To "WOOOO!" or not to "WOOOO!" That is the question.

At 8:30 this morning, I was in midtown Manhattan, walking by the Rockefeller Center where they tape the Today Show. I decided to stop by and join the audience gathered there who shout "WOOOO!" for everything, much the same way the Smurfs said "Smurf" for everything.

However, the topic of discussion was a genetic disease that affects children, so shouting "WOOOO!" would have been in extremely poor taste.

which is grosser?

Is there anything as gross as the rats running around the tracks of the Roosevelt Island subway station? They stare up at you on the platform with their beady little eyes, as if to say "I'm gonna get you, sucka!"

I am beginning to hate la familia rodentia almost as much as I hate racists. There is a bunch of moronic Massholes I had the misfortune to know for many years. They excuse their grown daughter's 20 minute screaming fit in which she hurls nasty racist comments, and then blame it on a Chris Rock special they saw the night before. If that sounds lame, that's because it is!

You know what? I'll take the rats any day over the jackasses. 'Nuff said.

Petra: Lost City of Stone

I went to the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan yesterday to see the exhibit "Petra: Lost City of Stone", which closes July 6th.

Petra is an ancient city in modern-day Jordan, which was only rediscovered in the 19th century.

There were a lot of carved stone artifacts, including depictions of zodiac signs such as Virgo and Pisces. There was also a pipe from their elaborate water system -- apparently, they were able to pipe in enough clean water (about 12 million gallons a day) to support a population of 20,000 in 50 A.D.

What do you call a turkey baby?

Swan babies are cygnets and goose babies are goslings ... so what is a turkey baby?

I ask this because I saw 2 adult wild turkeys and their brood of several turkey babies lounging on the front lawn of one of our neighbors, as they are wont to do, in New Jersey. The freakin' ecosystem here is out of control, what with those squirrels and also the massive groundhog running around the yard.

But turkey babies are so fugly that they are actually cute. They have big bodies and small heads, and are just grey and fuzzy as they waddle around. Aaaaaw!!!!

Right after I saw them, I also saw a doe! A deer! A female deer! And then another one!

I just looked it up -- a turkey baby is called a turkey pout. Who knew?

the pitter-patter of little feet ....

... are all those damn squirrels in the attic.

I am at my parents' place in New Jersey and there is a veritable squirrel soap opera going on in the attic. I woke up to the sounds of a baby squirrel crying, which was disturbingly sad. It stopped when its mom came back (I guessed all this by the number of animals I could count running overhead -- I was not about to stick my head up there to see the cute little rabies-carriers.)

Then I could hear 2 adults scuffling. After a while, I heard about 5 of them all run in the same direction and then it was quiet. Out the window, there were a few of them scurrying down the trees near the house. The whole tree was shaking. Big fat old squirrels. Gross.

Happy birthday, dear Chunk! Happy birthday to you!

I just found out that today is the 30th birthday of actor Jeff Cohen. He played "Chunk" in the 1986 movie "The Goonies" and is now an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles. Goonies never say die!

Homer's delight

(Homer as in Simpson)

At Applebee's, I noticed a new dessert on the menu "Apple Chimicheesecake". It is billed as "crisp tart apples and almond toffee bits blended with rich creamy cheesecake wrapped in a tortilla and deep-fried". No wonder we as a nation have an obesity epidemic if we have figured out how to deep-fry cheesecake.

Here comes the bride to Applebee's!

I had lunch at Applebee's in the Rego Park area of Queens, mainly because I have had Thai food 4 times in a month and needed something else.

Around 1:15pm, a bride in a full-length wedding gown, a groom in a suit and about 3 other people in various formal and causal outfits sat at a table. You would have thought they would have been given a booth.

names in the news

I was watching the morning news and some guy with my last name was on the news for not-so-good activity involving beating up his ex-wife's husband. That is the only time I have ever heard my last name on the news. It is like the time three years ago when I went to my first and only circus and the elephant had the same first name that I have. That was the first and only time I ever heard my first name on any other being in these United States.

kitten + rabbit = probably not

The pet store on Steinway Street near my place is selling Siamese kittens. I have always wanted one! Except I also always wanted a rabbit and right now I have one. I also have always wanted a dog like the boxer puppy in the window. I have a feeling this would be a really bad ecosystem to create in my one-bedroom apartment.

musings on chick lit

You know ... that genre created in 1999 with the advent of Bridget Jones' Diary? Every time you go into a bookstore these days, there is yet another paperback book with a hot pink cover (or has a hot pink item on a white cover, usually a high-heeled shoe) about some twentysomething who works in journalism or publishing looking for Mr. Right.) I am guilty of having read a number of these till I figured out they were really all the same book, especially when I couldn't even name the main character because she was so interchangeable with all the others.

