Frank Bruni of The New York Times did an excellent review of Robert’s Steakhouse.  In case you’re not familiar with this establishment, its located inside the Penthouse Executive Club in Manhattan.  Ok, so you may be asking What did the New York Times Say?  Well, from my read the New York Times gave their nod to the meld of strippers and high-class steaks.  Maybe Jeffery Chodorow should get better entertainment.

Some coverage of the review by other bloggers:

BRUNI/CHODOROW: REDUX

Bruni Goes to the Penthouse Club to Eat The Meat

The Changing, er, Face of Dining

The Creepy Misogyny of NYT Restaurant Critic Frank Bruni

New York Times: The math club president in the cheerleaders’ locker room +

I love how some of these New York types are actually appalled that the New York Times decided to include this article in the newspaper rather than the magazine.  Guess what guys?  I’m going to call that this article will be one of the most emailed articles this entire week.  Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

Photo by Robert Presutti for The New York Times

by Thurmonds.  In, what is most likely going to be one of the more ironic twists of the year, genealogy tests confirmed that Al Sharpton’s ancestors were owned as slaved by the ancestors of the late Strom Thurmond.

Yes, Sharpton, the outspoken champion for black rights, has ties to none other than Strom Thurmond, who has, let’s say, a less than stellar record for protecting civil rights.

Said Sharpton, “It was probably the most shocking thing I had ever heard in my life.”

While remarkable, this finding speaks to the power of the Internet, computers, DNA and the like.  No word yet if Sharpton and Thurmond families will get together for a Christmas reunion this year.

To celebrate, we created a new category for the occasion.

The DePauw University Delta Zeta scandal continues to build steam. As reported here in the NY Times, the Delta Zeta sorority is accused of dropping members because they were fat, ugly, a minority, or any combination of the above.

In response, the national Delta Zeta organization has released several press releases addressing the controversy.

The statements can be found here.  A few nice snippets are below:

I am sure by now that you have read the unfortunate New York Times article which involves our sisters at DePauw University.  The article is inaccurate and grossly mischaracterizes the situation.

Actually, I think the NY Times article succinctly encapsulates the situation.  Girls kicked out because they were fat, ugly or a minority, enough said.

It is important that all Delta Zeta women understand what has happened and the steps that the National Organization is taking to bring all parties to the table to find resolution and to support these women moving forward.

Bringing them to the table?  Weren’t these the same girls you kicked out because they were ugly?  Yeah, great job supporting these women moving forward.

After years of struggling to recruit, Delta Zeta DePauw members voted in August to close the chapter at the end of the 2006-2007 school year.  The women’s majority vote meant that they could live in the house and be relieved of active membership duties, including the intense work of recruiting on a daily basis.  The intent was for Delta Zeta to close and reorganize to return at a later date.

“you see, we were doing them a favor!”  So what, now ugly people can’t handle the intense work of recruiting on a daily basis?  They’re ugly, not paraplegic.

Delta Zeta members, who could support the national plan to actively recruit, were asked to remain active.  Other members, who no longer wanted to engage in day-to-day recruiting, became alumnae members of the Sorority.

“So, yeah, we kicked out the ugly girls.”  What’s funny here is they make it seem like the girls that were kicked out did so on their own accord.  Hmmm, doesn’t sound that way though…..  Oh, pardon me, are those tears of someone who left willingly?  My bad.

It is here in communicating the results that we made a mistake.  We misjudged how these communications would be received. Delta Zeta deeply regrets that. 

“You see, we didn’t think that anyone would notice we kicked out every fat girl and every minority.”

As you know, active status at a struggling chapter requires daily recruiting.  In hindsight, Delta Zeta national leadership should have once again returned to campus and communicated the results in person with each woman.

Yes, the only thing better than being told you’re ugly in a letter is being told you’re ugly in person.

Finally, we are offended at suggestions that decisions made at DePauw were related in any way to our members’ races and nationalities.  We are proud of the diversity of our members and alumnae nationwide, which reflect the mandate in our Constitution that members will be selected solely on their merits and without regard to their race, color, religion, national origin or handicap.

