I don't usually stick links up here (but why not? I think I may have planned to), but this is just too cool:
Land Mine-Detecting Flowers
- posted by k @ 11:03 PM

 
A few days ago I ordered a half-sandwich(tofu and avocado) and salad(garden with honey mustard) from Smart Alec’s. I got it to go, rode the bus home, and ate the salad first. When I unwrapped the sandwich, it turned out to be a half tuna-salad sandwich, not a half tofu-and-avocado sandwich. I called up the restaurant and explained the situation; the person I talked to was extremely sympathetic and offered either to replace the sandwich if I came down there, or to give me my next meal free. For some reason, I decided I preferred just to have the half-sandwich like I was planning to, so I decided to go back there after I went to the gym. On the phone it had been established that I didn’t need to bring the tuna sandwich with me as proof. I was about to throw it away but it seemed an awful waste. It was a perfectly good, untouched sandwich. Then I remembered the homeless man on Euclid and decided to offer it to him. For all I knew he didn’t like tuna salad either, or made enough panhandling to buy what he wanted to eat, or was too dignified to accept a handout. But I thought it couldn’t hurt to make the offer. Then if I had to throw it away I wouldn’t feel as bad.
Well, so this guy. I think he took up residence on Euclid 2 or 2 ½ years ago. He wasn’t here when I moved in 3 years ago. For a panhandler he’s polite, soft-spoken and friendly. I see him sweeping the leaves on the sidewalk sometimes; perhaps local business owners pay him for this? Or maybe it’s his way of feeling/seeming useful. Once he got hold of some old books which I think he was planning to sell, but they got rained on. I think he spends most nights in an alcove/alley between two stores and he keeps his broom, an old chair and a few crates there.
Because of his politeness and friendliness I used to give him my spare change pretty often. Then one day I noticed him buying a beer or some sort of alcohol at the corner store. After that I hardly gave him money. I was mad at him. I felt let down. I argued with myself “Isn’t it his prerogative to buy beer with his money if he wants to? If he had a job and a home nobody would care if he bought beer. That’s some sort of double standard. Besides, perhaps beer is an efficient way for him to get calories and feel warmer and maybe forget his considerable troubles for a while.” But on the other hand, I thought maybe if I gave him money I would just be an enabler, and I think I would worry about anyone—homeful or otherwise—who spent such a large percentage of his income on alcohol. So I didn’t give him my change, and I mostly stopped chatting with him as I had occasionally used to. Once I walked by without looking at him and heard him say “Don’t be mad at me.”
So I took him the sandwich and he accepted and tried to strike up a conversation, asking my birthday and where I was born, things I don’t normally even tell to people I know well. I was in a hurry to get to the gym and to the restaurant before it closed and told him I had to go. We shook hands, his grasp seeming less firm than the sandwich I gave him.

- posted by k @ 5:25 PM

 
Look everyone, not only have I added new content (or what passes for it here) to this blog, but I have also established the long-awaited commenting system. Now you have no excuse to not comment! (except on the oldest archived entries, to which for some reason the commenting does not extend). Comment away!
- posted by k @ 4:49 PM

 
Ok, Christmas, since I said I would blog about it.
Since 40% of our domestic unit was leaving for a two-week trip a couple of days before Christmas, the holiday spirit was running low around the house. Our friends who usually bring over cookies were spending the holidays with their daughter on some military base somewhere, so we had no cookies and nowhere to go Christmas Eve. We certainly didn’t have the momentum or interest to get dressed and go to church (I mean, we’re not Christian, but we’ve gone with friends to church on Christmas Eve many years). In fact, what holiday spirit we had was demonic in nature. While the rest of us were fussing or malaiseful, S (who would soon be leaving on the trip) employed herself and some red and green tissue paper. On the French windows appeared two snowmen: a white angelic figure, and red satanic one. On one wall, snowflakes, triangles and cutouts of people holding hands struck one as festive—that is, until one took a step back and realized the snowflakes were eyes in a devil-face. And the piece-de-resistance: the tree. Made of green tissue paper scotch-taped to the wall and dressed with paper ornaments, and of course to keep with the theme, topped with its own set of red devil-horns. Most Satanic Christmas Ever. What can I say? My sisters are awesome.

As for presents, we finally gave in and did what we’ve been sliding towards for the last few years. We all went shopping as a group, and for the most part each person selected items for herself; then the parental units paid for it all. No surprises, no exchanges, and there was some wrapping, but mostly so the tree would look good. Could be worse. An attempt was made by S. to have us kids chip in for the new scanner, but I think we laughed her off.

The take was pretty good. I got some needed peripherals for my computer and cell phone, a new CD player that doesn’t skip on any CD after an hour (like my old one did) and more importantly has radio so I can listen to NPR wherever I am (except when BART is in a tunnel. D’oh). Got some Beatles CDs (Revolver, Rubber Soul, Abbey Road and The White Album) and a replacement CD of Coltrane Plays the Blues which I had lost years earlier. Was surprisingly light in the book department; did get a Complete Works of Shakespeare for $7. All in all, a good take. Plus my mother surprised me with a nice pair of pajamas and two Madhur Jaffrey books (the new edition of An Invitation to Indian Cooking and Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian). I think the thoughtfulness and complete appropriateness of those books as gifts has contributed to the newly improved relations on that front. Perhaps we’ll allow busses and trains next…

- posted by k @ 4:46 PM

 
I'm nearing the end of my stay in Illinois now. My mother, who seems to be coping well with her emptying nest, marched me into the attic to identify the contents of some boxes ("I need to know what of all this crap I can get rid of! Is this yours?"). In the process, I found the scattered remains of what had been my library when I lived here. It was like meeting old friends, long-separated. Let me introduce you to a few, and recount how we met:

To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee
I read this for the first time in the summer of either '94 or '95. I was in junior high, at band camp. I remember reading it at the 4th July picnic, and a similarly bookish girl from commented that she had read and enjoyed it. We struck up a conversation and perhaps a shared a picnic blanket; I may have developed a crush on her, but I didn't follow up. I remember liking the book very much, but you know, I don't think I've ever re-read it.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne
The first time I started reading this was probably in 5th or 6th grade; it was a bit beyond me at that time. I did enjoy it, but never got past the chapter "Vanuatu." As I grew older, and re-attempted reading it, more of it became comprehensible to me, and I even enjoyed the chapter in which two characters calculate how large a sea creature must be to withstand the pressures of the deep. I finally finished it on a trip to India, either in '94 or '97. Oddly, I've never re-read it since I finished it.

Tales from the Panchtantra
I guess these are like the Indian equivalent of Aesop's fables. I really enjoyed these as a child, reading and re-reading and looking at the pictures, and probably having them read to me when I was even younger. What I found today was the Hindi edition (we had one in Hindi and one in English, but I've only ever read the English one). My Hindi reading is very slow, but the grammar is uncomplicated, and the vocabulary fairly simple. Might be a good way to keep practicing reading Hindi.

More later? And what about Christmas, anyway?
- posted by k @ 10:15 PM