Quote Able

Snow is a magical blanket – it hides what’s ugly and makes everything beautiful.

Airline Secrets

Some obvious airline tips:

1. You get better deals and schedules without directly buying from the airlines. Check with a travel agent or the discounted special fares in the Sunday paper. Package deals are not always worth it.
2. Coach tickets booked under codes YUPP, QUPP or Z can award you automatic mileage based upgrades to first class. YUPP fares are to matchlow cost carriers in specific markets. They are not easily available.
3. Cheaper fares and greater seat availability if you fly out on Saturday after 0900 and return on a Tuesday.
4. Ryanair, Easyjet, Jetstar, Air Asia and Malaysia airlines have great fares but are often ignored. Use these to fly around once you’re overseas. They are safe but they have restrictions, of course.
5. Check with the foreign airlines based on your destination’s airlines rather than relying on only American ones. But check your exchange rate.
6. Always fly into the cheapest cities. Fly into Dublin rather than Heathrow. Connections are also a lesser nightmare.
7. Check refund policies before you confirm your purchase.
8. If you live near a larger city, drive to it to save US$ and avoid having to connect/miss a chartered tiny flight.
9. If you fly in Japan within 7 days of you birthday, you and 3 coflyers get discounts

Buda Pest

Google Chat

Finally you can chat with multiple people without multiple windows. I only ask why Vivek is going camping with Todd in this example.

Jersey Boys

V and I caught a special festive encore of the Jersey Boys at the Curran today. Festive and special.

Jersey Boys is a shrink wrapped documentary style musical based on the lives of the Four Seasons, a rather successful rock and roll group from the sixties; it plays like an overlong episode of VH1 Behind The Music. The musical opened on Broadway on November 6, 2005 and is part concert, part jukebox musical (like Mamma Mia) and an inexplicable hit among women of a certain age. Its national tour began on December 10, 2006 at the Curran and is back for a festive special holiday run until December 30 when the new cast moves to  Chicago. Jeff Liebow who plays Nick Massi is a Pleasanton native. Rick Faugno is no John Lloyd Young (start turn originating the role of lead singer Frankie Valli) whose after-shave soaked lounge ballad “Can’t Take My Eyes off Of You” hits the stage around a quarter hour before the musical ends, but he has the karaoke voice between effigy impersonation and exact mimicry. The package is curiously a mix between Dreamgirls and Goodfellas, enhanced by an invisible technologically enhanced electronic band that approximates vocals and instrumentals to an inordinate degree. The musical works where Good Vibrations (Beach Boys), All Shook Up (Billy Joel) and Lennon (guess – this one premiered in SF) did not, by using the clunky storyline inspires soundtrack fantasy made innovatively insane by Mamma Mia (Abba). Except for the expectation-thwarting opening French rap single (Ces Soirees La), the sound is remarkably clean in the standard-issue industrial set arch.

Frozen Pipes

Night time temperatures are routinely approaching freezing. This increases the chance that your water pipes will burst as water expands to freeze. The expansion pressurizes whatever (metal or plastic) contains it, no matter its strength, and outdoor hose bibs, swimmng pool supply lines, water sprinkler lines and water supply pipes in unheated interior areas (basement, crawl space, attic, garage, kitchen cabinet), pipes running against exterior walls with minimal/no insulation.

How to prevent in-pipe freezing:

• drain water from pool and water sprinkler supply lines following installer’s manual
• do not put anti-freeze in these lines unless explicitly directed
• remove, drain and store hoses used outdoors
• close inside valves supplying outdoor hose bibs
• open outside hose bibs to allow water to drain
• keep outside valve open so water remaining in the pipe can expand without breaking the pipe
• insulate water pipes with a pipe sleeve or use UL-listed heat tape, heat cable or similar materials on exposed water pipes, butting ends tightly and taping down shut
• even 1/4″ newspaper padding provides more insulation than nothing at all
• keep garage doors closed if there are water supply lines therein
• open kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors to let warmer air circulate
• when it is very cold outside, let the cold water drip from the faucet served by exposed pipes – even a trickle prevents freezing as water temperature running through it is above freezing
• keep the thermostat at the same temperature day and night - by suspending the use of lower night time temperatures, you may incur a higher heating bill but you could prevent a more costly repair job if pipes freeze and burst
• if going on holiday during the winter, leave the heat on in the home set to a temperature of no lower than 55*F

