Brown Motion

I have heard many politicians and even our incumbent president refer to our troops on the battlefield using that 'characterization'. I think it is rather a broad stroke of the language to define those that are risking life and limb to guarantee our freedoms by refering to them as those wearing a uniform. This creates some odd questions - 1. Are the restaurant workers and chef, trash collectors, policemen and women, boy scouts and girl scouts as well as scores of other uniform wearing crowd to be identified by a different terminology? 2. Are those uniforms somehow less relevant? 3. What about those people that are part of our armed forces or secret operations but do not wear any uniform or for that matter even dress in another country's garb to distract attention? 4. Are the people in the army (or other military ops) less important when they are out of uniform as opposed to when they are in - many examples of that may be when they go to sleep; when they retir...

Gay Marriage? Lifelong wedlock? Short Term Lease? Polygamous marriages? Annulments Divorces Prenups Cohabitate Concubines Geishas Straight Marriage? Human and other species bondage? Kramer said it in his own idiosyncratic way - You're doing time Jerry! Time! Humans through history have found various ways to enslave themselves and others - what a race.

Every country on the planet has a cuisine, although some like the US are an amalgamation of what the imports brought into the country than have something of its own to begin with. Geography plays a key role in what an indigenous people eat as part of their diet and then of course how creative they get with what they find in nature is a matter of genetics. So it was that I introduced Korean food to our 9 year old recently. Now for most countries in SE Asia use of spices comes naturally but access to and awareness of (or other way round) variety of spices is a matter of more research. I find that the Indian style of cooking uses spices that are amazingly diverse - if you are lucky to have traveled in the different geographies in India it is evident - with cuisine literally changing from taluka (think county) to taluka and we have hundreds of them across 30 or so states. Again the influence of cultures from nearby countries and access to a certain terrain - from desert to oceans ...

Our daughter was very interested in visiting a local county fair that comes close to town (a city of 50,000 really - that too about 30 miles east of San Francisco - so go figure) and we finally decided to do it - father and daughter. Mom is out traveling for work this week. Now a typical fair having attended a few in the pre-daughter (as a matter of pedantic curiosity) days - was a scene etched in memory of smoky barbecues grilling recognizable and 'not so' meats, with the smoky haze rising through the screams of children spinning nearby on a Ferris wheel. Whole lot of Chinese made, injection molded plastic contraptions that you only find at a fair and know not what to do with the moment you purchase them (for what in sensibler times might seem an outrageous purchase); cotton candy and other morsels of wretchedly sweet goodness enticing your relevant lobe; you stroll through Bombay-isque crowds that seem to not mind which direction they are going as long as they are 'i...

How far has customer service come since the dawn of the concept? Millenia ago I am sure there was no take a number if you have an 'ax to grind' at the local smith but I am sure there was a local shamanesque dude that provided what must have substituted for the internist and vet combined. Nude dudes and dudettes lining up at all odd hours by the phase of the moon venting about aches and missing limbs. Then with advent of better tools like the wheel and fire, there must have been born a specialist role that helped people build either. In the spirit of some Belgian comic's writings there could well have been few Sesterti exchanged (aka currency) to trade one service for another. All this could be viewed as vintage customer service since the formal concept was not born until the advent of industrial age in the 1700s. Trading sex and spirits was also quite prevalent in many a king's court and continues to be documented as some of the oldest of rituals or professions. ...

Why is the radio announcer 'on air' while the aircraft flies 'in the air'? If aircraft are craft in the air, can cars be called streetcraft? When it's my turn I can turn into a street - now that's magic. If a woman carries a bag that says Coach (several times) is that an invitation to do so? I think the answer may be - Yes. It's most funny when you see these individuals traveling in First Class in an aircraft with several Coach embellished accouterments to accompany them. What a class equalizer I say. Best kick I get at the airport is how some airlines make their First class customers feel real royal by presenting the boarding from the red carpet, a worn out piece of red felt that looks like a misused bath mat sticking out at the gate. The rest of the cattle are to board from the blue portion of the carpeted gate area. Now that's traveling in style. Also the boarding now takes twice as long as it used to few years ago because of the numb...

No this is not a rant on the government department responsible for monitoring the health of our nation. This is my vacant brain trying to assimilate what defines food and what constitutes drugs and describe the funny way people can get obsessed with one or the other or both. A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. It can also be a chemical that corrects the malfunctioning portion of an otherwise healthy body. Food on the other hand is also a bunch of chemicals that when consumed, provides nutritional support for the body. So you can see how one can argue the use of one or the other depending on one's proclivities. I personally prefer the motto - caveat emptor and once proclaimed - I say to the consumer - go and enjoy your purchase. Whether they are buying 2% non disturbed (by human intervention like hormones etc) cow milk or pure cocaine, frankly we should let the buyer make the educ...

Why do we need them? What is it that we need the Couric or the Sawyer or the Brokaw or Rather anyone to tell us what we can read for ourselves, or watch videos of with the narration in the background? And did you know how much they get paid? I understand the journalistic trait that brought them to this station and I do acknowledge that some of the stories are their own to tell, but to hog an entire hour or more on national prime time telly and tell everything other than their own stuff (like any fifth grader could) is to me - pushing it. And what is it with them dressing up to deliver the so called News to us? (What is it with humans dressing up - period? But that can be another blog). This gig is as antiquated as the dumb safety lecture before taking off in a plane. I mean many a joke has been attributed to this nonsensical procedure. Frankly it can simply be attributed to forced job creation. Anyone reading this inane blog can feel free to cite a living example of wher...

