Saturday, May 27, 2023
Oh, what a relief. “The harassment of meteorologists by conspiracy theorists and climate deniers is not a phenomenon confined to Spain.”
. . .
The beaches at Normandy, where hundreds of thousands of Allied troops landed during WWII, are one of France’s most popular tourist destinations. We planned to visit on our recent trip, but met logistical difficulties. We thought that going directly from Charles de Gaulle International Airport, the country’s largest, would be most efficient. O les Américains naïfs.
The distance from the airport to Bayeux, a major transportation hub in the area, is 240 kilometers. "The best way to get from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) to Bayeux is to train which takes 4h 5m. Alternatively, you can bus, which takes 5h 20m, you could also fly, which takes 5h 23m." [I edited out the prices.]
All of these alternatives involve a change of vehicle. By comparison, Albany, New York is 238 kilometers from LaGuardia Airport. By plane it is 1 hour and 10 minutes away, non-stop; train takes 2 hours 30 minutes plus bus into Manhattan; bus takes 2 hours 45 minutes plus bus into Manhattan.
Just last week, a ban on short domestic flights for journeys that can be completed in two-and-a-half hours by train was signed into law in France. That wouldn't get you any faster to Normandy, although there is much more to see there than in Albany.
Monday, May 29, 2023
We went to dinner at Taste of Everest, 102 Lexington Avenue, a restaurant that recognizes the geopolitical realities by combining Nepalese food with Indian and Chinese. It has dark brown Naugahyde booths and dark brown tables and chairs. Good lighting keeps it from being gloomy.
The menu is relatively familiar, even with the mixture of cuisines. We started with fried vegetable momos, Nepalese dumplings, 8 for $13.99, good filling in overly-fried wrappers. I had Sherpa lamb curry, a generous portion made with freshly ground garlic, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon and turmeric ($17.99). Madame had Palak Paneer, homemade cheese in a very smooth gravy of spinach, ginger, cumin and fenugreek ($14.99).
. . .
Speaking of multicultural cuisines:
Tuesday, May 29, 2023
The sign went up announcing the opening of Charles Pan-Fried Chicken at 146 West 72nd Street a full year before the event. Then, I stayed away another year because there was nowhere to sit. Today, finally, I went in and sat on one of the three stools at a counter to the left of the front door.
Pan-fried chicken is less crispy than deep-fried à la Popeyes. I had the lunch special, 2 pieces, a side of baked macaroni and cheese and cornbread ($10.95). The food was good, but the chicken pieces, a leg and a thigh, were tiny, I’m sorry to say. I will return to see if I got the runt of the litter this time or if Charles choses to deflate his chickens rather than inflate his prices.
. . .
It’s become commonplace for the chatterati to claim that the country is tired of the prospect of a Biden-Trump rematch. Yet each of them delivered on the promises that his party had been making fruitlessly for years. Trump gave big tax cuts to the rich, lessened government regulations and got Roe v. Wade overturned. Biden passed the first major infrastructure bill since Eisenhower built interstate highways, got $369 billion in funding to tackle climate change and signed the first significant gun safety bill in nearly 30 years. These were partisan victories denied to their predecessors, yet their partisans are dissatisfied? That’s gratitude for you.
Wednesday, May 31, 2023
“Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida kicked off his presidential campaign in Iowa on Tuesday with a sweeping denunciation of the ‘elites’ that he said dominated American institutions.”
That certainly can’t be the Ronald DeSantis who graduated Yale University in 2001 and Harvard Law School in 2005.
. . .
The Educational Testing Service has announced substantial revisions to the Graduate Record Examination, once the standard test for admission to graduate school. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/31/us/gre-test-shorter-graduate-school.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
A rationale that was offered asserted that "These changes are intended to provide test takers with a better experience that values their time and reduces anxiety and fatigue." Maybe I'm too cynical, but these soo-to-be college graduates need to learn, if they haven't already, that the world does not otherwise value their time nor concern itself with their anxiety and fatigue.
Thursday, June 1, 2023
I spent a gratifying afternoon at Citi Field watching the Mets beat the Phillies 4-2. For a time, all other concerns melted away.
Friday, June 2, 2023
Generally, racism, sexism and anti-gay attitudes are more pronounced among older Americans. https://news.osu.edu/older-people-are-more-prejudiced----and-they-cant-help-it/
However, I just came across a year-old survey of 3,500 U.S. adults by seemingly reputable political scientists that found "the epicenter of antisemitic attitudes is young adults on the far right," which comports with the images of the violent Charlottesville rally. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10659129221111081
It's too bad you couldn't get to Bayeux (which, by the way, is still some distance from the invasion beaches - about 45 minutes by car). But the main reason to visit Bayeux is too see the eponymous tapestry; it's an early precursor of Charles Schultz and Stan Lee, telling the story of 1066 and all that.
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