December 28, 2004

Tsunami

I have not had time to scroll through my usual suspects, my daily reads, but I suspect that the reaction to the tsunami which has claimed in excess of 40,000 lives in Asia has been sympathetic and appropriate. Indeed, I probably have nothing of any value to add. Merely, I want to register my horror and my sadness. As always, I am particularly moved by the deaths of the children, by the stories of parents who had their babies torn from their arms and drowned by the waves. Particularly, my hearts go out to those parents who survived such an experience. I try, fruitlessly, to wrap my mind around the enormity, the incomprehensible enormity of such an experience and I wonder whether and how these parents will live with the guilt, the feeling that they failed their children when their children needed them most. The parents are, of course, without blame. The waves are reported as being supernaturally strong and I don't mean to suggest that the parents are to be blamed for having lost that struggle. No, not at all. But I do think that these parents, however blameless, will still feel guilt and still believe themselves to be at fault. I assume I would and I generalize from that.

My heart goes out to all of those forever changed by this unimaginable tragedy.

Pax tibi.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 10:06 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 229 words, total size 1 kb.

December 26, 2004

Another Yummy Norwegian Jul tradtion

Have you ever had the pleasure of tasting Pinnekjøtt? It is the traditional second night of Jul (Christmas) dish. It is lamb which has been salted and dried, rehydrated overnight (changing the water 2 or 3 times), steamed over birch sticks (the pinne part) and then put under the broiler. It is served with a sort of mashed turnip dish and, once again, you drink Aquavit and beer. Somehow, it becomes the essential of lamb, very gamey and very intensely flavored. I adore it. It is a bit heavy and sometimes a little greasy but I confess I ate way too much of it and am eagerly awaiting leftovers later in the week. Pinnekjøtt can also be prepared by smoking it instead of salting it but I prefer the salted one. The flavor is subtler, somehow. Well, back to the pool!

By the way, it is rather nice to compose Norwegian posts with a key board that has the following letters built in as options: Å; Ø; and, Æ.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 01:12 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 179 words, total size 1 kb.

Sad Fact of the Day

I learned this morning, while on the morning walk with my father in law, that 50% of all children in Guatemala under the age of five are malnourished. Stunning.

Not to sound too priggish or holier than thou, but it is certainly something to contemplate post Christmas celebration, a fact which throws into stark relief the benefits my family has enjoyed this week.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 01:05 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 73 words, total size 1 kb.

December 25, 2004

God Jul / Feliz Navidad, etc.

Good morning to you all and a merry Christmas! We have had our combination Norwegian/Guatemalan Jul/Navidad. Christmas Breakfast is in 15 minutes so I have just a little time to write. Jul is, in my wife's family, all about the food. Norwegians celebrate Christmas, or Jul, on Christmas Eve. That is when the gifts are exchanged and the traditional food is consumed or at least kicked off. We had the very traditional foods in a tropical setting.

We started at 12 with grøt. Grøt is a rice porridge to which sugar and butter and cinnamon is added to each bowl. An almond is hidden in one of the bowls and the lucky almond finder is rewarded with a pig made entirely from marzipan. The election this year was rigged and the Girl Child was the happy beneficiary of the electoral corruption. She promptly ate the pig's legs and hid the remainer under one of the couches in the living room. I found it later.

Dinner kicked off at 5 or so with the super heavy Ribbe. Ribbe is a cut of pork with ribs and very crunchy skin and fat bits. It is eaten also with Medistercaker (a kind of meatball) and Julepolser (a sausage). Side dishes included red cabbage and sour cabbage, stringbeans, taters, and maybe something else. Drink? Aquavit and beer. I will say merely that when I got up from the table, I seriously considered passing out as a sensible option. Too much aquavit, perhaps. Oh, and a meal fit for a Norwegian farmer eating in the dead of Winter which is instead being eaten by a lawyer in the heat of Guatemala. Not a natural translation, it seems to me.

One of my sisters in law dressed up as Julenissen (Santa Claus) and scared the living daylights out of the Boy Child. He regarded the front door with great suspicion from that point forward in the evening.

Hope your holiday was equally fun! Off to more aquavit and beer for breakfast, now!

Posted by: Random Penseur at 10:00 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 348 words, total size 2 kb.

