the steak knives sharper, but the flavor was superb.
flash deep-fried green beans - called green beans tempura, iirc. Can't say what the flavoring was, but these beans were delicious. Thin, very thin green beans. The beans were tossed in the hot oil just long enough to crisp the outside and warm the beans through. Despite that description, the beans weren't greasy. The spices were perfect.
We each had a creme caramel for dessert. Our son had ordered a chocolate mousse, but they'd run out so Luke comp'd him a creme caramel in exchange. When we got our bill we found out that Kitty had put all our desserts on the house. Eight dishes, comp'd desserts, coffee for two of us and a bottle of wine set us back $$$, which was approximately what we'd paid for the exceptional dinner we had on Monday night at the House.
Our younger son much preferred Lüx and I'd make the same choice, if I had to choose. The nice thing is we can eat at Isa or Lüx, if we don't mind walking fifty minutes each way or taking the bus or calling a cab, but we also have the House serving up delicious food in North Beach within a ten-minute walk of home.
Luke seemed pleased with the opening night. There were things, he said, he was already thinking of changing. I hope he adds the sweetbread salad. I also hope he opts for a new menu design. The menus last night had black lettering on a roast coffee brown background. Pretty, but the contrast was insufficient, making the menu hard for older folks like me to read in the subdued lighting.
Yummy dinner. We'll definitely be back on a regular basis to see whether a sweetbread salad appears on the menu, but there are so many other places we haven't been.
A restaurant must be above average, usually far above average, for us to return. Lüx definitely meets that criteria. Isa. Aqua. The House. Piperade. Zarzuela. Others...
We're going with friends back to Rubicon next week. Going with other friends back to Isa in July. We're taking our older son and his husband out to dinner somewhere this weekend. We'll see how adventurous they're feeling, and how far they're willing to walk.
Sunday, June 06, 2004
"Never mind all this. How'd the party go???"
Twenty-five years, redux.
Twenty-five years we've given this party now. Twenty-five years spring and fall. We were giving the party before the younger guys were born -- the first party was some three months after we got married. We were giving the party when I was eight months plus pregnant with the older younger guy. We were giving the party when the younger younger guy was three months old and his older brother was almost three. Back when, we started cleaning for it weeks beforehand because of the inevitable trash and destruction that two toddler types could wreak.
This year was different. The house was a-shamble and I was stressed beyond ken. I worried that I'd never get the place in shape for the party. I had nightmares of monsters stalking, waiting to pounce.
The last week was a push to clear out the family room of all the miscellaneous stuff and bookcases filled with more stuff. There were multiple trips to the Goodwill with boxes and bags until the younger younger guy, who was my mainstay and steady helper, was embarrassed to make yet another trip and asked one of his parents to go along with him.
The last but one day, the younger younger guy was helpful beyond belief because he worried about my sanity.
... but in the end the place was clean. His nibs got home from work at 3P to help with the final prep. I even had time to wash and wax the floor. The counters were cleared and washed. The refrigerator in the garage was stashed full of sodas and beer and white wine that had been chilling since Tuesday. The plates and cups and glasses and 'ware were in place.
The coffee pot was set to go and the corkscrews were laid on the counter. We were putting the sofa covers back on after laundering when the door bell rang. Someone who'd flown in from Seattle for the party was on our doorstep: "Hope you don't mind me showing up a half hour early. I've come so far...." I left our early guest and his nibs downstairs while I showered and changed out of my dirty, dusty clothes.
The party went fine, Arleen, and thanks for asking. We saw loads of old friends, some of whom we don't see that often. Jim from Seattle shows up maybe once every five years. Others show up twice a year without fail. Some couldn't make it because they had children graduating high school, children who'd come to flings themselves. Most of the folks with younger children decided to leave them home this time. There were a mere handful of kids, but plenty of adults.
The party originated back in 1979 as an engineering group get-together. His nibs' engineering group had tried group get-togethers with spousal equivalents at a Chinese restaurant, but you didn't get much of a chance to talk to everyone, and so, the FUTS (Future Systems Engineering) Fling was born. Twice a year, spring and fall, the engineering group got together with spousal equivalents and children for a potluck feast. We provided the wine and beer, flavored sparkling water, sodas, coffee, tea, plates, 'ware, cups and glasses and everyone else brought something to eat.
At the beginning we made lists and had signups to make sure that there were n hors d'oeuvres and m main dishes and d desserts and s salads ... Because the company sponsored the event, the company reimbursed us for our libation and paperware costs and reimbursed the dish-bringers for the costs of whatever they'd brought. Eventually, I relaxed and stopped taking signups. People weren't there for the food and wine. They were there for the others. If everyone brought salad, it meant that everyone felt like eating salad and we'd have a strawberry-spinach salad and a potato salad and a fruit salad and a .... If everyone brought dessert, everyone felt like dessert.
No one ever went away hungry and there was always a wide variety of things to eat.
Eight years after the flings began, I went to work for the company too. The following year his nibs left the company, but the flings kept happening at our place because they'd always happened there. A few flings after that, the company founder/president refused to continue paying for the FUTS flings because he noticed that after each fling, one or more of his employees left to work for his nibs at his new company.
Cut free of the company purse strings, we continued to provide what we had always provided and folks continued to bring their dishes. Even without the company sponsorship, the flings thrived and we began inviting engineering nerd types who no longer worked with us at the company and hadn't been eligible to be invited as long as the company had been sponsoring the event. Eventually, some nerds who may have been only marginally connected also joined the ranks.
I stopped working for the company in 1992, but the flings continued ... and continued ... and continued. Eventually, the invited guest list totalled probably something like a hundred plus nerds and SOs and twenty plus children. Not all would come every time, but by having the party twice a year, we could be sure of seeing almost everyone at some point every year, year and a half. We watched children grow from babies to teenagers, drop the party, grow more, come back for a visit. We had two twenty-year-olds at the party Friday night, and a couple seven-year-olds and some in-between. No babies, but then the average age of nerd has been pushing up there and the youngest nerd is now ... over forty.
It's been a long time. A quarter of a century. Hard to believe.
We all like each other, like getting together, like catching up on the news, angling for work, offering work. The big subject of conversation Friday night was, "You're selling this place? BUT WHERE WILL WE HAVE THE FLING????? Is this The Last Fling? Say it isn't so."
Maybe it was The Last Fling or maybe Dale won't sell by the fall and will still be available as a party venue. Maybe we'll have the party at Hill and everyone can take Cal Train up and make plans to spend the night in San Francisco, as someone suggested. Maybe we'll have the party at Dogpatch where the parking is better.
Maybe someone else will take over the hosting duties.
Or maybe it was The Last Fling.
The party was good as it always is, and as I always know it will be even as I'm stressing out during the pre-party run-up. The FUTS folk are good folk, intelligent, interesting, nice. We always have a good time, no matter what sort of stress it is to set up for the party.
That's why we've hosted it for so long.
That's why people have been coming for so long.
That's why everyone was asking, "BUT WHERE WILL WE HAVE THE FLING?????"
Twenty-five years we've given this party now. Twenty-five years spring and fall. We were giving the party before the younger guys were born -- the first party was some three months after we got married. We were giving the party when I was eight months plus pregnant with the older younger guy. We were giving the party when the younger younger guy was three months old and his older brother was almost three. Back when, we started cleaning for it weeks beforehand because of the inevitable trash and destruction that two toddler types could wreak.
This year was different. The house was a-shamble and I was stressed beyond ken. I worried that I'd never get the place in shape for the party. I had nightmares of monsters stalking, waiting to pounce.
The last week was a push to clear out the family room of all the miscellaneous stuff and bookcases filled with more stuff. There were multiple trips to the Goodwill with boxes and bags until the younger younger guy, who was my mainstay and steady helper, was embarrassed to make yet another trip and asked one of his parents to go along with him.
The last but one day, the younger younger guy was helpful beyond belief because he worried about my sanity.
... but in the end the place was clean. His nibs got home from work at 3P to help with the final prep. I even had time to wash and wax the floor. The counters were cleared and washed. The refrigerator in the garage was stashed full of sodas and beer and white wine that had been chilling since Tuesday. The plates and cups and glasses and 'ware were in place.
The coffee pot was set to go and the corkscrews were laid on the counter. We were putting the sofa covers back on after laundering when the door bell rang. Someone who'd flown in from Seattle for the party was on our doorstep: "Hope you don't mind me showing up a half hour early. I've come so far...." I left our early guest and his nibs downstairs while I showered and changed out of my dirty, dusty clothes.
The party went fine, Arleen, and thanks for asking. We saw loads of old friends, some of whom we don't see that often. Jim from Seattle shows up maybe once every five years. Others show up twice a year without fail. Some couldn't make it because they had children graduating high school, children who'd come to flings themselves. Most of the folks with younger children decided to leave them home this time. There were a mere handful of kids, but plenty of adults.
The party originated back in 1979 as an engineering group get-together. His nibs' engineering group had tried group get-togethers with spousal equivalents at a Chinese restaurant, but you didn't get much of a chance to talk to everyone, and so, the FUTS (Future Systems Engineering) Fling was born. Twice a year, spring and fall, the engineering group got together with spousal equivalents and children for a potluck feast. We provided the wine and beer, flavored sparkling water, sodas, coffee, tea, plates, 'ware, cups and glasses and everyone else brought something to eat.
At the beginning we made lists and had signups to make sure that there were n hors d'oeuvres and m main dishes and d desserts and s salads ... Because the company sponsored the event, the company reimbursed us for our libation and paperware costs and reimbursed the dish-bringers for the costs of whatever they'd brought. Eventually, I relaxed and stopped taking signups. People weren't there for the food and wine. They were there for the others. If everyone brought salad, it meant that everyone felt like eating salad and we'd have a strawberry-spinach salad and a potato salad and a fruit salad and a .... If everyone brought dessert, everyone felt like dessert.
No one ever went away hungry and there was always a wide variety of things to eat.
Eight years after the flings began, I went to work for the company too. The following year his nibs left the company, but the flings kept happening at our place because they'd always happened there. A few flings after that, the company founder/president refused to continue paying for the FUTS flings because he noticed that after each fling, one or more of his employees left to work for his nibs at his new company.
Cut free of the company purse strings, we continued to provide what we had always provided and folks continued to bring their dishes. Even without the company sponsorship, the flings thrived and we began inviting engineering nerd types who no longer worked with us at the company and hadn't been eligible to be invited as long as the company had been sponsoring the event. Eventually, some nerds who may have been only marginally connected also joined the ranks.
I stopped working for the company in 1992, but the flings continued ... and continued ... and continued. Eventually, the invited guest list totalled probably something like a hundred plus nerds and SOs and twenty plus children. Not all would come every time, but by having the party twice a year, we could be sure of seeing almost everyone at some point every year, year and a half. We watched children grow from babies to teenagers, drop the party, grow more, come back for a visit. We had two twenty-year-olds at the party Friday night, and a couple seven-year-olds and some in-between. No babies, but then the average age of nerd has been pushing up there and the youngest nerd is now ... over forty.
