The World Stands With Ukraine

President Vladimir Putin of Russia has made good on his threat to invade the free and democratic Republic of Ukraine, claiming it is historically part of Mother Russia.  

Putin had demanded that Ukraine immediately end military operations in the breakaway eastern Dombass region of the country or face responsibility for possible bloodshed.  This coming after his recognition of the so-called separatist Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics.  "We demand an immediate end to military operations," Putin said, addressing the Ukraine's leadership.  "Otherwise, all responsibility for the possible continuation of bloodshed will be fully on the conscience of the regime in power in Ukraine." Bullshit!!

Putin alone bears responsibility for this war and the death and destruction it visits on the people of Ukraine.  President Lukashenko of Belarus should also be condemned for giving aid and comfort to Putin in this unforgivable breach of international law, allowing Russian troops and equipment to use Belarusian territory to invade Ukraine. 

At the same time former US President Donald Trump has called Putin's paranoid threats "genius" and "savvy" and the invasion of Ukraine “wonderful.”  Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has praised Putin, calling him “a credible, capable statesman” for whom he has “enormous respect.”  Once again, they have made it abundantly clear where their allegiances lie, and that they run contrary to the aspirations for freedom and democracy in the United States.  Let the world take note of the succor they and their minions are giving to Putin's naked and illegal aggression against Ukraine.

And will in end in Ukraine?  I seriously doubt it.  If Ukraine falls, there is every chance that Putin will continue to make territorial claims on independent Georgia and Moldova, the latter which already has Russian military units in the separatist Transnistria region which borders Ukraine.  Putin has a dream of a new Russian empire and a new security architecture, and his military adventurism will not end until they are realized, or until his aggression against neighbors is halted and he is removed from power and made to pay for his war crimes and crimes against humanity.  

For the time being, we should support the Ukrainian people in every way we can.  They are the first domino.  How many will fall before this unfortunate war is brought to an end? 

This is a sad day, and it is still too early to know how this going to play out in the long run.  Now is the time for all people, including the Russian people, who wish to live free and in peace, to stand up and be heard and to support the efforts by the international community to end Russian aggression. 

A Tale of Two Seafood Stews, Part 1: Bouillabaisse -- Eating Vicariously

I am a big fan of stews, and I have a particularly fond regard for a well-crafted seafood stew.  They can be tricky at times, but they offer so much in return for the effort.  In addition to myriad flavor combinations, they also offer many essential nutrients, such as omega-3 fatty and amino acids, vitamins D and B2 (riboflavin), phosphorus, magnesium, iron, zinc, potassium, silicon, sulfur, calcium, and other trace minerals, and high-quality proteins.  Fish in all forms has repeatedly been shown to slow cognitive decline and improve memory.  A good thing to remember!  Fish stews also provide an opportunity to couple seafood with a rich variety of vegetables, especially potatoes, corn, cauliflower, and mushrooms.  A quality fish stock will take any seafood stew up a notch or two.  Add dulse and it becomes even more tasty when balanced with the flavors of various herbs, spices, and wine.  Like all seafood stews, I always prefer it with plenty of garlic bread on the side to soak up the broth.   

There are so many types of seafood stews to choose from and I have long been partial to those from the Mediterranean region.  There is Kakavia, from Greece, named after the three-legged cooking pot the ancient Ionians took with them on fishing expeditions.  In many ways it is a Greek version of French bouillabaisse using mostly small fish and prawns cooked in a vegetable stock with chopped tomatoes, oregano and chopped parsley.  Saffron was originally used for color but tomatoes do the trick just as well. 

Ekşili Balık, a popular Turkish seafood stew I enjoyed on the shores of the Bosporous in Istanbul, often includes haddock, cod, and mackerel served as fillets while others are cut into chunks.  Prepared in a rich fish stock combined with potatoes, green beans, red pepper, and other vegetables, it is accented with a zesty lemon flavor which gives the dish its sour (ekşili) taste.  Then come the saffron, capers, chopped dill, and a single chopped anchovy which in my opinion is the pièce de résistance of the entire dish.

Another delicious stew is Caldeirada from Portugal.  It is full of fish – haddock, cod, and snapper are always good choices, while scallops, mussels and shrimp along with chopped potatoes or cauliflower work equally well.  It is served in a simple saffron broth with herbs and spices added to taste.

Zarzuela de Mariscos from the Catalonia region of Spain is defined by an almond paste mixed into the tomato-based broth with saffron and garlic.  Add to this some type of cured pork such as serrano ham, prosciutto, or chorizo sausage.  It tends to focus more on shellfish than other seafood stews.

And who can forget Cacciucco, that wonderful Tuscan seafood stew?  Like Kakavia, it uses fish that are not necessarily from the main catch, such as octopus and squid, although snapper, mussels, and shrimp can always be added to the mix which is cooked with tomatoes, wine, garlic, sage, red chiles, and herbs and spices to taste.       

For this two-part “Eating Vicariously” adventure, however, I am going to focus on two of my favorite seafood stews – bouillabaisse, a hearty French concoction, and Italian-American cioppino – that have become my default choices, and two restaurants – one in Portland, Maine and the other in the San Francisco area – where I have enjoyed them.  The broth is a distinguishing factor between bouillabaisse and cioppino; the former uses a white fish stock while the latter is tomato based.  

I first learned of bouillabaisse from watching “Our Man Flint,” the 1966 James Coburn tongue-in-cheek secret agent vehicle to tag along on the popularity of the James Bond franchise featuring Sean Connery.  When one of the characters in the film is killed with a poison dart, Derek Flint recognizes traces of bouillabaisse spices from a particular restaurant in Marseille that the assassin had left on the dart’s feathers.  He finds the restaurant and goes on to save the world and get the girl. 

Bouillabaisse, although a French seafood stew, is closely associated with Marseille, the Provencal port city on the Mediterranean.  It is a simple stew originally made by local fishermen using fish they would not otherwise sell at market.  The name bouillabaisse is attributed to the manner in which the dish is prepared and the fact that the ingredients are not added all at once.  The broth is prepared first.  It is first boiled – bouillir – and then the various selected seafood items are added to the broth one at a time, waiting each time for the broth to reboil.  Once everything is added, the heat is lowered to a simmer – abaissa – until served thick with bits of fish and bone for flavored.  

