Thursday June 26 2003
****T Rage
It is hot. Probably the hottest day we've had all year. And after 8 months of constant cold, Bostonians are thawing out with a vengeance.
Of course, the B-Line picks today to derail. I was going to walk home but could quickly sense it would be a potentially lethal idea considering the sun. It's about a 50 minute walk home if I power walk, and I could barely muster a steady shuffle. So I got as far as Park Street and decided to jump on the B-Line.
What a mistake. After standing there for about 10 minutes (and only seeing 2 other trolleys go through, and this at 5pm...) a non-recorded voice gets on the loudspeaker and announces that the B-Line has derailed and so we all have to get on other trolleys to Kenmore and then take a bus. This causes all 500 people waiting for the B-Line to cheer. Yeah, right. Of course, five seconds later an empty B-Line pulls in and everyone piles on, and we didn't have to get out at Kenmore to take a bus. But boy, it was packed with tons of sweaty tourists and non-amused commuters.
I went to MBTA's web site and this is what they say...
B BRANCH:
Expect delays in service inbound and outbound between Blandford Street and Kenmore
Square due to earlier equipment problems at Blandford Street.
All other Green Line service is on or near schedule.
Yeah, I think DERAILMENT is just a wee equipment problem. They won't officially announce that it was a derailment just yet because of the earlier problems with the new Breda trolleys that they recently started using again, swearing they were safe.
When I first starting taking transit and gave up my car, I thought how great, I could just sit back and let someone else do the driving. But now I'm beginning to see the allure of commuting by car. Taking the B-Line everyday is like driving a car that breaks down three or four times a week and leaves you stranded somewhere and you don't know when or if you'll get home. And in a car, even if you're caught in major traffic and haven't budged for 30 minutes, at least you can go through solitary anguish in an environment you can control. You don't have the bellies of obese sweaty drunk Red Soxs fans spooning your lower back in a car. Hopefully.
Tuesday June 17 2003
****Happy Holiday
Today is Bunker Hill Day, which celebrate the "decisive day... which the fate of America depends."
****Schick!
As a daily eyebrow tweezer-er, I read this with some interest. And I thought I did to keep little children from pointing and staring! Good to know there's some evolutionary basis for it all... I'm sure I've spent a combined year of my life hunched over a light with mirror and tweezers in hand. Just obeying nature.
****Magazine Review: Real Simple
I picked up a magazine today at my gym (okay, borrowed it) called Real Simple. It's aim was to provide women tips for living simply. Of course, these tips were sparse and sandwiched between pages and pages of ads for products that also proclaimed to simplify your life.
It was the most ridiculous magazine I've seen EVER. Six pages on how to properly fold clothes, with two articles of clothing on each page taking up 15% of the page, the rest being white space. Advice like how you should buy a label maker in order to organize and label the shelves in your linen closet. Yeah, label makers... REAL simple living here, folks. We're practically forging the forests for food here.
This site is much better and free, though they too have an online catalog of things they want you to buy in order to simplify your life.
Monday June 16 2003
****Fat Tax in Britain
British doctors are urging England to begin a "fat tax", in part to raise awareness about and discourage consumption of fatty foods, but also to cover the obesity-related costs that are straining health care costs.
When I saw the words "fat tax," I thought hey, good idea. We'd have official weigh-ins at post offices and then tax people, say $100 extra for each percentage point of body fat that they are over the norm. But of course they're proposing to do the fat tax in the most ineffective way possible, by taxing fatty foods.
They say this approach is a way to prevent and control obesity, but there are a dozen reason this fat tax would not help people lose anything but more of their hard-earning cash to the government. I'll just touch on the major ones:
1. People will not stop buying chocolate and burgers if it costs, say, a quarter more. Fatty foods are proven to be mildly addictive. If we use cigarettes as an example, the 500%+ raise in cigarette prices in the past 10 years have probably not stopped hard-core smokers from smoking. Likewise, a person who cozies up to a quart of Turkey Hill mint chocolate chip ice cream for solace and comfort won't think "Gee, if I get the lemon sorbet, I won't have to pay the fat tax."
2. People don't necessarily get fat from eating fatty foods. I could eat nothing but 50 cups of oatmeal a day (believe me, I could!) and probably be obese in 6-9 months. They'll tax the 700 calorie hamburger, but what about the 700 calorie plate of spaghetti and tomatoes sauce? Or the 700 calorie salad (when you add croutons and dressing?) People seem generally ignorant to the fact that it's over consumption of calories that is the problem. Plus, there's the low-fat effect: Consumers may think, "Hey, low-fat Fig Newton's don't have a fat tax, so I can eat 30 of them right now."