It's been a long time. A quarter of a century. Hard to believe.
We all like each other, like getting together, like catching up on the news, angling for work, offering work. The big subject of conversation Friday night was, "You're selling this place? BUT WHERE WILL WE HAVE THE FLING????? Is this The Last Fling? Say it isn't so."
Maybe it was The Last Fling or maybe Dale won't sell by the fall and will still be available as a party venue. Maybe we'll have the party at Hill and everyone can take Cal Train up and make plans to spend the night in San Francisco, as someone suggested. Maybe we'll have the party at Dogpatch where the parking is better.
Maybe someone else will take over the hosting duties.
Or maybe it was The Last Fling.
The party was good as it always is, and as I always know it will be even as I'm stressing out during the pre-party run-up. The FUTS folk are good folk, intelligent, interesting, nice. We always have a good time, no matter what sort of stress it is to set up for the party.
That's why we've hosted it for so long.
That's why people have been coming for so long.
That's why everyone was asking, "BUT WHERE WILL WE HAVE THE FLING?????"
Hell-bound
The Dante's Inferno Test has banished me to the Seventh Level of Hell!
Here is how I matched up against all the levels:
Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test
Here is how I matched up against all the levels:
| Level | Score |
|---|---|
| Purgatory (Repenting Believers) | Very Low |
| Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers) | Low |
| Level 2 (Lustful) | High |
| Level 3 (Gluttonous) | Very High |
| Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious) | Moderate |
| Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy) | Low |
| Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics) | Very High |
| Level 7 (Violent) | Very High |
| Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers) | Very High |
| Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous) | Moderate |
Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test
Saturday, June 05, 2004
The 10 Best Internet Fads
The Wave Magazine -- a local Bay Area phenom -- has an article by Seanbaby this issue titled The 10 Best Internet Fads.
Bet you'd forgotten about Bonsai Kitten.
Seanbaby tells us that there are 25,580 Google matches for "bonsai kittens" and 277 matches for "bonsai kittens" on the same page as "hitler."
From the article:
While Japanese workers are slaving away for 22 hours a day, pausing only to rest in cybersleep tubes while they’re injected with fortified protein worker paste, the American workforce is angling its monitor away from its boss and passing around a video of a fat chick falling off a motorcycle. It is hard to quantify exactly how much better off our economy would be if our workforce didn’t have to spend precious time trying to download the Bananaphone song, but when asked to quantify the loss in American productivity, a spokesman for the Treasury Department told us, "I’ve searched for 'Paris video,' 'Hilton sisters nude,' and 'night vision nasty' and still can’t find it!"
Your tax dollars at work.
Bet you'd forgotten about Bonsai Kitten.
Seanbaby tells us that there are 25,580 Google matches for "bonsai kittens" and 277 matches for "bonsai kittens" on the same page as "hitler."
From the article:
While Japanese workers are slaving away for 22 hours a day, pausing only to rest in cybersleep tubes while they’re injected with fortified protein worker paste, the American workforce is angling its monitor away from its boss and passing around a video of a fat chick falling off a motorcycle. It is hard to quantify exactly how much better off our economy would be if our workforce didn’t have to spend precious time trying to download the Bananaphone song, but when asked to quantify the loss in American productivity, a spokesman for the Treasury Department told us, "I’ve searched for 'Paris video,' 'Hilton sisters nude,' and 'night vision nasty' and still can’t find it!"
Your tax dollars at work.
Friday, June 04, 2004
Déjà vu all over again.
We came across an old woven container filled with small objects in an box of filled with stuff of mine from long ago, as we were sorting through things for the move and clearing up for the party.
The youngest was taken by a button I held up for him to see.
What caught his attention?
Something from back when I was his age, a button that looked like this.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose.
The youngest was taken by a button I held up for him to see.
What caught his attention?
Something from back when I was his age, a button that looked like this.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la meme chose.
The Physics Behind Four Amazing Demonstrations
David G. Willey explains the physics behind four amazing demonstrations.
A family friend who teaches high school physics has been known to wow his students by lying between two beds of nails and having someone bust a concrete block on his chest. David Willey does that and more, and explains how the physics works.
Check him out: http://www.pitt.edu/~dwilley/bio.html
A family friend who teaches high school physics has been known to wow his students by lying between two beds of nails and having someone bust a concrete block on his chest. David Willey does that and more, and explains how the physics works.
Check him out: http://www.pitt.edu/~dwilley/bio.html
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Twenty-five years
Twenty-five years we've been giving this party now. Twenty-five years spring and fall. We were giving the party before the younger guys were born, we were giving it while I was eight months pregnant, while the guys were in nappies. Back when, we started cleaning for it weeks beforehand because of the inevitable trash and destruction that two toddler types could wreak.
As the younger guys got older, they helped with the process and we got to where we started clearing up only the weekend before, with a final polishing a couple hours beforehand.
This year is different. The house is a-shamble. We still have an overflow of stuff from Casey's place which sold two years ago which we never dealt with, just tucking it all away in any spare spot. We have added to that all the stuff from the condo that we cleared out and leased out earlier this year. Added to that all the stuff from the place down south, which sold two months ago, which we're slowly sorting through. We've been toting boxes and bags to the Goodwill once and twice a week.
... but now we have a dollop of added upheaval thrown in.
We've decided ... almost ... to sell Dale.
We're in escrow on a loft in Dogpatch that we found on one of our prowls a week ago Sunday. The loft is perfect for holding my books and all the stuff we can't bear to part with that won't fit in Hill. Escrow closes the last Monday of this month.
We've decided ... almost ... to cut our ties to this bucolic village nestled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz mountains, this place that I've lived in for over a quarter of a century and which his nibs has lived in off and on for the last fifty-five years.
We've decided ... almost ... to stop the city-peninsula existence we've been living.
We're talking to an agent we know, he's given us comps, we need to get back with him.
We found out on Friday that our Dogpatch offer'd been accepted. We'll need to clear out (um. de-clutter) Dale before we can show and sell it. (Have we really decided to sell it? Sounds like it. Yikes!)
We spent the three-day weekend clearing through stuff, sorting through a huge pile of kitchen utensils, recycling bags full of back issues of magazines that I've been saving for decades, tossing out plastic plant pots, boxing up books.
The house is more a-shamble than it's ever been and the party is Friday 7:30P and I am on the hook to finish the clearing up in time for the spring fling and we just got a call from Bay Alarm that the alarm's gone off at Hill and I need to go check up on what's happening.
Aaaaarrrgh ...
If you don't hear from me for a while, it's because ...
As the younger guys got older, they helped with the process and we got to where we started clearing up only the weekend before, with a final polishing a couple hours beforehand.
This year is different. The house is a-shamble. We still have an overflow of stuff from Casey's place which sold two years ago which we never dealt with, just tucking it all away in any spare spot. We have added to that all the stuff from the condo that we cleared out and leased out earlier this year. Added to that all the stuff from the place down south, which sold two months ago, which we're slowly sorting through. We've been toting boxes and bags to the Goodwill once and twice a week.
... but now we have a dollop of added upheaval thrown in.
We've decided ... almost ... to sell Dale.
We're in escrow on a loft in Dogpatch that we found on one of our prowls a week ago Sunday. The loft is perfect for holding my books and all the stuff we can't bear to part with that won't fit in Hill. Escrow closes the last Monday of this month.
We've decided ... almost ... to cut our ties to this bucolic village nestled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz mountains, this place that I've lived in for over a quarter of a century and which his nibs has lived in off and on for the last fifty-five years.
We've decided ... almost ... to stop the city-peninsula existence we've been living.
We're talking to an agent we know, he's given us comps, we need to get back with him.
We found out on Friday that our Dogpatch offer'd been accepted. We'll need to clear out (um. de-clutter) Dale before we can show and sell it. (Have we really decided to sell it? Sounds like it. Yikes!)
We spent the three-day weekend clearing through stuff, sorting through a huge pile of kitchen utensils, recycling bags full of back issues of magazines that I've been saving for decades, tossing out plastic plant pots, boxing up books.
The house is more a-shamble than it's ever been and the party is Friday 7:30P and I am on the hook to finish the clearing up in time for the spring fling and we just got a call from Bay Alarm that the alarm's gone off at Hill and I need to go check up on what's happening.
Aaaaarrrgh ...
If you don't hear from me for a while, it's because ...
QueerJoe's Knitting Blog
One of the wonders of the blogunity is finding someone with a passion that you might not be attuned to but which, once you read about it, you think hey ... this guy really nails his subject.
Such a blog is QueerJoe's Knitting Blog which I found via the just-up excerpt from Rebecca Blood's The Weblog Handbook at Blogger Central.
Check out rebecca's pocket while you're at it.
Such a blog is QueerJoe's Knitting Blog which I found via the just-up excerpt from Rebecca Blood's The Weblog Handbook at Blogger Central.
Check out rebecca's pocket while you're at it.
Saturday, May 29, 2004
Conservative leader blames gays for Iraqi prison abuse
John Kulczycki shared a link to an article by Adrian Brune in the Houston Voice Online: Conservative leader blames gays for Iraqi prison abuse -- Knight decries 'decadence' of gay weddings.
... and so it goes ...
... and so it goes ...
Friday, May 28, 2004
[FOOD] Aqua is a dangerous pleasure
Ate at Aqua for the first time on Wednesday. Turns out it's only a twenty minute walk down the Steps and over to California.
Aqua
252 California St. (between Battery & Front)
San Francisco, CA 94111
415.956.9662
His nibs likes seafood. We were in a celebratory mood. The reservation was for 8:30P and we didn't know how long the walk would take, so we gave ourselves forty-five minutes. We arrived almost a half-hour early, checked-in and hung out in the bar. I looked at the per glass wine prices (whoo boy, were they $$$) and opted for a martini. His nibs had something white. Right on time or maybe a few minutes early we were seated.
Ah, Aqua. Known for its foie and the animal rights activists who spray-painted Executive Chef Laurent Manrique's home, threw acid on his car, wrote threatening letters and trashed his not-yet-opened restaurant and store -- Sonoma Saveurs in Sonoma.
Manrique said he wouldn't cave in to the pressure and by-golly there was foie galore on the Aqua menu up to and including a Whole Foie Gras with Caramelized Granny Smith Apples, Roasted Shallots & Capers.
"You really mean a whole foie?" I asked our server.
"Yes. It's something the restaurant is known for. Usually, it's shared. I think I've probably seen maybe three people who actually ate the whole foie themselves."
I can't imagine. I really can't imagine. I have a hard time sharing half a foie with his nibs. A whole foie? I wouldn't be able to walk home afterwards.
