I stopped for lunch at a cute Japanese place called Washoku Cafe on 37th between Madison and 5th. Decent, reasonably priced Japanese comfort foods like donburi and noodles, and very nice waitstaff. It’s one of those places that you can take a long lunch, sipping your noodle broth and read a magazine. If only we could do that every day…

二人離れて過ごした夜は
月が遠くで泣いていたよ
二人離れて過ごした夜は
月が遠くで泣いていた

本当の強さは誰が教えてくれて
優しさは誰が伝えててくれた？
誰がいたから歩こうとして
誰に髪をなでてほしかった？
誰があきらめないで言ってくれた？
忘れないずっと

道に迷った時そして
道が遠すぎた時に
一人つぶやいていたよ
そんなものだと…

これからもずっとこの歌声が
あなたにとどきますようにと
これからもずっとこの歌声が
あなたにとどくようにと

…

Ed Hyman also has no idea.

Fruganism is basically dumpster diving–grocery stores throw away tons (literally) of perishable and non-perishable foodstuffs every day that can be salvaged and used at no cost, save except the sense of propriety. This girl blogs regularly about her finds as a frugan, and not only is she able to eat (very well) for $0, she also finds things like books, home furnishings, and clothes, some that she can sell at a PROFIT. Who doesn’t want free money?

Not only does she save money and make money, but she also helps reduce waste and landfill clutter. Fruganism isn’t a new phenomenon nor is it restricted to the U.S. (I watched a documentary about it on National Geographic), but it makes me wonder why frugans, especially those that rely on diving for food items, don’t approach local stores and set up pick-up arrangements. Not only does this save the process of bagging the refuse, possibly resulting in cleaner food, the items can be exchanged in a more systematic way. Then, the extras that don’t get distributed to frugans can be donated to food banks or the homeless and hungry.

This then also raises the question, if it were known that grocery stores distributed food items at no cost, would people become less willing to pay money for these items, or any money at all? By streamlining the process, the stigma of dumpster diving is removed and the barriers to freeloading are removed. This is just another example that reinforces the notion that the food production system in the developed world is flawed and designed for overproduction.

99-cent slices of New York-style pizza at Two Bro’s …
Tropical drinks and tequila at Zanzibar …
a Lunar New Year spread in Flushing …

and Isabella’s, a new favorite delicious and reasonable brunch spot on the Upper West Side. The dining room is light and airy and while not phenomenal the eggs benedict selections are quite tasty.

The first stop being 46th, I panicked and had to get off the train. But I had never been in the neighborhood before and with the roads completely covered in snow, there was no way I could find a cab. I guess I looked pretty lost as I asked a passing man in scrubs how I could get to the other side of the platform. He looked pretty disoriented probably having just got off of a night shift but was very patient and helpful in leading me to the underpass. What really surprised me was that he asked me if I had money for an extra fare (which I didn’t… not in small bills) and without thinking handed me $2. The next eastbound train pulled in quickly and since I didn’t need the fare I tried to give him the money back, but he insisted I just hurry and catch the train.

Clearly my head wasn’t on straight this morning, but I was especially touched that this man would help a complete stranger without apprehension or hesitation. Living in a city, it’s difficult not to walk about the streets with a wary eye, hard to trust the people you pass on the street. Wherever this guy is, I am extremely grateful for not only helping me but also in a way changing the way I look at people each day.

Hmm, one is a distinguished journalist for the Washington Post and New York Times, the other a blogger and a former American baseball player in Russia. Not that I harbor disdain for jocks or anything… Anyway, in this post, Matt Taibbi copies paragraphs of Brooks’s original article, hardly making a coherent argument against it, and criticizes the wealthy while screaming from the mountaintops that he is a “Yuppie” and part of the same upper-crust establishment to which your vilified Wall Street bankers belong.

So, David Brooks might be “defending the rich” but he makes several excellent points that are often forgotten by the masses of unemployed Americans consumed by under-informed anger for the wealthy. One of these points is that by roasting the entire financial services industry before the American public, we are somehow no longer responsible for taking out a jumbo supersubprime mortgage to buy an excessively wasteful California stucco bungalow, for which we would have had to take a second job to fund the mortgage payments, just to keep up with the Joneses. How about the women that racked up $10,000 in credit card debt just because they couldn’t stop buying shoes? (True story, this happened to my mother’s co-worker.) The American economy is 70% driven by consumer purchases–the insatiable appetite for fiscal irresponsibility embedded into our collective economic being is a fundamental part of the collapse. We can point the finger at the bankers for extending credit to people who were nowhere near credit-worthy, we can point the finger at the ratings agencies for failing to downgrade the monoline insurers slapping AAA on everything, but three more are pointing back at us (try it sometime). The point is not that our dear friend and High Priest Lloyd Blankfein carries no responsibility for the financial crisis but that the ire of the populists ignore the culpability of the collective American public.

The second is that populist rage fuels politicking, as if the lethargic felines on Capitol Hill are any less self-serving than the next guy, as if they were elected for their demonstrated efficiency in problem-solving, as if they acted only in the best interest of their constituency, as if they knew wtf they are doing! Congress these days seems to have more in common with high school student government than with the legislative branch of the most powerful country on this planet. Remember, our Founding Fathers had no faith in the uneducated, unenlightened populace to make well-informed decisions concerning the future of our nation with their one vote, so they created the Senate. They were also careful to endow each American, no matter how moronic, with the power to influence government, which is why we have the House of Representatives. When Congress blindly panders to one group (either the wealthy and educated or the poor and uneducated) it is not good news for effective legislation