Gertrude Young Moule

This is my grandmother on my father's side. I like this photo because her carriage and the expression on her face is so typical of her. This was inherited from my father.

Gertrude Young Moule Originally uploaded by jmoule.

The Rule of 76

I listened to the last day of the Democratic convention. Several speakers poited out that John Kerry is qualified because he is six feet, four inches, tall. Well, now. I am six feet, four inches, tall. My father was six feet, four inches, tall. My brother is six feet, four inches, tall. My son is six feet, four inches, tall. My brother's eldest son is six feet, four inches, tall. If you were to line us up in a row, there would be a maximum difference of 1/4 inch between the tallest and the shortest of us.

If I had known that being seventy six inches in height qualified me to be President of the United States, I would have lead my life differently. But I still would have married Katherine. She would make a great First Lady.

Jungle Jim

I am learning to add photos. Some of you might remember this from a couple years ago.

Jungle Jim Originally uploaded by jmoule.

Batching it

Katherine will not be home until Sunday. So, I am left to my own devices. This morning I went to the market and bought some Curry spices, Coconut Milk, white onions, and 2 pounds of stew meat. I am making up enough Thai Beef Stew to last for the duration of the emergency.

I don't often have a chance to do this because it is much hotter than Katherine can stand.

Susan Decker Barrows

Katherine's mother died at home yesterday at age 98. Katherine and her sisters Elizabeth and Margaret were at her bedside.

The following obituary was written by her years ago (without the date) and published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Barrows Susan Decker Barrows died on July 28, 2004. Born on November 29, 1905, she was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward W. Decker of Minneapolis. She attended Northrop Collegiate School (now Blake School), graduated from Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and attended Vassar College. In June 1930 she married Lyman Barrows, who died in 1960. They had four daughters: Susan B. Patterson of San Marino, CA; Elizabeth B. King of Ithaca, NY; Katherine B. Moule of Berkeley, CA; and Margaret B. Yamashita of Claremont, CA; as well as eleven grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren. Mrs. Barrows lived in Wayzata. She was active in community affairs and was at one time the president of the Minneapolis Junior League, the Lake Minnetonka Garden Club, the Friends of the Minneapolis Art Institute, and the National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of Minnesota. Mrs. Barrows also was a member of the Woodhill Country Club, the Minneapolis Club and the Encampment Forest Association. At Mrs. Barrows request, there will be no funeral or memorial service. The family requests no flowers; memorials are at the donor's discretion.

Published in the Star Tribune from 7/30/2004 - 8/1/2004.

Bat Out of Hell

Yesterday, I went with the Reids to the Berkeley Opera production of "Bat out of Hell" - an adaptation of Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss, Jr. Now, since I have never been a big fan of Fledermaus, I approached this with a little apprehension. That was undeserved.

One surprise after another: The cast was talented. The orchestra (yes, a real orchestra) was up to the task. The story was a very funny satire set in Berkeley, CA. The cast and the audience showed a great amount of energy and enthusiasm.

All in all, this was far better than the original.

Market Outlook

Long ago, I mentioned the idea that when the election was over, the stock market would go down. However, I pointed out that this is so obvious to professional traders that it may well begin going down before the election.

(See http://radio.weblogs.com/0128608/2004/01/27.html )

Well, if you have not noticed, the market is going down. I don't think that it is because of earnings or interest rates and all that. In my opinion, the driving force is the growing realization that a) Bush may not win, b) If Kerry wins, the 15% capital gains tax is history, and c) even if Bush wins it is very likely that Congress will have to raise the capital gains tax to balance the budget.

Daimo

There is a saying in New Mexico that you can tell a good restaurant by the fact that its parking lot is not paved. In the same spirit, some of the best Asian restaurants are found strip malls. Yesterday, we went for lunch to Daimo in the Pacific East Mall in Ricmond. We had been reading good things about Daimo in the foodie press for years, but had never tried it.

