I'm a lasagna boy!

Adventures underground

I picked up a copy of Randy Kennedy's Subwayland; this book collects his excellent column from the New York Times, which came to an end last year.

Bollocks to your hybrid

Although hybrids are all cool, what with Hyperion offering its employees a cash incentive to purchase 'em, you still cannot drive a hybrid in the high-occupancy vehicle lane, which is good news in my book.
The HOV lanes should encourage congestion reduction and emission reduction, not only the latter. Why choose? Legislate in favour of both. And offering employees an incentive to get another car encourages more short-term thinking: provide shuttles for the employees, provide incentives to cycle or walk to work, give them bus passes, but don't encourage more consumption of new vehicles.

She is certain she has never smoked tobacco.

Tongue-twisters in 105 different languages (including an example in Gujarati), although not all in the correct alphabet. Some are just silly.
Bonus points: showing the correct character-set for each example; showing the region where the language is spoken; providing a phoenetic rendition of each. Despite being a .de site, this seems aimed at English-speakers.

Get the audience in action!

From Audience in Action (I can't help it: the name reminds me of a song):

Dear Castro Supporters,

We need people out in front of the Castro Theatre from January 1-5, at each showtime, to let the Castro owners know they've made a big mistake in firing Anita Monga and messing with a one-of-a-kind San Francisco treasure. Now is the time to show your support! It could make a big difference.

While in both private conversations and media interviews owner Ted Nasser has continued to claim that there will be no change in the kind of films the Castro shows, his actions have contradicted his words at every turn. A few examples of the Castro's new direction:

--In a recent San Francisco Bay Guardian interview (http://www.sfbg.com/39/12/x_script_doctor.html), LA-based booker Richard Blacklock, who was hired to replace veteran programmer Anita Monga, admitted that he works primarily with first-run theatres and that the Castro is the only repertory theatre he's booking for.

--The new Castro theatre website (http://www.castrotheatresf.com) shows other changes in the wind. While the Castro has always been available for rental for film festivals and special events, it's now being offered for weddings, bar mitzvahs, graduation ceremonies, plays, fashion shows, fund raisers, photo shoots, and more. Films are no longer of primary importance at what has been called by some "the finest cinema in the United States."

For these reasons and more we need to continue our fight to save the Castro Theatre. If we can hurt the owners in their pocketbook, maybe they'll see the error of their ways.

That's why we're asking everyone who cares about the fate of the Castro to spend a few hours from January 1st through 5th picketing. It's a great opportunity to continue educating the community about why a good programmer is necessary to preserve the cultural treasure that the Castro has been for the past 28 years; it's a chance to keep our cause visible and in the news; it's a time to get together with other film lovers who feel passionate about preserving the Castro.

Please reply to this email with your availability for any of the movie times below. Please include your phone number--we will only use it to remind you of your shift. To picket one screening will take less time than a feature film. You'll need to show up about 45 minutes before showtime, and be prepared to stay about half an hour after the show begins. Bring a friend, bring your passion--signs and fliers will be provided. However much or little you can do will make a difference.

Showtimes:
January 1st - 1:30, 4:15, 7, & 9:35
January 2d - 1, 4:15, & 7:30
January 3rd - 7:30
January 4th - 7:30
January 5th - 2, 4:30, 7, & 9:30

Can't picket? Don't worry there are other ways you can help! We need people to drop off fliers at theatres and video stores around the Bay Area and help spread the word. We're also looking for folks who can help make copies, or donate a few dollars to help pay for the sign materials and copies we've made. Drop us an email at rehireanita@yahoo.com and let us know what you can do.

Gary Meyer (of the The Balboa Theatre) has some thoughts on the matter; he and the Balboa have stepped in to take over some of the orphaned Castro series.

London to a brick, the web reveals all

At the espresso machine, Peter told me that having my work schedule would make him downright ropeable. Imagine my surprise when, having taken a look-see on Google for the definition, I found nowt. Eventually, the web revealed that "ropeable" means "angry, irritable". He also pointed me to this site of Australian slang, which reminded me of Ben Schott's "perilously close to useful (sic)" Schott's Original Miscellany.

Donate to the Red Cross

Amidst all this disaster, I was again cheered yesterday when I realised that my employer matches my charitable donations.

Flash fun

Thanks to the Deadly Dragon Sound System, I discovered the dub flash games at Infinite Wheel. Whee! And while we're talking of Flash and accents, how 'bout the blaspheming Scots in Chunk Ideas' Snowball?

These are the people that you meet Pt VIIa

Can you meet your neighbours online? And then in the 'hood qua hood?
I'll give an ice-cream cone to anyone who can tell me how Meet The Neighbors is better than -- or functionally different from -- putting up flyers in the lobby, on the corner telephone pool, or sitting on the stoop and hollering at people who walk past.

Meet The Neighbors is not just a website - it's a call to action!  We provide the tools for you to take some very simple steps, right where you live, to create a vibrant, real-life community with the people you share the same walls and roof with.  We help YOU take these steps - but you actually have to take them if this is going to work for you."

Hmmm. I'm not convinced: I entered in a full-on 9-digit zipcode, and the system thinks I'm in the Upper Haight. For the love of mike, I'm even wearing my genuine Lower Haight cap, which you can't get online. As far as hoods go, I'd definitely draw a line between the patchouli-drenched, street-urchin-laden Upper Haight, and the vapour-inhaled-ganja-drenched, schizophrenic-vagrant-laden Lower Haight. Oh yeah, and we gots the hair salons and the Toronado. Beat that, you Amoeba-hustling, Jerry-Garcia-mourning Ashbury tourists.

