Nice People

It's hard to remember living in a city that there are nice people out there. Here in DC, it can be impersonal at times-although I've always managed to meet people who were really nice (the guys who shoveled my car out of the snow twice two mornings in a row come to mind).Even last week when I was walking home with two heavy bags of groceries, my purse, another bag that held my shoes and my jacket, when I stopped to put my jacket on, a random guy (not American, European) asked me if I needed help.
But this last weekend took the cake. I was driving hoe from New Jersey and was on the Jersey Turnpike when I got a flat tire. It wasn't pretty, but it could have been worse. I pulled over to the side and coasted to a stop and called AAA. They told me they couldn't help but they would transfer me to the Turnpike Authority, who would help me. They said they would send someone out but it would about 30 minutes. Fine. I was sitting there, reading my book and waiting for help-it had only been about ten minutes, when a guy walked up (I hadn't even noticed him pull over) and asked me I wanted him to change the tire. I gaped at him, I'm afraid, and then said, "really?". H e told me it was no problem, he had a jack, he had a lug wrench that would the lug nuts and would only take him a few minutes. He had his wife and kid in the car-I could see them, so I figured he wasn't a psycho killer, although you never know. But he changed the tire, told me he saw a woman by herself by the side of the road and he couldn't leave her there when he could help. He was From Virginia, on his way home from seeing the sights in NYC. He was so nice, I couldn't believe it. I barely got the chance to say thank you and how kind he was when he said "You're all set, young lady" and drove off. Young lady! I KNEW I was older than he, but I just laughed and said thank you again.
So, this is my point-don't believe it if someone tells you there are no nice people left out there. I met one the other day.

Two Great Meals

So, I went to San Francisco and Napa Valley last weekend and had two of the best meals I've ever had-from beginning to end. The first was at Chez Panisse. Yes, it's known as a food mecca, started the whole fresh American food revolution, blah blah blah. And I'd been there before and had a great meal, so I was looking forward to it-but this was so much better than the last time, even without the sour cherry crisp with vanilla ice cream. It started with the salad of grapefruit and avocado. The grapefruit were sliced thinly and placed flat on the plate with slices of avocado covering them-and a citrus dressing shone on top. Apparently this doesn't sound good to everyone but it was amazing-the grapefruit was sweet and tart with a little fiber while the avocado was rich and smooth-which was cut just enough by the dressing and the grapefruit to meld together perfectly. My friend D had a salad with egg and anchovy-I had a bite and it was quite good-and not too salty-I'm not fond of anchovies. For my entree I had hand-cut pasta with Bolognese sauce and it was amazing. The pasta was al dente, the sauce was rich and tender-and there were spring peas which were a little crunchy that cut the richness of the sauce just enough-D kept eating it instead of her halibut (which was very good if a tad boring, at least to me. However, it was a very tender piece of fish). Dessert was Meyer lemon ice cream with strawberries and biscotti and it was good from the first bite to the last. It was tart, sweet and crunchy all in one bite. It may not have been the sour cherry crisp with vanilla ice cream (that D and I still talk about) but it was a worthy successor. My only quibble was that it was a VERY hot day, especially for SF-it was about 85 in the city and 95 down in Silicon Valley and there was no ice water. I know it's the French style to serve tepid water (hello, I thought this was the home of the AMERICAN food revolution) but it was hot-and they had ice cream for crying out loud-it's not like they didn't have any frozen water. Luckily the cava I was drinking (sparkling wine from Spain) was ice cold and fizzy so all in all it was great.
The next meal (the next day) took place in Napa at Ubuntu and had to be the best meal ever-rivaling even Gary Danko (the previous winner) in terms of food and service-it was incredible. Yes, it's entirely vegetarian but you never even thought of meat because everything was flavorful and amazing.
1) First course was soup of fresh peas in a bouillon made from their shells. The peas were barely cooked and still crunchy-and with some crushed macadamia nuts and a little white chocolate it was wonderful-crunchy, nutty and flavorful.
2) Ravioli with braised fennel, strawberry sofrito and homemade ricotta.
This was the course that forced me to slow down and enjoy every bite because it was so good. The strawberry sofrito (yes, I know what sofrito is and how it's made-call and ask the chef why he called it that)was not sweet it was actually meaty. And the fennel was braised with garlic and onion which deepened that flavor of everything-along with the richness of the ricotta.

3) The cauliflower in a cast iron pot. This is what they're known for, and honestly it was the weakest of the bunch-but only because everything else was so good. The cauliflower was cooked until smooth-almost a paste and you spread it on toast. It was very good with nice cauliflower flavor but a little bland.But it was made up for by the

4) Fried egg on smoky grits. They don't tell you the egg is still whole and then rolled in something crunchy (panko?) and then fried -so the outside is crunchy and the inner yolk is still liquid. It was an impressive feat of showmanship-and at a time when I was not very hungry, I still ate it all because it was so good.

Dessert was strawberry ice cream with warm slices of brioche, followed by vegan choclate chip cookies (D did not wasnt to try them, but I did and made her try them because they were so good-although I suspect that if you ate them when they had cooled they would not be so special) and vegan caramels which were wonderful but I felt I would explode at that point. We drank D's favorite chardonnay (Rombauer) which was excellent and finished with a glass of fizzy wine (you can't call it Champagne it it's made in California). All in all-amazing.
I read some great books too-more on that later.

Eddie Izzard...

