John & Belle Have A Blog

Pretty Girls...Rock and Roll...America....RULES!

I'm in America! So, New York is wonderful, my children are horribly jet-lagged...uh, what was I talking about again? Need...more...coffee--hey, it's thin, old school, regular New York coffee, I forgot about that. So different from kopi C. Not in a little blue-and-white cup with Greek keys on it, though; I made it at my hotel, which is a suite with a little kitchenette, useful for stabbing myself in the eye with a fork when my children won't go to sleep for the night and it is 8am. No, I mean useful for eating snacks when we are up all night. Boy, but America's infrastructure looks baaad, people. And everything is dirty! The girls were like, what's wrong with this bridge? (a metal bridge in Jersey leading from the Newark airport to the Holland Tunnel, I don't know what it's called). Old metal that's just black with soot! And graffiti! Man, if I fully acclimatize to the level of cleanliness, safety, and well-built massive public investment projects of Singapore I'll never be able to move home.

We're going to the American Girl Doll store to get dolls. We were going to have tea afterward at the Plaza, but it's so late now that I think we'll go tomorrow. I'm on the hook to take them to Serendipity (yeah, yeah) which is happily open till 11, so we'll do that. I kind of wanted to go to the Met and see the medieval European paintings, we'll see how we fare with that. Maybe just the Children's Zoo. Or where I really want to go, which is...H&M.

Get Your War On Against a Set of Countries Eventually to Include The Entire Alphabet

Does Michael Ledeen want to invade Zimbabwe? I think the answer for every question of the form "Does Michael Ledeen want to invade Country X" is yes, so probably yes.

This ['tough' talk from Rice but no threats of invasion] is Darfur all over again. And Iran all over again.  And Syria all over again.  Stern language, with the threat of even sterner language if the recipient doesn't behave better.

It's an embarrassment.  Once upon a time, we had leaders who supported freedom and did everything possible to bring down tyrants.  But not today. Today we give feel-good speeches full of politically correct slogans, wrapped in the mantle of multiculturalism and multilateralism.  Even her words are feeble.  Mugabe is committing mass murder, and has proclaimed that he won't accept the results of the election if it goes against him.  So her call for "free and fair" elections is beside the point.  It's just like the bad old days when the League of Nations fought fascism...while innocents are slaughtered.   

If anyone's feeling ready for too-soon retrospective nostalgia for the early 00s, you might accuse me of preferring that Mugabe stay in power. Gruesome (true) tales from violence against the Ndebele years back would be good, as well.

UPDATE: it's only fair to note that if it really were the early 00s and you brought that weak shit, I'd probably lap it right up and start agitating for war against Zimbabwe. Remember when I thought it was such a good idea to invade Iraq? An interesting thing I've learned from that is that I'm susceptible to propaganda and cheap moral grandstanding, and that my genuine patriotic feelings can somewhat easily be diverted into support for state violence. My current policy is just to assume it's an overwhelmingly bad idea to get the US military involved anywhere, under any circumstances other than "oh shit those actual guys just attacked America." I think my nation could use a good 50 years erring on the side of caution with "don't start any wars at all, not even this one little war that we have a great reason to fight and it's only because we caaare sooooo much about the people in that country that we want to bomb them!!" If this dooms me to a life being gratuitously compared to Neville Chamberlain every single frakking time I open the door, even to get the paper, then so be it.

FURTHER UPDATE: McMegan is ready for the nostalgia already. So you think you'd like Bush administration officials to be nabbed while on vacation in Spain and tried in international courts? Well do you also...love HITLER? Of course, I'm joking, obviously she doesn't say that, she says something much more reasonable, to wit, do you also...love GENOCIDE??!!:

...the US flatly cannot be brought to heel in this manner, while other nations can. Shall we enjoy the righteous satisfaction of expressing our moral outrage, at the cost of severely eroding the international community's ability to encourage peace in the rest of the world? Only if you think that American politics is so overwhelmingly important that it overrides trivial considerations like dead Bosnians.

