Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
As I mentioned yesterday, Robert Lang invited me to dinner last night at a famous Chicago restaurant called Next, whose metier is mulitcourse menus with a theme. And they completely change the theme every four months, so they’re always working on and testing the dishes to come (see the history of the themes at the Wikipedia link given in the first sentence). The theme of our meal was “Japan,” inspired by the restaurant chef, manager, and some staff having taken a trip to Japan to absorb the food and culture. They they returned to the U.S. and worked for a few months to develop dishes that were not explicitly Japanese, but inspired by the food they tried in Japan.
While preparing the account of our meal for a post, I realized that it is going to take some time, what with 12 dishes and 8 wines (including 2 sakes), as well photos of the menu and the restaurant. I will say now that it was one of the best meals I’ve had in America—even better than the vaunted French Laundry in California, where years ago I paid a lot for a disappointing meal.
We managed to get into this restaurant, which has a huge waiting list, because Robert’s niece is the general manager; and because of that we got a few gratis dishes.
The meal was terrific, with a largesse of small, lovely, and wonderful dishes and thoughtful and appropriate pairings with wines and sakes. The meal did not fail where many of small-dish places do: making you leave when you haven’t had enough to eat. This was not the case at Next: I left dazzled, sated, and a bit buzzed.
I will ask your indulgence because it will take me a few hours to crop the photos, insert them in a post in the proper order, and try to describe the dishes from a memory clouded by sake. The post will be up tomorrow morning.
To wet your whistle, here’s a photo taken by Robert, showing the introductory tipple, a glass of sake poured to overflowing inside a cedar box. This is traditional: you sip the full glass until it can be poured into the box, and then drink the rest from the box, which lightly flavors the sake with cedar. This was also a rare form of sake for me: a sparkling one.
All will be revealed tomorrow. Right now I am recovering.
I need a life—even if that is a life outside of writing for this website. That’s by way of informing you that posting here may be a bit light for about a week. I have a writing assignment, which is to answer Michael Shermer’s response to my own post on this site taking issue with his claim (also in his new book Truth) that we have a form of free will. (My response will appear at Skeptic.) I can do no other than answer a form of compatibilism that gives us free will simply by redefining the folk notion of free will in an un-refutable way so that that we do have free will even if all our behaviors and thoughts derive from and are compatible with the laws of physics. But I digress.
My second task is to go shopping for much-needed Chinese groceries (I ran out of everything during the cold spell), but, most important, to meet my friend origami master and engineer Robert Lang, who’s invited me for splendid dinner at Next. Next is a sister restaurant of Alinea—surely one of America’s most famous restaurants. Next is equally highly rated. Both Next and Alinea are run by the same chef, Grant Achatz (see a Facebook interview with him here). Robert’s in town for an origami convention, and the trip to Next is prompted by his rare appearance in Chicago and the felicitous fact that Robert’s niece happens to be the general manager of Next. I think that’s how we got reservations given that the site says, “On any given night, there can be 10,000+ guests on our waitlist.”
Next is so named because it changes menus to a new theme every few months. This most recent theme is Japan, and I have the menu, which has nine courses that look fabulous (Earlier, Robert provided some origami for the menu.) I’ll save the food experience for a post (with photos) tomorrow or Sunday. There will also be a wine pairing with the many courses, and I’m sure that a great and bibulous time will be had by all.
Stay tuned. As always, I’ll do my best, both at table and at this site. Oh, and don’t forget to set your clocks forward on Saturday night.
When I wrote about my five-night stay at the Honeyguide Mantobeni Tent Camp in the Manyeleti Game Reserve, I showed photos of the animals we saw. After all, it was the biology that drew me there. But of course it doesn’t hurt to have tasty food, comfortable accommodations, and, above all, two three-hour game drives a day with a good guide!
We had all that, and in this post I’ll show you something about the camp itself, the food, the accommodations, and the vehicles. I will add that if you can splurge on something like this once in your life, do so. It costs no more than staying in a reasonable hotel in New York City, but with the benefits of seeing buffalo, rhinos, elephants, and a whole host of creatures, not to mention being soothed to sleep at night by the “location growls” of nearby lions.
I reserved about six months ago, as these places fill up quickly, and even though now (the winter in South Africa) the bush is dry and not verdant, it’s a good time to see the animals as they’re more visible. Plus you can count on no rain at all.
It’s about a 15-minute drive from the gate of the reserve to the registration building, itself part of a more luxurious feature of the camp complex: real rooms in a hotel-like structure instead of a tent. But as I was to find out, our “tents” were plenty luxurious.
From reception you’re driven to the lodge of your tent camp: the place where you come to socialize, eat, drink, and leave on the game drives. This is the nerve center of your stay:
It’s a lovely little lodge with a bar, a dining room, a fireplace, and even a wine cellar. Our tents are scattered outside.
Below: the main room of the lodge with the bar at the far end. Here you can sit and read, and there is internet (none in the tents). In the foreground you can see my computer with picture I’m downloading to prepare a post:
The dining room. I always sat at the far end. Most of the visitors, it seems, come in large tour groups (there were, for example, many Italians, one of whom, to the puzzlement of the waitress, tried to explain that he wanted his pasta cooked al dente). But there were some individual visitors like me, and we’d converge at the small far table.
There was a constant turnover of visitors, most seeming to stay about two or three nights. After five nights (and ten game drives), I was the longest-staying visitor when I left.
