I stumbled across the following article and was both amused and a little shocked. The efforts the Brits will go to these days to protect the rights and easily offended sensibilities of those less fortunate than us is exceptional. If you advertise for help wanted, "hard working" may not be a requirement for the job, because you may be discriminating against the lazy:

A businesswoman has been banned from asking for 'hard-working' staff in a job ad because it discriminates against the lazy.

Beryl King was told by a Jobcentre that her advert for warehouse workers discriminated against people who were not industrious.

Beryl, 57, told the Daily Mirror: "I couldn't believe my ears. Has our world gone mad?

"I've been running my business for 27 years and it's getting harder to find people who want to do a fair day's work for a fair day's pay.

"How long before someone says you can't pay people for working because it discriminates against those on benefit who are paid for not working?"

Beryl, who owns two job agencies in Totton, Hants, offered £5.42 an hour for "warehouse packers who must be hard-working and reliable".

The Southampton Jobcentre is investigating. A spokesman said: "Words such as 'hardworking' can be accepted if used with a clear job description."

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As I noted below, tonight we begin the celebration of the end of the High Holidays, so I will be out of the office early today. I will be happy to have a couple of moments of peace at the end of this week.

First, sorry to all of you who have emailed me and/or left comments and I have not replied. This has been a very busy week and I'm going to try to catch up over the weekend. I am involved, out of work, with three or four different not for profit entities. I had board meetings for three of them this week and all of the meetings generated more work. I did not get home before 10:30 at least twice this week. Then, last night, my in-laws arrived to stay with us for the weekend.

In the meantime, I also squeezed in a visit to get the car serviced and I took my daughter to school one day.

Did I mention that I also practice law in my spare time? One Federal Court oral argument, one motion, one dispute resolved, one settlement negotiated, papers in opposition to a motion received, two new contracts to review and comment on, and, one new piece of substantial litigation offered to me by an existing client. Nothing done to hit next week's deadlines yet, but those are really on Friday.

And now it's Friday already. I wish I had the sense of control that this guy has (it's a great picture)!

Anyway, I'll be trying this weekend to catch up on my emails! Sorry about the delays!

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Tonight begins the end of the High Holidays which began with the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah and ends tonight with Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur.

I was going to write something about it. But Simon already wrote a great explanation of the holiday and Rishon wrote about the liturgical peculiarities. Both of these were fabulous posts and I have little to add.

I would add once again, as I did before, my hope that this is a quiet holiday and, for those who keep us safe from harm, a boring and uneventful tour of duty.

Let me also add a note about how my family marks the end of the penitential fast. After nothing crosses the plain of your lips for 25-27 hours, no water, no nothing, we break our fast. How? Since I have been about twelve, and old enough to join in the fast, I have joined in the breaking of the fast with a shot of Scotch. Have you ever tried this? It hits your stomach like an explosion and warmth spreads throughout your body like it was on fire. This is a great way to end the fast. However, you do find yourself in temple during that last service just wishing for a drink! That may not be completely within the spirit of the holiday, but, what are you going to do?

I wish all of those celebrating this holiday an easy fast! And to the rest of you here in NYC, I urge you to follow the example of some of my non-Jewish friends and go out to a nice restaurant since there is almost never a problem, according to my friends, in getting a reservation that night!

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Some of you may have been following the Yankees / Red Sox games and rivalry. Most of you probably don't care. I care. Right now, the Yankees lead the Sox by 4.5 games and the two teams are scheduled to play another three game series starting on Friday night this week. Friday night marks the beginning of Yom Kippur, the culmination of the High Holidays and the Day of Atonement when we ask God to forgive us for the many sins we have committed during the year and to seal us in the book of life. Yom Kippur begins with something called Kol Nidre, which takes place that evening on Friday night. This brings us, with this background, to the joke, one of my favorites:

Mr. Goldberg calls his Rabbi and says, "Rabbi, I have a problem and I need some advice. This year, the Red Sox and the Yankees are playing in a very tight pennant race and the most important game falls on Kol Nidre. What should I do?" The Rabbi listens, thinks for a moment and responds: "Mr. Goldberg, what are you worried about? It is just for a situation like this that we have VCR's!"

And Mr. Goldberg replies, "You mean I can tape Kol Nidre!?!"

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I just returned from my friend's funeral. His death was not unexpected but the news still carried a shock. The speakers who chose to memorialize his life were very good. They knew him intimately, spoke with great love and conviction, and were moving. I sat there, listening and getting choked up and I began to think, gee, I hope they told him how they felt about him while he was alive. I hope he knew how much his friends loved him and appreciated him. Now we got the title of this post. I think we may all be guilty of not telling the people around us how we feel about them. I know I am. I also know how awkward it can feel to tell someone that you love them and that you appreciate them. Nonetheless, better to hear it alive then at the funeral.

My kids know they are loved. Sometimes my daughter just climbs up into my lap on her own, because she feels like sitting in my lap, and I'll say to her: "Hey, do you think you can just climb up into my lap whenever you want!" And she'll reply, "yes". I'll ask her why she thinks that and, without fail, she responds: "Because you love me".

So my wish today is that you, gentle reader, go and tell someone dear to you how much you love them.

