Mohamed the Mench

There was about a full foot of snow on the ground by the time I was ready for my ride to arrive to take me to my 7:30 am meeting. Complete with box of 50 presentations and name-tags, I called the car service to see if my ride was outside.

“Oh no sir, it isn’t outside. We are running two hours behind because of the weather.”

“It is 7am and I called for the car for 7am. Do you think you could have let me know it was two hours behind a few minutes ago?” (NOTE: I didn’t say that but I really wanted to let it rip.)

So, I make a dash for the door, lugging easily 40 pounds of paper, in a clean suit and shined shoes. I run outside into the snow and start doing the time tested New Yorker Cab Dance. Related to other ritualistic dances, the Cab Dance includes jumping with one hand in the air while leaning as far into the street as possible, uttering words phrases like, “PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE,” and following it up with statements about the cabby’s mother when the cab does not stop.

By the time three cab drivers look at me, flip on their “Off Duty” lights and drive on it is getting to the point where the blood pressure is heading towards stroke-ville and my face looks something out of a Tim Burton movie.

Then finally, a Limo-style SUV pulls up and asks me where I am heading.

I tell him and ask how much.

“I can’t take you there but I can get you to the subway,” said the driver.

I reply with many thank yous in rapid succession, the traditional end of the ritualized New Yorker Cab Dance, and ask again about the cost of the trip.

Mohamed “Mo” Mahdy, driver and general good guy, ignores my ask again to tell me that he is waiting for his boss to be done with a meeting and he just needs to be in the neighborhood, so he can take me to the subway. Then he drops some serious wisdom on me:

“When you see your fellow human beings dying in the streets, you know you have to help other people out when you can.”

What do you say to something like this? I was standing shin deep in snow, with a heavy box, cursing passing cars and he stops and gives me a lift to 77th and Lex and shares what could possibly be the essences of every religion and cultural norm in the world: Be good to the people around you if you can, because life can be short and cruel.

We talked for the trip. I got out at the subway and took the train getting there in time for the 7:30 meeting. I sent him a thank you note and mentioned that I would let my office, family and friends know that if they ever needed a car service to pick them up for an airport run or meeting or anything else that they should get in touch with him.

I am sure he doesn’t know the impact he had on me personally and my day, but it was a profound experience at 7:10 am on that snowy Friday morning. There are good people all around us and we all have the power to be good; my friend Mo proved that by giving me a ride to the subway, saving my sanity, my presentations and my shoes. But I suppose, as he said, you know you have to help out when you can.

Mohamed Mahdy
Certified Professional Chauffeur
Times Limo
mo@timestransportation.com
917.337.4173 or 917.415.5847

Tall Latte, No Whip and a Side of Smith and Wesson

I support the people who say the Second Amendment gives them the right to carry guns. I really do. Law abiding citizens should be permitted to exercise their rights as outlined by the Constitution and the subsequent Amendments to said document.

Granted, there need to be limits. I can’t really see much of a need for a Howitzer in say, anywhere in the United States, but a hand gun use for legitimate protection purposes, while not for me and I believe counterproductive to the goal of safety, makes some sense.

Now…how does said gun protect you without bullets?

There seem to be some crazies out in California (shocking I know) who think they should be tucking their pistols into their belts before going out for a day of errands and lunch with the girls (but really most like the boys). The law states that one can carry an unregistered weapon as long as it isn’t loaded. So as these activists go out on the town, they make sure to grab the keys (to get into the car or back home), their cell phone (complete with batteries), sunglasses (with tinted glass) and their gun (without the active ingredient of bullets…).

AP is reporting that Peet’s Coffee and California Pizza Kitchen have banned the gun toting activists, you know so they don’t get shot by mistake…cause that can happen, even without bullets. Starbucks, described by the non-biased University of Mississippi political science professor, John Bruce as “a special target [of the activism] because it’s from the hippie West Coast, and a lot of dedicated consumers who pay $4 for coffee have expectations that Starbucks would ban guns …and here they aren’t,” didn’t ban the gun activists. They are sticking with, we are going to follow the law and keep our safety measures up.

I understand activism, trying to get media attention and doing things that may seem like pushing the envelope to prove your point…but this is stupid.

Come on California! Don’t let people carry unlicensed fire arms, you need the revenue. Call for all guns to be registered. You make people do that with cars, boats, pets and electricians, you would think that guns could also get checked in by the state. Put the money you get from that registration drive to emergency room doctors, because the longer these wackos walk around with their “unloaded” guns in their pants the more visits we are going to see to the state’s over run ERs.

The Los Angeles Times' Entertainment Section

Well done LA Times for calling it like it is:


While it is clear that this particular article was placed in this particular section for the content of the piece, it is pretty clear to me that the editors of the Times did this with a smile on their faces.