As I said, I was sad to leave. One of the reasons was the swimming pool, which was almost invariably patronized by a herd of elephants who came to drink. The group ranged from a single female (the matriarch, I think) up to 23 pachyderms. As I worked writing my posts in the late mornings and afternoons, I could watch them.
Only a few people actually went into the pool, and mostly for photos (I didn’t as I had no bathing suit). It was largely a place to watch the elephants:
The schedule:
6:00 a.m.: The sound of a horn and faint drums wakes you up. I set my phone alarm as the wake-up call was barely audible.
6:30 a.m.: Game drive begins: there are coffee, tea, and rusks (an African favorite) in the dining room beforehand if you care to partake. Make sure your bowels and bladder are empty when you set out, as you are not allowed to relieve yourself in the bush!
9:30 a.m.: Return from game drive, wash up, go to your room if need be (I got my computer), and get ready for breakfast.
10:00 a.m.: Breakfast! Hot and hearty: just what you need after a long and sometimes chilly game drive (they provide coffee and rusks in the bush right before you drive back). Here’s the breakfast menu. Portions are copious, but if you’re really hungry you can have more. I alternated between the “flapjacks” (made with corn and served with honey and bananas instead of syrup) and the “big five” breakfast if I was really hungry. It’s pretty much the Full English Breakfast, complete with baked beans, grilled tomatoes, and fried mushrooms:
There is also juice, toast, muffins, and fruit Here’s one of my Big Five Breakfasts, lacking the beans this time but with potato cakes:
Between breakfast and 2 p.m. you have about 3½ free hours, mostly time that I’d devote to writing my posts at a place where I could watch the elephants.
What about the lodgings? They were excellent. Here is my “tent”. It had a king-sized bed just for me, as well as a bathroom, a couch, and places to store belongings, which are perfectly safe. This is tent 2F, which I’d recommend:
You have to unzip three zippered flaps to get to your bed; this keeps out mosquitoes, baboons, and other pests. The “living room”, behind the entrance flap. You can see the bed to the rear:
My bed. The nights were cold, but there was a heated mattress pad and a comforter that kept me very cozy and warm at night. During the morning game drive they make up your bed and tidy your room. During the evening game drive, they put out the mosquito netting, which completely encompasses your bed. (Although it’s not the wet season, my doctor still prescribed malaria pills for me.)
The bathroom, open to the outdoors at one end, has two sinks, a flush toilet, and two showers (not in stalls) with hot water. Now that is luxury:
The showers, which drain into wooden planks. It was a delight to take showers open partly to the elements, but you have to zip the bathroom flap shut at night to keep the baboons out of your tent (no food allowed in tents, either). You’re advised not to leave your toothbrush or any other personal articles in the bathroom, as the baboons can climb in through the open part and steal them.
In the afternoons I’d work for a few hours, catching up on email and writing posts, all the while watching any elephants who came to the pool. (You’re not allowed to wander about on your own because of possible danger from animals.
At 2 p.m. lunch was served. Here are some photos. The lunch menu was conveyed verbally, and there was always a choice of at least two main courses as well as dessert.
Ribs:
Dessert: meringue in a shell.
You could also buy wine by the glass or bottle, or order a drink from the bar. They weren’t free, but they were inexpensive and the selection was good. I rarely drink alcohol when traveling, so at best I’d have a cappuccino.
3 p.m.: The second 3-hour game drive begins. The vehicles we used were converted Toyota Land Cruisers made suitable for driving over very rough roads. Each one seated ten people and the driver. The best seat was by the driver, and ours was the affable and knowledgeable Dan. Since most people were in groups, they sat in the three seats behind, usually leaving me the prized front seat.
Here are our vehicles. Dan is in the driver’s seat in the left one. (They drive on the wrong side in Africa: a legacy from the Brits.)
A full vehicle setting off:
I’ve already shown you what we saw on our game drives. After all of them I saw every animal I wanted to see, and finished the Big Five on my very last day by seeing an African buffalo. On only one drive did we fail to see anything interesting, but if you want a good shot at seeing most of the iconic animals, I’d recommend a stay of at least four days.
About half an hour before we began the drive back to camp, we’d have a “sundowner”: drinks that we’d specify at lunch. You could have wine, beer, iced tea, gin and tonics, and some nibbles like nuts or chips. I usually had iced tea or a beer. Here’s my favorite picture of Dan (one I’ve shown before): laughing as he prepared the evening’s G&Ts, everything kept cold in a cooler. I can still hear his laugh and his deep voice, saying “Yaaaaah” for “Yes.”;
Then came the long drive back to camp in the dark (usually at least half an hour). As Dan drove, he swept a powerful flashlight back and forth across the road, not only to see any animals in the road to avoid (we came across several hares), but also to catch the gleam from the eyes of any cats lurking in the bush. We didn’t see any, but I saw every big cat on tap: lion, leopard, and cheetah. I missed the smaller cats: the serval, caracal, and African wildcat. But a picture of a serval from a wildlife rehab center will be coming in a later post.
Home at 6:30, dinner at 7. Some menus and photos (all desserts!). As you see, the food selection was wide, and except for an occasional tendency to overcook meat, the kitchen did well. As you see, they featured game, but I tended to avoid it after seeing the animals in the wild. (Yes, call me a hypocrite, because I’ve seen cows and pigs on farms but do eat them.ˆ).
It was dark in the dining room and my flash doesn’t work well, so you’ll have to be satisfied with photos of desserts. Stewed guava with vanilla ice cream:
And cake with whipped cream and fruit purée.
The temperature-controlled wine cellar in a glass-fronted room.
