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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-306448552014-10-16T14:11:40.336-07:00Huevos RancherosBecause I just didn't have enough writing to do, so I started another blog. This time it's personal.Gritsforbreakfasthttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-31125967822757139292014-10-16T14:11:00.000-07:002014-10-16T14:11:40.352-07:00Higher, cometary mathThe idea that the European Space Agency is about to land a spacecraft on a comet is downright remarkable. Here's how they got there:

Can you imagine the mathematics involved in calculating an orbital path so precisely, much less landing the thing and riding the comet for most of the next year? Unreal.Gritsforbreakfasthttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-16264726470525290172014-10-09T12:18:00.001-07:002014-10-09T12:18:22.898-07:00Three random math and science items I want to rememberA comet slingshot around Mars later this month and NASA has a remarkable number of ways they're gathering data from the event. Check out the graphic here. Here's another depicting its trajectory.

I didn't know a "blood moon" was a real thing until the recent eclipse. I was up during the time frame but there was too much cloud cover to see the moon from my back deck. Some of the pics from locales were it was visible were pretty spectacular. Apparently the earth's atmosphere acts as a lens to create the refracted red effect.

How many ways do you know to multiply? This person has counted 25, at least. I also enjoyed this blog post on the history of division. I'm coaching 4th and 5th graders on an elementary school math pentathlon team and am teaching them to add, subtract and multiply from left to right in their heads as opposed to right to left as one does when performing sums on paper. They think one different way to multiply is too much; 25 would (will) blow their mind.Gritsforbreakfasthttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-23883978621463688602014-08-14T09:54:00.001-07:002014-08-14T09:59:22.045-07:00Other stuff to do with kids in Mexico City

Recently we took our seven (nearly eight) year old granddaughter to Mexico City for a week and several folks have expressed surprise that there was anything for a child to do there. In fact, it was the second time we'd taken her to Mexico City - the first time she was four - and there are plenty of things to do with young kids. Moreover, the subway system makes the city super easy to get around, at least for most tourist purposes.

I've already written about Mexico City's wonderful children's museum, El Papalote, which ended up absorbing a couple of days of our most recent, kid-centric trip. Here are a few other kid-friendly things to do in El D.F.:

Zoo in Chapultepec Park
The zoo in Chapultepec Park is excellent - probably too big to get through in a day with a small one - and makes a great in-city day trip. It's easy to reach via the metro. It's a short walk from the metro stop to the zoo entrance but you can ask anyone for directions or, on weekends, just follow the crowd with kids who migrate there in great numbers every Saturday and Sunday. The zoo is free but some special exhibits require a (relatively cheap) ticket. There's a food court on the grounds; skip the US brands there and go for the Mexican sandwiches, tacos, etc.. is my advice.

Alternatively, the exit to the zoo dumps you out next to several rows of food booths where you can eat comida corrida style (a cheap, fixed price, multi-course meal). There's a little merry go round there, a mirror maze, a playscape, and small train that circles around part of the park that you can get on near the food stalls. My suggestion: Get something at the food stalls in the zoo, look at animals till you've worked up an appetite, then head to this food area for a satisfying late afternoon meal in a relaxed atmosphere where there's something for kids to do.

Be forewarned, the main paths to and especially from the zoo and in Chapultepec Park generally on the weekends are lined with innumerable vendors selling snacks, drinks, trinkets, face paint, plastic superhero or princess-themed toys, etc.. Consider yourself miraculously lucky if you get past them without reaching into your pocket. (And some items, like face paint or agua frescas are hard to say "no" to on a fun family day.) For kids old enough to add and subtract, consider giving them a small sum they can spend on trinkets or snacks every day and let them choose what it is. It's inevitable, so why not do it in a way that teaches some responsibility and leaves you out of the decision making surrounding every 10 peso transaction? That strategy worked out well for us on our most recent trip.

The Zocalo
The zocalo in Mexico City is a massive open square with a large cathedral on the north side and the national palace on the east. There's no telling what's going on there on any given day, but there's usually something. The church is worth visiting and the sidewalk outside includes not just the usual trinket and snack-sellers but opportunities to receive a shamanic blessing by women in traditional native garb waving smoldering handfuls of sage around their customers.

The Diego Rivera murals in the national palace may be about all the art viewing many young ones can stand. We found that, with some effort, Ty could follow the grim storyline Rivera related about the Spanish conquest and the people's uprising during the Mexican Revolution. But she was more interested in the (admittedly amazing) cactus garden behind the small courtyard housing the famed murals. In the daytime, take a frisbee to throw out in the square, or maybe a kite, for the bold - there's a surprising amount of wind there most times of year.

For us, though, the best part of visiting the zocalo was at night. Here's how I described these outings in another venue:

Just for fun, we took some light-up garb with us to Mexico City to the zocalo after dark: The granddaughter's hoodie with EL Wire stitched around the edges, a few dozen small glow sticks, a couple of balloons with flashing RGB LEDs inside them, and three battery operated EL Wire strands long enough to use as a jump rope, one of which ended up lining a hat. Folks approached in gaggles wanting to buy one or the other of the light-up goodies, with somebody offering five times for a strand of EL Wire what I'd paid for it. We gave away glow-stick bracelets to the kids and referred would-be customers to the websites where I'd bought them. (This was a great way to meet families with kids, btw.) When it was bed time, the young'un gave away the balloons with flashing LEDs to a couple of little girls in the square and distributed the last of the glowsticks to a passel of teenagers before she turned, hoodie flashing, and we walked back through the seemingly ever-present multitude to our hotel.
The walk from our hotel to the square was a pedestrian-only street jam-packed with people. Every few yards you'd see people elaborately dressed as cartoon characters, superheroes, or monsters looking for people to pay ten pesos (about 77 cents) to take a picture with them. You can get an ice cream or other sweet and walk up and down people and building watching, window shopping, and soaking in the experience of being in the center of one of the planets most populous, vibrant cities.

Teotihuacan
A visit to the pyramids at Teotihuacan is a standard tourist day trip from Mexico City. But I must confess, I have mixed feelings about taking young kids to ruins sites. Ty has been to both Teotihuacan outside of Mexico City and to Chichen Itza in the Yucatan. Chichen Itza was a complete bust - she was more interested in the bark on the trees than the pyramids we were there to visit. Teotihuacan, too, was a little much for her. She was interested at first and had fun climbing over and under things, where it was allowed. But the outing took too long and by the end we had quite a grumpy girl on our hands. OTOH, she remembers both outings fondly, especially Teotihuacan, and her account of the episode after the fact included none of the complaints that seemed to dominate the day. Go figure.

The problem with taking kids to such places is they have no history nor context for what they're seeing and there are more things they can't do ("don't climb," "don't touch") than things they can. If you go, take snacks, water and head coverings (no shade at Teotihuacan), and maybe a ball, frisbee or other toy for a bit of play time.

Market day
I'm sure locals become numb to the experience, but to me, after dozens of visits over the years, a large Mexican market is still like a wonderland - certainly that's true the first time you go through it. There's a large market just southeast of the zocalo in Mexico City that's perfectly located for the first-timer or the hundredth alike, but of course there are many others scattered around the city. Be sure and ask a local for a recommendation and travel directions, though. Some are sketchier than others.

Shop for whatever you're personally after but stop whenever the young one wants to look at toys, snacks, etc., she potentially could afford. After all, what's the use of walking through a wonderland if you're not allowed to stop and gawk? Pro tip: Give the kid a (slightly larger than the usual daily) allowance and tell them they get to decide how to spend it. Then you're not to blame when they can't have something. And don't forget you can buy ridiculously inexpensive kids' clothes while you're there, much more cheaply than even discount stores in the states.

Eat a big breakfast before you go then in the afternoon eat comida corrida in the market. If you're still hungry, there are dozens of stalls with treats, fruits, and all manner of goodies that will delight any palette. Don't neglect the street stalls surrounding the market; if it looks clean and there are lots of locals standing in line, it's a pretty good bet.

If you're staying somewhere with a kitchen, consider spending an evening where you buy food from the market and cook it yourself (ideally channeling your internal Diana Kennedy). Most American kids aren't used to seeing food that fresh go straight from the butcher or the farmer's stall to the dinner table and it'll memorably reinforce what they saw during their market visit.