December 19, 2004

I met the mountain and the mountain won

I am afeared of heights. I have been since I was a child. Nonetheless, as I described in the post below this one, I attempted to scale the volcano Pacaya with my sister in law this morning. It was great fun, even if it kind of kicked my ass on the way up. Well, maybe the altitude had something to do with it, too. I got about 90% of the way up when my fear of heights kicked in something fierce and I kind of froze half way up this trail. Also, did I mention that I could not see much more than 5 feet in front of me at this point? The clouds were that heavy and we were right in them. I knew that on one side of me was a fatal drop into a bowl of cooled lava and I had no real grasp of what was on the other side. Oh, and the trail? Black volcanic sand so you were slipping and sliding the whole way. I just decided, as my anxiety mounted with each step, to stop and I sat right down on a volcanic stone. I know it was volcanic because it left a little bit of itself in the palm of my hand. It didn't hurt, I only noticed it because I was bleeding. So I made my way back down to the bottom of this trail and waited for my sister in law to make her ascent and then rejoin me.

I had time to think, there, alone in the cold. And it was mighty cold and windy. I came to a conclusion that I will share with you here, after I contemplated my fear of heights and my desire to try anyway. Here it is. I have certain limitations but life is about trying to push those limitations from time to time and either expand them or learn to accept them and live gracefully within their confines. I accepted a limitation today. But only after trying and climbing a very steep mountain trail for about an hour and a half.

My title said that I met the mountain and the mountain won. Untrue, as I think about it. I did meet the mountain but I learned something and I think I call it a draw.

Amusingly enough, I had a very pleasant chat with a fellow who is going to be doing a joint venture between his company and another foreign company with US law to apply. I was able to steer him to a good lawyer in Miami. If it was NY, I have no doubt he would have retained me. That's right, I can go up a volcano in Guatemala, knowing not a soul other than my sister in law, and come down with a new client. In any event, my wife and I are having dinner with him and his wife tomorrow night in Antigua.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 03:32 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 503 words, total size 2 kb.

December 18, 2004

I don't know where I'm a gonna go when Pacaya blows

[With apologies to Mr. Buffet]

Tomorrow morning, we merry and intrepid two (my sister in law and me) will depart at 6:00 a.m. to scale the active volcano, Pacaya. We arrived in Guatemala yesterday after a tough flight with 2 underslept and overcolded children. I leave tomorrow, bringing with me water, camera, and my fear of heights to attempt the "thrilling but terrifying ascent" (guidebook) up the cone of the most active volcano in Guatemala. Should be fun. Of course, plenty of people have been robbed on this climb but it is supposed to be much safer now. We'll see. Pictures to follow upon the return.

How is Guatemala? Let me simply quote the Girl Child who said to me, as we strolled around her grandparents' garden, "My, it sure is a beautiful day here, Pappa." And now I must go. The Girl Child and the pool beckon.

Hasta.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 04:37 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 166 words, total size 1 kb.

December 16, 2004

WhattaMAla (pronunciation courtesty of Hank Azaria in Birdcage)

That's right. We are off to Guatemala tomorrow morning on the dawn flight. We have to be at John F. Kennedy Airport at 5:00 in the morning. I shudder at the thought, frankly. We will be gone for a little less than 2 weeks to visit my in-laws who are stationed there. To review, a trip to the in-laws is not vacation, even if you have to take vacation time from work to take the trip.

I expect to have sporadic access to a computer there and will write, therefore, only occasionally. So, just in case I can't do it later, let me wish you all now, a merry Christmas and a happy and a healthy New Year.

By the way, don't you just love the character Hank Azaria played in that movie?

Posted by: Random Penseur at 07:58 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
Post contains 149 words, total size 1 kb.

Overheard on the Train Platform: Old Man Humor

While standing on the train platform this morning, awaiting the arrival of the 6:40, I was treated to the following exchange between two older men behind me.

Man 1: How old are you anyway?

Man 2: Just turned 59, actually.

Man 1: Really! Good for you. I just had a milestone birthday myself.

Man 2: Milestones?!? They pay to get rid of them?

It was all I could do not to laugh out loud at that one.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 07:52 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 93 words, total size 1 kb.

Interesting little fact about .38's

I was reading an article on the train this morning about the old timers in the NYC Police Department who still prefer to keep their .38's as opposed to using the newer semi-automatics. The article actually kind of fetishized the .38's and the beauty of them in sort of a disturbing way. But there was this little assertion I thought was fascinating:

The grips still echo the earliest revolvers, designed in the 19th century to feel like the handle of a plow in a man's hand.

Isn't that an interesting bit o' design history?

Posted by: Random Penseur at 07:49 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 104 words, total size 1 kb.

Zimbabwe: Watch your mouth on the bus

Remember sometime back I wrote about a law in Zimbabwe that criminalized insulting the President? When I say President, read "that thug named Mugabe", ok? According to the NY Times this morning, in an item buried deep in the paper and accorded only about three sentences, a man was arrested and will serve two weeks in jail for telling his brother on a bus not to "be thickheaded like Mugabe". The man was overheard by an informer and was arrested and convicted. He will spend Christmas in jail.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 07:46 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 102 words, total size 1 kb.

