Saturday, 2 May 2009
Thursday, 30 October 2008
No on California's Prop 8: an open letter
Dear friends and family,
I'll be blunt. I'm writing to ask for your help in defeating California's Proposition 8, the ballot measure that would codify the discrimination inherent in the statement "marriage is between a man and a woman."
I could give you fiscal, social, familial, or personal reasons why I believe Prop 8 is wrong, but I'll just say this: it's fundamentally unAmerican to say that some people are more worthy of government sanction than others. It was wrong when we counted slaves as 3/5 of free people, it was wrong when women were denied the vote, and it's wrong today.
If you're in California, please don't forget to vote. And no matter where you are, please join me and thousands of other Americans in giving whatever you can - your time, your money, your goodwill and word of mouth - to defeat the proponents of inequality.
I'll be blunt. I'm writing to ask for your help in defeating California's Proposition 8, the ballot measure that would codify the discrimination inherent in the statement "marriage is between a man and a woman."
I could give you fiscal, social, familial, or personal reasons why I believe Prop 8 is wrong, but I'll just say this: it's fundamentally unAmerican to say that some people are more worthy of government sanction than others. It was wrong when we counted slaves as 3/5 of free people, it was wrong when women were denied the vote, and it's wrong today.
If you're in California, please don't forget to vote. And no matter where you are, please join me and thousands of other Americans in giving whatever you can - your time, your money, your goodwill and word of mouth - to defeat the proponents of inequality.
Wednesday, 8 October 2008
New Restaurant Tuesday: Le Mercury
Meg has been busy so she hasn't written up about last week's NRT but we'll forgive her and go right on and hope she'll catch up...
Meg picked Le Mercury which conveniently is right in our neighborhood. I go in and am offered the choice of downstairs or upstairs and since I'm still sore from my sad little half-marathon I choose downstairs. I sit down and am promptly ignored until Meg comes in. The vibe is very French bistro and a bit like Lucien in NYC which used to be our favourite place for a mildly celebratory dinner so that's good. The restaurant is crowded but unlike a crowded NYC restaurant you aren't putting your elbows in your neighbour's soup.
Tiny paper napkins and diner-standard flatware/glasses are all that's on the table. Meg arrives, we get the menus, and order drinks. We get glasses of tap water, which are never refilled, and a bottle of chenin blanc which turns out to be a 2008 from Long Beach winery in South Africa. This is a little sweet, but very nice - I like it a lot. The bread is pretty plain-jane white bread, but it has poppy seeds on the outside which make it better than expected.
Meg has Tian au Crabe which is described on the menu as "Tian of crab and avocado emulsion." What is a tian? We don't know which seems as good a reason as any to order it. It turns out to be something like crab salad. Meg seems to enjoy it.
I have Chevre Chaud, grilled goat's cheese with fresh leaf salad and basil pesto. This is quite good although I think rather too heavy on the goat cheese and not heavy enough on the pesto as it's a little dry. The salad is nothing special and in fact I was hoping for more leaves. Weirdly, I guess, I'm asking for them to have more of the cheap ingredients in this dish.
For mains, Meg gets Supreme de Poulet Roti - roast breast of chicken, garlic mash, green peppercorn. She seems to like it. I have Filet de Loup de Mer - sea bass with cauliflower puree, raisins, and chili lemon zest. Everything individually is good but they don't seem to go together that well.
And that's it. We're tired, Meg seems to be coming down with something, so we skip out after just over an hour for under 40GBP. A great deal, convenient, decent food. We'll definitely be back.
Le Mercury, 140a Upper Street, Islington, N1 1QY. 020 7354 4088
Meg picked Le Mercury which conveniently is right in our neighborhood. I go in and am offered the choice of downstairs or upstairs and since I'm still sore from my sad little half-marathon I choose downstairs. I sit down and am promptly ignored until Meg comes in. The vibe is very French bistro and a bit like Lucien in NYC which used to be our favourite place for a mildly celebratory dinner so that's good. The restaurant is crowded but unlike a crowded NYC restaurant you aren't putting your elbows in your neighbour's soup.
Tiny paper napkins and diner-standard flatware/glasses are all that's on the table. Meg arrives, we get the menus, and order drinks. We get glasses of tap water, which are never refilled, and a bottle of chenin blanc which turns out to be a 2008 from Long Beach winery in South Africa. This is a little sweet, but very nice - I like it a lot. The bread is pretty plain-jane white bread, but it has poppy seeds on the outside which make it better than expected.
Meg has Tian au Crabe which is described on the menu as "Tian of crab and avocado emulsion." What is a tian? We don't know which seems as good a reason as any to order it. It turns out to be something like crab salad. Meg seems to enjoy it.