So those are the amenities of life in camp. I will miss it, and perhaps some day will visit again. But the day after tomorrow we go to Kruger for five days, and although the accommodations are simple bungalows, the important thing is that I get the chance to see animals again.
I had to leave Paris before I could post about my final day, which consisted largely of lunch and packing. I’ve one more post to go—about the antisemitism and antiracism demonstration—so be patient.
The photos of the dishes of our final meal are unsatisfactory as I used my point-and-shoot camera, but it was so dark in the restaurant that I had to use shutter speeds as slow as 1/8 of a second, which makes for blurry photos. I should have used my iPhone. But so be it.
Three of us dined at one of Paris’s most famous restaurants, Chez Dumonet, sometimes called Joséphine or Joséphine Chez Dumonet: it’s in a house owned by a woman named Joséphine, but the owners were Dumonets. It’s an upscale bistro, perhaps the most expensive of the ones we dined at, but it’s absolutely worth it. We had reservations at the front of the house, as sometimes foreigners get exiled to Siberia, in a small two-table alcove walled off from the rest of the diners off the kitchen. That is unsatisfactory, for a large part of the eating experience in Paris is watching the other diners, seeing what they order, and often speaking to them. In Paris you don’t dine before you go out for entertainment; eating is the entertainment.
As you can see from the many reviews of Chez Dumonet (see for example here, here, here, and here), it’s universally lauded, and I have never had a meal less than superb here.
Here’s the restaurant from the outside; many treats wait within (it’s a short walk from the Duroc Métro stop):
The menu in the window (click to enlarge). Some dishes you can get in half portions, and I’d recommend that for the famous boeuf bourguignon with fresh homemade noodles. Portions are large:
A view looking towards the rear; I’ve put an arrow pointing to the table where we sat. This photo was taken from Our French Impressions:
And our view of the front of the restaurant:
A gratis amuse-bouche: cauliflower puree:
A really bad photo of one appetizer not on the menu: sauteed morels (mushrooms). Oy, am I ashamed of this photo!
My appetizer: a half portion of the house-prepared smoked salmon (i.e., LOX) with a little pot of crème fraîche and ample bread on the side. I put the salmon on the bread with a tad of the crème. It was terrific, and filling.
Winnie’s entrée: roasted langoustines with lemon butter. I turned down an offer of one but now much regret it:
Winnie and her friend Marie both had the same plat, and it sure looked good: Millefeuille de pigon et ses cuisses confites, or a layered “pastry” (made of potatoes) containing rare-ish pigeon breast with its legs (preserved in fat) on the side. Both ladies affirmed that it was delicious:
There was a d*g at the table next to us (they are permitted in French restaurants), and it looked up hopefully as Winnie ate her pigeon:
I was starved, so I had the cassoulet maison—the only cassoulet I ate this trip. It was of course huge, with tons of beans, sausage, fatty pork, and duck confit. I managed to finish all the meat, but the beans defeated me:
The ladies were too full for dessert, but I ordered the restaurant’s most famous dessert, which has to be ordered with your entrée and main course so they can prepare it in advance: soufflé with Grand Marnier. I don’t know how they time it so it arrives after you’re finished, but they must watch the table to see what stage your dinner is at.
The soufflé, which is light but delicious, comes with a glass of the orange liqueur Grand Marnier. You simply make a hole in the soufflé and pour in the booze. An excellent dessert!
A little plate of treats comes after dessert, including a madeleine, a chocolate, and some other unknown but tasty goodies. Tasting the madeleine immediately conjured up remembrances of my childhood.
And so endeth our Big Feed in Paris. Will Paris remember me? I think not, though I’ll remember it. Once again I quote Karen Blixen’s Out of Africa, because it always reminds me of Paris when I leave it:
“If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?”
And so I strolled back to the Métro, pleasantly sated, passing along the way the café Au Chien Qui Fume (“At the dog who smokes”):
There will be one more installment of the trip, with photos of the demonstration. À la prochaine!
Once again there is only food to report, this time because I drank too much wine at lunch and was incapable of doing much beyond getting home on the Métro.
The restaurant for today was an old friend, the Auberge Pyrénées Cévennes, again in the 11th near Republique. I heard it had new ownership, and was anxious to see whether it had gone downhill. The answer is “a bit,” but it’s still a worthy bistro. Unfortunately, lunch was somewhat disturbed by the arrival of what seemed to be a tour busload (around 40) of young Americans, who were LOUD (fulfilling the French stereotype), making it hard to talk. The food, however, is still good, though the famous cassoulet no longer appears on the 39€ lunch menu.
En suite, the restaurant and its food:
The APC, as we call it, is on a dreary street about a five-minute walk from the Place de la République, the site of many demonstrations (some happening these days). If you didn’t know the restaurant was there, you’d overlook it:
Somehow it’s connected with the wonderful liqueur Chartreuse, and there’s a big display of bottles from various eras and of various types:
The restaurant, but full of noisy tourists. That sounds snobbish, as I’m a tourist too, but these young Americans didn’t know the custom of keeping your voice low so that others could enjoy the meal (the French stereotype is that Americans are loud, and having observed many in restaurants, stores, and on the Métro, there’s a lot of truth in it.) The main rules for getting along with Parisians are 1) don’t be loud, 2) when you enter a store or restaurant, greet the owners, and say goodbye when you leave 3) don’t assume that every Parisian speaks fluent English; ask in French first 4) if a Parisian (or French person in general) doesn’t understand you, they won’t understand you better if you keep raising your voice. Loudness doesn’t equal increased comprehension.
