Apple Fritter, San Mateo

The popular bacon maple bar

After the Taco Bell on Norfolk St. closed, I half-expected its building to be torn down, reconfigured to accommodate the upscale tastes of the techies who are flooding into San Mateo.

To our surprise a bakery by the name of Apple Fritter has taken over the site. To our greater surprise, the lines are out the door for an eatery that doesn't cater to the health-conscious and carb averse.

There wasn't a line on a weekday
morning after 9 a.m.

We've been back three times since we discovered Apple Fritter in February. In addition to the pastries, our favorites are the Hippiehash ("Fresh hash browns scrambled w/ black beans, fresh green bells, & topped w/ melted american, sour cream, salsa. Served w/ 2 eggs & choice of toast") and the Sausage Scramble.

I'm having my annual physical in April, so I'll have to refrain from going to Apple Fritter---in other words detox until then. Somehow, though, my doctor always knows....

John Oliver: Apple Vs. FBI

One of the alumni of Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, John Oliver discusses the FBI vs. Apple controversy over breaking into a terrorist's iPhone.

Typical of his video essays, Encryption is humorous, vulgar, and filled with information. While he does take Apple's side, John Oliver throws a few shots the company's way. And don't miss the last two minutes of the 18-minute video, which contains an example of a "little more honest" Apple ad about privacy and hacking.



One more thing: it's no wonder that the younger crowd prefers to get its news this way than from droning heads on the nightly news.

Go East, Young Man or Woman, Go East

The Economist - it's easier to become a billionaire in Asia than the USA:

The American dream of going from rags to riches appears more achievable in developing Asia than in America itself, which seems ever more in thrall to vested interests.

Not only are more billionaires being created, they are less reviled:

This may be because emerging-market billionaires seem more dynamic: more than half of them are under 60 compared with less than a third in the rich world. But it is partly because in the emerging world ordinary people have been getting richer alongside the billionaires; in the rich world ordinary people have seen their incomes stagnate.

A Sickness That Now Has A Name

(pinterest image)

Despite its long-comings, the German language has words that describe some concepts perfectly.

Schadenfreude ("a feeling of enjoyment that comes from seeing or hearing about the troubles of other people") is used so often that it has become cliché.

Gestalt - in psychology, "something that is made of many parts and yet is somehow more than or different from the combination of its parts"; in broad terms, "the general quality or character of something."

Another valuable entry, sure to gain currency, is witzelsucht:

Witzelsucht (from the German witzeln, meaning to joke or wisecrack, and sucht, meaning addiction or yearning) is a set of rare neurological symptoms characterized by a tendency to make puns, or tell inappropriate jokes or pointless stories in socially inappropriate situations.

My affection for (obsession with?) Airplane! and Naked Gun movies can now be explained.

Witzelsucht "can be an early indicator of dementia" (Surely, you jest--no, and don't call me Shirley!), so I suppose I should see a doctor (if I don't, I need some new glasses).

But not before I check out TBS' Angie Tribeca series:

when Tribeca does work, it nudges awake a certain eighth-grade sensibility that delights in nothing more than seeing a knowingly asinine idea treated with staunchly serious commitment...Tribeca revels in fiendishly devised, fast-and-furious quips.

Happy Easter

The black drapery of Good Friday has been removed.

White, the liturgical color of Easter, is everywhere.

Mourning is over.

Welcome, Happy Morning.

John Keast, R.I.P.

My friend, John Keast, died suddenly and peacefully on Wednesday in Santa Cruz. Many in his far-flung family weren't there to say goodbye, so the priest conducted the Ministration at the Time of Death today, the day before Easter.

The service became an abbreviated memorial, as were added a Gospel reading, a brief homily, and remembrances from John's children. His "real" memorial service will occur in September, when John would have turned 96.

If and when I reach my 80's, I hope to be reasonably independent and be able to carry on a conversation without people talking to me like a five-year-old.

In his 80's John was designing programs to help prisoners re-enter society, giving speeches to persuade others to join him, and raising funds for the Inmate Correctional Education Project. When I tried to tell him how much I admired him, he wouldn't hear any of it. John, I hope you're listening now. R.I.P.

