North Korea — Alternative Theory

The U.S. Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Information Center detected a 4.7 magnitude seismic event in North Korea last week:

While the USGS cannot positively identify the seismic event as a nuclear test, it was shallow and located in the vicinity of the 9 October 2006 North Korean nuclear test.

What other type of powerful process could it have been, buried slightly underground? That’s the traditional way to store Korean pickled vegetables, and a  magnitude of 4.7 is considered “mild” by kim chee aficionados.

 

The USGS event report is here; scientific formulae on the Korean pickle here. Yeah, it’s also spelled kimchi.

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Food Court

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor is a woman of proven courage. Here’s a speech she served up to an audience in the macrobiotic enclave of Berkeley, California:

For me, a very special part of my being Latina is the mucho platos de arroz, gandules y pernir — rice, beans and pork — that I have eaten at countless family holidays and special events. My Latina identity also includes, because of my particularly adventurous taste buds, morcilla — pig intestines, patitas de cerdo con garbanzo — pigs’ feet with beans, and la lengua y orejas de cuchifrito, pigs’ tongue and ears.  

– Judge Sonia Sotomayor, 2001 Olmos Memorial Lecture, UC Berkeley School of Law

Judge Sotomayor is expected to get a thorough grilling in the Senate next month, so do some legal research with these recipes from blogger Stacey Rose. For more recipe rulings and oven opinions, mute your speakers and see: El Boricua, Recipehound,and Cocina Criolla. 

To get a better … gut feeling about the nominee, see Puerto Rican Cuisine in America: Nuyorican and Bodega Recipes by Oswald Rivera;  for supreme Sotomayor stocktaking, consult Carmen Valldejuli’s Spanish-language Cocina Criolla.

 

Hat tip: Ben Smith, Politico.

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Speedy … but ‘Smart’?

Not only is DC Mayor Adrian Fenty still using his city-owned Lincoln Navigator luxury SUV, but his well-publicized city-owned “Smart Car” is just another perk tossed to a well-paid aide.

Mike DeBonis at Washington City Paper discovered that the Mayor’s fuel-efficient “Smart Car” got a speeding ticket (via an automatic speed camera) while Hizzoner was driving, but mayoral assistant Veronica Washington seems to drive the trendy buggy home fairly regularly. Ms. Washington’s salary: $107,635. Cost of the “Passion” Smart Car: $18,000. Seems like she could afford one of her own.

In the Fenty administration, “Green Initiatives” must refer to the color of public money and the privileges it buys, not the environment.

 

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Wrong Turn Leads to Dirt Road

DC Mayor Adrian Fenty let pal Keith P. Lomax drive his city-owned SUV to a sports event and defended this by saying, essentially, “It’s legal if I say it is.”  While DC Attorney General Peter “Virginia Gentleman” Nickles seemed to uphold this notion, DC Auditor Deborah K. Nichols emphatically declared it illegal for anyone but DC Government employees to drive a DC Government car.

Mayor Fenty admitted error this morning, telling reporters “I made a bad decision,” and “”I’m not going to do that anymore. No more letting anyone else drive.”  But this new attitude of humility may have more to do with discouraging scrutiny of DC contract cronyism than with correcting mayoral hubris.

Metro Motivates Commuter Courtesy

Observing that mass transit manners have become all too rare, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has launched a 21st century ettiquette initiative, using Second Life commuter clones on YouTube:

Air Guitar Gladiators!

The 2009 U.S. Air Guitar Championship comes to the Nation’s Capital this Friday, May 29th. The competition (motto: 25 Cities, 1 winner, 0 Guitars”) will be conducted by U.S. Air Guitar, “official air guitar association of the United States.”  Fantasy Fender-benders of DC take note: the bandstand at the 9:30 Club is almost full, so email your awesome air-rock videos now, or pick a different regional head-butt battle — the tour runs through June 27th, with National Finals in August. The US champ goes to the World Air Guitar Championship in Finland (August 19-21).

Thrill junkies can warm up for the air guitar gynmastics with the breathtaking competition of the National Spelling Bee. The Semis begin Wednesday at 1 PM and the Finals are Thursday, and broadcast by sports cable ESPN. The edited 2009 Finals will be broadcast Thursday at 8PM on ABC-TV.

But whatever you do, don’t confuse the Air Guitar Championship with the American Sign Language Spelling Bee.