The traditional Marseille bouillabaisse is served in two steps.  First, the broth is brought to the table in a tureen along with rouille – grilled slice of bread spread with aioli prepared with extra virgin olive oil, garlic, saffron, and cayenne pepper.  Local families also have their own recipes for how it is prepared in the home.  It can also be prepared with other fish and a variety of shellfish which are not part of the traditional dish made in Marseille.  The fish is served separately over potatoes on a large platter and the diner can mix broth and seafood as preferred on a soup plate. 

 Bouillabaisse recipes have evolved in restaurants around the city, and each varies depending on what fish are available on any given day, and who is preparing it and where.  As there have always been disputes on which recipe is the most authentic, a number of restauranteurs in Marseille decided several years ago to codify what can be used and how it is prepared.  The 1990 edition of the Michelin Guide Vert -Côte d’Azur specified that bouillabaisse must use three specific fish: “rascasse [rockfish, or scorpion fish, caught just offshore], grondin [sea robin, or red mullet], fielas/congre [European conger eel].”  Chapon/scorpène [red scorpion fish] is often added to the prescribed mix), with the addition of a proper fish stock broth with vegetables such as leeks, onions, fennel, tomatoes, celery, and potatoes are simmered together with quality olive oil, and saffron.  What makes a true bouillabaisse different from other fish soups is the bouquet garni – a selection of choice Provençal herbs and spices in the broth – and the method of serving.  

I tried bouillabaisse for the first time in Marseille.  It is not a dish often found anywhere in America’s Heartland unless one happens to come across it at a French restaurant.  And it seemed only fitting that its traditional home is where I should have my first encounter.  It was memorable.  I have gone on to have versions of it in other places, but most frequently, I have enjoyed it at J’s Oyster along Portland, Maine’s Commercial Street waterfront. Oyster Bar, Raw Bar, Seafood Restaurants | J's Oyster | Portland ME (jsoysterportland.com)  It is a rather cramped and dark space and very reminiscent of the Marseille café where I was first served bouillabaisse so many years before.  The late Tony Bourdain visited Portland for an episode of his Discovery Channel food and travel show “No Reservations.”   Bourdain called Portland “America’s foodiest little city” because of the number of restaurants per capita.  Season 6, Episode 12 featured Maine and Bourdain sampled J’s Oyster’s famous steamer clams which he found difficult to find back home in New York and New Jersey.  J’s was selected as Bourdain’s companion cameraman Zach Zamboni is a native of Maine and he claimed it was always the first place he stopped whenever he was in Portland.  Zamboni liked the place because it never seemed to change, and Bourdain loved the place immediately, admitting he wished he had a similar place in his own neighborhood in New York. “To me, J’s Oyster bar is a place that I loved within two seconds of walking in the door,” he said in an interview with the Portland Press Herald. “I loved the people there. I loved the people who worked there, I loved the crowd, l loved the food, I loved the look. I loved everything about the place. I wanted to move in upstairs.”  I know exactly how he feels; a “loud local joint with lots of raw shellfish, pints of cold beer, a good crowd.”  

Yes, J’s Oyster is well known for its oysters and steamer clams and that is the reason I went there the first time. And don’t get me wrong.  Being from Maryland I love oysters any time of day, be they fish shucked and raw (nude), fried, roasted, or served with other seafood.  Bring them on.  But knowing that Maine is known for its fine local oysters which had gained national, even international cachet, and this was what I had come to sample, I was just a little disappointed when I quickly learned that the oysters J’s was serving were from the Chesapeake Bay.  Still, I had a dozen served raw over shaved ice to prime my taste bud with the briny essence of the sea and then I searched the menu for dinner.  My eyes were soon fixed on bouillabaisse listed among the regular entrees and the decision was instantly easy.

The bouillabaisse at J’s Oyster is a Maine take on this delicious stew. It isn't like any other – lobster, shrimp, scallops, haddock & crab tossed over pasta shells with a light marinara both made with fish bones, shrimp shells, lobster bodies, and a variety of aromatics, including snippets of thyme, onion, celery, carrot, garlic, and peppercorns – yet it is very, very good and I keep going back to it whenever I eat at J’s.  Bouillabaisse is now served in several restaurants around Portland, each following its own recipe.    

More recently I have sampled bouillabaisse a little closer to home.  Not long ago we joined our dear Francophile neighbors for a wonderful meal at Le Grenier, a family-owned French-style bistro in a former townhouse along the now trendy H-Street Corridor in Northeast DC.  LE GRENIER | Best French Restaurant in DC (legrenierdc.com)   Its Bouillabaisse des Calanques is a rather traditional Marseille offering, combining cod, mussels, shrimp, and calamari which are served in a “saffron Chablis broth” with garlic croutons.  It is named for the Massif des Calanques, the rocky cliffs and bays located along the Mediterranean south of Marseille.   

My bucket list includes a return to Marseille for a true bouillabaisse coupled with a bottle of Domaine Tempier Bandol, a most drinkable vin rouge from the celebrated terroir of this tiny appellation east of Marseille and the Calanques.  It must be 50% mourvèdre, while the remainder is generally a blend of grenache and cinsault.  Although Tempier Bandol is often coupled with smoked meats, it has proven to be equal to the task of washing down a proper bouillabaisse.   

So feast on this for a moment and stay tuned for Part 2 – the wonders of cioppino.

The True Face of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games

Beijing has now become the first city in Olympic history to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Games.  The 2008 Summer Games were held in the capital of the Peoples Republic of China and were not without controversy with calls to boycott the games due to the ongoing human rights violations in occupied Tibet.  Yet very little came from these appeals.  Sadly, Amnesty International reports that the human rights situation in the PRC has not improved since 2008; it has grown exponentially worse in Tibet along with the crackdown on the Muslim Uyghur population in occupied East Turkestan (the PRC province of Xinjiang), as well as in Inner Mongolia, Hong Kong, and beyond.  Once again there has been an international call to boycott the 2022 Winter Games as the PRC has dismissed these reports of human rights violations, forced labor and genocide as nothing more than “vicious rumors.” 