The foie was listed on the menu as "market price" which turned out to be something like $140 for the dish, which is about twice what you'd be paying for foie at the market. Not a terrible markup for what you're getting, but ... what would your total bill be with something like that included?
I couldn't decide what to have so we opted for the seasonal tasting menu with accompanying wine.
The meal started with two amuse bouches, one of which was a small cup of delicious, rich, thick mushroom soup.
The first course was hamachi, sliced thinly with perfectly ripe avocado, also sliced thinly, and sections of ruby red grapefruit vinaigrette. Delicious. Served with MV Laurent-Perrier, Brut Champagne.
Next up was what Aqua called moules frites. In the Aqua incarnation, Yukon Gold potatoes were served alongside an amazing mussel souffle. The small souffle was pierced at table and a portion of curry cream poured inside. The remainder of the pitcher was left to add as desired. Wine: 2002 Domaine Ott Rose, Cotes du Provence.
The next course had my first (and only, alas) taste of foie. The dish was two pieces of Maine scallop topped with sauteed foie gras and served with a marinated mushroom salad and crispy fried garlic. Sounds like too many flavors all jumbled, doesn't it? I had trepidations because of things I've seen other chefs do to foie, but this combination worked perfectly. I still prefer Luke Sung's seared foie with white peaches and custard brioche, but ... the scallop/foie combination served at Aqua gets my stamp of approval. Wine: 2002 Mas de Daumas Gassac (Viognier/Chard/Petit Manseng) -- Vin de Pays.
I also had trepidations about the next course: Maine skate wing, warm butter lettuce, pancetta, herb vinaigrette. I've had skate wing twice in the last month or two. Skate wing must be the new culinary cutting edge substitute on the fish end of the menu for the impossible to get abalone. I've only had skate wing twice in my life and the skate wing at both 500 Jackson and Gary Danko had been ... chewy and stringy. Easy to tell that the skate wing was a much-used muscle.
Aqua had done something to the skate wing to separate the meat from the musculature. The dish was delightful. The wine was exceptional: 2000 Bannister Pinot Noir, Demuth Vineyard, Alexander Valley (Mendocino).
After I asked our server to tell me again which wine it was, he promised to bring me a list after dinner of each wine served with each course, which he did. (You didn't think I was really keeping track of wines, did you?)
Have I mentioned that the service was excellent? The staff were there but not there, everything moved in time, no one rushed, no one stalled. The only hiccup came with the scallops/foie when the dishes were laid down and described and I had to mention that we'd need forks to properly enjoy them.
After the skate wing, we had wild king salmon with morel mushroom, green garlic, delicious potato gnocchi and chive cream. Wine: 2000 Chezeaux Vosne-Romanee, Burgundy. By this time, I was reaching my limits, knowing I had to walk back up the Filbert Steps, so I tossed a couple bites of salmon onto his nibs' plate. We still had dessert to come.
Dessert was warm chocolate cake, mandarin ganache, and Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream served with a glass of Cockburn's 20 year old tawny port. His nibs doesn't do chocolate, so he was offered anything he wanted off the dessert menu. The warm chocolate cake was oozing with chocolate inside -- not quite a marble fudge pudding or chocolate puddle cake, but pretty darn near. Delicious. Delightful.
My double espresso came, served with a small plate of after dessert desserts.
We weren't the last people in the restaurant when we left, but we were close thereto. Dinner had been leisurely and I was feeling at one with the world as we wandered home. Dinner was not cheap, but it was one of the best meals I've had. The price was comparable to the price of dinner at Gary Danko, but what Aqua offered was so much more than Gary Danko. I liked the food better. The service was exceptional. The atmosphere was more relaxed and less stuffy than Gary Danko. Did I mention the food, the glorious food?
I'll save my pennies so we can return to Aqua and sample more of the dishes, see how the other foie dishes compare.
Aqua
252 California St. (between Battery & Front)
San Francisco, CA 94111
415.956.9662
His nibs likes seafood. We were in a celebratory mood. The reservation was for 8:30P and we didn't know how long the walk would take, so we gave ourselves forty-five minutes. We arrived almost a half-hour early, checked-in and hung out in the bar. I looked at the per glass wine prices (whoo boy, were they $$$) and opted for a martini. His nibs had something white. Right on time or maybe a few minutes early we were seated.
Ah, Aqua. Known for its foie and the animal rights activists who spray-painted Executive Chef Laurent Manrique's home, threw acid on his car, wrote threatening letters and trashed his not-yet-opened restaurant and store -- Sonoma Saveurs in Sonoma.
Manrique said he wouldn't cave in to the pressure and by-golly there was foie galore on the Aqua menu up to and including a Whole Foie Gras with Caramelized Granny Smith Apples, Roasted Shallots & Capers.
"You really mean a whole foie?" I asked our server.
"Yes. It's something the restaurant is known for. Usually, it's shared. I think I've probably seen maybe three people who actually ate the whole foie themselves."
I can't imagine. I really can't imagine. I have a hard time sharing half a foie with his nibs. A whole foie? I wouldn't be able to walk home afterwards.
The foie was listed on the menu as "market price" which turned out to be something like $140 for the dish, which is about twice what you'd be paying for foie at the market. Not a terrible markup for what you're getting, but ... what would your total bill be with something like that included?
I couldn't decide what to have so we opted for the seasonal tasting menu with accompanying wine.
The meal started with two amuse bouches, one of which was a small cup of delicious, rich, thick mushroom soup.
The first course was hamachi, sliced thinly with perfectly ripe avocado, also sliced thinly, and sections of ruby red grapefruit vinaigrette. Delicious. Served with MV Laurent-Perrier, Brut Champagne.
Next up was what Aqua called moules frites. In the Aqua incarnation, Yukon Gold potatoes were served alongside an amazing mussel souffle. The small souffle was pierced at table and a portion of curry cream poured inside. The remainder of the pitcher was left to add as desired. Wine: 2002 Domaine Ott Rose, Cotes du Provence.
The next course had my first (and only, alas) taste of foie. The dish was two pieces of Maine scallop topped with sauteed foie gras and served with a marinated mushroom salad and crispy fried garlic. Sounds like too many flavors all jumbled, doesn't it? I had trepidations because of things I've seen other chefs do to foie, but this combination worked perfectly. I still prefer Luke Sung's seared foie with white peaches and custard brioche, but ... the scallop/foie combination served at Aqua gets my stamp of approval. Wine: 2002 Mas de Daumas Gassac (Viognier/Chard/Petit Manseng) -- Vin de Pays.
I also had trepidations about the next course: Maine skate wing, warm butter lettuce, pancetta, herb vinaigrette. I've had skate wing twice in the last month or two. Skate wing must be the new culinary cutting edge substitute on the fish end of the menu for the impossible to get abalone. I've only had skate wing twice in my life and the skate wing at both 500 Jackson and Gary Danko had been ... chewy and stringy. Easy to tell that the skate wing was a much-used muscle.
Aqua had done something to the skate wing to separate the meat from the musculature. The dish was delightful. The wine was exceptional: 2000 Bannister Pinot Noir, Demuth Vineyard, Alexander Valley (Mendocino).
After I asked our server to tell me again which wine it was, he promised to bring me a list after dinner of each wine served with each course, which he did. (You didn't think I was really keeping track of wines, did you?)
Have I mentioned that the service was excellent? The staff were there but not there, everything moved in time, no one rushed, no one stalled. The only hiccup came with the scallops/foie when the dishes were laid down and described and I had to mention that we'd need forks to properly enjoy them.
After the skate wing, we had wild king salmon with morel mushroom, green garlic, delicious potato gnocchi and chive cream. Wine: 2000 Chezeaux Vosne-Romanee, Burgundy. By this time, I was reaching my limits, knowing I had to walk back up the Filbert Steps, so I tossed a couple bites of salmon onto his nibs' plate. We still had dessert to come.
Dessert was warm chocolate cake, mandarin ganache, and Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream served with a glass of Cockburn's 20 year old tawny port. His nibs doesn't do chocolate, so he was offered anything he wanted off the dessert menu. The warm chocolate cake was oozing with chocolate inside -- not quite a marble fudge pudding or chocolate puddle cake, but pretty darn near. Delicious. Delightful.
My double espresso came, served with a small plate of after dessert desserts.
We weren't the last people in the restaurant when we left, but we were close thereto. Dinner had been leisurely and I was feeling at one with the world as we wandered home. Dinner was not cheap, but it was one of the best meals I've had. The price was comparable to the price of dinner at Gary Danko, but what Aqua offered was so much more than Gary Danko. I liked the food better. The service was exceptional. The atmosphere was more relaxed and less stuffy than Gary Danko. Did I mention the food, the glorious food?
I'll save my pennies so we can return to Aqua and sample more of the dishes, see how the other foie dishes compare.
Gmail update and my brilliant (brilliant! I say) solution
Liz Figueroa's revised SB 1822 passed the State Senate yesterday. The revised version scaled down, a bit, the privacy restrictions in the original version.
The original version disallowed Google (or any other mail provider) from scanning incoming/outgoing mail to place targeted ads without positive opt-in from the user. The revised version allows the automatic scanning of incoming/outgoing mail but prohibits mail providers from stashing all the info re a given user in a database, selling the information, sharing it, keeping old e-mails after a user has asked for them to be deleted, &c.
I'm still not thrilled with the legislation, which is now working its way through the Assembly, but it's not as off-the-wall as the original attempt had been.
That said, I have a brilliant, brilliant! I say, solution for Google and Gmail. You listening, Sergey Brin and Larry Page? Here goes.
Just as Templeton has his challenge/response system for his incoming e-mail, Google could maintain a database with e-addresses that have sent mail to someone with a gmail.com address.
Why a database? Well, the first time you send e-mail to anyone with a gmail.com address, Google will bounce the mail back with an (á la Liz Figueroa) request for you to read and approve their explanation of what gmail is and the accompanying terms of use and privacy statement. If you don't say, "Yup!" your mail won't be sent on. Once you say, "Yup!" all mail sent from that e-mail address to gmail accounts will forever after get through.
First time you send mail to a gmail.com account, you have this little hiccup/delay and forever after, your mail gets checked against the database of approved senders and Bob's your uncle.
What's the upside? Are you still listening, Sergey, Larry? Two major upsides at least.
(1) Google, which already makes people signing up to use Gmail agree to the terms of use, will have proof positive that all incoming mail is sent by users who have also accepted the terms of use, in case Figueroa or some other yahoo comes along with a similar bill.
(2) Google will eliminate in one swell foop a HUGE chunk of incoming spam, because spamsters as a whole don't deal well with challenge/response systems.
Go for it, Google guys.
The original version disallowed Google (or any other mail provider) from scanning incoming/outgoing mail to place targeted ads without positive opt-in from the user. The revised version allows the automatic scanning of incoming/outgoing mail but prohibits mail providers from stashing all the info re a given user in a database, selling the information, sharing it, keeping old e-mails after a user has asked for them to be deleted, &c.
