November 2008 Archives

They're often unexpected - hence they're unintended. From The International Herald Tribune, on the decline of domestic French restaurant fare:

Traveling in New England recently, I got the feeling that it's easier to find good French food abroad. In Boston, after a fine meal of traditional French cooking, I asked to speak with the chef. Jacky Robert, owner of three moderately priced Petit Robert restaurants in the area, came out of the kitchen clad in his apron. I asked him about American trends. "It's very competitive here so we work hard to keep our standards up," he said. "Americans have become a lot more demanding.
[...]
I recently sought out Pascal Rémy, a former Michelin inspector, and he was unequivocal. "We French used to be the strongest in good everyday cuisine in our own market," he said. "Now we're the weakest."

Rémy created a stir a few years ago with his book "L'inspecteur se met à table" (The inspector sits down to eat), in which he tells of bad habits creeping into the cuisine culture. Chefs in France are under pressure to find cheaper ingredients and achieve better financial results. He quotes one as telling a seafood supplier to provide lower-grade fish because "the public doesn't know the difference."

Rémy believes he has found the source of the problem. First, the culinary professions have lost their luster. Kitchen work and waiting tables has been "totally devalued" as a career. The French 35-hour work week has helped undermine pride in the profession.

Emphasis mine.

My own experience in the restaurant business is that 35 hours a week isn't enough for a chef or most anyone a responsible position.

The ten most irritating phrases.

Did you notice that while Democrats were winning big in statewide races, various Democrat-supported tax hikes on the ballot lost. The taxes went down by big margins, and I had expected them to win.

...comes from the AP with the headline 'World markets cash in on Obama win' which, roughly translated, means 'markets all over the world lose billions of dollars in value.'

The Democratic Socialist has soundly defeated the Republican Socialist in the presidential race. We live in interesting times.

It's good to focus on positives when you can. Sez David Bernstein:

Much as I didn't want Obama to win on ideological grounds, I am nonetheless thrilled that the American voters elected their first black president.

I've spent a fair chunk of the last two decades writing about post-Civil War African-American history, a history replete with segregation, lynchings, intimidation, humiliation, exclusion and so forth. I can't tell you how disgusted I am when I read this history, and I'm not sure that those of us who haven't studied the history really understand the pervasiveness and invidiousness of the mistreatment of African Americans. And this mistreatment crossed ideological lines. As late as the 1930s, liberal Democrats had few if any compunctions about intentionally creating massive unemployment among African American farmers and industrial workers in pursuit of New Deal goals they considered far more important. Adlai Stevenson, as I recall, ran with two separate segregationist running mates in the 1950s! Just forty years ago, the Supreme Court had to force Virginia to allow interracial marriage. Now we see the son of a black African father and white mother carrying Virginia in a presidential election. Amazing!

Prejudice, of course, hasn't disappeared, not will it disappear under an Obama presidency. But all American ethnic groups have faced prejudice, sometimes severe prejudice, and thrived nevertheless.

And we can hope that good beats any harm an Obama administration might bring.

There was no wait at my polling place, which was a concern going in. I guess they were saving time by skipping the ID check (no one checked mine, anyway).

The longest-ballot-since-forever was a breeze. If you've looked over the issues before you get into the booth you should be easily able to cast your votes in under two minutes.