I think I prefer the L B Jeffries approach to getting to know one's neighbours.

Graffiti / Archaeology

The archive at Graffiti Archaeology contains one of the most beautiful pieces of SF graf I've ever seen, of three elephants. Seismic construction to the 101 (overhead) and Mission Bay project (adjacent) probably obliterated it, but for many years it was visible just before the first Caltrain tunnel after the SF terminus, strangely permanent in the evanescent world of graffiti. "The tunnels in Leeds are perfect for dirt graffiti. All you need is a sock and an idea," says Moose on his web site (I can't find his web site, so I've linked to Google search results for [Moose graffiti]). Ah, graffiti! beloved graf, trendy "street art" (this last site has a terrific gallery of Barcelona murals, stencils, and collage) .

Turning your orbit around

The sure-fire, crowd-pleasing, rolling-around-in-tourist-dollars E-Embarcadero line is on hold, due to a budget shortfall. If I read my legislation correctly, this damn thing should already be operational.
Although this streetcar service would provide a link between the ballpark and the Wharf, as well as a romantic ride down an aesthetically successful urban thoroughfare, MUNI won't take it on due to their $15 million budget shortfall -- despite the fact that they'd get maintenance of the rolling stock for free through the non-profit Market Street Railway.
MUNI has already proposed raising fares again, to $1.50; mix in an intrasigent Transport Workers Union, a clueless Board of Supervisors, and a constantly-changing service plan, and MUNI is on the route to disappointing San Francisco.

The E-Embcardero would have made use of $10 million from a state transportation measure to open a route that included Aquatic Park and the Fort Mason Tunnel.

What's in a name?

My name, for example, is an alias for the "Millionaire Marxist" Carlos the Jackal; the place-name of John's watering-hole: "And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized"; and, of course, it comes from the honourable Semitic root for peace, health.

McDonald's Book Shops Reopens

Although I thought that McDonald's Book Shop had shuttered its doors for good, a report from the Chronicle informs me that the owner was looking for a buyer and renovating the building.
And what atmosphere: "McDonald's, on Turk Street between Market and Taylor, is surrounded by residential hotels, liquor stores and porn shops. Junkies and alcoholics cluster on the sidewalk out front, shouting obscenities at one another and at passers-by." The shop boasts more than a million shabby items for sale in San Franciso's Skid Row.

Jesus don't cry, Or, Where Are the Satanists?

After your local newspaper inserts "advertisement" New Testament editions into your daily delivery, you want a sticker that says "God is on my shit list". You'll find it at Unamerican, celebrating their tenth irreverent anniversary.

Most national newspapers allow religious advertising on their religion pages, but it's unusual to see a Bible giveaway, said Aly Colón, a teacher at the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism school and think tank.

If newspapers are going to accept that type of advertising campaign, they must also make sure that the newspaper maintains impartiality in its news section, he said.

Editors might want to place a disclaimer in the news portion of the paper to let readers know that the Bible they are receiving is an advertisement, not an editorial endorsement of a religion.

"The key thing is how the newspaper maintains its independence from their product and pays attention to their readership and how it maintains that clear separation," Colón said.

Messages left with the Colorado Springs Gazette for comment about the issue were not returned late Thursday.

Theoretically, members of a another group, such as Satanists, could seek to raise money and distribute copies of the Satanic Bible in newspapers, and publishers who deny them the advertising opportunity could be accused of discrimination.

It's on America's tortured brow

Do you want to IM with Martians? Vinton Cerf considers the possibility.

NASA is already studying designs for a "Mars network" of multiple orbiting relay satellites. These satellites would be launched over a period of years, possibly starting in 2005, and the constellation would be replenished by new launches as older satellites' orbits decay. This would enable connectivity between Earth and Mars much (or even most) of the time. The frequent and relatively high-speed connectivity provided by the planned Mars network wouldn't be as "stable" from minute to minute as a terrestrial backbone.

Ashes to ashes

Brewster Kahle wants to complete the circle of Google's Print service: once physical media are available online, make the books, movies, concerts, et al. available at cost to people everywhere.

The social and policy aspects of the internet archive are phenomenal.
Their first colo is in Alexandria, where once Ptolemy took all of your books for his library (and returned to you a faithful copy, but a copy).

The sacred and the profane

Brad, in discussion of the famed Caltrain party car, mentioned the Profanisaurus. Endless amusement; rib-tickling fun; side-splitting euphemisms. And I got to watch Snatch, a superlatively profane movie.
And while I'm on the movies tip, how about the latest Korean animated flick, "Doggy Poo", in which a dandelion sprout guides an existential turd through the thicket of life? (There's a colouring book for the young 'uns). I suppose this might join Léolo as an all-time classic movie about shit. "Gummo" doesn't count.

peppered spiders

Spider mustard, , is my new favourite salad green.

"Dear John ..."

If you're feeling the love for BART, send 'em an essay telling them why they're "America's #1 transit system" (self-aggrandization complete with stickers), and you might win $500 of BART tickets (which are invalid if damp, bent, or in your wallet).

Steal this bike

Someone stole Reed's bicycle. The most recent issue of Tube Times discusses bike theft in San Francisco, but doesn't talk about the open-air parts market at Civic Center, right in front of City Hall.

One damn song that could make me break down and cry

On the bus to work, listening to David Bowie's oeuvre, as so wonderfully encapsulated by Rykodisc's Sound and Vision box set. When the set came out, I skipped school (11th grade), met my parents for lunch in Oakland, and walked down to Jim's Records (now Paul's CDs) in Bloomfield to pick up the $60 4-cd set (packaged in an elegant album-sized box). At the record shop, I bumped into Josh, also skipping school to buy the same collection, and then walked back homewards through a light rain.

