RNC Excrement & Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy Is Alive & Healthy. I get this broadcast RNC email on my company mail this afternoon, claiming to be "The Facts on Obamacare". It is so full of excrement and hypocrisy, it's hilarious!

* Causes 9 million people to lose the insurance they now have; [Excrement, no, it causes no one to "lose" their insurance. 144 people a day DIED from lack of insurance, that will begin to decrease. 4 million people a year were dropped by their insurance each year. that will begin to slow down.]
* Increases the already bloated deficit by $260 billion over the
next decade when all the components are included; [Excrement, read to CBO analysis]
* Adds $371 billion to the deficit by not including the Medicare
physician fee schedule change, also known as the "Doc Fix" provision; [Hypocrisy! Republicans fought to NOT put in the "Doc Fix" and COBRA limits. Idiots!]
* Raises taxes by $569 billion on small businesses and creates a
new marriage penalty with new income and investment taxes; [Excrement, new marriage penalty if you are in the top 1% of the richest Americans]
* Cuts Medicare by $523 billion; [Excrement & Hypocrisy, it reduces Medicare costs by implementing efficiencies. It's not taking anyone's Medicare].
* Increases premiums by 10% for people without employer-based
insurance; [Excrement, insured individuals were already being hiked 30 & 40% a year!]
* Expands the power of the IRS to enforce a government mandate
that requires Americans to purchase government-approved insurance; [Oh My! enforced regulations! What do you think this is, Santiago Chile?!?!? We want to live in Port Au Prince!]
* After all the spending is done and the bill is fully
implemented, 23 million people will still be uninsured in 2019. [Hypocrisy!!! 19 million of those 23 are illegal immigrants who the Republicans HATE! OMG! How stupid do you think the American people are??? Notice, they say "people" not "citizens" - LMFAO!!!]

That's all you got, RNC? Pathetic!

Sand Sand Everywhere

This is our third week back home after vacation, and I am still finding sand in unexpected places. Sure, shoes and beach bags are supposed to get sand in them. But suntan lotion? Not the bottle.. the lotion... on the inside, was gritty on applying to my nose before poolside yoga today - lol! Inside the shutter of the water proof camera... in the outside zipper pouch of my laptop bag (which never went to the beach, that I know of), in the hinge of the igloo cooler - yeah, I was stupid and took a hard sided cooler in my luggage. According to Jill who went with us, we'll be finding residual sand for the next year. Then it will be time to go back! Next time though.. maybe Maui.

Anger Is An Energy

PIL - Rise
My friend Jill asked rhetorically recently 'why do tea baggers get so many people to come to their rallies and progressives can't even get the date straight on emails they send out to get people to come to a celebratory rally in Ohio?' My immediate gut feeling was "Anger Is An Energy" - nothing galvanizes a movement stronger than resistance / opposition / a feeling of being a persecuted minority. Since progressives are in the majority now - at least until the pendulum of US politics swings back - they can't organize a free t-shirt giveaway (every college student knows that free t-shirts are one of the most powerful forces in the world! Credit Card companies have figured this out on college campuses).
So in honor of the sputtering progressive rally in Westchester OH, I present Johnny Lydon and Public Image Limited, PIL:

...or, in a different perspective as my friend JoeM is often found of saying: "The Democrats, where causes come to die"... but he lives in San Francisco and thinks the Democrats there are actually Republicans and the Green Party is too far to the right. =)

No Shortage of Fundie "Christian" Nutjobs

If you haven't yet heard about the ATF & FBI raising the Hutaree Militia / Cult / Violent Separatist movement in Michigan yesterday, there are links here (from Faux news) and here (from the Detroit News). These guys are real pieces of work. Google cached their myspace page (link here) some time ago. Page down through it, for the utterly delusional graphics and posts. Link to the Hutaree.com website here. And links to other state militias who want to duplicate Hutaree in OH, TX, and elsewhere.