Xochimilco
When the Spaniards first arrived, Mexico City was built on a lake and the Aztecs moved people and goods about the town through canals on barges and boats. Today, Xochimilco on the outskirts of town is one of the last areas where the old canals still stand. Saturdays are the big day when there are lots of food vendors and mariachis in the water. We didn't go this time but took Ty when she was four. Great family atmosphere. You can rent a boat (including somebody to row) and take a tour up the canals, buying food from boat-bound vendors (or bringing your own) and paying for the occasional tune or three from mariachi bands floating in their own boats alongside you in the canals. This area is filled with flower nurseries and you can stop whenever you want to look at them, have a picnic, etc., though of course be careful of US import restrictions if you decide to buy any flora. (Cut flowers to spruce up the hotel room can be nice, though.) A trip to Xochimilco makes for a lovely, unique family afternoon and getting there is pretty easy via public transit, as described in any decent guide book.

KidZania
We ended up not going because of time, but the KidZania franchise started in Mexico City and has become a mainstay of local kid entertainment. Our hotelier with a young kid and some of their staff with children highly recommended it, though looking online there are criticisms about excessive commercialism, etc.. Somebody must like it, though. Franchises have sprouted up all over the planet and locals say their children enjoy the place. Maybe next time.

Eating out
The good news: In Mexico, there's seemingly no such thing as a non-kid friendly restaurant. If you want to go there, odds are nobody will think twice if you bring your children with you. There are numerous, terrific breakfast places in El Centro, as well as spectacular bakeries. Also, the coffee situation has much improved: Nescafe is becoming rare (previously the only version of coffee you could get) and there are even Starbucks dotting the landscape here and there.

You can't go wrong taking a young'un to the tile-covered Sanborns across from Bellas Artes, which its amazing floor to ceiling murals and fun kids' dishes. (The food is good but not spectacular; you're going for the atmosphere.) When we were there three years ago, one of the waitresses wanted her picture taken with our granddaughter. When we returned this time, she recognized her, gave her lots of hugs and attention, and asked us to return the next day when she brought the old photo and had Ty write her name on the back. Utterly charming.

We also enjoyed Cafe Tacuba, a beautiful old place filled with lovely paintings, murals and an amazing array of stained glass art over the front door. The mariachis there were excellent, as was the food. (In recent years, I've begun skipping Plaza Garibaldi for listening to mariachis - there are typically fine groups playing in and around many restaurants and Garibaldi, while famous, has become a bit seedy if you're taking kids, recent government efforts to renew the area notwithstanding.)

If you choose, you can spend as much money on a meal in Mexico City as one might in a fancy restaurant in New York or London. However, some of the best eating in Mexico happens at food stalls on the street or tucked away in the markets. Perhaps my favorite meal of the trip was when Ty and I got giant, delicious quesadillas filled with chicken, queso and and a thick tomatilla sauce and ate them in the park. Afterward, we played hide and seek for a bit, then she took off her shoes and played in a fountain with a couple dozen other kids. I wouldn't have traded that afternoon for the finest gourmet meal in the city.

Traveling with kids: A philosophical choice
The missus and I have a working theory about traveling with kids. If you're going the bring them on vacation, the vacation is going to be about them. Sure, we might enjoy visiting the National Anthropological Museum or the Modern Art Museum in Mexico City, both of which are spectacular. (We've returned to the Anthropological Museum repeatedly as we've traveled around Mexico and learned more indigenous history; a lot of the best artifacts from every corner of the country are there.) Over the years, we've spent lots of time walking around outlying neighborhoods, visited Frida Kahlo's home, the wonderful Dolores Olmeda museum, and even the house where Leon Trotsky was assassinated. But such outings won't hold a young child's interest for more than a few minutes. After that, every moment can be a struggle if a child is bored or just doesn't want to be there. Force the issue and it's easy to make everyone miserable.

If, on the other hand, you plan a trip around the child's interests - the children's museum, the zoo, playing in the parks, etc. - they'll enjoy the trip more and you'll enjoy your time with them. Some of your time will be eaten up by activities that you might not have needed to leave home to do. Playing hide and seek in the park isn't a Mexico-City specific activity, after all. But it does make for a fun vacation, if fun is what you're looking to get out of it.Gritsforbreakfasthttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-18625205528174220212014-08-07T16:27:00.004-07:002014-08-17T15:31:01.972-07:00Are you thinking about Halloween, yet?Since I've been fiddling with low-voltabe electronics lately, and the projects often require a bit of lead time to implement, I've already begun to fiddle with concepts my Halloween costume. I'm thinking of going as a piano. The costume would be playable. Stay tuned.Gritsforbreakfasthttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-89491924104642237062014-07-27T19:02:00.000-07:002014-08-17T13:50:50.134-07:00Postcard from El Papalote

As the grandfather of a nearly eight year old girl who begins a Thinkery camp on Monday, I've spent more than my fair share of time in recent years at children's museums in Austin, Houston, San Antonio and beyond. But the Museo de Niños in Mexico City, universally called El Papalote by the locals, hands down is the best I've seen.

It was big enough and diverse enough that it merited consecutive days visits in a one-week, kid-centric vacation from which I've just returned, an outing that also featured one day visiting the nearby zoo there in Chapultepec Park.

Americans don't think of Mexico City this way, but it's really in many ways a child/family oriented town. Look in most guidebooks and the Museo de Niños may get a one paragraph description, though for families with younger children visiting it's one of the best outings in the city. When we returned to Texas, the first things the child wanted to tell her mother about the trip all were exhibits from El Papalote.

El Museo
El Papalote is much bigger than other children's museums I've encountered. There are several buildings of exhibits, two theaters, three outdoor playscapes for kids of various ages, massive outdoor interactive water features, a food court, and best of all the place is staffed out the wazoo, with a much higher staff to child ratio than I've seen anywhere else, particularly considering the place was packed both days we went. The extra staff made a huge difference. Sometimes when families are around each other too much - like on vacation - children may not always care to listen to the adults closest to them. But the friendly, young staffers with a green vest and big name badges seemed to expertly coax the kids into appreciating and participating in the science themed exhibits.

They did a good job of giving kids something to do in each exhibit. For example, a two story contraption transported 12-inch solid plastic balls up and down from the first and second floor using only kid power from three sources: a hamster-wheel like contraption that powered the drive train and two more areas upstairs where kids reinserted balls from the top, via a hand crank and a game where you balanced the ball on a board around obstacles to get it in a corner hole.

Another exhibit features streams of colored light falling like rain on the wall that seems to slide off the sides of kids' shadows, accumulate within the neck and shoulder or a bended arm. I'm not sure myself how that thing worked, but it was really cool. (The Austin children's museum has an exhibit where they freeze one's shadow on the wall at the end of a countdown, and come to think of it I don't understand how that works, either.) This is a standing feature; it was there when we visited three years ago.

Perhaps the youngun's biggest favorite was a presentation on pressure, showing how one nail may pop a balloon but the presenter could place the balloon on a bed of nails and lean down on it with all her weight without popping it. The point was that the weight was distributed among and thus divided by the total number of pressure points so that any given nail didn't penetrate the skin. They invited kids and parents alike to lay on the bed of nails, which could be raised and lowered through holes in a stiff plastic sheet on a specially built rectangular table top. She was scared at first and didn't quite trust the science she was being told, but "laying on a bed of nails" was right up there among the her highlights from the trip.

The Target Audience
We'd taken the child to El Papalote three years ago during her fourth summer and the differences between a four and seven year old are great. But she found things to do both times - different things interested her, as one might expect - and on both trips she considered it a highlight. By my observation, the more complex exhibits could accommodate kids up to maybe 12 years old; teenagers would probably soon get bored. Or hired. The staff was young, though they did a good job.

It certainly helps the more you speak Spanish. All the instructions are written in Spanish as are the presentations by staff. But if you've got a smattering - in our family, I can get by and the young'un is more fluent than me - there's plenty there to enjoy. And there are a good stock of under-utilized staff wearing "I Speak English" buttons. There are so few English speakers it was like having concierge service. Even so, the excellent service we got because of the novelty of English speakers' presence underscored the extent to which this is a place intended for Mexican children, not necessarily the tourist crowd, which perhaps is why the guidebooks short shrift it.

Getting there
You could take a cab there but I don't always trust them and personally prefer the subways, trolleys and buses for most day-to-day travel when visiting Mexico City. Plus, kids love trains. I looked through a half dozen guidebooks in our hotelier's bookshelf and none of them had good directions to the Museo de Niños, which is a bit of a trek from the main entrance to enormous Chapultepec Park. Here's the best route we found:

Get on the subway from wherever you're staying, find your way to the number 7 (orange line) toward Barranca del Mureto and get off at the Constituyentes stop. As you come up the stairs and out, turn left, go upward, and turn left again, ascending to a green pedestrian overpass that'll get you across a busy road (they'll also sell you a great quesadilla or sandwich on the way, too, I should add). From there, you walk forward past the presidential residence (a day care named Jardin de Niños is on the other side of the street) and just past it on the right you'll see a second, larger overpass that leads you across Ave. Constituyentes and to the Museo's back door. When you exit the pedestrian overpass, go forward, keeping the yellow building on your left. Walk up the drive and the next left gets you to the main entrance. Avoid the temptation to continue along the highway after the second pedestrian overpass - that way will get you there but add a third of a mile or so to your walk.