Drive-in Saturday. Young Americans. Station to Station. Speed of Life / Be My Wife. Not only is this the last show of the tour ... it's the last show we'll ever do.

Ryko issued the box set as the precursor to their lavish reissue of Bowie's back catagloue on CD (again out of print!): in addition to remastering all of the albums, they made CDs as beautiful as the original albums. And they put out "3-sided" LPs, in a fit of audiophile geekiness. Their Ziggy Stardust reissue ranks with Capitol / EMI's much-anticipated Pet Sounds box set. Damn I sound like an old hippy.

Expectation and resignation

I met several friends for a meal at a chic, well-established café. We didn't know whether five, or six, or seven would show up; five of us cconverged on the café at the same time. But the hostess would not seat us, pointing to the restaurant's policy that "We will not seat your party until everyone has arrived." This underscores the bottom line: money. Instead of focusing on their clientele, the restaurant focuses of seating as many people as possible in as short a time.
A counter to this is that they are in fact focusing on the guests: they focus on the guests who are there. But they fail to extend the convivial nature of eating to their diners.

It's a tough algorithm to satisfy. I asked the hostess to seat all five of us, that we were five only, but she smelled a rat: "I won't add another chair if someone else shows up," she said (I would add haughtily, but that's editorializing).

We ended up with a table for six, and the waiter kept forgetting items, did not bring our entrées all together (in fact, in two batches twenty minutes apart). But we had a great time together, all six of us. My wallet speaks louder than my dissatisfaction, and I will not again go to this café.

On the non-lethal application of beanbags

I'm frankly quite glad that the police subdued, rather than killed, the deranged man who was setting fires in our local (chain) drugstore

Police on Saturday arrested an incoherent man whom authorities said tried to set several items on fire inside a pharmacy before attempting to hold police at bay with a crude flamethrower.

The man, whom police did not identify, rushed the counter at Walgreens, 499 Haight St., at 11:15 a.m. and knocked medicine bottles from the shelves, police said. He then doused several items, including a display of teddy bears, with lighter fluid and started a small fire, said San Francisco police Sgt. Dan Linehan.

When police arrived, the man attempted to ignite one of the bears and throw it at the officers, then made a primitive flamethrower by spraying the liquid through a flame, Linehan said. Officers then shot the man with a nonlethal beanbag shotgun and handcuffed him.

The suspect was arrested and transported to San Francisco General Hospital. One officer was slightly injured when he was bitten by the suspect during the scuffle. He was being held Saturday night on suspicion of attempted murder of a police officer, arson and burglary.

Death row or bike path?

Would you rather spend $250 million perpetuating the death penalty in California, or develop an urban center complete with high-speed ferry, pubs, natural wetlands, and spectacular views?
California chooses the former.

December 18, 2004

San Quentin Debate: Death Row vs. Bay Views
By DEAN E. MURPHY

SAN QUENTIN, Calif., Dec. 17 - So many people in California have been sentenced to death that the state is about to spend $220 million to build a bigger death row next to the current one on a spectacular bayside bluff here.

The state has long had the most populous death row in the country - it now has 641 condemned inmates - and the problem is that very few residents ever leave. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977, just 10 inmates have been put to death, and many spent 20 years or so in their cells before being executed by lethal injection. Four times as many have died from other causes like suicide and AIDS.

"The comment may sound a bit whimsical, but it's literally true that the leading cause of death on death row is old age," said Chief Justice Ronald M. George of the California Supreme Court, a former prosecutor of capital cases.

The decision to build the new prison was made by the State Legislature last year and the environmental reviews are nearing completion. With construction scheduled to begin next September, there is a stepped-up effort by opponents to block it.

But in an indication of how accustomed Californians have grown to their Potemkin-like death row, the debate over the new prison is centered on real estate prices and panoramic views, not the snail-paced approach to executions that has made a bigger prison necessary. Many elected officials here in Marin County, just north of San Francisco, do not oppose a new prison, they just insist that it be built far away on less valuable property, and for that matter would like to move the entire complex.

"The site's location on the bay and proximity to San Francisco along with access to nearby cultural and recreational opportunities provide a unique opportunity to leverage the physical characteristics and natural beauty of the property," states a developmental plan prepared by the county. The proposal, called the San Quentin Vision Plan, contemplates residential communities, bike paths, parks and a transportation center in place of death row and the rest of the prison and its 5,000 inmates.

Margot Bach, a spokeswoman for the State Department of Corrections, characterized the county's approach to San Quentin this way: "They want the real estate. That's the bottom line."

Even with a sharp drop in the number of people sentenced to death in recent years, the new prison is being designed to house 1,408 men, more than double the current death row population. (Women will continue to be housed at a prison in Chowchilla, in the Central Valley.) Most everyone involved expects that death row will get more populous in the coming years because so few of the condemned will be executed.

Franklin E. Zimring, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of a book on capital punishment, said a bigger prison at San Quentin would be an appropriate metaphor for a state that values law and order but seems to have little appetite for Texas-style justice. Texas leads the nation in executions, with 336 since 1976. Its death row now houses 444 inmates.

"What we are talking about looks like an inefficiency, but it may function to give us exactly what we want, which is a death penalty without executions," Professor Zimring said. "When people are ambivalent and not very honest about their priorities, it is very difficult to distinguish between ingenuity and inefficiency."

He said that what was most remarkable about capital punishment in California was that even with strong public support for it - a Field Poll in March showed 68 percent favored the death penalty for serious crimes - there was scant outrage over the courts' slow-paced application of it.