Munch Museum Robbery Update: Paintings ruined?

According to Aftenposten this morning, the paintings stolen in the Munch Musuem robbery, the Scream and the Madonna, were both badly damaged in the theft. Madonna is supposedly ruined.

But the police, stalwart fellows that they are, remain "optmistic".

The getaway car can now be linked to several suspects known by name.

That's it. That's all they got.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 07:43 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 70 words, total size 1 kb.

December 15, 2004

A New Bridge

The French have opened a fantastic bridge today, a 1.6 mile bridge 891 feet above the Tarn River valley running through FranceÂ’s Massif Central mountains and providing another link to the Med.

It is a visually stunning piece done by Lord Foster, "the steel-and-concrete bridge with its streamlined diagonal suspension cables rests on seven pillars – the tallest measuring 1,122 feet, making it 53 feet taller than the Eiffel Tower."

frenchbridge2.jpg

and

frenchbridge1.jpg

Fabulous, no?

Posted by: Random Penseur at 10:01 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 79 words, total size 1 kb.

NYC Libraries

Andrew Cusack has a terrific post about the New York Society Library today, the oldest private library in NYC, and I commend it to your attention. But it got me to thinking about my favorite private library, the Mercantile Library:

The Mercantile Library of New York was founded in 1820 by merchants and their clerks before the advent of public libraries. By the mid-nineteenth century, it was thriving as one of the foremost cultural institutions in the United States, with an extraordinary collection of books in the humanities, and a popular lecture program that featured such renowned speakers as William Makepeace Thackeray, Frederick Douglass, and Mark Twain. The Library offered classes on many subjects and was considered a meeting place for social and educational pursuits.

The coolest thing about the Merc. is:

The Mystery and Detective Collection. The fiction is particularly strong in mystery, and is arguably the best circulating mystery and detective fiction collection in the United States.

This makes it my favorite place. I loved the collection of out of print mystery fiction.

They also have reading groups for Proust which sound like they could be fun, depending on the other participants, of course.

Finally, go check out their links page for links to the Mystery Writers of America (in residence at the Merc), the Trollope Society (also in residence), and U.S. Membership Libraries.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 09:36 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 230 words, total size 2 kb.

Ask not for whom that wind is blowing

So. Damn. Cold. This. Morning. The wind really did feel like it had the power to lacerate my skin, to neatly dissect and lift it off of my face. Although sometimes it caressed me, gently, before it kind of curled around and smacked me in the ear. I hate it when it does that. In order to distract myself, I got to thinking. What is wind? What causes it? So I set out to find out.

Wind is defined several different ways:

wind, air current, current of air -- (air moving (sometimes with considerable force) from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure
Source.

or

The horizontal movement of air in relation to the earth's surface. Wind direction tells where the wind is blowing from. For example, a "north wind" is coming from the north and is blowing towards the south. There are four components of wind that are measured: direction, speed, character (ie - whether it's a gust or a squall) and shifts.
Source

or, finally,

Wind - horizontal motion of air near the surface of the Earth.
Source.

Well, so that's what wind is. Air moving. Ok, up to this point, I kind of knew that.

But what causes wind?

A simple answer:

Wind-A result due to the differences in air mass pressures (temperature). The wind blows as a result of nature trying to balance the differences. The larger the differences between air masses, the stronger the wind.
Source.

I understand it now. The wind blows my ass off at the train station because someone is likely warmer at that moment than I am.

I have to say, intuitively, I already understood that.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 09:00 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 295 words, total size 2 kb.

And now for something really frivolous

If you grew up when I did, you know, high school and college in the 80's, then you remember Rice a Roni, the San Francisco treat!. Please note, I did not say fondly. You may not remember it fondly. But you may, I suppose. I'm rather neutral on it and kind of don't remember the taste but for an overarching impression of copious amounts of sodium. But the song, the jingle, that is engraved on my memory, slotted just underneath the old Mounds jingle: Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't . . .. That one is a killer.

But I got to wondering, in a pure free association moment yesterday brought on by being awakened by cries from the monitor of "more water, please!" (points given for saying please at 12:30 a.m. and then again at 3:00 a.m.), why is it a San Francisco Treat? Why not a Newark Treat? Or a Santa Fe Treat? You see where I'm going, of course. Well, I just had to know, so I fired up Google this morning and have the answer, straight from the company website: the company was founded there.

