Poll!
It has recently been made clear to me that fewer people read in the shower than I had previously thought! I.e., the people whom I might reasonably suspect to be in the habit of reading while shampooing their hair have indicated that they do not, in fact, take books into the shower with them.
Hence, a poll, inspired by this post at TFLN (“(518): im starting to measure my showers by the number of beers i drink while im in there.”), which I shared in Google Reader, and the discussion that ensued in the comments:
Ben: Do you read in the shower?
PD: Yes. Do you?
Ben: No… I’m too busy… showering
PD: I get my showering done, too. I just get bored without a book!
Ben: Doesn’t this prolong your shower –> waste more water –> lead to ecological collapse –> WHY DO YOU HATE MOTHER EARTH, [PD]?
PD: That’s what I thought about the beer-drinker — how long is she/he showering for?! But reading in the shower is ecologically sound, because I just read for brief snippets of time – while getting hair wet or rinsing shampoo out, etc. In fact, if I didn’t read in the shower, I would stand around enjoying the hot water and prolong the shower. So reading in the shower is actually good for the environment!
SW: how do you keep the book from getting soaked? Especially with wet hands?
PD: Carefully. It is not for the faint of heart, or for those who like their books pristine.
Miscellany
I’ve been working on some labor-intensive projects lately and so haven’t been around much. Then I took this past weekend to be away from the internet almost entirely, aside from checking in on email and reading The French Laundry At Home in conjunction with reading TFL Cookbook. I’ve been reading a lot of cookbooks and cooking-related books this past week as a sort of escapism and an antidote to the project-related stress. Unfortunately, the projects look to be kicking up again in the next few weeks.
Good: Went to see L’Elisir d’Amore again on Sunday because I wanted to see Ramon Vargas again and hear “Una Furtiva Lagrima,” his big aria in Act II.
Bad: Ramon Vargas was out sick and Adler Fellow Alek Shrader was subbing for him.
Good: Alek Shrader has a beautiful tenor voice, a charming stage presence, and despite a tendency to overdo the vibrato at the beginning, did a wonderful job as Nemorino. “Una Furtiva Lagrima” was tender and warm and Shrader was great as an awkward, naive Nemorino. Vargas played up the comic side and was utterly charming, but I also liked Shrader’s more subtle approach.
Bad: the three little kids in front of me that thought it was appropriate to stand up, whisper, and eat candy out of noisy cellophane bags during the show.
Good: The little kids shut up when I got completely fed up with them and said, “Shhh!” after they started talking during the middle of “Una Furtiva Lagrima.”.
Bad: They started talking again after the aria was over.
Bad: Their parents also thought it was appropriate to whisper and eat candy out of noisy cellophane bags during the show.
Angry: People who go to the opera to talk during the opera should not go. I understand that they want to take their kids and give them a treat or god knows what–but the opera does productions specifically “for Families” every year. If they can’t make those or want to go to the full-length show, then they should make their kids behave. If kids cannot sit down and shut up for two and a half hours, they should not be at the opera because they are spoiling it for everyone sitting within earshot of them.
Good: I spent the past weekend reading Ruhlman’s books, The Soul of a Chef and The Reach of a Chef, and learned that the kitchens at the French Laundry and Per Se are extraordinarily clean for restaurant kitchens. They’re spic and span, they’re so clean that Keller can walk around in socks without stepping into any spills or sticky spots. In a restaurant kitchen! According to Ruhlman, this is because Keller is a stickler about cleanliness and perfection and doing a job correctly and without mess because mess means waste.
Bad: I read this and immediately thought, “If they can do this in a restaurant kitchen, I can do it in my kitchen!” This is reason #1 why I would be a terrible person to live with. I like my apartment clean and neat in very specific ways, and it bothers me when it’s not.
Good: Kitchen is now clean, with counters and stove scrubbed, floor swept, pots and pans thoroughly cleaned and scrubbed free of burned-on oil coats, and knives sharpened.
Bad: Still haven’t scrubbed the floor.
Good: Have successfully maintained the rituals and high levels of cleanliness for three and a half whole days.
Good: I have comp tickets to the Adler Fellow Gala Concert.
Good: Ji Young Yang, who has a voice like silver bells, and Alek Shrader are singing scenes from Semele together.
Good: Heidi Melton, Andrew Bidlack (excellent as the Fool in Boris Godunov this year), and Kenneth Kellogg!
Flewellyn on “flyover country”
Today’s theme is self-awareness in speech.
