Friday, October 14, 2016

Professional Grade

Sunday, October 9, 2016
I added a fifth Chinese restaurant in the fourth city in the third time zone on the second continent in 15 days last night.  Thanks to the urging of certain vocal members of the third generation, we went to Chinese Mirch, 140 Worcester Road, Framingham, Massachusetts.   We have been to this restaurant that combines Chinese and Indian cuisine before.  It does not present a fusion, but rather parallel processing.

Our ordering leaned to the Indian side of the menu. The bold among us had Hyderabadi chicken ($13.99), a South Asian Muslim dish with chicken cubes cooked in dry coconut, tamarind, and red chillies; crispy Szechuan lamb ($17.99), very crispy and very spicy; and garlic naan ($3.25). Occasionally, we dipped into the milder food on the table, saag paneer ($14.49), chicken tikka ($8.99) and the nicely cooked, but bland chicken malai kabab ($9.99).  Our youth delegation dug into Mirch's food heartily, a good sign for the future.  

Jeffrey Heller, major league human rights activist, writes that he was recently in Williston, North Dakota, county seat of the tenth wealthiest county in the USA, discussed last week.  He tersely describes it as "Ugliest town ever.  Oil boom town. Plopped on the plains."  Note the artistic use of genuine Winchester rifles.




Additionally, Ittai Hershman, superior investigator, informs me that Amorino, Gelato Al Naturale, which I encountered in Paris is spreading throughout Manhattan, with locations now at 414 Amsterdam Avenue (79th/80th Streets), 721 Eighth Avenue (45th/46th Streets), and in Greenwich Village, 60 University Place (10th Street), along with the location at 18th Street and Eighth Avenue that I spotted last week.  Worth a lick.

The New York Times reports on a survey of the politics of the medical profession. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/upshot/your-surgeon-is-probably-a-republican-your-psychiatrist-probably-a-democrat.html 

Once upon a time, doctors, in fear of "socialized medicine," were reliably Republican.  That helped block health insurance reform from Harry Truman's time until LBJ got Medicare passed, now the Saran Wrap of public policy.  Of course, it was almost another half century until we got Obamacare, still the target of resentment by those friendly folks who place their own needs first, foremost and exclusively.

Thursday, October 13, 2016
A public holiday, a Jewish Holy Day and I find myself near the end of the week, contemplating some big doings, which will be explored shortly.

Friday, October 14, 2016
Hey, Mom and Dad, some survey results may encourage you to keep writing those checks to support the education of Jack and Jill.  While there have been many stories about the decline in job opportunities in the legal industry, there are some eye-opening numbers about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/business/dealbook/female-law-partners-earn-44-less-than-the-men-survey-shows.html?_r=0

While the report emphasizes the income disparity by gender, the raw numbers may be sufficient to lure someone away from majoring in art history or rural sociology. Consider that the average annual compensation for 2,100 partners at law firms nationwide was $877,000.  Men did much better than women, $949,000 compared to $659,000; whites $876,000, blacks $797,000, Hispanics $956,000, Asian-Pacificans $875,000.  

This article reminds me of the other thing that I miss in retirement -- Chinatown #1 -- the free legal publications that arrived daily, which often contained very granular data on earnings, staffing and related demographics, along with other information about the profession.  

In any case, the data offer some hope that prosperity may yet emerge from parental destitution.  

The Upper West Side's Power Couple is off on an exciting adventure tomorrow, so we thought that we would have a traditional Shabbos dinner tonight.  We headed, therefore, to Bengal Tiger Indian Restaurant, 58 West 56th Street, a narrow joint, up a flight of stairs, with about 15 tables hugging the walls in the shape of an L with a little vertical tail.  

Although it was very busy, service was excellent. Unlike almost every Indian restaurant I have ever patronized, our water glasses were refilled promptly without prompting.  Our food was very good too, the purpose of this visit.  We shared onion and sweet potato pakora ($7), fried but almost greaseless.  I had chicken tikka masala ($15), chunks of white meat in a creamy tomato sauce, tasting as if the chicken had actually cooked in the sauce, not just thrown in on the way out of the kitchen.  My young bride had aloo gobi matar ($14), cauliflower and potatoes.  

Get past the narrow doorway and staircase for good Indian food.

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