To Thaw a Frozen Pipe

• suspect it if only a trickle exits a faucet turned on
• locate the suspected area – pipes running against exterior walls or where the water service enters your house through the foundation
• keep the faucet open and apply heat to the section of pipe using an electric heating pad wrapped around the pipe, an electric hair dryer, a portable space heater, or wrapping pipes in towels soaked in hot water from the neighbor’s home
• do not use a blow torch, kerosene/propane heater, charcoal stove or other open flame device
• apply heat until full water pressure is restored
• check all other faucets for flow – if one freezes, others might also
• add insulation to prevent a recurrence
• call a license plumber if basic measures fail – do not try to be a hero

Stay warm tonight!

Go West

Then:

Now:

Deep Love

So much to be thankful for. As usual, gracious D and K had me over. The menu:

• Butter Lettuce Salad with walnuts and Fuji Apple 
• Herbed roast turkey with pan Chardonnay and vegetarian mushroom gravies
• Traditional bread stuffing, apple and cranberry stuffing
• Fresh Cranberry sauce and Simplest Ever Applesauce
• Buttermilk Rosemary mashed potatoes
• Wild Rice and Leek Pilaf (new)
• Lemony Glazed Carrots
• Green Beans Almandine
• Corn with Chipotle Chiles (new)
• Pies: apple, cherry and pumpkin
• Cranberry Lemonade

Small World

A few of us is headed to Anaheim Disneyland during Thanksgiving week as it is the Least Populated And Happiest Place on Earth Full Of Asians all this week. We are glad to report that the It’s a Small World Ride is still operational. It will be closed in January 2008 for retooling. Insert tool joke here. The problem, simply put, is that the flume the boats ride in was built in 1963 assuming average male adult riders weighed in at 175 lbs (women at 135), figures as outdated as Marilyn Monroe’s. Since ride monitors turn down potential riders based on a height (lower limit) threshold and not on a weight (upper limit) threshold, they need to leave empty seats to compensate for the fat fucks. Which routinely antagonizes several paying passengers lines up. Worse, when a boat bottoms out, a long line of boats backs up behind it with boat riders going slowly but surely mad from listening to the ride’s theme song until such time as the ride monitors find and tactfully help exit a rider or two through an emergency exit, not always dealt with graciously by aforementioned fat fucks. When the ride reopens, the flume will be an inch deeper and the boats more buoyant. Other rides in need of french fry retrofitting are Pinocchio, Alice in WOnderland and Pirates of the Caribbean. It is ironic that the first Anaheim attraction to succumb to weight problems is the Small World. They do not plan on changing the theme song, so I will still avoid it.

Oprah’s Favorite Things

Feeling stupid and rich? Why not look at this lovely list of Oprah’s Favorite Things for 2007 and decide what you really do not need to buy.