I'm still not thrilled with the legislation, which is now working its way through the Assembly, but it's not as off-the-wall as the original attempt had been.
That said, I have a brilliant, brilliant! I say, solution for Google and Gmail. You listening, Sergey Brin and Larry Page? Here goes.
Just as Templeton has his challenge/response system for his incoming e-mail, Google could maintain a database with e-addresses that have sent mail to someone with a gmail.com address.
Why a database? Well, the first time you send e-mail to anyone with a gmail.com address, Google will bounce the mail back with an (á la Liz Figueroa) request for you to read and approve their explanation of what gmail is and the accompanying terms of use and privacy statement. If you don't say, "Yup!" your mail won't be sent on. Once you say, "Yup!" all mail sent from that e-mail address to gmail accounts will forever after get through.
First time you send mail to a gmail.com account, you have this little hiccup/delay and forever after, your mail gets checked against the database of approved senders and Bob's your uncle.
What's the upside? Are you still listening, Sergey, Larry? Two major upsides at least.
(1) Google, which already makes people signing up to use Gmail agree to the terms of use, will have proof positive that all incoming mail is sent by users who have also accepted the terms of use, in case Figueroa or some other yahoo comes along with a similar bill.
(2) Google will eliminate in one swell foop a HUGE chunk of incoming spam, because spamsters as a whole don't deal well with challenge/response systems.
Go for it, Google guys.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Retired General Zinni sez
In an article on CBS News/60 Minutes' Web site retired General Zinni sez
[...]
There has been poor strategic thinking in this. There has been poor operational planning and execution on the ground. And to think that we are going to 'stay the course,' the course is headed over Niagara Falls. I think it's time to change course a little bit, or at least hold somebody responsible for putting you on this course. Because it's been a failure.
[...]
60 Minutes asked Secretary Rumsfeld and his deputy Wolfowitz to respond to Zinni's remarks. The request for an interview was declined.
[...]
There has been poor strategic thinking in this. There has been poor operational planning and execution on the ground. And to think that we are going to 'stay the course,' the course is headed over Niagara Falls. I think it's time to change course a little bit, or at least hold somebody responsible for putting you on this course. Because it's been a failure.
[...]
60 Minutes asked Secretary Rumsfeld and his deputy Wolfowitz to respond to Zinni's remarks. The request for an interview was declined.
OUCH! Crash Testing: MINI Cooper vs Ford F150
Crash Testing: MINI Cooper vs Ford F150.
Compare these pictures of a MINI Cooper hitting the wall at 40MPH to these pictures of a Ford F-150 truck doing the same.
I knew there was a reason I have a MINI Cooper on order -- besides the fact they go zip zip zip and are the easiest things to find a parking space for in the lovely but parking-impaired City by the Bay.
Sometime mid-August, a spanking-new 2005 MINI Cooper will be mine. British racing green. White roof. Plain vanilla otherwise -- not the S, no spoiler, no moon-roof, no leather seats.
I ordered the MINI Cooper (after mulling it over for something like two years) because it zips but I'm sure glad to find out that if I hit a wall at 40mph, my kneecaps will survive.
update: This photo is the closest thing I could find with a quick Web search.
zoom! zoom!
Compare these pictures of a MINI Cooper hitting the wall at 40MPH to these pictures of a Ford F-150 truck doing the same.
I knew there was a reason I have a MINI Cooper on order -- besides the fact they go zip zip zip and are the easiest things to find a parking space for in the lovely but parking-impaired City by the Bay.
Sometime mid-August, a spanking-new 2005 MINI Cooper will be mine. British racing green. White roof. Plain vanilla otherwise -- not the S, no spoiler, no moon-roof, no leather seats.
I ordered the MINI Cooper (after mulling it over for something like two years) because it zips but I'm sure glad to find out that if I hit a wall at 40mph, my kneecaps will survive.
update: This photo is the closest thing I could find with a quick Web search.
zoom! zoom!
Pick me! Pick me!
In The New Yorker's The Talk of the Town Daniel Radosh has a column headed A BOOK IN YOU describing Kate Lee's blogsurfing chores.
Kate Lee, an assistant at International Creative Management, spends an hour a day surfing blogs, looking for writers who can write, sifting the chaff for a couple grains that can be milled and baked into the next best seller.
Two years from now—give or take—Elizabeth Spiers, the founding editor of the gossip Web sites Gawker and The Kicker, will publish her first novel. Around the same time, Glenn Reynolds, who writes the political Web log Instapundit, will also have a book in stores. So, too, may writers from the blogs Hit & Run, The Black Table, Dong Resin, Zulkey, Low Culture, Lindsayism, Megnut, Maud Newton, MemeFirst, Old Hag, PressThink, I Keep a Diary, Buzz Machine, Engadget, and Eurotrash. Suddenly, books by bloggers will be a trend, a cultural phenomenon.
Pick me! Pick me!
Kate Lee, an assistant at International Creative Management, spends an hour a day surfing blogs, looking for writers who can write, sifting the chaff for a couple grains that can be milled and baked into the next best seller.
Two years from now—give or take—Elizabeth Spiers, the founding editor of the gossip Web sites Gawker and The Kicker, will publish her first novel. Around the same time, Glenn Reynolds, who writes the political Web log Instapundit, will also have a book in stores. So, too, may writers from the blogs Hit & Run, The Black Table, Dong Resin, Zulkey, Low Culture, Lindsayism, Megnut, Maud Newton, MemeFirst, Old Hag, PressThink, I Keep a Diary, Buzz Machine, Engadget, and Eurotrash. Suddenly, books by bloggers will be a trend, a cultural phenomenon.
Pick me! Pick me!
Monday, May 24, 2004
KFOG's KABOOM!
Went to KFOG's Kaboom! -- a glorious glorious glorious fireworks show -- Saturday.
Gates open at 4P, live music starts at 5P or so, food, libations, fireworks at 9P or as soon thereafter as it's dark enough.
We got there about 5P this year. Walked over from Hill with my Ikea bag filled with heavy jackets, blanket, water. The blanket didn't do much to soften Pier 30's asphalt, but the blanket was intended less a pad and more a space marker, intended to keep people from crowding us as much. Last year we'd arrived around 6P with no blanket or other space marker and wound up in a cramped space, which shivered my claustrophobic timbers.
I was hemming and hawing all day. Maybe we should just stay at Hill. We can see the works from there, although not so up close and personal. But there's something about up close and personal when it comes to fireworks, maybe the claustrophobic twitches are worth it. Maybe not. Hem. Haw. Changed my mind. Changed my mind again. We finally went and, yes, the show is worth it. Bring a blanket, though, and make sure to get there by 5P or so. By 6P the piers are packed and just keep getting moreso.
Next time, though, we'll bring something thicker to sit on and food so we don't pay $4 for garlic-parmesan fries and $7 for a philly-cheesesteak sandwich -- unless, of course, we have a hankering for garlic-parmesan fries.
Music this year by Robert Randolph and the Family Band, the Waifs and Train. We sat as close as we could to the water's edge, the better to see the fireworks. As a result we couldn't see the bands, although we could hear them over the loud speakers. A drawback of the location was that as time progressed and the crowd packed and packed in, it got harder and harder to maneuver a way to the food and drinks and portable toilets.
But we were up close and personal with the fireworks and it was all worth it, claustrophobic tendencies and all.
Wanna see? Click here and catch a taping of the almost twenty-minute fireworks show coordinated with KFOG music. (WindowsMedia and QuickTime versions available.)
KFOG's annual KABOOM! is a free listener-appreciation event they throw at Piers 30 and 32. This year's was the eleventh annual.
Three barges (with two tugboats) full of fireworks, live bands, enough security to throw out the drunks but not so much they dampen the atmosphere. The piers were full of oldsters and youngsters and babysters and aging hippies and aging Hell's Angels and the young punk with the 18" spiked multi-colored hair and the tweedy professor with the gray ponytail. What a lovely motley mess of people.
What a show.
Is it any wonder I love these guys?
Afterwards, we walked home by way of the Embarcadero, then up the Filbert Steps. Up until you got to the Ferry Building, the Embarcadero was blocked to vehicles to make room for a hundred thousand pedestrians or more, who were walking home or back to their hotel or off to dinner. The crowd was spilling out of Gordon Biersch. The restaurants along the Embarcadero were all spilling. We decided to eat in North Beach where the crowds might be a little less so.
We scampered (heh) up the Steps, dropped our blanket and jackets at home, walked down to Mario's, grabbed the corner window and ordered their scrumptious cannelloni for dinner with a bottle of red wine. We'd finished dinner and were working on our wine at 11P, the listed closing time, but the staff was willing to stay late to serve the people who were still wandering in. Our server brought over more wine compliments of the house to keep us sitting in that corner window. We finally left some time after 11:30P and wandered back home. Sat on the deck for a while to watch the lights and unwind. What a glorious day.
Gates open at 4P, live music starts at 5P or so, food, libations, fireworks at 9P or as soon thereafter as it's dark enough.
We got there about 5P this year. Walked over from Hill with my Ikea bag filled with heavy jackets, blanket, water. The blanket didn't do much to soften Pier 30's asphalt, but the blanket was intended less a pad and more a space marker, intended to keep people from crowding us as much. Last year we'd arrived around 6P with no blanket or other space marker and wound up in a cramped space, which shivered my claustrophobic timbers.
I was hemming and hawing all day. Maybe we should just stay at Hill. We can see the works from there, although not so up close and personal. But there's something about up close and personal when it comes to fireworks, maybe the claustrophobic twitches are worth it. Maybe not. Hem. Haw. Changed my mind. Changed my mind again. We finally went and, yes, the show is worth it. Bring a blanket, though, and make sure to get there by 5P or so. By 6P the piers are packed and just keep getting moreso.
Next time, though, we'll bring something thicker to sit on and food so we don't pay $4 for garlic-parmesan fries and $7 for a philly-cheesesteak sandwich -- unless, of course, we have a hankering for garlic-parmesan fries.
Music this year by Robert Randolph and the Family Band, the Waifs and Train. We sat as close as we could to the water's edge, the better to see the fireworks. As a result we couldn't see the bands, although we could hear them over the loud speakers. A drawback of the location was that as time progressed and the crowd packed and packed in, it got harder and harder to maneuver a way to the food and drinks and portable toilets.
But we were up close and personal with the fireworks and it was all worth it, claustrophobic tendencies and all.
Wanna see? Click here and catch a taping of the almost twenty-minute fireworks show coordinated with KFOG music. (WindowsMedia and QuickTime versions available.)
KFOG's annual KABOOM! is a free listener-appreciation event they throw at Piers 30 and 32. This year's was the eleventh annual.
