Forty-first posting - error

First, let me clear something up. MY FAVORITE MOVIE is Romancing The Stone. I neglected to include this on my Top 10 list of movies because of its unique status and because I'd rhetorically asked myself: "Isn't it everyone's favorite movie?" Evidently not.

Second, today I'm leaving for a weekend with my parents. I made the reservation early in the summer and hadn't looked at it since then. Yesterday I started looking at prices for a cab from the office to the Westchester airport, and then home from the airport. Costs were higher than parking, but it's always nice to have someone else drive. By the end of the day, I'd printed out my boarding passes, and concluded that I would drive.

Last night, Dad called and asked when I was arriving. I told him I didn't remember exactly, but it was the afternoon flight from Chicago. Maybe 5:30? He asked about traffic to La Guardia on Fridays, and I said it was Westchester. Then I checked my calendar...

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the Mercedes TV ad in the NY/NJ/CT area, in which a woman and man are speeding in a car from Manhattan to JFK airport because the man is late for a flight. They whip into the airport, he jumps out of the car and looks at his ticket. He stops abruptly, turns around and runs back to the car -- yelling at the woman, "La Guardia...LA GUARDIA!"

Every once in a while it's a good idea to think about what you're doing....

Have a good weekend. Go Sooners! NATHAN

Fortieth posting - ten

Hi there.

So I thought I'd share with you a couple of my Top 10 lists. You'll find that sometimes more and sometimes fewer than 10 entries inhabit my Top 10 lists, but that's just how it is. Also, some entries may come and go at whim (my whim), so the Top 10 lists could be entirely different a year from now. Here goes.

Top 10 Movies

12 Angry Men (1957)
Best in Show
Blazing Saddles
Caddyshack
James Bond (all)
Lord of the Rings (all)
Monty Python's Meaning of Life
Moulin Rouge
Ocean's Eleven
Office Space
Princess Bride
Pulp Fiction
Rear Window
Reservoir Dogs

Top 10 Cuisines

Tex-Mex
Mexican (there is a difference)
Indian
Italian (Mom's lasagna, in particular)
Ethiopian
Greek
Lebanese (there really isn't a difference)

Top 10 names people should start considering for their children

Newton
Franz
Fritz
Oscar

Top 10 tasks I would give my Life Intern right now if I had a Life Intern

Pick up and install my blinds
Squeeze fresh lime into beer right as I'm walking in the door
Figure out 5, 7 and 10 mile running routes that leave from my building
Do my laundry and figure out how to add fabric softener at exactly the right time (how old am I, and I still can't do this?)
Wash and wax my car
Figure out how I can hang paintings in my place on a wall that seems to be rock solid cement
Reinstall the vent above the stove so the food being prepared by the family that lives below me doesn't waft into my condo and make me gag (
Who knew that this would be the easiest list of the 4 to write...)

That's it for now. May add more later. NATHAN

Thirty-ninth posting - tooth

A quick word to the wise: next time you go to the dentist to get your teeth cleaned and checked, watch out for Olga The Ukrainian Devil-Hygenist. She does exist, and she works for my dentist. I'd never seen her in the 5 yrs I been to this dentist, and at first, she was friendly enough. We chit-chatted about Eastern Europe...I pretended to know more about Dostoyevsky and Bulgakov than I do...I shared a (false) appreciation for the good old Communist days when life was easy and organized...we talked about good beet salad and strong vodka.

THEN Olga turned mean. She took out a wee drill and proceded to scrape both my teeth and the inside of ever single one of my gums (or is there just one gum?). This did not feel good.

Then she shifted the water/suction tool so it kept sucking my tongue. Under some circumstances, perhaps that would be ok, but not in a dentist chair with a sharp sharp tool poised to impale me.

Next, Olga The Ukrainian Devil-Hygenist shoved a cup in my hand and barked, "Now rinse!" although what was implied was "...you dirty American who never flosses bastard!" I rinsed, and she ripped a few feet of floss out of her (weapons) drawer.

Floss in hand, Olga yanked what felt like thick rope between my teeth. If they could talk, my teeth and gums would have said "Stop, you crazy woman!" They didn't and neither could I.

After it was all over, I stumbled out of the dentist's office - only to find a nice 8 1/2 x 11 flourescent orange sticker on my window that said "PARKING VIOLATION: A TOWING COMPANY HAS BEEN CALLED". I slowly pulled off the sticker and high-tailed it out of there.

Bad start to day - but going to restaurant tonight in NYC with great repution (Public) so hopefully will end well.