Other Logistics
Entry fees are higher depending on whether you see a movie or other performance in their theaters, but the basic entry fees sans movie was about $10 or so (American) per head, so in the scheme of things quite reasonable There's street food all along the path or you can eat inside from decent chain restaurants - some American, some Mexican - in the food court, though even the Mexican versions of US fast food purveyors tend to have menu items one hasn't seen in the states.

One caveat. If you leave between 5 and 7 p.m. on a weekday (the museum closes at 7), you'll hit rush hour when you get to the train headed home. This is doable but potentially stressful and a much different experience than riding around the subway in half empty cars during the day. Small children may need to be picked up to avoid a scary crush when the crowd begins to really pack in. Everything will work out and other passengers will help protect the child if they know what's happening, but I mention it to advise that you prepare yourself and your kid for the experience. Our granddaughter was freaked out when so many people began pouring onto the train and did not stop.

Transportation logistics aside, the Museo de Niños is a great antidote for kids bored by one more trek to visit ancient ruins or who only barely tolerated being dragged through the (wonderful, but grown-up) National Anthropology Museum, also in Chapultepec Park. If you're going to impose a visit to Frida Kahlo's residence, make them view Diego Rivera's wonderful but ghastly murals in the National Palace, or force them to climb the pyramids at Teotihuacan though no one can tell them who lived there, the least you can do is throw them a bone and take your kid someplace that's expressly for them. El Papalote fits the bill.

MORE: I forwarded this post to the contact email for the museum and a gentleman named Daniel Elizondo emailed back to say, in part, that "We know it can be hard to get to the Museum, we are working on different solutions that will facilitate transportation and connection with the rest of Chapultepec." That would be helpful, it's a big place! Two suggestions: 1) Try to reroute or expand the little white train that runs through the park to serve as a de facto shuttle for the Museo, the zoo, and other kid-related stops, and 2) Improve (i.e., install) signage from the Constituyentes metro stop, maybe even spending a little promotions money there. It's only a short walk but unless you know where you're going, the path is not obvious.

RELATED: Other stuff to do with kids in Mexico City. Gritsforbreakfasthttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-50102024938458565152014-01-25T14:49:00.000-08:002014-02-12T13:39:10.079-08:00Beware the WeevilEye: Soldering for 7-year oldsFor Christmas, the granddaughter received a "WeevilEye" soldering kit we got her from SparkFun. Last week she soldered together an LED circuit she and Grandma made into a bracelet with moldable plastic, but this was a much more involved, detailed affair, and the first time she'd soldered onto a printed circuit board (PCB). So we had her practice first on a scrap board, soldering several wires and a resistor:

Once she had that process down, she started in on the WeevilEye.

Three resistors, a transistor, a light sensor, two LEDs, and a battery holder later, the finished project worked just as advertised: The eyes light up when it's dark and go off in the light.

The only real problem came when some solder bled across both slots on one of the LEDs, but that was fixed just by reheating it and wiping off the excess with a small sponge. Also, the coin cell battery holder leads were a bit small and difficult to access once all the other components were in, but she accomplished it just fine once she found the right angle. Here's what the finished product looked like, from the SparkFun site:

If I had one suggestion it would have been for the manufacturers to include an on-off switch on the battery holder. Because it uses a transistor, the device drains the battery even when the LEDs are off. But the battery pops out pretty easily and that's not a big problem. Quite a nice little introductory soldering kit for a seven-year old.

AND MORE (Feb. 12): Not a soldering project but I wanted to store these links somewhere: Last weekend we took the young'un to an event at Laguna Gloria Art Museum in Austin where they had the kids create small theremins on a breadboard. Excellent event; lots of kids and families there. Here's the link to the project page, the schematics, and in case they eventually take those down, here are several other sites they recommended for other noise projects:

MFOS

Beavis Audio

Nicolas Collins

Eric Archer

And especially, any book by Forrest Mims.

Gritsforbreakfasthttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-67822965751073441242014-01-08T07:54:00.000-08:002014-01-23T14:02:46.324-08:00Beefing up my Arduino chops

Looking forward to taking a couple of classes over the next two weeks on programming and experimenting with Arduinos - small microcontrollers/computers that use sensors for inputs - at the TechShop in far North Austin. I've been fiddling with the tech in autodidact mode for a couple of months but am hoping formal classes will give me an opportunity to get over the hump and really begin doing stuff with them. Classes are a little pricey at $90 per, but I don't really know where else one would go to learn this stuff.

Kathy has lately been fiddling around with wearable technology. Most recently she stitched el wire into a hoodie for the granddaughter that lights up, flashes, etc.. Once my Arduino programming chops are up to snuff, we're hoping to combine the efforts using the Lilypad or FLORA platforms to do more interesting, programmable clothing projects that incorporate sensors, sound, light, and potentially motion. The idea is for all this to peak around Halloween.

These projects have been a really nice diversion from some of the heavier topics I deal with at work.

ALSO: Looking for more detailed instruction on these topics, I signed up to audit an online class out of UT-Austin on embedded electronic systems - one of their new MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses. You can pay a little extra to get your work graded and end up with an "achievement certificate," but I'm in it for the knowledge, not the credential. Here's the syllabus and the course site. The class is based on this book. I'm quite looking forward to it.Gritsforbreakfasthttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-21633928449035510212013-07-23T18:42:00.004-07:002013-12-31T14:31:10.063-08:00Fart noises for the treehouse doorbell: An inspiration

I've been on a DIY kick recently and today in the car I asked Ty, if you could have a button on your treehouse that you could press and it would do something (light a light, make a noise, move something, etc.), what should it do?

She thought about it for a moment then said she wanted a doorbell for her treehouse. A moment or two went by and she began to giggle, then announced that she wanted a doorbell that made "fart noises."

Looking around at the possibilities, if I'm not mistaken, I think I've figured out how to pull that off without breaking the bank. Looks like this little module and a 9 volt battery will do the trick for $12. Very cool.

UPDATE: This worked like a charm! Even better, we put it in a little case where the young'un could remove it and re-record whatever she wanted, and she changes out the message every couple of weeks. My only beef: I wish the "record" button were on the little green board and the "play" button was the one attached externally with wire (on the right in the photo) so you could better place the button you hit to make noises wherever you want. But we figured out how to make it work. It's been a big hit. Really cool module for the price.Gritsforbreakfasthttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-86367683529380293672013-07-21T14:28:00.002-07:002013-07-21T14:30:06.295-07:00Ready for another vacationWish I were in Mexico City right now. This was Ty's dinner at Sanborn's across from the Palacios de Bellas Artes on our last night there two summers ago. The arms and legs are taquitos; the eyes are hot dog slices with green pea pupils:

Shadow dancing in the zocalo:

When you go to the zoo, do you like your camels with one hump ...

Or two?

First panda I've seen, how 'bout you?

And unlike here, it's not too onerous to spend the day outdoors:

These days, a certain young'un is a bit more skilled at the monkey bars than two summers ago.

This was at the Children's Museum in Chapultepec Park, Mexico City, which is also where the aforementioned zoo is located. At the time, Ty was a month shy of her 5th birthday: Our next vacation begins in a week. I'm ready for it to have started yesterday.Gritsforbreakfasthttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-46234923258610087112013-01-26T09:14:00.001-08:002013-01-26T09:14:42.414-08:00Future low-information votersYesterday, while picking up my six-year old granddaughter from a YMCA aftercare program, I walked in on a staffer from the Y quizzing the kids on their political knowledge. "Does anybody here know the name of Texas' governor," she asked them, and dozens of hands flew into the air. "Not the President," she said, "not Barack Obama, but who is the Governor of Texas?" Nearly every hand went down except for one, small child at the very back of the room. The staffer called on her and she confidently piped up, "Mitt Romney!" I couldn't help but laugh out loud and interject, "Wrong state, he used to be a governor, just not here."