This group insisted on drinking for well over an hour before ordering food, and the alcohol consumption raised the volume. Most of the French diners sat in the other room:
But onto the food, I had the 39-Euro lunch menu, a bargain (but without cassoulet, which I didn’t want anyway), while Winnie order à la carte
My course was a delicious “Frisée salad with bacon, croutons and organic poached egg.” This, at least, hasn’t changed, and there’s a LOT of bacon. Plenty of freshly sliced baguette is on the side to help with the bacon:
Winnie had the pan-fried porcini mushrooms (Boletus edulis) with “sparkling juice and ham shavings”:
Winnie didn’t drink, so when I ordered a pot (60 cl bottle) of the house Brouilly, I knew I had to drink it by myself. That was my downfall. The sparkling water behind it is Chateldon, also known as “the king’s water” as it was favored at the court of Louix XIV. It emerges from the earth naturally carbonated, and the supply is limited. As Wikipedia notes:
Châteldon is known for its naturally carbonated mineral water. It was the first mineral water exploited in France and transported by bottles to the Court of Louis XIV in Versailles. This water is used for its diuretic and digestive properties. It is also rich in potassium, sodium and fluorine. In France, one finds the water of Châteldon in the large hotels and restaurants, and in delicatessens. In 1650, the first doctor of the king, Guy-Crescent Fagon, praised the virtues of Châteldon to Louis XIV.
Les plats: I had an old French bistro classic, which comes from French home cooking: blanquette de veau, or veal stew with cream sauce, served with grilled basmati rice. It was rich and delicious, with large hunks of veal, mushrooms, and vegetables.
Winnie, who eats three meals a day, went lighter, choosing the “roasted scallops, venerated black rice, sparkling juice” (the latter means “foam”, a sign that this restaurant has gained some modern food.
I wasn’t familiar with black rice, also known as “purple rice” as some varieties turn purple when cooked. The flavor isn’t supposed to differ from that of regular rice, but it sure is attractive:
Winnie decided to have as dessert the same salad I had as an entréee (see above), but I chose a real dessert, the Paris-Brest, a traditional dessert best described as “a big pastry donut filled with cream.” Or, as Wikipedia describes it,
The round pastry, in the form of a wheel, was created in 1910 by Louis Durand, pâtissier of Maisons-Laffitte, at the request of Pierre Giffard, to commemorate the Paris–Brest–Paris bicycle race he had initiated in 1891. Its circular shape is representative of a wheel. It became popular with riders on the Paris–Brest–Paris cycle race, partly because of its energizing, high-calorie value and its intriguing name, and is now found in pâtisseries all over France.
Well, it was quite tasty.
As soon as I got up to leave the restaurant, I realized that I was tipsy, having consumed more than half a bottle of wine. That usually wouldn’t faze me over the course of a 2¼-hour lunch, but I reacted strongly (half a regular bottle is 37.5 ml, but I had 60 ml). There was nothing to do then but go back to the hotel and have a nap, but since I had to make several Métro connections, which involved long walks, it wasn’t easy. I even fell asleep on one subway ride!
Fortunately, I made it home, and avoided the dangers experienced by Sérge the Métro rabbit in this sign that I was sober enough to photograph:
The proper English translation is “Do not enter after the signal sounds, as you risk by that act something very bad.” (Serge doesn’t pull any punches.) The English translation below is lame, I’ve been bodily pinced this way before, and it is not pleasant!
And so home for a nap under the duvet, which lasted longer than I thought, and it was too late to do anything afterwards. Still, I slept like a baby, and am ready for my next lunch: a the place where they’d previously lost our reservation, the Restaurant Au Moulin à Vent (“At the Windmil”). This was voted the best bistro in Paris in 2013, so I’m looking forward to a good tuck-in.
Welcome to Friday, November 3, 2023, and it’s National Sandwich Day. Here’s the biggest sandwich I know of (and it’s good): a large pastrami from Harold’s NY Deli in Edison, NJ. Everything there is huge, but also very good, and it’s right off the N/S Interstate. Look at this puppy (there’s a bread and pickle bar to thin things out!) Remember, you can take the leftovers home to make several days’ worth of sammies.
If you missed the “Resolved: STEM is Systemically Racist” debate that took place at MIT last night (see my post), go here to hear the YouTube recording.
I will be going to Paris on Sunday for eight days, so posting will be light, though Matthew has promised to keep the Hili dialogues alive while I’m gone. Bear with me; we’ll resume on the 14th and I’ll do my best.
Today’s Google Doodle commemorates the life and work of Allan Houser (1914-1994), described by Wikipedia as “a Chiricahua Apache sculptor, painter and book illustrator born in Oklahoma. He was one of the most renowned Native American painters and Modernist sculptors of the 20th century. Click on the Doodle to see the links, and I’ve put one of his sculptures below:
A bronze by Houser, described as “”Legends Begin,” bronze, at Allard Hall Law School building in Vancouver”. For a Google image search that shows much of his work, click here.
Photo Credit Don Erhardt: The Statue “Legends Begin”
Wine of the Day: Readers know I’m a big fan of Spanish white wines, especially Albariño and Rueda. They can be terrific and tasty, and are often great values. This is a high-class Albariño from 2022, so the grapes were harvested about a year ago. It was only $17 for a wine of extraordinary freshness and complexity, straw-colored with a nose of lime, fruit, and flowers (these wines are known for their perfume). I drank it with fettuccine Alfredo with some green peas, and it was a great pairing. In fact, I had to stop myself from drinking more than half a bottle.