The initial impressions were promising. The mall is in a semi industrial part of town, right next to the freeway. Low overhead. The restaurant was packed, with very few round eyed devils to be seen. Our waitress was strictly no nonsense and hurried in the tradition of classic Chinese restauants. She carried a teeny pad of white paper with a few chinese characters written on it.

When the food came, we were bowled over. The steamed dumplings were made from scratch, not the machine made "potstickers" so common now. The shrimp and baby bok choy was spectacular. Ditto the barbequed pork with tofu. Ditto the fried sea bass.

This must be the best Chinese restaurant in the East Bay. The prices are about one third less than you would expect in a restaurant with the same quality of food in San Francisco or on the Peninsula.

Adelaida 2002 Vin Gris de Pinot Noir

Last Sunday, the New Nork Times Magazine had an intriguing recipe for Sformatta di Ricotta in the food section. (This is an Italian tomato and cheese torte.) The recipe was adapted from the River Cafe in London. It looked wonderful. Best of all: almost no carbs.

So, Katherine made it last evening accompanied by a "Roman Steak" from Paula Wolfert's cookbook. She took care of marinating the steak. I grilled it over mesquite charcoal. One of the delights of living in the San Francisco Bay area is that it is easy to get excelent lump charcoal here.

Yesterday was what the locals call a hot summer day. It must have gone up to 80 degrees. That put me in the mind of accompanying the Sformatta and the steak with a rose' style wine. So, we broke out the bottle of Adelaida "Vin Gris de Pinot Noir" that Elizabeth and Stefanos gave us as a present recently. We had it slightly chilled.

Retirement is tough, but somebody has to do it.

New York

We will be in New York from Jan 6 through Jan 9 to attend 3 performances of the Metropolitan Opera. The most interesting to us is Tales of Hoffman, which we have not seen for a long time.

Dick Cheney

At Thanksgiving time last year I predicted that Bush would not pick Cheney as his running mate in 2004. At the same time, I opined that the logical running mate would have been Condi Rice, Bush's National Security Advisor. However, she would be toast because she was tainted with the Iraq disaster.

Well, what a difference a day makes. If you think about it, something very interesting has been happening. Or, more aptly, something interesting has not been happening. You never hear her criticised for Iraq. In fact, when Iraq is in the news, her name never comes up. Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, and Tenet are taking all the heat.

It appears that Rumsfeld and Cheney are intentionally acting as lightning rods to protect Condi Rice. That would let Bush throw Cheney (and perhaps Rumsfeld) overboard to distance himself from Iraq and to choose a black woman as running mate. (Remember, you heard it here first.)

The irony is that the way our government is organized, the person who bears the greatest responsibility for Iraq, good or bad, is the National Security Advisor - Condoleezza Rice. She has many strengths and good qualities. However, she did not have the experience and understanding of the Middle East and terrorism to carry out that job.

Geishas

We went into the City (that's what the locals call San Francisco) yesterday to visit the Geisha exhibit at the new Asian Art Museum.

http://www.asianart.org/

Katherine and Nancy were somewhat disappointed. They expected more kimonos. Since I did not know what to expect, I was neither disapponted nor thrilled.

The best part of the day was lunch on the museum terrace overlooking the Civic Center.

Second Post

This site is much less "clunky" than Radio Userland. It was not apparent to you, but sometimes on Radio Userland my writing would suddenly dissapear before I pressed the post button. Then I would have to start all over. Sometimes days would pass before my post could be seen by anyone else.

In Radio Userland's defense, it has all sorts of geeky options. They are so complex that a book has been published explaining them. What a book! Nerd city! If you were smart enough to understand the book you would probably not need it in the first place.

Years ago, I thrived on all that stuff. Now, simplification appeals. "Put the rock in the box."

I resisted this Google site for months bacause I don't like ads. But, all in all, it seems like the best min/max compromise.