"There isn't a crisis here," said Professor Zimring, a death penalty foe. "Nobody's mad. The district attorneys get death sentences. That is their reward. They frame that. But they are not sitting there waiting for executions."

Many advocates of capital punishment, while unhappy with the situation, say they are resigned to it.

"Our Legislature is run by people who don't want the death penalty to work," said Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a Sacramento-based group that favors stepped-up executions. "They can't repeal it outright because the voters would hang them, but they can sabotage it. It is basically a matter of not pushing."

Chief Justice George said in a telephone interview from Sacramento that the slow pace of executions was caused by both the state and federal courts. The state courts have been cautious in making sure defendants receive the best legal representation possible, he said, while on the federal level, "an active federal bench looks at these cases more carefully than the federal bench in other parts of the country." Unlike the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which handles cases from Texas, the appeals court that serves California, the Ninth Circuit, is well known for its liberal interpretation of federal law.

California is very slow in processing death penalty appeals, starting with the State Supreme Court itself, which under the state's Constitution is the first to review death sentence appeals. The waiting list for an appeals lawyer to be assigned by the court is about four years. Right now, 118 people on death row have not yet been assigned a lawyer. Six years ago the number reached 170.

"The virtues of the system also represent its vices because it does end up causing a lot of delay," Chief Justice George said. "We take great care to try and appoint competent counsel." He added, "I could take care of that backlog in two or three days if I were not following the very rigorous standards that California has established."

Professor J. Clark Kelso, director of the Capital Center for Government Law and Policy at the McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific, was a consultant to the state in the late 1990's, when legislation was passed to speed up the appeals process, including paying higher hourly fees to lawyers. But even with those changes, Professor Kelso said it would take 15 or 20 years to catch up with the backlog of cases before the Supreme Court.

Some groups opposed to the death penalty objected to a new prison when the State Legislature was considering it, but the debate has been minimal since then. Some of the groups have even thrown their support behind the bigger prison because it promises to offer better facilities and would keep the inmates close to San Francisco, maintaining easy access to them by death row lawyers, volunteers and service organizations.

"This was an effort that kind of pulled the movement apart a little bit," said Lance Lindsey, executive director of Death Penalty Focus, a San Francisco group that opposes a new prison. "Of course a lot of us are for humane conditions, but conditions could be improved without expanding death row, and if we ended the death penalty, we wouldn't need all that money to expand death row."

The Prison Law Office, a nonprofit firm located outside the gates to the 152-year-old prison here, is among the groups that have supported a more modern death row. It has also resisted efforts to move it away from San Quentin, insisting that executions, when they do occur, need to be held in a big urban center so that they receive public scrutiny.

Steven Fama, a lawyer with the Prison Law Office, said the new prison was indicative of "a sort of stalemate that has become entrenched" in the state over capital punishment. While the overcrowded death row signals "a legal system that cannot accommodate the death judgments," Mr. Fama said there was widespread acceptance of the status quo and a feeling on both sides to make the best of an imperfect situation.

"Increasingly it just doesn't work the way it is now," he said of death row. "There are not enough cells for the disabled. The mental health care has to be given out in a makeshift way. They have had to be creative, building a chapel in an old shower area."

Assemblyman Joe Nation, a Democrat from Marin County, has been promised a meeting with aides to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has expressed support for the new death row, to make a last-ditch pitch to sink the plan. Mr. Nation, who wants the new prison to be built somewhere less expensive than the Bay Area, said his presentation to the governor's staff would focus entirely on economic issues.

A state audit of the prison proposal last spring raised some financial questions about the plan, and Mr. Nation said it was a mistake for the state to "box itself into having a prison" at San Quentin for another 50 to 100 years by making such a big investment. He said state officials had estimated that the land there was worth as much as $750 million.

In the long run, opponents of the death penalty hope money concerns might also persuade Californians to give up on death row entirely. Though there have been few comprehensive analyses of the financial impact, the Indiana Criminal Law Study Commission in 2002 found that the additional legal and incarceration costs to that state for a death sentence versus one for life without the possibility of parole was about 30 percent.

"In a perfect world, we would have a serious discussion about the death penalty in California," Mr. Nation said.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

dust my lemon lies

Wow. Erik pointed out that fraser speirs wrote an iPhoto plugin for uploading to flickr. Hot damn. And something at flickr or something in Safari has changed, because I can now use their web-based Flash tools to organize my photos.

A few remarks on the mathematics of words

The Washington Post's Style Invitational once again asked readers to take
any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing
one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are this year's winners:

1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you
realize it was your money to start with.

2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright
ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign
of breaking down in the near future.

4. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of
getting laid.

5. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject
financially impotent for an indefinite period.

6. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

7. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person
who doesn't get it.

8. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

9. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra
credit.)

11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really
bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like a
serious bummer.

12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day
consuming only things that are good for you.

13. Glibido: All talk and no action.

14. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they
come at you rapidly.

15. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've
accidentally walked through a spider web.

16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your
bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

17. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the
fruit you're eating.

........And the pick of the literature:

18. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole

workbike

Over the summer, I cleaned out the basement, and gave away a half-dozen bicycles that I knew I wouldn't use (but were still eminently serviceable). One of the recipients, Kim, said that the bicycle has changed how she gets around the neighbourhood.

And today at work, I saw an old Raleigh Sport fixed-gear, replete with fenders and a rack, propped against a cube wall. Turns out the owner moonlights as a wrench at a lbs.

No mayo? Then it's health food.

Now, if the world weren't already small enough already, a sandwich shop in North Beach sells "Pittsburgh-style" sammiches. I found this out because I sat on the bus next to a woman who said, "hey, I met someone who knows you. A white guy. From Ohio, maybe. Did you grow up in Ohio?" After we nailed down the Pittsburgh part, we puzzled it out as she added more clues. And then the sandwiches came up. Hot damn!

