I'm a lasagna boy!

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 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