3. Last night I sent my boyfriend to he store for some Ben and Jerry's, which we merrily consumed. Both of us are in shape and can enjoy treats like this because we exercise and show general restraint in our daily lives. Why should we have to subsidize fat people's healthcare costs? This tax would penalize thin people as well, people who can safely enjoy a fatty foods with little impact on their health. Unlike sin taxes like liquor, gasoline and cigarettes, the fat tax would affect people who aren't really sinning when they buy a pack of peanut butter.
4. Almost every food served in most restaurants would probably qualify for a fat tax. How on earth would they regulate this though? They can't test every single food item served in restaurants.
5. What about salmon, which is very fatty but with the good fat?
Sunday June 15 2003
****Trash Lady
Yesterday my boyfriend and I participated in Boston Shines 2003. Boston Shines is an even started by Mayor Menino, which saves the city money by luring citizens into becoming litter pickers with free Dunkin Donuts and Dunkin Coffee, and ugly-as-sin T-shirts.
We cleaned nearby Cambridge Street in Allston along with about six other people, mostly teenagers who were, quite frankly, a little unmotivated. I will never ever litter again. I must've picked up 2 hundred cigarette butts. This town is disgusting and it really shows the lack of civic pride people have around here... which stems from the fact that Boston is a very transient town.
In Allston, I see scores of elderly and homeless people canvassing the neighborhoods and dumpsters for cans to return for the nickel deposit. You'll never see a can or bottle laying on the road unless it's been smashed or bent, and thus non refundable. These people are diligent. Most may do it out of need, but I'm sure there's a few who do it for extra money in their spare time. I think a program set up by the city that pays people like this for cleaning the sidewalks and streets would be beneficial for everyone. It would give Boston's needy a chance to earn money while keeping the litter problem that plagues the city at bay.
I believe people are more prone to litter if they see other litter already on the ground. Then again, as we were walking back home along the street we just cleaned, there was a freshly-dropped snack cake wrapper laying right in the grass next to the sidewalk. I almost shed a tear.
****Rock and Roll
Saw Trans Am (of Washington DC) last night at the Middle East. The opening band Black Maj absolutely sucked, but Trans Am was effing awesome.
Tuesday June 10 2003
****Good Golly, Enough Already
Don't get me wrong, I think the whole Molly Bish disappearance (announced yesterday to actually be murder, as they found a small amount of her remains) is a real tragedy. I can only imagine the pain her family must feel, and it's an absolute waste, and I hope they find the person responsible and do the worst.
This story has been around for three years. I remember when it happened. You would've though from the way the news wouldn't stop talking about it that scores of girls suddenly went missing. Every once in awhile, it would come back into the news: Where's Molly Bish? What happened to Molly Bish?
Thousands of people go missing every year, and probably a good percentage of them are teenagers. Why's the Boston media have such a hard on for the Bish chick? As much as I feel bad, I couldn't care less anymore. People die everyday. People get killed everyday. Do I really need a daily update on the Bish case?
At first I thought it was the unspoken sex appeal of Bish: Blond, gorgeous, fresh-faced, and last seen striding through a parking lot to er job as a lifeguard. Certainly, that's go something to do with it, as well as the fact her name is so distinctive and easy to remember.
But, I realized this time when she came back into the news (after new evidence was discovered, coincidentally around the 3rd anniversary of her disappearance) that one thing has been fueling this rather repetitive news coverage: The Parents. I've seen her Mom, Magi Bish, cry more times than every member of my family put together. Everyday, they put a camera on this poor woman (an older, fatter version of Molly) and she just starts blubbering.
The mother gives these sound bites, overwrought with emotional like "The depth of our sadness no family should have to endure. No one wants to bring a child home, bone by bone."
Yes, true, but why are the parents, in the midst of all this grief and pain, so willing to share it with the press? The press is just making money and selling papers with this very real grief. They would've moved on a long time ago if the Bish family wasn't constantly offering up emotional and painful comments like these to them.
The Bish family says things about helping other families, speeding up DNA recovery in crime scenes, blah blah. It's lost when they sensationalize themselves and their daughter.
Thursday June 5 2003
****Save the Sidewalks
I'm a hard-core pedestrian. Walking isn't exercise or a way to soak up the nice day. It's a means of getting from one place to another. I walk fast and I have little tolerance for people or things that get in my way. I'm like many drivers, and when I'm scorching the pavement with my frenzied gait, I'm focused on one thing only: Getting to where I'm going.
