This Omnivore’s Dilemma

1 Reply

I pride myself on being an omnivore–at least I did until I read Michael Pollan’s,"The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals."  In it, he explains how the food that’s on our plates–whether it’s a Big Mac from McDonald’s, an organic meal purchased at Whole Foods, a local meal produced by a sustainable farm or one that you might hunt for yourself makes it to the table.  The book lives up to the dictionary definition of dilemma, "a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives."  The story of how food arrives on our plates is complex–but Pollan explains it in heartbreaking detail–the amount of carbon fuel required to produce organic crops, the bushels of corn required to fatten a chicken to the guilty pleasure he gets from hunting–it’s all in there, in wonderful, engrossing detail.

Having read the book, I almost wish that I had not eaten from Pollan’s tree of knowledge–I want back into my ignorant Garden of Eatin’ where I was happy with the stories I purchased from Whole Foods or the convenience of my McDonald’s Egg McMuffin.  Though I must continue eating, it’s impossible to revert to ignorance–instead, I have to live in denial.   It won’t be the first time.  As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I lived close to Pollan’s ideal.  My family had a garden, kept animals, and prided themselves on growing everything without chemicals and preserving foods through natural processes.  When I wanted a turkey for an American style Thanksgiving celebration, they introduced me to my neighbors who introduced me to the turkeys.  I thought, "I didn’t want to meet and greet you, I just wanted to eat you." but there I was holding the squirming bird to see if he was big enough.  (He was.)   I must admit, those were some of the most delectable birds I’ve tasted, but still I longed for the familiar seemingly antiseptic Butterball.  They were so much less messy. 

All of the sudden those folks who are trying to eat local seem a little bit more rational, and I’m longing for the days when my Lithuanian hosts would go out and grab the eggs from the chicken coop in the morning.  I used to fret when I met an animal, and they told me when he was going to expire–"oh, the pig?  Easter."  I was still living in my saran wrapped cocoon of ignorance.  Now my cozy cocoon’s been torn again–and I’m thinking, heh, isn’t New Jersey the Garden State?  Maybe there’s an answer on a local farm…

NYC High School Students Pick Great Reads

1 Reply

Urban Academy, an “alternative” public high school in Manhattan requires that students must complete projects in six different areas–creative arts, criticism, literature, math, social studies, and science. As part of the literature competency, students are required to read a novel and discuss it with an adult reader. I have been a volunteer reader for a few years now and the students choose great books. With them, I’ve read: Going After Cacciato, A Clockwork Orange, Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep, Waiting, and now, A Lesson Before Dying by Earnest Gaines.

In addition to choosing great books, these students are amazing readers–the books are read, and re-read, highlighted, dog-eared, post-it noted and underlined. They’re able to identify themes, relate them back to their lives and always come up with new insights into the work. Almost every day I read a blog post or news story about how New York City public schools could be doing better by our students. These experiences with the students and the committed teachers from Urban Academy is just one example of the good work that’s going on in New York City Schools. These kids are able to read, critique, discuss and express themselves; they also are passionate about what they’ve read. I always learn a great deal from them which is why I never pass up the opportunity to read with them. Lately, I’ve found myself putting my “Urban” hat on when I’m reading for myself–reading a bit more closely, marking pages, and taking notes in the margin. It just makes reading more fun. And if you happen to be looking for a good book, you might check out my Urban Academy Reading list.

Special bonus, a how-to on “masterly marginalia” from the folks at Levenger.

Training with Paula Radcliffe

Leave a reply

This morning when I finished my run, Paula told me "Congratulations, you’ve just set a new personal record for the mile."   No, I’m not in England training with world class marathon runners, but I did recently get a nike+iPod sport kit.  (No, you don’t have to buy the special Nike shoes–if you were wondering–I did the pouch from Marware)  Anyway, one of the many easter eggs is that when you set a new record for the mile, Paula congratulates you.  I had no idea that this feature existed.  I’m secretly hoping that Dean Karnanzes is going to be talking to me some day. Congratulations.  You’ve logged 100 miles in 7 days, and set a new personal record for covering that many miles.  I salute the Nike+iPod design team.  This has been a very fun $30 purchase.  (And it automatically keeps track of how far I’ve gone, how fast and even where.)