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Yesterday, we celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. I should be doing the same thing today but I'm kind of backed up at work and, to top it off, I just got an email informing me that a friend has died and his funeral will be held this morning. I'm glad I happened to be wearing a tie today because I'm going to try to sneak out for the funeral mass.

I took the Girl Child with me to temple yesterday for the whole morning, armed with a bag containing snacks, a drink, and a small selection of books to look at for when she got bored. When I tell you that she looked exceptionally cute, you don't have to take my word for it. Two different policemen patted her on the head as we passed and she thanked them for stopping the cars for us.

After we made it in, we went to the tots service. It was very sweet and the Girl Child got to play the honey (literally, the honey jar) in the little skit about dipping apples in honey for a sweet new year. I think she had a good time and she picked up a couple of new songs. What was the best part? Easily the best part was sitting next to her and watching her face change from fierce concentration to curiosity to delight and back again. She had a good time for sure.

We then went upstairs to the main sanctuary and joined my father and my grandparents, so four generations in one row. That was sweet, too, and I enjoyed having her with me. As we left, we spoke to the rabbis to wish them a happy new year. We sit, with my grandfather, up at the front (the second row) of the synagogue. My grandfather was one of the founders of the synagogue and helped build it. The younger rabbi told me he was impressed by how well behaved the Girl Child was. He clearly did not hear us reading Little Red Riding Hood in Norwegian for a part of the service. I was very quiet.

As we left, the Girl Child turned to me and said: "Did you hear that, Pappa? Mr. Rabbi said I was very well behaved!"

I then returned home with the Girl Child to pick up the Boy Child and take them over to my parents for lunch. The Girl Child amused me by turning to the Boy Child in the car and saying: "BC, sitter du der og driter, vennen min?" She's speaking much more Norwegian now to the lad, which makes my wife and me very happy. A loose translation, is, "BC, my friend, are you sitting there and shitting?" She didn't seem to mind that she was wrong because she then said to him: "are you my little bean, studman?"

The day ended with a profound thought from my wife and I want to pass it along. We were talking about a job interview she has coming up in a couple of days and she was clearly not excited about the job or the interview and so I asked her why she was doing it. She replied that she wanted to meet the people she'd be doing the job with and for. She said that as she's gotten more experienced, she's come to realize that the people are at least and sometime more important than the job itself and if she really liked the people, she'd take a job that didn't interest her. She's a smart one, she is, my wife. I learn a lot from her when I pay attention.

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Simon, at Simon World, has an outstanding post today about the Jewish New Year celebrations and observances which begin today, at sunset, and mark the commencement of the High Holidays. I highly recommend reading it, it's better than what I was going to post about it.

I would add one thought, though. Traditionally, this is the time when Islamic fundamentalists and other freaks most like to attack Israel and Jewish targets outside of Israel, or even start wars. So join me, please in, if not praying for their safety, at least sending good thoughts to those brave men and women who during this holy period stand guard at borders and places of worship and in Iraq. May they stand a boring and uneventful watch and may God protect them.

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I will not be posting much this morning. My daughter has her visiting day at pre-school this morning and I worked like a deck hand this week to arrange my schedule so that I could take her. Also, the Boy Child seemed to spike a fever last night out of nowhere so I may be taking him for a quick visit to the doctors this morning before pre-school.

The Girl Child is not so much excited about pre-school as she is about the possiblity that I might take her out for breakfast before taking her to school. She informed me several times how it might be nice to go out for pancakes. Assuming her brother is well enough, I think she might be right.

If all goes according to plan, I will be at work around lunch time and may have a little time to post then. If not, I hope you all have a great weekend!

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1 Too funny. Bear is also a pancake freak. Good luck today!

Posted by: Elizabeth at September 10, 2004 09:25 AM (gwzoL)

2 Hope your son is feeling better. Enjoy the pancakes and the weekend!

Posted by: Mick at September 10, 2004 03:09 PM (VhRca)

3 have fun - hope the morning went well.. i love pancakes...i think i need them for dinner. they are great for dinner....yummy.

Posted by: standing naked at September 10, 2004 06:55 PM (IAJcf)

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Walk to train station in torrential down pour.

Dressed nicely because 4:00 p.m. court appearance.

Discover on reaching train station that shoe has hole in it.

Spend the remainder of the day hoping for sun and with a wet sock because no time to go get the damn thing fixed.

Sudden realization hits that hole in shoe is high point of day.

Resist temptation to chuck it all and jump on tramp steamer headed to Spice Islands.

Definitely, one of those days. Yup.

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Coming out of Grand Central Station this morning onto 42nd Street, I paused, stopped in my tracks by the fury of the rain. It was coming down so hard and so straight that I was shocked into momentary immobility, a condition not normally known to regular NY commuters. I suppose that was what attracted the nice young reporter, that here was an actual NYer not in motion. She approached me from the side, just barely in my peripheral vision, which I thought was odd and is really not the best way to initiate contact with any stranger in a big city. Then she excused herself and told me that she was a reporter for Japanese television, accompanied by a cameraman, waved a copy of this morning's Newsday in front of me, and asked me if I would comment on the 1000 dead American soldiers.

I stood there as the fury of the storm broke around us and I declined to share with her my thoughts. Firstly, why did she want to know? What was she going to do with my little interview? How was it going to be cut by her editors? What kind of television station was this? So, I politely declined. Don't look for me on Japanese television.