Thick enough to cut with a knife

The same day that the New York Times published a front-page scoop on Google's project to digitize library books, the nearby city of Salinas announced that it will close its three public libraries, including the John Steinbeck Library. For lack of $775,000 annually.
Anna has student-taught in three schools in the San Francisco Unified School District; not a one has a library or librarian.

Literally.

The New York Times ran a tidy little article on deep-frying, replete with recipies.

December 15, 2004
THE MINIMALIST

Hot, Sizzling Temptations, Freshly Fried at Your Stove
By MARK BITTMAN

THE cooking method people fear most is the one they love most: frying.

It does everything you want cooking to do. It makes food crisp, tender, gorgeous and golden. The combination of moistness and crunchiness when you bathe fish in hot oil is incomparable, and vegetables are never more appealing than when they're fried with a light batter.

Grilling is fun, and appeals to our primitive side; it's the essence of summer. Frying, on the other hand, is civilized, delicate and more like a winter sport.

Sadly, we've been trained to deny our love, even become ashamed of it, because frying is supposed to be unhealthy. And, the naysayers contend, it's a pain, it's expensive, and it's messy.

Hogwash. Try it once, and you'll be hooked. And on your second try you will come pretty close to mastering the art of frying. You won't need an "automatic" deep fryer (which is far more trouble than it's worth) or other fancy equipment. Even a thermometer isn't essential (though it is undeniably convenient).

As a nation we eat fried food constantly, but almost always in restaurants, where it's least likely to be done well, with old oil, sloppy timing and less-than-ideal ingredients.

Frying lends itself to home cooking. Almost all fried food is best about a minute after it is removed from the bubbling oil. That is when it cools off enough so that its surface hardens a bit, before the interior moisture can begin to soften it again and after the danger of scorching the palate has passed.

At home, with friends who appreciate both the effort and the results, this same process is a joy. Among the favorite meals of my life are those that have begun with a few people gathered in the kitchen while I have tended my little pot of bubbling oil and pulled out a few treasured morsels at a time, transferring them to a paper-towel-lined bowl and offering them within a few minutes.

Frying puts food in contact with liquid fat or oil (which conduct heat better than air) at relatively high temperatures: roughly 350 degrees, as opposed to the more gentle 212 degrees of boiling water. The hot oil quickly drives out moisture (that is what causes the bubbles you see in hot oil), while browning the food evenly. Ideally, the results are the crisp exterior and moist, steamy, tender interior we all crave.

Most food (like fish, for example) is simply too moist to brown evenly on its own, or will burn before it browns and becomes crisp. (Think of broccoli.) That's why we use coatings on many fried foods, and these can range from a simple dusting of flour or cornmeal, both of which are reliable, easy, light, and good, to a full-fledged pancakelike batter, which can even be fried on its own, in the form of fritters, doughnuts or fried dough.

You can fry almost anything: dough or batter, thin slices or florets of vegetables, pieces of meat, wings of chicken and chops of lamb, chunks of banana, leaves of kale or spinach, sprigs of parsley, even ice cream.

I'm offering a range of my favorites: Onion rings tossed with flour, which I especially like when fried in olive oil (not everything takes to olive oil, but some things work perfectly); the onions themselves become limp and sweet, and the flour provides a light crunch. This is a technique that can be used with most vegetables and fish.

Fish is also great when treated with a thick, floury batter, but I like this best when it's done as it is in India, with a spicy coating and seasoned batter; otherwise it seems a wasted opportunity to add flavor.

The doughnut, beignet, fritter, zeppole and so on are all forms of fried dough, with or without other flavorings incorporated. I like a good, plain doughnut as much as the next man, but I like them even more when they're done in intriguing fashion, as are the sweet potato fritters here.

Finally, there's a technique associated with Japan, and found in one of the most common, diner-style dishes there: tonkatsu. It is made by dipping a piece of pork or other meat into flour, egg and bread crumbs before frying, which gives fabulously crunchy results.

These recipes offer a simple frying primer, with the essential techniques for coating (or, in the case of the fritters, creating) food before crisping it in a couple of inches of oil. Few things are as straightforward.

But, you'll ask — everyone does — doesn't the food absorb a lot of oil as it's cooking? For the answer, I turned to Harold McGee, author of "On Food and Cooking" the second edition of which was just published by Scribner.

Clearly some fat is absorbed by fried foods, but only about as much as that absorbed in sautéing or stir-frying, Mr. McGee said.

"The bigger the surface area compared to the volume, the more oil you end up with," Mr. McGee said. "A chip is all surface, which is why it's so wonderful, but it can wind up being 35 percent oil." Most fried foods have much less than that.

Cost may be a concern because of the sheer quantity of oil used. In most cases you will fry in about a quart of oil. The least expensive oils — corn, canola and soy — can cost as little as a couple of dollars a quart (or even less; you can find them for $4 a gallon), more or less eliminating this as a major concern.

Unfortunately I cannot recommend canola or soy oil for frying, or much of anything else; they have off flavors and odors that are compounded by heat. Corn is better; I don't object to its odor when heated, although some people do.

Generally the best oil for frying — and naturally the most expensive — is grapeseed. It has a neutral flavor and lovely, light aroma. It's becoming more widely available and the price is coming down rapidly. Still, it will probably cost at least $4 a quart.

Peanut and olive oils are strong-flavored, but taste good. I especially like to fry lightly coated vegetables with olive oil, which has a relatively low smoke point, about 400 degrees, still well above the temperatures you should be using for frying.