A vibrant albariño with aromas of waxed lemons, thyme, fresh peaches, white pepper and grapefruit. Crunchy and zesty, with a medium body and delicious mineral undertones. Drink now.
This is a serious, luscious white that you’ll be proud to serve to your guests. Or to acquaint yourself with this rarely-drunk wine. If you can find it between $15 and $20, and want a white that will go well with food, this is your puppy:
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken arrived in the Middle East on Friday on a complex diplomatic mission in which he will reaffirm the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip while pressing its leaders to take concrete steps to reduce the number of civilian casualties.
The U.S. stance on the war has shifted over the past three weeks. While President Biden continues to declare unambiguous support for Israel, saying the country has a right to defend itself, concern has been growing within his administration about the mounting Palestinian death toll and worsening humanitarian conditions due to Israel’s response to the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 that killed 1,400.
The Gazan health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government, says that more than 9,000 people have been killed in the territory, provoking outrage around the world. Gaza is also dangerously low on food, fuel and water after Israel cut off access to those necessities.
In meetings scheduled with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv on Friday, Mr. Blinken is expected to push what American officials call “humanitarian pauses” in military operations against Hamas in Gaza. Mr. Netanyahu paused the operations last month to enable the release of two American hostages held in the territory, Judith Raanan, 59, and her daughter, Natalie Raanan, 17.
The death toll, of course, largely reflects the Palestinians using civilians as human shields, locating military forces, headquarters, and missile launches in heavily-populated areas, or under sensitive sites like hospitals. They’re also preventing Palestinians from moving south to zones that are supposed to be attack free, though I’m not sure if that’s true. I’m also not sure how Israel can achieve its mission of erasing Hamas without a high death toll of civilians, which I abhor. But what can be done. The “humanitarian pauses” work only when a few hostages are released (four so far out of about 250), and, if they turn into cease-fires, which many Americans are calling for, will end with Hamas persisting. The Biden administration has indeed changed its view, and it’s depressing to think about what is to come.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will urge the Israeli government to agree to a series of brief cessations of military operations in Gaza to allow for hostages to be released safely and for humanitarian aid to be distributed, White House officials said on Thursday.
The message comes as President Biden revealed on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel had previously agreed to halt shelling briefly on Oct. 20 to allow for the release of two Americans, Judith Raanan, 59, and her daughter, Natalie Raanan, 17.
The push for what American officials call “humanitarian pauses” is one of several subjects Mr. Blinken will raise with Mr. Netanyahu and other officials when he arrives in Israel on Friday for another round of diplomacy amid fierce fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas, the group that controls Gaza.
White House officials said the request for pauses was far different from an overall cease-fire, which the Biden administration believes would benefit Hamas by allowing it to recover from Israel’s intense bombardment.
Okay, so now we know: “pauses” are very short, and occur only during times when hostages are being released or humanitarian aid arrives. All parties remain in place, a hostage is released, and then hostilities resume. This apparently happened once before. But seriously, we have only four hostages released (and one rescued, with the IDF of course giving no details), and 220 more. Were I (Ceiling Cat forbid) a leader of Hamas, I’d draw out these pauses for negotiation so that my forces could regroup. And, finally, we can have pauses ONLY WHEN HAMAS HAS AGREED TO RELEASE HOSTAGES. So we can’t just say, “Okay, we’ll pause next Tuesday at 2 pm, and you, Hamas, will release hostages.” The negotiations have to be concluded in advance. As for humanitarian aid, it should really all be going to southern Gaza, as an inducement for civilians to get out of the way.
Wagner Group, the Russian paramilitary organization, plans to provide an air-defense system to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia, U.S. officials say, citing intelligence.
The Russian SA-22 system they plan to send uses antiaircraft missiles and air-defense guns to intercept aircraft.
One U.S. official said that Washington hasn’t confirmed that the system has been sent. But officials are monitoring discussions involving Wagner and Hezbollah and the potential delivery is a major concern to them.
In Syria, Wagner troops played an important role in shoring up the country’s leader, President Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The intelligence comes amid broader concerns about Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia, opening up a northern front against Israel. The U.S. has positioned an aircraft carrier in the Eastern Mediterranean to try to deter Hezbollah and Iran.
Were I Hezbollah, what with two U.S. aircraft carriers (and their ancillary ships) sitting in the eastern Mediterranean, I wouldn’t try anything, I tell you what. I have little doubt that Biden meant what he said when he warned Lebanon to keep their missiles in their pants.
*In my life I’ve bought and sold two homes, and was always peeved at the 6% real estate commission you pay when you sell a house. Now, though, a federal jury has ruled this commission illegal because it involves illegal collusion. The realtor agency is going to have to dig deep to pay the fine:
The National Association of Realtors and several real estate companies were ordered to pay $1.8 billion in damages after a federal jury in Missouri on Tuesday ruled that they conspired to artificially inflate brokerage commissions.
Beyond the realtors’ association, defendants in the case include Keller Williams, Berkshire Hathaway’s HomeService of America and two of its subsidiaries. The verdict, which came after a two-week trial in federal court in Kansas City, is a potential game changer for how Americans buy homes. It also comes at a time when the U.S. real estate market is stalled, with mortgage rates nearing 8% and existing home sales down double digits from a year ago.
The case centers on the commissions home sellers make to a buyer’s realtor. Those payments are partially governed by NAR rules, which mandate that sellers include a fee offer to the buyer’s agent in listing property. The offer is known by real estate agents representing prospective buyers, but the latter are usually in the dark on those amounts. That can lead agents to steer buyers into deals to maximize their own commissions.