That I declined does not mean that I did not have an opinion. I do.

First, I recoil in horror from the size of the number of our soldiers and civilian defense dept. employees who have been killed in Iraq. The number is so large as to be difficult to wrap my mind around. One thousand. I assume that many of them had families. I assume many of them were reservists who have left a hole in their societies as the jobs they filled and functions they performed are empty and undone. This is horrid and my heart goes out to the families they left behind.

Yet, this is also war. We are engaged in a war with a ruthless and horrible enemy. An enemy who will not shirk from targeting children. An enemy who regards air planes as weapons of mass destruction, who thinks civilian commuter buses are legitimate targets, and who kills pregnant women. This war is being fought right now in Iraq. I think it is better fought there than in the streets of NY or the fields of Pennsylvania again. Right now, the terrorists are drawn to the cities of Iraq where they can fight our soldiers. I believe that our soldiers are taking the fight to the enemy. That is not a bad place, from my perspective, to fight this fight.

I am grateful for the service of our men and women. I respect them and I regularly stop men and women in uniform and thank them. I am grateful for the families they've left behind who have to hold it together while their partners are gone.

So, while I am horrified by the sheer number of soldiers who have died in this fight, I can't help but wonder how many other World Trade Centers they have averted.

I guess where I come out is here: these people have not died in vain, they have died to protect us.

I honor their memory here today, even if I was not inclined to do it on Japanese television.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 08:34 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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I am sorry to say that summer is over. Here are a couple of pictures of summer I took yesterday to keep us warm during the coming cold:

-and-

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Things have been terribly serious around here of late but with good reason. That said, I feel the need to inject a note of frivolity into my blog. I will pose to you the question I discussed with my wife last night: What would you choose for your last meal?

It started with a traditional 3 course dinner concept. Then I had to add a soup course, salad course, and a pasta course. It's gonna be a loooong dinner if it's going to be the last one. My wife talked me out of the need to add a Jambalaya course but it took awhile and I still disagree with her.

Now I know that I have some foodie readers so I expect I'll see some pretty interesting suggestions. Let the feeding begin:

Aperitif: A Sidecar. Or a really good Martini with Bombay Sapphire Gin.

Soup:
Hungarian Sour Cherry soup

Salad:
One of the following:
Artichoke Vinaigrette
Classic Steakhouse of Tomatoes, sliced onions, and blue cheese
Classic Caesar with extra anchovies

Pasta:
There was this pasta I had once or twice at this little French place in the West Village, it was homemade tagliatelli with truffles, butter, and raw fois gras pieces that were cooked by the heat of the pasta and kind of dissolved into the dish. It was heaven. It should have come with a referral to a cardiologist.

Appetizer:
Either a miniature Fruits de mer or some wild mushrooms in a sherry cream sauce in a puff pastry.

Main course:
Now we probably have to have either:

Beef Stroganoff with egg noodles or

Chili cheeseburgers with chili cheese fries from this place in Portchester, NY.

Dessert:
Either a tarte au citron
or a black forest cake like my wife made for my birthday some years ago with homemade brandied cherries
or tarte tatin
or a root beer float
Or all of the above

Let's add a cheese course:
Explorateur for the triple creme
A ripe Stilton
A crotin (aged goat's cheese)
An aged Gouda that crackles when you bite into it
Something with truffles in it
Something with a washed rind

I reserve the right to come back and edit this post endlessly.

For instance, I have not put any wines in. I ought to.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 08:40 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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1 hhhmmm... last meal? simple i think - nothing fancy - new york pizza - it reminds me of all the good things about my childhood - and a big glass of lemonade made from the lemons that made this my last meal.

Posted by: kbear at September 07, 2004 08:51 AM (OdonZ)

2 Seriously, I think I need to print out your list, since it begs to have a moment in the bedroom with it. My list includes my favorite foods: Artichokes Sag Aloo curry with a peshwari naan Homemade macaroni and cheese Risotto Cheesecake and cheese platter for dessert And alcohol. Masses of alcohol. My meals don't exactly go together. It would be more like my "last day". You know. So I could spread out the foods.

Posted by: Helen at September 07, 2004 09:52 AM (GoCG9)

3 Actually, Helen, you raise a good point. My list of things was not so much a meal as it was a collection of things that I'd want to have again if it was the last time I'd get the chance to do it. A meal would be more harmonious and would have some sort of progression, and I don't mean from truffles to chili, as sublime as that might be.

Posted by: RP at September 07, 2004 10:08 AM (LlPKh)

4 Mmm.. nices cheeses, though I don't think much of the old cheese here in Holland... too rich. But Port Salut and brie and... oh, yummy!

Posted by: Hannah at September 07, 2004 11:28 AM (7dELN)

5 In the spirit of a final day's worth of meals, rather than a final meal, I'd like to add the category of junk foods. I could not possibly leave this earth without savoring, once again, a couple of fritos, maybe some cheez doodles, m&ms, nachos, and perhaps a hostess cupcake. This list is by no means exhaustive, nor does it even cover all areas of junkfood.

Posted by: GrammarQueen at September 07, 2004 01:53 PM (gDEwS)

6 I hopped over here from Helen's site, and this post made me laugh because my dinner last night actually was beef stroganoff and a sidecar. I could happily make a last meal of yorkshire pudding and a chocolate souffle. And a sidecar.