As far as the whole “flyover country” myth goes, or the countering myth of “real Americans are rural Americans”, I frankly am sick of both of them.
I live in “flyover country”, in Minnesota, and people are not inbred hicks around here. Okay, most of them aren’t, I daresay you can find a few anywhere. But there’s nothing about rural or middle American voters that makes it right to ignore us, as many liberals seem to do.
On the other hand, we shouldn’t be held up as the archetype of “true America”, with all others being some variety of fake or ersatz American, either. Midwestern Americans are not privileged with some special wisdom on the true spirit of the American Dream, or what our nation is really all about, or with what the country really needs above all else. Conservatives have made the “heartland values” idea into a hallowed myth of their platform, and frankly, I think it’s just as pernicious as the dismissive “flyover country” idea, because either way you slice it, you’re writing off a good chunk of Americans as irrelevant or somehow less worthy.
Both memes need to be put down. Rural and midwestern Americans are no better, but also no worse, than those you’d find in the large cities of the coasts, and we should be neither ignored as irrelevant nor idolized as the only true Americans, because the “true” American is EVERY American.
Originally posted as a comment by Flewellyn on Shakesville using Disqus.
It’s the flip side of things: if you object to “San Francisco liberal” or “out of touch, elitist, New England liberal,” you ought to object to “flyover country” and “inbred Appalachians” and “West Virginia cousins.” I used to make jokes about all of the above until I realized that if I disliked the dismissive, reductionist stereotyping inherent in “San Francisco values,” it would be hypocritical to perpetuate similarly dismissive, reductionist stereotypes based on geography and class. The phrase “flyover country” is so scornful and dismissive and it says, “I’m not interested in going there, so that area and all its inhabitants are below me.”
HHS Rule Change: 21 Days
“Alternatively, what kind of advertisement would you develop, considering these factors?
I’d love to see the Dems go full force against HHS’s upcoming policy that equates birth control with abortion. Senators Clinton and Murray have been fighting pretty much alone on this front, and a full court press against it from the entire Democratic Congressional Delegation, including Senators Obama and Biden, would show the Democratic commitment to choice.
I’m talking ads, speeches, some sort of Dem Leadership march on Secretary Leavitt’s office that’s carefully planned, meticulously scripted, thoroughly publicized on every talk show with lots of zingy talking points. Plus the Dem leaders in each state could hold related press events, building the Dem brand for downticket races too. If Senator McCain and Governor Palin are forced to go on record either for OR against birth control, their ticket’s rep as “Mavericks” is going to sustain some serious damage with either evangelicals or moderates. Heads we win, tails they lose.
Most Americans want access to birth control and would be horrified to learn that this policy may put their access in jeopardy. Even many anti-choice voters are pro-contraception. And this could be an easy way to win some points with independents and moderate Repubs, plus reminding Dems what side fights for them, since it doesn’t involve waiting on a court decision or until election day. All we have to do is make Leavitt so uncomfortable that he pulls the policy. We have less than 30 days.
Originally posted as a comment by eleanora on Shakesville using Disqus.
That? Is a fantastic idea. You know the drill: call, email, and write your senators and representatives and call up the Democratic candidates, too.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: 202-225-4965 (DC)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: 202-224-3542 (DC)
Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama: 202-224-2854 (DC)
Democratic vice-presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden: 202-224-5042 (DC)
Senators: Senate.gov
Representatives: House.gov
Comment on the rule change at Regulations.gov, providing “Provider Conscience Regulation” as the subject.
Some photos: food
Some photos from the past two months: food.
Rosewater creme brulee and pistachio shortbread at Citizen Cake. The creme brulee was perfect and the caramelized top was sweet and burnt-bitter and shattered into pieces with each bite.
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Bias, Media, and McCain 1
Dear Financial Times,
While your recent headline is a description of Senator McCain’s speech, and therefore might not be representative of your views on his speech and candidacy, it remains misleading:
By headlining your article with “McCain puts faith in sober experience,” you lend credibility to the idea that McCain has experience and that it’s worth something. I’ll grant you that he’s held state office since 1983 and does have experience working in the House and Senate, but to imply that his experience is “sober” and that it’s something that he, or you, or any voter should put “faith” in is highly misleading, primarily because his performance in the past few years consists of rejecting his former principles and stances.
