Handbill Handout

Mise en place - half an onion, sliced garlic, thinly sliced home-made pancetta and some garden-grown parsley. Decided to do a riff on the Portuguese recipe from the Les Halles cookbook. Bourdain may be slipping into self-parody at this point in his television career but the guy wrote a solid cookbook. Of course, he has six mussels recipes that are all essentially the same technique with varied ingredients (which is why I felt comfortable turning the dish Italian with the pancetta ) but hey, as long as people want to learn recipes and not skills why not take advantage? The victims, fresh from the fish guy at the St. George farmer's market who had trucked them in from the North Shore of Long Island that morning. He made me laugh by referring to them as "rope grown"; I guess because farmed fish has a (justifiably in most cases) bad reputation among people who know food they don't even want to use the word for shellfish which is actually better if you can get it ...

Oh I ate the poor dog’s homework Yes sir I surely did I ate that poor dog’s homework And then he ran and hid I ate the kitty’s cat’s tuna Yes sir that definitely is quite right I ate that poor cat’s tuna It was a grisly sight I ate the bison’s grass feed Of that there is no doubt I ate that bison’s grass feed It was green and chewy and stout I ate the dolphin’s fishes They cooked up tasty and nice I ate the dolphin’s fishes Over the top of rice Oh I ate the poor dog’s homework It was a dumb thing to do I ate the poor dog’s homework And now I have to poo!

Fascinating article . Oddly enough, the registration feature on the website the article references is down right now. Oh, how will I ever know where I stand without the machine telling me?

Seems like a lot longer, actually. New York was a different city then. My life was a different life. Regardless, 15 years ago today I witnessed the greatest sporting event I have ever seen in person. Or ever will see in person There are other games that I’ve been fortunate to see in person that come close. September 7, 1996 when Canada beat Sweden in 2 overtimes in the World Cup of Hockey semi-final in Philadelphia . I remember Mats Sundin getting roughly a million and a half scoring chances and cashing in on none of them. I remember Tommy Salo playing the game of his life in goal for the Swedes. I remember the Philly fans, hockey sophisticates all, yelling"C'mawn Lindrows" and not caring a ton for the rest of the action in what was a classic international contest. I sometimes wonder what the atmosphere for that game would've been like if it was played in Montreal where I was lucky enough to attend a couple of WCOH games in 2004. Another event I was luckey en...

Thanks to the fact that the HR area of my employer is primarily Southern California-based we’ve gotten more updates, e-mails and discussion about the swine flu outbreak than we did about September 11 and the Gulf Coast Hurricanes combined. I always suspected that those events never really happened to anyone who didn’t have roots or relatives or a sentimental attachment to the affected areas. This would seem to prove it. Fortunately they’ve reacted sensibly, dispensing five extra sick days to all employees which coupled with the elimination of overtime for hourly employees and the general morale malaise laying over corporate America did not result in junior level employees calling in “sick” on those nice, sunny mid-70 degree days over the last few weeks. Of course it didn’t. And then of course there was the genius maneuver of having Purell dispensers installed in the bathrooms right next to the sinks where you’re supposed to wash up after you pee and poo and whatever. ‘Cause that’s...

Player Piano is a novel by Kurt Vonnegut. It was his first novel, in fact, published in 1952. The main theme of the novel was the mechanization of society. It’s a good book, better than most in fact though not Vonnegut’s best work. It is however his most prescient work. So what, right? Don't worry, this isn't a book report. I was reminded of the novel this morning by a news story from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal that, rather inexplicably, has yet to explode on the internet. I received it as part of a subscription-only package of media-related news clips that arrive in my work inbox from the fine folks at SNL Kagan each day so I can’t provide a direct link but here’s the relevant headline and paragraph: “Google reportedly turns to algorithm to retain top employees” “The Wall Street Journal reported May 19 that the search giant is now using such a system to help predict which employees are most likely to quit. In particular, the tool is helping to identify which employees fee...

I am walking up 6th avenue toward the bus stop where I wait to be chauffeured back to Staten Island on one of the MTA’s finest vehicles. For some reason the sidewalk is choked with people. The sidewalk on 6th is normally crowded but today for some reason things are worse. I’m confused by this for a moment until I see the first one: some kid in a gown. Oh crap, it’s graduation season. Every year in mid-to-late May several graduations take place around the Rock Center-Times Square area including a few at Radio City Music Hall. Radio City Music Hall happens to be across the street from where I wait for the bus home. Graduations equal slow-moving tourists/bridge and tunnelers times a thousand. You see my dilemma, don’t you? And you see why thoughts like these pop into my head when I run across, say, the NYU graduation: “Look at that, there’s literally a thousand or more schmucks who just paid in the high six figures or maybe even seven to have their kids smoke dope in the Village ...