If You're Not Going to Think About Math All the Time...

... it's good to have friends who do. Here's a little something for all you Netflix subscribers to think about, courtesy of Will's buddy Patrick:

Something funny I noticed the other day about Netflix’s pricing when I was considering us upgrading to the 4 disk a month plan: After you reach the 3 disks at a time plan, the incremental cost per disk stays the same. I would think it would continue to go down... the price per disk actually goes up at disk 4 and then stays the same. To me the best deal would continue to be the 3 disk deal.

See the breakdown here.

The Nerdiest Nerd I Know*

I spent the bulk of Saturday preparing a dish to bring to a Saturday night potluck dinner. Will went to Laser Cutting Class and made a dodecahedron puzzle. What to know what that's all about? Let him explain it to you.

*I mean that as a high compliment, if that wasn't exactly clear...

"Well, are you gonna swallow it or what?"

I get on the 4 train at Union Square headed downtown just after 10 this morning. I snag a seat in between two guys: one reading the paper, the other listening to his iPod. I, too, am listening to my iPod, drowning out the noise of the man handing out sandwiches to anyone hungry and soliciting spare loot to help the homeless. I see there's a space on the bench across from me, yet people are still standing-- nobody is sitting down in what clearly is enough space for a seat. Then I notice the woman next to the space is furiously working on something, twisting and tying something in her hands, while the man next to her is squeezing what looks like a balloon/stress ball, testing its durability.

It takes me a moment, and then I switch my music off but leave my headphones in to see if they're talking about what I think they're talking about.

The woman is tying pills up in a condom, tying a knot then twisting the latex over itself, tying another knot, twisting, repeating, repeating, repeating. The man's hands are puffy, swollen like a homeless person who consumes nothing more than alcohol and swells from the sugar. The already-packeged prophilactic he holds looks as if it's filled with marijuana; the woman shows him her work with the small pack of pills. He gives his critique, she opens another condom wrapper with her teeth, throws the wrap on the floor, gets pissed off that whatever lubrication comes included is now gooing up her hands and gets back to work, more knotting, more twisting.

The one thing I definitely heard her say was the word "contraband". She also said

No, they search you. They search your privates. The dogs come sniffing.

and then, and some point

I'm not giving up my chance to become an elections officer.

When the train was nearing what I assumed would be their exit, he stood up to put on his coat, knocking my seatmate's newspaper twice in the process. She scolded him, "look out for the guy, ah, gahd! you did it again!" He returned to her, she handed him the pill package. He stared at it for a moment, either contemplating her craftsmanship or his next step. Impatiently, she said

Well, are you gonna swallow it or what?

He asked her for something. She looked troubled and said

All I've got is coconut cream. It's perfumed.

He was not troubled by this. He said it would be fine.

They got off the 4 at Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall, which is the stop you'd take if you were going to any of the municipal buildings downtown including the court houses. I assume they were headed somewhere around there? I made eye contact with another girl seated a couple of people down from me; her look seemed to say "whatthefuck / doyouhaveanyideawhat'sgoingon / aretheyreallydoingthisinbroaddaylightonacrowdedsubwaycar?" I looked back with a similar glance, "dunno / mustbedrugs / yepcraziestthingever".

When they finally made their exit, the girl asked me and the fellow to my left what just happened. We both replied

Drugs.

The man to my left breathed a sigh of relief. He said that he'd been on the train with them for about a half hour and they'd been working on this project the whole way. I told him that it was definitely the craziest thing I'd ever seen, crazier even than the junkie kid who sprayed nearly an entire can of Axe Body Spray around a sleeping homeless man who had done some business in his already soiled pants.

But at least it offers some explanation on how condom wrappers end up on the train. I couldn't imagine people having sex on a subway car, nevermind having SAFE sex! It also made me sick to my stomach and sad as hell. Poor bastards.

Dinner Social

My years working in the throes of the New York restaurant world have left me somewhat of a food nerd. (I loathe the term "foodie" and use it as a curse word.)

I was reading an interview on Gothamist with Le Bernadin chef Eric Ripert and came across his idea of the Dinner Social:

I believe that the act of preparing, eating and sharing food should be at the center of our lives... One of my favorite things about cooking is sharing this experience with good friends and family... For the next several months, as the weather gets colder and we need company more than ever, we are going to host a series of collective dinner parties that celebrate the season. I invite you to join us in Dinner Social.

I love a good dinner party and thought this might be a fun activity to tackle. It all began yesterday with my trip to the Union Square Farmer's Market, where I was able to find nearly everything on the menu (good, seeing as the point of the Market Menu is to use the Farmer's Market!).


The coolest thing I found was the stalk of brussels sprouts. They're a pain in the neck to clean, but as a whole it is a thing to behold! And I know you can see a produce section sticker on the pomegranate in the front there. I didn't actually spend that much time at the market because by the time I'd purchased 3 lbs of potatoes, 4 lbs of lamb leg and various other root vegetables, my bag got too heavy for me to lug back on the train. I did what I could and let the Red Hook Fairway help me with the rest.

Dinner is on Saturday night. Since there's a contest, I'm sure we'll take some more photos. I'll post them here once I digest the two canapés, soup, lamb and poached pears. Yum!

Only 43 Before Him...

Patrick Moberg via Will

They Really Like Us!

Last night was wonderfully overwhelming, New York City (along with the rest of the world!) was filled with a palpable JOY.

Will and I woke this morning to this email from his cousin Jacopo, titled "Obama elected 44th President of the USA". Jacopo grew up in Florence, Italy and currently lives in Croatia for work.

I really supported Obama. You have no idea how Europeans like him.

Europe has still much to learn from the United States of America. I really think America is still a reference for the rest of the World. You should be proud of being American. I am very proud of being Italian because my Country has a great history and past time. America has a great present and promising future.

It is a terribly exciting time to be an American. We the people made a choice yesterday and I have never before been more proud of my country and my fellow Americans*.


*Seriously. When have I ever used the term "My Fellow Americans"? I'm really excited.

Voting, Brooklyn-Style

I arrived at my polling station this morning at 10am to find this, which seemed like a good sign.

Then inside, I found this:


Also excellent.

But, sadly, those booths weren't for me. Those were the booths of two out of the other three districts voting in the same elementary school gymnasium as mine.

This was my line:

I don't think the photo captures it, but there were no less than 80 people in front of me. I had to get to an audition in Grand Central by noon, so after waiting for 45 minutes to advance a mere few feet, I bailed knowing I'd have more time to wait after my audition.

When I arrived back to the polling station at 12:40, the line had only seemed to get longer. It was torture to keep looking over to the other side to three empty voting booths while 100+ people waited for the SINGLE Kings County 85th District Booth.

All told, I cast my ballot at 2:20pm after an hour and forty minutes of waiting. And I didn't succumb to the goodies at the bake sale (at least not until I was on my way out).

As frustrating as waiting in that line was, I feel good about voting. This is probably the biggest election of my lifetime, and it feels like what I did today was important.

I hope that whomever you're voting for, you've done it already. Or if you're on your way, may you have a shorter line than me.

IMPORTANT VOTING INFO!!!

This is from a friend of mine in the East Village of Manhattan who had trouble in her polling station this morning. She said that when only one voting machine was working, they handed out paper ballots to the long line of waiting voters:

I saw the paper ballots people used being ripped up -- so don't use a paper ballot unless you absolutely can't wait in line anymore. And make sure it's an emergency ballot -- NOT a provisional one.

In the end, she said it took her 95 minutes to cast her vote, after arriving at 6am and the station not opening until 625am.

Be aware. Report anything that smells like fraud. AND VOTE!!!