Here is the formula for chick-lit:

1. Set in New York (apparently, the American alternative to Bridget Jones' London) -- where heroine is overwhelmed by the competition because she is not thin and lacks confidence. Everyone resembles a celebrity -- bartenders are "Rob Lowe clones". If he looked like Rob Lowe, he would not tend bar, at least not in Manhattan, where he could get a job modeling somewhere.

2. She makes a small entry-level salary in the publishing industry, where she has a gorgeous, cocky, chauvinistic boss. There seem to be no other careers in London or New York except publishing. Career counselors, take note.

3. Doesn't like drab dreary apartment, where she still sleeps on a collegiate futon because of her salary. Like a real bed costs that much! Wishes she could move in with boyfriend instead, so she never actually decorates.

3. Whiny about relationship -- whether she actually has one or not.(She does in this book, and is worried he will cheat while he is away at summer stock. Yet she wants to lose weight to keep him. UGH.)

4. Core group of good friends - requisite gay friend who has more fun than she ever does because he knows better than to pine over guys. Another friend is invariably a transplant from the South --- stereotypes of Southern belles abound. At least one friend will be named Kate. That's if heroine has more than 2 friends in a city of approximately 9 million.

And ever notice how many people -- especially young women who are, after all, the target audience --- are reading it? On subways, in airports, wherever? Are their real lives so vastly boring that they consider this an escape? Even worse, when they say "Wow! The character in this book is just like me!" WHY would you ever think that, much less say it out loud? Unless you don't recognize your own sadness.

At any rate, God bless Oprah Winfrey for suggesting people read Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" and Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina".

Thai recommendations

Fah Thai
9524 Queens Blvd
Rego Park, NY 11374-1136
Phone: (718) 275-0417

I have eaten here twice already, I love it! Choice of salad with delicious Thai peanut sauce or soup comes with each entree order. The decor is bronze and dark wood, very nice! And their chicken kai prow can't be beat!

Thai Angel Kitchen
3411 30th Ave
Astoria, NY 11103-4658
Phone: (718) 726-7029

I like this place, their Thai iced coffee with milk is delicious! The front wall is actually a glass window which they open on nice summer days (of course, then you have to hear all the traffic including the noisy buses.) I was especially intrigued by their bas-relief from Thailand on the wall.

a little piece of Brazil

I went into a cafe in Astoria on my way home yesterday because it advertised "Brazilian pizza available here". Mostly I wanted to find out what Brazilian pizza is. I asked if it had pork on it, and the man behind the corner said, "Um, it has ham. Is that a kind of pork?" I told him yes, pork is any pig meat.

This brings to mind the Simpsons episode where Lisa decides to become a vegetarian, and her father Homer asks incredulously, "You're not going to eat ANY meat?! Not even pork chops?"

Lisa: "No."

Homer: "Not even bacon?"

Lisa: "No!"

Homer: "Not even ham?"

Lisa: "Dad! Those are all from the same animal!"

Homer: (sarcastically) "SUUUUURE, Lisa! A magic animal!"


Back to the cafe: I did end up getting a regular cup of coffee after the man offered to make a cheese pizza (I told him not to make an entire pizza on account of me.) He was impressed that I knew to say "Obrigado", the Portuguese word for thank you. (Portuguese is the language of Brazil.)

and so ... bom dia!

a marked improvement

It smells so much better today! I think the massive rainstorm that just moved in will improve the air even more. Whew!

Olympic torch

BTW -- due to having to go so early on Saturday to tak the exam, I missed Olympic torch in Astoria. Hopefully I will make it next time!!