A Day's Work is Never Done

Andy Warhol’s “Do It Yourself (Violin)” (1962) is non finito,
i.e., intentionally unfinished (Economist image)

Unfinished paintings, unlike unfinished novels and movies, can be appreciated "as is." The inaugural exhibition of the new Marcel Breuer building ("Met Breuer) of the Metropolitan Museum of Art showcases 197 works that are in varying stages of completion.

Certainly the most common reason for an incomplete painting, at least in the early stages of this exhibition, is death or its approach...After death, the next-best reason not to hand in your homework is genius...grasping for the unattainable.

Geniuses are never satisfied, hence the discovery of partially completed works after their death has become commonplace. Everything can be made better, everything is in the process of becoming something else.

Note 1 (and Good Friday reference): in the Greatest Story Ever Told Jesus himself said, "It is finished," (John 19:30) but the story was actually far from over.

Note 2: Perhaps the most famous "unfinished" work of art in the past 200 years is a piece of music.

Good Morning and Happy Birthday

In Hollywood's greatest musical a key plot point occurs on March 24th. Early that morning actor Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) realizes that he can avert a box-office disaster by converting his upcoming silent movie, "The Dueling Cavalier," to a musical, "The Dancing Cavalier."

Buddy Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor) and love interest Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) celebrate this realization through an exuberant tap number, thereby demonstrating the entertainment power of song and dance. It's so meta-.....

Cosmo rips a page off a day-by-day calendar to the new date: March 24. “Your lucky day is the 24th!” he tells Don. Cue the music.

March 24th is my twin brothers' birthday, also a cause for celebration.

Marriage: It's All About Expectations

A study has confirmed common sense--marital happiness is dependent upon expectations:

having high standards only makes people more satisfied if they’re in strong marriages—and having lower standards is better for marriages that aren’t as secure. [snip]

...higher standards were a bad thing for spouses who didn’t work as well together or were more indirectly hostile. Conversely, when couples like these had lower standards, they tended to be happier in their marriages.

Another solution: just have patience (Image from davenan)

The study didn't define what makes a good marriage in the first place, i.e., when spouses can use criticism as a way to make their partnership stronger instead of worse, but if it were that easy society would have a much lower divorce rate.

Anyway, one doesn't need science, just a bit of Reinhold Niebuhr:

God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Ancien Régime 2.0

Apple's HQ (Rendering from the Economist 1843 Magazine)

Like some nouveau riche who distance themselves from their humble backgrounds, “Silicon Valley is having its Versailles moment”: [bold added]

The scale of the project rivals the ancient Egyptians’ monuments. Every piece of glass on the four-story exterior is curved, requiring special panes to be made in Germany – the largest pieces of curved glass ever manufactured. With a price tag of around $5 billion, [Apple's] may be the most expensive corporate headquarters in history. [snip]

Last year Facebook opened a new, 430,000-square-foot building in Menlo Park designed to embody the company’s informal culture. Resembling a giant warehouse, it is reputedly the largest open-plan office in the world. Meanwhile, Google is working on a zany idea for a new headquarters to replace its Googleplex, which involves constructing movable glass buildings. Other technology companies, including Nvidia, Samsung and Uber, will, collectively, spend well over $1 billion on new buildings that broadcast their success.

With world-changing innovations ever harder to invent, our latter-day Masters of the Universe are spending precious energy and enormous resources on building monuments to their grandeur. Let's hope that, like Versailles, 200 years after the monuments were built that tourists aren't the only beings on the grounds.

The truth is that individuals and institutions usually turn to architecture at moments of decline. This curious fact was pointed out years ago by Cyril Northcote Parkinson in his 1968 best seller, Parkinson's Law....Parkinson considered buildings as an important barometer of corporate health, but as a negative barometer. "During a period of exciting discovery or progress there is no time to plan the perfect headquarters," he wrote. "The time for that comes later, when all the important work has been done. Perfection, we know, is finality; and finality is death."