I can’t help but draw comparisons between the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing and the 1936 Summer Games – the so called “Nazi Games” – in Berlin.  The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the Berlin Olympiad in 1931 during the post-World War I Weimar Republic.  Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime came to power in 1933 and considerable debate followed outside Germany over whether the competition should be allowed, cancelled, or relocated as several countries began to question whether participation in the Berlin games might be seen as support for the Nazi regime and its racial and anti-Semitic policies.  This would have been the first such boycott attempt in Olympic history.  Although some individual athletes chose to boycott the games, these international protests were ultimately unsuccessful and 49 national teams eventually came to Berlin . . . the largest number of participating nations to that point.  The newly established left-wing Popular Front government of Spain did boycott the Berlin games and attempted to sponsor an alternative Olympiad in Barcelona which promised to be the “greatest anti-fascist spectacle yet seen.”  Several countries, including the Soviet Union and dozens of US athletes who chose not to go the Berlin, planned to participate, but the games were aborted with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.  The Roosevelt administration chose not to enter into the debate about the Berlin Summer Games, siding with the long-standing US Olympic Committee policy of non-governmental influence.  Although William E. Dodd, the US ambassador to Berlin, opposed the US decision to participate in the games, he did attend the opening ceremonies hosted by Adolf Hitler as the Olympic torch was carried past rows of Hitler Youth waving swastika banners.  Thousands of anti-fascist athletes and fans attended the 1936 Summer Games which proved to be a propaganda coup for the Nazis.

There is a growing tradition of boycotts and threats of boycotts at Olympic Games for political reasons.  Last July, the European Parliament called on EU governments to decline sending governmental and diplomatic representation to the Winter Games in Beijing.  Over 200 NGOs and rights organizations also called for a boycott.  The United States, which led the effort, Great Britain, Canada, and Australia, along with a number of other countries, agreed to this boycott while hesitating to sanction a general boycott of the Beijing Winter Games as was the case in 1980 when the USA and 41 other countries boycotted the Summer Games in Moscow to protest the former Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in late 1979.  The Soviets and 19 other countries staged a quid pro quo by staying away from the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games.

The Beijing Winter Olympics have become the most politicized in recent memory and they provide many benefits for China; there are really no downsides for the country.  In the past, the PRC has used the Olympic Games to convince the world community it deserves a prominent place in the international order.   As with everything the PRC does, it wants to occupy the center stage internationally.  In 2008, the PRC mobilized labor and capital to present its best face to the rest of the world and buttress its status as a global economic and technological power.  President Xi Jinping also wants to use the Winter Games as a “bread and circuses” diversion to cultivate national pride at home, and media coverage of the Games will be highly nationalistic and laudatory, aimed at impressing the Chinese people . . . the “Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”

Historically the PRC has never been strong in winter sports, yet it hopes the success of its athletes at the Games will also enhance the country’s reputation and fill its people with a sense of pride.  The day before the Games opened yesterday the International Olympic Committee declared the PRC is now a "winter sport country." 

Beijing’s vision for the 2022 Winter Games is not fundamentally different from 2008, but the stakes are certainly higher.  I can’t help but suspect that the PRC’s threats of political and economic retribution have lessen the impact of the diplomatic and governmental boycott.  Although most countries will not join this limited boycott, its existence clearly signals international disapproval of Beijing’s domestic policies among several democratic countries.

The PRC has grown into a major global power, and countries with important trade ties with the PRC are hesitant to participate in a boycott.  Beijing would view this as an insult and retaliate, claiming its national reputation and that of the governing Communist Party would be damaged.  Yet with the emergence of the Omicron variant within the PRC, Beijing has canceled ticket sales to the public.  While allowing athletes to travel to the PRC to compete in the Games, it has ruled that only its citizens will be allowed to attend the Games citing the COVID-19 pandemic.  The International Olympic Committee issued a clarification of the ruling:

         The restriction on spectators from outside mainland China had to be put

in place in order to ensure the safe holding of the Games this winter…

This will facilitate the growth of winter sports in China by giving those

spectators a first-hand Olympic and Paralympic experience of elite

winter sports, as well as bringing a favorable atmosphere to the venues.

Unfortunately, Olympic athletes are finding themselves in increasingly tenuous positions navigating the PRC’s limits on free speech and human rights tensions while pursuing their athletic aims.  There are also very real concerns that the IOC is not doing enough to push back against restrictions put in place by the PRC authorities that undermine the historic traditions of the Olympic Games.

With no spectators and a highly controlled environment for the athletes and foreign observers, there is little chance for significant protest demonstrations to break out.  Perhaps there will be individual acts of protest against human rights violations, but they will receive no public attention, and anyone involved will likely be expelled.  The PRC’s Olympic Organizing Committee has made it clear that “[a]ny behavior or speech that is against the Olympic spirit, especially against the Chinese [sic] laws and regulations, are also subject to certain punishment.”  Some athletes have threatened to boycott the usually festive opening and closing ceremonies as a personal protest yet the IOC has urged them to avoid controversy and to attend the ceremonies.  Others fear that such protests will be punished by the PRC hosts or by their own national Olympic organizations at home.   

The opening ceremonies took place yesterday as the global spotlight shifted to Beijing.  All evidence indicates they were just what the PRC authorities hoped they would be while putting their own spin on current geopolitical issues.  An unfurled PRC national flag was passed hand to hand by representatives of all 56 ethnic groups in the PRC before the flag was raised above the stadium while a member of the Uyghur minority was one of two athletes 

participating in the lighting of the Olympic cauldron.  Despite the call for a diplomatic and governmental boycott, a few world leaders from autocratic states, including President Putin of Russia, joined President Xi to watch the opening ceremonies which were nevertheless dramatically scaled back from the 2008 Summer Games extravaganza attended by then US President George W. Bush.

The Beijing Winter Games are with us whether we like it or not, and it is important to remind the world what the PRC is doing despite its efforts to prove it is a respectable and responsible member of the community of nations.  It is not and the PRC gives no indication it intends to change its ways.  Please take a moment and use your voice and social media platforms to show solidarity with those living under PRC occupation and suffering from human rights violations, including genocide. . . the oppressed, the downtrodden, and the voiceless.  Do it for yourselves and for humanity.