If you don't laugh at Eddie Izzard, you have no sense of humor and we can't be friends. I'm sorry but that's the way it is. I use Dressed to Kill as a litmus test and if someone can't get past the clothes and make-up to hear how funny he is, then that person can't be my friend.
that said, I went to see him on Friday night and he was hilarious. And he looked so butch! No make-up (and there a lack of trannies at the show which was a little disappointing), jeans, a t-shirt and a semi-elaborate jacket with tails-cool but nowhere near his usual elaboate outfits that usually include a dress and lots of make-up. I read an interview where he made it clear he did not want the trannie thing to interfere with getting movie parts and that he wanted to do more than just be the token British transvestite. Hence the jeans, t-shirt and goatee (one of the few men who can really carry it off). But the point is that he was hilarious. You can't quote his lines and sound funny because many times it's all in the context, along with his delivery and timing. But if you get the chance to see him-do it! It was $60 and worth every penny.

Still Busy But Not Too Busy To See Iron Man

So, I move this coming Friday. And because of that, last weekend was busy. A friend helped me move stuff on Saturday and I had to run errands after moving stuff and lunch. I moved more stuff on Sunday and then had to take a break. However, I HAD to fit in Iron Man. I wasn't going to do it-Saturday was busy and by the time I got home it was 4:00 and I wasn't sure I wanted to go out again-but I really wanted to see it and the show was at a good time so there you are. And it was awesome. Yes, I love comic books and have my whole life, it seems. Certainly from a young age (eight, I think) so this was a movie for me and it was, as the New York Times put it, unusually good. They got real actors and bolstered by their wit and cleverness, not to mention acting ability, made a very engaging movie. I may have to go see it gain on the 70 foot wide screen at the Uptown but I have to warn you-if you go, stay through the credits! Well, if you're a comic-book fan stay through the credits-the payoff is very cool. And Jarvis was in it! I kept thinking "Jarvis, Jarvis why is that familiar?" And halfway though it came to me that he's the butler at the Avengers mansion-the powers that be would probably take away my comic-book fan card for not remembering that.
Robert Downey Jr is great, Jeff Bridges is great, Gwyneth, who I find annoying was fine-go see it. Unless you're my friend M with the cute dog. M-don't go see it! You won't like it and it's a little violent! And you won't get the payoff at all...

Busy...and Angry.

I found out not too long ago that my landlord was terminating my lease because he wanted to move back into the condo. Good luck to him-I've enjoyed living in Adams-Morgan, but he is welcome to the noisy drunks out at all hours, the drunks who left the pizza crust under my windshield wiper and the influx of obnoxious hipsters that have invaded my neighborhood recently. As a result of the stress, I ran to my books to find something to take my mind off trying to find a new, affordable place. I started reading the Ian Rutledge series by Charles Todd. I read A Test of Wills a couple of years ago and liked it but was more blown away by Rennie Airth's River of Darkness-both mysteries set in post WWI England.
And then a funny thing happened-the series just got better and better. Darker, scarier and and more emotionally involved. Honestly, I thought this was going to turn into just another series with the haunted detective doing his best to solve cases-and it is but it's so much better and creepier than that. So kudos to the mother and son writing team that makes up Charles Todd. I think you could be a little more accurate in depicting post-WWI England but you write very engaging stories and have kept me from going crazy during this stressful time.

And here's one thing that made me angry. No, it's not about Barack Obama and his pastor-I find that funny. Obama used Wright as an entree into insular Chicago politics, which otherwise would have had a hard time accepting this outsider from Hawaii. They became friends and very close friends at that-and now that Obama is running for president, he can't afford to have a pastor that preaches hatred for white America, not to mention a proponent of the conspiracy theory that says AIDS was created to decimate the black community (if this is true, why has it decimated the gay community?). Anyway, now Wright looks like he wants to either take down Obama or promote himself-it's hard to tell which one. It's kind of funny but disheartening to me to see one member of the black community looking like he wants to destroy the candidacy of the first really viable black candidate.

Okay, here's the thing that made me angry. Women in the military. Why is this an issue? Women who have joined the armed forces or go to the service academies know the story, especially now. We've been in Iraq and Afghanistan for five years and the people who have joined recently know that it doesn't look like we're leaving anytime soon. So why is women in the military on the front line still an issue? Because there is no front line in those sectors so the military can't keep the women back and protected. Do they need to be protected? They made those choices as reasonably intelligent people-just as reasonably intelligent as any guy there so what is the problem? I bring this up because of this story in the Washington Post : http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/30/AR2008043003415.html?hpid=topnews

It's the story of Monica Brown, a medical specialist in Afghanistan. She enlisted a couple of years ago and not only has distinguished herself; she became a hero. She helped pull soldiers from a burring tank (fired on by the Taliban) and dragged them by their body armour to a roadside ditch, under fire. While the tanks mortars were exploding, along with the mortars fired by the Taliban, along with various guns and other weapons being fired, she covered the soldiers bodies with her own and held off long enough to get everyone safely back to the ambulance and get them to safety, where they were airlifted back to the States.
For this she was awarded the Silver Star, the nation's third highest military honor-and was stripped of duty and sent out of the war zone. Why? Because regulations call for no females on the front line-an order that in these combat situations mean no women at all in certain areas, even if that means that there are no medical personnel there because of the rule. This woman is a hero and her fellow soldiers want her back. Wouldn't you? If you were a soldier, wouldn't you want a medical specialist who was willing to do whatever it took to save your life, showed courage and bravery under fire and was a true leader? What soldier wouldn't want that?
You know who doesn't want that? The President, who apparently feels that Brown's talents could be better used in the White House (the article says she was offered a White House job) rather than helping her fellow soldiers. I know DC has the reputation of being dangerous but trust me, the people in Afghanistan need her more. Thank you, Mr President, for showing that when the best person for a job is woman, the best thing to do is give her an award and take her off the job. I'm sure her fellow soldiers appreciate it.