When Ty and I got to the car, I taught her the names of Texas' Governor and Austin's Mayor on the way home until she could repeat them on demand. "It's important to know their names," I told her, "if only so you'll get the joke when people make fun of them, because almost everybody does."Gritsforbreakfasthttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-85545059740125054222012-12-21T09:04:00.001-08:002012-12-21T09:05:15.432-08:00Wicked Witch of the East Photo GallerySince a certain six year old has been practicing her role as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, the remains of the Wicked Witch of the East have come to temporarily occupy my living room, with my grandmother's piano playing the role of Dorothy's house:

Y aqui:

Y más cercano:

Nobody will confuse us with prop makers, but we've gotten a lot of mileage out of this simple gag, both when she's practicing her role and as a running household joke. They never fail to garner a second look from visitors, either, but no one has to ask: Everybody knows the reference.Gritsforbreakfasthttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-14123414781019972562012-11-30T10:36:00.002-08:002012-11-30T10:36:59.079-08:00Imagine how well he'd shoot if he looked at the basket!My nephew Jack, promoting this year's "Maggie Lee for Good" event October 29:

Gritsforbreakfasthttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-84070122876244623712012-11-16T06:36:00.000-08:002012-11-16T06:36:01.435-08:00The Twinkie is dead, long live the Twinkie

Hostess, the Irving-based maker of "Twinkies," is going out of business, reported AP. See more background on the company's demise. Though I ate their products as a kid, today I can't think of a thing these folks make that I'd miss if their products were taken off the shelves. From what I read, it sounds like company management pretty much brought this on themselves. I'm sorry for the 18,500 workers nationwide who might lose their jobs, and I don't think anytime soon that the word "Twinkie" will exit the American lexicon. But wouldn't be sorry to see Twinkies and their ilk exit the American diet.Gritsforbreakfasthttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-51443128232754511312012-11-07T15:37:00.001-08:002012-11-07T15:37:41.456-08:00R.I.P. Darrell Royal 1924-2012My father passed along this tribute. Though his three national championships came a decade prior, I'll always remember him paired with hometown hero Earl Campbell, as depicted here:

Last time I saw Earl, regrettably, he was nearly as decrepit as Coach Royal. Sad news.Gritsforbreakfasthttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-27430871932175724192012-10-20T07:32:00.002-07:002012-10-20T07:32:55.565-07:00Howdy, folks!A depressing image for any Texan:

Via the Dallas Morning News

I won't mind seeing the old fellow get a modernizing makeover, but what a surreal event!Gritsforbreakfasthttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-54697153708262450642012-08-01T09:57:00.001-07:002012-08-01T09:57:23.085-07:00Badminton suspensions place wrongly blame players for incentives created by Olympic officialsThere's a stench of hypocrisy surrounding the decision by the International Olympic Committee to suspend eight badminton players yesterday for tanking matches to manipulate who they would face in the seedings. (See Washington Post coverage.)

By contrast, the Japanexe soccer (football) team will rest four or five of their starting players in its game today against Honduras, I heard on NBC, because they're already won enough to be guaranteed a slot in the elimination rounds. NBC color announcer and former Olympian Cobi Jones predicted a Honduran upset as a result. Similarly, yesterday I watched an Australian boxer who had clearly dominated the first two rounds of a fight get on his bicycle and avoid significant punching exchanges with his opponent throughout Round Three.

How are these episodes any different from the athletes who tanked badminton matches? (And if you don't think badminton players are athletes, you haven't seen the game played at the highest levels.) IMO the blame lies not with the athletes, who're only responding to the incentives created by those who set up the event. If you want everyone to try hard every game, make them all elimination matches. But don't blame players for maximizing their chances to win a medal under the rules, which is all that happened here. Don't like it? Change the rules.Gritsforbreakfasthttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-66329355703672584832012-07-18T08:30:00.002-07:002012-07-18T08:30:32.697-07:00How long does it take to ...This interesting list of options popped up on Google when I began a search query with "How long does it take to ...":

boil an egg

get to the moon

get a passport

digest food

get pregnant

get to mars

walk a mile

bake a potato

hard boil an egg

buy a house

As it happens, none of those items coincided with my own query, but I thought it was a particularly odd list. Not what I would have expected.Gritsforbreakfasthttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-55670066000043698132012-07-14T06:48:00.000-07:002012-07-20T07:44:08.252-07:00Watching TV, movies from across the Pacific

Kathy and I lately have been watching quite a bit of subtitled Asian TV and movies on Netflix and ran across - arguably, in my opinion - perhaps the greatest (if a quirky and unusual) love story I've ever seen portrayed on film: Castaway on the Moon, written and directed by Hey-Jun Lee. A genius plot, quite well done. Not just every scene but nearly every shot was masterful, emotionally compelling with high impact. It won awards in Asia but I hadn't heard of it: Top-notch stuff. I understand John Waters may be making an American version, but I couldn't recommend the Korean one more highly. Hard to say if the concept will translate.

We also tapped into a recent Korean TV series based on an old Asian cartoon hero called City Hunter, which told the story of an over-the-top revenge plot fulfilled (often against his will) by the son of a man murdered by his government on a secret spy mission against North Korea. The show was fun and compelling as a fan, with each episode ending on 24-style cliffhangers without quite the hokiness of some American thrillers. And the plot was different from most everything on American TV, exciting, provocative, and unexpected, if at moments a bit too sentimental for US tastes.

After watching City Hunter, the missus looked up other stuff done by the same lead actor, which led to a goofy but fun show called Boys over Flowers, which was apparently quite popular in Korea and throughout Asia in 2009. This show is mainly about the pretty boys and their clothes at an elite school where billionaires' kids call the shots and, with the exception of the female lead, the role of female characters is to drool and fawn over the four (admittedly spectacularly pretty) male leads while engaging in catty (sometimes violent) attacks on the heroine. Kathy calls the show "eye candy." So far (we're just a half-dozen or so episodes in), it's barely maintaining my interest, though as a teen love story it's pretty tame by western standards, and a little sappy. Still, the over-the-top class-war laden high-school drama and the always spectacular visuals (it's really made me want to visit Korea) are worth enduring the sappy teenage angst and constant glamor shots. For both City Hunter and Boys Over Flowers, I definitely wish the translations were better.

I should also mention a Chinese movie, King of Masks, which featured the most brilliant performance by a child actress (Renying Zhou) I've ever witnessed: Like watching Jodi Foster's child performances, except arguably with even more nuance and emotional control. How this movie failed to compete for awards in the west is beyond me: It was brilliantly conceived, directed and acted. The ending was a tad sentimental, but for American audiences it would actually seem understated given the happy-ending goop sold to audiences here all the time.

We ran across King of Masks by identifying other movies including the actors from Farewell My Concubine, which received more favorable attention in the west than the other movies described here. Farewell My Concubine is a brilliant, epic film depicting the dark interior world of Chinese opera, particularly for children raised in that glorious but brutal tradition, not to mention the absolute awfulness of the Cultural Revolution and its treatment of artists. (The "concubine" in that movie plays a cross-dressing opera star in King of Masks.) Good stuff.

We've enjoyed two excellent Taiwanese movies during this stretch: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, and Eat Drink Man Woman. These are two very different movies but both focused on the personal lives of women in different eras. The former is set in the 19th century and tells the story of two women bound through decades of personal and political turmoil, while the latter depicts three sisters and their food-centered relationship with their father, an aging master chef. I enjoyed both of them tremendously.

Finally, we've watched two of three parts in the Japanese trilogy, The Human Condition (1959-'61), and are awaiting the third. Some critics have called The Human Condition the greatest movie ever made in any language; they're not far off, certainly for its era. The movie was perhaps the first time the Japanese people confronted in artistic form their nation's brutal totalitarian actions on mainland China during World War II and the implications for their society's ability to integrate into a modern world that respected instead of disregarded values of humanism. Netflix didn't have this one streaming but you can order each part separately through their mail service. So it takes a while to watch it but it's worth the wait.