For instance, in February the Senate voted 51-45 to ban waterboarding and torture by the CIA. McCain, despite previously opposing torture, voted against the ban. There are some principles and experience, right there–the experience of caving into the Republican party and abandoning not only personal principles, but the principles of humanity as well as the Geneva Convention and international law, all in one vote. From the NYT,
Senate Republicans generally opposed the bill, but several of them also did not want to cast a vote that could be construed as supporting torture, and so were relying on President Bush to make good on a threat to veto legislation limiting C.I.A. interrogation techniques….
The prohibition of harsh interrogation techniques is part of a wider intelligence authorization bill and would restrict all American interrogators to techniques allowed in the Army Field Manual, which bars the use of physical force.
The House approved the bill in December by a vote of 222 to 199, mostly along party lines. Wednesday’s vote in the Senate was also along party lines. All the “no” votes were cast by Republicans, except for those of Senators Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, and Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska. Five Republicans and Senator Bernard Sanders, independent of Vermont, voted “yes.”
But the White House has long said Mr. Bush will veto the bill, saying it “would prevent the president from taking the lawful actions necessary to protect Americans from attack in wartime.”
…
Mr. McCain, a former prisoner of war, has consistently voiced opposition to waterboarding and other methods that critics say is a form torture. But the Republicans, confident of a White House veto, did not mount the challenge. Mr. McCain voted “no” on Wednesday afternoon. (emphasis mine)
In another instance of betraying past principles, McCain once advocated for lobbyist reform. From the Washington Post,
Appearing as a witness on the opening day of a Senate hearing on lobbying reform, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was one of several senators to denounce earmarking, a practice he called “disgraceful.” He outlined one of several proposals to tighten rules and require greater disclosure of lobbying activities. But he told the committee, “We’re not going to fix this system until we fix the earmarks.”
Nowadays, however, he is receiving money from 507 bundlers and 70 lobbyist bundlers. Among their number are representatives of large financial institutions (e.g. JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, UBS, Blackstone, Granite Capital, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns [heh], Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, NYSE Group, Goldman Sachs), health care firms (e.g. Vanguard Health Systems, Blue Cross Blue Shield, AMN Healthcare), energy firms (e.g. Mosbacher Energy, TXU), and assorted large corporations (e.g. Disney, Sony BMG Music, Starwood Hotels, Anheuser-Busch, Johnson & Johnson, AT&T, Visa, MGM, FedEx). He’s not just taking cash from lobbyists, however; he’s also staffed his campaign with them. From Washington Post,
But when McCain huddled with his closest advisers at his rustic Arizona cabin last weekend to map out his presidential campaign, virtually every one was part of the Washington lobbying culture he has long decried. His campaign manager, Rick Davis, co-founded a lobbying firm whose clients have included Verizon and SBC Telecommunications. His chief political adviser, Charles R. Black Jr., is chairman of one of Washington’s lobbying powerhouses, BKSH and Associates, which has represented AT&T, Alcoa, JPMorgan and U.S. Airways.
Senior advisers Steve Schmidt and Mark McKinnon work for firms that have lobbied for Land O’ Lakes, UST Public Affairs, Dell and Fannie Mae.
More recently, McCain’s campaign declared that warrantless wiretapping by the executive branch is A-OK, no court oversight required. This position might come as a shock, considering that he had previously said,
“There are some areas where the statutes don’t apply, such as in the surveillance of overseas communications. Where they do apply, however, I think that presidents have the obligation to obey and enforce laws that are passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, no matter what the situation is.”
From the NYT, his position these days is,
A top adviser to Senator John McCain says Mr. McCain believes that President Bush’s program of wiretapping without warrants was lawful, a position that appears to bring him into closer alignment with the sweeping theories of executive authority pushed by the Bush administration legal team.
In a letter posted online by National Review this week, the adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, said Mr. McCain believed that the Constitution gave Mr. Bush the power to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor Americans’ international phone calls and e-mail without warrants, despite a 1978 federal statute that required court oversight of surveillance.
Mr. McCain believes that “neither the administration nor the telecoms need apologize for actions that most people, except for the A.C.L.U. and trial lawyers, understand were constitutional and appropriate in the wake of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001,” Mr. Holtz-Eakin wrote.
In other words, McCain is saying that four more years of the Imperial Executive and unfettered power above the law are what he believes in. Corporations have no need to obey the law and respect the privacy of the little people, individual citizens, and neither does the executive branch.