Ohhh, I’m sorry Delta Zeta to offend you.  I thought that just because you kicked out every minority and overweight girl from your sorority that maybe there was some sort of bias there.  But that is not possible at all, according to your constitution, you say?

Article III, Section 3 of the Delta Zeta Constitution reads:  “All members of Delta Zeta shall be chosen for moral, social and intellectual worth.  Membership shall not be denied because of race, color, religion, national origin or handicap.”

Yeeeeep, right there in Article III, Section 3.  All members chosen for moral, social and intellectual worth.  Oh, and membership shall NOT, wait, did I read that right…NOT be denied because of race, color, religion, national origin or handicap.  Aaaahh, I see, you were right to be offended.  So, although your DePauw chapter is composed of all thin, white girls, you’re protected by your constitution, right?  gotcha.

What’s interesting is DZ directly addresses race and nationality, but goes OUT OF ITS WAY to avoid the topic of looks.  I wonder why?  Perhaps because it is obvious that they discriminated by looks, perhaps because discriminzating by looks is not, technically, against the law?

I would really like to see Delta Zeta own up here.  I mean, they’re holding up their constitution like it was the Ten Commandments.  I think, just maybe, the fact that all of the overweight, ugly and minority members of the sorority were kicked out may just suggest that perhaps the Delta Zeta constitution wasn’t followed line by line.

Look, just admit it DZ.  Recruiting wasn’t the problem, the problem is that your sorority was known as ‘the doghouse,’ and that looked bad.  So you wanted to fix it by kicking out the ugly girls.  And minorities.  I actually understand that MORE that your convoluted, often insulting public statements.

Aren’t you into improving the lives of your members?  So own up to it, do a little bit of life improvement on your own.  Admit your mistake, apologize to these girls, and make a decision, are you going to be an organization that truly values ‘moral, social and intellectual worth,’ or are you going to be like 90% of the sororities out there that judge, to a large extent, on looks.  I REALLY don’t care either way.  Just make an f’ing honest statement here.

Starbulletin is reporting that a solider in Hawaii was attacked after a minor fender bender at Waikele Shopping Center.  During the attack, the attacker uttered the words “Fucking Haole.” 

I think its really sad this couple was beaten so badly.  Its especially disgusting that the attacker involved his 16 year old son in the incident.  Hopefully with a successful prosecution, this case serves as an example. to other degenerates that think its open season on soldiers.

Hawaii really needs to come to grips with its deep seated racism.

This racism is killing me -Dave Chappelle

Japadamus, I think this idea by the Japanese government is a horrible idea and going to fail miserably. Here’s why:

-There is currently no precedent for any country to attempt a certification process for their cuisine. The idea that a foreign government would attempt to come on to our soil and tell our businesses what is or isn’t ok doesn’t bode well with me. What does the United States get out of the deal?

-What standard are they going to use to judge sushi chefs. If its truly only based on technique, then this sounds like a scam to sell training. If this happens I believe that we will see an influx of “authentic sushi” classes sprouting up. Just like any kind specialized service training, most classes are taught be people grossly unskilled. Does this make sushi better? of course not!

-In an economic sense this creates a lot of conflicts. Will there be more preference given to Japanese ingredients like expensive imported fish? It’s hard to believe that a government employee will not understand the gravity of upsetting large users of Japanese products. Can you imagine someone walking into Sushi Ran and telling them their sushi is not authentic? For a sushi place that is determined to be unauthentic, what’s the motivation to continue to buy the expensive imported Hamachi or Uni; there is none. Is the Japanese government prepared to lose exports over a misguided attempt to control cultural corruption? I don’t think so.

-Corruption. Having a squad of inspectors really opens the door for large amounts of corruption. Japanese society is well known to be very corrupt. I wouldn’t put it past organized crime to infiltrate this organization and attempt to shake down American sushi places trying to get certification. Think of Las Vegas alone, think of the amount of money at stake.

-Innovation. What a boring world it would be if all sushi looked alike. As someone that has visited traditional and non-traditional sushi places, I’d definitely prefer the latter. My experience with “authentic” sushi places usually starts with an old unfriendly sushi chef serving the same seven fishes. The wait staff unusually involves someone’s old wife who spends most of the time chatting with the other old ladies in the kitchen. The result of this certification will be a creation of more chefs unwilling to try anything new. Imagine Sushi Sam’s with no toppings, what fun is that?