Truly guano crazy, these guys were training to battle the Antichrist[TM]. But in the mean time, they recently hatched a plan to kill Michigan Police officers with an IED, and then to kill anyone who goes to the funeral of the fallen officer with more IEDs. Because you know, "Greather love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13, on the top of Hutaree's webpage no less!). So by this axiom, none of the police are your friends if you are a Christian Fundamentalist who is training for the Apocalypse? And since Jesus always preached justifiable murder, killing police officers is a good thing? Wait... Jesus didn't preach that, at least not in this plane of the Amber Universe.

Please oh please, Rush, Guano Beck, Insanity Hannity, Palin, et al... come to their Defense. Reiterate how they are innocent until proven guilty. Do an in-depth exposé about how militia groups are good, up-standing Americans, not violent extremists determined to commit sedition.

Idiocracy Central

Dr Desert Flower and I live in Idiocracy Central.

The Glendale "University of Phoenix" stadium yesterday was mobbed (link here), with the lowest common denominator, just 2 miles north of our homestead. On our drive North to go hiking in the White Tank Mountains to see the Spring Wild Flowers, we were stuck in traffic for 10 minutes alongside SUV after SUV of parents hauling their David After Dentist aged children to the stadium. UGH!

"The event was the best-attended, highest-grossing event in the history of University of Phoenix Stadium. Professional wrestling's biggest night of the year drew 72,219 fans, about a thousand more than attended Super Bowl XLII in the same building."

"With eye-catching signs and deafening cheers, fans paid tribute to the notion that some problems are best resolved with a steel chair to the back of the head."

We've gotta get out of the West Side!

On a positive note, Dr Desert Flower and I DID see some lovely desert flowers, as the White Tanks were in abundant bloom. The Waterfall Trail was full of Idiocracy who I guess could not buy a ticket, but the Bajada trail was sparsely populated by people with no shortage of darting, colorful little reptiles and brilliant yellow, purple, orange and red flowers.

Caribbean Island Sayings

Posted over nearly every rest room toilet:
"In this land of fun and sun we never flush for number 1
Be so kind that when you do, we all flush for number 2."

On a t-shirt that made me laugh (and that we purchased):
"Better to have sand in your thongs on the beach than sand in your thong on your seat"

On another t-shirt that made me laugh (and that we also purchased):
Drink Right, Drive Left
(The Virgin Islands all drive on the left, though nearly all the cars are left drive, imported from the US).

Richard Engel Explains Last Week's Iraqi Elections

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Richard Engel Explains the ramifications of Iraq's democratic elections last week. Hopefully, this is good news that will lead to Getting US Troops Out!

Bucknard's Everfull Teacup

When I was a teenager, I used to play D&D (yes, Dungeons & Dragons), before I actually had a life that kept me too busy to indulge in fantasy role playing dice games governed by memorization and hours of mountain dew fueled basement sessions with other D&Ders. I had a proclivity for always wanting to be a Fighter, Ranger, or sometimes a Cleric or an Elf... once I played an Anti Paladin character and that was fun, but never a Paladin, Magic User, Thief, or 1/2 Orc, or Bard - man, I wanted to bludgeon Bards when I was a teenager. Keep in mind, I used to keep a 6ft quarter staff bungee corded to my 12-speed bike frame "just in case" - such a testosterone driven fascist dork I was. But I digress...

In The Dungeon Master's Guide, there was an item called "Bucknard's Everfull Purse". Bucknard's Everful Purse was a small leather sack in which you could place coins or gems, and each night, up to 100 gold pieces would duplicate within the purse. As long as you never emptied it completely - always leaving a "seed" of one or more coins or gems, more would appear the next day. It was an awesome little device that I tried to make sure each D&D adventure had at least one of, in the group of characters. Well, since moving to Arizona and trying to live a more healthy life-style, I've begun drinking tea every week day to wake up. This replaces the 6 to 8 cans of Diet Coke I used to drink every week day, for the last 20 years. My bones retain alot more calcium (the phosphoric acid in the Diet Coke depletes it), my teeth don't hurt and build up alot less plaque on the lower ones, my acid reflux is gone (with Nexium at $3/pill and my corporately provided insurance no longer covering "name brand" Rxs) and I am getting wonderful anti-oxidants as well.