• Samsung Progressive HD Camcorder SC-HMX10C US$799 Amazon – for those still recording their holidays
• UGG Australia Classic Crochet Tall Boot $120 Nordstrom – aren’t Uggs so ten minutes ago?
• Toywatch watches $500 Bloomingdales – nothing says sucker like an acrylic watch for US$500
• Perfect Endings Cupcakes $59 for 9 Williams-Sonoma – a word from your sponsor
• Melamine bowls, cups and spoons $50 Williams-Sonoma – another word from your sponsor
• Artisan Stand Mixer $350 KitchenAid – now if only I had a kitchen large enough for that monstrosity
• Planet Earth 11 DVD Set $60 Discovery Store – this is actually a good dekko in the screening room
• Kai Body Butter and Buffer $85 Kai Fragrance – sure, if you want to smell like Oprah
• Clarisonic Skin Care System $195 Clarisonic – or perhaps clean your face with some astringent nightly
• Claus Porto Soaps 3 for $42 Lafco New York – you can get authentic Fiorentine herbal soaps for less
• Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth $25 Amazon – have you not read your O book club selection yet?
• Breville Ikon Panini Press $100 Williams-Sonoma – yet another word from your sponsor
• HDTV Fridge with Weather and Info Centre $3800 LG Electronics Best Buy – a little impractical unless you’re remodeling the kitchen, which is probably why there are so many bath and food products in this list
• Ciao Bella Blood Orange Sorbeto pint $5 Safeway – which is actually quite tasty
• Rachel Pally Swing Turtleneck and Sailor Pants $335 Nordstrom – is probably the most hideous thing but you could hang yourself from the ceiling using the fashion statement
• Scrabble Premier Edition $70 Hasbro – would you jump, scream and  generally act six degrees of crazy if you got a Scrabble kit?
• UA 90th Anniversary Prestige collection 90DVD Set $870 Amazon – this I could use [R? hint!]
• Shaklee Get Clean Starter Kit $90 Shaklee – because if I could pay US$90 for starters, I’d probably hire Merry Maids
• O’s Guide to Life $30 Amazon – oh so fucking easy
• Josh Groban Noel CD $15 Amazon – included is a pair of chop sticks to stick deep into your ears, then rotate

Enjoy needless indulgement in retail therapy. Or you could do the right thing.

Heroes Quotes

“What’s your super power? Punching bag?”

Ugly Betty

I started catching up on Ugly Betty during transpond flights. One more roundtrip and I’m caught up entirely. D will mock me for this but I find this Emmy-winning dramedy extremely entertaining and fascinating. It follows the life of the unglamorous (ugly) but well humoured Betty and her incongruous job (the fashion montage song from “The Devil Wears Prada” you hear above even ends the pilot episode) at an ultrachic fashion magazine in NYC. Has this been done before? Yes. The series is an adaptation of the Colombian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea (“I am Betty, the ugly one”) but filmed as a network drama using motion picture grade film rather than the videotape of the original series. It has many remarkable things going for it. The fashion magazine HQ are shot as space age soulless designed iPod quality rooms, while the home in Queens (there is ALWAYS a nearly silent subway passing by overhead if any character is in front of the wrought iron rowhouses) is a rich pastiche of colour and vibrant emotion. It telegraphs you over the head with the message that beauty comes from within, which we all know is so untrue while spewing out garish stereotypes of illegal immigrants, borough’d latinos, pill poppers, cosmetic surgery addicts and flouncy gays nonstop. It does not stop there. Previous iterations include Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin (“There is None like Jassi”, India), La Fea mas Bella (The Most Beautiful Ugly Woman, Mexico), Lotte (Netherlands), Yo Soy Bea (Spain), Falling in Love in Berlin (Germany) and Born Ugly (Russia), but only the yank revision is quite faithful with a younger less ugly Bett commuting with irascible hideous fashion sense from Queens, immigrant central, to the Manhattan business district. You realize that the beautiful people on this show are really the ugly people though that should not stop you from ogling at anorexic gorgeous shallow people that makes us buy all those fashionistic product lines. Hat tip to J.

Tube Map

Are you trying to get to the liver? See, take the red line past the stomach, switch trains at the small intestine and take the green line. It will take you right there. Oh, you need to get to the appendix after that? Getback on the green line, back to the small intestine, and switch to the red line south bound. Get off at the large intestine station. The purple express takes you right to the appendix. Whatever you do, stay off the blue line. It winds up in a pretty bad neighbourhood.

Bitch Slap

P Selvakumar, 33, an Indian man, has married a female dog, hoping the move will help atone for stoning two (2) otehr dogs to death, believing he has been curses since the killings, suffering a paralysis and loss of hearing. The wedding took place at a Hindu temple in Tamil Nadu state. The bride wore an orange sari with a flower garland sn was fed a bun to celebrate. Superstitious people in rural India sometimes organize weddings to animals in the hope of warding off curses.