-Appearance. So assuming that Nijiya ( a chain of Japanese supermarkets) get their sushi certified along with a place like Ino sushi. What’s going to happen to the smaller sushi places when they face “authentic” competition from a cheaper sushi restaurant? What happens if Todai gets their sushi certified? Don’t laugh, I don’t think its far fetched since they are a LARGE Japanese company using Japanese made equipment. Can you imagine what will happen when the “uneducated” sushi buyer chooses based on price? Todai wins! Why not? They are both authentic!

Remember my post on Feb 5th?  I told you the market was going lower.  Today was a rocky ride for the market.  DJIA closed down 3.29%, SPX down 3.47%, Nasdaq down 3.86%.

The selling was spurred by a correction in the Chinese stock market to tune of 10%.  So you may now be asking Sushiattack, what do we do now?

I think you wait on the sideline and see how the rest of the world digests this information.  Don’t react out of fear, remember markets have these days.  I personally wouldn’t bet against Chinese growth.  I’ll be honest I actually bought some FXI expecting a bounce, we’ll see if I’m right.  Stay tuned this week is going to be volatile.

Over the past two weeks we have posted several times about the growing ‘bastardization’ of sushi in the United States.  Today, it seems like things have finally come to a head.  CBS is reporting that the Japanese government wants to step in and certify authentic sushi restaurants in the United States.

According to the article, the Japanese government wants to send inspectors to the U.S. to certify authentic Japanese sushi restaurants.  Few specifics have been worked out, but it seems like the restaurants would be certified based on their preparation of sushi.

It’s interesting to note that it currently does not seem like individual items will be certified.  So, Japan is not stepping in to bar the california roll from ‘true’ sushi menus.  Instead, it looks like restaurants that use traditional japanese techniques to produce sushi will be granted ‘authentic’ status.

This may seem surprising to some, but really, this sounds like something Japan would do.  Japanese have a lot of pride in their food, and they’re clearly taking offense at U.S. sushi restaurants with deep fried rolls, cream cheese rolls, and the like, taking credit for producing true sushi.

It also makes economic sense.  I think the Japanese will implement the certification process by charging an annual fee to certified authentic restaurants.  This fee will allow each restaurant to say, display an ‘authentic japanese’ sign or something, and use this logo in their marketing materials.  This would be very similar to certified organic foods, or Atkins friendly foods, etc., and with 10,000 restaurants in the U.S., this program could be very profitable.

The question is should the Japanese government do this?  Do they have the right to certify food as being truly japanese?

Eh, there’s a fine line here.  I believe that Japan does have the right to say that a restaurant does or does not fit the criteria for producing sushi in the traditional Japanese way.  And the most efficient way to communicate this is through a certification process.

But there are many question marks as well.  Will Japan only certify restaurants with Japanese sushi chefs, as opposed to, say, Korean or Chinese chefs?  Will Japan frown at the use of non-Japanese ingredients?  Clearly, there needs to be a great deal of clarification here, although, to be fair, Japan admits that it still has lots of planning to do.

I believe however, that if Japan follows through with these plans, it’s certification program will be VERY effective.  One of the biggest questions is restaurant participation, but Japanese chefs will practically be forced to apply for a ‘certified Japanese’ license out of respect for their country.  These restaurateurs alone will drive demand to be certified.

Another question is client recognition.  If Japan properly markets this program, and builds awareness of the ‘Authentic Japanese Sushi’ certification, certified restaurants are likely to have much greater pull than non-certified restaurants.  After all, many diners are attracted to sushi because it is a unique, ethnic delicacy, and why would you get a unique, ethnic delicacy from a restaurant that is not certified as such?  Yes, sushi restaurants that are certified by the Japanese government will have much greater pull among diners.

I expect that the certification process will create an upper class of sushi restaurants that are predominantly Japanese-run - a forecast that I have noted repeatedly in this blog.  An interesting side-note are the Korean-owned Japanese restaurants.  It’s a well known fact that many, if not most Japanese sushi restaurants in the U.S. are in fact owned by Koreans.  Is the certification process a jab at Koreans who are profiting of traditional Japanese cuisine?  Only time will tell how the program plays out, but this seems like a distinct possibility.