To minimize the quantity of oil, the heating time and spatter, I usually use a standard six-quart saucepan and add an inch or two of oil, leaving at least three or four inches of pan wall to guard against spattering. As long as you're not frying squid or some other insanely moisture-laden ingredient (definitely not for beginners), the spattering should be well within reason.

As for disposal, if you allow the oil to cool, you can then pour it through a funnel into an empty bottle, cap or cork it, and dispose of it easily. If you are exceptionally careful about frying, never allowing the oil to smoke, carefully straining out all solids, and making sure to fry less-strong flavored foods (dough, for example) before stronger flavored ones (like fish), you can refrigerate and reuse the oil.

With braising and roasting, frying is one of the true joys of winter. The results make people happy and, once you get the hang of it, you'll do it with no fear.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

He-who-brings-iced-cream

I completely forgot to mention that Aram is now known as He-who-brings-iced-cream. And, about the adventure of bringing McConnell's ice cream to the north-bound, he writes:

Stopped for McConnell's ice cream on the way back north and ate/drank the melted remnants with Salim and Anna in SF when we returned. two thumbs up despite the bimbo who answered "yes" to the question "do you have dry ice?" becuase should could give us ice without any water/soda. I am not kidding.

bless him and the MDMD for bringing the deliciousness of Santa Barbara (there is good in that town!) to us.

On {time,budget,spec}

The Millau viaduct opened today, exciting much comment:

The bridge's construction costs amount to 300 million euros, with a toll plaza 6 km north of the viaduct costing an additional 20 million euros.

The project required about 127,000 m² of concrete, 19,000 metric tons of steel for the reinforced concrete, and 5000 metric tons of pre-stressed concrete for the cables and shrouds. The builder claims that the bridge's lifetime will be 120 years.

It's a damn sight better than Sir Norman Foster's Millennium Bridge.

Compare to the Bay Area's ongoing difficulty rebuilding a bridge damanged in 1989.

Where wheat begins and where wheat ends

Deborah Koons Garcia screened her documentary, The Future of Food over a meal yesterday evening; she's been showing it around the country -- and the world! -- to political activist groups, food-action collectives, and at the Castro Theatre, as a benefit for Slow Food.
(The lovely and many-talented Sara Maamouri narrates, produces, and did much of the video research for the film.

Andy mentioned that a Native American group would once consider all of their decisions unto the seventh generation.
Deborah said that the US Congress recenlty passed, by virtue of a quiet rider attached to another bill, legislation subjugating Iraq to US patent law. Having destroyed their crops (isn't the Fertile Crescent where homo sapiens first cultivated wheat?), we will now destroy their nutrition.

Neither fear nor fur

Igor, my colleague from St Petersburg, illustrated a cultural difference between Americans and Russians today.

If you're going out hunting, your friends will say to you: "Ni puka, ni pura": Neither fear nor fur. And you'll tell them: "K chortoo!", Go to the devil!

"Russians underestimate, and then deliver more than they underestimate -- so they have a feeling of accomplishment. In America, you over-estimate, and are happy if you can deliver a part of what you promised." Our 'can-do' attitude leads us to commit, but can we deliver?

"Let the slaughtered take a bow ..."

A group calling itself "Audiences in Action" has asked San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to proclaim December 18th "Anita Monga Day" and identify with the Castro Theatre's recently-dismissed program director.

The Castro Theatre is a local treasure (and historic landmark). As a result of the turmoil, Eddie Muller is moving his fabulous, four-year-old Noir City festival to the Balboa Theatre.

The text of the letter follows.

Hi folks--

Here is the letter we composed to send to the mayor,
supervisors, and film commissoners. If you would like
to have your name added to the list of signatures,
please email me with your name as you would like it to
appear.

Thanks!

To Mayor Newsom, Supervisors, Film Commissioner:

As you're aware by now, Anita Monga, programmer for the past 16 years at the Castro Theatre, was dismissed
without explanation on October 26. This seemingly
small event has had an enormous impact on the Bay
Area's film community, and will continue to send
shockwaves throughout the city.

Anita Monga is a film programmer with an excellent
international reputation and far-reaching influence.
Although the Castro Theatre is privately owned and the
owners insist that her dismissal is a "business"
decision (without explaining how firing her improves
their business), their arbitrary, inexplicable act
affects much, much more than their particular
business. Over the past 28 years, the Castro Theatre
has become a cultural icon unique in the country, and
a vital part of the Bay Area arts scene, as well as a
popular tourist attraction. The Nasser
short-sighted decision puts all that in danger.

As a result of their actions, distributors and
filmmakers are pulling their films, refusing to work
with the Los Angeles-based booker whom the owners have hired to replace Monga. Under Monga, the Castro hosted world-class events, such as the re-release of Francis
Ford Coppola The Godfather trilogy, with the
original cast in attendance. Monga had enough
influence to persuade MGM to give the restored Yellow
Submarine a theatrical release, rather than sending it
straight to DVD. In addition, she has played a
significant role in helping to program archival and
other films for many of the Bay Area film festivals.
Because of Monga abrupt firing, the Castro ability
to present rare archival prints, re-released classics,
or cutting-edge documentaries, many of which are made by our own thriving Bay Area film community, is called
into question. The Castro is on the road to becoming a
theater like Oakland's Paramount, beautifully
restored, and usually empty.

San Francisco has always enjoyed a special reputation
for fostering a singular film culture that embraces
indie filmmakers as well as film aficionados and
commercial directors. To deserve that reputation, we
must act swiftly and decisively to reverse this
disastrous event. We must bring all the pressure we
can to bear on the Castro Theatre owners to undo their
mistake, and make it possible for Anita Monga to
continue her workefore some other city's arts
organization snatches her away.

