DC Happenings

The juxtaposition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and tomorrow's Inauguration of Barack Obama has the media swirling. While ordinarily I'd be prone to thinking there's a lot of overkill happening, I admit to being captivated by a number of stories. Many of these stories have made me realize that while to me the sea change signifies the hope and change in direction our country drastically needs, to many people, Obama's election and ascension to the Presidency signifies a moment they never thought they'd see and one that's been too long coming.

These stories deserve to be told. One that had particular affect on me was an interview by NPR's Michele Norris with Lynwood Westray, a former White House butler. Mr. Westray had so much dignity in reflecting upon his years in the White House it made me smile just to know he would see Obama take the Oath of Office. Another story was portrayed in an interview with Rep. John Lewis conducted by (the often overly dramatic) Brian Williams--Williams captured Lewis' absolute incredulity that he would witness a black man as President, reading Lewis' comments from election night, when he was overcome by emotion. Lewis has a long history as a Civil Rights leader and has suffered many times for his beliefs and actions; it is hard for me to imagine the emotion, resolve, and pride he must feel on this historic day.

While I don't have such a compelling personal story, I am nonetheless hopeful about the direction we're headed and once again will look forward to traveling abroad without having to steal a Canadian flag for my backpack! I won't be able to attend the inauguration (duty calls), but I've got my finger on the pulse and some "contacts" in the field (hope for a guest post).

And for a turn to the lighter side, I have to mention one of the not-so-trumped-up inaugural events happening in DC (though kudos to Rachel Maddow, see below): the saging of the White House. Fantastic! Whatever we can do to get the bad juju out works for me.

Of course this event brought out some characters to Dupont Circle and even provided the chance to throw a shoe (a la the Iraqui journalist) at Bush! To paraphrase my friend JD, "You know we've all wanted to be that shoe at some point over the last 8 years!"

Sea Kittens or Chicken of the Sea?

Oh my!

PETA has introduced a new campaign to call fish "Sea Kittens"--this apparently gives them the charismatic megafuana entitlement they deserve and leaves those of us in the fish world shaking our heads and ordering up another plate of freshly hooked salmon! Really? According to the PETA website, "People don't seem to like fish. They're slithery and slimy, and they have eyes on either side of their pointy little heads—which is weird, to say the least." I beg your pardon. Fish are fascinating, most of them do not slither, and while they may be slimy, they are better off for it! And, apparently the PETA authors haven't seen a Shortspine Thornyhead (Sebastolobus alascanus) because their heads are anything but pointy.

Shortspine Thornyhead-NOAA-AFSC

The absurdity of the sea-kitten premise aside, I cannot believe how utterly juvenile the website introducing this campaign is. Who is PETA trying to reach? Perhaps it appeals to squeamish 7 year old girls or maybe I'm overestimating the intellect of the average consumer, but it just seems...well...stupid. And besides, I'm just not a cat lover, even in their cuddly juvenile form!

From the Sailboat Astarte

Guest Post from MKH:

I am trying out Kathryn's blog (which I understand only has three readers). I am her uncle and will be cruising on a sailboat and need to post to a blog from some different web situations. My system doesn't work. This is actually a test to see if I can post the way I want. Shameless promotion: If any of you three readers want to follow our trip check out www.sailastarte.com. We will be leaving Florida February 1st.

Thanks Kathryn, let's hope this works

Emmalou

We've got a new pet...actually millions of them! Collectively, we're calling them "Emmalou." Around Christmas, my family was handing out starters for some Amish Friendship Bread that I was quite certain wasn't Amish (the inclusion of Instant Pudding in the final recipe was a dead give away). Anyway, I was intrigued by the bag I was told to "mush" every day and feed every 5. It wasn't that the bread turned out bad, just very sweet, kind of heavy, and not exactly the stuff you want as your daily bread (and okay, I was weirded out by the instant pudding necessity). So, I decided to start experimenting, cutting back on the sugar and milk it said to feed it. A few weeks later and I've got a starter that's bubbling away like crazy!