Beyond the Pale - RFK, Jr.

 

This past weekend Washington, DC was the scene of a “Defeat the Mandates” rally, sponsored in part by the Children's Health Defense organization, a nonprofit anti-vaccination advocacy group founded by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in 2016.  It featured several speakers, including Mr. Kennedy, who criticized vaccination policies and mandates against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Last year the Center for Countering Digital Hate identified Mr. Kennedy among a dozen individuals in the USA who are responsible for over half of the anti-vaccine content on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.  In early March 2021, Kennedy released an anti-vaccine video, "Medical Racism: The New Apartheid" that promotes COVID-19 conspiracy theories and claims that COVID-19 vaccination efforts are medical experiments on the Black community.  His YouTube account was removed in late September 2021 for breaking the company's new policies on vaccine misinformation.  

And one should not forget that Mr. Kennedy accepted an offer made by former President Trump in January 2017 to become the chairman of the Vaccine Safety Task Force, and later that year he reported that he had been meeting with the federal public health regulators to discuss defects in vaccine safety science, at the White House's request.  It was the Trump White House that later played down the effectiveness of anti-COVID vaccines at a time when the virus was laying scourge to the US and Americans were dying by the thousands.

These vaccine mandates have been instituted to help Americans protect themselves and their fellow citizens from the COVID-19 coronavirus and its variants that over the past two years have resulted in 5.6 million deaths worldwide, including ca. 868,000 deaths in the USA alone, by far the largest death count of any country.  Add to this the millions who have suffered and been hospitalized greatly taxing our health care systems, not to mention the countless thousands who have lost family and friends to the pandemic.

We should all be thankful that scientists have worked around the clock to design, test, and manufacture vaccines and boosters that, if not wiping out the virus, has gone to great lengths to lessen the threat of the pandemic and make COVID 19 endemic.  One might think there would have been universal relief that we can now benefit from a vaccine that has been distributed free to any who want it.   Yet there are those that refuse the vaccine thereby continuing to put their health and that of their families, friends, and communities at grave risk.  Not only that, but they also liken mandates to getting vaccinated or to wear a protective mask in public as attacks on their individual rights.   But what about the rights of the rest of us who want to live normal lives free from the threat of the virus as we go about our routines.  Or for our children to be safe and protected in their schools.  It makes no sense at all.

This past weekend’s rally in Washington took the anti-vaccine protest to more absurd heights.   One of the main speakers on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the same steps, that “hallowed spot,” on which the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his iconic “I have a dream” speech almost 60 years ago, was Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. whose father was assassinated just a few weeks after Dr. King in 1968.  Mr. Kennedy’s screed observed that the architects of our republic’s Constitution made a promise to every American that the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness would be guaranteed to all of us.  Not just to those who are more concerned about their own rights at the expense of others’.

Mr. Kennedy, whose family shared the same dreams as Dr. King and whose father died in the struggle for those same dreams, stood at the same hallowed spot to claim that the Biden administration's policies on vaccines were worse than the Nazis' persecution of the Jews, liken efforts by the US government to protect its citizens from the threat of a life-threatening pandemic to the actions of a totalitarian state.  He suggested that Germans living under Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime had more rights than those Americans who challenged the vaccine mandates.  These Germans “could cross the Alps into Switzerland. You could hide in an attic, like Anne Frank did."  I would like to remind Mr. Kennedy that Anne Frank was a Dutch Jew who along with most of her family was murdered by the Nazis in a concentration camp.   He obviously did not read the book to the end.  And frankly, it goes beyond the pale to compare his misinformed league of anti–vaxxers with the fate of the European Jews.  Several signs drew comparisons to the Holocaust, including equating American scientists and health care professionals with Nazi doctors who perverted medical science by conducting inhuman medical experiments on Jews and other concentration camp inmates more often than not resulting in their deaths.    The Auschwitz Memorial responded to Mr. Kennedy and his ilk.  "Exploiting the tragedy of people who suffered, were humiliated, tortured & murdered by the totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany - including children like Anne Frank - in a debate about vaccines & limitations during global pandemic is a sad symptom of moral & intellectual decay."

And while we are at it, what is keeping Mr. Kennedy and his minions from fleeing to Switzerland if they so desire?  They might be surprised to learn that Swiss authorities have instituted similar mandates to protect public health and safety.   Mr. Kennedy also reminded them that he traveled to Communist East Germany with his father in 1962 where they met Germans who escaped over the Berlin Wall.  I highly doubt these meetings took place in East Germany, the country they escaped from 

Some anti-vaxxers have likened Dr. Fauci, the noted factotum during the pandemic, with Dr. Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death at Auschwitz.  I should add that Mr. Kennedy released his book, The Real Anthony Fauci, this past November and he continues to hawk it at rallies like the one this past Sunday in Washington.  He falsely accuses Dr. Fauci (as well as Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) of being a powerful “technocrat” trying to profit off a vaccine while helping to orchestrate “a historic coup d’etat against Western democracy.”  Kennedy’s book advocates the use of unproven COVID-19 treatments such as ivermectin, which is meant to treat parasites, and the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.  He also accused Dr. Fauci of deliberately sabotaging treatments for AIDS.  Kennedy appeared as a speaker at the partially violent demonstration in Berlin on August 29, 2020, where populist groups called for an end to restrictions caused by COVID-19.

To suggest that Mr. Kennedy, who majored in history at Harvard, doesn’t know what the fuck he is talking about is putting it mildly.  Mr. Kennedy has now apologized for his “insensitive” statements (I characterize them as far more insidious than that).  Yet this is not the first time he has drawn comparisons to the Holocaust, and I am not at all convinced of the genuineness of his apology.  He also needs to apologize for spreading false and dangerous misinformation about the vaccine and those who urge Americans to get protected for their own good and that of others.