I have Chevre Chaud, grilled goat's cheese with fresh leaf salad and basil pesto. This is quite good although I think rather too heavy on the goat cheese and not heavy enough on the pesto as it's a little dry. The salad is nothing special and in fact I was hoping for more leaves. Weirdly, I guess, I'm asking for them to have more of the cheap ingredients in this dish.
For mains, Meg gets Supreme de Poulet Roti - roast breast of chicken, garlic mash, green peppercorn. She seems to like it. I have Filet de Loup de Mer - sea bass with cauliflower puree, raisins, and chili lemon zest. Everything individually is good but they don't seem to go together that well.
And that's it. We're tired, Meg seems to be coming down with something, so we skip out after just over an hour for under 40GBP. A great deal, convenient, decent food. We'll definitely be back.
Le Mercury, 140a Upper Street, Islington, N1 1QY. 020 7354 4088
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
Thank you!
A huge thank you to everyone who supported me in the Run to the Beat and donated to fight leukaemia. It was a slog, but I finished the half-marathon on Sunday - and the only reason I got to the start line was thinking how I'd let you all down if I let tube troubles and a little rain stand between me and the run. There's still time if you'd like to donate, but thank you so much for your virtual cheers and real donations.
Monday, 6 October 2008
Liquid Assets
A colleague of mine just sent this to me... I love it!
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you will have $49.00 today. If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you will have $33.00 today. If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you will have $0.00 today. But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling refund (10 cents in some states), you will have received a $214.00. Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg.
A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found that Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. That means that, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon. Makes you proud to be an American!
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you will have $49.00 today. If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you will have $33.00 today. If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you will have $0.00 today. But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling refund (10 cents in some states), you will have received a $214.00. Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg.
A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found that Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. That means that, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon. Makes you proud to be an American!
Thursday, 25 September 2008
New Restaurant Tuesday: The Big Easy
The Big Easy
332-334 Kings Road, Chelsea, London, SW3 5UR
Megan’s first turn to choose a restaurant, and she picks a place that is definitely more up my alley than hers (I’m a meat-and-potatoes gal, Megan likes, well… vegetables): The Big Easy in Chelsea. This place is something of an anomaly, and I’m not really sure what it’s trying to be – a self-proclaimed BBQ and Crab Shack… that’s also won a Wine Spectator award! Now, I love BBQ and seafood and wine, but I’m not sure I can recall the last time I had all three at the same place! Oh yeah, and they’re known for their tasty margaritas too! Weird…
Anyway, we started with a couple of margaritas – clementine & ginger for me, passion fruit & chile for Megan. Megan’s was painfully sweet, and mine was OK, but I generally like to taste my booze instead of being tricked into drinking it, so these weren’t really a huge hit with either of us. We opted for bottles of Dos Equis to go with our meals.
The menu is huge – there must have been 75 items on it. The best way I can describe this restaurant (and everything about it) is that it’s Dock’s (a well-known seafood mini-chain in NYC) meets Brother Jimmy’s (another NYC mini-chain which has the same motto as the Big Easy, “put a little South in your mouth”). The décor definitely swung the way of Brother Jimmy’s – Christmas lights, US license plates, plank walls, etc. I think the desired effect is to make you feel like you’re in a Cajun crab shack (albeit one that serves BBQ… and huge steaks… and Alsatian wines), but it felt a bit contrived to me. An added bonus – this place played great music. During the first part of our meal, they were piping in southern rock: CCR, the Black Crowes (!!!) and a little Tom Petty for good measure. Later in the evening, a cover band started playing upstairs; they were pretty good, and were definitely playing crowd favorites like Oasis, Jack Johnson, U2, the Foo Fighters, etc. The place is clearly catering to American expats looking for a bit of home.
We started our meal with the Voodoo chicken wings. I was hoping for Buffalo-style (these weren’t), but these did not disappoint. Fairly spicy and a homemade bleu cheese dressing on the side. The chicken was breaded though, and that didn’t go over great with either of us. Overall, they were pretty delicious. After we polished off our order of 5 wings, the waiter brought over hot towels – a nice touch, especially considering that we were both covered in wing sauce.
For our entrees, we decided that we would order baby back ribs and a half of a roasted chicken and share. Big mistake. The portions were HUGE, and I suspect that we were fed some genetically modified, mutant (though delicious) chicken. I thought the ribs were good, but Megan thought they were a bit overcooked. Both featured the same BBQ sauce, which was pretty good, but a little sweet for my liking. On the side of both plates (really platters) were huge portions of coleslaw and BBQ baked beans. The coleslaw was just OK, but the beans were great, if for no other reason than they weren’t of the Heinz canned variety that are ubiquitous here. Everything made for delicious leftovers on Wednesday night!