Posted by: Lesley at September 07, 2004 05:54 PM (yQGoT)

7 I would go asian; miso soup, cold pressed tofu with tons of different sauces, vegetable sushi, sake, which I have never had, but why not?

Posted by: Rachel Ann at September 08, 2004 02:15 AM (+zrBv)

8 Whatever it is, it's not a time for fast food. I'd ask for Iranian caviar with a Cuban cigar (if I was in the US)...

Posted by: Simon at September 08, 2004 04:04 AM (GWTmv)

9 Simon, you are quite the subversive. Funny, Rachel, that you picked asian food. My wife picked chinese dumplings as her appetizer.

Posted by: RP at September 08, 2004 10:10 AM (LlPKh)

10 I think I'd go for the stuffed camel. That's good eatin'.

Posted by: Jim at September 08, 2004 03:44 PM (GCA5m)

11 I've just read all thos salivatingly (it's a new word!) wonderful gastronomic delights that everyone would choose for a last meal. But I'm curious to know: when you are feasting fit to burst, have you contemplated just WHERE this last meal would be eaten? Would you have a choice? Who would you choose to dine with? Janelle :-)))

Posted by: Janelle at September 08, 2004 04:08 PM (+oKAz)

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Ok, it was really a night on the couch with a DVD I bought over a year ago but never watched. But, before I get to that, may I tell you that there is a wonderful thing that happens when you keep the children up all day at the beach, playing with the sand and running in and out of the surf, so that they all miss their naps. They go straight to bed at 7:30 with not a peep of complaint and no singing in bed of, "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen" (the tradtional lament of political prisoners all over this great land).

The beach was huge fun. We went with our old college roomie and his family. They have kids approximately the same age as ours and the two oldest kids, mine and his, get along like two peas in a pod. It was quite something to see our kids playing together. We stayed the whole day, said good bye to the roomie, threw the kids in the bath, and packed them off to bed after reading Mr. Jeremy Fisher and Tom Kitten to the Girl Child.

Then, it was adult only time. We opened a bottle of white Port which had been sitting in the fridge forever. Ever have white Port? I assume you are all familiar with the regular red Port, that yummy stuff you drink with walnuts and stinky cheese. A moment while we all applaud the coming of winter with the need to light fires in the fireplace and drink Port and eat copious amounts of stinky cheese. The white stuff is lighter and served chilled as an aperitif, mostly. It's heavier than the nice fino Sherry's, but still quite yummy and this one was no exception.

The film we watched was a Danish film, in Danish, called Italiensk for begyndere. You may have come across it in English where it was called:

It was billed on the back as a romatic comedy and appeared, according to its description, to mostly be set in Venice. It seemed a perfect choice to end the day. I don't mean to be picky about this, but I prefer my romantic comedies with less death, alcohol abuse, morphine killings, and angst. Perhaps that is what passes for comedy in Denmark. The romance part was not terribly believable, either, for that matter. But, it was of no matter. We actually still enjoyed the damn thing. It moved briskly enough and it was shot in such an odd style, perhaps a varient on that Scandinavian school that mandated just one camera and natural light only. I don't recall the name of that but I'm sure one of you clever people will (I have boundless confidence in the smarts of my readers, you see).

Now that I think about it, the only other Danish language film I can recall seeing was kind of dark, too. Anyone else recall Babette's Feast (Babettes gæstebud)? That was dark but an excellent film.

Today is not beach weather here in Southern New York, but it is a perfectly good day to make homemade peanut butter with the Girl Child and that is what we did. For anyone who wants to do it to, take 2 cups of salted, roasted peanuts, one tablespoon of peanut oil, put them all in the blender and blend until you get butter. You may have to stop and scrape it down from time to time. It's yummy. You can put it in the fridge and when you want it, stir the oil back in to the butter. It will keep, I'm told, for about two weeks or so.

Peace, y'all.

By the way, I am having problems leaving comments on other Mu.Nu blogs because it seems not to like the word m-a-i-l-dot-com. Feel free to send me an email if you have something you want to say until it gets sorted out. The information is on the side bar on the left.

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I don't have much to say today. I am personally so saddened by the deaths of the children in Russia this morning that I feel a bit wrung out. Go visit this site for updates and photographs and translations from the Russian media sources.

This crime is beyond description for me. I keep coming back to the woman who had to choose between which of her two children she was going to send out of the school and which was going to remain as a hostage. The six year old or the two year old. How would you decide? She chose the two year old to go out, reasoning, or so I understand, that the six year old would be better able to bear up under the stress.

I am not a very religious person, but I feel compelled to ask: May God bless those children who died there in that school.

UPDATE:

Michael Darragh found the link to the story about the woman who had to choose between her children. Don't read this unless you really feel the need to break down and cry.

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One of the reasons there has not been a lot of activity here is that I have spent much of my morning engaged in the research of the Fair Use Doctrine, an exception and affirmative defense to a charge of copyright violation. I have satisfied myself about what I have done generally and, in doing so, have created a 5 or 6 page single spaced memo summarizing my research. I am somewhat loath (typo corrected) to post it here because I have a horror of someone thinking I am giving legal advice on my blog because that's the last thing I want to do. What do you think? Should I post something?