Mr. Kennedy has accused the Democrats of having “drank the Kool-Aid.”  I think it is the other way around.  As scion of one of the great Democratic dynasties, Mr. Kennedy has jettisoned his good works of the past to join forces with the extreme Right’s and its belief that it is the Democrats who are foisting authoritarianism on the American people.  It is the Democratic who are fighting to protect voting rights in this country, something not one member of the Republican Congressional caucus has stood up to support.  Members of his own family, including his wife, who called his references to Anne Frank as “reprehensible and insensitive," have gone public to state his “lies and fear-mongering yesterday were both sickening and destructive" and they do not support his ill-conceived notions concerning the vaccine and its effectiveness in battling the COVID virus which has “helped to spread dangerous misinformation over social media and is complicate in sowing distrust of the science behind vaccines."

It is sad when an individual who has to his credit many good works in the past turns to the dark side and uses his celebrity to spread misinformation that puts so many lives at risk. 

The Defender of the Mothers will also Defend the Daughters

As George Washington traveled from his home at Mount Vernon, in Virginia, to New York City in the spring of 1789 to be inaugurated as the first President of the United States, he was met by a banner in Trenton, New Jersey reading “The Defender of the Mothers will also Defend the Daughters.” Think for a moment what that means.

Perhaps this is something the Supreme Court should also think long and hard about when ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. This Mississippi law bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, and the Court's ruling may very well decide the fate of Roe v. Wade, the Court's 1973 landmark decision that women in the United States have a constitutional right to abort a pregnancy in the first two trimesters of pregnancy -- roughly 24 weeks -- when a fetus is unable to survive outside the womb.  The current decision has stood for almost 50 years and what has changed during that time other than the political make-up of the Court?  Justice Sonia Sotomayer put it succinctly.  "Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts?"

The original decision was made not only to protect women and mothers at the time who asked only to have a choice in the matter, but more importantly it also protects the right to choose for the generations of daughters that would follow.  This is not a decision that one state should be allowed to challenge when it will affect every state, every woman, in the union.

Perhaps we need to hang a banner outside the Supreme Court as a reminder to those sitting in judgement inside.   

The Defender of the Mothers will also Defend the Daughters.

Come Fly With Me?

 

“ Let's fly, let's fly away”  Very few people of my generation are not familiar with the opening lines of Jimmy Van Heusen’s and Sammy Cahn’s popular 1958 pop hit made famous by Frank Sinatra.  The song was later featured in the 1963 eponymous film in which it was performed by Frankie Avalon.  Bobby Darren and many others have covered it right up to the present day.   Remember when flying was an adventure, something one looked forward to with anticipation?  It was something to be enjoyed before deregulation and the so-called “democratization” the airline industry when everything began to go to hell.  It’s never been the same since

I flew commercially for the first time during the spring of 1964, a flight on a Northwest Orient Airlines DC-7 four-engine turboprop from Atlanta to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.  I grew up in a family familiar with commercial aviation.  My mother had worked for the now-defunct Eastern Airlines at the Atlanta airport in the late 1940s when my father was a graduate student at Georgia Tech and before they moved to Chicago where I was born a short time later.  My dad worked for a time as a consulting engineer and we would make twice weekly trips to the nearest airport on a Sunday afternoon to see him off, and again on Friday evening, when he returned home for the weekend.  At the time of my first flight commercial jets were beginning to replace piston-driven aircraft.  The last commercial DC-7 operated by Northwest Orient left service in 1968.

It was a memorable first flight.  Imagine . . . a trip on a major commercial flight with a capacity of only 70 passengers.  Two seats on each side of a wide aisle, some of them facing each other with a table in between.  The seats were spacious and there was plenty of leg room and space to get up, stretch, and move about.  The flight attendants . . . called “stewardesses” back then . . . all seemed to be young and attractive and decked out in crisp uniforms and a hat.  Some even wore white gloves!  They served proper meals.  They would bring the salad and entrees on a rolling cart down the aisle and serve your choices on regular china with metal utensils and a folded cloth napkin with individual salt and pepper dispensers.    None of these pre-cooked, pre-wrapped meals served in plastic dishes and trays with wrapped plastic utensils and a flimsy paper napkin . . . if a meal is served at all.  A good friend of mine recently flew from San Francisco to Washington with no food service.  Often one is lucky to get a tiny bag of nuts or pretzels.  

Imagine there was a time when people actually dressed up to fly.  Even in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when I was in college, I would wear a jacket and tie when flying between Tampa and Chicago on trips home for the holidays.  I can’t even wrap my head around this idea now.  Why bother when passengers are crammed into ever smaller spaces with fewer if any amenities?  Often one must pay for these as well as for the privilege of checking one’s luggage.  Because of this there is more demand for what little space is available for carry on luggage.  Remember when overhead bins were for blankets and pillows for the passengers’ comfort?  More often than not they are now packed tight with bags and one is forced to store what does not fit under the seat in front where one’s legs usually go.

And what about the growing hassle at the airport before boarding a flight?  Long check-in lines followed by security checks where one is often treated as a criminal just for the audacity of wanting to fly.  And now there are the added requirements of vaccinations, a test to determine if one has COVID, and the mandatory wearing of masks.  How is it possible to be in a good frame of mind before boarding a crowded flight?  I just want to get where I am going as quickly as possible. 

“Come fly with me, let's take off in the blue.”   Yeah, right.  No thanks.  Fuck the friendly skies!

An Act of Sedition

It was just one year ago that Congress convened at the Capitol to certify the results of the Electoral College and the election of Joseph Biden as the 46th President of the United States, and Kamala Harris as the first woman to serve as Vice President.  It was to be a historic day although an event that has been a pro-forma exercise since the beginning of the Republic over 200 years ago.  But it was not to be.

During the morning of January 6, 2021, with the White House in the background, the President of the United States addressed a “Save of America” rally of his supporters gathered on The Ellipse and added more fuel to the “Big Lie” . . . his and his followers’ skewed belief that he had, in fact, won the election and by a wide margin, and that his re-election had been stolen by the “emboldened radical-left Democrats.”  He called Republicans “weak” if they did not support him 100%.  He repeated several times that the election was stolen; “we're stuck with a President who lost the election by a lot and we have to live with that for four more years.  We're just not going to let that happen.”   The President told the crowd it was now up the Congress to halt “this egregious assault on our democracy.”  With his followers chanting “Take the Capitol,” and “Invade the Capitol,” the President, who swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States four years earlier, incited his supporters to march on the Capitol to stand up for what he felt was right.  “And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.”  And the President said he would lead the way . . . “we're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.  Because you'll never take back our country with weakness.  You have to show strength and you have to be strong.  We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated.”  