I’m looking forward to see this program in action.  If implemented well, I think it will go a long way in differentiating between truly authentic sushi restaurants and the rest of the pack.  Based on the CBS article, it seems like there will be some initial backlash among diners.  But in the end, I think that consumers will tend to choose certified sushi restaurants over non-certified sushi restaurants. 

To a large extent, sushi connoisseurs do this already - foodies always claim to recognize ‘authentic’ japanese sushi.  The certification process will only help to bring this informal selection process to a more standardized, regulated arena, that in the end will benefit diners.

The CNN.com website is today featuring a front page video article called “Not Pretty Enough?”, about girls kicked out of their sorority because they are too ugly.  There’s also a good article about this story in the NY Times.

Here’s the story in a nutshell:  The delta zeta sorority at Depaw University (I’ve never heard of this school - I thought it was Depaul, but it’s not) was having problems with recruitment.  One of the sorority’s problems is that they were given the unfortunate nickname of “the doghouse,” because many of their members were ugly.

The national Delta Zeta organization responded by interviewing the 35 members of the sorority house, and basically kicking out 23 girls for being insufficiently committed.  The twist is that the 23 girls who got the boot included all the overweight girls, as well as the only black, Korean and Vietnamese members.  The 12 girls that remained tended to be the thin blonde girls.

The conclusion that many are drawing is that the Delta Zeta sorority wanted a sorority house with fewer ugly girls, and therefore kicked out the girls that were ugly.  With a little racism mixed in.  And looking at the girls that were kicked out, that seems like that is a fair conclusion to draw.

But am I missing something here?  I mean, in college, there were the sororities with the hot girls, and those tended to be the more prestigious sororities, and there were the sororities with the not so hot girls, and those are the ones that garnered nicknames like “The Doghouse.”

So what?

I mean, we can sit here and argue that girls shouldn’t be judged on their looks and beauty comes from within, but this isn’t oprah, this is the real world.  Pretty girls are a hotter commodity than ugly girls.  End of story.

“But the girls self esteem”, blah, blah, blah…Look, if these girls are looking for a sorority to validate their self esteem then that is problem number one - sororities are more about popularity than equal playing fields, very simple. 

Problem number two is that if they are self conscious about their weight or looks, then get on a treadmill, fix yourself up, ditch the glasses for some contacts. 

Harsh?  Not really.  If these girls want to be accepted by superficial people then they should superficially be attractive.  Again, end of story.  But if they want to be happy with ‘who they are,’ then they should stop trying to seek personal validation from superficial sorority girls.

I mean, really, am i missing something here?

The only reason why this story is gaining traction is that the sorority chose to eliminate current ugly sorority members, rather than weeding these girls out during the recruitment process. 

Is it wrong to want only attractive girls in your sorority house?  No.  It’s not super nice, and it is superficial, and if jesus ran a sorority that’s probably not what he would do, but it’s not wrong or even uncommon.  I think every college in the U.S. has at least one sorority that actively selects girls based on their looks.

There seems to be a growing trend towards making beauty a shallow or unfair judge of a person.  Not true at all.  Beauty can be a completely fair judge of a person’s worth in the proper context, such as say, television, movies, advertising, and yes, college sororities.

There is also an underlying racism accusation being thrown around here.  I think racism is a big part of the greek system as well - I mean, there are many racially aligned frats and sororities for blacks, asians, etc.  Of course there are no ‘white’ sororities per se, but, lets be honest here, there are white sororities.

The reality is that sororities and fraternities are social organizations.  They accept members based on the preferences of existing members, and in that environment personal biases will always surface.

The analogy here is, would you hang out with friends that didn’t like you because you were ugly?  Or would you make friends with white people who didn’t like you because you’re not white?

Yes, sororities and fraternities are often school sponsored organizations that should act accordingly.  But the process of joining a sorority or fraternity can be subjective, and ultimately it becomes more about who you’d want to be friends with  - so the analogy above still holds. 