In 1912, Maria persuaded Charlie to set up a pasta factory, Gragnano Products, Inc., in the Mission district in San Francisco. The successful business sold 25 and 50-pound boxes of pasta to Italian stores and restaurants in the area. Four of Charlie's sons, Paskey, Vince, Tom and Anthony, worked with him to build the pasta business.

In 1934, the oldest brother, Paskey, proposed a new name for the company based on a newspaper ad for "Golden Grain" smoking Tobacco. The family agreed that Golden Grain was a good name for macaroni and the name "Golden Grain Macaroni Company" was adopted.

A neighbor's Armenian style rice pilaf recipe inspired the original idea for RICE-A-RONI®, a mixture of rice and macaroni. Tom's wife Lois served the dish at a family dinner, and it became a favorite of the DeDomenico families. In 1958, Vince mixed a dry chicken soup mix, made at the plant, with rice and vermicelli to create the San Francisco treat which he named RICE-A-RONI. The unique preparation of the dish, and its wonderful flavor and convenience, made the dish one of America's favorite products. The RICE-A-RONI jingle, The San Francisco Treat® slogan, "Saute and Simmer" and scenic San Francisco became familiar to every household in America in the 60's as the product was introduced through television advertising.

The company offers no apologies for the creation of Noodle Roni, instead seemingly laying blame on an otherwise blameless restaurant in Rome.

A trip to Italy in 1964 inspired Vince to develop Noodle Roni Parmesano based on the classic "Noodles Alfredo" dish served to him at Alfredo's restaurant in Rome.

There should have been at least a recognition that they did their best to kill an important piece of Italian culinary history.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 08:45 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 494 words, total size 3 kb.

December 14, 2004

I want an order to show cause and a pina colada!

The sun was still not up yet when I exited Grand Central Station this morning and it was feeling quite cold, despite overhearing a fellow commuter relate to his buddy that the Wall Street Journal reported today that this Winter was 5% warmer than the preceding 10 year average. Of course, I immediately wondered about the geographical area included in this average, but no matter. No, I sit here in my office, cold, preparing for what might be the final day of trial in this $30 million loan guarantee case (we go today from 9:30 to 1:00)and also preparing for a hearing (2:30-??) in the bankruptcy court to try to stop a very culpable party from weaseling out from under an $18 million judgment we have against them. In the bankruptcy, I am special counsel to the trustee and will be attending as co-counsel so while someone else is carrying the laboring oar there I still have a lot to do.

Gonna be a long cold day today.

Is it any wonder that the recently advertised job post for a position as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of the Virgin Islands looks blindingly good right now? A motion and a daiquiri, anyone? A jury charge conference and a planter's punch?

Actually, all kidding aside, this information I quote from the above link is kind of interesting, despite the use of the phrase "very unique" which is just bad English (this just proves I need to get out more, I know, I know):

The District is very (sic) unique in many respects. First, the District Court of the Virgin Islands is not constituted under Article III of the Constitution but rather under Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2. Consequently, the district court judges serve eight-year terms rather than appointments for life. Second, the District has no permanent bankruptcy judges. Bankruptcy judges from the Third Judicial Circuit are temporarily assigned to hear bankruptcy matters in the District of the Virgin Islands.

This is the only Judicial District which is not mandated to utilize the grand jury. Until 1993, no grand jury was used in the District. The Bill of Rights does not necessarily apply to residents of the Virgin Islands. Virgin Islanders do not have the right to vote in United States elections. As a matter of policy, however, the USAO uses the grand jury except for routine cases.

The District contains separate customs zones. Unlike Puerto Rico, when persons leave this District they are required to go through U.S. Customs. Goods are duty free up to $1,200. Duties which are paid go to the Territory of the Virgin Islands. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) office in this District is very active. This is the only District which prosecutes all illegal alien cases. Recently, it was noted that the District had the 8th largest number of Immigration cases of all of the nation's 94 districts.

The District Court of the Virgin Islands will not permit use of local pretrial detention facilities due to a standing court order concerning substandard conditions of confinement. As a result, all federal detainees must be transported to and from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Finally, income tax returns from the residents of the Virgin Islands are filed with the Territory of the Virgin Islands, which keeps all tax revenues except for Social Security taxes.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 08:02 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 582 words, total size 3 kb.

December 13, 2004

"He had a good war"

Ever hear that phrase? "He had a good war"? The British use it to describe someone who was decorated or otherwise distinguished himself, usually during WW II. It also means someone who did something dashing and in the best traditions of not letting the war inconvenience your life, too much. You don't hear it much today. Today, people don't talk like that.

I was reminded of the phrase by the following extract from a British obituary.

