Mmmmmmm ..... orange chicken

We're in Washington D.C. for a wedding. Our hotel is the Ritz-Carleton in Arlington, Virginia, right next door to the Pentagon City Mall.

This is a photo of the food court in the mall. I was here with my children 20 years ago (August 1993) when I discovered "Panda Express" and orange chicken for the very first time. Of course I had to celebrate this anniversary by having some more. (I just finished.) I think that orange chicken is my number one fast food dish. I'm pretty sure that my daughter likes it too since she eats it at least once a week.

We have a nice view from our room of some big odd-shaped building.

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Recovering from an ice storm

We had a big ice storm in Southern Ontario last weekend. There are still thousands or people without power and many are unlikely to have power restored before Christmas (tomorrow).

We got off fairly lightly. We were never without power (underground wires) and the roads were cleared pretty quickly. However, lots of trees in our neighborhood suffered and some were almost completely destroyed by the weight of the ice. A large branch of the ash tree in our front yard cracked but did not fall. It was hanging over our driveway so we had to move our cars. We called Davey Tree on Sunday and they showed up yesterday to remove the broken branch.

It was quite a production. The woman in charge had to park this huge truck in our driveway and maneuver the cherry picker trough the branches. As you can imagine, it attracted an audience from the neighboring houses. When the job was done they swept up all the debris and turned it into sawdust in a wood chipper. There are more photos at: Uh Oh!. We have a daughter and a granddaughter who would love this job!

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Valley girl talk

Last summer we took a short drive through the San Fernando Valley on our way from Thousand Oaks to Griffith Park. I happened to mention "valley talk" ("uptalk") but none of us could do a good job of talking like a teenage girl from the valley.

That's a shame because now it looks like Valley girl speak is, like, on the rise! I believe it. Not only have I heard girls speak like this on the university campus here in Toronto but I've even heard this language in Ottawa and that's about as far away from California as you can get.

I hope my granddaughter and grandson don't grow up speaking like this. They live in Los Angeles.


Moon Unit Zappa Valley Girl by mrjyn

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Bill Farrell and Louis C on the Sandwalk

Here's a photo of Bill Farrell ("Doc Bill") and Louis C on the Sandwalk.

They join a distinguished list of people whose visit to the Sandwalk has been recorded here.

Larry Moran
PZ Myers
John Wilkins
Ryan Gregory
The God Delusion
Cody
John Hawks
Michael Barton
Seanna Watson
Steve Watson
Michael Richards
Jeffrey Shallit
Chris DiCarlo
Bill Farrell and Louis C

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God Only Knows by The Beach Boys

The Pet Sounds album by The Beach Boys was released in 1966. The album ranks in the top ten of almost everyone's list of best albums (English/American culture). It's #2 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Tine.

I wasn't a big fan of the album but I adored God only knows, and I still do.¹ It's one of my top ten favorite songs. The song ranks at #25 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Paul McCartney, who played for another popular group in the 1960s, says that God Only Knows is his favorite song of all time.

The music was written by Brian Wilson² and the lyrics are by Tony Asher. I don't know very much about music so you'll have to read the Wikipedia article to appreciate why so many people admire Brian Wilson. Carl Wilson, Brian's younger brother, sings the song.

The video is from Good Timin': Live at Knebworth England 1980. It's one of the rare occasions after 1965 when all six Beach Boys (Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Carl Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston) are together. I think it's the only video where Brian Wilson is playing on God Only Knows. (That's him on the piano.)

I never saw a live performance of the original Beach Boys but I've seen the Mike Love version twice.

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1. Some atheists will never like this song because it mentions God. That sort of thing doesn't bother me. I can still sing God Save the Queen and the Canadian national anthem without batting an eyelash. There are much more important things to fret about.

2. I just read in the Wikipedia article that he was inspired by the Lovin' Spoonful song You Didn't Have to Be So Nice. That song is also one of my personal favorites but I never twigged to the similarity until now.

Unchained Melody by The Rightous Brothers

Is it true that the music of the Baby Boomers is a whole lot better than the music of Generation-X or the Millennials (Generation-Y)? Of course it's true. Those whippernappers couldn't touch the best music of the 1960s.

Here's a song that makes my top ten list, although I will admit that it's only #374 on 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. I'm pretty sure this must be a mistake. Rolling Stone also seems to have made a mistake with #9.


(For some strange reason, my son and daughter don't seem to appreciate the music of my generation. I don't know where I went wrong.)

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Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it

• November 22, 1963: President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
• April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.
• June 6, 1968: Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated.
• July 21, 1969: Neil Armstrong walks on the moon.

You tell me that I need to forget these events as though they never happened?

You tell me that you don't care because you weren't born yet?

This post was prompted by something that Andrea Habura wrote on Facebook. She says that she is an "R&D Scientist at Next Advance, Inc." Here's what she wrote ...

The demographics of Camelot: As you will no doubt have heard by now, today is the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. I've also been repeatedly informed that everyone is still shocked and saddened by it, and that "we" will never forget how we felt when we heard the news.

Dear newscasters: Most Americans were either not alive yet, or too young to notice. Only 25% of Americans are over 55 (http://www.indexmundi.com/united_states/demographics_profile.html), and some of them were living in other countries in 1963. To most of us, the shooting in Dallas was about like what happened in Ford's Theater, with the exception that our teachers seemed to feel *really* strongly about it. Let it go.