McCain has repeatedly turned his back on his principles and abandoned the policies he once advocated in order to pander to the Republican party and its supporters, corporate and otherwise. He’s demonstrated experience in casting integrity and convictions aside for the sake of political expediency–and not for the sake of the public good, but for his ambitions. That is not the kind of experience that anyone with an interest in fixing the corruption and devastation wrought by the Bush administration should put faith in, sober or otherwise. So I’d like to suggest some alternate headlines for the article, which more accurately reflect the nature of McCain’s candidacy and are more in keeping with the content of the article:
* McCain Favors Extending Bush’s Aggressive, Imperialist Foreign Policy
While Mr Obama favours engagement with US foes and wants to end the war in Iraq, Mr McCain would seek to increase pressure on Iran, North Korea and Cuba and keep US troops in Iraq indefinitely.
* McCain Remains In Denial About Iraq. Possibly Contemplates Another Marketplace Stroll with Armed Troops and Helicopters As Escorts.
Mr McCain set out his case against the Illinois senator in Tuesday’s speech, portraying him as dangerously inexperienced on foreign policy and dangerously liberal on domestic policy.”He is an impressive man who makes a great first impression,” the Arizona senator conceded, before going on to explain why Americans would reject him once they got to know him better.
“Americans ought to be concerned about the judgment of a presidential candidate who says he’s ready to talk, in person and without conditions, with tyrants from Havana to Pyongyang, but hasn’t travelled to Iraq to meet with General [David] Petraeus, and see for himself the progress he threatens to reverse,” Mr McCain said, highlighting the two main foreign policy differences with his rival.
* McCain Puts Blind Faith In U.S. Efforts In Iraq
Mr McCain accuses his opponent of an ideological commitment to “surrender” in Iraq, ignoring evidence that US forces are making progress since last year’s troop surge.
Headlines are important because they’re the visuals that people first see and remember; they’re the first words people read in an article and therefore shape how they perceive the content of the article; and they’re nifty tag lines or summaries that people remember. Knowing that, I find the FT headline “McCain puts faith in sober experience” troubling. It presents a misleading image of McCain as a sober, rational person rather than the hot-tempered jerk he is–the article cited there was also published by the FT, back in April–and presents his experience as something worth a damn. He has all the wrong kinds of experience, in pandering, in working with lobbyists, in abandoning principles, in supporting the abrogation of the separation of powers (and therefore the Constitution and the limits it places on the executive branch), in serving the interests of corporations rather than the people, in ignoring the rule of law, and in voting for evil legislation.
————————————-
Financial Times, Andrew Ward, “McCain puts faith in sober experience,” 2008/06/05
NY Times, David Herszenhorn, “Senate Passes Interrogation Ban,” 2008/02/13
Washington Post, William Branigin, “McCain Calls to Reform Pork Barrel Politics,” 2006/01/25
Public Citizen
Washington Post, Michael D. Shear and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, “The Anti-Lobbyist, Advised by Lobbyists,” 2008/02/21
NY Times, Charlie Savage, “Adviser Says McCain Backs Bush Wiretaps,” 2008/06/06
Half Week In Photos…from a few weeks ago
Photos beneath the cut. These are all taken with a cameraphone, since (a) my digital point and shoot is erratic and unreliable; (b) the Canon Eos 35mm is not exposing properly and I have to take it to a shop as soon as I get the current roll out. The cameraphone is surprisingly convenient, since I nearly always have my cell phone on me, and it’s light and fast. So I actually do take pictures with it on the go. And the ease of getting photos off of it in digital format is seductive. It still doesn’t match up to working in a dark room or shooting a person for an hour, though. There’s a whole different mentality to working with a person and concentrating on her or him, but consciously making the effort to take a photo a day is making me see things differently again, the way I did when I was taking photography in college and shooting three 36-exposure rolls a week.
Saturday, 2008/04/26, Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market
The tomatoes have been out since early March, I think (I’ve been losing track of time lately). They were so gorgeous, so vibrantly red they practically glowed in the bright sunlight at the market. I was ecstatic the first time I saw fresh tomatoes at the market this year, without even remembering what they tasted like. I knew I’d rather make pasta sauces with fresh tomatoes than canned, but it had been so long since I’d done it that I’d forgotten what the difference was. Then, back in March, I made spaghetti all’ amatriciana for my first fresh tomato sauce of the year and it was great. The phrase that comes to mind is one that I heard from an acquaintance in Athens last summer, “There’s a party in my mouth and no one else is invited!” (the flip side of that one is “There’s a party in my mouth and everyone’s throwing up.”). There’s an extra layer of taste, a zing, that comes from fresh tomatoes.
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