UPDATE:

I've decided not to post my little memo. I found something on the web that treats the subject much more exhaustively than I do and I highly recommend going to read it: The Stanford University Libraries Section on Copyright and Fair Use. This appears to be excellent. I enjoyed it and found it informative and I get out of my problem of fearing to appear to be giving legal advice to the whole world on the net.

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1 How do you feel about free grammar advice?

Posted by: anon at September 03, 2004 02:48 PM (Mlped)

2 Ambivalent. If it's coming from a friend, happy to take it. Here, beats me since you declined to leave a name. In any event, I do know the difference between the two words and I regularly, especially when in a hurry, make typing mistakes.

Posted by: RP at September 03, 2004 02:56 PM (LlPKh)

3 Well, it's coming from a friend, but I'm loath to leave my name because I didn't want you to think I was being a jerk. Anyway, I figured you knew the difference--I guess I was just feeling snarky.

Posted by: anon at September 03, 2004 03:22 PM (Mlped)

4 Ok, well, as a friend, you go right ahead and correct me wherever you see a mistake. That's fine. As we say around the office, there's no such thing as good legal writing, only good legal re-writing.

Posted by: RP at September 03, 2004 03:53 PM (LlPKh)

5 Who'd have thought there were lawyers that didn't want to give their opinions on everything? You never cease to amaze me, RP.

Posted by: Simon at September 06, 2004 04:14 AM (8IuJM)

6 I swear, Simon, you must have gotten bit by a lawyer once!

Posted by: RP at September 06, 2004 06:58 AM (X3Lfs)

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I was walking to the train station this morning when I felt myself oddly suspended in some kind of nether state between morning and night. To my left, the sky was shot through with the pinks and oranges of a stunning sunrise, portending a spectacular day. To my left, I noticed an almost full moon still hung in the sky, like someone forgot to put it away from last night. One side, the sun. The other side, the moon. Where the f**k was I?

And then I was hit by the smell of someone cooking breakfast. I have never smelled anyone's cooking odors before on this walk. But it reassured me that I was still relatively grounded. And it got me thinking about cooking odors and cooperative living.

We used to live in an apartment house in New York City on the oh-so-posh Upper East Side, a ghetto for blondes. The first time over there from our Upper West Side apartment, my wife commented that she thought we were in Greenwich, Connecticut by mistake. We lived in a building with 6 apartments on our floor.

Apartment living is intimate, even in a pre-War apartment building like ours. You know when your neighbors leave for work, because the door slams. You know who favors stiletto heels, because you can hear it on the terrazzo or on the hardwood floors above you. You know what their reading habits are because you see their magazines when you go to recycle yours. And you pretend that you know nothing about anything when you actually see them face to face. That was the fiction, that you knew nothing about the different guys who were coming and going from your neighbor's apartment in the early morning hours. No problem. I could do that fiction. That changed, of course, when I was elected to the Board of the Coop, but thatÂ’s another story.

Another thing you learned about your neighbors is that no one cooked on the Upper East Side. I mean, why bother, right? Chinese food delivered in under 7 minutes. Seriously. And it was good and not much more than what you might spend to cook it yourself and way more efficient in use of time. One of our neighbors actually got a call from the local utility asking if she'd like them to turn the gas off to her apartment since they noticed that she had not once turned the stove on in the last eight years.

Well, I cooked and my neighbors had to learn to ignore my cooking odors. Unfortunately for them, I cook well. I like to cook things that smell really good, like slow braised beef with about 30 cloves of garlic that you cook for 4 or 5 hours on 250 degrees until you just cannot stand the smell of the yummy goodness any more and you have to tear the oven open and dip some bread into the cooking juices or you are going to kill somebody. Or roasted chickens. Or long simmering soups and pasta sauces. Things that just smacked you in the face when you got off the elevator. Yup, my apartment was that smelly cooking apartment.

No one ever said anything, but I know that they all wanted to come over for dinner.

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1 That's me in our neighborhood. We live in a row of Victorian terraced homes, so we are smack dab in the middle, all of our houses the same on the outside. And both Mr. Y and I LOVE to cook, and when the weather is warm, we leave the door open while we do it. I have become well-known for my chocolate chip cookies and my applie pie (I bring you culture, my English friends! Eat at my table!) but we are also noted for our curries, roast chicken, and other sultry delights. It's great to be a part of the cooking population, isn't it?

Posted by: Helen at September 02, 2004 12:39 PM (4tEWI)

2 ok - hungry now - i am going to make lunch.

Posted by: kbear at September 02, 2004 12:44 PM (IAJcf)

3 I got hungry re-reading it and then reading Helen's contribution, too. Yup, been awhile since I made a good curry with fresh grated ginger.

Posted by: RP at September 02, 2004 02:44 PM (LlPKh)

4 In my apartment building we have a competion at dinnertime between French, Indian, Chinese, Italian & Spanish. Only those with an extremely strong will survive on diets. Now I'm hungry!

Posted by: Michele at September 02, 2004 03:58 PM (YK/wN)

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I had a moment of disperception this morning on the train. You know, a moment during which you feel suddenly weightless, no longer held to the bounds of the earth by bonds of rationality or ordered thought. I am not shocked by these moments now. I get them all the time while reading the NY Times. This one came whilst (I enjoyed sneaking that word in, pardon the digression) reading a book review concerning a book that holds that Europe is eclipsing the United States in the "good life". The Times surprised me by not giving the book a good review but that was not the disperceptive moment. Here's the quote that brought me up short:

It would be foolish, especially after the recent report of an increase in poverty in the United States, for even the most committed proponent of the American way not to admire much in Europe these days: its reduction of grinding poverty almost to a vestige, its low levels of violent crime, the quality of its culture.