Despite his call to action, the President did not lead the march to the Capitol.  He returned instead to the safety of the White House to watch on television what his free-wheeling and irresponsible words had wrought.  The protestors who marched to the Capitol were not satisfied with cheering on the legislators they hoped would defeat the certification of the election results.  We would soon learn that nothing less than a potentially violent insurrection was already in the work and that it was the President’s careless rhetoric and his litany of falsehoods leading up to the election and beyond that would further fuel what evolved into an attempted coup and the overthrow of democracy in the United States . . . “If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.”  And fight they did.

The insurrection that followed was the first time the citadel of our republic had been breached since the British sacked Washington in August 1814.  Five people would die along with numerous injuries before order was restored and Congress was finally able to certify the election.  During the siege the House chamber and various Congressional offices were invaded and sacked while other protestors committed theft and did grievous damage to other parts of the Capitol building.  Throughout the melee during which the Vice President and members of Congress were safely evacuated from the Capitol, the President remained in the West Wing of the White House where he continued to urge various members of Congress to do whatever necessary to object to the counting of the electoral votes in order to overturn the election.  White House staffers were cautioned by the White House Counsel not to interact with the President as his actions that morning may have constituted sedition.  Although he was finally convinced to call for order at the Capitol, the President’s response was lukewarm at best.  By the time things began to settle down the President finally sent a Tweet: "These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long."  In other words, he did nothing to halt the violence he had incited.

The American people have been living with the aftermath of that sad day in the history of this once great republic.  Many of those who participated in the insurrection have been brought to some degree of justice and Congress continues to investigate the events of that day to determine what role the former President played in instigating the violence.  According to a January 3, 2022 CNN News report, the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack has now learned that the former President did nothing to stop the attack as it was unfolding.  The leaders of the committee have characterized his failure to intervene, despite being asked to do so, as a "dereliction of duty".  Others, including this writer, call his actions traitorous and nothing short of sedition.   A traitor, by definition, is one who betrays a friend, a country, or a principle.   Here there is no question.  On January 6, 2021 the President of the United States, sworn to uphold the US Constitution, encouraged a mob to overthrow a duly elected government and destroy the democratic principles which have ruled the country for over two centuries.   And to this day he continues to spread his Big Lie while numerous courts have ruled that there is no validity to it. 

Those self-named “patriots” who invaded the Capitol are anything but.  They don’t come anywhere close to those true patriots who fought to free this country from the tyrannical grip of a colonial master; those who fought to restore the Union, or the those who fought and died to free the world from the fascism that has proven to be the benchmark of the former President of the United States.  And now they are answering for their traitorous crimes.  It is high time the man who instigated the violence should answer for his crimes to guarantee that he may never again be able to assume a position of power or influence.  And he should go to prison.  America deserves better than this.  Too many true patriots have sacrificed so much so that democracy might flourish in this land.

A Day That Will Live in Infamy

It was one year ago today that we sat in front of our televisions and watched in horror as a horde of domestic terrorists attempted a coup to overthrow the elected government of the United States of America.  It wasn't a protest.  It wasn't a riot.  Some have called it an insurrection and maybe so.  But let's not mince words here.  It was an attempted coup instigated and encouraged by the then sitting President of the United States.  It was the act of a traitor.  I will have more to say about this very soon, but I wanted to mark this anniversary of a very sad day in American history.  Never forget!

 

Good Riddance!!

 New Year's Eve has rolled around again and for the second year in a row I say, "Farewell and Good Riddance."  2020 was stolen from us by the COVID-19 pandemic, and now 2021 has been stolen by those too afraid or too ignorant to get vaccinated or to wear a mask.  And I am afraid the prospects for the new year do not appear very encouraging.  Let saner minds prevail and let us hope 2022 sees us turn the corner with better days (and years) ahead of us.

Desmond Tutu, 1931-2021

I was deeply saddened to awake the day after Christmas to the news of the passing of Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa at age 90.  A man of peace and love who dedicated his life to the end of racism, injustice, and poverty at home and around the world, it was the voices of many nations that raised up to praise the long life and sad passing of a truly great man.  A dear friend wrote to me that same morning that she was struck most by Tutu’s joyfulness.  “For all that he stood for, had witnessed, and experienced, or maybe because of those experiences, his sense of wonder and joy shone through . . . I think we are all poorer for his passing.”  He was indeed a wonderful and inspiring individual and a true world citizen and a South African patriot.  Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president, called him “a patriot without equal.”  “A man of extraordinary intellect, integrity and invincibility against the forces of apartheid, he was also tender and vulnerable in his compassion for those who had suffered oppression, injustice and violence under apartheid, and oppressed and downtrodden people around the world."  He was a man of good humor and always willing to offer up words of inspirations, yet he always sought to find the source of the ills affecting those downtrodden for whatever reason. “There comes a point when we need to stop just pulling people out of the river.  We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”  He was loved by all around him.  May he find peace in his rest.

Wishing Everyone a Very Festive Holiday Season!

Wishing everyone a very festive holiday season.  Let us hope and pray the new year will bring us a deliverance from the deadly pandemic and an end to hatred and violence.  Let's make 2022 a year of peace and compassion.  Tashi delek.

A Taste of Italy in Tucson - Eating Vicariously

   In Memory of Cecil Wellborn (1926-2021)

I just finished reading Stanley Tucci’s new memoir Taste and I have been salivating ever since I laid it down.  On top of that, I have been watching “In Search of Italy, his six-episode CNN series now streaming on HBOMax.  Tucci grew up in an Italian family (second generation) and was raised on the many family dishes brought to America from their native Calabria.  After a long and rewarding acting career he has come to realize at age 60 that he is now more defined by the food he cooks and consumes than the roles he plays.  How wonderful!