Total damage: £66. We don’t think that we would hurry to come back here, but it could be a fun place to catch a baseball or football game (they have NASN too!) and hang with some expats.
332-334 Kings Road, Chelsea, London, SW3 5UR
Megan’s first turn to choose a restaurant, and she picks a place that is definitely more up my alley than hers (I’m a meat-and-potatoes gal, Megan likes, well… vegetables): The Big Easy in Chelsea. This place is something of an anomaly, and I’m not really sure what it’s trying to be – a self-proclaimed BBQ and Crab Shack… that’s also won a Wine Spectator award! Now, I love BBQ and seafood and wine, but I’m not sure I can recall the last time I had all three at the same place! Oh yeah, and they’re known for their tasty margaritas too! Weird…
Anyway, we started with a couple of margaritas – clementine & ginger for me, passion fruit & chile for Megan. Megan’s was painfully sweet, and mine was OK, but I generally like to taste my booze instead of being tricked into drinking it, so these weren’t really a huge hit with either of us. We opted for bottles of Dos Equis to go with our meals.
The menu is huge – there must have been 75 items on it. The best way I can describe this restaurant (and everything about it) is that it’s Dock’s (a well-known seafood mini-chain in NYC) meets Brother Jimmy’s (another NYC mini-chain which has the same motto as the Big Easy, “put a little South in your mouth”). The décor definitely swung the way of Brother Jimmy’s – Christmas lights, US license plates, plank walls, etc. I think the desired effect is to make you feel like you’re in a Cajun crab shack (albeit one that serves BBQ… and huge steaks… and Alsatian wines), but it felt a bit contrived to me. An added bonus – this place played great music. During the first part of our meal, they were piping in southern rock: CCR, the Black Crowes (!!!) and a little Tom Petty for good measure. Later in the evening, a cover band started playing upstairs; they were pretty good, and were definitely playing crowd favorites like Oasis, Jack Johnson, U2, the Foo Fighters, etc. The place is clearly catering to American expats looking for a bit of home.
We started our meal with the Voodoo chicken wings. I was hoping for Buffalo-style (these weren’t), but these did not disappoint. Fairly spicy and a homemade bleu cheese dressing on the side. The chicken was breaded though, and that didn’t go over great with either of us. Overall, they were pretty delicious. After we polished off our order of 5 wings, the waiter brought over hot towels – a nice touch, especially considering that we were both covered in wing sauce.
For our entrees, we decided that we would order baby back ribs and a half of a roasted chicken and share. Big mistake. The portions were HUGE, and I suspect that we were fed some genetically modified, mutant (though delicious) chicken. I thought the ribs were good, but Megan thought they were a bit overcooked. Both featured the same BBQ sauce, which was pretty good, but a little sweet for my liking. On the side of both plates (really platters) were huge portions of coleslaw and BBQ baked beans. The coleslaw was just OK, but the beans were great, if for no other reason than they weren’t of the Heinz canned variety that are ubiquitous here. Everything made for delicious leftovers on Wednesday night!
Total damage: £66. We don’t think that we would hurry to come back here, but it could be a fun place to catch a baseball or football game (they have NASN too!) and hang with some expats.
Thursday, 18 September 2008
CUBS WIN!
The Cubs win! They beat the Brewers this afternoon to chip 2 games off of their magic number! Geovany Soto is my hero, hitting a 3-run homer with 2 down in the bottom of the 9th to send it into extra innings. D-Lee hits a blooper into shallow center in the bottom of the 12th to send... wait for it... JASON "I'm a baseball player, not a pitcher" MARQUIS home for the game winning run. The magic number is 2!
Best part of the game: Megan and I watched this amazing game LIVE. Yeah, I finally convinced her to subscribe to the North American Sports Network (NASN), the ex-pat's saving grace in the land of no ESPN. This station gets MLB, NFL, College Football and Basketball, and other sports that only folks from the US and Canada care about.... like curling! :) The Cubs making their post-season run was reason enough for me to subscribe. Watching the game live was almost as good as spending the afternoon at the Friendly Confines... except without the Old Style, sunshine, or post-victory dance party at Sluggers!
LET'S GO CUBS!!!!
Best part of the game: Megan and I watched this amazing game LIVE. Yeah, I finally convinced her to subscribe to the North American Sports Network (NASN), the ex-pat's saving grace in the land of no ESPN. This station gets MLB, NFL, College Football and Basketball, and other sports that only folks from the US and Canada care about.... like curling! :) The Cubs making their post-season run was reason enough for me to subscribe. Watching the game live was almost as good as spending the afternoon at the Friendly Confines... except without the Old Style, sunshine, or post-victory dance party at Sluggers!
LET'S GO CUBS!!!!
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