Why?

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing a sweet young man in his early 20’s who moved with his hearing-impaired mother from Ethiopia and Sudan to America. For six years he has held the job of concierge at the retirement center at which I taught a class. Impressively, he was attending Seattle Central Community College and he loved the challenge of his courses. I've had the pleasure of chatting with him many times about his life and ambitions. His smile was genuine, and his sense of humor lightened many moments for the center’s residents. What further impressed me was his excitement about life’s possibilities. His goal was to attend the University of Washington. He had the grades, obviously the work ethic and even some scholarships. He continued to work to earn further money needed. I was looking forward to congratulating him on graduating with his AA degree this weekend. I knew how proud he was and could only imagine how proud his mother must be.

Instead of enjoying a celebration of his accomplishment, he lies unconscious in extremely critical condition in a Harborview Intensive Care Unit. Walking down a sidewalk after leaving his Beacon Hill apartment the other evening, he was jumped and attacked by 6 men who beat and kicked him to unconsciousness from which he has not recovered. It was a random attack, the purpose robbery. They have taken more than ever could be imagined. I so hope they have not taken everything.

How's the weather? Call a ham.

The sun is out in Seattle. We soooo want spring. Actually we so want constant warmth and blue skies. It has been off and on and iffy, cool and drizzly, then sunny and back to cool. I know, not a compelling way to begin a blog entry, the weather. It reminds me of a short foray I once made into ham radio. A guy I was with at the time was a bit of an electronic nerd (not meant derogatorily, he went on to own a cable TV company). We had an impressive, at the time, reel-to-reel music system, electronic chess and the aforementioned ham radio. I listened to it and considered trying to learn the Morse code but never did. In those days, learning to tap out code was required to become a “ham”. I remember feeling fascinated for a while listening to folks from all over the world chatting back and forth. I soon learned, though, there is a universal “ham” obsession with weather. Now, in many crisis, these folks have played impressive roles in lifesaving. Alerting to weather information at those times maybe critical. That said, it seemed like every time I heard “hams” chatting it was about the weather. How’s the weather? What’s the weather like there? I don’t know why I expected more esoteric banter, but I would have wanted to know more interesting things from someone across the world than the current state of their weather. “Have you given thought to Spinoza lately?” “What’s the state of mind/body medicine in your part of the world?” Ok, so I’m sounding a bit snobbish, but I never even heard them share a recipe! I know with new forms of communication available, ham radio has taken a very back seat. I’m sure ham aficionados are patient, though. The world one day may find itself with the scenario of communication satellites being obliterated; the world in chaos and once again the tapping of a simple mechanical key will become the lifeblood of communication. In the meantime forget the Internet when you want to know the weather somewhere in the world, call a ham.

Voila! Our Experience

We dined at a small French restaurant, Voila!, in the Madison Valley area of Seattle last night. We began with an hors d oeuvre of escargot and a salad. The Escargot was placed on French bread baguette rounds dripping with a garlic butter mixed with finely chopped parsley and basil. Hank is fond of the escargot; I loved the garlic butter mixture in which I dipped the French bread served at the table. The salad was three endive leaves topped with rough chopped endive, leeks and walnuts, finely chopped shallots, vinaigrette, and blue cheese chunks.

For the main course I ordered the Cassoulet topped with buttered breadcrumbs and Hank the veal liver. The Cassoulet wasn’t quite as good, I felt, as Café Campagne near the Pike Place Market but was tasty. (Leftovers brought home were even better the next day.) It had the requisite duck, pork and sausage (and I thought I tasted some lamb), Cannalini beans and, for texture and taste, the breadcrumb topping. I felt it had a stronger tomato base to the sauce than I prefer.

Hank’s veal liver was served in 2” medallions in a sauce consisting basically, he felt, of dark wine and onions. He didn’t like the sauce and wasn’t impressed with the dish in general. The meat was surrounded with a mashed and piped yams seasoned mildly and poorly. One taste that came through was nutmeg. The liver wasn’t overdone, but not impressive.

We finished the meal with coffee and Sambuca (they didn’t have our desired anisette and Sambuca doesn’t hold it’s own in the coffee as well.)

I believe I’m sounding like a bit of a snob here, The entrées were in the $15 range, less than Café Campagne, The small chandelier and candle lit interior was pleasant.