Three barges (with two tugboats) full of fireworks, live bands, enough security to throw out the drunks but not so much they dampen the atmosphere. The piers were full of oldsters and youngsters and babysters and aging hippies and aging Hell's Angels and the young punk with the 18" spiked multi-colored hair and the tweedy professor with the gray ponytail. What a lovely motley mess of people.
What a show.
Is it any wonder I love these guys?
Afterwards, we walked home by way of the Embarcadero, then up the Filbert Steps. Up until you got to the Ferry Building, the Embarcadero was blocked to vehicles to make room for a hundred thousand pedestrians or more, who were walking home or back to their hotel or off to dinner. The crowd was spilling out of Gordon Biersch. The restaurants along the Embarcadero were all spilling. We decided to eat in North Beach where the crowds might be a little less so.
We scampered (heh) up the Steps, dropped our blanket and jackets at home, walked down to Mario's, grabbed the corner window and ordered their scrumptious cannelloni for dinner with a bottle of red wine. We'd finished dinner and were working on our wine at 11P, the listed closing time, but the staff was willing to stay late to serve the people who were still wandering in. Our server brought over more wine compliments of the house to keep us sitting in that corner window. We finally left some time after 11:30P and wandered back home. Sat on the deck for a while to watch the lights and unwind. What a glorious day.
Be true to your school
We were up at Garrod's on Friday night for the major donor thank-you event thrown by the Saratoga Education Foundation. Bill and Doris Cooper were pouring Cooper-Garrod wine. Food included stuffed potatoes, salads, chili, sliced-while-you-wait roast beef sandwiches, cookies and brownies. Music by Les Landin and his Skillet Family group. Lane Weiss, the superintendent, gave a short talk. Shinku Sharma and Terrie Creamer said thanks for the dough and announced that this year the foundation raised $1.25m dollars and the major grant to the school district is over a million dollars..
Nice evening, good wine.
Years back, when I was on the Board and the guys were in the schools, his nibs and I'd go to events like this and know almost everyone there. Friday, I knew some of the administrative staff, including the new superintendent, whom we'd met last year at the same event. Cindy I knew, but she was there for just a dash and go. I knew the Coopers and knew Pat from Club meetings. I'd met Shinku before and Terrie and Kelly at other events, but other than that I saw very few familiar faces, so I mixed and mingled and did the how-old-are-your-children thing and drank the Cooper-Garrod cabernet franc and felt ... odd.
Where are the faces of yesteryear? Where are the friends who were on the Board when I was on the Board? Here I was with my youngest child twenty talking to people with a five-year-old, a three-year-old and a six-month-old. Do the old-timers not come because they know they won't know most of the other folks there? Do they not come because they don't give money to SEF anymore, now that their kids are out of school? Do they not come because there's some better, conflicting blowout to which I'm not invited?
*sniff*
Nice evening, good wine.
Years back, when I was on the Board and the guys were in the schools, his nibs and I'd go to events like this and know almost everyone there. Friday, I knew some of the administrative staff, including the new superintendent, whom we'd met last year at the same event. Cindy I knew, but she was there for just a dash and go. I knew the Coopers and knew Pat from Club meetings. I'd met Shinku before and Terrie and Kelly at other events, but other than that I saw very few familiar faces, so I mixed and mingled and did the how-old-are-your-children thing and drank the Cooper-Garrod cabernet franc and felt ... odd.
Where are the faces of yesteryear? Where are the friends who were on the Board when I was on the Board? Here I was with my youngest child twenty talking to people with a five-year-old, a three-year-old and a six-month-old. Do the old-timers not come because they know they won't know most of the other folks there? Do they not come because they don't give money to SEF anymore, now that their kids are out of school? Do they not come because there's some better, conflicting blowout to which I'm not invited?
*sniff*
Thursday, May 20, 2004
The 25 most difficult questions
For all you out there searching for work, the 25 most difficult questions you'll be asked on a job interview.
e.g. 3. Why do you want to work for us?
The deadliest answer you can give is "Because I like people." What else would you like-animals?
e.g. 3. Why do you want to work for us?
The deadliest answer you can give is "Because I like people." What else would you like-animals?
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Singing Science Records
What an egregious case of copyright infringement, but golly, I can't get enough of Singing Science Records.
Check out Longitude and Latitude, Grand Coulee Dam and more.
Check out Longitude and Latitude, Grand Coulee Dam and more.
Who lives here ?
* * * Who lives here ? * * *'s statement of purpose is "One's room" shows us many things like the culture, religion and the way people live and how they think about their life.... Our ignorance and misunderstanding about people from other cultures, lifestyles and ways of thinking make it possible for mutual prejudice, hatred and war to exist. But if we could feel ourselves closer to the people from other countries,or if we make an effort to try to know the reality of other people's lives and understand them, bad behavior like hurting or hating or killing will decrease gradually and ultimately disappear. This site will show you our unknown friends and their rooms from all over the world. Enlarge this project as broad as possible. Someday we can bring "real peace" to this world.
... or maybe they're just scouting for their next robbery target.
Great site for snoops and voyeurs ... and the people who want to bring "real peace" to this world.
... or maybe they're just scouting for their next robbery target.
Great site for snoops and voyeurs ... and the people who want to bring "real peace" to this world.
10 Tips on Writing the Living Web
From A List Apart comes Mark Bernstein detailing 10 Tips on Writing the Living Web
History.WorldSearch
History.WorldSearch -- today in History -- also Browse by year, by month.
August 29, 1952 - Premiere of John Cage's 4'33" in Woodstock, New York.
See? You needed to know that.
May 18, 1933 - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.
... and that too.
August 29, 1952 - Premiere of John Cage's 4'33" in Woodstock, New York.
See? You needed to know that.
May 18, 1933 - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.
... and that too.
Renaissance Alliance School Fundraiser
This is a very cool idea ... Renaissance Alliance School Fundraiser: "The Renaissance Alliance school is honored to offer for sale stunning images from 35 of the most prominent and honored photographers in the world, all of whom work regularly for National Geographic magazine. The money raised through these sales will be used to build a much-needed new schoolhouse and for supplies and other expenses. Currently, students are meeting in portable buildings; the plan is to build an environmentally friendly structure with rainwater collection and solar electric panels."
Michael Yamashita's photo triggers a huge case of wanderlust.
Michael Yamashita's photo triggers a huge case of wanderlust.
Things My Math Teacher Did Last Year
Jesse Davis' forty-seven item list labeled Things My Math Teacher Did Last Year.
Hope he was kidding about #16.
[snatched from Teresa's "particles" list]
Hope he was kidding about #16.
[snatched from Teresa's "particles" list]
Morphases - More Faces
Morphases - More Faces Morphases editor, the revolutionary face manipulation in real time. [sic]
A bit harder to use than Stereotypes or Character Builder, but the site has more flexibility and choices.
The Web is a wonder.
A bit harder to use than Stereotypes or Character Builder, but the site has more flexibility and choices.
The Web is a wonder.
Why do people give up weblogs?
From luvly, Why do people give up weblogs?
A cogent synopsis of reasons why some ex-webloggers gave up their weblogs, including
"Everywhere I looked I saw the same features with which we're all familiar: hopeful linkylurve, memes, indulgent/tiresome self-disclosure... the only distinguishing factors in most cases being strength and combination. I won't make a sweeping statement about its value - at the very least it entertains, & that's something. But to me, a person who isn't looking to promote myself within it, the "blogosphere" (*CRINGE*) is overwhelmingly dull, and I suppose that made it quite easy to opt out.
A cogent synopsis of reasons why some ex-webloggers gave up their weblogs, including
"Everywhere I looked I saw the same features with which we're all familiar: hopeful linkylurve, memes, indulgent/tiresome self-disclosure... the only distinguishing factors in most cases being strength and combination. I won't make a sweeping statement about its value - at the very least it entertains, & that's something. But to me, a person who isn't looking to promote myself within it, the "blogosphere" (*CRINGE*) is overwhelmingly dull, and I suppose that made it quite easy to opt out.
WHATEVER: A Quick Note to About-To-Be Married Gays and Lesbians
I was pleasantly surprised to find Scalzi #9 on blogdex (The following sites are the most contagious information currently spreading in the weblog community) this morning for his bloggy WHATEVER: A Quick Note to About-To-Be Married Gays and Lesbians. I knew him long before his blogdex rank tied with The Gray Zone by Seymour M. Hersh which I mentioned a day or two ago and placed ahead of Ananova's Childless couple told to try sex.
When I sent him my congrats, he was admirably modest about his raging fame.
Top linked blog entry this morning is Nick Berg's Killing: 50 Fishy Circumstances, Contradictory Claims, and Videotape Anomalies.
When I sent him my congrats, he was admirably modest about his raging fame.
Top linked blog entry this morning is Nick Berg's Killing: 50 Fishy Circumstances, Contradictory Claims, and Videotape Anomalies.
Bloggers, heads up! "some things I hate about blogs"
From "troy" on briankinney.journalspace.com (which I found because the blog has the good taste to link to UV) "some things I hate about blogs"
The list includes (but is not limited to, click the link if you're interested)
I offer the option ("Click here to open links in new window") because I know some people prefer "open new" over "do not open new" but it never occurred to me that someone would complain when links automatically open up a new window.
In the comments section, someone (troy? even though the reply is from "briansean"?) points out that a right-click lets you open a link in a new window but there's no way to kill a page's "open in a new window" command.
Is there?
The list includes (but is not limited to, click the link if you're interested)
- Pictures that force the browser to resize them.
- when links open up in a new window.
- when you miserably fail at trying to protect a copyright by removing the right click function so that I cannot choose to "open in new tab"
- Not updating regularly.
- Apologizing for not posting.
I offer the option ("Click here to open links in new window") because I know some people prefer "open new" over "do not open new" but it never occurred to me that someone would complain when links automatically open up a new window.
In the comments section, someone (troy? even though the reply is from "briansean"?) points out that a right-click lets you open a link in a new window but there's no way to kill a page's "open in a new window" command.
Is there?
Monday, May 17, 2004
Intelliseek's BlogPulse
Intelliseek's BlogPulse came wandering by my blog because I'd mentioned "Seymour Hersh" and today Google's Web Alert notified me about it.
BlogPulse is an "automated trend discovery system for blogs. Blogs, a term that is short for weblogs, represent the fastest-growing medium of personal publishing and the newest method of individual expression and opinion on the Internet. BlogPulse applies machine-learning and natural-language processing techniques to discover trends in the highly dynamic world of blogs. BlogPulse is brought to you by Intelliseek.
BlogPulse.com is a search engine that searches blogs, provides analysis tools, tracks trends and has a bunch of cool new tools. Check through what they have to offer.