Recently (in the last 3 months) I've been on an Irish Breakfast Black Tea streak (Trader Joe's, sells them in boxes of 60) - I wish they were organic, but oh well. The bags are string less, so at 3:45am (Daylight Savings Time sucks!) I stumble to the microwave, nuke a cup of R-O water, and plop in a tea bag. One HEAPING tiny spoon of Stevia mixed in, I'm ready for conference calls with India, Atlanta, and South Carolina by 4am. Beside the tea cup, I take a 16oz glass of water into my office. Each time the tea cup gets to about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch (6.35 to 12.7mm) from the bottom with tea, I refill from the water glass. As the day goes on, I get 3, 4, 5, sometimes 6 or 7 cups of tea out of it this way. Residual Stevia in the cup continues to compensate for the bitterness of the black tea, and it's a tasty, antioxidant laden, sweet treat, throughout the day. As long as the bottom of the cup is not emptied, the residual tea there acts as a "seed" for the next cup, infusing the refill water with more delicious tea goodness. If the tea gets too weak in the afternoon, then adding a 2nd tea bag along with the first gives an added caffeine boost for the afternoon.

The The Infected

Dern you Marketplace background segue music!

Catchy Tune. "It's got a nice beat, and I can dance to it" ... for the last 24 years!

CDS Explained, Simply

I heard Michael Lewis (author of The Big Short) earlier this week being interviewed on the Diane Rehm Show, about the global financial shenanigans, and he explained Credit Default Swaps (CDS) simply, like this:
- your next door neighbor's house use to be worth about $750,000 a few years ago
- the neighborhood has been growing and maturing, and now, it is worth $1,000,000
- seeing this increase in perceived value, you go out, and you buy an insurance policy on your neighbor's house, to insure it for a $1,000,000. It's not your house, it's your neighbor's house.
- now, you take this million dollar policy, and you re-package it, and re-combine it with policies on other neighbor's houses, and you parse it up, and sell it again and again and again, to "spread out your risk".
- after all those re-arrangement shenanigans, that million dollar insurance policy, is NOW worth A BILLION dollars. Remember, your neighbor's house is still only worth a million dollars.

So, with that massive over-value, of a million dollar house, there is SIGNIFICANT incentive to Burn The House Down.

Hearing that, made me SO ANGRY, as the light bulb went off over my head. An hour of yoga later, I felt much better.

Diane asked Lewis "the right says this is all Barney Frank's and Chris Dodd's fault, due to their pushing of the Fair Lending Act". To which Lewis replied 'The Fair lending Act was such a small part of the overall inflation in worthless mortgages. Yes, some mortgages were given out to people who should not have gotten them, but it was the re-packaging of that debt that multiplied the impact 1000s or 10s of thousands of times. It is the largest Wall street investment firms who have the vast majority of the blame who are responsible - those that are 'too big to fail'. Frank & Dodd have 1 to 2% of the blame at most'. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Donut Holes & Epaulets Needed! Stat!

No time for blogging today! I am very busy gathering up all the donut holes I can find before the new Socialist Totalitarian Government Take Over of Health Care takes them all away from seniors on Medicare. I want to corner the market on them, so that when all my fellow Tea Bagger Americans want their Medicare Part D loop holes back, I'll have a Massive supply!

Once I get all the donut holes gathered, I am going to install some GIANT epaulets on some of my jackets, bigger than the ones Optimus Prime has on his shoulders, to keep the Guv-mint from 'looking over my shoulder' when I am at the doctor, monitoring my health care!

Maybe I can enlist Optimus's help in gathering up all the patriotic grandmas too, before Obama's death panels get them! Run grandma run!

At least now, all the child molesters and rapists will be able to FINALLY get some Viagra! Yes, Senator Coburn of Oklahoma (a real medical doctor!) understands psychological disorders and social deviancy so well, that he knows rape is not an act of violence and aggression, noooo! It's a sexual attraction that old white men can't muster enough testosterone to maintain an erection when they try to perform it.

On a bright note, AZ State Attorney General Terry Goddard said today that he is NOT going to join the Confederate Health Care of Umerika's law suits to block implementation of federal health care reform in Arizona, contrary to Governor Janet Brewer's instruction to do so. Goddard sites constitutional scholars on his staff who said it's a frivolous lawsuit with no merit - duh!

