Steve Fischer's Random Blog

Category: Culture

  • I Lost a Picasso

    Today I hit one of those development stopping points where the next chunk you start will take a while. I needed to head home in about 30 minutes so it didn’t make sense to start the next thing. I figured I’d just get home a little early.

    About a block from my office there’s this tiny bar. I’ve checked it out a couple times before. It’s nothing special. Tiny, only a few beers on tap, but at least they are decent. And during happy hour draft beers are $3.

    So with an extra 30 minutes I figured why not.

    So I’m drinking a Blue Point Winter Ale (not bad) and checking out my RSS subscriptions via Google Reader on my phone. I’m sitting right next to two guys who clearly know the bartender and are chatting away. I’m trying not to eavesdrop.

    Then this other guy goes behind the bar and makes himself a drink. He’s not serving anyone, he just seems like the owner. He knows these two guys and after pouring himself something strong they start chatting.

    Again, trying not to eavesdrop.

    But it’s a tiny place and they are right next to me. And let’s recall that this is in DUMBO, a fairly artsy, eclectic neighborhood in Brooklyn.

    The owner says to the two guys,

    I had a really bad day. I lost a Picasso.

    At this point, trying not to eavesdrop is out the window. Surely I misheard him. He lost an espresso, or a pistachio, or a panini.

    But no. After not eavesdropping some more, this guy must be somehow affiliated with MOMA (the Museum of Modern Art). Some Picasso was being transported from Queens to Manhattan. It didn’t get there. He spent the whole day trying to track it down. He still hasn’t found it.

    This boggles my mind on many levels.

    First of all, where else do you randomly walk into a bar and hear the phrase, "I lost a Picasso"?

    Second, I’ve had bad days at work before. I’ve had really bad days at work. But I’ve never lost a priceless work of art. Software defects suddenly don’t look so bad.

    And finally, I really hope he finds it…

  • Unhappy Meals

    This is ridiculous. I would totally agree that a school shouldn’t have a McDonald’s as their primary lunch option. Or that schools should have vending machines full of soda and nothing else.

    But suing McDonald’s because the toys in Happy Meals entice children to eat unhealthy food is ludicrous. My daughters love happy meals. They always go for the toys (even though they are usually lame). But here’s the deal. My eight year old doesn’t say to me, "see you later, I’m going to McDonald’s".

    She gets McDonald’s when I take them. I’m the grown up. I am making a rational choice to treat my girls occasionally with food that isn’t great for them because it makes them happy (and it’s easy, which makes me happy). That is a rational adult choice that I should be allowed to make. And as a parent I should be smart enough to say no if my daughter wants McDonald’s two days in a row.

    The plaintiff in the lawsuit says that McDonald’s

    uses toys as bait to induce her kids to clamor to go to McDonald’s

    So can I sue Nickelodeon for airing ads that make my kids "clamor" for sugary cereal? How about the circus? Let’s sue Ringling Brothers for making my kids "clamor" for cotton candy. What about the ice cream truck that plays that stupid music. Talk about clamor…

    Better yet, can we sue people for being crappy parents?…

  • Vote for Beer

    http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/WJW-Eb59qwI/

    You have to love Wired if only for that headline.

    For the record I’m a huge Dogfish Head fan. I’d take the Raison D’etre over the 60 minute, but check out the 90 minute IPA if you can find it. Excellent.

    I’m drinking one right now…

  • Brooklyn Dark Matter

    Been asking every bartender I know. No one knows if there will be more. Much sadness…

  • Beer is Good

    My wife got invited to the Yankees game tonight (OK, I’m the Yankee fan, but she’s sitting behind the dugout – how is that fair?) so I decided to get an early bite at my favorite bar/restaurant.

    They always have good beer on tap, and they pretty much always have one of my favorite wheat beers on tap, Weihenstephaner.

    But I was in the mood for something different. They always give tastes and the Harpoon Celtic Ale was the beer of the day. I asked Jerry, the bartender, how it was and he responded, "it’s ok". (Jerry is always honest – a good trait in a bartender – plus he buys free rounds, an even better trait). And it was fine, but not great.