When old, fat or slow people get in my way, I step around them without a thought. It's only when people hog the entire sidewalk and inch along that I get a little peeved. It's like when there's a 2 lane highway with two cars both doing 55mph next to each other so no one can pass. It's simply maddening.
I could go on with this walking/driving metaphor all day, but only to a point. One thing they would never never do is decide to put tables and chairs in the middle of the road so people can sip coffee and nibble at salads on the road. But they have absolutely no problem letting private business do this on the sidewalk.
Well, actually, this woman is apparently finding that Boston does have a problem with it... and so she's whining because she had a midlife crisis, opened a restaurant, and is now finding it difficult to get permits to open seating on the sidewalk.
Am I the only one who finds sidewalk seating annoying? They take up the sidewalk, often leaving a narrow pass for pedestrians. Sidewalks in this city are precious enough. We've got news boxes, trash cans, sign posts, homeless people, and gads of pedestrians. Boston is one of the most walk-able big cities in the country because its small size lets people walk short distances and see so much. That also means Boston is very very small and we shouldn't let our space go to people paying $20 for a bowl of chestnut soup with lobster and some pumpkin raviolis who wanna sit on the sidewalk.
And the motivation? The woman in the article (Cindy Eid, owner of Gallia, a "rustic Mediterranean restaurant") claims it would revitalize the area her restaurant is in. The South End needs revitalizing?!? Yeah, and Boston needs more hotel and another convention center. Her real motivation is, of course, to increase the presence of her restaurant to make more money, by taking over a sidewalk that is there for the Common.
This place near me has sidewalk seating. There's also a string of news boxes on the other side of the sidewalk. It takes up 75% of the sidewalk and there's always a crowd of BU kids eating there, some with their young faces buried in books with a coffee within reaching distance of the right hand, other laughing hysterically or talking or intently. On the sidewalk.
Get off the effing road!
Wednesday June 4 2003
****Japanese Cultural Trend Alert
Looks like Japan will be needing some highly motivated (both work-wise and child-wise!) immigrant workers in years to come. May I volunteer myself? Thanks to a lifetime of instability, the Freeter lifestyle sounds to me like complete hell. I crave being fettered, and I would gladly pledge myself as a lifelong, skilled worker to any one of your cool companies, as long as it is in Tokyo and pays a lot. My boyfriend would love to work for Sony. He's not as terrified of a free-wheeling lifestyle as I am, but that would change for Sony.
I'm not surprised that Japan is having difficulties. What motivation is there for them to get married and have boring, monotonous jobs? They're Japanese! Life's complete!
****Clinton's the Devil?
Senator Clinton apparently spends her time writing books... isn't she paid to be a public servant, not write tell-all exposes that will force us as a nation to relive a historical low point?
"I was dumbfounded, heartbroken and outraged that I'd believed him at all," she wrote.
Hilary, so am I! So is America!
So UNBELIEVably DUMBfounded.
I never cared about Monica
Lewinsky. I think powerful men who are truly great men needs outlets in
their lives. Some prefer jogging, or watching football, or eating. They're probably
not all that great or powerful. Others gravitate towards alcohol, drugs, and
sex with trashy looking women.
According to the article, before she received Bill's fearful confession, Mrs. Clinton was adamant that he had done nothing wrong and was the victim of a "vast right-wing conspiracy." I agree, he did and he was! Where's the scandals about Dubya's suspicious corporate connections (including Enron), his avoidance of real combat duty in Vietnam, his drinking, his drunk driving, his drug use, his insane daughters? Why doesn't anyone seem to care about those things but Bill Clinton's the devil for frolicking with a consenting woman?
Monday June 2 2003
****Newport Trip
This weekend I headed down to Newport Rhode Island with my boyfriend, my father, my step-mother and my aunt. Considering my birthday was last week, and my boyfriend's birthday was yesterday, we weren't really in the mood to tour big old mansions with my family (and a lot of big old people), but hey. It was interesting enough.
We saw the Breakers, which was absolutely obscene in its size and adornments. The tour guide, a little old woman, got so winded from taking us upstairs she couldn't talk normally for about five minutes. That was the only house we got an actual guide for. In the Marble House (my favorite) and the Elms (which looked downright shabby compared to the others), we had those earphones that play recorded information. I like those a lot better because you can take your time and take everything in. I saw many people who couldn't seem to understand how to operate them, though. My confidence in the human race is slowly being chipped away...
I'm much more interested in the human side of these houses than how many square feet of marble it took to build them. I almost bought a book on Etiquette in the Gilded Age, but managed to subdue the Instant Gratification Consumer Monster within. I'll get one at the library.