I'm not sure how much of a market there is in the US for subtitled TV, but the quality of these offerings have been high. I've enjoyed our brief foray into Asian TV and cinema.Gritsforbreakfasthttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-72042254755476697622012-06-02T05:59:00.003-07:002012-06-02T06:02:15.435-07:00The Mystery of the Lost Library of CongressThis is simply bad-ass, and the Law Librarian blog is right that the story is ripe for inclusion in Nicholas Cage's National Treasure franchise: The Library of Congress' blog has a post on the mysterious disappearance of the contents of the first Library of Congress, most of which was supposedly evacuated prior to the British occupation of Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812. At the time, the Library of Congress was a collection of around 3,000 books but more importantly a collection of priceless historical papers dating to the founding of the republic. The official telling focuses on the books, which were replaced with Thomas Jefferson's private collection, according to the official Librarians of Congress blog:

Less than a month after the fire, Thomas Jefferson came forward and proposed that the United States purchase his collection of 6,487 books to replace the library that was lost. Congress eventually agreed to the purchase, although not without controversy; and in 1815 Jefferson's library became the foundation of the modern collection of the Library of Congress.
The papers, though, were the bigger loss, and it appears they (and most of the books) were not burned in the fire in Washington but removed before the British invasion and stashed nine miles away, according to a later report to Congress. Here's how the Library of Congress blog retells the tale:

What is rarely remembered, however, is that in the immediate aftermath of the fire, there were conflicting reports about the extent of the damage that was inflicted on the original collection. Writing in 1905, Library of Congress historian William Dawson Johnston cited documents preserved in the Annals of Congress that indicate that much of the first library had in fact been preserved.

The Annals of Congress for September 22, 1814, for example, contains a letter written by the staff members of the Library who were assigned the task of removing the collection to safety in the days before the invasion of Washington: S. Burch (who was furloughed from his post in the militia on August 22 – two days before the fire – so that he might resume his duties at the Library) and the Under-Librarian of Congress, J.T. Frost (who was too old for militia duty). These were the only staff members involved in the evacuation of the Library. The letter was their report to the Librarian of Congress, Patrick Magruder, about the events at the Library leading up to the fire. They write:

"[On Monday, August 22] We immediately went to packing up, and Mr. Burch went out in search of wagons or other carriages, for the transportation of the books and papers; every wagon, and almost every cart, belonging to the city, had been previously impressed into the service of the United States, for the transportation of the baggage of the army; the few he was able to find were loaded with the private effects of individuals, who were moving without the city; those he attempted to hire, but not succeeding, he claimed a right to impress them; but, having no legal authority, or military force to aid him, he, of course, did not succeed. He sent off three messengers into the country, one of whom obtained from Mr. John Wilson, whose residence is six miles from the city, the use of a cart and four oxen; it did not arrive at the office, until after dark on Monday night, when it was immediately laden with the most valuable records and papers, which were taken, on the same night, nine miles, to a safe and secret place in the country. We continued to remove as many of the most valuable books and papers, having removed the manuscript records, as we were able to do with our one cart, until the morning of the day of the battle of Bladensburg, after which we were unable to take away anything further."

Thus far: two oxcarts were taken away to safety – one full of records and papers, and another containing books and papers. The records and papers appear (in another passage) to have been destroyed in a later fire, one that took place in the safe house; but as for the printed books, Burch and Frost state later in the letter, "a number of the printed books were consumed [in the Capitol fire], but they were all duplicates of those which have been preserved." In other words, the better part of the Library had been removed to safety before the fire, including the most valuable books. Frost mentions the successful rescue of the print book collection again in another letter on December 17, 1814, which he wrote in response to public statements made by the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress. The Committee had claimed that the collection was completely destroyed because no preparatory measures had been taken to expedite its removal. Frost writes, "The several loads [of books] that were saved, were taken from the shelves on which they were placed and deposited in the carts by which they were taken away; they have suffered no injury…"

That account, however, was denied in whole by Brigadier General Duncan McArthur as well as an official "statement of the committee on the Library headed by Joseph Pearson." Could the denials have been a coverup, and if so what might be a possible motive? Could the two men charged with moving the materials decided to act opportunistically? Might there have been a political backstory? (The Law Librarian blog mischeviously suggests as a possible movie-motive that "Jefferson is cash poor and sells his books to Congress because he needs money.") Regrettably, since even the account of the spiriting away of the records says the papers were destroyed in a separate fire at the safe house, one doubts some National-Treasure style adventure might one day lead to their discovery, anymore than I suspect some 21st century Indiana Jones will discover the lost library of Alexandria. But that was all definitely history I didn't know.

Gritsforbreakfasthttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-5740639634994389012012-05-30T14:22:00.000-07:002012-05-30T14:23:38.543-07:00Gila National Forest burningOne of my favorite camping spots in New Mexico, the Gila National Forest, is presently burning out of control, though thankfully prevailing winds have kept the flames away from populated areas so far. The biggest of the fires has burned more than 170,000 acres and is New Mexico's largest wildfire ever. (After last summer's fires in Central Texas, it's easy to empathize.) From the Gila Forest's Flickr stream:

Gritsforbreakfasthttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-36915829484575501242012-05-12T10:09:00.001-07:002012-05-12T11:10:37.248-07:00Backyard Naturalist Report, May 12Any Backyard Naturalist worth their salt must frequently collect samples for further study. These are samples collected recently of several varieties of flowers found in Grandma's backyard garden, along with the collector:

Here's a dragonfly perched over a small pond in the front yard:

And examples of some of the flora:

Yes, that is a television turned into a planter. These are in a windowbox:

And finally, the tomato crop is beginning to come in:

This concludes your Backyard Naturalist report for the day.Gritsforbreakfasthttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-39513521628568791892012-05-08T07:25:00.001-07:002012-05-08T12:27:18.289-07:00'Let Yankees adopt such low callings': Reflections on the making of a southern lawyer

Tracy Crawford presents award to my Dad (right)

I appreciated all the kind words readers had to say about my father, Tom Henson, who was honored Friday in Tyler with the "Justinian Award" by the Smith County Bar Foundation, so I thought I'd point those interested to a blog post from my brother - a minister in Shreveport - giving a brief account of the event. I should add that, though I've always been proud of my father, the hagiography offered up by his law partner and (for me) life-long family friend Tracy Crawford during the introduction left me downright tearful and beaming with pride. (I said to my Dad afterward that normally people don't say things like that about you until they're throwing dirt on you!) Your correspondent was blessed to be raised by good Christian parents of high character and it was wonderful to see my Dad justly honored for his life's work.

BTW, a line from my father's acceptance speech recorded in John's post will give you a flavor of both my Dad's humor and a taste of the cultural background that led your correspondent to choose the perhaps unlikely nom de plume, "Grits for Breakfast." At one point my Dad rattled off a series of quotes about the law from a variety of learned figures from Einstein to Clarence Darrow to St. Thomas Aquinas, but he finished off the litany with a line from Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind: "The south produced statesmen and soldiers, planters and doctors and lawyers and poets, but certainly no engineers and mechanics. Let Yankees adopt such low callings!"

Tracy Crawford mentioned, as my brother recorded, that my great grandfather, Archibald "Arch" Sneed, my grandmother's father, was a huge formative influence for my Dad, and he could have added for me as well. (My brother was a little too young to remember him very much.) He died when I was six and was the first person I loved to pass away, which itself was a formative experience. But this family patriarch's life and legacy was as emblematic of Texas for me as Longhorns or spring bluebonnets.

Sneed's family came to Texas after Sherman's soldiers destroyed their family farm in eastern Mississippi near the end of the Civil War. According to family lore, the women and children hid in a root cellar, terrified, silent and cowering while union troops burned out their farm. They listened to the soldiers pillaging their home while their animals screamed and died in a burning barn just a few feet away from them. Afterward, they abandoned the smoldering rubble to head westward to Texas, part of a mass migration of ex-Confederates that rapidly populated much of the state.

Via the XIT Museum

Arch Sneed was born a Texan and grew up in Lampassass. As Tracy mentioned, he was inspired to see the cattle drives plowing northward toward the markets in Kansas and Chicago. As a young man he moved north hoping to work as a cowboy on the famed XIT Ranch, which covered large chunks of ten Texas counties in the northwestern section of the Panhandle. He was turned down when he first applied, though. They only wanted men age 21 and over who could vote in order to maximize their power in local elections. If you're unaware of the XIT it's an interesting tidbit of Texas history that was incredibly important to that region of the state. A Chicago-based syndicate, if I recall, had traded the state for the massive expanse of property along the New Mexico border - three million acres famously surrounded by six thousand miles of fence - in exchange for construction of the Texas capitol. The granite building - the one still in use today - had to be built to spec: Slightly taller than the capitol in Washington D.C. and facing south, with its back to the Yankee oppressors.

Anyway, before my great-grandfather was old enough to land his dream job at the XIT, Teddy Roosevelt came through town recruiting men to join his Rough Riders, who would eventually join him in his famed ride up San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War. He was traveling through cowboy country recruiting men as he headed southward where they would train in San Antonio before heading to Cuba. Young Arch met the future president, was sorely impressed with him, and desperately wanted to join the Rough Riders, he recounted to me more than once many decades later. But because he was 17, the Army required his mother's permission and she said "no." Her reason: He would be required to wear a blue (read: Yankee) uniform. The wounds were still too fresh. So that was that. He would remain a cowboy instead of becoming a soldier, signing on at the XIT the moment they would have him. If Arch Sneed could be said to have had any life regrets, the missed opportunity to ride with Teddy Roosevelt would certainly be it.