Better: Notes on A Surgeon’s Performance

2 Replies

I just finished reading Better:  A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance. While mistakes are a part of learning, medicine is the profession where a doctor’s mistake could harm or kill a patient.   The decisions I make on a daily basis do not involve life or death–in medicine, doctors make these decisions every day.

Gawande explores how doctors can do "better." and takes readers on location–from forward military hospitals in Iraq to a polio mop up in India.  His conclusion–the technology isn’t nearly as important as process. 
He begins by talking about how hard it is to get something as simple as handwashing right–and why its so insanely difficult and finishes with a tour of a hospital in India where a patient dies because simple supplies were not readily available.  He also talked about the bias that we have here in the US toward new technology–which reminded me of this article where Shapin argues that "uses, not innovations, drive human technology." 
Gawande told of how resourceful, creative and persistent doctors were in developing nations.  In these settings, doctors are almost forced to be better–they turn out to be amazing generalists–administering chemotherapy using pirated drugs or pioneering new procedures for laproscopic stomach ulcer repair.  We would do well to learn from their ingenious approaches.
The ideas he suggests for doctors to get better at their medicine practice and become "positive deviants" are applicable for all of us–they are:

  • Ask an unscripted question–it helps develop rapport and has a way of illuminating what you’re working on.
  • Don’t complain: "it’s boring, it doesn’t solve anything and it will get you down."  Wonder what he would have to say about Kegan and Lahey’s work?
  • Count something:  Apply the scientific method.  Keep track, and use what you learn to make what you do better.
  • Write something:  Share what you know–take the opportunity to reflect.
  • Change:   Be aware of what you’re doing and approach it in a new way

Knowing When To Fold

Leave a reply

What’s the fastest and most fun way to get to work? I’ve been commuting in New York City for over 8 years–from Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn (6 out of 8 in Brooklyn) and can say hands down that cycling is the fastest and definitely the most fun. However, it presents its own challenges–where do you lock your bike? What if you work up a sweat on the way in? How do you avoid injury?

My new commute from Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, to SoHo is anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes on the F Train. However, I noticed that I missed starting my day by riding into the office. Bromptonstypeblack

My previous job was very bike commute friendly–I had a place where I could leave my bike indoors, a gym on the premises for showers and a dedicated bike lane for 7 miles of the route. My new gig at MOUSE presents different challenges–it’s much closer but there’s no bike parking and also no easy place to shower. Moreover, as of May, we’re also going to be in Glen Ridge, NJ–though only 13 miles from Lower Manhattan, the best bike route would take me over the George Washington Bridge, bringing the daily milage to 60–and rendering it very unlikely on all but the longest of summer days. So I needed a bike that I could easily stow on the train–enter the Brompton.

I hadn’t heard of them until Eddie Rubeiz, a former Columbia colleague raved about his folder. After taking one for a test ride and seeing that it does in fact fold and unfold in seconds, I was sold.

As a test, yesterday I rode the bike from Cobble Hill to the Puck Building and back . The trip, one-way, door to door took 15 minutes, plus a minute, thirty seconds for the fold. The ride over the Brooklyn Bridge was swift–the Brompton has a 54 tooth front front chain ring and a mini-2 speed derailleur which makes it easy to get up to speed, cruise as well as crank uphill. I was pleasantly surprised by how stable the Brompton feels and how easy it is to balance at traffic lights. The bike is also easy to handle when one’s not riding it–whether it’s picking it up when it’s folded, or moving it around in while it’s on its real wheel and “parked.” The bike is well-designed and well-built. It’s sound engineering has made an alternative morning commute possible.

Perhaps the most appealing aspects of commuting by bike is how independent I feel. I am not waiting on a subway train, stuck in traffic or thinking that I should have gone to the gym. I’m out and about, riding–which is just a ton of fun.

Continuous Partial Attention? Hey you, listen!!!