Now you can make up your own joke here whil I focus on the killing of two innocent creatures. Got you there, didn’t I?

Avenue Q

Meh

St Pancras

Eurostar is coming to St Pancras King’s Cross station from today! STP is to Londontown what Penn Station is to NYC – fine architecture in the Age of Steam. It reminds me of watching the television series Great Railway Journeys as a child, and all the romance associated with rail travel, gargoyles and Gothic revival towers included. STP’s amazingly enormous vaulted train shed, once the largest single span roof in the world, has been repainted in the original sky blue. Simultaneously, the Midland Grand Hotel is being reopened in 2009 as the 244-room STP Renaissance hotel. I like STP because the archway shelter stone figures depict not saints, woodsprites and royals but railroad breakers and other workers in a classic way. Industrial Age ironwork melds with medieval motifs in the ornate stair case. Burly Yorkshiremen grunt about with very large wrenches to fix rail connections. You are here and you are everywhere.

Hat tip for advert visual: P

SF Tea

So you want to take English tea in the city around the holidays? Glad you asked.

• Lovejoy’s English Tea Room; 1351 Church St. (@ Clipper); (415) 648-5895; Tues – Sun 11 am – 6 pm, Fri 11am – 7 pm; Tea services ranging from US$7.95 – $18.95. Book on weekends and holidays. Antique-filled room is filled with towers of elegant tea sandwiches, scones, fruit, biscuits, and an ever-present pot of house tea. If you take a liking to your teapot you can take it home with you.

• Secret Garden Tea House; 721 Lincoln (between 8th and 9th Ave.); (415) 566-8834; Tues – Sat 12 – 6 pm, Sun 12 – 5:30 pm; Tea services ranging from $10.95 – $18.95. Book for weekends and holidays. This smaller tea room is similar to a Victorian-era doll house. Children 12 and under can order a special Prince and Princess Tea ($13.95) complete with peanut butter and jelly tea sandwiches, petit fours, and a cup of cocoa. Adult tea services range from $10.95 for tea and two scones, to $18.95 for tea with a scone, assorted tea sandwiches, a savory quiche, and dessert.

• Tal-Y-Tara Tea and Polo Shoppe; 6439 California St. (@ 28th Ave.); (415) 751-9275; Mon – Sat 10 am – 6 pm; This store offers British tea pots, jams and biscuits in addition to riding whips, boots, and other equestrian-related gear. Tal-Y-Tara is most famous for its Motorloaf ($12.50), a loaf of dense, moist brown bread with tea sandwiches that are cut out of, and then nestled in its frame. Motorloaves are also available with seasonal fruits and cheese ($6), or with butter and cream cheese ($4). Other a la carte tea items include homemade scones ($5.50), trifle ($6), or crumpets ($4), and a pot of tea for two is a bargain at $5. 

• Ritz Carlton; 600 Stockton St (@ California); (415) 296-7465; Mon – Thurs 3:30 – 4:30 pm, Fri 2:30 – 4:30 pm, Sat – Sun 1 – 4:30pm; Tea services ranging from: $29 – $41; Book for the Teddy Bear Tea (holiday season only). Traditional Tea ($29) arrives on a tiered carousel with tea sandwiches (Norwegian Smoked Salmon with Pickled Onion and Caviar; Cucumber, Roquefort and Walnuts; Prosciutto and Melon; Egg and Chive), a scone with Devonshire Cream, lemon curd, and preserves, English Tea cakes, a fresh fruit tartlet, a Madeleine, a Florentine, and shortbread. Add a champagne cocktail, to the Traditional Tea for the Premier Tea ($34), or add champagne, chocolate, and strawberries for the Royal Tea ($41). A vegetarian option! During the holiday season, Teddy Bear Teas are offered for children and their stuffed animal friends. Ritz-Carlton Teddy tells classic holiday tales while the children sip hot chocolate and munch on teddy bear cut-out cookies and Peanut Butter and Jelly, Egg Salad, and Ham and Cheese sandwiches. Booking needed. 