TR recruited Panhandle cowboys

When the XIT Ranch folded before WWI, my great-grandfather became a railroad engineer and worked 30 years based out of Dalhart piloting trains across America for the now-defunct Rock Island Line, retiring with a traditional company watch when he was done that's one of my father's prized possessions. Less discussed in family lore was his participation in massive railworker strike in 1946 busted by Harry Truman. He was a Freemason of some fairly high degree. On a darker note, he very briefly joined the Ku Klux Klan, say my older relatives, leaving once he "found out what they were about." I hope that's true. His favorite book was Ivanhoe, which he read more than a dozen times. (When books were more scarce, you read the same ones over and over.) He could recite poetry nearly endlessly on command, much of it memorized from a set of small blue books anthologizing "classic" poetry he'd purchased somewhere on his railroad travels. (My father later taught me to recite verse as a child from those very same texts.) He raised two daughters, including my grandmother, and sent both of them to college at Texas Tech.

Through all of that, though, he continued to self-identify as a cowboy. It was who Arch Sneed was at his core. Dalhart continues to hold an annual XIT Rodeo along with the world's largest outdoor barbecue. But the annual event in August used to be the XIT Rodeo and Reunion, where, before they all passed, former XIT cowboys would be feted and honored, even driven down the street in a full-blown parade with floats and marching bands. By the time I attended, as we did nearly annually as a kid, the increasingly few elderly former XIT cowboys would ride along in horse drawn carriages, followed by one horse with a poignantly empty saddle to honor the cowboys no longer with them. The XIT Ranch was celebrated in Dalhart when I was a kid more vigorously than the Fourth of July!

Tracy Crawford couldn't be more right that to understand Tom Henson one must understand Arch Sneed. It's probably true for me as well. The man's life helped define our family's values and priorities long after he was dead and buried, and my own identity as a Texan is certainly rooted in his legacy. My father's parents lived just a few blocks away from his maternal grandparents during his childhood and he spent nearly as much time at their place as at his own home. His father was Dallam County Judge and a rather stern man, while Arch Sneed, his grandfather, was a jovial, joking character with a wry sense of humor who liberally handed out nicknames and was full of stories from his cowboy and railroad days, always sprinkled with healthy dose of almost classic Texan exaggeration and bombast, but also the down-to-earth self-deprecation of a man who'd helped transform the Old West into the modern era, along with many others like him, not through oil money or hustling real estate but by the sweat of his brow working other men's cattle and land.

As my father likes to point out, Arch Sneed's life coincided with a wave of technological and social change that's nearly impossible to fathom. As a boy he established his life's ambition watching Texas cattle drives marching northward and before he died he watched on television as a man walked on the moon. What a mind blowing transformation he witnessed! He would have been proud of last week's homage to my father, and I was pleased his memory was recognized on Friday along with my Dad.Gritsforbreakfasthttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-56424911237426650542012-05-03T05:37:00.000-07:002012-05-03T05:44:38.421-07:00Backyard Naturalist Report (for a 5-Year Old)The missus is taking the granddaughter to school today and the young'un asked for an update on the flora and fauna watched most closely by the child in our seemingly ever-interesting (when you're 5) backyard.

First, and most importantly, I can report that there are no fewer than nine spiders - big and small but all the same species - who have created huge webs across 2/3 of the pond:

I was also instructed to check on the plant hanging from her treehouse and am pleased to report that it's covered in bright purple flowers:

Finally, the squash plant she planted in a cup in her pre-K class, which was replanted into a pot on our deck, is now about eight feet long, has grown off a metal table that it will soon completely consume, and this morning sported two, bright orange five-pointed flowers, with two more about to open. Here's an example:

That concludes your Backyard Naturalist Report for May 3.Gritsforbreakfasthttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-42936820723015626942012-05-01T12:19:00.001-07:002012-05-01T12:19:33.853-07:00The sucker at the tableTwo timeless thinkers taught me the importance of picking one's battles in political and other competitive settings: Sun Tzu and Amarillo Slim, the latter of whom passed away this week at the age of 83, and whose book on poker I read as teen. Many in politics mistake proximity to power for influence, coveting a "place at the table" even when the game is rigged. Slim's relevant advice: "Look around the table. If you don't see a sucker, get up, because you're the sucker." Ain't it the truth?Gritsforbreakfasthttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-30644855.post-86496910758971947222012-03-31T06:52:00.001-07:002012-03-31T06:52:06.830-07:00Is graffiti art, free speech, vandalism, or all of the above?In Cario, Egypt, the military has blocked off Tahrir Square with huge concrete blocks and graffiti artists responded by painting replicas of the street scenes blocked from view by the barricades:

Exceptionally cool, from conception to execution. See here for more pics. You tell me: Is this graffiti art, free speech, or vandalism?

Gritsforbreakfasthttp://firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Hollywood Reporter
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?: Berlin Review
Hollywood Reporter
BERLIN -- Hoping to answer the question posed by its titular Shirelles song -- which, as is de rigueur in any recent Asian film, is performed here in a full-length Karaoke version – writer-director Arvin Chen's Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? follows ...
Student Athletes Score Their Dreams
Several Greenwich student athletes have signed National Letters of Intent to play collegiate sports next year. The letter signings took place last week at each of the student's schools. Rye Country Day School senior and Greenwich resident Raishaun ...
New York Daily News
Your Dreams: Analysis by Lauren Lawrence
New York Daily News
For the last few nights, my boyfriend dreamt that he lost me in his dreams. He searched all over for me but I was nowhere to be found. At the same time, I dreamt that he had died or disappeared in some natural disaster. I was so sad when I awakened ...
Women's 'Legitimate dreams' come true in Egyptian film
Legitimate Dreams, a film produced by the Social Fund for Development (SFD) in partnership with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) present a journey through the various governorates of Egypt ...
For some, storm a labor of love
Boston Herald
Call it the Blizzard Baby Boom — eight newborns delivered Friday night and yesterday morning at Framingham's MetroWest Medical Center, seven of them by Dr. Brianne Mahoney, the lone obstetrician on duty. At least three mothers careened to the hospital ...
Secrets of lasting love are hidden inside the brain say scientists
Prof Arthur Aron, a social psychologist at Stony Brook University in Long Island, New York, said: "All of those involved in the study felt very intensely in love with their partner and this was reflected in their scans, but there were some subtle ...
Love Letters – Budgeteer
Love Letters
I am in the world to love you and to want you; to need you, to feel you, to touch you, to be with you. I love you in the morning, the middle of the day, in the house we are together and the house you are away. I love the old and the new, the sunlight ...
Jim Schaefer: A purveyor of love (shhhhh)
Detroit Free Press
Nardone, 43, of Birmingham used to work for Ford. But in the 1990s, Nardone noticed people did things on the Internet they wouldn't do in public, like chat room love affairs, steamy photo exchanges and pretending to be who they weren't. Embarrassing ...
Local lottery winners balance dreams, reality
Altoona Mirror
Everyone has a plan for their winnings figured out as they stand in line to play the lottery or take a penny to their scratch-off ticket: an early retirement, a permanent vacation or an Aston Martin DB5 just like James Bond drove. Shawn Benton of ...
Gordon and Diane Lamb's love story
Gordon and Diane Lamb's love story. Gordon and Diane Lamb have been together for 20 years. The Valentines share some secrets to making their relationship work. Post to Facebook. Gordon and Diane Lamb's love story on USAToday.com: http://usat.ly/ ...