English Digs

Emma Thompson won the Best Actress Oscar
in 1992 for Howards End.

Actress Emma Thompson, on reading for the audiobook of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw: [bold added]

I consider Henry James the most extraordinary writer (well, I almost prefer Edith Wharton, but don’t tell anyone I said that). I know his work very well, and I love it. The Turn of the Screw is extraordinary—the idea of these children knowing, in a ghastly way, stuff they shouldn’t know is so terribly good...

Interviewer: How do you use your voice to evoke a book’s atmosphere?

I think the writing does that for you. It gives you so many clues as to how it should be read.

Interviewer: Well, it does when you’re talking about a brilliant author.

Absolutely. I don’t know what you do if you’re reading Dan Brown aloud. I really don’t.

Bazinga! The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown must have felt that one across the Atlantic.

Palm Sunday, 2016

Throughout Holy Week churches recite the Passion of Jesus. Today the congregation read Luke's Gospel, in which the Roman centurion observes at the Crucifixion, "surely this was an innocent man." That statement evokes sadness, and perhaps anger at the injustice of the wronged Innocent.

In Matthew and Mark the centurion states "Truly this man was the son of God." To the same emotions of sadness and anger we must add fear: if one kills the son of God, there will surely be a price to pay.

The death of Jesus occurred in the past, and we can do nothing about that now except quake in fear of Divine retribution. We can, however, strive to protect the innocent today. Not surprisingly, I prefer Luke's version.

Looking Out for your Outlook

(American Senior Communities image)

An optimistic outlook seems to reduce the likelihood of acquiring Alzheimer's Disease. In a group of adults who "were healthy and free of dementia" [bold added]

those who held negative stereotypes of seniors at the start of the study were more likely to develop the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s later: a decrease in the volume of the brain’s hippocampus—a key memory center—and an increase in amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles.

All subjects gave their optimistic/pessimistic views 20 years before the diagnosis was confirmed in some of them.

Among the 158 subjects who had MRIs, those holding more-negative views showed three times more hippocampal decline than those with less-negative views. Among the 74 subjects who had autopsies, the negatives had a “significantly greater accumulation” of plaques and tangles.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine." -- Proverbs 17:22

Related: "older people have less anxiety and sadness and more overall satisfaction."

There May be Leftovers

For last night's St. Patrick's Day dinner our in-house advocate of organic ingredients insisted on buying everything at the local Whole Foods Market. The corned beef cost $10 a pound, and the cabbage, potatoes, and carrots enjoyed a similar multiple over the offerings from other supermarkets.

Preparing the corned beef was extremely simple: simmer in the pot for three hours, glaze with mustard and brown sugar, then roast for 30 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees. All was consumed.

This weekend I'm going to try again with the cheaper name brand (pictured) purchased at Costco. We'll see if the diners detect a difference. Even if they don't like it as much, at least this time there will be leftovers.

Related: corned beef and cabbage "have little or nothing to do with Ireland."

Heavy Metal

The ancient Okidata laser printer refused to print. The error codes on the primitive liquid crystal display insisted that the cartridges, fuser, and other electronics be replaced. Getting new parts would cost more than $300, the approximate cost of an entirely new model.

The printer was bulky and weighed over 50 pounds. It was an anchor, and not just a metaphorical one. I took it to the PARCA Donation Center in Redwood City. Clearing the clutter can be difficult but in this case it was easy.

Caution: clutter is not unequivocally bad. [bold added]

In one study, Kathleen Vohs, a marketing professor at the University of Minnesota, took 48 subjects individually into two types of rooms—one messy (with loose papers and pens strewn around the desk and floor) and one that was spic-and-span. She had the subjects do a classic test of creativity: Generate new uses for a Ping-Pong ball. When her team scored the results, the subjects who’d worked at a messy desk in a messy room were 28 percent more creative than those in the tidy environment. “When things are tidy, people adhere more to what’s expected of them,” Vohs says. “When things are messier, they break free from norms.”

Sorry, dear, I can't be creative if I'm picking up all the time.