RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY

I do believe it's stopped raining.  Whenever it rains more then a couple of days I look at Genesis 9:8, just for a little reassurance.

I do pity those with basements and poor drainage.  Sitting a concrete slab, I don't have flooding issues, but I don't escape entirely.  My forced-air channels run in ducts in the floor slab, and they can fill up when it rains a lot.  This impedes the downstairs runs somewhat, but blocks the uptake for the second floor completely.  So I have to turn the blower off.  Which means it's chilly in here this morning.

I have to see if there's a way to install a sump-pump under the air system.

STEPHAN PASTIS BOOK SIGNING

Today I traveled through the cold wind and rain to the independent bookstore Word in Jersey City

 http://wordbookstores.com/

to meet Stephan Pastis, the cartoonist behind the Pearls Before Swine strip.  For those of you in the cities he has yet to visit, don't miss your chance. 

http://stephanpastis.wordpress.com/2014/01/14/the-falling-down-tour-is-set-come-fall-down-with-me/

He gives an excellent little talk, riffing on the difficulties of a new cartoonist's road to successful syndication;

how he inadvertently managed to anger Turks everywhere (including the Turkish Ambassador to the United States);

and his real relationship with Scott Adams, Bil and Jeff Keane, and Charles Schulz, including what Cathy Guisewite really thinks of him.

His talk was illustrated with a slide show of key strips and liberally peppered with his awesome (or awful, depending on your point of view) puns.  Oddly, in response to a question I posed, he noted that his propensity for puns hadn't been obvious during his years as a corporate attorney.  Personally, I suspect he was repressing a natural inclination, which is why the strip today contains so many of them.

Interestingly, despite having drawn the strip for over ten years, it has only been a few years since he no longer felt it necessary to maintain his annual CPE (continuing professional education - refresher classes required to retain his certification as an attorney).

He then spent the next couple of hours signing books for the approximately 100 people in attendance, and in most cases adding a drawing.  I had him sign mine as follows

since there's no way I wanted to be associated with Larry the Croc (and if you don't get it, then start reading the strip).  And you don't have to worry if it's not in your newspaper - read it online at this most excellent site.

http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine

ODD GASTRONOMIC COMBINATION

Since an Indian conglomerate bought my company some years ago, I have developed a real appreciation for their cuisine.  So much so, in fact, that I am a regular patron of the Indian chain supermarket Subzi Mandi.  If you've never been in one, it's a real experience.  Now on one level it's fairly normal, with fresh veggies and frozen prepared foods, but there's a real emphasis on bulk goods.  In fact, there's an aisle; an entire long aisle, with nothing but bags of rice.  I would have never guessed there were so many types and brands of rice available.

But anyway.  I typically pick up almonds, golden raisins, and a handful of packages of my favorite ready-to-eat dishes.  Some, like patra and biryani are stand-alone side dishes for me, but others, like matar or palak paneers, are like many Indian dishes - somewhat soupy.  And then this weekend it hit me.  Since these preparations are like a sauce, why not use them as such?  I took some rigatoni I had previously boiled up al-dente and mixed in some palak paneer, a spicy spinach sauce with cubes of a sort of cottage cheese.  I added a few spoons of diced tomatoes, and ended up with a tasty and unique pasta dish.

Try it, you'll like it! 

SUSTAINABLE JERSEY CITY

I had the pleasure of attending a fun fundraising event for SustainableJC, a group dedicated to improving the very urban landscape of Jersey City.  It was held in a nice little Philippines restaurant called Pal Inasal Resto Grill on Newark Avenue.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pal-Inasal-Resto-Grill-663-Newark-Avenue-Jersey-City-NJ-07306/532522983495400

A principal thrust of the evening was an eclectic mix of spoken word artists, with an emphasis on feminine dialog with the tag line 'floetic sounds by women about women'.  Here are Brienne, Lana, and Rachel giving their performances.

I believe these two are Tawana and Sean.  Beautiful stuff.

Finally, I'm sorry not to have identified these two, but their contribution was no less forceful.  I do know that Jordan is playing the drum accompaniment.

The evening was also punctuated with some great rock by Polina and the Pyramids.

https://www.facebook.com/polinaandthepyramids

Polina Kourakina and Susan Lutin really rocked the house, with and without their drummer (whose name I also didn't catch).  I should explain that I wasn't entirely sober, and was more interested in the beauty and power of the evening than taking notes.

Of course, it was not all fun and frolic.  There is a serious side to this, as SJC is attempting to help deal with Jersey City's ageing and poorly-designed storm-water system.  Because this is linked with the sewer system, a large rainstorm creates havoc and sewerage backups into the natural environment and into homes as well.  They propose reducing rain runoff by planting what are known as 'rain gardens'.  You can read about these here.

http://sustainablejc.org/wordpress/projects/green-infrastructure-rain-gardens/

This is only one of their projects designed to make Jersey City a more livable place, and you should explore their website to see if there's anything else in which you are interested.  And this is part of a much larger movement around the state, as they are part of Sustainable Jersey.  This group, supported by PSE&G, gives grants to communities around the state to support sustainable projects.  Visit their website here.

http://www.sustainablejersey.com/

You can check on activity in your community and others in your area.  Get involved to make Jersey a better place.

Finally, a shout-out to Debra Italiano, whose organizational skills made the evening, indeed all of SJC, possible.

ST. PATRICK'S IN PHILA

I avoided all the controversy swirling around the New York and Boston parades by attending the one in Philadelphia.  This is rather more of a local affair, and nowhere near as flashy as it's cousins up the coast.  They march up the avenue from City Hall to the Art Museum; from Billy Penn to Rocky, as it were.

There were all the obligatory entrants, beginning with many groups of Irish dancers in all manner of costumes, some of which were exceedingly cute..

 

And of course, not all the dancers were kids, and not all had to walk the parade route.

 

Much of the music also came by float (or in the bed of a pickp).

But there were some marching bands as well.

And one true highland group of pipes and drums.

Speaking of floats, there were not that many, and some were rather simple.

A couple touted Irish contributions.

 

 

And of course the parade sponsor had one.

 

Plus there were a few decorated cars, again with variation in complexity.

This last was one of only a few organizations with causes.  There was this group displaying the names from Philadelphia's Vietnam Veterans' Memorial

And this one honoring a WWII vet.

 

 

But I only saw one rainbow, and that wasn't overt.

 

 

What there were a lot of were pretty queens

 

 

And folks dressed up as the Bishop of Ireland.

 

 

And interesting people wherever you looked.

 

 

Of course, there were color guards.

 

And this outfit, which let off a deafening volley as a salute every hundred paces or so.

Buuuut, this being Phila, after all, we also were treated to some hip-hop cheerleaders.

 

 

And, naturally, a group of Mummers.

Aaaaaand, how did we know the parade was over . . .

Whereupon the bars promptly filled with thirsty (and very cold) patrons.  A fun day, all in all.