Unfortunately, these Delta Zeta girls just have to wake up and accept that they used to be in a sorority that didn’t care about looks, but that changed, so they were kicked out.  Not nice, but it’s the real world, and it happens.  If they really want to be in the sorority that judges girls by looks, then they have to look better.  Done.

In any case, the CNN video is pretty hilarious.  How about when the girl says “doghouse” and the reporter is like, meaning “that you’re a bunch of ugly women?”  Ouch.

So, anyway, a lot of noise being made of this whole Delta Zeta thing, but I really don’t think it’s a big deal.  I can just feel this whole issue getting lots of unwarranted attention.  I hope everybody involved grows up a little bit here.

There has been a big stir lately about an article published in Asianweek titled “Why I hate blacks” written by Kenneth Eng. Since the article was taken off the Asianweek website, you can find a copy HERE:

SF Chronicle published a story today about the backlash surrounding this article. I’m always confused by a media debate that ends with the statement “I believe in the first amendment but in this case someone went to far.” Too Far? Is that possible?

I didn’t think the first amendment applied to those comments that are only mildly disagreeable. Remember that story about the college opinion editor that wrote the article that contained the phrase “Rape only hurts if you fight it” First of all, the article was meant to be satire and people ignored that and took it literally; even after he said it was a work of satire! This poor kid was dragged in front of television cameras and forced to comment. He was totally fucked. His own newspaper sold him out, demoted him and appologized for offending anyone. His only crime was having poor taste, shouldn’t he be allowed that right? I think its a sad state of affairs when journalists are no longer allowed to publish opinion pieces that will offend people, even if it is designed that way.

Although these two cases might have proved examples of poor choices for writing topics, I do think their speech should be protected. The content of the writing shouldn’t determine whether or not, these people have a right to publish their opinions. Although Kenneth Eng in particular really stepped off the mainstream with his rant, I’m suprised that it got published because its so poorly written. Wouldn’t it be a boring world if everyone just agreed with each other?

 I love cooking gadgets and while browsing the net today, I ran across this cool gem.  Its a conversion chart for cooking measurements.  Its like a stencil so you can place it anywhere in the kitchen.  I admit this is a little pricey, but it doesn’t damage the walls and it looks real classy.

• blah blah blah, oscars this, oscars that.
• TJFKAK is guilty of this.  It’s a girl thing, according to her. 
• BTW, she tells me Clint Eastwood is married to a 50 year old black woman - I did not know that.
• The grandfather from little miss sunshine won - funny movie, but I would have never called that guy for a oscar.  How about some steve carrel love?
• Al Gore wins for an inconvenient truth.  The biggest question is, does this win lead to another presidential campaign.  That will give us 3 choices, the woman, the black, or the hippie.  Any one else wanting just another evil white man right now?
• Happy feet won best animated feature.  another quasi global warming film.  There were only three nominations in this category this year - a little sparse, don’t you think?  Why don’t we just call them movies and let them compete with the big boys.
• is ‘the last king of scotland’ the worst movie title ever?  It’s not like you see commercials for the movie - it’s low budget so you just see posters.  and forest whitaker as the king of scotland doesn’t make sense to me.  TJFKAK tells me this movie is about an african ruler who just likes the scotland style - that made a lot more sense.  I could never really picture Forest as the king of scotland - and posters really just have a split second to make that connection - but this poster just made me confused.
• Rinko Kikuchi is decently hot, although in some pictures she looks a little goblin-ish.  Plus, she’s a J, a big plus.  She was nominated for best supporting actress for babel, one of her first US pics.  She lost however.  Also sometimes, she has funny looking hair.