When McCain and Kyle keep saying the people of Arizona 'don't want this bill' they need to really check their constituent email. I've been steadily sending both of them correspondence stating they NEEDED to cooperate with the Democrats, collaborate, and work with them - but ideologues don't wanna listen. Oh, and it ain't a bill no more, senators. It's a law. 'Da Nile' is a river in Egypt.

Intimination - Angry Tea Baggers Show Their True Colors

Republicans Continue to Support Violent Opposition:
Congressman's Brother's home cut propane gas lines declared as "collateral damage" at Dailyprogress.com.
Bricks thrown through representative Louis Slaughter's (D-NY) office.
Phone threats and obscenities left on congressional voice mails to Stupak.
Death Threats of being a "dead man" to Democratic SW Ohio Congressmen Steve Driehaus from John Boehner - Minority Leader Boehner said of Driehaus: "He's a dead man, he can't go back to Cincinnati's west side"

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Rachel accurately draws a straight line to connect the dots between these current threats, and Timothy McVeigh & militia groups in 1995 who made the same supportive signals to Texas and Idaho Congressional Representatives who advocated violent action prior to the Oklahoma City domestic terrorist bombing. It's not a "wacky extrapolation" or grasping at straws. It's a broader perspective that Republican elected leaders are advocating for their supporters to violently "take back" what they feel they are entitled to have.

The video is worth a watch, link here.

From Hamilton Ohio, with Love

Hell No You Can't (Featuring John Boehner)

I saw this on the end of Olbermann / Beginning of Maddow last night. It was pretty funny & poignant. Very nice juxtaposition

Mercury Cove

Sunday afternoon, home alone, I watched The Cove via Netflix DVD. I did not want to see it in the theater, but thought it would be interesting to see in my own living room. All in all, it was not a terrible documentary. A little too "Discovery Channel Hyped" - where lack of extensive footage of varying events lead to a massive emphasis on preparation, expectation, 'assembling the team', but with only a small portion of the whole film focusing on the dolphin slaughter they were intending to prevent. There were a couple of nearly tear-jerking moments that really played upon human sympathies. Louie Psihoyos did a good job putting together his film that the Japanese government and local Taijii fishermen Did Not want told. Like asbestos farmers, slave traders, and confederate separatists before them, the proud Taijii fishermen believe that what they are doing (in their case, the eradication of dolphins) is a noble cause, a way of life, ingrained in the history of their community. They believe it is akin to "pest control" as the dolphins eat "too many fish".

The Japanese government, through their representative to the International Whaling Commission and their financial lobbying of indebted third world coastal nations to bribe Antigua, St.Lucia, The Marshal Islands, Cambodia, and others, supports this misguided theory. With Japan's substantial financial resources, they donate millions to poor Caribbean, African, and SE Asian nations to vote in concordance with Japan on the promotion of increasing whale slaughters in the name of egotistically stubborn cultural psuedo science. It's pretty sad and twisted. Way of life? Yeah, so was burning of witches, jus primae noctis, and sacrifice to Nanauatl to make sure the sun rose in ancient Mexico.

The Taijii fisherman are ironically right in one way - the dolphins ARE eating alot of fish. As an apex predator in the ocean - dolphins attack sharks, as surfersforcetaceans.com has testified, in the protection of humans - only people kill able-bodied dolphins. Dolphins eat many pounds of smaller fish per day... smaller fish that ate still smaller fish... that ate accumulated heavy metal contaminated plankton and algae. So the dolphins meat slaughtered around Japan has mercury levels at 2000 ppm. "2000 ppm, so what?" you might ask. Well, 0.5 ppm is considered a "high"level of mercury in commercially caught apex predator fish like tuna, shark, and swordfish. Check out the NIOSH REL and ACGIH TLVs... zoiks! ...and the EPA site as well.

So mercury is really bad stuff to living, breathing, sentient vertebrates. That includes both humans and cetaceans. Except most humans eat less fish than cetaceans consume, so it builds up more quickly in the cetacean's body - especially in muscle tissue. Muscle tissue is a sushi favorite. The higher up the food chain the marine predator is, and more mature it is, the more mercury is in the meat.