It would be too much to fisk the whole thing, but one phrase jumped off the page at me: the quality of its culture. What the heck does that mean?

Firstly, is there such a thing as a European culture? Other than Yogurt? Europe, as we can all agree, is a CONTINENT, not a country, not a unitary social construct to which we can ascribe common beliefs and expressions such that we can call any expression by its citizens a manifestation of a culture. Even for the US, it's hard to do, considering we, too, are a continent and yet there are substantial cultural differences between the coasts and breaking down among the regions. So that blithe assumption bugged me.

Secondly, the quality? The quality? Is he kidding? Clearly not, I suppose since the reviewer thinks that this proposition is so self evident that it requires nothing more than a languid flip of the wrist to insert it in the article, then a pause as the cognoscenti silently concur, and then we continue on, all happily flattered to be considered in the know concerning the quality (superior, implied heavily) of European culture. Please. I think I need a drink.

How do you judge the quality? Do we have agreed upon standards? Is there a time period we are talking about? What is culture, exactly? Is it art, literature and music all by itself? If so, I'd say that Europe was hands down the home of quality culture during the Renaissance. That can't be too controversial, can it?

Is it the marketplace of new ideas? Well, Europe gave us Fascism, the Nazis, and Communism, some of the worst ideas ever. That ain't quality culture. And we have left plenty of dead Americans in Europe to prove it.

Is it architecture? Is it cooking? Food? Wine? What the hell is culture anyway?

I have no idea what the reviewer is talking about anymore. Are you all as confused as I am?

Posted by: Random Penseur at 08:56 AM | Comments (22) | Add Comment
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1 Disperception, huh? Cool! I agree that it is much too arrogant for that reviewer, when speaking of Europe, to not follow up his statement concerning "the quality of its culture" with an explanation as to why he believes it to be so. He's either one of those people heavily influenced by european ideology or just one of those who simply believe that everything european is just plain better. As the cradle of western thought, music and art, their culture is historically significant to us. But as to their current contributions to world culture I believe they leave a lot to be desired. The "quality" of their culture is archaic, so much that you might call it out of touch, and just because it's older than ours does not in itself make it better.

Posted by: Mick at September 01, 2004 10:19 AM (VhRca)

2 Breathe. This IS the NYT, right? Think of it as Paris Match with shoulder pads. I say that the reviewer should probably go to Europe and immerse himself in the "culture". Immediately. What a lil' rodent.

Posted by: Emma at September 01, 2004 01:09 PM (MAdsZ)

3 That was a very good point. And a hell of an image: The Grey Lady in Shoulder Pads. How 80's.

Posted by: RP at September 01, 2004 01:17 PM (LlPKh)

4 What can I say? Apparently, I'm stuck there. ;o)

Posted by: Emma at September 01, 2004 01:28 PM (MAdsZ)

5 Actually I think the western concept of what culture is varies tremendously from the eastern concepts. To North Americans culture is radio (music prescribed by the corporation), tv, newspaper, books, and the stuff that's active in yogurt. To Europeans culture is art, music (not prescribed by corporations), food, drink, language, ambience, history, etc. I WISH I lived in a place that had buildings over 50 years old. In North America we tend to rip things down, blow them up, toss them aside as new more fandangled stuff comes along.

Posted by: Oorgo at September 01, 2004 01:29 PM (lM0qs)

6 Oorgo, I think you sell yourself and your countrymen waaay short. It might not make sense to try to do this based on your narrow definition of culture for North Americans, but, here goes: we gave the world music (jazz, blues, and the odd classical compositions of Philip Glass); theater (the Broadway musical, Eugene O'Neill etc.); some of the greatest painters ever (Singer; Winslow Homer; Rothko, the list goes on and on); we created the means to preserve great art that the Europeans destroyed in their pointless and barbaric internal wars; we have given the world a system of political culture with a stable and free and liberal democracy. We may not have buildings that are 500 years old, excepting the fantastic structures of the Mesa Native Americans out West, but we have a vibrant creative bunch of people living in our newer buildings who need not bow their heads to any one in the world when it comes to matters creative. (Please note that just because I left a statement unaddressed does not mean I agree with or concede the point. I disagree with just about every thing you said.)