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Being Seated by the Kitchen [moved from Manhattan board]
Last week I went to Sapa. And even though there were plenty of open 4-tops, the hostess tried to seat my next to the big a$$ kitchen doors. Of course I asked to be moved and she readily agreed. However, it started the dinner off wrong for me (and there ended up being many things wrong with the dinner). BTW....most of the 4-tops remained unoccupied for the rest of the night,
My question is this: Why do they do this? Do I look like someone who would accept a sub-standard seat (I am SO not someone to try it with)? For those of you in the know, how does this work?
Depending on the restaurant, servers have their section of the restaurant, and the hostess may have led you to whoever's section was next to be sat. Managers can be particular about things, and this one may have had the order of tables he or she wanted seated. Also, your hostess could have been completely clueless and not known any better.
To start, servers are usually assigned to "stations". As the night progresses, the servers are sat in a rotation. This helps the restaurant to stay organized and the servers to not get slammed at one point by filling their entire station at once. Some restaurants also aim to spread guests out in the dinning room so that it looks full and also to give guests a bit of privacy from each other. In closing, not EVERYONE has issue with sitting near a kitchen. Some people like myself prefer a busy louder room when others want quiet private rooms...to each their own! If you do not want the seat by the kitchen it is very simple...tell the host! They most likely do not care. You shouldnt take it so personal.
re: Just Me
Exactly, there are ways restaurants do things and the key part of the story is that the hostess readily agreed and accomodated your request. Not everyone cares about where there table is, not everyone would view the same tables as "sub-standard" and unless you're wearing a sign to that effect, how would someone at a restaurant know what's acceptable to you?
The expectation that absolutely every single thing that takes place in a restaurant is going to be exactly as one personally perfers is an unreasonable one. Everyone has different preferences so there is no way a restaurant can do one thing and meet all of those needs. The essential thing in a restaurant is for the staff to do their best to meet your preferences wherever possible _after_ you've made them known.
re: ccbweb
But with many open 4-tops being passed on the way to the table near the kitchen, why would the choice be that table near the kitchen - unless they were all previously reserved? In this case they weren't, as the hostess immediately moved them to another table.
I would say that the majority of people would prefer NOT being given the table near the open kitchen doors vs. the other way around. So if there are other 4-tops available, why not use those up first and *then* the one near the kitchen or bathroom doors?
If someone then *wanted* to move to that table, for some reason, they could then pipe up and be moved, opening up a more desirable table for the probable majority would prefer not being seated next to kitchen or bathroom doors.
re: LindaWhit
If the OP was a single diner or one of two, the hostess had probably been instructed not to seat smaller parties at a 4 top. And as soon as she voiced her preference, they moved her. Sounds like they did the right thing.
re: mojoeater
Well, the OP gave no indication that there were only 1 or 2 in the party - by the way it was written, the assumption is 4 people, hence the confusion at passing up all the other empty 4-tops on the way to the table near the kitchen doors.
Yes - if they were 1 or 2 people, I absolutely agree that they shouldn't be at a 4-top. But unless the OP pipes up for a clarification, we don't know that.
ehrmanna, I'm with you. No way, no how am I accepting a table near the kitchen or bathroom-no exception. If that is the only option, I leave for another resto.
re: jpschust
LOL, jps...I have no desire to sit outside a noisy kitchen or busy restroom area. If dh and I want to enjoy watching a chef in action there are other alternatives for that.
So yes-no exceptions.
re: HillJ
I'm amazed that anyone actually gets into the restaurant business. Its hard enough to try to put out good chow on a regular basis much less manage to design a space that has no tables anywhere that anyone won't want to sit. Near the door, near the kitchen, near the bathroom, near a post, too close to another table, near the bar, near that other loud table, etc.
If I had such a firmly held belief about where my table should be, I think I'd get in the habit of calling ahead of time and being very specific about my requirements. It'd save me and everyone else a lot of time.
re: ccbweb
I know you are being a touch sarcastic, but I have restaurants I frequent, and even some I've only been to once where I know exactly where in the room I'd like to sit- when I make my reservations I request those tables.
re: jpschust
Actually, I'm not being the least bit sarcastic in this case (a rare thing for me). I think that if you've got such expectations and requirements, its a good idea for all concerned to call ahead to make sure they can be met.
As for spontaneity, I agree completely. It just doesn't seem like having such a concrete feeling about not sitting at particular tables in a restaurant would work out with such spontaneity simply because if that's all they have, then you've got to keep moving on.
And I didn't mean to disparage your preference at all, you're completely entitled to it. I was musing on running a restaurant when having to face various and completely polar opposite desires from various customers. As I said, some want X table and some wouldn't sit at X table for any reason at all.
re: ccbweb
ccb, honestly, it hasn't been a big problem for me. but when offered a table near either the kitchen or a restroom (and I will add the size of the restaurant plays a part in why it matters to me) I would more than likely leave. If waiting for another table is an option, I might decide to do that.
re: HillJ
I think I presumed you were far more...um...something about it than you actually are. Reality seems to be that you've got your preferences but you're not going to think that the restaurant is some sort of horrible place if they don't happen to have a table you'd enjoy. You'd just accept it and move on. Which is one of the more reasonable approaches to anything I've heard recently :)
And, if customers approached it more like you, I actually think that restaurants would be happier about it all.
re: ccbweb
I don't believe I referred to a restaurant being horrible at any point in our discourse but thank you for reading my lines, not btwn them :) Your perspective is appreciated and I can guarantee you the next time I'm offered a table near a kitchen, I'm going to smile wide because of this discussion and ask if I can wait for another table BEFORE heading for the exit.
re: ccbweb
ccbweb, I'm sorry you feel so strongly about my preference. I run a service oriented business and deal with customer satisfaction issues every day. It's part of the environment. When it comes to my own satisfaction, I am no different.
As for calling ahead, life is far more spontaneous and frankly when I replied to this thread it wasn't a big issue for me, just a preference. Nor do I run into countless, unmanageable problems while dining.
Thanks for sharing :)
re: jpschust
>>>No exception? What about the tables at WD-50
>>>that allow you to look right into
>>>the doorless kitchen as they prepare your food? :)
(For some reason, I remember that as a big window.)
Better yet, a view of the entire kitchen at Citronelle in Washington, D.C. You could even choose to dine at the chef's table IN THE KITCHEN, if you reserved ahead of time. (When I lived there, there were only a handful of truly good restaurants, and Citronelle was one of them.)
I have to admit that we are also a bit particular where we sit. I dont care for places where the tables are on top of each other or you share a long table and bench. When trying a new place I'll ask for a menu at the host station pretending to read it but I'm really glancing furtively at the seating arrangement. If it is somehow not to our liking, I'll hand the menu back and say no thank you.
Although kitchen and bathroom tables doesnt necessarily bother us if there are no other seats available. But in the OP's experience the hostess should have brought them to a "prime" table considering the resto was empty. Although it seems the food quality was the cause and I expect the soon demise of Sapa.
There have been several discussion about good and better tables at restos on these threads before and the difference people perceive. But Jfood thinks that there are certain tables that are just "bad". For example the one next to the bathroom is the best case and when the chair bangs the service area.
Two summers ago in the Hamptons the jfoods and friends (4 in total) went to a resto. Resto was 20% full and has about 50+ tables. The brought us through the entire resto to the table next to the bathroom. Nope, we asked for "that" table. No problem. Over the next 60 minutes, each time a 4-top came in the hostess brought the patrons to the same bathroom-table and 9 times in a row the people asked to move. A quick smile from the hostess and to another table. On the way out jfood, being the firendly type aksed the hostess if they run a pool on how many people turn down the bathroom table and that 10 was the winner tonight. She smiled and said that the manager told them to rry "everyone" for that table since noone likes to sit there. The winner tonight was actually 12 because two groups turned it down before we arrived. :-))
Jfood agrees that the resto would like to spread the groups amongst "stations" to get the flow for the kitchen off on the right foot. But it is rare when Mrs jfood gives that million-dollar smile and asks for "that table" is she turned down. The restos know the gig and if you are pleasant about it, it is rare that this request is not agreed to. If they give you any slack, you are probably in for a long evening.
"My question is this: Why do they do this? Do I look like someone who would accept a sub-standard seat (I am SO not someone to try it with)? For those of you in the know, how does this work?"
wow. no restaurant is presuming anything about you by where they place you. i'm astonished how many people take this sort of thing as a personal affront.
there is a rotation to seating a dining room, so that one or two servers are not *flat sat*. they also try to keep the number of covers even between servers so potential for money-making is fairly distributed.
there are tables in every restaurant that are difficult to seat. some places try to seat them early to get at least one turn off them. the hostess was gracious and accomodated your move. how does that set a bad tone?
lastly not everybody is particular about where they sit.
re: hotoynoodle
Nicely put. When the "do i look..." comment was read I almost fell off the chair, a little self-important, ouch.
Jfood does not understand the "Do you know who I am?" syndrome. Yes I do know who you are, you're a custo like most everyone else who comes through the door. And if you were a regular, the hostess would know you more personally and know which table you might like. Showing up as a name on a reso sheet, that's what the hostess is working wit, a name on a reso sheet.
As you so aptly said there are tables that the resto knows from experience are not "I would like that table please." sorta tables and if they can seat someone there to get the turn that's great. Jfood views this as a try-for. Does that work for the jfoods? Usually not and similar to bringing my water to the table in a shot glass, I just ask politely for a larger glass or a different table. No biggie.
Years ago jfood was taken to Lutece for lunch by a colleague and they sat us next to the kitchen doors. For that meal it was fantastic because I barely looked at the menu but ordered my dishes from those that went by me. :-)). The table overlooking the kitchen at Citronelle in DC, I love it but Mrs jfood would rather i look at her (that's OK with me too) instead of the kitchen staff. :-)))
re: jfood
Jfood, I love your posts.
Before I went into the restaurant business I served twenty years in the Air Force as military police. This provided me with a wealth of experience with people from all walks of life, civilian as well as military.
Then thirteen years as a restaurant owner.
You can not look at someone and know who they are. You treat everyone that walks through the door the same unless they are repeat customers that you have grown to know do or do not like certain things.
Host/Hostess do not deliberately insult anyone by placement so people just need to chill and if you don't like a certain seat ask for another.
You know, I'm with you on this. I've seen it in nearly-empty restaurants where the hostess keeps trying to seat parties at the BAD table by the kitchen (and yes it is the bad table) until someone doesn't object. I would be less annoyed if the restaurant is approaching half-full. Why should a customer have to speak up and feel like they're starting off the evening as a second class citizen?