BlogPulse is an "automated trend discovery system for blogs. Blogs, a term that is short for weblogs, represent the fastest-growing medium of personal publishing and the newest method of individual expression and opinion on the Internet. BlogPulse applies machine-learning and natural-language processing techniques to discover trends in the highly dynamic world of blogs. BlogPulse is brought to you by Intelliseek.
BlogPulse.com is a search engine that searches blogs, provides analysis tools, tracks trends and has a bunch of cool new tools. Check through what they have to offer.
A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a ...
My password? ... for a bar of chocolate?
From Bruce Schneier's Crypto-Gram newsletter comes a link to Passwords revealed by sweet deal - BBC/ 20 April 2004.
More than 70% of people would reveal their computer password in exchange for a bar of chocolate, a survey has found.
It also showed that 34% of respondents volunteered their password when asked without even needing to be bribed.
[...]
Landsakes.
More than 70% of people would reveal their computer password in exchange for a bar of chocolate, a survey has found.
It also showed that 34% of respondents volunteered their password when asked without even needing to be bribed.
[...]
Landsakes.
Seymour Hersh's latest in The New Yorker
The Gray Zone - by Seymour M. Hersh
subtitle: How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib.
The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. Rumsfeld’s decision embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of élite combat units, and hurt America’s prospects in the war on terror.
According to interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials, the Pentagon’s operation, known inside the intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. A senior C.I.A. official, in confirming the details of this account last week, said that the operation stemmed from Rumsfeld’s long-standing desire to wrest control of America’s clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A.
... and the article continues.
subtitle: How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib.
The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. Rumsfeld’s decision embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of élite combat units, and hurt America’s prospects in the war on terror.
According to interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials, the Pentagon’s operation, known inside the intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. A senior C.I.A. official, in confirming the details of this account last week, said that the operation stemmed from Rumsfeld’s long-standing desire to wrest control of America’s clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A.
... and the article continues.
[FOOD] Crustacean and more.
Ah, maybe that's the problem. According to GET ORGANIZED NOW! -- KNOW YOUR LIMITS. Some people are at their best when they work in long, marathon sessions. Others can only work for 15 minutes at a time. Determine your limits and set your organizing schedule within that timeframe.
Setting things aside for the Goodwill saps my strength. I can't go on and on and on. His nibs gets a head of steam and can't stop. After a couple hours of sorting through things, I'm ready to crash and he's just getting started. Yesterday afternoon (Sunday) I left him down on the patio sorting out our latest piles into boxes and bags for the Goodwill while I had a beer (dark San Miguel) and a break. Later, after dinner, we continued with the sort. By bedtime we had four large boxes ready to go to the Goodwill today with another box almost full.
Slowly. Surely. Bust off those barnacles.
Friday we headed up to Hill even though we should've stayed at Dale and continued sorting through stuff. The Spring Fling is three weeks from last Friday and we need to get everything stashed away and the place cleaned up before the day.
But we also needed to check out Hill. Our burglar alarm had gone off at Hill Friday morning. Luckily, after e-mail and phonecalls with our neighbors and Bay Alarm, our neighbors let themselves in and turned the alarm off. Why did the alarm go off? A mystery ... but we have our suspicions. We headed up after his nibs got home from work to check through and make sure that everything was fine.
Headed down the Steps to the Ferry Building, intending to eat at Slanted Door (it being almost 9P and far too late to get to Palio d'Asti before it closed), but Slanted Door was packed and people were spilling out onto the piers. I was willing to wait for a table, maybe stop over and browse at Book Passage if they were open, but Slanted Door staff wouldn't even put us on a waiting list for a table. ("We have so many people waiting for tables as it is that we don't know if we'll get them all seated tonight.")
Now where? We headed, as usual, over toward Belden Place, which is such a nice little collection of good restaurants that you really can't miss getting a good dinner no matter where you eat. As we walked across Justin Herman Plaza, though, we changed direction. Why not Boulevard? We hadn't eaten there in years.
Boulevard
1 Mission St
415.543.6084
Boulevard too was rocking. Must've been something about being out looking for dinner at 9P on Friday night. We could either wait for a table or eat at a table for two in the bar area. Bar table it was.
For dinner I had boneless quail stuffed with short rib meat, spinach, mushrooms &c., settled on a bed of a yummy risotto-like starch. The quail was rolled like a chicken kiev around the beef and spinach and sliced on a slant. His nibs had rack of lamb. Our starters (we swapped plates half-way through) were foie chaud with grilled partly-ripe apricots and toasty brioche and sweetbreads with smoky pork/bacon chunks and frisee'd vegetables, including artichoke hearts. All the food was tasty, but the bill with wine was $$$++ and that was just for two hors d'oeuvres and two entrees and wine -- no dessert, no coffee.
The total price was on par with what we'd spent at Rubicon last week, where we'd had dessert and malmsey in addition to hors d'oeuvres, entrees and wine. The dishes were tastier at Rubicon as well. We'll return to Rubicon and take a pass on another dinner at Boulevard unless we have friends who want to go. There are just far too many good restaurants in San Francisco to spend time and money returning to restaurants that don't knock your socks off. If price were no object, I'd still choose Rubicon over Boulevard, but given that the Boulevard was so pricey? No question.
Which restaurants are currently on my "didn't sufficiently knock my socks off for the price"? Boulevard, Gary Danko and 500 Jackson are three that pop immediately to mind. The restaurants are worth going to to see what all the buzz is about, but for me aren't worth going back to, not when I haven't checked out Fifth Floor since Laurent Gras took over and haven't dropped by Lüx, Luke Sung's new place on Chestnut. We're planning to walk over for dinner at Isa some time this week and will poke our nose in at Lüx to see what Luke and Kitty have created there.
[see update below]
Saturday we walked over to the Art Store at Bush and Van Ness to pickup a matted frame for a Colin De Guere piece we'd bought years back and never properly framed. Sure there are frame places closer to home, but the Art Store was having their white sale (all blank canvases HALF OFF!) and their selection of papers and papyrus is drool-worthy. I lusted after some of the papers with embedded leaves and seeds, lusted after different papyrus pieces and after the 48x60" (or was it 60"x72"?) stretched/cross-barred canvases.
Ah, well.
We decided we needed to eat as we were heading home about 1P, carrying our frame and a quad journal I couldn't resist. If we waited to get back to North Beach for lunch, we would've spoiled our appetite for dinner. Heaven forefend!
I'd been thinking maybe Hyde Street Bistro or Hyde Street Grill -- neither of which we'd been to, although we'd shared a HSG crab cake sandwich at the Farmers' Market last weekend. As we were walking up Polk and peering in shop windows, we walked by Crustacean and his nibs said, "We really need to try that some time."
Why not now? I asked. We'd never eaten there, although we'd talked about it several times -- Crustacean has the reputation of being the birthplace of fusion cuisine when it opened back twelve years or so ago.
Crustacean
1475 Polk Street
415.776.2722
What a wonderful, if pricey, lunch we had. The setting and design are beautiful. Our service was excellent. The third floor view overlooking Polk and California is not the attraction, the food is.
A note by the front desk outlines the dress code: no t-shirts with slogans, no sweatsuits. Simple stuff. No hassle about lack of ties or whatever, but the An family doesn't want folks in sweaty, torn sweatsuits coming by for a meal. Can't say I blame them. Luckily, I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt over my misc.writing ("a marginal newsgroup") t-shirt and I quickly buttoned it up so my slogan'd t-shirt didn't show.
Our server delivered the lunch menu along with the dinner menu and a wine list. He told us we could order from either or both and we had a choice of small plates, large plates or "secret kitchen specialties." The dinner menu had more selections and prices for dishes were the same no matter which menu you ordered from.
As long as it's crab season, we decided to take advantage.
I ordered the Asian crab cake, which came with a mixed green salad with a very light strawberry vinaigrette, grilled vegetables and some wonderful grilled Japanese eggplant with an added flavor element. Five spice maybe? The crab cake was slightly spicy -- Dungeness crab meat, pork and what looked like sweet red peppers. The cake was over three inches in diameter and an inch thick.
His nibs ordered the specialty of the house, a whole roasted Dungeness crab, cooked in garlic butter and spices. The crab was enormous. He was full long before he was done and I took the opportunity to snitch cleaned crab meat off his plate, after I'd finished with my crab cake. (I did give him a taste of my crab cake and the eggplant in exchange.)
We had a bottle of Groth Sauvignon Blanc with lunch. Both dishes were exceptional. The wine was a great match.
For dessert we shared fried bananas and vanilla ice cream. The bananas were battered and fried and HOT. The vanilla ice cream was a perfect accompaniment. I followed with a cup of great coffee.
Another specialty of the house, which I wished I had tried, was An's garlic noodles, egg noodles infused with "An's famous garlic sauce." A young couple eating next to the window shared a roasted crab and each had a bowl of the garlic noodles. That combo might just be the perfect lunch.
We will return to Crustacean even though lunch with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc totaled $100 mas o menos. Not cheap, but heaven.
Tel-Hi
We'd held back and just had one entree each and a split dessert at lunch because we were booked for the Tel-Hi fundraiser starting at 6:30P. As we walked down the hill with friends to the Tel-Hi Neighborhood Center for the annual dinner, we were disappointed to hear that the week in Abaco had been pulled from the auction -- not that we could've afforded it anyway.
The two high-bid items of the evening were a private cooking class and meal from Mary Risley's Tante Marie for ten and a sleepover for 25 on the submarine USS Pampanito. For both items, the next highest bidder was encouraged to up his bid to match the bid of the highest bidder and two events were scheduled. Generous donors.
We picked up a $100 gift certificate for the House at the silent auction at more or less face value -- some gift certificates went for far beyond their nominal face value. We've eaten at the House twice now and plan to return again and again until we've explored their entire menu.
Our friends won the silent auction for the El Raigon gift certificate for dinner and wine. We'd bid on other items, including a selection of dessert wines and a chocolate truffle experience for ten at XOX Truffles, but were outbid, alas. Winning bid was something like $190.
Other auction lots included a dream Giants evening with signed memorabilia, VIP box and more (donated by the Giants and Jack Bair), pool and beer with Aaron Peskin (our local supe), wine, clothes, jewelry, art. Here's hoping the auctions (silent and live) were a huge success.
Sunday, we skipped the Sunday afternoon Open Houses and headed back to Dale around lunch time to sort through crockery and cutlery and pie plates for the rest of the weekend.
update: Popped by to take a gander at Lüx to see what Luke and Kitty had and discovered that all the news was old. Lüx wasn't operating yet and (after a peek through the gaps in the window coverings), looks like it'll be at least next month before it opens.
Word at Isa was that Luke is less concerned with how quickly the kitchen goes in and the tables are set than with finding top-notch staff for the restaurant.
All good things come with time.