So on this President's Day, I leave you with this: These so-called presidential candidates are the jesters in the court of our nation's real leaders.

Omnivore Faces Hypocrisy

All of the dilemmas aside, I am an omnivore. I love eating all sorts of stuff; from the finest meats to the cheapest offal, from complex French baked goods to fruit from the garden and even “fruit” from the candy store, I eat it all.

And I don’t intend to stop.

But after my yearly physical I learned that my once stable and very good cholesterol numbers were not what they once were and something had to change. I do work out (a little less than I tell my doctor I work out) and I do tend to eat a balanced diet (albeit more than I should of most items.) This less-than-stellar news comes on the heels of my dismay regarding the lack of affordable, social conscience meat products in my local grocery stores. Chicken from organic, free range and other make-you-feel-better labeled farms they have; forget about cows, lambs or other fun little barnyard creatures for your dinner plate.

So now I am faced with a big dilemma. Tell me what to do Michael Pollan!

Ok, fine, I know what to do.

Moving forward, I will not eat meat during the work week and will enjoy limited amounts of meat on weekends and special occasions.

I have just started and have been doing alright, but I know it is going to be difficult if not somewhat hypocritical. I have long made fun of the vegetarian lifestyle and find the flexetarian movement to be somewhat silly. I guess, as a foodie, my food choices have also supported a lifestyle. Religious food restrictions support religious movements. So what is different about these flexetarians or veggies?

I suppose the world that is controlled by crazy restrictions (read: Kosher wine) or diminished by lack-luster substitutions (read: veggie burgers) doesn’t really speak to me as a person or as an eater. But what about all those people who say their lives are better without meat? (Clearly they haven’t had the seared Foie Gras on pan toasted brioche, with mango ginger chutney, Persian pistachios & bee pollen at Alta.)

Now that is a perfect transition to the issues at hand, thanks Alta you are great for so many things! So I have the high cholesterol and I also want to eat more sustainably and consciously. The no meat during the week seems like an easy solution, not taking away everything always but most of it most the time and thus leading a healthier and more sustainable life.

I think I will miss the meat in the next few weeks but now I intend to enjoy my hypocrisy and path to better health.

This Just In: The News

H/T davidAMwilensky

Something Just Doesn't Smell Right

In case you missed it, a plane traveling to Kentucky had to make an emergency landing in Philly because a Jewish teenager put on his t'fillin and the flight attendant freaked out thinking it was a bomb...no joke. T'fillin are known as "phylacteries" in English. Just keep that in mind when you watch the clip.

Here is the captainChief Inspector of the Philadelphia police's report from AP:

Those olfactories are something we all have to watch out for but when they aren't running or stuffed up odds are things will turn out ok with your flight, captainChief Inspector of the Philadelphia police.

(H/T: Mobius)

Interesting Food Links

Politics of Food Trucks:
Do you dig on the epicurean roach coaches but not the Halal stand? You will wait for 2 hours for a kimchie Kogi taco but wouldn’t be caught dead eating two tacos carnitas con salsa from the truck near the day laborers? Read this article about the issues facing food truckers in the LA area. Salon

Frozen Fruit:
While it might be a good way to get some vitamin C in the dead of winter, having it freeze on the trees in Florida is bad for the trees and the industry. That is being addressed but what about the people who pick the fruit? Take a look behind the groves and see what is happening to those who put food on your table. The Atlantic

Krazy for Kosher Food:
So people think Kosher food is better for them. Boy I hope they don’t have the hypertension! The Times reports that millions of non-Jewish Americans are now “keeping Kosher” because it is perceived as better. New York Times

Hide the Salami:
The WSJ reports that the jack-ass undies boomber is going to make it harder for chefs to sneak good tube meats into the country. One more reason to hate that guy! Wall Street Journal

Zig Coyotes!

I wrote a post over at Jewschool about a situation that took place at my high school; please check it out.

A Great Song about a Great Salad

First you take parsley from your sister
Chop it up like hand of shoplifter...

(Now get that out of you head)

Bing Bong

So Bing was supposed to be better than Google…not so much. They are supposed to bring you better, more pertinent information. Again not so much.

This ad kind of says it all:

Follow tweets from these two politicians and this crazy actor, Bing makes it easier.

Way to be Bing.

I mean really? William Shatner and Obama? I guess Schwarzenegger brings it together but still...Shatner?

The White House, Food Network and Trendy Food Culture

I wrote a piece about the trendiness of “new American cuisine” and its sustainability movement. And last night, the Food Network supported my trendiness-thesis with a two hour special complete with “Super Chefs” that even anti-epicureans would recognize. Chef Emeril Lagasse teamed up with Iron Chef Marrio Batali to take on White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford and Iron Chef Bobby “The Ego” Flay.

