To the uninitiated, few things can be more intimidating than a sushi bar.
Though the process of ordering and eating sushi isn't nearly as involved as some would think, it does require a certain amount of knowledge and etiquette to dine properly. Thankfully, Corson (The Secret Life of Lobsters) presents an exhaustive look at sushi and the chefs who prepare it that will go a long way toward instilling confidence.
Alternating between the cuisine's history and the key steps in a sushi chef's education, Corson puts the reader in the thick of things a la Michael Ruhlman's Making of a Chef, detailing the laborious process of making rice, the preparation of a myriad of fish and the storied history of the California Roll.
... Corson's enthusiasm for the topic is infectious -- especially when the subject turns to the popularity of sushi in landlocked states or the perils of dealing with mackerel.
Corson has created what could be the definitive work on the topic, enabling customers to comfortably and confidently stride into a sushi restaurant and order omakase without trepidation.
"Most experts agree on one thing. Customers who show off their sushi knowledge are tiresome."
... the chapter on rice, a subject that Americans take for granted, is itself worth the price of the book.
The author's web site has all manner of supplementary material. He's also writing a blog, although for some reason he's decided to present all of the (text) entries as images. Odd.
The first few chapters are an excellent overview and history of sushi, after that the book is a lame account of a bunch of losers taking a sushi course.
If you were fascinated by the Vanity Fair article, If You Knew Sushi, you'll like these books, too. (One of them is mentioned in the VF article.)
As for my children, they eat sushi three or four times a week. They developed a taste for sushi when they were living in Nashville, Tenn., which, though it lacks any convincing French or Italian restaurants, has several fine sushi bars.
In a 1991 memo [*] to his senior executives, Bill Gates wrote, “If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today.” Mr. Gates worried that “some large company will patent some obvious thing” and use the patent to “take as much of our profits as they want.”
At the time, Microsoft had only eight patents to its name.
Mexico to boost tapping of phones and e-mail with US aid
Topic: Surveillance
3:52 pm EDT, Jun 9, 2007
As you read this, remember:
American officials hope that Afghanistan’s drug problem will someday be only as bad as that of Colombia.
Now, about Mexico:
Mexican authorities for years have been able to wiretap most telephone conversations and tap into e-mail, but the new $3-million Communications Intercept System being installed by Mexico's Federal Investigative Agency will expand their reach.
The system will allow authorities to track cellphone users as they travel, according to contract specifications. It includes extensive storage capacity and will allow authorities to identify callers by voice. The system, scheduled to begin operation this month, was paid for by the US State Department and sold by Verint Systems Inc., a politically well-connected firm based in Melville, NY, that specializes in electronic surveillance.
Verint helps organizations make sense of the vast video, voice, and data they capture.
Witness Systems, a "call center" operator based in Roswell, has been bought by software maker Verint Systems.
"The purpose is to create swift investigative measures against organized crime," Calderon wrote.
"Although the proposal stems from the president's noble intention of efficiently fighting organized crime," said the president of the justice and human rights commission in the lower house of Congress, "the remedy seems worse than the problem."
The scare quotes above are my own, but I believe them.
"I finally tested positive for Pro Tools," he said.
I was curious to see if others have used this phrase before ...
The following are the results of your query. Keywords and phrases that have tested positive among your selected target-market demographic: esoteric, futility, satire-of-a-satire, artist, Pro-Tools, reclusive, symphonic, occult, Baudrillard, alchemy, meme, rackmount, ...
So, not much, but I also found these:
... Pro Tools has become the de-facto industry standard for editing in both the film and music industry.
... No everlasting Pro Tools-wanking here then, what you will hear is the real deal. No frills, just kills!
"You can't talk sense to them," Bush said, referring to terrorists. "Nooooo!" the audience roared.
The reality is that, despite fears that our children are "pumped full of chemicals" everything is made of chemicals, down to the proteins, hormones and genetic materials in our cells.
"It looks like politicians are poised to dominate the political discourse of the country for years to come," said analyst Maria Lawson of the Free Enterprise Institute.
“I knew it wasn’t about me, a 22-year-old girl from a small town in Tennessee who just wants to help the world. But you can’t help but take it personally.”
Matt Gross is "seeking low-cost high adventure on a 12-week road trip across the United States." His next stop is Tennessee. Can you suggest something?