• Garden Court (Sheraton Palace Hotel); 2 New Montgomery St.; (415) 392-8600; Tues – Sat 2 – 4 pm; Tea services ranging from $22 – $85; Book for the Prince and Princess Tea. Beautiful set with gilded marble columns, a leaded glass-dome ceiling, crystal chandeliers, and gold leaf sconces, the magnificent flower and palm tree filled room is overdone and opulent. A harpist provides soothing background music at tea time, and white-glove service leaves patrons feeling like royalty. The Garden Court Tea ($28) includes scones with thick cream, marmalade, honey and lemon curd, an assortment of pastries and fruit tarts, and tea sandwiches. $4 for you to upgrade your tea with a glass of sparkling wine, or for $11 make it a glass of French champagne. A party of two can order the Exclusive Tea for Two ($85), which includes the equivalent of two full tea services with a half-bottle of Pommery French champagne instead of two glasses. Especially for little boys and girls is the Prince and Princess Tea ($22), for which reservations are required. The Princess Tea features pastries, sandwiches and a crown and scepter. 

• Windsor Tea Room (The King George Hotel); 334 Mason Street (@ Geary); (415) 781-5050; Sat – Sun 2 – 5 pm; Tea services ranging from $8.50 – $18.00; Truly English. The most elaborate tea service, the King George’s tea ($18.00), includes a bottomless pot of tea, a scone with preserves and Double Devon Cream, a refreshing mixed green salad and a selection of two tea sandwiches. The tea concludes with a choice of tea cookies or a fresh fruit tart. For a service that more closely approximates an English High Tea, try the Cheese and Fresh Fruit Platter ($8.25). Its assorted cheeses, seasonal fruits, freshly baked bread, and a glass of wine or sherry is a perfect light, pre-theater dinner. 

• The Rotunda (Neiman-Marcus); 150 Stockton Street; (415) 362-4777; Daily 2:30 – 5 pm; Tea services ranging from $18.50 – $29.00; Full Tea ($18.50) includes a selection of finger sandwiches, flaky scones, petite cookies, tarts, and other house-made sweets. For a real splurge, add a glass of French champagne for an additional $10.50. Book for a booth overlooking the lower shopping levels and Union Square

• Laurel Court (The Fairmont); 950 Mason (@ California); (415) 772-5260; Mon – Sun 2:30 – 4:30 pm; Tea services ranging from $32.00 – $57.00 for adults, $25.00 for children; Standard tea ($32 adults/$25 children), sumptuous enough for two to share, starts with homemade scones served with lemon curd, Devonshire Cream and Sonoma preserves. This is followed by an array of finger sandwiches, a selection of French pastries, and a glass of Champagne. For an additional $25, you can also upgrade your tea with caviar and a higher quality Champagne. An á la carte menu offers all the components of the complete tea service plus seasonal berries with Devonshire Cream and a selection of English tea biscuits. Sparkling wine, port, and sherry can also be ordered by the glass.

• Renaissance Stanford Court Hotel; 905 California St. (@ Powell); (415) 989-3500; Daily 2:30 – 5 pm in the Lobby Lounge; Tea service: $25.00 – $35.00; Book a minimum of 24 hours in advance. The High Tea ($25.00) at the Stanford Court includes finger sandwiches (Smoked Salmon on Pumpernickel, Cucumber and Tomato with Cream Cheese, Egg and Chive, and Chicken and Watercress with Mascarpone), miniature scones with lemon curd, Devonshire Cream, and preserves, petit fours, a fruit tartlets, and assorted tea cookies. For an additional $10, you can begin your tea experience with a glass of Mumm Cuvée champagne. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas the Stanford Court celebrates the holiday season by including traditional Christmas cookies and cakes from Leland Stanford’s era in the tea service. A gingerbread replica of the 1876 Leland Stanford mansion, which originally stood on this site, is featured in the lobby.