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Garcetti in Washington to seek funding to restore the Los Angeles River
LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is expected to attend Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard's "LA River Day" event today on the final day of his trip to Washington.
Garcetti and the City Council earlier this year officially backed Alternative 20, the most expensive and comprehensive of four revitalization options being considered by Congress.
"We're at a key moment in our efforts to restore the LA River and I am making it clear to Washington that L.A. deserves Alternative 20, the most robust option and the only one that equitably shares costs," Garcetti said.
On Monday, Garcetti met with President Barack Obama and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx to seek federal funding for mass transit and restoring the Los Angeles River.
Garcetti met Monday with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy and a series of officials from the Army Corps of Engineers, the Council on Environmental Quality, the Office of Management & Budget and the Department of Interior to pitch Alternative 20.
Garcetti was greeted personally by Obama on "his first trip" to the nation's capital as mayor, mayoral spokeswoman Vicki Curry said.
Curry did not provide details of the meeting, only saying that the pair had a "good discussion."
Garcetti met Foxx Monday evening, according Curry. Garcetti said last week he would ask Foxx for federal funding to help build a people mover at Los Angeles International Airport and expand the city's commuter rail network, including bringing "mass transit into the airport."
Curry said she was unable to elaborate on what was discussed in their talk, saying only that it was a "good" meeting.
A planned Crenshaw Line connecting the Expo and Green rail lines will run near the airport, but will not stop there. The existing Green Line stops 2.5 miles from the airport.
Garcetti also met with White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett to talk about a Los Angeles River revitalization project and other issues, Curry said. City Councilmen Bob Blumenfield, Gil Cedillo and Mitch O'Farrell, who were also in Washington to support Los Angeles River issues, participated in that meeting.


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Word: vocalizar
Added on: 2009-05-03 Listened: 20 timesin: Add categories to vocalizar
Pronunciation in Portuguese [pt] Back to Portuguese
- Pronunciation by Dalivedo (Male from Brazil)
- Could you do it better? different accent? Pronounce vocalizar in Portuguese
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- Pronunciation by BrujaCarter (Female from Spain)
- Could you do it better? different accent? Pronounce vocalizar in Spanish
- Random word: sibilância
by Google Translate English translation:
vocalizar = vocalize
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Just got a message from Riky Stock at the German Book Office that there are still a few openings for this year's Frankfurt Book Fair International Booksellers Program. Similar to the editor's trip, this program helps introduce booksellers from around the world to their German counterparts. Somewhat geared towards people interested in importing and selling German books, but I can only imagine that any perceptive bookseller would get a lot out of this sort of trip and the various meetings with international booksellers.
Anyway, here's the info she sent me:
The international programme provides foreign booksellers with an insight into the functions and structures of the German book trade, enabling them to efficiently organise their import and sales of German books. The programme promotes dialogue with other booksellers, German publishers and wholesalers and helps participants to create their own network.
In addition to the attendance at the Frankfurt Book Fair and visits to German publishing companies the programme includes an introduction to the German book market, one day of work experience in a bookshop, two visits to wholesalers as well as cultural activities.
All visits will be supported by presentations given during the seminar. Participants will be able to report about their home countries' book markets. Time is allowed for in depth exchanges of experience between participants, speakers and organisers.
Booksellers Programme 2009
Organizer: Ausstellungs- und Messe-GmbH / Frankfurt Book Fair
Funded by: Foreign Office, Frankfurt Book Fair
Date: 15 – 22 October 2009
Participants: booksellers from non-German speaking regions with an interest in importing German books
Seminar language: English
Costs for participants: € 290,- incl. VAT;
Travel expenses to Germany and back home are excluded.
Room, board and local transport is taken care of by the organiser.
Contact: Nadja Mortensen: mortensen at book-fair dot com
Miruna is a novella written in the voice of an adult who remembers the summer he (then, seven) and his sister, Miruna (then, six) spent in the Evil Vale with their grandfather (sometimes referred to as "Grandfather," other times as. . .
Kamal Jann by the Lebanese born author Dominique Eddé is a tale of familial and political intrigue, a murky stew of byzantine alliances, betrayals, and hostilities. It is a well-told story of revenge and, what's more, a serious novel that. . .
While looking back at an episode in his life, twenty-year-old Taguchi Hiro remembers what his friend Kumamoto Akira said about poetry.
Its perfection arises precisely from its imperfection . . . . I have an image in my head. I see. . .
The central concern of Sorj Chalandon's novel Return to Killybegs appears to be explaining how a person of staunch political activism can be lead to betray his cause, his country, his people. Truth be told, the real theme of the. . .
Spoiler alert: acclaimed writer Stefan Zweig and his wife Lotte kill themselves at the end of Lauren Seksik's 2010 novel, The Last Days.
It's hard to avoid spoiling this mystery. Zweig's suicide actually happened, in Brazil in 1942, and since then. . .
To call Kjell Askildsen's style sparse or terse would be to understate just how far he pushes his prose. Almost nothing is explained, elaborated on. In simple sentences, events occur, words are exchanged, narrators have brief thoughts. As often as. . .
After a mysterious woman confesses to an author simply known as "R" that she has loved him since she was a teenager, she offers the following explanation: "There is nothing on earth like the love of a child that passes. . .
Floating around the internet amid the hoopla of a new Haruki Murakami release, you may have come across a certain Murakami Bingo courtesy of Grant Snider. It is exactly what it sounds like, and it's funny because it's true,. . .
The publisher's blurb for Oleg Pavlov's The Matiushin Case promises the prospective reader "a Crime and Punishment for today," the sort of comparison that is almost always guaranteed to do a disservice to both the legendary dead and the ambitious. . .
One hundred years have passed since the start of World War I and it is difficult to believe that there are still novels, considered classics in their own countries, that have never been published in English. Perhaps it was the. . .


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mailing list archives
On Thu, 6 Feb 2003, N. Richard Solis wrote:
The main cause of AC disruption is a power plant getting out of phase
with the rest of the power plants on the grid.
This is typically a result of sudden load change (loss of transmission
line, short, etc) changing the electromagnetic drag in generators, and,
therefore, the speed of rotation of turbines.
When that happens, the plant "trips" of goes off-line to protect the
entire grid.
Some difference in phase is tolerable, the resulting cross-currents
generate heat in the trasmission lines and transformers.
It is not sufficient to disconnect a generator from the grid. Since water
gates or steam supply can not be closed off fast, the unloaded turbine
would accelerate to the point of very violent self-destruction. So the
generators are connected to the resistive load to dump the energy there.
Those resistors are huge, and go red-hot in seconds. If a gate or valve
gets stuck, they melt down, with the resulting explosion of the turbine.
You lose some generating capacity but you dont fry everything on the
network either.
Well... not that simple. A plant going off-line causes sudden load
redistribution in the network, potentially causing overload and phase
shifting in other plants, etc. A cascading failure, in other words.
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Erika Harlacher is an American voice actress who is based in Los Angeles, California. She happens to be involved in several Bang Zoom-dubbed titles either as a staff or a cast member or both. These titles include Nurarihyon No Mago, Rinne no Lagrange, Sword Art Online, K-On!, Accel World and Atelier Ayesha The Alchemistof Dusk.She happens to be cast alongside Erik Kimerer, Kyle Hebert, Lucien Dodge, Cristina Vee, Wendee Lee, Christine Marie Cabanos, Sarah Williams, Mela Lee and Cassandra Lee.
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