****Happy but Sad
German insurance companies are giving Holocaust survivors $15 million, says the AP here.
This quote really touched me in a strange way: Teresa Malek, a 79-year-old Auschwitz survivor, said: ``Maybe it will make everybody a little happy.''
Friday May 30 2003
****Code Whatever
Boy, am I glad I don't live in New York! I am safety nestled in the peaceful yellow of mere elevated terror risk. But no fears, I will remain vigilant, Tom Ridge!
I don't understand it, personally. If you're in a building and god forbid a bomb goes off, how will remaining vigilant help you? And watching for suspicious people and activity? What's that supposed to mean? Keep your eyes peeled for bomb-toting and nerve gas-carrying men?
****Trip
Going to Newport Rhode Island tomorrow to look at mansions. While touring Belcourt Castle and the Astor's Beechwood Mansion, I will be sure to remain vigilant for suspicious activity.
Thursday May 29 2003
****Oldie McGreen
Happy birthday to me. And Bob Hope, who turns 100 today. Way to make me feel young, Mr. Hope.
****Fish Food
Looks like the fish industry is opening their pockets to the Bush Administration. Nah, I can't criticize anyone for pushing fish rather than fast food. With lucrative school lunches on the line, can anyone keep fast food out of schools? Proper nutrition of young people in public schools shouldn't be for sale.
****Bored?
This is a great article about Europe. It really articulated how I feel about Europeans and their attitude towards Americans, and it was written by a European, which makes me proud. I mean, they think America is all that is evil in the world, and while we probably haven't done a bang-up job of being the world's only superpower, we're a hell of a lot better than a Russian or Chinese superpower because we're rational. Europe needs to look at themselves, too, and realize they can't have it both ways. Either we interfere in the world's problems, or we sit tight and let atrocities occur.
****Funny Ha Ha
Speaking of which, France is launching the "Let's Fall in love again" campaign, because they're realizing that we took the whole thing about Iraq a little personally. But Hey! They didn't mean anything by it. We'll always by welcome to spend our money in France, and even more welcome to let our soldiers remain buried at Normandy.
Wednesday May 28 2003
****Food
Living in Boston, I'm quite enthused with the "traditional" local cuisine, which is and could only be Seafood. I was a complete vegetarian for years, but after moving to Boston, I admittedly got tired of going to restaurants and ordering the only vegetarian dish on the menu. Usually not much of a choice (in bars, veggie burgers... elsewhere, something with a ton of cheese or fried veggies). So I started eating fish. Nothing makes me smile like a shrimp cocktail.
I was raised in Philadelphia, where the local cuisine is reflected by the fact that it's one of the fattest cities in America. (Number one is Houston.) I read this article in the New York Times, where the writer goes around Philly and samples the "idiosyncratic foods" of Philadelphia.
Of course there's Cheesesteaks. I can honestly say that I've only had about three true cheesesteaks in my life, with the cheez wiz and onions and all that. Not a particularly strong memory. Hoagies were a more frequent pleasure, but after all, they're just sub sandwiches. The best Pepper pot soup I recall having was on a cruise ship in Hawaii. Now that I know Pepper Pot soup has tripe in it, the memory is somewhat tainted. Water Ice I had no idea qualified as a "Philly Phood". Ditto with soft pretzels.
The one food the article mentions that have all sorts of crazy feelings over is scrapple:
As the name implies, it is made from the scraps of pork left over after most of the pig has been turned into ham, bacon, pork roasts and pork chops. These scraps are cooked with spices (usually sage and pepper), cornmeal and sometimes buckwheat or whole wheat flour. The resulting loaf is cooled and cut into half-inch slices, which are fried in butter or shortening until they turn a crisp, ruddy brown on the outside. The inside remains soft and luscious.
Ew. Ew.
My family ate scrapple on Sunday mornings. My dad still eats scrapple. I has no idea what Scrapple consisted of when I was younger. I thought it was a different kind if sausage... which it is, only with the parts of the pig that aren't good enough to be sausage.
Yet, the grotesque nature of scrapple provided me with many great tales with which to regale my Massachusetts college friends when I first moved up here. And, though I would preface such stories with a disclaimer about the grossness of scrapple, I found myself defending people who ate scrapple. I can make fun of it, but how dare these grinder-eatin' oyster-suckin' New Englanders put down scrapple?
Nowhere in the article does it mention how obese Philadelphia is as a city. But that's probably fitting, since it's not usually local cuisine that makes people fat these days.