Just for the record, I understand how my parents felt on May 5, 1945 (VE Day) even though I wasn't born yet. I understand how they felt when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by atomic bombs. I think I know how they felt on March 29, 1945 when President Roosevelt died.

I understand what my parents and my grandparents went through on October 29, 1929 when the stock market crashed and life's saving were lost. I listened when they told me of the pain and suffering during the great depression. I never told them to "let it go."

I'd like to think I know how traumatic it must have been for Americans on April 15, 1865 even though I wasn't there.

Dear Andrea,

The world did not begin when you were born. Listen and learn from your elders. You will be a better person.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
                                                                        George Santayana

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On a Friday Afternoon 50 Years Ago

It was about 3pm and I was sitting in my geometry class at Nepean High School in Ottawa, Canada. This was my final year of high school. I liked this course and I liked my teacher (Mr. Pollack).

The loudspeaker crackled and I heard the Principle's voice. Mr. Callan said that President Kennedy had been shot and killed in Dallas.

Kennedy was not my President but it was still a great shock. It seemed like Camelot had been destroyed.¹ I spent the next three days in front of the television set. Nobody knew what was going to happen to America.

You know how everyone says they know exactly where they were and what they were doing when major events happen? That's certainly true for me on the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. It's one of only two days in my life that I remember so vividly.² If it was traumatic for a young Canadian boy, I can't imagine what it must have felt like for Americans.

How many of you remember Nov. 22, 1963?

It looks very naive now but back in 1963 we really believed that Camelot and King Arthur could be real. Here's Richard Burton in the Broadway production. It seems like everybody had the album.

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1. The musical, Camelot had been playing on Broadway since 1960 and everyone was familiar with the music from the LP (record album). The Kennedy family and the Kennedy administration were intimately associated with the idea of Camelot.

2. The other was Sept. 11, 2001.

Oops!

This is the view from the window just outside my office on the fifth floor.

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The Campus in October

I snapped this picture on my way back from class. That's the science library on the left and the Medical Sciences Building on the far right. The tall buildings in the background are at the corner of College and Yonge in the heart of downtown Toronto.

I love being on a university campus.

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My American Dialect

I finally got to take the quiz at Dialect Quiz & Survey. The server is often overloaded and answering the 140 questions takes more than one hour because of the slow server.

My dialect is most like that of Buffalo NY, which is hardly a surprise since it's the closest American city to Toronto. (I grew up in Ottawa but I don't have much of an Ottawa Valley accent.)

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The Happiest Countries

Why do the people of these countries think they are happy? Why isn't the USA in the top ten? [World’s Happiest Countries In 2013, According To The UN]

I recently visited #1, #2, #5, #7 and #9 and I can confirm that the citizens of those countries do, indeed, think they are happy. I also visited #17 a few months ago and the citizens of that country do not seem happy. It's probably worse today than it was a few months ago.

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Goodbye Women's College Hospital

My son was born in this building 35 years ago. It will look very different when the destruction/construction is complete (Women's College Hospital).

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Best Beatles' Songs

Jerry Coyne thinks that the Beatles are the greatest rock group ever [Match this song!]. I'm pleased to announce that I agree with him on this point.

Jerry thinks that A Day in the Life is the best Beatles' song and that's where we part company. His second choice is Eleanor Rigby [Eleanor Rigby] and that's also one of my top ten.

We'll see what his other favorites are over the next few days. If he doesn't mention the very best song (IMHO) I'll correct him when he's finished.

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Goodbye Copenhagen

We've been in Copenhagen for a few days but today is the last day of our vacation. We fly to Iceland and Toronto in a few hours.

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Saint Petersburg

Here are some photos of Saint Petersburg. I was happy to visit the cruiser Aurora in the Neva river. I first read about its role in the Russian revolution when I was in high school.

The fourth photo shows a typical street scene in the city. You should be able to translate the sign (СТОП) under the stop lights if you were paying attention to my post from a few weeks ago.

Saint Petersburg: Hermitage Museum

The highlight of our Baltic cruise was the visit to Saint Petersburg, Russia. We hired a guide and driver to take us around to the various sites in Saint Petersburg and the outskirts. The Hermitage (Зрмитаж) museum is located on the banks of one of the main channels of the Neva river (Болъшая Нева). The first photo shows a view form across the river.

This is the old winter palace of the Russian Czars so the building itself is part of the history—like the Louvre in Paris.

The second photo is one of the spectacular views from inside the museum. Everyone says that you really need three days to see everything and I agree. However, our guide took us on a brief tour of the major highlights so we got a good impression in just three hours.

The last photo shows us getting into our van at the end of the visit. If you look closely, you’ll see the name of Ms. Sandwalk’s blog on the dashboard (click to embiggen).

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A Rainy Day in Helsinki

We visited Helsinki, Finland, a few days ago (August 14, 2013). It was a rainy day. We spent most of our time shopping and walking around the old town.

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Stockholm: Old Town

We visited Stockholm yesterday and toured the city with my cousin Sharon and her husband Dennis. (That’s them with Ms. Sandwalk in the third photo.) Here are some photos of the Old Town including one of the Swedish Academy where I tried to put in a good word for all my readers.

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45 Years Ago

We're celebrating our 45th wedding anniversary by taking a cruise in the Baltic. We were in Oslo, Norway on our anniversary day (August 9) where we met our friends Dag and Robin from graduate student days. They are als0 marride 45 years so we celebrated with champagne at their house. More about that later.

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