The CIA acknowledged that the dates of Ms. Wilson’s employment had mistakenly been disclosed, although a spokesman said that did not mean the information was no longer classified.
“Frankly,” said the spokesman, Mark Mansfield, the release of the information in 2006, in response to a query from Ms. Wilson about retirement benefits, was “an honest-to-goodness administrative error.”
The device still lacks the control needed for pro sports or safecracking, but it's an honest-to-goodness bionic arm.
From here on, it’s nothing but “National Bingo Night” (an actual, honest-to-goodness ABC show airing at 8 p.m. Fridays), and “Pirate Master” (an actual, honest-to-goodness CBS show premiering May 31).
Honest to goodness, these people have nothing better to do than debate how close strippers should be allowed to get to patrons and how much they can take off and when.
"They’re trying to get the cat back into the bag.”
In Israel, a man clad only in underwear and a T-shirt wrestled a wild leopard to the floor and pinned it for 20 minutes after the cat leaped through a window and hopped into bed with his sleeping family.
Now that we’ve arrived at the 10th anniversary of the first appearance of “The Cathedral and the Bazaar,” it seems like an opportune moment to take a closer look at both the benefits and the limitations of peer production as a means of business innovation. What’s the bazaar good for, and what isn’t it good for?
Here's a nugget:
It seems fair to say that although the bazaar should be defined by diversity, the cathedral should be defined by talent. When you move from the bazaar to the cathedral, it’s best to leave your democratic ideals behind.
“I hate to think ‘what kind of music I play’… all that to me is shit, to be honest. You play what you can express and people gonna put a label in it.”
... their eruptive mixture of Central and South American folkways, with its propulsive rock rhythms, plus grooves reminiscent of The Gipsy Kings' crowd-pleasing Catalan rumbas, is incredibly infectious.
They had to busk to support themselves. In concert they still look as if they’re busking.
... a wicked, pan-European swing ... the impossibly fleet "Juan Loco" should delight all comers -- once they catch their collective breaths!
The album is a slap in the face for every rock star who has ever decided to arrange acoustic versions of their songs and forgotten that “acoustic” doesn’t necessarily mean “slow and boring.” Rodrigo and Gabriela went in the opposite direction, from electric to acoustic, and listen to the way they spit out that rock!
Though it's all quite excellent, Diablo Rojo is probably my favorite song on the album. The duo have recently released an official video for the song. You can also watch them live on Letterman:
Virtuosos Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero have created a sound that’s almost impossible to describe. Billboard called Rodrigo y Gabriela “one of the best guitar albums in ages; one of the best discs this year."
The use of the transitive, action-packed verb do has a long history of being followed by a direct object with no intervening article like a or the.
Its vogue began, I think, early in the past century with the question to a prospective domestic employee: "Do you do windows?"
The narcotics lingo of the 1960s advanced the usage: Addicts would do acid, do speed, do drugs; no native speaker would say "do the drugs." But when Hollywood agents and producers began replacing have with do in "Let's do lunch," a backlash set in; it was ridiculed as jargon.
Undersecretary of State John Bolton brushed aside a query about a carrot-and-stick approach to Iran with a subtle "I don't do carrots."
What makes this web of reactionary ideologues a menace to the world is that they believe complex, historic problems have simple, instant, military solutions.
Democrats have been recycling Bolton quotes from his speeches and writings over the years in an attempt to portray him as a unilateralist hostile even to the existence of the world body.
In July 2003, he condemned North Korea's Kim Jong-il for living like royalty, while for millions of his people, life was a "hellish nightmare". Pyongyang was incensed, labelling him "human scum" and refusing to continue negotiating with him.
"Females - I can't take much of them. That's why I have a lot more male friends, because females are very bitchy, and I can't do bitchy."
"I don't do dumps. I've done a Dumpster or two, but I don't do dumps."
I don't do rats. Snakes, yes; spiders, if I have to; big ugly men with guns, only in emergencies, but not rats, not ever.
I don't do it as much as I used to. You come in — the fantasy is that you wear medical clothing and it's an emergency situation — but you know a lot of times, people bring in many, many people ...
Alice: I don't do Jersey! Bob: You're missing lots of great food. Really. A true Crumb Tracker never fears crossing the river.