Dancing Queen

Broadway Grinch

It is the little people who barely make much that support the juggernaut that is Broadway, euphemism for the New York theater and performing arts industry. Stage hands are back stage workers who install and operate lights, sets and properties – they have been working sans contract since July 2007, and bitter negotiations have broken down intermittently. Yesterday the stage hands striked and shut down 28 shows, the first one being “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” which just opened yesterday, whose principal entertained little disappointed children in Times Square with a little ditty but wisely refrained from joining or crossing the picket line. Les Miserables, Lion King, Curtains, Little Mermaid, Wicked, Phantom of the Opera and Hairspray are all dark. Eight shows (including the Young Frankenstein and Mary Poppins) continue to play with unexpired contracts. Broadways repercussions will be felt in the travel (taxi cab, airline), hospitality (hotels, restaurant) and other allied industry, estimated at approximately US$17 million per day, more at the week end. Entire families plan their holidays around this. With the writer’s strike on the left coast and the property man calling curtains for Curtains, we are stuck watching Seinfeld reruns. Or we could enjoy everything else that New York City has to offer, and I assure you that is quite a bit. If you are headed out, please check with the box office for refund policies.

Japanese Lingo

• Good morning: ohayo gozaimasu
• Good afternoon: konnichiwa
• Good evening: konbanwa
• Good bye: sayo nara
• Good night: oyasuminasai
• How are you?: O genki desu ka?
• How do you do?” Hajimemashite?
• Pleased to meet you: Dozo yoroshiku
• I am fine: Hai, genki desu
• And you? :anata wa?
• Thank you: domo arigato gozaimasu
• You’re welcome: Do itashi mashite
• Listen!: Anone
• Excuse me: sumi masen
• Pardon me: Gomen nasai
• Sorry: Gomen nasai
• Please (offering something): dozo
• Please (requesting something): kudasai
• Please show me: Misete kudasai
• Please write it: kaite kudasai
• Please give me thi: kore o kudasai
• I’m sick: byoki desu
• Let’s go: Ikimasho
• Do you speak English?: anata wa eigo o hanashimasu ka?
• Yes, I speak a little: Hai, sukoshi hanashmasu
• Do you understand?: wakarimasu ka?
• Yes, I understand: Hai, wakarmiasu
• Oh I see: As, soo desu ka
• No, I don’t udnerstand: Iie, wakaramimasen
• Please say it again; mo ichido itte kudasai
• Please speak slowly: yukkuri hanashi te kudasai
• Please wait a bit: chotto matte kudasai
• What is your name? anata-no namae wa?
• My name is: watashi no namae wa … desu
• Where is it? Doko desu ka?
• What time is it? Na-ji desu ka?
• How much is it? Sore wa ikura desu ka?
• I will take it: Sore kudasai
• No, thank you: Iie kekko desu
• Do you like it? Suki desu ka?
• I like it: Suki desu
• I don’t like it: Kirai desu
• It’s beautiful: Kirei desu
• Hello (phone): moshi moshi
• Let me see: so desu ne
• Welcome: irrasshaimase
• Where is the toilet? toire wa doko desu ka?

Southwest Airlines

As a student with proximity to Midway Airport, I absolutely adored Southwest Airlines. In California, it is easy and affordable to fly Southwest Airlines to major (and minor) cities in the TriState area. I liked the egalitarian “for peanuts” approach that Southwest Airlines promoted undaunted, though I did not always appreciate the ditties sung by the casually clad Southwest Airlines airstaff (what are we calling them this week?). No matter, the lower Southwest Airlines price made up for it and I enjoyed printing up my Southwest Airlines seating group assignment 24 hours before departure so I did not have to scramble to get to the Southwest Airlines departure lounge in time.