Setting things aside for the Goodwill saps my strength. I can't go on and on and on. His nibs gets a head of steam and can't stop. After a couple hours of sorting through things, I'm ready to crash and he's just getting started. Yesterday afternoon (Sunday) I left him down on the patio sorting out our latest piles into boxes and bags for the Goodwill while I had a beer (dark San Miguel) and a break. Later, after dinner, we continued with the sort. By bedtime we had four large boxes ready to go to the Goodwill today with another box almost full.
Slowly. Surely. Bust off those barnacles.
Friday we headed up to Hill even though we should've stayed at Dale and continued sorting through stuff. The Spring Fling is three weeks from last Friday and we need to get everything stashed away and the place cleaned up before the day.
But we also needed to check out Hill. Our burglar alarm had gone off at Hill Friday morning. Luckily, after e-mail and phonecalls with our neighbors and Bay Alarm, our neighbors let themselves in and turned the alarm off. Why did the alarm go off? A mystery ... but we have our suspicions. We headed up after his nibs got home from work to check through and make sure that everything was fine.
Headed down the Steps to the Ferry Building, intending to eat at Slanted Door (it being almost 9P and far too late to get to Palio d'Asti before it closed), but Slanted Door was packed and people were spilling out onto the piers. I was willing to wait for a table, maybe stop over and browse at Book Passage if they were open, but Slanted Door staff wouldn't even put us on a waiting list for a table. ("We have so many people waiting for tables as it is that we don't know if we'll get them all seated tonight.")
Now where? We headed, as usual, over toward Belden Place, which is such a nice little collection of good restaurants that you really can't miss getting a good dinner no matter where you eat. As we walked across Justin Herman Plaza, though, we changed direction. Why not Boulevard? We hadn't eaten there in years.
Boulevard
1 Mission St
415.543.6084
Boulevard too was rocking. Must've been something about being out looking for dinner at 9P on Friday night. We could either wait for a table or eat at a table for two in the bar area. Bar table it was.
For dinner I had boneless quail stuffed with short rib meat, spinach, mushrooms &c., settled on a bed of a yummy risotto-like starch. The quail was rolled like a chicken kiev around the beef and spinach and sliced on a slant. His nibs had rack of lamb. Our starters (we swapped plates half-way through) were foie chaud with grilled partly-ripe apricots and toasty brioche and sweetbreads with smoky pork/bacon chunks and frisee'd vegetables, including artichoke hearts. All the food was tasty, but the bill with wine was $$$++ and that was just for two hors d'oeuvres and two entrees and wine -- no dessert, no coffee.
The total price was on par with what we'd spent at Rubicon last week, where we'd had dessert and malmsey in addition to hors d'oeuvres, entrees and wine. The dishes were tastier at Rubicon as well. We'll return to Rubicon and take a pass on another dinner at Boulevard unless we have friends who want to go. There are just far too many good restaurants in San Francisco to spend time and money returning to restaurants that don't knock your socks off. If price were no object, I'd still choose Rubicon over Boulevard, but given that the Boulevard was so pricey? No question.
Which restaurants are currently on my "didn't sufficiently knock my socks off for the price"? Boulevard, Gary Danko and 500 Jackson are three that pop immediately to mind. The restaurants are worth going to to see what all the buzz is about, but for me aren't worth going back to, not when I haven't checked out Fifth Floor since Laurent Gras took over and haven't dropped by Lüx, Luke Sung's new place on Chestnut. We're planning to walk over for dinner at Isa some time this week and will poke our nose in at Lüx to see what Luke and Kitty have created there.
[see update below]
Saturday we walked over to the Art Store at Bush and Van Ness to pickup a matted frame for a Colin De Guere piece we'd bought years back and never properly framed. Sure there are frame places closer to home, but the Art Store was having their white sale (all blank canvases HALF OFF!) and their selection of papers and papyrus is drool-worthy. I lusted after some of the papers with embedded leaves and seeds, lusted after different papyrus pieces and after the 48x60" (or was it 60"x72"?) stretched/cross-barred canvases.
Ah, well.
We decided we needed to eat as we were heading home about 1P, carrying our frame and a quad journal I couldn't resist. If we waited to get back to North Beach for lunch, we would've spoiled our appetite for dinner. Heaven forefend!
I'd been thinking maybe Hyde Street Bistro or Hyde Street Grill -- neither of which we'd been to, although we'd shared a HSG crab cake sandwich at the Farmers' Market last weekend. As we were walking up Polk and peering in shop windows, we walked by Crustacean and his nibs said, "We really need to try that some time."
Why not now? I asked. We'd never eaten there, although we'd talked about it several times -- Crustacean has the reputation of being the birthplace of fusion cuisine when it opened back twelve years or so ago.
Crustacean
1475 Polk Street
415.776.2722
What a wonderful, if pricey, lunch we had. The setting and design are beautiful. Our service was excellent. The third floor view overlooking Polk and California is not the attraction, the food is.
A note by the front desk outlines the dress code: no t-shirts with slogans, no sweatsuits. Simple stuff. No hassle about lack of ties or whatever, but the An family doesn't want folks in sweaty, torn sweatsuits coming by for a meal. Can't say I blame them. Luckily, I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt over my misc.writing ("a marginal newsgroup") t-shirt and I quickly buttoned it up so my slogan'd t-shirt didn't show.
Our server delivered the lunch menu along with the dinner menu and a wine list. He told us we could order from either or both and we had a choice of small plates, large plates or "secret kitchen specialties." The dinner menu had more selections and prices for dishes were the same no matter which menu you ordered from.
As long as it's crab season, we decided to take advantage.
I ordered the Asian crab cake, which came with a mixed green salad with a very light strawberry vinaigrette, grilled vegetables and some wonderful grilled Japanese eggplant with an added flavor element. Five spice maybe? The crab cake was slightly spicy -- Dungeness crab meat, pork and what looked like sweet red peppers. The cake was over three inches in diameter and an inch thick.
His nibs ordered the specialty of the house, a whole roasted Dungeness crab, cooked in garlic butter and spices. The crab was enormous. He was full long before he was done and I took the opportunity to snitch cleaned crab meat off his plate, after I'd finished with my crab cake. (I did give him a taste of my crab cake and the eggplant in exchange.)
We had a bottle of Groth Sauvignon Blanc with lunch. Both dishes were exceptional. The wine was a great match.
For dessert we shared fried bananas and vanilla ice cream. The bananas were battered and fried and HOT. The vanilla ice cream was a perfect accompaniment. I followed with a cup of great coffee.
Another specialty of the house, which I wished I had tried, was An's garlic noodles, egg noodles infused with "An's famous garlic sauce." A young couple eating next to the window shared a roasted crab and each had a bowl of the garlic noodles. That combo might just be the perfect lunch.
We will return to Crustacean even though lunch with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc totaled $100 mas o menos. Not cheap, but heaven.
Tel-Hi
We'd held back and just had one entree each and a split dessert at lunch because we were booked for the Tel-Hi fundraiser starting at 6:30P. As we walked down the hill with friends to the Tel-Hi Neighborhood Center for the annual dinner, we were disappointed to hear that the week in Abaco had been pulled from the auction -- not that we could've afforded it anyway.
The two high-bid items of the evening were a private cooking class and meal from Mary Risley's Tante Marie for ten and a sleepover for 25 on the submarine USS Pampanito. For both items, the next highest bidder was encouraged to up his bid to match the bid of the highest bidder and two events were scheduled. Generous donors.
We picked up a $100 gift certificate for the House at the silent auction at more or less face value -- some gift certificates went for far beyond their nominal face value. We've eaten at the House twice now and plan to return again and again until we've explored their entire menu.
Our friends won the silent auction for the El Raigon gift certificate for dinner and wine. We'd bid on other items, including a selection of dessert wines and a chocolate truffle experience for ten at XOX Truffles, but were outbid, alas. Winning bid was something like $190.
Other auction lots included a dream Giants evening with signed memorabilia, VIP box and more (donated by the Giants and Jack Bair), pool and beer with Aaron Peskin (our local supe), wine, clothes, jewelry, art. Here's hoping the auctions (silent and live) were a huge success.
Sunday, we skipped the Sunday afternoon Open Houses and headed back to Dale around lunch time to sort through crockery and cutlery and pie plates for the rest of the weekend.
update: Popped by to take a gander at Lüx to see what Luke and Kitty had and discovered that all the news was old. Lüx wasn't operating yet and (after a peek through the gaps in the window coverings), looks like it'll be at least next month before it opens.
Word at Isa was that Luke is less concerned with how quickly the kitchen goes in and the tables are set than with finding top-notch staff for the restaurant.
All good things come with time.
Friday, May 14, 2004
[FOOD] Rubicon
Our fave SF Realtor sent us an invite to an event last Friday night, a wine and hors d'oeuvres blast from 6P - 8P at the San Francisco Decorator Showcase at the former home of the British consul general on Pacific Avenue, between Pierce and Steiner. The event was sponsored by Coldwell Banker and the place was awash with Realtors and their friends and clients. The home was fantastic -- 11,000 square feet, a wonderful courtyard, renovated kitchen, some memorable rooms and terrific nibbles and noshes. Like our friend Beth, CB only served white wine -- wouldn't want red stains on the carpets.
After our two-hour whirl was over, we drove home and powdered our noses before heading out to hunt down and kill a dinner, intending to eat at Palio d'Asti on Sacramento. Earlier Friday, I'd exchanged e-mails with Daniel Scherotter, the executive chef there, about his reasoned comments re foie that I'd wandered across earlier that day. e.g.
14. Poorly Written Legislation: SB 1520 is too general and too vague to cause anything other than problems. Burton’s Bill outlaws 'force feeding' defined as
"a process that causes the bird to consume more food than a typical bird of the same species would consume voluntarily while foraging. Force feeding methods include but are not limited to, delivering feed through a tube or other device inserted into the bird’s esophagus."
It ignores the fact that all animals raised for domestic consumption are fed more than they would ever be able to get in the wild because they are not wild animals, would never survive in the wild and bare only distant genetic relationships to their smaller wild cousins. Cows wouldn’t normally eat corn or grain, for instance, they’d eat grass. There are no wild cows. Corn, or grain, makes them bulk up faster so they can get to market. Centuries of breeding have produced animals that would never survive in the wilderness but do sell. They are only raised (fed and kept alive) for food because tough, lean, scrawny, wild animals that don’t taste as good don’t sell either.
I figured it was time for karma and if some folks were boycotting restaurants and trashing restaurateurs because they served foie, I could make it a point to support folks like Scherotter.
Scherotter was fine with that, "I'm here Mon-Friday and always have some foie around for those who choose to eat it."
So, on an impulse we headed down. We got there about nine, but the restaurant had been having a slow night and, we were told, they'd decided to send the kitchen home early. Next time, we were told, give a call before you head over and we'll make sure we're still serving.
We headed down to maybe eat at one of the places on Belden Place, but on our way there we walked past Rubicon. Hey. We'd never eaten at Rubicon. Let's stop in.