• In the ’skill that prepares your kid for a life in the food service industry department,’ we have cup stacking.  I mean, I guess…it’s hard to say bad things about kids doing wholesome afterschool activities, but really, this one is pretty useless.  These kids are fast tho - pretty impressive.  But why?  This ranks as above selling/doing crack, to be sure, but below most other childhood activities, in my opinion.  And yes, there is a world sport stacking association.
• Oh, by the way, did i mention that this weeked while moving I put together like 8 separate Ikea furniture pieces?  I’m a champ.  The funny thing is everytime I would get all cocky, like, ‘I’m the fastest ikea furniture assembler ever,’ I would f-up and have to re-do a bunch of steps. 
• Overall tho, Ikea stuff is not bad.  I had a cabinet door that will need regluing, and some drawers that don’t line up exactly - but other than that everything seems to work ok.  I can’t help but wonder how many furniture stores Ikea has put out of business.
• I think ikea makes all their money on the accent pieces.  Like, a bed frame is $150, but a tiny little nightstand is $80?
• Is it strange to anyone else that Ikea has a whole cafeteria in there?  I mean, you do get tired from walking around that place - it is huge - but a whole cafeteria?  What ever happened to specialization.  And not a burger to be found anywhere, only meatballs and salmon and little shrimp sandwiches.  Who thinks of this stuff?
• It was amusing for like the first 5 minutes that all of ikea’s furniture has sweedish names.  But after a while it gets annoying.  a lot of the names sound alike, making it difficult to describe things to staff.  This is even worse in the east palo alto ikea, where the workers pronouce the sweetish names with a tinge of ebonics.  Talk about babel.

In more sushi backlash news, the chicago times posits the question, ‘are noodles the new sushi?”

An interesting question - but this article really isn’t out to make a point, it just provides some helpful links to some noodle places in the Chicago area (not so much help to us on the west coast.)

Personally, I don’t think you can really compare the two.  Noodles, in my opinion, are more of an everyday food.  Something you can indulge in late at night, for a cheap lunch, or even for a (unhealthy) breakfast.  Sushi on the other hand is more of a calculated meal that you must be in the mood for.  Also, for the best sushi places, a seat at the bar means that you need to plan ahead a bit too.

 And most people will have no qualms about experimenting with different ramen dishes at home.  These can be purchased everywhere - elaborate ramen packets are available at high end japanese restaurants, while the infamous top ramen is available probably within a 100 yard radius of where you are right now.

Here are some of my noodle favorites in the area (in no particular order):

• Ryowa - A hole in the wall on Villa street off of Castro.  They have basic ramen, as well as some fried chicken and gyoza appetizers.
• Maruichi - A castro mainstay, Maruichi is well known for it’s great ramen and home made noodles.  You can actually see them making the noodles if you go there during the day.  Very similar to Ryowa - but this place is usually a bit more crowded.
• Tokushima Ramen - Hidden in the Mitsuwa shopping complex, you’ll recognize this place by the line that most likely leads out the door.  Tokushima is very popular, especially in weekends when the Mitsuwa crowd really spills over.  The owner of Tokushima used to be an uni dealer before opening up this place - a great guy. 
• Pho Hoa - the dennys of vietnamese cuisine.  Open late, cheap, quick, efficient service with a bare minimum of small talk (you’ll most likely get your pho within 5 minutes of ordering).  Love the spring rolls, and of course the pho.  The drinks (non alcoholic) are interesting as well.

This weekend I moved to a new apartment.  Moving is one of my all time biggest pet peeves - it’s expensive, time consuming, and ultimately very painful.

One thing I did this year was plan far ahead.  My move out date is not until the end of March, so I have more than a month to get the little things moved out.  I’m also going to sell a whole bunch of my old furniture that I have collected over the years, so this extra time will allow me to turn my old place into a de facto furniture store.

Now, I suggested previously that when moving you rent a van via Enterprise, which charges a flat daily rate, rather than Uhaul, which charges a flat rate plus a fee per mile.  In this case, I was so close to my old place that the Uhaul made more financial sense - plus Enterprise has horrible weekend hours.

So I got a GREAT van from Uhaul.  The thing only had 300 miles on it, and it was HUGE.  Also, vans are way easier to steer than those bigger trucks, and they only cost 60 cents per mile, compared to $1 per mile for other trucks.

Funny thing is, the Uhaul was pretty ghetto.  I mean,the guys working there were dressed like they were going to a club, with baseball caps worn at an angle (ala Jay-z) and big poofy jackets like the ying yang twins.  But whatever, I got my new van so I was happy.

To help me move I picked up a day laborer.  They wait near this Chilis at this shopping center near my place.  When I went there it was a mob scene.  As I started to pull up in my van they started waving their hands and following me to the parking lot.  There were probably 20 of them that were chasing my van.