To that end, we are asking you to join with our group
on December 18th as we demonstrate at the Castro
Theatre and demand that Anita Monga be rehired. We ask you to pass a resolution supporting this aim. And
shouldn't December 18th be Anita Monga day?

Please help us save a city treasure.

Sincerely,

Audiences in Action

A Story Problem

Anna, Max, Jen, and Salim want to get from Holloway and 19th to Bernal Heights on a Friday evening. They have amongst them a credit card, a debit card, a $5 bill, four $1 bills, and a pocketful of change (about 75¢, not including pennies). Find the best route. 10 points. Bonus:Find the cheapest method, considering time at $8.50 per person per hour. 5 points.

We are standing at a major intersection, where a bus and streetcar stop.

Possible Solution A
Take the streetcar to Balboa Park BART ($1.25), and buy separate tickets for BART to 24th Street ($1.25). Walk six blocks to the party. Travel time: 30 minutes.

Possible Solution B
Take the bus to Daly City BART ($1.25), and buy separate tickets for BART to 24th Street ($2.15). Walk six blocks to the party. Travel time: 45 minutes.

Possible Solution C
Take a cab. About $3 per person (not including gratuity; cash, credit cards accepted), and 20 minutes.

Possible Solution D
Take the M inbound to Church and Market ($1.25), transfer to the J (free) to 24th Street, walk 10 blocks. Travel time: 45 minutes.

The solution?

We spent several minutes rassling with getting the $5 bill into the MUNI ticket machine, although we realised that it wouldn't conveniently dispense four single-ride tickets. We needed the change, as we didn't have four singles and quarters per rider. We finally wrangled change and tickets from the second machine (the first was ornery about our singles), but in the process of doing so missed the first M that came to the platform. We waited for the next train, and were alarmed when the "End of the line!" call came as we looked out onto a dark, busy street. The MUNI streetcar stopped in the middle of the roadway, so we had to cross a lane of car traffic just to get to the sidewalk -- a sidewalk which had a PCC eerily parked across it (which turned out to be live, although the interior was darkened; just after we walked in front of it the car began rolling into the intersection). We made our way to what seemed like the crosswalk, but were still on the diagonal from the BART station. Why doesn't MUNI have a more formal terminal at the end of its line? Or connect conveniently with the BART, with which it shares a nominal destination ("Balboa Park")? Instead, the M and L lines abandon riders on the far side of their only possible destination, the BART station. We walked to the station and descended to the ticketing area, and bought four single-ride tickets (non-refillable; does BART somehow re-use or re-cycle these tickets?) to ride three stations to 24th Street.

I was impressed to learn that BART vending machines issue multiple tickets in a single transaction; dismayed that MUNI's cannot; irritated at the difficulty of transfer between systems; and satisfied, although not impressd, with the economy of public transit in the Bay Area.

Round-up

What's what in the neighbourhood:

The turbulent bulan modern live-work space on Haight Street now contains several beauty-parlour chairs. This 'hood needs another beauty salon like it needs another marijuana dispensary.

I'm ready for my tombstone: as I was heading out of the office last night, one of my colleagues hollererd down the stair after me: "Hey, Salim, how do you say 'bike path' in Latin?" and I yelled back "Via velocipedis!". I can see it now: RIP. He knew Latin and bicycles.

F Market loses control, smashes cars

The F Market lost control on Market Street at Valencia, careening into five cars.

Traffic was snarled around the area for hours afterwards, exacerbating the Market Street / Hayes Valley congestion problems.

A Natural Experiment

This study published in the Journal of Public Transit describes a natural experiment in which transit users were able to set the value of headway and wait-time for bus service.

"Transforming milk into milk"

Wm Carlos Wms was Allen Ginsberg's paediatrician; AG took this photo of Harry Smith;

.

Here's what's for dinner. Yo.

Have I mentioned how excited I am that the impossibly influential Slint are playing a reunion concert in San Francisco? Very excited.
And O'Farrell Street is closer than Camber Sands.

The strength

Ironically, Kryptonite locks, long the emblem of the urban cyclist, had a flaw: they could be opened with a common-or-garden ballpoint pen (biro to you!). They set up a RMA process for consumers to exchange vulnerable locks for a new model.
I got my long-awaited return label from Kryptonite yesterday, entitling me to 9 pounds of locks. I'm returning the two New York short-shackle locks, the sort you see messengers tucking into a back jeans pocket) and the longer U-lock I bought when I got my first bicycle in Chicago.

On the interpretation of (parking) signs

This morning the duallie white pickups were double-parked thick and deep on Scott St. A policeman stopped by and said that he had a mind to tag the cars, so I called the DPT. The contractors' pickups were double-parked because the curb spaces reserved for their use were taken, despite the No Parking easels and work permits which have been outside since August.