    Then I noticed that there was a new beer from Brooklyn Brewery on the menu. Brooklyn Dark Matter. Now, I am more of a wheat beer guy. I also like hoppy ales. I’m not a huge stout guy (of course I like Guinness, but it’s not my first choice). So I asked Jerry what Dark Matter was like, was it a stout?

    He got this look on his face. "It’s really, really good, want a taste?". So I tried it. Again, not my usual style, but oh my. Not a porter, more like a German dark with amazing flavors. So I ordered it.

    After a few sips, I turned to Jerry. "This is really, really good". A little later in the beer, I turned to him again, "damn, this is one of the best beers I’ve ever had". And he just kept agreeing.

    It’s also strong. Two was my limit. Oh, I wanted more, but I also wanted to walk a straight line on the way home.

    Not sure how many folks outside of Brooklyn will get a shot at this brew. If you ever see it, try it. Unless you are a Bud fan, you won’t regret it.

  • The Best Places to Live in NYC

    Nate Siler is a statistician who used to crunch baseball numbers and now runs fivethrityeight.com, probably the best statistical political analysis on the planet.

    He’s a recent New Yorker and did a project for New York Magazine analyzing every neighborhood in the five boroughs of New York City.

    This is one of those great articles that will mainly start a bunch of arguments among New Yorkers. For the record, my neighborhood is fourth and Brooklyn has 5 of the top 7 (Brooklyn’s Park Slope got the top slot, which will annoy everyone in Manhattan).

    There is also a cool, livability calculator that lets you play with the various ratings to find your perfect (or at least optimal) neighborhood. If you crank the restaurant importance up, our neighborhood, Boerum Hill, can rise to the top.

    Fun stuff. Let the arguments begin…

  • True Accomplishment

    Not sure what to say about this.

    http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/04/asteroids-record/

  • Understatement of the week

    We were pleased to learn that Tiger Woods will be playing the Masters in a few weeks – PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem

    I’m thinking backflips…

  • iCarly

    Danielle’s favorite show is now iCarly. While I really liked her old favorite, Phineas and Ferb, iCarly is also good. The premise is that Carly, a 15 year old girl, does a web show with her best friend Sam (Samantha) and her other friend Freddy doing the tech work. Their web show (in the show) is very popular.

    Carly lives with her older brother Spencer (a lot older). He is an artist so he’s both wacky and around a lot. Apparently her father is in the military and is away and the two of them live in a surprisingly large apartment in Seattle (what is it with TV apartments being way outside the occupant’s income? – see Friends). Aside from the fact that a 15 year old (and her friends) is left to herself for way too much time, the show is pretty harmless and definitely funny.

    We record it on our DVR. Danielle would watch it 20 times a day if we let her.

    There’s one show where they ask their viewers to send in videos of good dancing. They are expecting a few people to send in videos, but they get like a thousand videos. They try to watch them all and of course fall asleep trying. Then each of them has a funny dream involving crazy dancing. Danielle loves this episode and watches it a lot (since we have it recorded – honestly, do kids understand that we used to have to watch TV at a certain time?).

    I only mention this for one reason. What is up with the ads that Nickelodeon shows for iCarly? Danielle is 7, but I understand that older kids like the show. It probably works into early high school. And I guess parents must watch as well (I obviously do).

    Because one of the common sponsors is Nationwide insurance. Yeah, Danielle likes that ad. There are also some feminine hygiene ads that I thankfully have not had to explain yet (and yes, I’ll be using the “talk to your mother” approach).

    But this particular episode has an ad for a cosmetic surgery place (I guess this is NYC only). Seriously? We are advertising breast reductions and liposuction for pre-teens? Since we watch this episode all the time, this ad repeats all the time. I can’t hit fast forward fast enough.

    I can’t handle ads when she’s seven. What am I going to do when she’s a teenager?

  • Why me?

    There’s an odd phenomenon when I walk down the street. On a crowded street in Brooklyn, or pretty much anywhere, if someone needs directions they invariably ask me.

    At first I thought I was just imagining it. But then I started paying closer attention. There’s no denying it. The number of people who ask me for directions is statistically improbable. Even Danielle has noticed it. She started asking me, “why does everyone ask you?”.

    This morning on the way home from taking Danielle to school, two more people asked me for directions. Even when travelling in a city I don’t know, people ask me (I’m obviously not very helpful).

    I guess I’m just the quintessential non threatening white guy…