Ruminatrix
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Friday, Jun 06, 2003
Boulot, Metro, Dodo
In the middle of a thirteen-day work burst, which includes some 14-hour double shifts, so I have had very little free time -- for this, for TV, for dining out, etc, etc. The job has minor irritations, which would be easier to handle if we were making better money. But I quite like surrendering to the routine for now, the austerity of it. And I am learning some wine-related things too, not just at the high end. Still, it's tiring to spend 8-14 hours on one's feet. I'm short of sleep most days, hungry at midnight. So when I have "down time", instead of spending it planning my next move, or catching up on paperwork, I find myself napping or snacking...and now there's another full-time dependent to take care of around the apartment. More about her in a minute.
By the end of next week I should be able to scale back my restaurant work commitments to five days a week, though nothing's definite yet. I also want to check out what's available in sommelier courses, but I'm still trying to decide whether cramming my head with all that detail is what I want to do. You know, as in "do with my life," not as in "kill some time doing."
Pickles update: The vet says she can't go into the street for another six weeks, when she'll have a last round of immunization shots. Apparently NYC's sidewalks are too rich in bacteria for a ten-week-old puppy to handle. Meanwhile we are training her with disposable pads placed just outside the apartment, so she'll be ready to go outside later.
Her equivalent to the boulot metro dodo (job, subway, bed) triad is "piss/shit, play, sleep," with a tacit fourth term "eat" understood. Being a terrier, she plays in great manic bursts of crazy energy (plus chewing: signs of some teething?). These are punctuated by deep naps. Not unlike a two or three year-old child, really.
Thursday, Jun 05, 2003
Arrival
Pickles, a ten-week-old Bostom terrier puppy -- the runt of the litter -- arrived here last night. Originally she was to have been shipped to us, but there were delays and J was worried that she'd get to old to housebreak her properly. So yesterday our friend Peter flew down to Joplin Missouri to pick her up from the breeder. She slept well through last night, with Theo curled up on a mattress right in front of her crate.
She is a little flipped out by her changed surroundings, but that's to be expected when you come straight from a farm by the Ozarks to the Lower East Side. I reckon she will do fine here. Gotta go walk the dog.....
Saturday, May 31, 2003
Wine, work, whine
Back on the six nights a week work track, though I did get to go out one night this week. Dinner included a fabulous dessert of grapefruit in wine-jelly garnished with a cream tinged with scotch. This was so tasty and light that when our waiter offered one more for the table, we accepted at once.
Anyway, I haven't had much time for browsing or writing. Only for reading up on wine in general, as well as on newer French and Italian winemakers. Next I guess I'll have to buy Bastianich's Vino Italiano too.
I'm also looking for some small metal or robust plastic shelving or bins to stow dessert wines horizontally in a small refrigerator at work. The bottles are odd shapes and sizes, but mostly 375mls. I want under 14" high, preferably inexpensive, (i.e. not for display). Anybody know of a source?
Wednesday, May 28, 2003
Thin End of the Wedge
As has been reported by the NYT-- but not in screaming 24 point bold caps -- Donald Rumsfeld now "Echoes Notion That Iraq Destroyed Arms." Gotta love the faintness of "echo" being reinforced by the washiness of "notion". While not ruling out the possibility of caches of incriminating materials being discovered any day now:
"It is also possible that they would destroy them just before the conflict."Compliance with UN resolutions just before an ultimatum is now therefore equivalent to non-compliance -- just as the allegations of Saddam's sponsorship of Al Qaeda turned out to hinge on a tiny enclave on the Iranian border. But Mr Rumsfeld still holds out hope of vindication:
"There's going to be skepticism until people find out there was, actually, a WMD program.""Program" means "If we can't find large stockpiles of shells, we'll come up with a few foldersful of documents". And doesn't that "until" and its sly companion "actually" echo the notion of fully open-minded scientific inquiry? No, it sounds like the sort of thing a Kremlin official of the 1950s would say before a show trial.
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
...Saw No Sun
Bad weather (20 mph out of ESE and gusting, heavy rain setting in, small craft advisory) prevented our passage from Brick Cove to Coecles yesterday. Still got a bunch of dockside tasks done, and loved it. And had a great dinner of asparagus, grilled weakfish stuffed with lovage, salad, followed by rhubarb pie. Brunched on crab-cakes at the Frisky Oyster in Greenport.
Also got to know Chidiock Tichborne's single known work, his elegy "written in the Tower on the eve of his execution":
My prime of youth is but a frost of cares,Not bad for an eighteen year-old about to be hanged, drawn and quartered for treason. Now I have go to work. Maybe next time Theo can come along and she'll bring better weather.
My feast of joy is but a dish of pain,
My crop of corn is but a field of tares,
And all my good is but vain hope of gain.
The day is past, and yet I saw no sun,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
My tale was heard and yet it was not told,
My fruit is fallen and yet my leaves are green;
My youth is spent and yet I am not old,
I saw the world and yet I was not seen.