A dutiful DPT officer (the local chief, he proudly informed me) came out, tagged the two cars, and called for a tow. He checked the plates on the cars, and told me that the first one belonged to someone who lived nearby; would I mind if he tried ringing their bell? Of course not -- as long as the cars moved soon, I didn't care how he did it. (Aside: I remember being woken up early one morning when Arshad's car alarm almost had cutie towed from a spot next to Brother-in-Law's; I was impressed that the police were so diligent.)
A few minutes later an angry woman stormed up, steamed because she said that she's seen people parking there for the past several months. I could hear her arguing with the DPT officer outside; he told her on no uncertain terms that she needed to move the car before the tow-truck showed up. He reminded her that other people's behaviour is no excuse for her not heeding signs.
She walked into the basement, where I was reviewing some work with a HVAC contractor. Things got worse: she refused to leave the basement, and I tried moving towards the door but she wouldn't budge. She suggested that I have more respect for my neighours; I reminded her that a city-mandated mailing had gone to all property owners and tenants in May, when we applied for the DPT permits, and that the permits themselves, along with standard warning posters, had been posted since August. This didn't carry water with her. I kept moving towards the door, and she had to step backwards.
She railed against the ticket; I pointed out that the signs read "Tow Away No Stopping". She said that she couldn't read signs. The DPT guy calmly told her that if that was the case, she shouldn't be driving.
The car that she moved was filled with trash bags and miscellany: even the driver's seat had a rubbish bin on it. I didn't recognise it (this woman usually drives a blue minivan), but know the woman. I even believe that she can't read the No Parking signs, but also know that the signs are visually useful, even if they're not literally understood.
Everyone understands getting towed, though. I was looking forward to seeing at least one car up on a tow, but the other driver came along just as the first woman left. He was all in a hurry to have the contractors move their trucks, so that he could leave. The contractors gave him hell, saying "If you knew how to read a sign, this wouldn't be a problem."

Pizza (for your) pocket

Slice (which touts itself as "America's Favorite Pizza Weblog!") is available for your iPod.
Characteristics of a good slice:

• available within 3 minutes
• available as close to 24-hours-a-day as possible
• within a five-minute walk of where you happen to be (home, bar, school)
• pepperoni
• foldable

MUNI II: Fiscal boogaloo

You've got a small car? Perhaps even a fuel-efficient model? Contra Costa County sez 'Bollocks' to you. Meanwhile, San Francisco's MUNI has declared a second fiscal emergency, and prepares for service cuts, another fare increase (the base fare increased 25% in September 2003).

I am writing to MUNI's Michael Burns, the Board of Supervisors (who oversee MUNI's authority to institute fare increases and service cuts), my Supervisor (incoming: Ross Mirkarimi; outgoing: Matt Gonzalez), and the Mayor's office with my recommendation that the city impose new vehicle fees, increase downtown parking rates, and otherwise make life difficult for private drivers during commercial hours.

Some service cuts to MUNI, especially in older, neighbourhood lines, may be inevitable; however, a second fare increase will only further weaken our public-transit infrastucture. For crying out loud! This happens for want of, what, $60 million? Transportation for a Liveable City has posted their recommendations.

The economist Charles Komanoff, writing in today's NYT, says,

Getting the United States off oil and other fossil fuels is nothing like the Apollo program. No rocket science or new technology is needed. What's missing is the political will to internalize the huge social costs of energy use in the prices of fuels and electricity through fuel taxes.

We know how to make windmills and bicycles, compact cities and compact fluorescents. Choosing them instead of gas-guzzlers and sprawl development requires market incentives that only higher energy prices can create.

Apropa't

I have long felt a kinship to Barcelona, and was happy to find in today's mail a copy of Robert Hughes' recent study of the city, sub-titled "The Great Enchantress".

Follow, follow, follow

Read a handful of L. Frank Baum's Oz books over the weekend, in the Del Rey reissues from the '80s. The trade paperbacks unfortunately don't do justice to Jno R. Neill's beautiful line illustrations: reduced in size and on inferior paper, one can't make out a lot of the detail.

Was Baum describing a Socialist paradise in his books?

Another question: where does the abbreviation "Jno" for John originate? It's how Neill signs his ornate illustrations; it's also painted on the station-cab in Market Blandings, where many an interloper alights for hijinks at Lord Emsworth's estate.

flickr rss feeds r00lz

Man, I love flickr's rss feeds. I subscribe to barcelona, graffiti ("Photos tagged with graffiti", hahaha), and myriad others. Delicious.

Anar visits Roman ruins in Northern Jordan

Anar visited Roman ruins in Jordan!

The lime in the cocoanut

Sprout went to the doctor today.

I sing to understand you

Doesn't it just figure that a lot of cities would declare a Guided By Voices Day? Goddammit. Pound-for-pound, this band has put out more crap than The Fall.

BART to pigeons: Come on feel the noise

BART spends $150,000 annually to combat the noise of rock doves, better known to city dwellers as a rat with wings. The current approach, apparent at the 16th Street Station and others, is to blast them with the sounds of predators. The name of their spokesman, Linton Johnson, caught my eye. Why not play some dub instead?
I wonder how much BART spends on ridding the 16th Street Station of dirty needles and used crack vials.

And miles (per gallon) to go before we sleep

According an open letter to Bill Ford from the Rainforest Action Network, published as a full-page advert. in today's New York Times,

Since the oil crisis of the 1970s, the EPA has ranked Ford last in overall fuel efficiency for 20 out of the last 30 years, and Ford’s fleet today gets fewer miles per gallon on average than the Model-T did 80 years ago.

Caltrain II: Electric Boogaloo

After yesterday's experience riding the Baby Bullet, I decided to see how much I could shave off the wait time. I rolled out of work at 16.34 and arrived home at 18.01, for a one-way door-to-door time of 87 minutes. That's pretty swell. Turns out that my arriving at the Mountain View station at all early was moot, as the new stock wasn't in service for this express run; the older carriages, which accomdate 32 bicycles, were. And I was all set to bellyache about how I prefer the old to the new!

Should we, the public, spend $185,000 per (new) passenger to electrify Caltrain? Encourage the Dumbarton Rail plan? Extend BART to San Jose? Which will happen fastest?
Portland took a quick-and-dirty route to laying short-term rail: this encourages people to use transit, but means that the lines may not survive for a generation.

I need a kamera

On the window of a hair salon, at the corner of Scott and Haight streets in San Francisco.