I was feeling like I was doing a pretty good job nurturing Emmalou (who was named while listening to "Red Dirt Girl" but got a slight twist, in deference to the artist--who knows, perhaps she'd considering having yeast named after her to be an honor). So, today was the true test--could I actually produce a reasonably tasty sourdough-type loaf of peasant bread with the newest member of our family? After all, we're missing Pane D'Amore so much---what we would give for a chunk of the cranberry-walnut bread or a slice of Pane d'Oro slathered with fresh butter! Yum! So, it seemed fitting that an experiment in baking might be in order for the new year. Besides, if you get the cogs turning correctly, homemade bread fits nicely with the graduate education-induced austerity program!

So, Emmalou gave a piece of herself to the bowl along with a bunch of flour, some water, and salt--so simple! We had put half of Emmalou in a separate jar to bubble away more slowly in the fridge for future experiments and took the part that wasn't used for bread and fed it for use in tomorrow's breakfast: sourdough pancakes. We'll see.

After letting Emmalou's progeny go to work for 5 hours or so, other projects demanded some attention, so with the bread-stone warmed, into the oven the boule went. 40 or so minutes later, out the boule came looking like true honest-to-goodness artisan bread. Amazing! I slid the baguettes in for their go in the oven and celebrated my success with a delicious Old Thumper.

Another half hour or so and out came the baguettes looking impressive in their own right. Amazing x2. We waited for it all to cool before diving in for a sample, and while not exactly award winning, I had custom-crafted some pretty yummy bread! It lacked the true sourdough flavor I was hoping for, but was definitely more than edible and bordering on pretty darn good. I'm sure Emmalou will be happy to give some of herself up for another experiment next week...for now it's on to sourdough pancakes in the morning!

P.S.
This is what our Saline Canine looks like when celebrating her birthday with a delicious homemade carrot and peanut butter cake...in tribute to Max.

Ocean Hall

One of the perks of being near DC is the ease of taking on new museum exhibits bit by bit, avoiding the 3pm burnout, "All I want is a coffee" tantrum. And so it was on a recent day off, post-lunch, we wandered into the new Ocean Hall at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. One of us had already been there for a work-related show-and-tell, probably without the humble masses explaining misinformation to their wide-eyed offspring ("pelagic"-as in, rhymes with magic, not the hard g, as in lag, you idiot! Geez!). I was instantly reminded of the time I was at the Ballard Locks and a too-eager father was explaining to his bored daughter that "if these dams weren't here, the whole lake would drain." Apparently, he hadn't looked at a map of Seattle ca. 1910 and at that time I couldn't keep my mouth shut. This time I refrained--the dad was clearly struggling and I was pleased he even had his kids there, and besides, it wasn't an egregious lie.

Anyway, despite the crowds (everyone else had the day off too, apparently), we did get in some good wandering. There's a nice little "Intro. to the Oceans" video display that takes place on a globe--it seems as if it's magically suspended in mid-air which raises the intrigue a bit (and also has a bit of that CNN election-night hologram quality about it), but overall the information is interesting and well presented.

The exhibits were all worth a gander, even though the whales did have a disproportionate amount of space (okay, they're big, but how many species are there???). The inverts. weren't dismissed though, with several displays on plankton and some good nudibranch pictures too! And they even had a piece that featured Trichodesmium, a fascinating little dude. I was more drawn to the giant squid (even though the case it was in made for terrible viewing), the coelacanth, and of course the Mola mola, despite the fact that it appeared to be a rather plastic facsimile.
A few hours in, and after sequestering myself in the marine science/maritime history corner to get away from it all (funny how log books just don't draw the same crowds as sharks!), I decided we could call it a day and come back when the crowds were down...if there is such a time. All in all there was lots to see and most every aspect of marine biology seemed to be represented (although I'm sure some arcane subjects were overlooked and someone will let me know). One of the sections I'll have to give some attention to on my next go is the prehistoric fishes display--I was tempted, but then couldn't get close enough to read the placards. I guess that's good incentive to return!

Missing the Snow

With all the fluffly white stuff--er, wintery mix--falling on Seattle and the surrounding areas I'm a little sad I don't still live there to enjoy it all. Judging by the grumbling masses though, perhaps it's not really all that worth getting nostalgic about. Still, there's nothing like a city that gets completely incapacitated by snow!