A Saturday morning exam - hooray!

Last Saturday (June 19), I had to get up early and make my way to lower Manhattan to take the Civil Servuce Exam for the City of New York. It was at the enviable hour of 9:30 am, meaning you had to BE there by that time.

I followed the subway directions to City Hall but then became confused about where to find the test site on Pearl Street. I was in the Tribeca area, and the streets criss-crossed and were named after people and other things, as opposed to the easy-to-navigate grid of numbered streets and avenues in Midtown and above.

I kept asking for directions at the few places that were open at that time of morning, but all that happened was I walked back and forth like a ping-pong ball, passing the same Starbucks five times (and yes it was the same Starbucks, not five different ones on the same street.)

So I finally just hailed a cab because I was getting tired and worried that I would not make it in time.

I told the cabbie I wanted to go to Pearl Street. He looked up in surprise.

"Pearl Street? But that's the next street, man." (Man? I'm a female, and not even a fat one at that! But I just took it to be a pet phrase of his.)

I told him I knew it was close by but I had walked a lot in all directions and still had not found it. And that I was on my way to an exam and getting worried about the time.

"OK, man," he said, starting the cab. "Pearl Street is near here, but maybe not the number you need. We'll go look."

The cab driver drove down a few streets trying to find the address. We hit on Pearl Street and kept driving."

"Hey, man! This is a far walk they wanted you to make!"

We pulled up at the test site (which was near a deli named -- I kid you not -- Mrs. Friggins' Kitchen at the corner of Pearl and Madison.) Throngs of fellow test takers were on the sidewalk.

"This is it, man." I paid him and gave him a big tip. I climbed out of the cab.

"Hey, man!" he yelled before I shut the cab door.

I looked up.

He pumped his fist in the air and yelled "Pass that exam!"

rank and stank

Astoria really smells this morning. I don't know why. And don't say it's me. I put on deodorant today - pH-balanced for a woman!

whole lotta shakin' goin' on

I applied for a library card at Queens Library above the Steinway Street subway station. Every time a subway went by, the library floor shook under your feet and you could hear the train. The was kind of cool. People pay a lot at Disneyland to experience the same thing. See, kids? The library can be a cool place!

Fiddling while your fat burns

Last night on the train to Astoria (in search of kebabs), a blind man with a cane tapped his way to the center of the car and started playing Mozart's "Eine Kleine Natchmusik" on his violin. He was really good! After he was done, I and a few others gave him some monetary donations.

Two guys next to me gestured towards the musicion and said "That dude has lost weight! He used to be so fat!"

"Yeah," said his friend. "He looks good now!"

In search of a kebab

Last night around 7:30pm, I stopped by a street vendor at W. 34th Street and Broadway in Manhattan for a shish kebab. At that same moment, a NY Police Dept. van pulled up and started talking to the vendor. I couldn't hear what it was about (not that I eavesdrop).

The vendor returned to his cart two minutes later. I asked him if he was allowed to have customers, gesturing to the van that was still there.

"No, I am sorry", he said before closing his eyes and dropping his head into his hands. felt really bad for him!

I told him I understood and took the train to Astoria, where I got a kebab. Because even New York's finest cannot keep a Pakistani worth her masala away from a kebab.

A nice healthy walk to the gym

Today I went to a Bally Total Fitness in the Elmhurst section of Queens. I had never been there before, but I knew it was 4 blocks from the subway.

As I walked down the street looking for it, I realized the only places to ask for directions were a McDonald's, a Burger King, a Wendy's, a KFC, and three assorted independent diners specializing in hamburgers and that newly-declared "fresh vegetable", fries.

I found the gym after a while. I was going in the right direction, it was just a long walk to get there. I considered the walk to be my cardio workout for the day. What's the point of walking all the way to the gym for 15 minutes and then getting on a treadmill anyway? It all counts!

Personal finance books worth your money!