As I recall, the fee paid by the seller is 6% of the offered price, which can be substantial. There’s more:
Michael Ketchmark, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, told CBS MoneyWatch he expects the jury award to be tripled under U.S. antitrust law to more than $5 billion.
. . . It cost two to three times as much to sell a house in the United States as it does in other industrialized countries,” said the attorney, citing the practices outlined during the trial that compels the seller to pay brokerage commissions of up to 6%.
One day in the late 1970s, John Lennon hit the record button on a boombox at his Upper West Side co-op and sang a new song he had been working on, accompanying himself on piano.
For decades, his Beatles songwriting partner Paul McCartney yearned to transform this raw solo demo into a studio-polished collaboration that could properly serve as the Fab Four’s final song. Finally, some 45 years later, the technology arrived that would free Lennon’s voice from its sonic trap of atmospheric hum and tinny piano so they could blend it seamlessly with his surviving bandmates’ fresh vocals and instruments.
. . . The song comes to us courtesy of the same miracle software program that director Peter Jackson deployed to astonishing effect in 2021’s “The Beatles: Get Back.” For that approximately 470-minute docuseries, Jackson’s engineering team managed to isolate the whispered conversations between John, Paul, George and Ringo from the din of their 1969 rehearsal sessions. But their software, known as MAL, can also create weird temptations.
. . . . And now I sit, a committed Beatles fan, listening to this “new” song for the 10th time on headphones in the dark at 4:13 a.m., willing myself to feel that special thing that would allow me to embrace it, to rave to you about its majestic beauty and poignant perfection.
But I can’t. “Now and Then” is just okay. And that’s not nearly good enough.
I agree with pop-culture editor Geoff Edgers when he says this:
“Now and Then” is not terrible. It starts slow and picks up a little as the rhythm section kicks in. There is a minor-key melancholy in Lennon’s composition. But ultimately, it’s kind of mundane.
No, it’s not terrible, but listen for yourself below. In my book it’s not even in the top 100 Beatles songs. It’s a tedious disappointment:
“Now and Then” comes from the same batch of unreleased demos written by Lennon in the 1970s, which were given to his former bandmates by Yoko Ono. They used the tape to construct the songs “Free As a Bird” and “Real Love,” released in the mid-1990s. But there were technical limitations to finishing “Now and Then.”
On Wednesday, a short film titled “The Beatles — Now And Then — The Last Beatles Song” was released, detailing the creation of the track. On the original tape, Lennon’s voice was hidden; the piano was “hard to hear,” as Paul McCartney describes it. “And in those days, of course, we didn’t have the technology to do the separation.”
Here’s that a 12-minute video about how the song was made, including nice video of the Beatles when they were all alive. To be fair, Paul says below that he helped do this because he was sure that John would want the song released:
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is wet, on the windowsill, and indecisive:
The person who sent this video wrote: “This woman who caused trouble due to wearing a veil on her head, and brave girls and women met her with unity and standing up. After the fight, the subway officers threw everyone out of the subway and delayed us for an hour until the next subway came. Please publish it so that everyone understands that the era of these ration-eating, sandwich-eating, ration-eating fossils is over, who sing in the subway and on the streets to disturb the girls and women of the Iranian nation because of hijab and any other issue.”
Apparently too many women were showing their hair. But “sandwich eating”? Sound up.
فردی که این ویدو را فرستاده نوشته است:
«این زنی که چادر سرشه ایجاد مزاحمت بخاطر بدحجابی کرد و دختران و زنان شجاع با اتحاد و ایستادگی حسابش رو رسیدند. بعد از درگیری مامورای مترو همه رو از مترو انداختن بیرون و یکساعت ما رو معطل کردن تا مترو بعدی بیاد. لطفا منتشر کنید تا همه بفهمند… pic.twitter.com/wQNCspvCMw
Simon also sent this, and added, “Given that they are beheading people for being gay in Palestine (I think it was the West Bank yesterday) I fail to see where the alphabet people think they have common cause with and fundamentalist group.”
I have decided to solve the Middle East crisis with a tour of my intersectional LGBTQ+ slam poetry.
If you know of any popular queer venues in Gaza, Iran or Saudi Arabia, DM me.
From Simon. Read the long note, too (click on “show more”):
To those raising the Palestinian flag,
Where were you when ISIS was launched and beheaded tens of thousands of Arabs in Iraq, Libya, and Syria in the name of Islam? Why didn’t you take to the streets and raise their flags? Why didn’t you condemn the terror and call for a… pic.twitter.com/wGj56cHxjz
Diptera, unknown species. Due to the size of a fruit fly, I photographed this fly at a scale of 10:1. But since the head was a bit too big and I wanted to include the proboscis in the picture, I needed two picture sections on top of each other. Stack and stitch as they say. Both… pic.twitter.com/mGFh5KC7yA
Good morning on a Hump Day (“Usuku lokubetha nje” in Xhosa): Wednesday, May 3, 2023 and National Chocolate Custard Day (note: this is not chocolate pudding and does not involve Bill Cosby).
Re the first one: here’s a cartoon (from Shencomics) showing how I came to be:
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this by consulting the May 3 Wikipedia page.
Wine of the Day: I needed a good, gutsy red with my t-bone, as I haven’t had a steak since before I went to France. I chose a California red that was inexpensive ($15) but well reviewed by the cognoscenti: Marietta “Old Vine Red Lot 73”. A vintage isn’t given on the bottle, but it’s a blend of Zinfandel from 2020, Petite Syrah from 2018 and 2019, and a bit of grenache and barbera.
