Weekend in Chicago

Quaint Bookshop in Evanston

Pussy and PumkinMy first pumking carving session!

Mexico

I'm in Juarez, Mexico. The food is nice and spicy, the temperature is warm, the people friendly, and I find the Mexican accent very, very attractive! BTW, I never really liked the "Mexican" food that I had eaten in the US, and now I learn that Burittos and hard-shelled tacos are a US invention!

Juarez

These empanadas were deliciously stuffed with ham, cheese, and cornREAL flowers at my table

This is not just any gnocchi; it's prawn gnocchi with salsa!
Downtown JuarezSunset in JuarezA restaurant themed after Frida Kahlo

Frida

Google quote(s) of the day:

At the age of eleven or thereabouts women acquire a poise and an ability to handle difficult situations which a man, if he is lucky, manages to achieve somewhere in the later seventies.
- PG Wodehouse

His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.
- Mae West

Always and never are two words you should always remember never to use.
- Wendell Johnson


Sir Pelham's quote is spot-on! I've always found that women are much stronger and resiliant than men. And Wendell Johnson's quote warns us not to make broad generalizations.

Europe wrap-up

1) I can't express how good the food at D'hoog was. Everything was presented so delightfully and tasted heavenly. And 4 hours later and perhaps an equal number of wine bottles later, I felt truly satisfied!

2) I love Europe, and I want to live there for sometime. The irony is that it is easier for me to accomplish that goal by working for an American company in America and then making the switch. Then again, I wonder if I should apply to business school in Europe i.e. LBS or INSEAD.

3) I love how in Europe you take the time to enjoy life as opposed to the rat-race elsewhere.

4) I had a hair-cut before I left for the US, and suprise, suprise one of the major topics of discussion (with my hair-stylist) was that GWB was oh, how to put it, "quelle hick."

Brugge

Pictures from my day in Brugge, Belgium. Brugges is like a European Disneyland; it's as if back in the day, the townplanners got together and came up with a plan to create a town that lives up to most people's (read = kitsch) expectations of Europe. On the plus side, I saw a few Dali paintings and managed to wander away from the throngs of tourists.

Just when you think it couldn't get any worse.

Dahlia Lithwick on the "compromise" bill that now makes torture official US policy.

For the five years since 9/11, we have been in the dark in this country. This president has held detainees in secret prisons and had them secretly tortured using secret legal justifications. Those held in secret at Guantanamo Bay include innocent men, as do those who have been secretly shipped off to foreign countries and brutally tortured there. That was a shame on this president.

But passage of the new detainee legislation will be a different sort of watershed. Now we are affirmatively asking to be left in the dark. Instead of torture we were unaware of, we are sanctioning torture we'll never hear about. Instead of detainees we didn't care about, we are authorizing detentions we'll never know about. Instead of being misled by the president, we will be blind and powerless by our own choice. And that is a shame on us all.

The US now operates secret prisons in Eastern Europe, sends people off to countries where they're tortured, believes that it's ok to strip persons "accused" of terrorism or abbeting terrorism to be stripped of Haebeus Corpus (or knowing what they're charged with), and wants to protect people who commited torture in the past.

How can you be a US citizen and not be outraged and disgusted by this? I'm just amazed at how many people a) don't know about this b) don't care and c) think it is perfectly OK.

Brad De Long is clearly disgusted:

This is bad. Very bad. I can't underscore how bad this is. This is our Fugitive Slave Act, our Sedition Act, our Korematsu. This is a danger to our domestic liberties and a terrifying threat to our national security--for its impact on our international standing and on our alliances may be terrible indeed.

I'm happy!

I just got back from a career discussion session at my alma-mater, where I spent the evening exploring different careers with students and talking about my experiences. While there are some students who present themselves very well and appear to have a plan, I really enjoyed working with the students who were still feeling there way around. And for some reason, I feel that I accomplished a lot today!

D'Hoog

On my last night in Mechelen, I completed another of my life goals -- to visit a Michilen starred restaurant. The food surpassed all expectations; it was absolutely exquisite and I was VERY happy.