This brings me to the most disturbing part of The Cove DVD extras. In the extras, Louie Psihoyos the producer, tells about how he met with a group of 6 Japanese neuroscientists who work at the National Institute for Minamata Disease (NIMD) in Minamata-shi, Kumamoto Japan (link here). These 6 professional, experienced scientists are studying neurological disorders caused by methylmercury poisoning (水俣病, Minamata-byō) - specifically from the widespread mercury poisoning in Minimata in the 1950s by the Chisso corporation.

Japan knows all too well about how nasty mercury poisoning can be. At the dinner, Psihoyos (a vegetarian) ate sushi. It was Japan after-all, and he loves sushi, as many Americans do. NONE of the Japanese neurological researchers ate ANY sushi. Psihoyos noticed this, and asked them why? Unanimously, they said that all sushi is laden with mercury. Surprised, Psihoyos said "well, I love to eat sushi, and I have not had any mercury exposure." The group of researchers all laughed heartily, and recommended that Psihoyos get tested, for residual mercury levels. The next day he did, and it showed levels dozens of times higher than are recommended for human exposure by the US and Japanese governments.

Psihoyos asked the 6 researchers - who all requested to remain anonymous to retain their jobs at the institute - how they determined how much mercury was in sushi. The researchers explained an experiment they ran:
- each researcher took a baseline residual mercury level blood test
- then they began to eat 200g of cheap canned tuna per day, for 30 days (I just checked a single serving can of tuna in my pantry, it is 198g)
- they charted their blood mercury levels, daily
- after 2 weeks of eating one can of cheap tuna a day, all six of the researchers' blood mercury levels DOUBLED.
This alarmed them - as it would alarm me too! So these neuroscientists modified their experiment:
- instead of buying the cheapest canned tuna, they bought the more expensive "sushi grade" tuna, and ate 200g per person, per day.
- they continued to graph their blood mercury levels, daily.
The slope of the graphs of each researcher doubled again, becoming much steeper, much quicker, and at 3 weeks after the start of the experiment, blood mercury levels were now 4X higher than the baseline tests, pre-experiment. The neuroscientists ENDED their experiment, after 3 weeks, and none have eaten sushi since.

To me, that's telling. It's fact, not fiction. I used to enjoy the occasional tuna roll or even a can of tuna as a quick snack... but I am not sure I can comfortably enjoy it again in the future. The mercury accumulation can't be "flushed out" readily by anti-oxidants, or rigorous exercise... it just stays inside the body and slowly makes you less human, attacking the nervous system (blindness, loss of taste, smell, hearing, muscle control, memory, headaches, cognition...). Eating apex predator fish is not worth it to me. And I hope my wife and friends and relatives who are inexorably devoted to sushi & fish consumption don't ingest so much that they begin to accumulate elevated levels of mercury in their bodies as well.

LEAST MERCURY (generally the younger fish, who are not apex predators)
Enjoy these fish:
Anchovies
Butterfish
Catfish
Clam
Crab (Domestic)
Crawfish/Crayfish
Croaker (Atlantic)
Flounder*
Haddock (Atlantic)*
Hake
Herring
Mackerel (N. Atlantic, Chub)
Mullet
Oyster
Perch (Ocean)
Plaice
Pollock
Salmon (Canned)**
Salmon (Fresh)**
Sardine
Scallop*
Shad (American)
Shrimp*
Sole (Pacific)
Squid (Calamari)
Tilapia
Trout (Freshwater)
Whitefish
Whiting

MODERATE MERCURY
Eat six servings or less per month:
Bass (Striped, Black)
Carp
Cod (Alaskan)*
Croaker (White Pacific)
Halibut (Atlantic)*
Halibut (Pacific)
Jacksmelt
(Silverside)
Lobster
Mahi Mahi
Monkfish*
Perch (Freshwater)
Sablefish
Skate*
Snapper*
Tuna (Canned
chunk light)
Tuna (Skipjack)*
Weakfish (Sea Trout)