It’s amazing that a wine prices so low gets such a high rating from Robert Parker; usually 95-point wines cost around $30 and up:
The NV OVR Lot 73 is composed mainly of Zinfandel with smaller portions of Syrah, Petite Sirah, Carignan and Barbera. Medium ruby, it offers intense red cherry, blood orange and apricot perfume with accents of rooibos tea leaves, red licorice, saline, lilac and loads of spicy nuances. The medium-bodied palate is light on its feet with soft tannins, bursts of refreshing acidity and detailed amaro accents on the long finish. This is so easy to drink!
My take: This is a terrific value for the money. The Zin flavor dominates, with an appealing berry flavor, but the gutsiness of the Zin is tamed a bit by the other grapes. It IS easy to drink, and is a great choice for a medium-bodied red. I think this is pretty widely available, so if you see it for around fifteen bucks, buy it.
After a manhunt that stretched to the Mexican border, heavily armed Texas and federal officers on Tuesday arrested the man who they believe fatally shot five people in a neighborhood dispute outside the town of Cleveland, Texas, officials said.
The suspect, Francisco Oropesa, was “caught hiding in a closet underneath some laundry” in a home a few miles from the site of the Friday shooting in San Jacinto County, said Greg Capers, the county sheriff.
Mr. Oropesa, 38, an immigrant from Mexico who had been deported four times, was charged with five counts of murder and was being held on $5 million bond, Sheriff Capers said. Mr. Oropesa was being transferred back to a San Jacinto County jail on Tuesday night.
I’m wondering how he managed to get into the U.S. having been deported so many times. Was there no record, or did he sneak in?
*As you know, the U.S. has borrowed too much money, and we’re now in danger of defaulting by exceeded the governmentally-mandated “debt ceiling” of $34 trillion. That would not only shut down the government, but delay government payments to citizens, including Social Security. And this could happen as early as June 1.
Democrats simply want to raise it, but Republicans are balking, demanding that spending cuts must go along with any raise in the ceiling. Biden has nixed the idea of spending cuts. Given that the Republican-controlled House must approve of any ceiling raises, what can be done? Well, there’s some maneuvering, but it still needs Republican support:
House Democrats took a step to force a vote on a debt-ceiling increase using a legislative maneuver that could allow them to go around Republican leaders if they can win a handful of GOP votes.
The discharge-petition process allows a majority of House lawmakers to bring a bill directly to the floor without the cooperation of leadership. But it is time-consuming and rarely successful, and Democrats earlier this year said they had shelved the idea as too difficult.
Republicans control the House 222-213. For a petition to succeed, Democrats would need the support of at least five GOP representatives. Lawmakers can start gathering signatures on May 16, according to an aide.
I don’t think they’ll get it: a Republican to defect in this way is tantamount to apostasy. The Biden administration is weighing another maneuver—simply allowing the debt to exceed the limit, and this is based on a particular implication of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. But, as the NYT notes,
It is unclear whether President Biden would support such a move, which would have serious ramifications for the economy and almost undoubtedly elicit legal challenges from Republicans. Continuing to issue debt in that situation would avoid an immediate disruption in consumer demand by maintaining government payments, but borrowing costs are likely to soar, at least temporarily.
Get ready for another government shutdown, folks!
*And what would a government shutdown because of this entail? Really bad stuff.
If the government exhausts its extraordinary measures and runs out of cash, it would be unable to issue new debt. That means it would not have enough money to pay its bills, including interest and other payments it owes to bondholders, military salaries and benefits to retirees.
No one knows exactly what would happen if the United States gets to that point, but the government could default on its debt if it is unable to make required payments to its bondholders. Economists and Wall Street analysts warn that such a scenario would be economically devastating, and could plunge the entire world into a financial crisis.
Will military salaries, Social Security benefits and bondholders be paid?
Various ideas have been raised to ensure that critical payments are not missed — particularly payments to the investors who hold U.S. debt. But none of these ideas have ever been tried, and it remains unclear whether the government could actually continue paying any of its bills if it can’t borrow more money.
“The entire world plunged into a financial crisis is what caught my eye. And I don’t think that’s a wild exaggeration.
Singapore on Wednesday executed a man convicted of conspiring to traffic about two pounds of cannabis, a punishment that human rights groups called grossly excessive with other countries around the world relaxing their stances on marijuana.
The man, Tangaraju Suppiah, a 46-year-old Singaporean, was sentenced in 2018 for coordinating with two other men to import the cannabis in 2013. Although he never came into contact with the drug, he was sentenced to death by hanging after a judge ruled that he was linked to the other men through two phone numbers belonging to him.
Singapore’s narcotics laws are some of the harshest in the world and mandate the death penalty for some drug trafficking offenses. Last year, the country executed 11 people, all for nonviolent drug offenses.
Singapore has continued to use executions for drug-related crimes even though its neighbor and rival, Malaysia, recently ended its mandatory death penalty for serious crimes, including drug offenses.
Although the evidence was circumstantial, two other men testified against Suppiah to save their hides. Get a load of this:
The other two men connected to the case both gave evidence against Mr. Tangaraju at his trial. One of them, who was arrested with the cannabis in question, pleaded guilty to trafficking 499.9 grams of the drug — just below the 500 grams, or 1.1 pounds, that would draw the death penalty — and was sentenced to 23 years in prison and 15 strokes of the cane. The other received a discharge not amounting to acquittal.