Can a Hole ever be Whole? (esp if a door can be a-jar) Can a Knight ride in the Night? (Mobius strip anyone?) Can I Write Right? (I know in the commonwealth Left is Right so anything is possible) I know I cannot Skate with a Skate (my spouse is not a Skate though) I know there is trouble with Two Too (no not Tutu) So I am going to look for a Bite in a Bight (even Dracula could not pull this off) Just some wonderful way to pass time I thought! That right there is very complex thought - if you were to believe in the theory of relativity.

Today the Oaks went to watch a performance of a special breed of horse that dates back to the days of the Austrian Empire some 200 plus years ago. These magnificent beast are called the Lipizzaner. It is a unique presentation where the rider performs all the maneuvers of the Olympic level dressage, which to someone not familiar with equestrianisms (like us) is essentially a ballet like performance except the artist is more the four legged creature than the two legged riding it. The rider in this case has to have a very close bond with the animal in guiding him (they only use stallions in this performance and no mares) to walk, trot or canter (varieties of pace and styles of strutting) across the show floor. It is truly marvelous to watch this harmony choreographed to western classical music from European masters like Strauss, Mozart, Vivaldi et al. The horses actually perform in perfect synchronicity with the notes while the rider appears to magically float along for the ride,...

Aside from being the center piece of many a joke and the quintessential energy or sugar burst for those entrusted with providing the law and order in town this food has come to take on many shapes - literally and figuratively. We went to the local grocer for some donuts this morning. Decided to pack some for the road trip later too. There are a wide variety of them staring at you from behind the glass doors. Round or oval; some shapeless like an amoeba; some with sprinkles some without; some with chocolate drizzle some with maple syrup - all in all sugary goodness that can get you salivating. The donut has been made in many nations with their own flavor; their own twist (literally) and called different things. In India the closest we get to it is the BALUSHAHI - a truly royal BALU at that. I loved the sugary savory taste coupled with shavings of pistachios if I remember right. In the south (American south) I encountered the Beignets (they are famous in New Orleans or the Bi...

Bottle (noun) - a rigid container where the neck is smaller in the mouth than the body Beverage (noun) - any liquid suitable for drinking So combine the two and you get an idea where my head is going; or not. They come in all colors, textures, flavors and yes variety of containers - not just the usual paper or plastic; or steel or glass; but also in terms of the shapes of the aforementioned containers. Most recently I happened on a pistola or hand gun shaped glass container containing a fermented brew made from cactus paddles (as in Tequila from Jalisco province of the great country of MEXICO). Of all places it was being sold in substantial volume at a mind blowing price in the Warehouse Worship Facility called COSTCO. All 1.75 litres of it shaped in the form of an unwieldy handgun with a free Sombrero to go with it (it always sells better when there is a value pack according to the American Marketing Specialists). Now moving onto the less inebriating kind there are those t...

What makes a birthday memorable? I know -- switching gears from the morbid to the other end of the spectrum in one fell blog! Such is life. Getting back to the subject in hand - it is a marker of sorts that helps view ones progress or lack thereof; perhaps a definitive chance to ponder what had been or what is or what could be; a time to kick back and celebrate; a chance to sell over priced sugar laden confections along with some uninspiring cards? Yes - it is all that but then it becomes something else, in some cases anyway. Take all the religion based birthday or Jayanti celebrations - an excuse for an already apathetic public servant in some nations to declare a day of R&R - get sloshed or check out. If I was to compare the number of such days off from country to country and actually ponder on the subject of whose birthday merits a national holiday, I think there would not be any work done in places like India or China. Not that we need Birthday as 'cause celebre...

Not sure where I got thinking about the limited shelf life aspect of my being but since I did I thought I'd write down what exactly was going through my noggin. Call it a mild tremor of what could otherwise be described as a mid life crisis. I am not sure what the so called CRISIS might look like (buying expensive and impractical German designed sports cars has been lumped in that category) but I began to ponder if our child for example was learning the right recipes to help her cook her way through life in case we (self and the better self) were to kick the proverbial bucket tomorrow. Schooling the way she is experiencing it is in many ways different than what I experienced growing up. Not much variety - much cramped classrooms - no technology or whiff of anything electronic then, other than the Casio wristwatches some well endowed classmates wore. It could actually tell time or date depending on which button you pressed. Now in 2011 it is assumed that you can communicat...

Here are my observations after 15 months of driving a 2010 Nissan Altima Hybrid - I have put 30K miles so far. Ya - I like to drive a lot! The IP computer is useless. It is overly optimistic in what it reflects is the MPG on the car, which I think is a borderline criminal misrepresentation of reality. I think its done to make the owner feel really cool about getting as much as 36 MPG. What I observed is the real world MPG is approx 12% lower from displayed. Most commonly observed real value is 31.5 MPG on my car. Also on the subject of filling gas in the tank - the car when filled after a long drive will not top off since the fluid in the lines connecting the gas tank to the engine are charged with a back pressure (my limited research suggests this is the case - if anyone reading seems to know a better explanation please feel free to pontificate or rather 'nissanicate' - since this is not a Pontiac eh). It cuts of with approx 2G to spare. Let it rest if possible fo...