Posted by: RP at September 01, 2004 01:39 PM (LlPKh)

7 Two words: Georgia O'Keefe. I have to agree with RP's disagreement. We gots us some culture!

Posted by: Emma at September 01, 2004 02:50 PM (MAdsZ)

8 A comment from Europe here. I think European culture is generally held in much higher regard around the world than America's. With Europe we associate high art, haute couture and thriving arts scenes. With America we associate Hollywood and Britney Spears. Not to say that USA doesn't have its fair share of artistic and cultural talent to rival Europe, but you guys just do a really hopeless job of promoting it The same could be said of my home country, Australia. Also, the culture here, as in parts of Asia, comes from 100s and 1000s of years of restoring and immortalising great cultural institutions. A few years I had the pleasure of standing in a theatre built in 300BC (Taormina, Sicily). OK, it was in shabby condition. But the important thing is that it is preserved to remind everyone of the important of culture in European life. I'm reminded of a tele doco I saw a few years ago about some Americans visiting a Euro themed casino in Vegas. After enjoying a gondola ride in 'Vienna' the Missus exclaimed with absolute conviction "no need to go to France now, I just had a ride on the Seine". And finally RP, I detect a certain amount of envy and jealousy in your post. No worries mate, you live in one of the cultural beacon cities of the world. ps. Life in Europe is fing fantastic So much tolerance and beauty and style and culture ... it's a little bit overwhelming

Posted by: mikeyinbarcelona at September 01, 2004 04:04 PM (vJk6k)

9 I agree with you on the accomplishments, North Americans have created musical genres, architecture, and technology to rival almost any country. Unfortunately a good majority of the innovators in culture you listed created things in the past. The progressive lack of public care about anything cultural in our countries is astonishing. I am a professional trumpet player (or I'd like to be if I could make a living at it), and I've seen firsthand the view of art, music, and culture in our countries. "If it isn't profitable don't bother", "If you can't make a bundle who cares", and "Why would you do that?" are questions I've had to answer and ask myself time and time again. How can you create great works of art/music etc. when the main thing on your mind is trying to find money for food/bills etc. Or the other side, how can you do the above when you have limited time after your full time job/kids/house? Consumerism, and capitalism eat away at creativity, that's my view, you are absolutely entitled to yours as well.

Posted by: Oorgo at September 01, 2004 04:15 PM (lM0qs)

10 Mikey, thanks for your comment and your European perspective. You don't comment often enough. This time, however, I disagree with you. First things first, you misread me if you detect envy or jealousy of Europe. It doesn't exist. I've lived in Europe, 2 different countries, and travelled extensively there. I do not envy or have jealous feelings about cultural life there. Not just because I live in NY, which is astonishingly vibrant culturally, but because I believe that America has culture and that Americans are cultured. Second, the tale of the Vegas trip. I absolutely believe that happened. And why not? There are people on every continent who have never travelled, never been exposed to new ideas, never had to check their cultural value systems. I think we could say the same for blue collar types all over Europe or the lager louts who invade football pitches. None of us have a monopoly on that kind of small mindedness. If European culture is held in higher regard, well, I couldn't say. Depends on how you define culture. I think that there are plenty of very smart people who hold American achievements in the high cultural field as high as they do European achievments. Maybe you're right about promotion. Or maybe it's the fault of the constant barage of anti-American writing put out by the top European newspapers and "intellectuals" who do their best to denigrate America and American culture at every turn. I am woefully ignorant about Australian culture and world cultural contributions. Care to educate me a bit? I'm usually open to new experiences. Was that theater perserved because of "culture" or because of a desire to attract tourists? You don't know and I don't either. Europe does not venerate culture historically. We do in the US because we have not grown up with the same ancient surroundings. But Europe? Europe invented total war and that included the destruction of "great cultural institutions". That even happened recently in Serbia where all of the old churches were put to the torch by one side and the other demolished the old mosques. Not to mention that beautiful old bridge.

Posted by: RP at September 01, 2004 04:21 PM (LlPKh)

11 Interesting observations all around. I think it's much too emotional an issue to have it discussed with full objectivity. Everybody "feels" one way or another about it. Thank you Random again, for providing such a wonderful topic and forum.

Posted by: Mick at September 01, 2004 04:39 PM (VhRca)

12 Mick, thanks for your comment. You are probably right that this is a good point to slow the discussion down. But first, . . . Oorgo, I don't know that I agree. You make a very valid point about past achievements, though. Take theater, for instance. There are way too many revivals on Bway now. Still, there is sooo much avant garde and new stuff taking place all the time. Ditto for modern dance (which I loooove). As for your point that capitalism eats away at creativity, what would you propose in its place? I note that communism was not good for art. Neither was fascism. Socialism, well, maybe but it tends to make artists very complacent since the handout is always there. Either way, I wish you the best with the horn!

Posted by: RP at September 01, 2004 04:56 PM (LlPKh)

13 I knew I had read about this just a few days ago. And without permission, I have copied from Helen's blog here, but you can read the whole post here I thought lunch would be a welcoming break. I sat with my team and some others I really like, and across from me is a thoroughly pregnant woman I had never met before. She is pregnant. Really pregnant. Like, bursting. And she had just flown in from Chicago for this meeting, making me wonder if there was a restriction with airlines as to the dates you could fly when pregnant, or if I dreamt I had read about that. She introduces herself as Teresa, from one of our suppliers to our contract. I heard the English accent right away, and asked her about it. Her: Oh yes, I'm English. But I've lived in the US for over 15 years now. I smile and sip my soup. Her: But you Americans. You simply have no culture. My spoon stops halfway to my mouth. Me: I'm sorry? Her: Yes, no culture whatsoever. It's sad really. She's serious. She's sitting in front of me, an American, and rubbishing my people? What a bitch. I hear that from time to time, that "Americans have no culture." To such people I want to tell them to trust me when I say that if you have a few generations of people under your belt as a society, then you have culture (there's that anthropology degree coming in handy finally!). Culture is the ability to pass knowledge, beliefs, traditions, rituals, and values through generations. Thanksgiving? An example of culture. High school prom? Yup, culture. Looking both ways before you cross the street? Bingo. So when people say that, they mean another form of it-that Americans are lacking aesthetics, basically. That because we don't around watching Masterpiece Theatre or practice kabuki theatre on a bi-weekly basis, we are numbnuts on the culture scale. Because we don't have Renaissance painters hanging next to the Vermeers or American author's works written on onion skin paper in the vaults of Vatican City then we are lacking. To which I say: wake up, and look at some of the other sparkly shiny things that America can produce. So were weren't painting in the 1600's? I offer Georgia O'Keefe or Rothko. And as far as authors go, we've given the world some great ones-Hemingway, Hurston, and Twain to name a few. So we're not without aesthetic culture either-you just have to appreciate that it's different to European culture. And yes, I think that emotions come into play but wouldn't YOU feel that way if someone suggested that your family isn't quite "up to par" as compared to the rest of the block? Gimme a break. (And that usage is what is considered pop culture.) I'm sorry to use someone else's words, but I'm afraid I would throw too much invective -- left to my own vocabulary. Respectfully submitted, Emma Apropos