HIGH MERCURY
Eat three servings or less per month:
Bluefish
Grouper*
Mackerel (Spanish, Gulf)
Sea Bass (Chilean)*
Tuna (Canned Albacore)
Tuna (Yellowfin)*

HIGHEST MERCURY (all apex predators at top of the food chain in their marine environments)
Avoid eating:
Mackerel (King)
Marlin*
Orange Roughy*
Shark*
Swordfish*
Tilefish*
Tuna
(Bigeye, Ahi)*

* These fish are perilously low in numbers or are caught using environmentally destructive methods.
** Farmed Salmon may contain PCB's, chemicals with serious long-term health effects.

There's a package of Kroger Frozen Orange Roughy, left over in the bottom of our freezer from when my mother in law came to visit last October while we went to Hawaii. I can't bring myself to cook & eat it.

Nature by Numbers - Cristobal Vila's brilliance

Many many thanks to Ron's better half JJ for this link (here) that she posted on her social networking "wall". At that linked website, you'll find Spanish filmmaker Cristobal Vila's latest short film Nature By Numbers that was posted on youtube (link here) only 11 days ago - and already has over 100K hits. It is beautiful. Amazing, clear examples of the
Fibonacci Sequence
Golden Ratio
Angle Ratio
Delaunay Triangulation
Voronoi Tessellations



...man, I wish I had this when I was in Jr High and High School, before the interwebs were invented. Wow. And the music, "Often a Bird" by Wim Mertens... almost hypnotic.

Enjoy

...and for those of you with kids who are school aged... please, expose them to this, as early as possible. The earlier they start comprehending these concepts, the sooner they'll see them - Everywhere around us!

The Persistance of Clooney

Fantastic Mr. Fox - Wasn't (fantastic, that is).
Saw it on the plane, or at least the first 70% of it before Delta cut it off. No loss. Kept hoping it would get better, it didn't. Kinda creepy too.

Oh Brother Where Art Thou? - Clooney was very good in it, and it's one of my favorite Coen Brother's movies, after Raising Arizona, Fargo, and No Country For Old Men... and along with Hudscuker, Miller's Crossing, & Burn After Reading. Oh Brother was playing on the TV one night when we got back to the villa and it was raining in St.John (Broadcast out of Puerto Rico).

Up In The Air - Watched it on the return trip. Somewhat likable, and again Clooney acted well. I just didn't like the premise of the film, finding it painful to watch in many places. The plot"twist" to me, was entirely predictable, but I was not the target audience.

On a side note, non Clooney related... I did enjoy "Law Abiding Citizen" which I watched on private video screen on the plane - back of the seat in front of me. It was good to see Gerard Butler keep his shirt on for a change, and I enjoyed the 'look what a driven genius can do' motif, even if it did have a ridiculous ending that was so full of plot inconsistencies as to nearly spoil the film. Overall, I enjoyed the ride that Gary Gray took the viewer on. Too gory for Dr Desert Flower's delicate tastes.

Sail Pepper - for local flavor

While in St.John, we booked a sunset sail On the 23ft sloop Pepper (link here). Captain Fred and Renee were wonderful hosts. Renee kept the Cruzan rum flowing into our cups as Fred kept a steady hand on the rudder. Initially, the weather threatened to spoil our evening, but by the time we arrived at Maho Bay, the light rain had abated, and winds had died down somewhat.

Fred sailed us out towards Great Thatch Island between Whistling Cay and Mary Point, towards the edge of US / British Territorial boundary. 'The weather started getting rough' but the tiny sloop was not lost. Wave crests that blotted out the view of Great Thatch Island and sent bow spray over the passengers (including Dr Desert Flower's hearing aid! yikes!) began to rock our small craft, when Fred turned us around and back into Francis Bay towards Cinnamon Cay, where Tim and I had tried to snorkel the day before, but had to call it off due to choppy seas. By the second glass of dark rum, my grip on the boat's edge had relaxed. By the third glass, the sun was setting, and I was having a marvelous time. My other cruise-mates had 2 glasses - Tim had to drive the winding mountain roads back to Cruz Bay afterward and the wives are light weights =P