As promised, it was the culinary event of a lifetime.


Eh, but it was fun TV and the food looked pretty fantastic. For a blow-by-blow, I suggest reading another blog. However, to ease your suspense I can let you know that the President, the First Lady and the world’s most important people will be eating from the kitchen of a champion. (Like that was a big surprise.) The only thing I will say about the content of the show is that this two hour special about local food, sustainable production and healthful eating didn’t provide Americans with an attainable way to engage in local, sustainable or healthful eating.

Most people don’t have a garden that can produce 1,000 pounds of food -- forget the army of people needed to tend to such a small scale farm. Most people don’t have the knowledge to use watermelon radishes or that crazy looking cauliflower-broccoli thing that Batali used in his unearthly mega-ravioli. Most people also don’t have the skills to create those kinds of food.

But beyond all the simple things that make Iron Chef a fun TV show and not an educational program, the food that was presented last night was really not all that local, sustainable or healthful.

Sure the veggies were produced locally in relation to the White House, but not to Kitchen Stadium where they were consumed. The meat may have been grown on a sustainable farm within 100 miles of New York City (home of Iron Chef America) but odds are a good deal of that meat isn’t even close to affordable for most Americans and therefore not sustanable for thier budgets. The use of the deep fryer makes me question the overall healthfulness of the meals produced. No question: even the fried oysters with remoulade created by Lagasse are a better choice than a Big Mac, but they were still battered, fried and dipped in a fatty sauce.

The end result was a pretty meal that could not be reproduced in a home kitchen by a home cook. However, if Iron Chef America stops using secret ingredients that have to travel thousands of miles to Kitchen Stadium, incorporates more diverse vegetables into its pantry and cooks with health and taste in mind, then maybe this popular cooking competition will have some sort of an impact. If not, then the culinary event of a lifetime was just another episode of a TV show trying to keep up with the trends it claims to set.

Until well made and carefully crafted food becomes just what is done in this country, we will continue to see the negative impacts of our current fast-mass-produced food culture wracking our society. I don’t pretend to eat only organics or local food. I know I could, but it is really difficult and cost a ton of money. It is a choice and that is one of many that I make, with my wife, on how to consume our food thoughtfully. That is really the core issue with the lackluster American food culture and this “battle” of “Super Chefs” did very little to address this part of the problem.

We do buy so-called cage free eggs, feed with organic vegetarian meal. I know that just means a small door at the end of a huge coop is opened a few hours a day to "allow" the chickens to go outside. And chickens aren’t really vegetarians, so that is another problem. But that extra money is worth spending most of the time because the eggs taste and cook much better. The same is true with organic chicken. Do we buy organic milk? Yup, when it is available at our finicky market. But sometimes we need milk and they aren’t carrying the organic half-gallons. And sometimes you really want an orange; organic or not, those suckers aren’t growing in the 100 mile radius of Kitchen Stadium in January.

The change in US food culture will take place when we start thinking about our food more. I do not believe the answer is the Alice Waters local-or-nothing approach or the White House uber-garden method. People need to think when they buy produce or meat or dried goods (and they should try to buy these items more often than the stuff that comes already made (which we also buy, but less and less of it)) where it comes from, how it is made and if they are alright with the story they get.

Does your farm fresh milk support the exploitation of workers? Possibly. Do your organic, cage-free eggs come from truly free chickens? Most likely not. Does sneaking veggies into a kid’s meal really help her expand her growing palette and lead to smart eating choices later in life? I don’t know, but I would doubt it. Where any of these kinds of questions raised on Iron Chef America last night? No, they were not.

It is great that people want to eat better. It is also fantastic that organizations and the entertainment industry are talking about healthful and local food. But it is just trendy and it will not create real change in the American food culture unless the conversation is about a process towards a better eating culture and not just a buzz word infused two hour TV special, no matter how good the sweet potatoes from the White House garden taste in that ravioli.

The Never Ending Ask

Now more than ever, even the smallest amounts help, your tax-deductible donation will ensure that you will get email from now until eternity. Both personally and on behalf of the entire organization, I thank you for reading and then deleting our message without making a donation.

My Non-profit friends,

Tis’ the season of the never ending ask. I know, you got to pay the bills. I know that the economy has hurt you.

The reality of the situation is you are better off not showering your limited donor pool with a million emails (and in some cases a hard copy letter) asking for money. Most people make their donations at the end of the year to help out with taxes and the like. But that doesn’t mean most of us don’t have a pretty good idea where we want to make our donations.