It also doesn't mention my favorite food out of the region, Shoo-fly pie. It has no redeeming nutritional values whatsoever. My mother sent me one via mail, and my boyfriend was under the impression it contained figs. Nope, that's molasses. I guess it's more a Lancaster thing than a Philly thing.
****Anne Heche Should Just Die
If my gym shows Six Days Seven Nights one more time...
This is possibly the worst movie ever made. Who thought it would be a good idea to make Anne Heche a romantic heroine? She is the most sexless woman to make it big since Mother Teresa.
Tuesday May 27 2003
****3 Day Weekend
Back to work today. The Tuesday after a three day weekend makes a regular Monday look like a Friday. Memorial Day should have a rain date. I would've rather spent yesterday in the office than in my apartment, pining for weather dry enough to ride my bike. Not pathetic enough for you, God?
Every weekend should be three days. Think about it, Masters of the USA: An extra day to do nothing but shop and take short vacations and day-trips. The reason for the recession, you see, is because we're all so busy working and spending time with our loved ones that there's nothing left for the things that really matter, like out of control consumer spending.
****Chinese
My boyfriend and I ate in Chinatown on Sunday. The restaurant, Pearl Villa, got an excellent review in the Boston Phoenix, but I was highly unimpressed. It was touristy Panda Garden cuisine at best. Anyway, going to Chinatown made me think about SARS, which I haven't really been thinking about. I went to the World Health Organization's site about it. They post daily statistics, like today's:
As of today, a cumulative total of 8221 probable SARS cases with 735 deaths has been reported from 28 countries. This represents an increase of 24 new cases and 10 deaths compared with yesterday. The new deaths occurred in China (4), Hong Kong SAR (2), and Taiwan (4).
Technology, will you ever stop amazing me?
****The Greatest Love of All
Aren't Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown pot heads? I hate when celebrities claim some sort of spiritual awakening and start rubbing noses with foreign dignitaries.
Monday May 26 2003
****Movie Review: Matrix Reloaded
I saw the Matrix Reloaded yesterday. While I enjoyed the morsels of special effected eye candy (how did they ever make Carrie Ann Moss look so exhausted and old?), unfortunately such delights were mired in a huge, stinky pile of cliche-spiced dialogue. Philosophy flew faster than the obese man next to me could cram Kit Kat into his kisser. I couldn't even begin to care enough about the characters to try to piece it all together.
I liked the first Matrix lot. It didn't need a sequel. It took this worker drone Neo, a person we can all identify with on some level, and turned him into the One in this exciting new world filled with struggle and cool clothes. The action exuded originality and freshness, and at no point in the movie did I feel as if I was reading Nietzsche as translated by a stoned person. Why did it have to try to be Star Wars?
****Coming Soon: The Hulk
One of the previews for Matrix Reloaded was for Hulk, another summer wannabe blockbuster. All I have to say about that is they turned the Incredible Hulk into a giant angry-looking gummy bear.
****Massachusetts
With all its glitzy private colleges, one would think Massachusetts would hold the UMass system in higher regard. But no. Massachusetts would sooner we fund one billion dollars worth of Big Dig errors than the UMass system. As a UMass Amherst graduate, this makes me want to vote with a bullet. Instead, I'll just write to my MA State Senator, who didn't go to a state school.
Now Bulger is pleading with freshly minted graduates to become advocates of the university system as he's being wheeled to the guillotine. On their graduation day, no less. That's kind of tacky.
****Galaxy
When I was younger, Neptune was my favorite planet. I don't know why I had a favorite planet, or what Neptune had that the other planets lacked. I probably fixated on it because it's kind of the underdog planet. Jupiter's the biggest, Saturn turns on its side, Pluto was a Disney character, and Mercury, Venus and Mars are so close and non-exotic. We didn't know about Charon back then. I guess I identified with Neptune, that unpopular big blue giant. I felt its pain.
It's obvious I was too cool to profess Earth my favorite planet. That's like saying Boston's my favorite city because I live here.
Anyway, they've now proved that Neptunian Springtime isn't just a cool name for a goth band.
****Bored?
This site is interesting. My biorythms are 28% compatible with Christina Aguilera, 29% with Naomi Campbell, 83% with Woody Allen, 85% with Penelope Cruz, and a stunning 87% compatible with Ricky Martin.
My highest compatibility was with freaking Ronald Reagan at 98% and Hugh Hefner at 98%. According to the site, this means that the highs and lows in our intellectual abilities, emotional energy, and raw physical vitalty match 98%. Aren't Hugh Hefner and Ronald Reagan both senile and practically dead?