Posted by: Emma at September 01, 2004 06:14 PM (MAdsZ)

14 RP - You'll like the article I blogged about on July 4th: http://www.calblog.com/archives/003815.html Credit for pointing me to the article goes to Linda at Auteriffic. Also, is "disperception" really a word? Something else you might enjoy is a book by one Lynne Truss entitled "Eats, Shoots and Leaves". It's a grammatical treatise.

Posted by: Mark D. Firestone at September 02, 2004 06:56 AM (XR2Cx)

15 Emma, I read that on Helen's blog, too. It was entirely appropriate. Mark, disperception is a word a friend of mine coined. We made it up because we felt it was needed, badly, in the language. It works. I'll go check out your piece today. Thanks for the reference.

Posted by: RP at September 02, 2004 07:52 AM (LlPKh)

16 I got quoted! I am being thrown up in literary circles! I am awed! Truthfully, I heard it again yesterday in the office-the whole culture/no culture issue. And you know? I have come to the following conclusion: Culture is for yogurt. People are just people.

Posted by: Helen at September 02, 2004 12:36 PM (4tEWI)

17 Well, as long as you are not being thrown up ON, you are probably doing just fine!

Posted by: RP at September 02, 2004 12:37 PM (LlPKh)

18 The word "disperception" has been used by orthomolecular physicians in the United States since the 1950s. It is not a new word. RP's claim to have made the word up is uninformed.

Posted by: Em at June 08, 2005 11:50 PM (mm/kv)

19 Thank you, Em, for your comment. I had never heard of orthomolecular physicians before. Having not lived in the 50's, I couldn't really say.

Posted by: rp at June 09, 2005 09:36 AM (LlPKh)

20 Odd..I just did a search for "disperception" and there were all of 47 instances in all of 8,058,044,651 web pages. Every single one (that wasn't an obvious spelling error) referred to a state of sensory misinformation. Not a single bit about orthopedic sciences, molecular or otherwise. Even more oddly, despite the fact that it has sporadic (yet common) usage, it does not appear in the Cambridge or Oxford unabridged dictionaries or the International Dictionary of Medicine and Biology. Why, it's almost like it hasn't been used in even an inconsistent fashion by the orthomolecular physicians in the United States since the 1950s. How very, very odd.

Posted by: Jim at June 09, 2005 11:53 AM (tyQ8y)

21 Type in the following terms in Google for more specific results: disperception + orthomolecular dispercetpion + copper Try looking up the author Abram Hoffer in the library or at health food stores. He is a popular author who practices and writes about orthomolecular medicine. As Jim has found there is very little on the Web still. In fact, I came upon this site/blog after typing in "disperception" as the search term in Google, and I was surprised to see this as the first result. I periodically search for this term precisely because so little of the word is used on the Web. I am working on an article theorizing that a filmmaker's work centers on his characters' experimenting with disperception as a means of solving their life problems. Sometimes this method deepens a character's troubles. Having a stake in introducing the word to film criticism, I was dismayed to see the word misused so flagrantly here by RP. I do not believe ignorance to be bliss. But having not lived in the 50s either, I guess I shouldn't know anything culturally significant from that era that have become anachronisms in our time. Consequently, bomb shelters and hula hoops should be beyond my grasp. The term "disperception" was not coined by orthomolecular doctors. I don't know how the word originated, but it was used by early psychoanalysts and neurologists to describe symptoms experienced by schizophrenics. I am guessing that the word's lack of use now has something to do with the pre-eminence of the DSM in the psychological field.

Posted by: Em at June 16, 2005 05:46 AM (UAb8w)

22 Em, as fun as this may be for you, you kind of come across as a jerk so I'm gonna just cut you off. Since this is my blog, I get to decide that I don't wish to bothered by your subtle digs. I will close with this: how can I be "uninformed" and at the same time misuse the word so "flagrantly" when by your own admission, the only way to have turned up your specialized knowledge would have been to conduct a google search with such great specificity that it presupposes the very knowledge that the search is designed to discover? No need to answer, I'm just pointing out that you may need to brush up on your logical reasoning. It's a pretty flagrant mistake.

Posted by: RP at June 16, 2005 06:39 PM (LlPKh)

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