The Mysteries of Condiments

I ate lunch yesterday at a Vietnamese restaurant that I frequent maybe once a week. I order the same thing every time - the #25 with a side order of crab rangoon. The waitress knows my order and tells it to the cook before I'm even seated.

When she brings the crab rangoon out she always brings Ketchup and Mustard. I've never used these condiments before with my crab rangoon. I always use the more traditional sauces and the delicious, sinus-clearing sriracha sauce.

Why does she brings these condiments with the crab rangoon? If she knows my order, she must know that I never use these. Is there a cultural disconnect? Am I missing out on the wonderful combo of crab and mustard?

The Boring History of Chile

Last summer, I was going to travel to Chile. I began looking at airfare, destinations, transportation, and buying travel guides. Then I bought a Miata and decided to spend my summer driving to the lower 48 states and see America instead. I think I made the right choice but I am still fascinated by Chile and still wish to travel there. It ranks as the country I would visit if I was granted one wish by a travel-agent genie. However, no matter how much I rub my passport, no supernatural phenomena appear.

So it goes without saying that am pumped whenever a new Chilean History book appears on the shelves of the bookstores. Chile has an amazing past: European Conquistadors. A fight for independence. The military coup of 1924. Democratic elections.

In 1970, socialist Salvador Allende was democratically elected President. The US was scared that communism had now spread into the Americas and decided to undermine the presidency with propaganda and financial blockades. When that didn't work the US decided to set up an atmosphere where an assassination was possible. On September 11, 1973, (note the date) a military strike killed Allende and Augusto Pinochet, a US hand picked successor ascended to power.

Pinochet became a tyrant and ordered the killing of thousands of dissidents and forcing the exile of 30,000 more. The US was complicit in these human-rights violations. Pinochet began an international terrorism unit and assassinated exiles in foreign countries, including a car bomb, killing two people, in Washington D.C. in 1976.

This all sounds like it would make a fascinating book. Much intrigue and formerly classified information between the CIA, the White House, and Chile. However, The Pinochet File, which I finally finished, is written so dryly and you can't wait for the 500 page book to be over. In fact, most of the time, I was so bored and I couldn't even be outraged that we were permitting this to happen or that US citizens were killed in their nation's capitol by a group of terrorsts that we helped install.

The ironic part I guess is that once Pinochet was out of power the Chileans democratically elected a socialist again. Probably to see how the platform would all play out without US involvment. Then they were progressive enough to elect a woman as President in 2006 who is the daughter of an air force general who was captured and tortured in the military coup of 1973.

If there a country that is more geographically, politically and culturally diverse, I sure haven't found it. Maybe when the genie finally appears he can point me otherwise, but most likely he'll help me pack my bags for a trip to the country with the world's driest desert and lushest jungle; the mysteries of Easter Island and the chill of Tierra del Fuego; the ocean and the Andes.

Voices of Protest - HBC: February

My friend D runs the History Book Club at Barnes and Noble and although I've been sick the last couple of days, I took a nap and then went over to the discussion. The book was Voices of Protest by Brinkley and was about Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and Great Depression politics. There is really nothing that I'm going to add to a review that you can't find at amazon, but I did really enjoy the book; it is tremendously readable and quite interesting.

The best part of the night was listening to Ernie, a 75-year old man, talk about his experiences at the time and remembering listening to Father Coughlin while he was growing up. Time to get some rest.

Mom Wrestles Bear

This isn't the most amazing thing you've read today?

http://espn.go.com/outdoors/general/news/2006/0221/2338668.html

Smells like Suc-chess

I coach chess at the local High School. Membership is checkered because we are always competing for members with other clubs and sports: speech, football, baseball, track, robotics. Places where the students can get a letter. Our meetings are pretty laid back; we work out some chess problems but don't delve into a lot of theory. Some of the students read chess books, others don't.

However, whatever we're doing works because we won our chess tournament today and are now 2-0 this season. Our first match was against the school that I used to teach at and where I helped set up their chess club. It was a pretty even match-up and we ended up winning 4-3-3. The students were pretty happy but a little apprehensive because they had to use clocks for the first time; our club can't afford them.

The meet today was against Wayne and we came out very strong, ultimately winning 6-2-1 (W-D-L). When I used to coach soccer I would have my players work hard at practice and I would then sit back during the games. There was nothing I could yell across the field that would get them to play better or smarter; of course I would talk to the players that had just come off or were just going in but I refused to play Nintendo with my players. I had to hope that the practices would pay off.

It was much more nervewracking watching the chess games today. I was nervous, I was sweaty. The feelings are the same as soccer but since the pace of the game is so much slower the tension was excruciating. I still had to trust my players; trust that they would see the traps, the opportunities, the positions just like we worked on in practice.

You can always tell which student lost a game because invariably their face would be flushed. There is something so personal about losing a game of chess, the embarrasment of not seeing the attack correctly, the frustration of not beating your opponent, that makes watching the already fragile High School ego heartbreaking. The only thing you can say is 'shake it off; work on the next game'.