My thread is cut and yet it is not spun,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
I sought my death and found it in my womb,
I looked for life and saw it was a shade;
I trod the earth and knew it was my tomb,
And now I die, and now I was but made.
My glass is full, and now my glass is run,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
Saturday, May 24, 2003
Get Your Gear On
A soggy Memorial Day weekend in New York, which feels less like May than late March. Fury the pug's going back to her real home today and we'll miss the ambient round-the-clock snoring -- she also sometimes snores when awake. Theo's puppy won't arrive for two more weeks, needing to put on a little more weight before the breeder in Pennsylvania will ship her out.
I'm shipping out for two days too, to help move David's sloop Blue from her winter quarters near Port of Egypt on the North Fork to her summer home on the western side of Shelter Island. Blue is a 13-meter LeComte North East 38 racing cruiser, built around 1969 in Jutphaas, Holland. (Jutphaas, on the Lek River, is probably not as beautiful as it sounds). It's only a few miles around Ram's Head to Coecles Harbor, but a lovely sail nevertheless -- out past the seine-rigged fishing boats in Greenport, past the ferries and past Bug Light into open water. It's not the ocean: Gardiner's Bay is well protected by Montauk and other islands. Then in through the narrow slot into Coecles. We'll time our entry for the rising tide to clear a sandbar by Red #10 in the inner harbor, then pick up a mooring with the boathook. Maybe sleep on board, but if so make sure we bring strong coffee.
A few ernes (or maybe they're ospreys) will already be in residence atop modified utility poles. Herons also love the reedy waters nearby. On a calm morning you may see someone out sculling, the blades leaving dragonfly rings in the water.
I don't get out on the water as much these days during summertime (and I didn't do any varnishing this winter), but I love this spring ritual: loading up bags of gear, hanking on the sails, fastening sheets and generally getting her ready for the season. Slow, deliberate movements. Checking everything over, stowing stuff in lockers. The creaks and the clangs of wood and wire, the first rumble of the Westerbecke diesel, the click-click of the winch ratchet during the hoist, the thunk of the sail filling, the swush and slap of the water along the hull when we turn the diesel off and lock the prop. We don't talk much, listening for these familiar sounds.
The trip back to the yard, usually in late September, is always a bit more melancholy, but just as enjoyable in its own way. It's a fall bonus if the tiny, tender, and resurgent Peconic Bay scallops are available (here's a few recipes). The season lasts only about two weeks, but they are so sweet you can eat them raw.
In some ways Shelter Island, so lushly green, is much more beautiful in this overcast drizzly weather than in it is during the summer months. A touch of damp cold in the morning really wakes you up.
To get your bearings (if the GPS isn't on), use the lights of Long Island.
Friday, May 23, 2003
Morrell's
If you're in the vicinity of Union Square and hungry...
When a restaurant offers a flight of three wine ice creams, diners get a pretty clear idea of where its priorities lie. But how could it be otherwise with Morrells, the second venture into restaurant territory by one of the city's most famous wine merchants?
Read the rest of this post...
In From the Cold?
Saddam and family are living in a Baghdad suburb, apparently...:
U.S. officials in Washington had no comment. Uday Hussein, who is hiding in a Baghdad, Iraq suburb, wants to know what the charges against him will be, and the process for interrogation and custody, the person familiar with the discussions said. He is working through intermediaries. U.S. officials don't seem especially interested in cutting a deal, because they assume Uday will be caught sooner or later, the person said.... He is No. 3 on the coalition's most-wanted list, after his father and his brother, Qusay.What's all this about "choosing the safety of a a U.S. prison" (among the most dangerous in the industrialized world) anyway? WSJ's Jeffrey Walstrow is credited as contributor to this Yahoo story
Uday fears that Iraqi citizens will kill him if they find him, and may instead choose the safety of a U.S. prison, the person said, adding that Uday frequently changes his mind about surrendering...
Thursday, May 22, 2003
Relatively Speaking
The Einstein Show at the American Museum of Natural History, (although $15 for non-members), is the best example of explaining the theories of relativity and space-time to non-physicists I have seen in years. Combine it with the Hayden Planetarium and a gawk at the repainted (and now anatomically correct) blue whale for a fun afternoon.
And courtesy of the offbeat dutchbint:
Albert Einstein is on a train from Brighton to Bedford. After several stops in small towns, Einstein takes the conductor aside and asks "Excuse me, my good man, does London stop at this train?"Well, you had to be then to find it funny...
Flowing
Widely linked, (boingboing, flutterby, etc) but cool nevertheless, James Dyson's water sculpture gets top billing at Chelsea Flower Show. Of course, the English love their gardens way more than they do conceptual art, so this is totally the way to unveil it.
Now the $64K question: is it for sale as a one-of-a-kind art object or proof of concept for a must-have lawn accessory?
And talking of grass and slopes, the Famine Memorial (now undergoing refurbishment after a hard New York winter) is worth a visit -- stopped by on a bike tour of lower Manhattan last weekend with Theo.