The New York Times is reporting that radio disc jockeys “The Dog House and Elvis” have been suspended in response to backlash from airing the following phone prank.  The outcry came from the Organizations of Chinese Americans.  What’s interesting to me is that we rarely see Asian groups get involved in these types of public affairs.  I’m thinking that because of what happened to Don Imus in regards to his racist remarks, this Asian group felt they had enough political capital in the current environment to really do some damage; and they did!  Check out this quote from the article:

 

…She promised to rip a page from the playbook of the Rev. Al Sharpton, who led the charge for Mr. Imus’s dismissal, by staging protests of CBS Radio and boycotting advertisers on WFNY.

“They don’t think they’re going to get any backlash from the Asian-American community,” she said. “They’re definitely wrong.”…

 

Watch out America, organized politically active Asians could become a scary site.

 In a post Howard Stern era, we see more and more of these hacking trying to push the limits of good taste.   When you actually listen to the call, you realize that its really funny at all.  You get the sense that a lot of these disc jockey’s are just goofy white guys. 

SAN FRANCISCO

Birth on street corner, then mom walks off

Monday, April 23, 2007

(SFGate.com)San Francisco police arrested a woman after she gave birth to a baby boy on a street corner Sunday night and then walked away, apparently abandoning the baby.

A security guard who saw the woman delivering the baby on Fifth and Stevenson streets at 9:30 p.m. was calling 911 when he saw the mother get up and walk away, according to police Capt. Al Casciato.

“The kid was lying on the street and she was walking away,” Casciato said.

Casciato said police found the mother in blood soaked clothing within minutes, just two blocks away. The woman, who police have tentatively identified as Nadine Matthews, denied giving birth, he said.

“She denied having a baby, but her clothing was soaked in blood,” Casciato said.

Paramedics arrived within moments of the birth and the baby boy — who weighed 5 pounds 12 ounces — was taken to San Francisco General Hospital and is in the custody of Child Protective Services.

Matthews, who is believed to be in her mid-30s, appeared to be suffering from psychosis and had to be restrained, Casciato said. She has been charged with child endangerment and was also taken to San Francisco General for observation.

The incident came a month after a woman gave birth to a baby on an Oakland street and walked away, leaving it in a puddle of blood. No charges were filed after an autopsy revealed that the baby was stillborn.

The Detroit Red Wings finished up their first round matchup against the Calgary Flames tonite with a 2-1 win in double overtime.  The first and third periods were scoreless, with Jarome Iginla and Robert Lang scoring in the second period.

The first overtime was incredible, with the Flames killing a 4 minute double minor and avoiding several very close calls, while the Wings also got lucky with Calgary missing an open net.

But the game winning goal came from Johan Franzen, who only yesterday was the victim of a cheap shot by the Flame’s backup goalie Jamie McLennan.  Yes, revenge was sweet and the Wings avoided the decisive 7th game and another first round loss.

Next up for Detroit is either Dallas or San Jose.  This will be decided tomorrow following game 7 of the Vancouver/Dallas series.

You gotta love spring with all these great playoff games.  I mean, I think the NHL would benefit if their playoffs weren’t at the same time as the NBA, but oh well.

And how about the Warriors, who beat the Mavs, on the road?  Sweet win for Golden State who barely made the playoffs in the first place.

It’s hard to expect a series win by the Warriors, but the way they’re playing, they could be in the finals.

Dice-K got his second win against the Yankees tonight. He had a mixed performance, allowing 6 earned runs, while striking out 7.

Dice-K struck out A-Rod twice, but also gave up a homer to Jeter, walked one and hit both A-Rod and Jeter.

The news of the night however, was the Red Sox’ batting. In the bottom of the third, the Red Sox hit back, to back, to back, to back homers (that’s right, 4 homers back to back) to tie a MLB record.

It was a one-in-a-lifetime display that finally gave Dice-K the run support he needed. In his two prior losses, the sox supported Dice-K with only 1 run with only 5 runs of support for him during his 3 games this year. But the Sox clearly came to play tonite, capping off the sweep versus the Yankees, giving Dice-K a total of 7 runs of support.

Overall, Dice-K looked decent, but did make some key mistakes. He gave up a 2 run lead, and seemed to lack control at times. Again, it’s hard to see the $100m in Dice-K at this point, but he did play his role to get a key win against the hated yankees.

Shochu, a spirit distilled from Barley or Rice, has quickly gained popularity over the past couple of years.  Just a few years ago, shochu was mostly only available in Korean restaurants and markets, but today a wide variety of shochu, including those from Japan and Korea, are available in Asian markets and restaurants.  Even Whole Foods, Safeway and Trader Joes are jumping on the shochu bandwagon.

Shochu is often compared to sake, but the two spirits are very different.  Shochu has a stronger alcohol flavor, unlike the mostly smooth flavor of sakes.  This gives shochu a noticable bite that, depending on the shochu, can be simply overwhelming, or a nice complement to a meal.  Barley shochus also have a bit of scotchiness in my opinion as well.

I bought Japansch Zaky’s Shochu at Mitsuwa yesterday.  I haven’t seen this brand before, but it seemed to be pretty legit - and by legit, I mean other real j’s were buying it.  It also came complete with fobby grammar, “aging 3 years.”

The bottle is the ceramic type, and the top has a cork imbedded.  According to the label, it is a Barley shochu that is 25% alcohol.

The Japansch has a strong flavor of alcohol, and a slight smokiness.  The color of the liquor is amber, and I think if you continued to age it, it would eventually turn into something similar to a scotch.

You can drink shochu neat, on the rocks, or even mixed with flavored syrup.  I like it ume wari style, which means you mix it with hot water and ume, and then mash up the ume and stir.

This worked well for the Japansch actually, because it’s flavor really complements the ume.  It also makes the shochu warm, which is nice to drink on cold nites.

I have just recently started trying out different shochus, so I don’t really have a good palette developed yet.  But in my opinion, the Japansch, despite the strange name, was very good.  It had a bit more complexity than the basic ‘alcohol flavor’ shochu, indicated by its amber color (many shochus are clear).  I would suggest it either neat or with ume wari.  I think rocks would dilute it down too much.

Uni

Ikura

Don

Uni Ikura Don