6 Replies

I was blown away by the ideas in Linda Stone’s talk at O’Reilly’s e-tech conference, summarized on Radar.  In a nutshell, she talks about the limits of "continuous partial attention" and urges that we use employ "quality of life" as the benchmark for adopting new technologies.  It reminded me of an idea expounded by Frank Moretti at the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning in his History of Communications class.   In sum, modern, web connected society may herald a return to pre-literate, oral cultures–where the notion of the self was something that existed outside of us–where we responded like a chorus and pinned our actions on the furies.  Does continuous partial attention really mean that we’re not paying attention to what’s important to us?  Or is it just adaptatation to new tools?  Like Stone, I’m inclined to agree about smarter technologies really being able to help us manage what’s important and what’s not.  Just being able to create a master feed on Bloglines is a massive improvement on surfing from one site to another–of course, it means that one can consume even more, which brings me back to her question:  how is this technology improving my quality of life?

Transit Strike Day 2

1 Reply

While the ride in was peaceful and quiet, last night on the way home I had a minor accident–I, and the person I hit are OK, but here’s what happened: a pedestrian decided he was going to jaywalk through the cars on Canal street.  He cut from in front of an SUV and jumped right in front of your humble cyclist who was moving at a decent clip through traffic. I managed to scream "HEH, WATCHOUT!!!" and  I was able to slow down, but my shoulder slammed into his torso.  He said "sorry," and hobbled along.  Other than mashing my ankle into the crank, and a bruise, I’m none the worse for the wear.  Day one was fun, and I started to think that heh, I could be commuting by bike all through the winter, but the real reason I ride indoors is not the temperature–sure it’s cold, but I’m not outside that long and get pretty warm once moving–the reason not to ride is that it gets dark early and it’s harder to see and be seen.  I am having second thoughts about riding in today–both the pedestrian and I got pretty lucky.  I understand that folks get impatient but, we would all do well to allow a little extra time and slow down.  I am saying that for me as much as my fellow New Yorkers.  Be safe out there.

Biking Through the Strike

Leave a reply

Rode my bike in this AM to avery the chaos of the NYC transit strike.  Wore extra layers and lobster claw gloves to cope with the cold.  Here are a few observations:

* Lots of traffic over Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges–especially pedestrian foot traffic.
* Lower manhattan was eerily quiet–like an early Sunday morning.
* Serious congestion around New York Penn Station. 
* Cabbies are picking up multiple fares–be careful of pedestrians!
* Bike lanes were well marked.
* There were lots of fellow cyclists out there, skateboarders, and folks on scooters.
* Serious traffic coming down broadway–seemed like gridlock. 

Commute photos

The Real Glass Ceiling is at Home

1 Reply

It’s worth reading Linda Hirschman’s article "Homeward Bound."  She argues that the real glass ceiling isn’t in the executive suite, but the home.  Hirschman surveyed high-powered brides and grooms from the New York Times wedding section and tracked their career choices over time.  Almost all chose to stay home.  She argues that these well-educated, high powered women would lead richer lives if couples made choices that enabled women to stay in the workplace full time to pursue careers and if society were better at supporting those choices by providing child care.  Hirschman offers different provocative yet constructive take that what Maureen Dowd’s been writing about in the Times and in her new book.

Nanny Knows Flow

Leave a reply

Flow is a state of concentration so focused that it amounts to absolute absorption in an activity.   My grandmother, Anna Bongiovanni, who just turned 95, is a master of entering the state without ever having read Mihaly Csikzenthmihaly’s "Flow:  The Psychology of Optimal Experience."  Along with having a flair for completing crossword puzzles, my grandmother is a knitter.   She makes afghans for her grandchildren, and clothes for her great grandchildren, but what impresses me is that she’s always creating new challenges for herself–which is a condition for flow.   The idea is that you want to set out a task for yourself that is not too easy–which would lead to boredom, or too difficult, which would promote anxiety but one that is just the right level of challenge.  For this particular afghan, my grandmother started out with a swath of wallpaper to match the color of my cousin Noelle’s room, used wool yarns instead of acrylic, and then incorporated a popcorn stitch instead of a regular one.  So sure, it’s another afghan, another stitch, but what she’s really doing is finding new ways to transform herself at the young age of 95.  I should be so lucky.


Nanny Knitting
Posted by teddyb.