This is all Southwest Airlines history. One of the more rapidly growing airlines and perhaps consistently well-liked and successful, Southwest Airlines has decided to curb its phenomenal rate of air vessel acquisition starting immediately. No doubt spurred by spiralling fuel costs, the final blow is how Southwest Airlines has decided to deal with the “no frills policy”. Encouraged by the dodgy premises of extra payment for legroom (United Airlines), aisle seats (American Airlines) or exit row booking (both), a business class model has been developed by Southwest Airlines, stock symbol LUV. The Business Select Class (which began yesterday) of Southwest Airlines will permit preferential boarding to those who fly more than 16 Southwest Airlines round trips in one calendar year. In addition, if you pay the higher premium Southwest Airlines fare, you can pre-board and you also get a free drink from Southwest Airlines.

So just how expensive is it? If you random look for a roundtrip Southwest Airlines fare from Seattle to Los Angeles a month from today, the lowest restricted Southwest Airlines fare was $198 while the Business Southwest Airlines fare was $47 and the Business Select Southwest Airlines fare was $543.60, with at least one stop en route. All nonstop flights on Alaska were $218 plus tax, United was way below half of the premium Southwest Airlines fare and US Airways was $174 (plus tax). Southwest Airlines wants to make approximately US$100 million more in annual revenue in FY2008 using this new model. Good luck.

For the record, I still think United is the worst airline carrier in the whole wide world.

Appliance Vacation

Next time you head out to travel, remember to give your appliances a little holiday too. It lowers your electricity bill and saves a fair bit of energy if you are gone for any period exceeding five (5) days. Unplug whatever appliances do not need to be operational when you are away – computers, microwaves, mobile chargers, the telly, washing machines all draw energy from the power grid even when not in use. I like the UK power plugs as you need to plug them in, then, in addition, hit the on button as a failsafe. If longer than two (2) weeks, consider clearing out your fridge and unplug that too. Usually, that is not feasible for me so I make sure to use up milk (and other perishables) and turn it up a few notches. Unfortunately, the wine library needs to remain constantly thermally modulated. Set the thermostat at 55 degrees in the winter or you risk bursting frozen pipes. Be sure to leave a few outside lights on a holiday randomizer timer (and some inside lights too with a company shadow) to mimic usual activity.

Web Travel

Getting there:

• Booking flights is my new favorite having surpassed kayak a bit for rapid results
• Researching low-fare carriers in Europe before you head to the carrier’s own site to book your fares
• Finding the best international air fares really good if you have flexible air dates, which I do not
• Knowing when to book a flight helps you make ane educated decision with Fareguard but works for the US only

Getting ideas:

• Booking hotels is better on kayak with 159 000 hotels (hotels.com has only 70 000)
• Finding late-breaking deals on posh hotels takes time but when you get to the hotel, oh mama!

Other

• Previewing menus in the US from 25 000 restaurants in 8 cities but some menus may be stale as only 5 000 are updated per month so after I get an idea, I ring the restaurant and have them fax me the menu AND (get this) the table locations
• Nabbing the perfect seat which is a must every time I travel
• Chatting to global foodies can be obsessive
• Customizing an itinerary will overpack a day more than most people, which means less than me
• Planning a cruise

Getting Around

• Mapping routes on US Public transportation but there are no actual subway/tube maps
• Driving directions in Europe is brilliant but I would still buy Michelin ground/surface maps for the local region. If anyone has used TomTom or Garmin in Europe, please let me know – I am an excellent Navigator and the NeverLost does not do a good job with unpaved roads, which is a problem in Italy and France
• Creating comprehensive maps worldwide

Basics

• Converting currency is really easy to use but there are many annoying pop ups so I cannot use thi on my home PC which is firewalled up the wazoo, so I use TravelEx instead
• Finding reliable weather forecasts is better than AccuWeather and Weather Underground. BBC Weather is also fun but a little too cute for me
• Learning about Health and Safety Abroad is brilliant and slightly less dogmatic than the CDC warning for travelers page which reads like a death knell

Upcoming, not yet stable and reliable:

• Vayama addresses international low flight carriers, including those originating Stateside
• Yapta tracks airfares after you book along with tips on how to get refunds, but it plops an applet on your hard drive and does not examiner all airlines (limited to US carriers only at this time)
• Travelistic compiles on the ground travel videos from real people who are not all necessarily pretty to looka t
• Meethalfway is immense if you are planning to meet your penpail or blog buddy in a country you have never been, in a city which does not speak your languagr (currently limited to the UK only)
• Seriouseats which is serious eats!
• Airtreks helps you plan multileg journeys withour the complication of wasted tickets
• Dontforgetyourtoothbrush is my new favorite that reminds me of upcoming journeys with email reminders
• Bathroom Diaries tells me where the closest nicest public toilets are, surveying 12000 toilets in 120 countries. You know you want this!