Rubicon
558 Sacramento Street
(415)434-4100
We ordered. His nibs chose a wine from their extensive (and expensive) wine list.
His nibs had the warm capaccio of scallops with Dungeness crab, sea urchin and tarragon as an appetizer, while I had the hot & cold foie gras with poached pear, aged balsamic and roasted salsify. I had some concerns that there might be too many flavors and the foie would be overwhelmed, but Yow. Both appetizers were excellent.
His nibs had the applewood-smoked duck with glazed foie, maitake mushrooms, curried lentils, &c. I had the "tagliata" of dry aged striploin with trumpet mushrooms, arugula jus. Again, both dishes were delish. Not often one gets to eat somewhere where every dish ordered comes through with blue ribbons flying.
Dessert was Bleu de Basque and a poached pear with balsamic ice cream and toasted walnuts for him, a glass of malmsey (and a spoon so I could snatch tastes of his dessert) for me. His dessert was wonderful. The balsamic ice cream, which sounded like a strange thing, was absolutely amazing. The whole dinner was fantastic.
Next time we go, I'll be sure it's not after I've spent a couple hours noshing on crab puffs so I'll have more room for the delicious food. Prices are $$$.
This Wednesday in the Merc, Carolyn Jung had an article (registration required) about Rubicon. Seems the folks making the delicious food and dessert are a couple who just took over the reins last month. Stuart Brioza was named one of the 10 Best New Chefs in America by Food & Wine magazine last year. Nicole Krasinski is the pastry chef and in charge of the delicious desserts. They are quite a dynamite duo.
After our two-hour whirl was over, we drove home and powdered our noses before heading out to hunt down and kill a dinner, intending to eat at Palio d'Asti on Sacramento. Earlier Friday, I'd exchanged e-mails with Daniel Scherotter, the executive chef there, about his reasoned comments re foie that I'd wandered across earlier that day. e.g.
14. Poorly Written Legislation: SB 1520 is too general and too vague to cause anything other than problems. Burton’s Bill outlaws 'force feeding' defined as
"a process that causes the bird to consume more food than a typical bird of the same species would consume voluntarily while foraging. Force feeding methods include but are not limited to, delivering feed through a tube or other device inserted into the bird’s esophagus."
It ignores the fact that all animals raised for domestic consumption are fed more than they would ever be able to get in the wild because they are not wild animals, would never survive in the wild and bare only distant genetic relationships to their smaller wild cousins. Cows wouldn’t normally eat corn or grain, for instance, they’d eat grass. There are no wild cows. Corn, or grain, makes them bulk up faster so they can get to market. Centuries of breeding have produced animals that would never survive in the wilderness but do sell. They are only raised (fed and kept alive) for food because tough, lean, scrawny, wild animals that don’t taste as good don’t sell either.
I figured it was time for karma and if some folks were boycotting restaurants and trashing restaurateurs because they served foie, I could make it a point to support folks like Scherotter.
Scherotter was fine with that, "I'm here Mon-Friday and always have some foie around for those who choose to eat it."
So, on an impulse we headed down. We got there about nine, but the restaurant had been having a slow night and, we were told, they'd decided to send the kitchen home early. Next time, we were told, give a call before you head over and we'll make sure we're still serving.
We headed down to maybe eat at one of the places on Belden Place, but on our way there we walked past Rubicon. Hey. We'd never eaten at Rubicon. Let's stop in.
Rubicon
558 Sacramento Street
(415)434-4100
We ordered. His nibs chose a wine from their extensive (and expensive) wine list.
His nibs had the warm capaccio of scallops with Dungeness crab, sea urchin and tarragon as an appetizer, while I had the hot & cold foie gras with poached pear, aged balsamic and roasted salsify. I had some concerns that there might be too many flavors and the foie would be overwhelmed, but Yow. Both appetizers were excellent.
His nibs had the applewood-smoked duck with glazed foie, maitake mushrooms, curried lentils, &c. I had the "tagliata" of dry aged striploin with trumpet mushrooms, arugula jus. Again, both dishes were delish. Not often one gets to eat somewhere where every dish ordered comes through with blue ribbons flying.
Dessert was Bleu de Basque and a poached pear with balsamic ice cream and toasted walnuts for him, a glass of malmsey (and a spoon so I could snatch tastes of his dessert) for me. His dessert was wonderful. The balsamic ice cream, which sounded like a strange thing, was absolutely amazing. The whole dinner was fantastic.
Next time we go, I'll be sure it's not after I've spent a couple hours noshing on crab puffs so I'll have more room for the delicious food. Prices are $$$.
This Wednesday in the Merc, Carolyn Jung had an article (registration required) about Rubicon. Seems the folks making the delicious food and dessert are a couple who just took over the reins last month. Stuart Brioza was named one of the 10 Best New Chefs in America by Food & Wine magazine last year. Nicole Krasinski is the pastry chef and in charge of the delicious desserts. They are quite a dynamite duo.
AllConsuming.net
Found AllConsuming.net through a referral to my blog earlier today, triggered because I'd mentioned Bill Sammon's new book, MISUNDERESTIMATED: The President Battles Terrorism, John Kerry and the Bush Haters on Tuesday.
AllConsuming.net "is a website that watches weblogs for books that they're talking about, and displays the most popular ones on an hourly basis." In addition, you can pop a title into AllConsuming.net and find the blogs that have referenced it. That bit of code is pretty interesting. Enter /pride and prejudice/ and the site hares off to see what titles match /pride and prejudice/ at Amazon. Taking those titles, AllConsuming checks the blogs it covers for references.
Amazon came up with ten references, including Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Annotated Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, David M. Shapard, Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife: Pride and Prejudice Continues by Linda Berdoll, &c. The plain Jane Pride and Prejudice has forty-four Weblog mentions.
Click on the title and AllConsuming returns publishing information, Amazon sales rank, Amazon average rating (4.56 stars), &c. plus snippets from the blogs that mentioned the book, listed in reverse calendar order (newest first).
"I'm reading this book."
said george on April 27, 2004.
"Delectable!"
said thatgirl on April 1, 2004.
"One of my favourite books of all time. The wit, gentility, finely drawn characters, and the change which the protagonists undergo makes this book a thoroughly enjoyable read."
said civility on March 29, 2004.
If you decide you want to read more about what a given poster thinks of the book, click on the poster's name and AllConsuming sends back a synopsis of the site, books mentioned on the site and more information.
Hm. http://allconsuming.net/weblog.cgi?url=http://www.towse.com/blogger/blog.htm
My Google Friends section lists three sites whose owners I know and four sites that I have no idea why they're listed as Google Friends.
The allConsuming folks describe how they come up with the information: "This is a weblog detail page. It has information gleaned from Alexa.com, Google.com, and Amazon.com. Combining all of this information together, I can display a screenshot of the weblog, related sites according to Google, and products that have appeared on this website in the past."
The automagician needs some work.
FWIW, the current hourly update reads, "Although we found 814 books last hour, none of them were mentioned on that particular weblog for the first time."
For today, the top five mentioned titles are
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (17 mentions)
A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle (13 mentions)
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (10 mentions)
Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward (15 mentions)
My Life by Bill Clinton (6 mentions)
Good to see L'Engle is beating out the newbies with her oldbie book. Turns out it's because there was a Wrinkle in Time movie on TV, which triggered people to read the book.
AllConsuming.net "is a website that watches weblogs for books that they're talking about, and displays the most popular ones on an hourly basis." In addition, you can pop a title into AllConsuming.net and find the blogs that have referenced it. That bit of code is pretty interesting. Enter /pride and prejudice/ and the site hares off to see what titles match /pride and prejudice/ at Amazon. Taking those titles, AllConsuming checks the blogs it covers for references.
Amazon came up with ten references, including Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Annotated Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, David M. Shapard, Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife: Pride and Prejudice Continues by Linda Berdoll, &c. The plain Jane Pride and Prejudice has forty-four Weblog mentions.
Click on the title and AllConsuming returns publishing information, Amazon sales rank, Amazon average rating (4.56 stars), &c. plus snippets from the blogs that mentioned the book, listed in reverse calendar order (newest first).
"I'm reading this book."
said george on April 27, 2004.
"Delectable!"
said thatgirl on April 1, 2004.
"One of my favourite books of all time. The wit, gentility, finely drawn characters, and the change which the protagonists undergo makes this book a thoroughly enjoyable read."
said civility on March 29, 2004.
If you decide you want to read more about what a given poster thinks of the book, click on the poster's name and AllConsuming sends back a synopsis of the site, books mentioned on the site and more information.
Hm. http://allconsuming.net/weblog.cgi?url=http://www.towse.com/blogger/blog.htm
My Google Friends section lists three sites whose owners I know and four sites that I have no idea why they're listed as Google Friends.
The allConsuming folks describe how they come up with the information: "This is a weblog detail page. It has information gleaned from Alexa.com, Google.com, and Amazon.com. Combining all of this information together, I can display a screenshot of the weblog, related sites according to Google, and products that have appeared on this website in the past."
The automagician needs some work.
FWIW, the current hourly update reads, "Although we found 814 books last hour, none of them were mentioned on that particular weblog for the first time."
For today, the top five mentioned titles are
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (17 mentions)
A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle (13 mentions)
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (10 mentions)
Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward (15 mentions)
My Life by Bill Clinton (6 mentions)
Good to see L'Engle is beating out the newbies with her oldbie book. Turns out it's because there was a Wrinkle in Time movie on TV, which triggered people to read the book.
Thursday, May 13, 2004
A cool use of Flash
Here's a cool use of Flash.
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
Have I ever mentioned that I needed to take Dramamine® (dimenhydrinate) before any labs that involved intense microscope use because I'd get motion sick without it?
I betcha this site could make me motion sick even with Dramamine®.
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
Have I ever mentioned that I needed to take Dramamine® (dimenhydrinate) before any labs that involved intense microscope use because I'd get motion sick without it?
I betcha this site could make me motion sick even with Dramamine®.
Personality Disorder Test
Well, that's a relief ... Took the Personality Disorder Test and came up with
Bet you dollars to donuts that the OCD was triggered when I 'fessed about my packrat tendencies, and "narcissistic"? Isn't everyone to some degree?
I'd love to give this to some of my fellow nutcases and see how they rate.
(We're all a bit narcissistic, right?)
- Paranoid: Low
- Schizoid: Low
- Schizotypal: Low
- Antisocial: Low
- Borderline: Low
- Histrionic: Low
- Narcissistic: Moderate
- Avoidant: Low
- Dependent: Low
- Obsessive-Compulsive: Moderate
Bet you dollars to donuts that the OCD was triggered when I 'fessed about my packrat tendencies, and "narcissistic"? Isn't everyone to some degree?
I'd love to give this to some of my fellow nutcases and see how they rate.
(We're all a bit narcissistic, right?)
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