Personal Finance Books (buy them for less at www.amazon.com)

Debt Free by 30: Practical Advice for Young, Broke, & Upwardly Mobile
by Jason Anthony, Karl Cluck (Paperback - January 2001)

Get A Financial Life : Personal Finance In Your Twenties And Thirties
by Beth Kobliner (Author) (Paperback - June 2000)

Cash in the City: Affording Manolos, Martinis and Manicures on a Working Girl's Salary
by Juliette Fairley (Author) (Paperback)

Personal Finance for Dummies
by Eric Tyson

Smart Women Finish Rich: 7 Steps to Achieving Financial Security and Funding Your Dreams by David Bach

Hey, Lady!!!!

I was walking down 35th Street in Astoria this morning on my way to work. I passed two little kids sitting with their scruffy dog on the porch of their house.

As I walked past, I heard one kid say "Lady! Lady! Lady!" over and over again. I turned my head to see what they wanted.

Turned out they were talking to the dog. They had just got her and were teaching her to know her name.

TV update

I now get FOX and several other channels without cable, as my TV wire has been hooked up properly! yay!

In other news, the showerhead is still held up with twine.

websites I like

www.savekaryn.com
She's no longer asking for money - instead, she's giving tips on how you can save yours.

www.ingdirect.com
Online savings account ncurrently offering 2.10 percent interest, better than any other bank.

www.ew.com/freescreening
A chance to periodically win tickets to free showings of movies before they come out to the public.

www.dailyhoroscopes.com
It's in the name.

www.thehungersite.com
Click once a day to donate FOR FREE to the hungry, for breast cancer research, for children's health, to save the rainforest and to help animals. Again, IT'S FREE.

www.amazon.com
Books, music, CDs, etc. Especially buying and selling them secondhand for savings!

Where oh where are the cicadas????

I am in Washington, DC where I lived from 1991 to 2002.

I was last here in May for a wedding and saw the much-heralded cicadas -- big winged insects who have been in larva form for 17 years and recently emerged to mate for a few weeks before dying. In May, they were divebombing the windshield of the car as we drove through Maryland. You could see scores of them buzzing around streetlamps at night. Squirrels were scared to climb up trees where they swarmed. You could hear them in the distance, sounding like a giant incessant car alarm, as billions of them swarmed in the woods.

Reportedly, by this time in June, they were supposed to be in their full-fledged glory and be a veritable carpet on the sidewalks.

But there are even fewer here than there less than a month ago. And the woods are silent.

Turns out they got washed away in torrential rainstorms a few weeks ago. Can you imagine that? Billions of bugs surfing the waves down the drain, probably to the Anacostia River. Fare thee well, cicadas! Hang ten!

Do you need Apartment Therapy? You probably do!

http://www.apartmentTherapy.com/

I read about this site in the New York Metro this morning. It seems very cool, especially since apartments can be depressing if you don't "do them up" nicely.

Here are some tips from the creators of the site (as published in the Metro):

Baby Steps

Don't have the money or the time to redo your place? Here are some first steps you can take toward making your house a home:

1. Clean your refrigerator, closet or medicine cabinet. Just getting rid of the junk will make you feel good.

2. Buy fresh flowers every week.

3. Dedicate one night a week to staying home and cooking a meal.

4. Read ApartmentTherapy.com

Une salad extraordinaire

A friend and I ate at the Dacine Cafe on 30th Avenue in my neighborhood last night. I figured it would be fitting if I had the Astoria salad they served there. It was very good -- mixed greens, avocado, grilled strips of chicken breast and house viniagrette dressing.

But this salad seems very familar, and I am sure I have eaten it under a different nom de plume. But I can't think of what it could be. This is the sort of thing that would frustrate me if I wasn't so lazy.

If I was in town this weekend, I would go to this.

Jazz Composer seeks guinea pigs & birds for June 13th concert

Jazz Composer seeks uninhibited guinea pigs (app. 8) and birds with lovely singing voices, or at least interesting singing voices, for a June 13th concert at the Tenri Center. It should be fun and creative, hope you can participate.
For more information about composer visit www.kirknurock.com

Sunny Day! Chasing the clouds away!

You know what I figured out today? My street looks like "Sesame Street" without the muppets.

Remember Sesame Street? It had the brownstones and the trees and the sidewalks and all the children on what appeared to be an urban street? I think when it first came out in 1969, Sesame Street was heralded for having the most diverse cast on TV, including that angry green male named Oscar the Grouch.