Sophie’s Choice

I saw the 4.5 hour Covent Garden production a half decade ago. I slept through the DVD rendition twice. In a fit of hubris, I decided to rent the DVD once more and attempt to watch the tragedy once more aided by loads of caffeine. I do think the story is a bit overrated. I was motivated by a pictorial article which showed what items person who were evacuated from their homes in SoCal decided to take with them with a moment’s notice. There was a similar exhibition in the city when we interred the Japanese during the dark Pearl Harbor days. If pressed, I do not know what would be my choices – personal, sentimental or practical. I would probably go for the latter being the extreme realist that I am, devoid of pets and children.

William Styron’s 1979 novel, Sophie’s Choice, is an amalgam of suicide, tragedy and sexual awakening marinated in a stew of the Holocaust, mental illness and memory repression. It achieved fame thanks to Ms. Meryl Streep’s impeccable Polish American accent and German enunciation in the filmed version. While, thanks to Schindler’s List, everyone knows that the Nazis exterminated Jews in the concentration camps, few know that several millions who were not Jewish (e.g., gays) were also exterminated. As the quantum of Holocaust survivors falls, hate groups claiming the Holocaust Hoax continue to recruit younger members. In this novel, which is not a straight read, the narrator is a 22 year old aspring writer despatched form his peanut farm in Virginia (perhaps a stand in for the author) to Brooklyn to write his First Great American Novel, but he is really thinking about manifesting his First Great Sexual Experience. His upstairs neighbor, Sophie, has an irresistible attraction to her mercurial husband, Nathan Landau, who is allegedly a biologist on the brink of discovering a cure for polio myelitis. Sophie’s feelings are peeled off layer by layer like some onion, which make the reader increasingly uncomfortable with our own notions of fear, prejudice and emotional drought. The railway scene, where Sophie (in flashback) is asked to choose between sacrificing one of her children and ends up doing so is seminal though the choice itself is completely irrelevant between her children as the real choice is between life for one or death for both. You need to lick a bit of Prozac when you are done with the book, DVD or opera.

  

Eisch Eisch

At a wine tasting to choose some holiday spirits, P poured M and me some cabernet in a cheap thick juice glass and the newly popular Eisch breathable glass. Eisch claims that their glass is breathable and substitutes as a “rapid decanter”, quite the oxymoron. My pseudoscientific mind could not get over the very ridiculous concept of the tiny amount of oxygen trapped within the leadfree material during the glass blowing process. First, there is not an unlimited amount of oxygen to rapidly decant every glassful of wine you pour. Second, would the breathable glass not breathe in other noxious vapours if it can breathe out the oxygen (which vapour would logistically replace the oxygen). Third and foremost, does this not imply that there is loss of integrity of the glass. Nevertheless, I have not blind tasted large wine-conforming glassware with this breathable nonsense, nor have I the time and wherewithal to do so. Riedel, in a fit of hubris, has sued Eisch but exact terms of the suit (as well as grounds for filing suit in Germany) are not quite clear to me. I do not believe that you get far beyond after the basic type of red or white wine glass morphology. I am not quite the wine snob as M, I believe. Please remember that Riedel is the purveyor of horribly overpriced wine-specific glassware.

Daylight Savings

I was to make a nice list of things I could do with the extra hour gifted to me early this morning.

Then I slept an hour longer.

Barack Obama

Then:

Now:

The Namesake

Read Gogol’s “The TopCoat” before you watch “The Namesake” and it will make a bit more sense.

Defying Gravity