22 Wednesday Feb 2012
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
Last evening we went to see and hear Katherine Boo, author of Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (mini reviewed at MillersTime here.)
I didn’t find out what I wanted to know, but what I gained was better than what I had come to learn.
21 Tuesday Feb 2012
Posted in Go Sox
So with Spring Training underway, I declare the end of the 2011/12 MillersTime Stove League contest.
We have six predictions that came true (five if you count the one that two of you predicted): #2, 7, 10, 31, 32, 33.
We need seven of you to vote for which prediction you think is best. Which one should be declared the winner?
20 Monday Feb 2012
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
‘ Tis strange – but true; for truth is always strange;
Stranger than fiction; if it could be told,
How much would novels gain by the exchange!
How differently the world would men behold!
How oft would vice and virtue places change!
The new world would be nothing to the old,
If some Columbus of the moral seas
Would show mankind their souls’ antipodes.
-Lord Byron his satirical poem Don Juan, 1823
A book and a film for your consideration.
The book is non-fiction, tho I wished it were fiction.
The movie was fiction, based on a novel, and I kind of wished it were true.
17 Friday Feb 2012
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
The good news:
Hollywood East Cafe, now in Wheaton, MD, a few blocks away from their former location on University Blvd., has doubled their dim sum offerings from when they first opened their new restaurant, and the quality of what they offer seems better too. They now have some dumplings that I haven’t seen nor tasted anywhere else in the entire DC/Md/VA area. They’re simply terrific.
If you live in DC/MD area and have stood in line for Oriental East because you think they have the best dim sum this side of Virginia, check out Hollywood East. I suspect you will be pleased.
The bad news:
Ping Pong Dim Sum has opened their second restaurant, this one in Dupont Circle. It is as bad, perhaps even worse, if possible, than the one in Chinatown.
These two ‘faux’ dim sum factories largely serve dumplings made elsewhere, and when they are steamed, these frozen whatever they are, are not even bad versions of true dim sum.
Save your appetite and money for the real things.
16 Thursday Feb 2012
Posted in The Outer Loop
Those of you who have followed MillersTime/The Outer Loop know that I’ve reserved this part of MillersTime for my thoughts and for articles by others on issues that face our country (and sometimes the world beyond the US). When I do post here, it is my hope that these articles truly inform and are not meant to compete with the news cycle or the current ‘Inside the Beltway’ political view of the moment or what is ‘politically correct or incorrect.’
That said, I’ve also stated clearly from the beginning of MillersTime that I was (and continue to be) hopeful that Barack Obama would be ‘the real deal,’ would be a terrific president.
This morning I read the article by James Fallows of The Atlantic Monthly which I have embedded below. It is, I believe, the best thing I’ve read to date on Obama and his presidency.
It is long and will take you minimally 30 minutes to read. Know that I don’t encourage you to spend that amount of time very often.
15 Wednesday Feb 2012
Posted in Go Sox
If you don’t live in NYC or the Northeast and/or if you don’t follow pro basketball (and I couldn’t blame you if you didn’t), you might not know the name Jeremy Lin.
Whether he’ll be a flash in the pan or whether he’ll prove to be the phenom he has been for the last six Knick’s games, here’s a terrific article by someone who is well known (primarily?) for his work in the tech world.
Sports and good writing often go together:
14 Tuesday Feb 2012
Posted in Family and Friends
Somehow, Valentine’s Day this year crept up and arrived without my succumbing to the ‘pressure’ of making it Hallmark day, etc.
But I did read an article in this morning’s NYTimes that struck me as worthy of the day (and much more) and worth attaching.
See what you think:
13 Monday Feb 2012
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
At some point, either shortly before or shortly after I retired from The Frost School, I made a list of some things I would like to do with my freed up time.
I was only one degree of separation away from one of Washington’s best French chefs, and I thought how much fun it would be to spend an entire day in the kitchen with him from the time he walked in in the morning until he left at night.
12 Sunday Feb 2012
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
Over this weekend we saw two performances that we highly recommend if you live in the DC area and like live theatre.
But you’ll have to ‘act’ quickly as one of the performances ends Feb. 18 and the other ends Mar. 11.
11 Saturday Feb 2012
Posted in Go Sox
Feb. 11.
Truck Day.
That not so inconsequential time when all the Red Sox Spring Training gear is loaded up at Fenway and leaves for Fort Myers.
Ah, I can feel the juices begin to flow again.
For those of you for whom these major events matter, here’s a list of significant baseball dates for 2012:
06 Monday Feb 2012
Posted in Escapes and Pleasures
First the films.
Le Havre ****1/2
You’ll have to look around to find this film, but if it’s playing in your area, it’s worth the effort to see it.
In a time when many films are filled with violence and bad guys (just watch the previews of coming movies), Le Havre offers something quite different: a film made up almost entirely of good people, a view of humanity that doesn’t make it to the screen too often.
30 Monday Jan 2012
Posted in Family and Friends
I saw an article recently in which the author writes that doctors die differently from the rest of us. That certainly caught my attention, and while there are no studies to back up what he writes, he does seem to point to factors that all of us might want to consider.
Ken Murray, MD, in How Doctor’s Die, writes:
“It’s not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little. For all the time they spend fending off the deaths of others, they tend to be fairly serene when faced with death themselves. They know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care they could want. But they go gently.”
29 Sunday Jan 2012
Posted in Go Sox
We’re getting close to ‘pitchers and catchers’ and the end of the Stove League.
So how did the 30 major league teams do (there are a few deals left to be made)?
In case you haven’t been paying attention, or have only been paying attention to your own team, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe gives a one paragraph summary of what each team did over the winter.
28 Saturday Jan 2012
Posted in Go Sox
After reading the recent MillersTime post of Sally Jenkins’ articles on Joe Paterno, friend and Penn State grad David Stang wrote a letter to Sally.
No reply from Sally, but if you have one or thoughts about what Dave wrote, please feel free to add your thoughts in the Comments’ section.
David’s letter:
25 Wednesday Jan 2012
Posted in Go Sox
The Yankee I always feared the most made it official yesterday as he announced his retirement.
It wasn’t only that bloop single off Pedro in the 2003 that made me ‘hate’ him, tho that is still one of the more painful examples of what he could do to the Sox.
Jorge didn’t have as much talent as Derek, Mo, or ______ (put in any one you choose). You always (almost) knew what Mo would do to you in the 9th. And you knew that Jeter would always get on base when he needed to. You didn’t know how Jorge would beat you, but too often he did something to hurt you.
He had grit. Had he been on the Sox, he would have been one of the “Dirt Dogs.”
I can’t think of any better compliment to make about a ball player.
If you didn’t see his retirement announcement in its entirety yesterday, check it out below.
Tek, are you are there?