I received a message the day after I made a not huge but still not small donation to one particular organization asking me for money. I also got two copies of the exact same ask from another org sent from different people; they used a different email html frame so we wouldn’t notice…I noticed.

To paraphrase the Oscar award winning song:

You know it is hard out here for a non-profit.
When it tryin to get this money for the rent.
For the computers and the electric bill
Because you will have a whole lot of board members talkin about downsizing
Will have a whole lot of board members talkin downsizing…

There is no question that non-profits, especially larger ones with limited relevance in our current world, had a really bad year. With the Dow nose diving, particular individuals running particular “investment vehicles” that turned out not to be anything at all and corporations closing up their charitable checkbooks, it was far from a banner year.

But please stop with all the emails. Pay attention to who is sending you money especially if you say any amount will help, prove it and stop sending further solicitations to those who have supported the cause. Also don’t make the “we are understaffed and over worked” excuse. I know how hard you work. I also know that shot gun blast emails are lazy and can be better targeted with limited work.

I hope you do meet your fundraising goals as well as your organizational ones.

A happy New Year to you all,

-thedcc

Where naughty is nice

I'm just a Jew, a lonely Jew, on Christmas...

But on Christmas eve I will be enjoying some Heebonism! Last year's party was great (see me at 1:56) and I hope this year's will be a little less great.



Come on down:

Heebonism
Fontana’s
105 Eldridge Street
New York, NY 10002
8 p.m. to 3 a.m.

The Best Gift of All

My friend Saint Tigerlily paid me a very big compliment today: She called me the only true male feminist she knows. While I am sure she knows quite a few true males, ones of the feministic variety are truly hard to come by these days.

But there are those who try. And especially in this season of giving and joy, it would make sense that people want to look out for one another. We want to show that we care, that men can be in touch with both their feminine side and still take care of their responsibilities. The good folks at CBS Cares wanted to prove that there are just a few men out there who understand, who get it.



Yup that is right; men know when it is best for “their women” to get lady tests done.

Here are the main reasons I was paid this compliment; in our conversation about this unreal video I brought these points:

1. If a woman delivered this message, saying something to the effect of “give yourself a gift of good health this Chanukah and schedule your lady test” it would have been fine and a very smart PSA.
2. The fact that a man is using the possessive —“your woman” — to describe your wife, girlfriend or partner (whatever you may call that person in your life) is as if he was saying: “At this time of year it is good to check your anti-freeze, your smoke detector batteries and your woman’s good parts, because CBS Cares.”
3. DUDE THE CREAM CHEESE REFERENCE IS JUST NOT COOL.

Come on folks! Aren’t we past this kind of pejorative sexist crap? I suppose the entire point is to get men to the point that they would be comfortable speaking to “their women” about female health issues such as cervical cancer. But this isn’t the way to go about it.

Women should have control of their bodies. Men should not tell women what to do with their bodies. (Yeah I am I am talking about that too but we are going to stick to busting on the YouTube thing and leave abortion for another day.)

In the end I suppose more people are talking about cervical cancer, but they aren’t having bagels with shmear anytime soon.

(H/T Jewschool)

Religiosity of Equality

This letter was sent to Senator Diaz’s office yesterday on behalf of the The Reform Jewish Voice (RJV) of New York State. I wrote it as a member of the Steering Committee and boy oh boy was I miffed about Senator Diaz's comment.

Dear Senator Diaz,

You were quoted in the New York Times saying that, “Not only the evangelicals, not only the Jews, not only the Muslims, not only the Catholics, but also the people oppose it.” “It” of course is marriage equality.

Now I cannot speak for all evangelicals, Muslims, Catholics, Jews or any other group you would like to unfairly type-cast as monolithic regressive ideologues. However, I can speak for a significant population of the Jewish community of this state. The Reform Jewish Movement, the largest synagogue movement in North America, has a long history of supporting civil marriage equality and I am offended by your statement.

I am a proud, practicing and religious Reform Jew. I was taught and believe that every human being was created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God. This means that all of us, as perfect or flawed as we may be, are entitled to respect and equality. Let this be in the embrace of our community or the eyes of the law.

But even as our tradition embraces same-sex couples as full members of our religious community, we are cognizant that other faith traditions hold differing views on this issue. That is why it is essential that civil marriage laws are not rooted in theology, but in the principle of equal rights. Today, you allowed your generalizations of many faith traditions to rationalize your actions.

Your vote against and vocal opposition of equal rights and protections for thousands of New Yorkers is shameful. But what is worse, is that you assumed the voice of millions of religious people who vehemently disagree with your position.

Senator Diaz, as one religious person to another, please do not speak for me on the religiosity of equality, on the Jewish tradition’s idea of marriage or on how I build a family according to my faith.


Respectfully,

thedcc