Right, because we wouldn't want to endanger the US's support for international institutions, as expressed in the UN decision to bomb Serbia...wait, what now?

More Cartoon Plato

I had so much fun with my shadow-puppetry that I completed the thought with Plato's Cave. I don't like this one quite as well. But it's fun to draw this way. To see the larger version, click here.)

Wishing

Washington D.C. is experiencing a huge increase in foreclosures. Up till now it has been a housing market that, like San Francisco proper, tenaciously held on to peak prices.

The Washington region now has one of the fastest-growing foreclosure rates in the nation, as 15,613 homes went into foreclosure during the one-year period ending in February, an analysis to be released today has found....
The analysis found that the steepest declines in home sale prices, between April 2007 and April 2008, occurred in the outer suburban ring, defined as Loudon, Prince William and Frederick counties. The average price there dropped by $110,900, or 25 percent. The inner ring, Fairfax, Montgomery and Prince George's, had a decline of 3.2 percent. The core, defined as the District, Arlington County Alexandria, experienced an increase of 3.4 percent.

An increase! That's just ridiculous. Still, things are changing now. Do you think these people will be able to sell their 1-bedroom condo for $250,000 when these sellers are offering a single family home for $225,000 just a few blocks away? The former is nicer in some ways, but not enough to outweigh having a yard and no condo fees. Personally, I'd like to live in one of those yellow Victorians on Holly Ave not far from my mom's place, or this one house on Tulip Ave--a huge yard and a sweet southern-style house with a wrap-around porch. I like that whole area of tree-named avenues in there: it's walking distance to the metro, there's a great farmer's market in downtown Takoma, and it's an attractive older suburb with mature trees. No google street view, or I'd show you. Maybe in 2011 it'll be affordable?

UPDATE 1 MINUTE LATER: This house, like a number of others near Flower Ave, was converted at some point to separate apartments. I often read people suggesting that this may be the fate of currently empty McMansions in inner-ring suburbs, to provide housing to immigrants and other lower-income renters (this area has become heavily Latino over the last 10 years, mainly Salvadorean and Nicaraguan to judge from the restaurants.) What would it be like trying to turn such a place back into a single-family dwelling? I guess you'd have a lot of extraneous kitchen to rip out...

I suppose in my dreamiest dreams of DC I would live in Georgetown, maybe facing Volta park, but I don't think that will ever be affordable! Nannie had a house  in Georgetown on Reservoir Rd, one of those brick row houses that narrowed to about 11 feet wide at the back. I'd have to get rid of half my furniture, and it was on an ambulance route, but I would probably move there were it possible. In real life I'm not actually planning to move anywhere at the moment and in fact we're very much hoping to stay on in Singapore, so why am I all the time daydreaming about real estate? Escapism when I feel sick. I like to be able to imagine what it would be like to live in all the different houses, and how I would fix them up. I've done this all my life, but when I was younger it was limited to places I walked past; now with the magic of the internet I can choose from anywhere. Hey, this is one of the houses I was thinking of on Tulip (not the one with the porch, but 2 houses down).

SWPL: Cucumber Sandwiches

Ta-Nehisi Coates doesn't "get" cucumber sandwiches:

There are many, many tribes of whiteness in America which I don't particularly understand. I didn't get how some white people go off to expensive colleges and then spend their friday nights, french-kissing a keg of the world's cheapest beer, until they're rendered unconscious. I remember the first white parties I went to, in my early twenties, and I was shocked to see people standing around clutching plastic cups, music playing, but no one dancing. It took some time for me to get blue-collar comedy. I'm still not up on cucumber sandwiches--but judging by the diabetes rates here in Harlem, maybe I should be.