It was Fred and Renee who taught our experienced hosts Tim & Jill the vernacular "St.Trauma" for St.Thomas in 2009 - once you take a careening, poorly maintained, jammed-full-of-tourists van ride from the St.Thomas airport to the Redhook ferry terminal, you'll understand why it's accurately called "St.Trauma". This trip, we learned the traditional jingle about Caneel Bay:
"for the newly wed, and the almost dead. The well fed, and the over-read." There are some suites at the private Caneel Bay resort that go for $12,000 a night - about 40X beyond my price range. I came up with these limerick additions:
"Caneel Bay: for the ridiculously paid who could not otherwise get laid"
"Caneel Bay: for the small member compensating and the chronically constipating"
and
"More money than sense, collagen lips & silicone chests"
We talked about customs & immigration hassles to get to the British Virgin Islands, the best places to see octopus and sea turtles on the island, how more and more yachts are showing up flagged to the Marshal Islands (damn Republicans and their tax loop holes!). It was a very pleasant cruise.

Pepper also has daytime guided snorkeling cruises as well. Check out their website.

Don't Let the Name Dictate What You Order

Reflecting back on my last business trip, I realize I ate at several restaurants named for one thing famously, and ate something completely unrelated to the names. I enjoyed each meal, be it fine dining haute cuisine, or basic practical fare.

Charleston SC, Fish Restaurant (442 King Street, Charleston, SC 29403)
Though there was a great deal of local fresh Fish on the menu, I am a sucker for duck. I had the Duck l'Orange. My son had the Coq Au Vin. I selected a wonderful Red wine:
Tempranillo Ergo Rioja 2007, which complimented the birds rather well.
For desert I enjoyed the Flourless Chocolate Cake. I can't remember what Christopher had for desert, but he enjoyed his immensely as well.

Then, the next week up in Greenville SC, I ate at:
Panera - Spanish for "Bread Box". There, I had the Caesar Salad that came with a delicious Fuji apple.

Atlanta Bread Company - I had the Greek Salad, which came with a sourdough bread side that I fed to the geese at the corporate pond next to the HQ.

Whenever possible, I avoided generic corporate chain restaurants (Panera and ATL Bread, exempted, as I know their menus) and tried to eat local fare. Being low carb, breakfast was unnecessary. Lunch was eaten out of obligation to colleagues as each meal was a business meeting - a small salad each lunch that left me stuffed. It was good to get home to my wife, my low carb kitchen, and my back yard that was (and still is) in full bloom.

We definitely need to sell this house in the Spring next year or in 2 or 3... it's really so pretty with flowers and fragrance in abundance.

Zemlinsky & Mozart

Last Saturday night, Michael Christie Directed the Phoenix Symphony AND the Phoenix Symphony Chorus in Zemlinsky’s cantata, Frühlingsbegräbnis, and Mozarts first work as a 10 year old, a 90 second Kyrie (K.33), followed by his last work, the unfinished Requiem completed by Robert Levin (K.626). (links here and here). It was a powerful performance. My German is very rusty, and I only caught about 1/3 of the context, but the works were sung with energy, delivered effectively. The vocal soloists were good, but I just don't think I have a refined appreciation for a soloist accompanied by a full symphony. I wasn't MOVED by the soloists, though Jason Grant (Bass) was very expressive. The massive chorus, occupying the stage behind the musicians, did their best to fill the lack luster acoustics of Symphony Hall. It worked. Would have been interesting to hear them at the modern (and nearly acoustically perfect) Peace Center.

Switch, Downtown Phoenix

Dr Desert Flower and I ate dinner at Switch (link here) in Downtown Phoenix last Saturday night before the symphony. It was the third time we've been there. Delicious food. Eclectic decor. Attentive and friendly staff. Convenient parking. Alternative clientele - we were probably the least flamboyant, straightest couple there. She had crepes and Caposaldo Pinot Grigio, and I had the Creole Shrimp with andouille sausage, accompanied by the Correas Malbec (menu here). It was efficiently served, tasty on the pallet, and we heavily tipped. Highly recommended if you are downtown Phoenix and want a lovely place to slip into for an hour or more.