Enjoy your weekends! NATHAN

Thirty-eighth posting - school

This is a photo of Antsla Secondary School, in Antsla, Estonia, where I taught English from 1993-95. I was feeling nostalgic, so I thought I'd share... Birches lined the school's perimeter, and the ground was covered in snow from November to May. NATHAN

Thirty-seventh posting - Central Park

Another biathlon in Central Park this weekend, and I did better than I had hoped. My time for the race (2 mi run + 12 mi bike + 2 mi run) was 1:09:34 (45th, top 16%) -- a decent improvement over my prior times of 1:15:54 (81st, top 24%) and 1:14:28 (127th, top 36%). I also bettered my placement among men (top 23%, from 44% and 32%) and my suprisingly more competitive age bracket (top 30%, vs 44% and 46%). There were still 2 women who finished ahead of me - both of whom looked pretty darn fit and had tri bars on their bikes. No big lessons learned from this, although I still have plenty of room to improve on my second run (I had the 39th best 1st run time, and the 65th best 2nd run!). I like the post-game analysis part of this -- makes me feel like I know more than I do...! I could do another in 3 weeks, but I don't really have time to train, so I don't know...

The night before the race I went to a very cool formal dinner/dance on Ellis Island. Felt like a beautiful wedding (at which I knew 1 person) although the wandering costumed "immigrants" chatting amongst themselves was somewhat creepy. I wasn't drinking, but I found myself thinking: "Oh, there's an immigrant looking for his country on the 3D map of the world." and "Look, the immigrants are searching for their relatives on the computer database." and "Huh, I wonder if that immigrant is supposed to be shoving a bottle of champagne in her basket, or is that part of the act?" Lots of lawyers around but fewer social skills than I would have expected. Some nice people, though.

Have a great week, and keep an eye out for booze-nabbing immigrant-actors ... NATHAN

Thirty-sixth posting - smell

A couple of thoughts for you, kids. As I drove home from the office yesterday, windows open, I noticed a smell that was vaguely familiar. I couldn’t place it immediately but then the smell conjured up a nice memory of being at my neighborhood pool when I was 7 or 8, and waiting in line for a snow-cone or candy bar or soda… It was a sicky-sweet smell but not nauseating. I have no idea what on Interstate 287 could have been the source, but I certainly wasn’t interested enough to stop and investigate.

This morning the “smell” theme continued when the lovely folks who live on the floor below decided to awaken me with the delicious aroma of burning what seemed like an entire loaf of bread. One slice after another. Char one side and then the other. And make sure to waft that malodorous breeze up to my place, please…

And then on the drive in just now, another smell. This time it was the same one that I remember somewhere in Indiana or Missouri from when my family moved from Ohio to Oklahoma (yes, people do move TO Oklahoma…). Dad was up ahead in one car, and I was with my sister, Mom and dog, Abbott, in another. I was sure the smell was Abbott (of course). No one else noticed anything, and I have since smelled the same smell and now think it’s from a sycamore tree. Perhaps that’s my superpower – I can smell sycamores. Great. That’s like winning $40 in a $40,000,000 lottery. The smell of money, on the other hand…

Oh, one more thing. If you ever think that once you measure and re-measure the space where you want your new wood blinds to go, you’re done … you’re not. The blinds will be carefully ordered, picked up, and unpacked. Then you’ll wait a couple of days because you’re lazy, and then you’ll realize the blinds are 1 inch too wide and you’ll stomp on the floor in a rage. And then your neighbors will burn a loaf of bread the next morning in appreciation….

Happy smelling - NATHAN

Thirty-fifth and a half posting - more crap

Friends, the Bush spin machine is in full swing. Here is a link to a timeline of the events, which at least will give you a sense of what probably happened when -- and how easily interpretation (and misinterpretation) have become valuable tools in W's arsenal.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/katrina-timeline.php

NATHAN

Thirty-fifth posting - spin

Welcome back from your vacations, friends. My four days off were wonderful, but they ended with a bittersweet reminder of both the fragility and tenuousness of life for so many Americans.

News reports usually don’t make me cry, as I am generally a fairly put-together person and not emotionally demonstrative. Last night, however, reading the extensive coverage in the New York Times of the tragedy in New Orleans, changed that.

Before I moved into my condo, the mortgage company required proof of flood insurance for my building, which sits about 200 feet from a small river. Then I thought it was silly. Now the notion of a flood takes on a whole new meaning.

While I am proud of the thousands of workers and volunteers who are just starting to rebuild lives of the victims and who are hosting and caring for America’s own refugees, I am embarrassed by the Bush administration response to Hurricane Katrina. Bush’s “spin” machine is incapable of solving this mess – I just hope the good sense of most Americans makes up for his incompetence.

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Following is a letter published by The Times-Picayune of New Orleans http://www.nola.com/t-p/ . Powerful.

OUR OPINIONS: An open letter to the President

Dear Mr. President:

We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we’re going to make it right."

Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.

Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It’s accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.

How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.

Despite the city’s multiple points of entry, our nation’s bureaucrats spent days after last week’s hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city’s stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.

Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor-trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.

Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.

Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.

We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.

Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don’t know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city’s death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.

It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren’t they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn’t suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?

State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn’t have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."

Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You’re doing a heck of a job."

That’s unbelievable.

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.

We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We’re no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.

No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn’t be reached.

Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.

When you do, we will be the first to applaud.

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I know this isn’t the all-smiles and opens arms Welcome Back you expected to read from me, but today that didn’t seem as important. Have a great week, though … autumn (for those who like it) is on its way. NATHAN