 

Image (Stratocastrian Man, after Leonardo da Vinci and Leonardo Fender) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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The Driver’s Seat

District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty told his DC Metropolitan Police driver to take a hike a few years back, saying he would drive his city-owned Lincoln Navigator himself. He even bought a cute little high-efficiency Smart Car to drive when he doesn’t need the SUV.

Nikita Stewart writes in today’s Washington Post that the Mayor now lets government contractor Keith P. Lomax drive him around town in that DC-owned Lincoln, in violation of government regulations.  Mr. Lomax, a former college  basketball player, was a substitute teacher at young Adrian Fenty’s parochial high school. 

Asked if Mr. Lomax, who is not a DC officer or employee,  was legally permitted to drive a city-owned vehicle, the Mayor replied “He is if I let him.” City Auditor Deborah K. Nichols disagreed, explaining that the regulations against this protect the District Government from legal risk.

Some may be surprised by Mr. Fenty’s attitude, or puzzled that the Mayor uses an SUV to commute between home and his Smart Car commuter vehicle (he parks it at the Wilson Building).  Few who live here are surprised to learn that Mr. Lomax’s firm has received $11 million in city contracts since his pal became Mayor, and that the firm has donated thousands to the Fenty re-election campaign.

When it comes to DC Government, contractors and developers are usually in the driver’s seat. 

Expect more on this issue tomorrow.

 

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Memorial Day 2009

Today is Memorial Day in the United States, a holiday once known as Decoration Day, the time to remember those who fell in defense of their country.  Memorial Day is now officially observed on a Monday to form a three-day holiday weekend, with the original significance distilled down into a 60-second Moment of Remembrance.

But there are 259,199 more minutes to a three-day weekend, and human nature abhors a semantic vacuum, so the holiday has acquired meanings in other realms:

Ceremony: Solemn ritual processions.

Ritual garb: White footwear.

Nutrition: Ceremonial meals.

Transportation: The Brickyard.

Economics:  Door-Busters.

Calendar: Memorial Day is the official Unofficial Start of Summer. 

 

The National Moment of Remembrance is at 3:00 PM to 3:01 PM (local time in each time zone) on Monday, May 25, 2009. U.S. Code, Title 36,114, Stat. 3078, Sec.(2)(7): “… reclaim Memorial Day as the sacred and noble event that that day is intended to be.”

For more about the origins of Memorial Day, see Burying the Dead but Not the Past by Dr. Caroline Janney.

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Rolling Thunder 2009

Rolling Thunder is back. The annual motorcycle event, originally conceived to draw attention to the plight of Vietnam-era POWs and MIAs (“Operation Rolling Thunder” was the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam) but it has grown into a roaring tribute to all of America’s military veterans.

Contingents of cyclists come from across the country, and salutes roar past armed service monuments. The largest tribute starts at Noon Sunday at Arlington Cemetery, crosses the Potomac over the beautiful Memorial Bridge, circles the National Mall, and stops near the Vietnam Memorial, where many riders will dismount, then quietly look for the names of fallen comrades and loved ones on The Wall. Music and oratory will complete the afternoon.

Many Washingtonians bring cameras to the DC end of Memorial Bridge to shoot “The Ride for Freedom,” but many hesitate to photograph dismounted riders at the Vietnam Memorial — it feels emotionally wrong, an invasion of privacy. But do go to The Wall. Unlike the triumphal military monuments spread across the Capital City, it does not glorify war, but memorializes sacrifice in a profoundly human way.

 

For more on the meaning of the National Vietnam Memorial, read The Last Firebase, by Lydia Fish.

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God’s Trombones — UHOP Parade in DC

 

Experience an annual  DC tradition starting at 11AM this Saturday, June 23rd: the United House of Prayer for All People Parade. UHOP church bands from several cities will march between “God’s White House” (6th & M Streets NW) and Logan Circle (Church founder Bishop C.M. “Daddy” Grace once lived at 11 Logan Circle). If you aren’t in the church-going habit, this a good chance to hear “God’s Trombones.”

If you live in Washington, you may have heard this lively “shout band” music without realizing it. Some young exponents of this musical tradition play at Dupont Circle and other locations around town.

Parade route (from DCist): 6th and M Streets NW, along 6th Street to Florida Avenue, then west to 13th & U Streets, south to Logan Circle, east along P Street to 7th Street, then back down to M Street to the church.

 

Can’t make the parade tomorrow? Get the Smithsonian Folkways CD.

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