Growing up in a average white, Anglo-Saxon meat and potatoes Midwestern family, my exposure to Italian cuisine was pizza and spaghetti with meatballs and tomato sauce.  That was it.  My first real job was working as a busboy at the Blue Note Restaurant, in Richmond, Indiana, from the fall of 1966 until the summer of 1967.  Quin Tarquinio, its owner, hired me because he knew my dad who frequently entertained business contacts there.  The restaurant was once a mainstay of downtown Richmond, but in the early 1960s it moved to the Holiday Inn on the east side back when the popular motel chain featured restaurants and lounges.  The place served steaks and a few Italian dishes based on Tarquinio family recipes and I had an opportunity to sample some of these during my meal break.  Still, for the most part, I tended to stick with dishes I knew well which certainly limited my range of exploration.

This all changed in the summer of 1968 when I visited Italy for the first time (Venice, Florence, Rome, Pisa, Tuscany, Milan, Lake Como and in between) and I was introduced to an authentic palette of Italian cuisine.  I learned for the first time the myriad possibilities in crafting a pizza and the ingredients used.  And I quickly discovered that spaghetti was not the only pasta out there.  And what a wide variety of tasty cheeses that far eclipsed the pedestrian flavor of Kraft’s Parmesan.  Those who know me or have read this blog regularly know that I am a cheesehead from way back in my early Wisconsin days.  My eyes were opened wide, and my taste buds primed.

My tastes for Italian food changed appreciably after I moved to Tucson to begin my graduate studies at the University of Arizona.  During the week I stuck close to campus, attending classes and burning the midnight oil in the library.  I took most of my meals at the student union or at one of the campus dining halls.  That said, I was always happy to see Friday roll around with the promise of some free time to myself. 

More often than not I would join my colleagues in an outing to Gentle Ben’s, beer garden just off campus that had open three years earlier, in 1971.  The original location was built in 1908 as a private residence, and over the years it has served as the university president’s house, a boarding house, and as home to several different fraternities.  It would eventually morph into the first brew pub in Tucson. If we desired something more than liquid sustenance, we would often find ourselves wandering over to Caruso’s, an Italian restaurant and local institution on North Fourth Avenue, one of Tucson’s first historic commercial districts north of downtown since World War, I and it has been thriving ever since.  Known to locals as "Fourth," it features a street fair every spring and autumn and when I first arrived in early 1974 it was already known as the city’s bohemian or counter-culture quarter with shops and galleries, bars, tattoo parlors, bookstores, and some great and inexpensive places to eat. 

Caruso’s was opened by Nicasio “Caruso” Zagona in 1938 and it has remained in the Zagona family ever since.  He eventually passed it on to his son Salvatore Vincent Zagona who just passed away earlier this year at age 100.  I was immediately drawn to the place because it reminded me of what I always thought an Italian restaurant should look like.  A small dining room with rural Italian scenes on the walls and tables covered with red and white checked table clothes and a large bowl of pepperoncini peppers to snack on while waiting for one’s meal.  We would order a couple carafes of the house red wine and something to eat as we rehashed the events of the past week and what we could anticipate in the future.  I began to spread my wings and try new dishes . . . the house specialty Lasagna al Formo [baked lasagna] and the conchiglie ripiene di pollo parmagiana [stuffed shells with chicken parmesan].  And there was the pollo Afredo and the delicious homemade polpette [meatballs] that would almost melt in your mouth.  Almost everything came slathered in the house tomato sauce cooked in the large copper pot in the kitchen that had been there since the placed opened.  It was the late great Anthony Bourdain who once said, “an ounce of sauce covers a multitude of sins.”  I seriously doubt Caruso’s had anything to hide, but the sauce was wonderful, nonetheless.  I would return to Caruso’s almost forty years later and the place looked the same from the street.  And there was the familiar dining room up front, but there were more dining areas in the rear along with a large, covered patio.   But the food was just as good as I remembered.  That is all that mattered.

SallyAnn and I married in December 1974, and she joined me in Tucson for the next year and a half until I completed my Master’s program at UA.  We were living on two very modest salaries and so we did not eat out frequently.  But we did venture out occasionally and often found ourselves at Luigi’s, a small Italian café halfway between the campus and our small apartment.   SallyAnn worked at the campus library and at the end of the day I would walk there from the German department and together we would from time-to-time amble over to Luigi’s for dinner before heading home.  This was usually on a Friday, and I did not have to worry about hitting the books later.  It was a hole-in-the-wall place with probably no more than ten tables and a small counter with a couple of stools in the back.  And like Caruso’s it had red and white checked table clothes and in the center of each table an old Chianti bottle as a candle holder.  SallyAnn liked the veal parmagiana and I often ordered the linguini with white clam sauce prepared with finely chopped clams, garlic, anchovies (always a favorite on pizza), red pepper, and capers.  This was a reach for me at the time as I had never eaten clams before and I found it all terribly irresistible and it remains one of my favorite Italian dishes to this day, especially when topped with some freshly grated pecorino romano.  Unfortunately, Luigi’s and its building disappeared many years ago, but the memories are still clear, and I can still taste that clam sauce.

During our time in Tucson SallyAnn’s boss, Mr. Wellborn, would occasionally invite us to dinner at Scordato’s, at the time one of the trendier local restaurants along the old Saguaro Road through Gates Pass in the desert foothills of the Tucson Mountains on the city’s outskirts.  The Scordato family has run its eponymous restaurant in Paterson (later Hawthorne), New Jersey beginning in 1947, and a son, James Scordato, moved to Duncan, Arizona in 1963, and then to Tucson in 1967 where Joe ran a highly successful catering truck business and a sandwich shop.  He opened the restaurant in 1972.  The family constructed much of the building themselves and many thought they had made a serious mistake to build so far out in the desert.