What I want to know is what happened to that other tenth of a gram? Singapore is draconian in many ways. You can’t chew gum in public, and can be arrested for that. But killing someone for importing two pounds of weed? That seem, well, damn unfair and disproportionate.
*A new article at the Free Press by Adam Popescu, “A skirt, a wig, and a Glock-19“, recounts how some Orthodox Jewish women are beginning to carry weapons in response to the rise of anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S.
The first thing Mushka Lowenstein does after saying her morning prayers, adjusting her wig, and serving her three kids breakfast, is take her Glock-19 out of the safe.
Then she puts on her uniform—a sweater and a skirt with hidden pants and belt loops sewn in where she places the holster for her gun. Then she grabs the portable case that carries her Glock and puts it under the stroller she uses to push her five-year-old to synagogue in Los Angeles.
It’s hot out, but she stays covered up as she treks La Brea, passing men in black hats and beards who avoid eye contact with her, and the other women in yoga bra tops walking their dogs this Saturday morning.
Lowenstein, 33, looks like any other Orthodox Jewish woman on Shabbat. And that’s just how she wants it.
. . .Between 2020 and 2021, antisemitic hate crimes increased by nearly 20 percent, according to the FBI, which also said that Jews accounted for the majority of religious-based hate crimes committed that year. The number of hate crimes targeting Jews was up 36 percent last year, an all-time high according to the Anti-Defamation League.
You can walk into almost any church in America, no questions asked, and worship. But most Jewish synagogues and schools in major American cities have metal detectors and armed guards, a sad reality that reflects our hateful times. There were nearly 3,700 antisemitic incidents recorded last year alone. More than half of the victims were visibly Orthodox.
Now some members of the Orthodox community, like the women at this L.A. synagogue, are carrying themselves. Meet the frum gun club.
There’s more. I haven’t been into a synagogue since I want to a bas mitzvah about 15 years ago, but the metal detectors and armed guards have cropped up since then. That’s not so great.
*The government’s Covid-19 restrictions on immigration are set to expire May 11, and Biden is preparing for a surge in attempted immigration at the Southern US border by sending American troops, but not to interact with would-be migrants:
The Biden administration will send 1,500 active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border starting next week, ahead of an expected migrant surge following the end of coronavirus pandemic-era restrictions.
Military personnel will do data entry, warehouse support and other administrative tasks so that U.S. Customs and Border Protection can focus on fieldwork, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday. The troops “will not be performing law enforcement functions or interacting with immigrants, or migrants,” Jean-Pierre said. “This will free up Border Patrol agents to perform their critical law enforcement duties.”
They will be deployed for 90 days, and will be pulled from the Army and Marine Corps, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will look to backfill with National Guard or Reserve troops during that period, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said. There are already 2,500 National Guard members at the border.
The COVID-19 restrictions have allowed U.S. officials to turn away tens of thousands of migrants crossing the southern border, but those restrictions will lift May 11, and border officials are bracing for a surge. Even amid the restrictions, the administration has seen record numbers of people crossing the border, and President Joe Biden has responded by cracking down on those who cross illegally and by creating new pathways meant to offer alternatives to a dangerous and often deadly journey.
The last sentence of this paragraph gets me (I’ve put it in bold):
For Biden, who announced his Democratic reelection campaign a week ago, the decision signals his administration is taking seriously an effort to tamp down the number of illegal crossings, a potent source of Republican attacks, and sends a message to potential border crossers not to attempt the journey. But it also draws potentially unwelcome comparisons to Biden’s Republican predecessor, whose policies Biden frequently criticized. Congress, meanwhile, has refused to take any substantial immigration-related actions.
Refused? Isn’t it Congress’s responsibility to deal with immigration. Wasn’t that Job One for Kamala Harris as Vice President (she’s been totally useless at about everything). I can understand Democrats, whose unspoken mantra is “open borders” not doing anything, but why don’t Republicans even try? Are they afraid of losing more Hispanic votes?
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is off prowling, but orders her employees back to work:
A: Are you coming home?
Hili: You can return to your computer.
In Polish:
Ja: Idziesz do domu?
Hili: Zostaję. Możesz sobie sam wrócić do tego komputera.
Here’s the roll of employees at Listy, showing Hili as Editor in Chief:
********************
A meme from Nicole:
Thomas calls this, somewhat accurately, “speciation through behavioral isolation” (Bizarro Comic by Wayne and Piraro):
From Jesus of the Day: A Star Trek cat:
From Masih. It’s hard to appreciate how brave these girls are; they’re risking arrest and imprisonment.
It is not Iranian women who are afraid of mullahs, but it is mullahs who are afraid of Iranian women.
This is a video of two brave girls in Iran walking fearlessly in front of the mullahs. They have deliberately removed their headscarves to show the mullahs who have tried to… pic.twitter.com/tkEuiDfw9N
I simply can’t resist a bit of self aggrandizement:
“Suffering does not give you special expertise in understanding the universe, or the ability to make valid comparisons between indigenous knowledge and modern science” (Jerry Coyne).https://t.co/Hzn7UvHR2H
— why you should have an animal (@shouldhaveanima) May 2, 2023
I can’t see any other explanation for this wing pattern save that it’s evolved to mimic a salticid spider (a jumping spider), which would scare predators away from the butterfly:
An Elementary School Principal experiences the shock of a lifetime as he encounters a frightened black bear jumping out of a school dumpster right in front of him! CCTV shows James Marsh running away from the bin as the startled bear quickly makes its way towards the woods. pic.twitter.com/IdSU9IMODW