As to the first question, no harm will be done by continuing to think that white college kids throw some lame-ass parties. On the other hand, cucumber sandwiches really are delicious. Here's how my grandmother, Janet Parsons Wainwright, aka "Nan" did it:

Cucumber Sandwiches:
Use peeled hothouse cucumbers, those thin-skinned ones, or if they are normal cucumbers, peel, cut in half, and remove the seeds and gelatinous middle bit with a spoon. Slice cucumbers paper-thin. Use Pepperidge Farm Very Thin White Bread, spread with Hellman's mayonnaise. Lay the slices of cucumber down, top with fresh mint leaves, and add salt and freshly cracked ground pepper. Top with another slice, cut the crusts off after completion, and cut each sandwich into four triangles (now it feeds four times as many people!). You may wash this down either with iced tea with a splash of orange juice and fresh mint, or with Nannie's traditional libation, a triple bourbon on the rocks.

UPDATE: if you want to take the sandwiches on a picnic you may substitute softened unsalted butter for the mayo, being careful to coat the bread thoroughly--that way they won't get soggy.

Massengill. What The Hell, Crack'll Sell In The Neighborhood

Ladies and gentlemen, Mickey Kaus:

Will Obama Kill Bling? Mary Battiata thinks maybe. Now that she mentions it, I kind of hope Obama's election will kill off much of hip-hop, at least the gangsta-inspired parts. But just killing off bling and gangsta fashion would be a start.

I...WTF? Because after he becomes president he'll automatically become chair of the crucial monthly meetings at which black people decide what they're going to wear?

Lately I've been wondering what an Obama White House might mean for the future of bling. For the fate of heavy gold, medallions, below-the-butt denim, the whole hip-hop gangsta fashion habit. What if January 20, 2009 turned out to be not just a cultural and clothing pivot point for adults -- a return to the minimalism of sleek, 60s-era sharkskin suits, the containment of golf-ball sized Barbara Bush costume pearls -- but a watershed fashion moment for teenaged boys?

Lately I've been wondering if the world might not be a better place if people would pause before hitting the "post" button and think: by writing this, will I seem like an enormous racist douche?

Flora-style Shadowpuppetry

I'm producing an illustrated Plato textbook (three dialogues plus commentary). For several years I've been building up a bank of cartoon images to go with my intro lectures. Last night I got around to drawing the traditional shadow puppet theater cartoon, to illustrate how Plato's cave is not set up along the usual lines. Anyway, I decided to draw it Jim Flora-style. I think I did a pretty good job. How do you like it?

UPDATE: And it's done! Come visit the official book site!]

This isn't my usual style. Maybe I'll post some of the other stuff later.

All Your Word Power Is Belong To Us

Overhead down the hall ...

Zoë: "What's an intergalactic armada?"

Clearly it's enrich your word power week around here.

What?

Before I had children, I worried about my incredibly foul mouth. Would my kids start cursing like little toddling sailors? This was a bit silly given that my family cursed like mad when I was a kid, but I did not, because I knew I would get in trouble, so it's clearly possible. On the other hand, my sister was nearly expelled from Quaker pre-school for calling someone a shithead at age 2. But then I realized that I could control my cursing if I were in some professional situation, or eating with my wonderful in-laws, or what have you, and I just had to transfer that attitude to my kids. I was justly proud when I dropped a big bottle of soda on my bare foot in the elevator at Gillman and shouted "Oh, crumbles!!!" But I knew yesterday that I had really done a better job than I imagined: our (stray, semi-adopted) cat took a dump right on my BED yesterday because it was 4:30 and we had been out of cat food all day. I groaned and when Zoë asked why I said "Hissfahan shit on the bed", and she said "what's shit?"

Happy

Here are those darn photos. From our wedding day, with our friend Daniel:

A picture taken by Zoë:

Daddy's looking great.

From the other day, when we all had the excitement of mommy's finding the best bathing suit ever!!

Casting modesty aside, I think I'm still looking pretty foxy. Of course, my plan is to take the perfect bathing suit and the children and go spend the summer in East Hampton while my poor husband slaves away trying to get tenure. You'll all have to buy him virtual beers, or something, the poor devil.