 When I stopped, they gathered around my van.  Some opened the doors and started to climb in.  I mean, really, it was a mob scene.  I actually needed only one guy, so I just picked one of the guys closest to the door and they others just left - I didn’t even have to get out of the car.  It wasn’t really like it was dangerous at all - if anything they were all very obedient.  But it was just a crazy mad rush to my van that I hadn’t experienced in the past.  Seems like there were more of these guys this time, all of whom were very eager to get some work.

The guy i picked was a little bit older, and he was about 5′6″.  I didn’t want a Shaq - I needed a medium all around guy, like gary payton.  Plus, I didn’t want some guy who could just turn around and mug me or rob me, especially since this guy would know exactly where I live.

In any case, the guy worked out very well.  And actually, every time I’ve hired a day laborer the guy was very good.  He was stronger than I was, so if anything I was the weak link.  Plus I was sick as a dog (too much rain last week) and my neck hurt (watching TV with my head tilted the wrong way) so I was kind of gimpy as is.  I also got this guy to pack some of my dishes, and he did a very good job wrapping everything in paper and boxing it - I only had one fatality, a broken shot glass.

So, the move was mostly a success.  The hard part now is UNPACKING everything, which has already been a huge time suck.  One thing is i didn’t pack very well since we were kind of a rush, so there are cables EVERYWHERE, all stuck together like spaghetti.  The google guys talked about a universal power cord at their CES keynote last year, and really the time has come.  I have an alphabet soup of AC adapters - there really has to be a better way.

But the place looks great, it’s huge, and I got my new HD tv set up.  More on this in a future post.

In 2005, congress passed a law to start daylight savings time in the second week of march, rather than in april.  The idea here is that you get an added three weeks of more sunlight, which means less energy consumption, less CO2, blah blah blah.

But this decision adversely affects any device that is designed to automatically switch to daylight savings time.  Obviously, these devices have no idea that congress passed a new law, and therefore they need to be updated to account for this policy change.

Computers are a big problem here, but any Windows PC with automatic updates should be fine here.  I believe the same thing is true for macs.  It gets a little more hairy with handheld devices like Windows Mobile smartphones, Palm Treos or BlackBerrys.  These devices generally don’t automatically update, and therefore require some sort of manual update.

I updated my Windows Mobile device recently without incident.  It was a basic upgrade, but the bigger problem is for the folks that aren’t aware of the update.  They will first, be off an hour when the real daylight savings time occurs.  Then, when the old April daylight savings time occurs their phone will go back and hour, so they’ll be early again.

In any case, not a huge issue - no Y2K here, but an interesting product of the new daylight savings time that is starting to pick up press.

For the third time in a few days I’ve seen an article mentioning the quickly growing sushi restaurant market.  This one from the Ashbury Park Press questions the trend towards non-traditional rolls that seem to bastardize traditional japaenese cuisine.

The author suggests we have gone too far to Americanize sushi, laying waste to hundreds of years of Japanese culinary evolution.  According to the article, Americanized sushi joints miss the subtleties of traditional sushi - the simplicity of ‘vinegary licked rice against exquisitely buttery toro.’

But should we be surprised?  After all, we live in a world with taco bells, pizza huts, yozinoyas, and a host of other Americanized versions of ethnic cuisine.

I think sushi is just too new to be completely bastardized ala say, Italian food and Pizza Hut.  But we do see sushi now in 7/11, supermarkets, and other high volume chain stores. 

While this trend may seem disturbing to purists, there will always be traditional sushi joints, and I believe that as sushi becomes increasingly Americanized, traditional sushi restaurants will stand out.  Think of the many excellent french or Italian restaurants that dot zagats, regardless if across the street there is an olive garden or papa johns.

But yes, it is a bit disturbing to see sushi next to frozen burritos at 7/11, or california rolls dominating sushi menus.  But as much as we want to preserve traditional food, there will always be a desire to broaden the appeal of niche ethnic cuisine.  I think this is what we are experiencing today, nothing blasphemous, just American ingenuity at work - but give me a call when you see the McNigiri at McDonalds.