Mr. Wellborn was a regular diner at Scordato’s and so we were given the VIP treatment.  I recall on our first visit we were given a table by a window with a fine view of the city in the distance while watching a squadron of javelinas (collared pecary) feeding on greens the kitchen staff had scattered among the saguaro cacti.  One of the treats of the evening was our tuxedoed server preparing a lush and creamy fettuccini Alfredo at our table.  I seem to recall that SallyAnn went for the veal parmagiana and I had the veal á la Scordato, a generous serving of veal Saltimbocca which was milk-fed veal scalloppine cutlets sauteed in olive oil with not too thin slices of prosciutto.  Like its name it was an eruption of flavors; it tasted as if it wanted to jump out of my mouth.  The owner came to our table to greet us along with a very nice bottle of Pinot Noir which was an ideal complement to a most memorable meal.  After the meal Mr. Scordato invited us into the kitchen where his two sons worked (a daughter played piano in the dining room) and the flavorful scents hung heavy and afterwards we received a guided tour through The Tack Room, Scordato’s high end wine cellar.   Who could not be sold on Italian cuisine after such a magical evening? 

I ate at Scordato’s on my own during a business trip to Tucson a few years later and it was just as good as I remembered it.  Sadly, on my last visit I found it closed and the building sitting vacant and rather forlorn as more and more development was encroaching on its once outlier location.  Evangelos Vassious, another Tucson restauranteur bought the Scordato's in 1999 and remodeled and updated the once venerable restaurant.  Evangelos served dishes from Spain, Italy and Greece.  Vassious claimed he also bought the rights to the Scordato name and sued James’ two sons Joe and Daniel from using the family name in association with the popular Vivace and Trattoria Guiseppe, restaurants they owned and operated in Tucson.  Vassious was awarded limited damages in 2004 and eventually went out of business suffering mediocre reviews.  It’s not the name.  It’s the food that counts.  Trattoria Guiseppe has since changed ownership and Joe opened the upscale Scordato’s Pizzeria in 2010.  Daniel Scordato has owned and operated Vivace since 1993 and I enjoyed a meal there on my last visit to Tucson.Daniel credits his father with teaching him the value of hard work and what it takes to make the customer happy.  The success of Vivace is testament to that.  On my visit I was sad to see that the fettucuine Alfredo was not on the menu as I suspected it would have been just as good as I remembered it from those many years ago.  The menu did include osso buco which was a specialty dish at Scordato’s, and so I order it.  I started out with grilled asparagus with Parma prosciutto mixed greens with shavings of parmigiano reggiano.  The large veal shank was served in a vegetable-tomato sauce over polenta.    It all took me back to that first memorable evening at Scordato’s.   The father taught his son well.

There is a saying that the trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you're hungry again.  It seems like that at times.  There is a common misconception that Italian food is tasty because there so many ingredients.  In fact, the reason why it's so mouth-watering is because there are less ingredients than in most other cuisines.  It is pretty basic when you get right down to it.  Too many people have tried to over-complicate it.  Italian food is extremely simple. What makes it unique is there are so many different variations to consider . . . Tuscan, Sicilian, and so on.  “Italian food really reflects the people.  It reflects like a prism that fragments into regions.”  Each of Italy’s 20 regions has something unique to offer.  The bottom line is simple.  It’s tasty and national.  It’s colorful and makes you happy.   What more can you really ask for?

Does Someone Out There Have a Problem with Me???

There is an old Asian saying that tells us that when we sneeze someone is saying something good about us.  And if we sneeze twice in a row?   Well, not so much.   Hmmm.  Either way, if you believe this, it seems that folks are always talking behind our backs.  I am not so sure I ascribe to this bon mot, just as I give no credence to the claim that if you sneeze with your eyes open your eyeball will pop out of your head.  Blood pressure does increase when one sneezes and closing one’s eyes during a sneeze is purely reflexive.  Personally, I seldom close my eyes when I sneeze and they have always remained right where they belong.  Others say the heart skips a beat when a person sneezes yet signals from the brain control heart rate and this is not affected by any physiological changes that might occur when a person sneezes.  The question has also been frequently asked whether sneezing will shorten one’s life.  Sneezing is simply a natural reflex.  Nothing more, nothing less.

We all sneeze.  The average person sneezes roughly four times daily.  It is a common reaction when our nasal passage or sinuses become irritated.   And multiple sneezes are common and can mean the irritant has not been removed or it is simply a reaction to a reaction.   Colder weather can also cause an increase in sneezing.  It all makes sense to me.  Yet now it seems I always, and I mean always, sneeze twice in quick succession.  It makes a person wonder.  They come on quick and are frequently violent enough to set my entire body a-quiver.  They often scare me and any others in my general vicinity with their explosive suddenness and deserve at the very least a double Gesundheit or two blessings from God. 

It never used to be like this.  I have had asthma and allergies for years and I think nothing of an occasion sneeze.  But now they seem to be more frequent . . . and louder . . . and always in twos.   Always!  So I am starting to wonder if this sternutation might hold a deeper significance.  Perhaps it is an admonishment that I may be suffering from bad karma?  Or something I have said or done has offended and people are talking about it unbeknownst to me.  Or is it just a couple of sneezes?

Doctors and researchers have concluded that non-allergic rhinitis can increase as we grow older and even more so if one suffers from allergies.   So this may explain why I now always sneeze twice.   Structural changes occur in the nose causing nasal passages to narrow due to weakening of the cartilage.  This can cause greater nasal congestion and dryness with the decrease in nasal mucus thereby allowing more irritants to enter the nose.  So if you have to sneeze, let it fly.   But please . . . always cover your mouth.  This is especially important during the current coronavirus pandemic.

Sneezing is a powerful physical reaction when the body produces pressure in the respiratory system from the lungs to the nose.  A sneeze can propel droplets of mucus from the nose at a rate of up to 100 miles per hour!  This fact alone has led me to suspect that a six-foot social distancing is insufficient to protect someone from being infected with the coronavirus.  Yet another good reason to wear a mask when you are in public.

I have heard that one should say “pickles” or hold one’s breath if feeling a sneeze coming on.  It is far important to allow a sneeze than to try and repress it.  The respiratory pressure created by holding in a sneeze can be up to 25 times greater than the pressure created by the sneeze itself and this can potentially lead to the rupturing of an eardrum, damage to blood vessels in the eyes and nose, or even to the rupturing of a pre-existing brain aneurysm, a life-threatening injury that can lead to bleeding in the skull.

So I guess there is no reason to read into the situation more than what it is.  I will continue to sneeze as many times as it takes to get the job done and leave it that.  All I can say is “God Bless Me Everyone!!”