Funny how a children's TV show from the late 1960s was more forward and intelligent than 1990s "Friends"!

Reagan's passing

I am actually very sad that Ronald Reagan died last weekend at age 93. I was at first surprised that I should feel so strongly -- after all, I didn't know him personally. On closer examination, though, it is reminiscent of how sad I was when Bill Clinton left office in January 2001, because he was president my entire time in college (in Washington) and throughout almost all my 20s.

Reagan was president throughout almost all the 1980s (inaugurated January 1981, left office January 1989), from the time I was in elementary school till I was a high school sophomore. To me (and many others), Reagan defines the 1980s and that time in their lives. Among many other accomplishments, the USA had a great economy then. Reagan led us through the Cold War and the fall of Communism. (I can remember when people in junior high school used to insult each other by calling each other "Commie".)

In fact, I am such a child of the 1980s that recently, when a doctor asked me when my first period was, I told her I could tell her the exact date. "July 13, 1987 -- I was watching the Iran-Contra hearings and Oliver North had just taken the stand." She actually clapped her hands and said "That was great!"

The Gipper was great. I am going to see if I can attend one of his memorial services in DC this weekend.

This gym is finger-lickin' good!

Gotta love it!

The New York Sports Club at 34th & 6th in Midtown Manhattan has a banner on the building with its logo, so you can tell from the street that the gym is in there.

However, the building apparently also rented ad space to Kentucky Fried Chicken, and that banner sits directly on top of the NYSC banner! So it looks like Colonel Sanders is welcoming you to NYSC!

I took a photo. Once I figure out how to put a photo up on this blog, I'll share with all and sundry.

Midtown Manhattan Starbucks - no line!!!

Can it be? When every single other Starbucks in the city has a line at it by 8:30 am, there is one with so little demand that it only has one barista?

(Barista or sommelier or whatever pretentious word they call "coffee brewer" these days. Really -- do Europeans ever use American English words to create more impressive job titles? As I believe it was George Carlin once said, "I'm sure they don't say 'Mais oui! Je suis une garbageman!'")

It is in the front area of the New York Public Library at 5th Avenue and E 42nd Street, behind the stone lions.

Astoria starting line in city Olympic torch relay

So the 35-mile Olympic torch relay for NYC will begin June 18th in Athens Square Park! Most fitting. Here is a link to that story. I hope I get to see it --- it is on a Friday ....

www.timesledger.com/ site/news.cfm?newsid=11326554&BRD=1079&PAG=461&dept_id=170338&rfi=6 - 76k

June 8th -- Free Iced Coffee

... at your participating Dunkin' Donuts!

From 10am to 10pm, you can get a free iced cofee at certain Dunkin' Donuts in NY, NJ and Fairfield, CT. Of course, a small flavored coffee is only 99 cents at the DD in Athens Square Park but I do love to save a dollar so that I can spend it on more coffee later.

new apartment

I moved into my new apartment in Astoria this past weekend. Well, it's new to me anyway -- the building has been here since 1912. I suspect it used to be a tenement building at the last turn of the century. I have a stunning view of the courtyard with other people's laundry and the garbage. Yeah!!!!

Overall, though, it is really nice and a rent-stabilized steal. It is a 1-bedroom de jure but how tiny is the bed that they call it that? Hence I turned the 'bedroom' into a study and set up the main area much like the studio apartment I had in Malden, MA.

The kitchen is nice and big. That is pretty amazing to me. The bathroom is big too but has ghetto features i.e. I noticed yesterday that the showerhead is being held up by a piece of twine (?!) I will have words with the landlord on this feature.

It looks like I will have to get cable, as I do not get FOX and The Simpsons are the only thing I really like to watch. Sad but true. I also get 13 channels without cable (I only got 4 in Malden) but only 3 are in English. Que barbaridad!!!

But the neighborhood rocks. I live by Athens Square Park, and there are tons of restaurants right outside. Lots of Greek places, of course, but also a steak house, Thai, Japanese, Indian, Chinese, Colombian, etc etc. There are also a lot of halal grocers (halal is sort of like kosher for Muslims) so my mom is happy.

I also found a NY Sports Club in my neighborhood. I don't know how I feel about that. hmmmm ......