Shortly afterwards Carey, painfully aware that "the parlous state of our Hurricanes was showing" and that communications with Calcutta had broken down, attempted to reach the city in a broken down Tiger Moth. But he got only as far as Akyab, where he hitched a ride as spare pilot in a Vickers Valencia transport and arrived in Calcutta, and went down with malaria.

By then he had started to attract press attention in Britain as the RAF's cockney pilot. His recovery was aided when he was awarded a second Bar to his DFC and was charged with forming a defence wing for the city.

As enemy raids increased Carey turned the Red Road, the main thoroughfare across the city, into a fighter runway. "One advantage," he recalled, "was that it was quite possible to sit in Firpo's, the city's fashionable restaurant, and take off within three to four minutes. I managed it on several occasions."

Can't you just see it? Stop in the fashionable boite to have a quick bite and a drink, hop in the plane and off within minutes back to the war. Makes you think he had a good war, doesn't it?

Posted by: Random Penseur at 09:05 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 281 words, total size 2 kb.

How did we get to this place, this Constitution?

As the presidential election has concluded and we wait for what will be a hideously expensive innauguration celebration, maybe it is not a bad time to consider what motivated our present system of government with its two tier system.

In a word, distrust. Distrust of central government, distrust of monarchy, distrust of the power of the crowds and the people, distrust of the office of the executive, distrust of bi-cameral legislatures (in part), and distrust of being ruled by anything other than direct democracy. That was the upshot of our Revolution, you know. We came out of it with a loathing for central government and for anyone else telling us what to do.

Don't believe me? Ask General Washington who tried to enlist troops in his national army only to be told things like, no thanks, we're citizens of New Jersey. Need more proof? Like at the Confederation Government formed after the Brits threw in the towel. It was a pure States Rights government with little to no room for a strong central voice. The CG could not borrow money or repay debts or raise or equip much in the way of a standing army. It didn't print currency or do anything much to regulate interstate commerce, such that some states even had their own custom services and tarrif systems set up. And the States liked it like that. One State, One Vote, was the rule at the CG level. No proportional voting, either, for States. Delaware counted as much as the much more populous New York.

Indeed, this problem with interstate commerce was one of the things that the framers of the Constitution intended the Constitution to address. See:

Section. 10.
Clause 1: No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

Clause 2: No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress.

Some of these states were ruled by unicameral legislatures and didn't even have governors. Massachusetts was an exception. John Adams did their constitution and it provided for a bicameral legislature and even a popularly elected governor. Adams was a bit of a radical and ahead of his time. Maryland had a similar system but the governor there was chosen by the legislature.

When the States came together at the Constitutional Congress to replace the failing and failed CG, they were very distrustful. There's that word, again. They feared a strong central government and a strong executive and worried that they were planting the seeds for a future monarchy. James Madison who crafted the first plan with our balance of powers central government was not worried and his plan eventually carried the day, but it was highly influenced by those men who feared and distrusted the power to over-rule and rule-over the States. They added, in 1791, the 10th Amendment to clarify their intentions:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

This preserved the power of the States, or so they thought.

You know what I think? I think that the framers of the Constitution would have been horrified by the concept of unfunded mandates. I view these as the not very much talked about back door by which the Federal Government has, over the years, eroded States rights and destroyed the compact. But, hey, maybe that's just me.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 08:54 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 694 words, total size 4 kb.

December 12, 2004

The Girl Child explains a gift

Yesterday, while I was at the office, the wife and children went to my parents' house for a little Hanukkah party with their cousin. I'm told it was all very sweet. When I got home, the Girl Child undertook to explain one of the presents to me. It was a fire truck made from fabric and it opened up. Inside was a fire chief doll, a dalmatian doll, and a stuffed fire hydrant. The Girl Child removed each object, showed it to me, and explained as follows:

Ok, Pappa, this is the Fire Chief. This is the Fire House Dog. And this [referring to the hydrant], is the thing that the Fire House Dog pees on.

No way to argue with that. Absolutely correct explanations.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 10:27 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 134 words, total size 1 kb.

December 10, 2004

An update from yesterday

The judge signed my Order to Show Cause and required me to serve it today on the client. That's why things have been so quiet here today. In any event, the Order is returnable before the Court on the 23rd, at which point I hope she will let the Firm out of representing the client. In the meantime, the entire action is stayed. That means she froze everything pending the hearing on the 23rd. I always ask for a stay pending the hearing and determination of the motion, but the court attorneys who review these filings always take out the part about the determination of the motion. Either way, I'm just glad she signed it.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 02:37 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 123 words, total size 1 kb.

<< Page 1 of 3 >>
85kb generated in CPU 0.0364, elapsed 0.1112 seconds.
77 queries taking 0.0921 seconds, 260 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.