johnb

I'll weigh in; it's something I've given some thought to, and had many discussions about. Bottom line for me is that they were justifiable, in that I'm satisfied that the alternatives (invading the homeland or blockading it and starving them out) would have been much worse. I don't believe the Japanese were "about to surrender." While there were those in the hierarchy that wanted to give up, from my reading on the subject there were more who didn't and wouldn't have, and the latter were the hard-line militarists who had control of national policy and were prepared to die themselves and accept unlimited deaths among others rather than face up to the disgrace of admitting they had been wrong all along not to mention the loss of face for them and for the nation as they saw it. The nuclear bombing was evil, but the alternative was more evil. The human suffering and loss of life, just for the Japanese people let alone Allied military, would have been much greater without using the bomb. Truman was right. This brings up a corollary issue, i.e. nuclear disarmament. It has been said that the main impact of getting rid of all nuclear weapons would be to make the world safe for conventional warfare, the kind that led to 60 million deaths in the course of WWII and millions more during the rest of the first half of the 20th century. I think that is true. If one were to look at a graph of the number of lives lost in warfare year by year through the 20th century, one would notice a sudden, marked, and sustained drop around late 1945. That is not a coincidence. As upsetting as the cold war standoff was, in the end the reality of MAD kept the superpowers mostly in check; what wars there were, such as Korea, Vietnam, etc., resulted in loss of life that paled in comparison to what the world would have experienced IMO without the threat of armageddon if the superpowers had lost control. Getting rid of lots of nuclear arms is good; all nuclear arms, not so much.

As a general statement, Chang will be around this Arlington location until the Rockville one opens next month. Then he will be there for likely at least a few weeks getting it going. So for the next several weeks your chances of being able to find him in the DC area are petty good.

Winston itself even ran a later ad in which a professorly-appearing person corrected that bit of bad grammar when some (students?) repeated it.

Tim Carman's piece in tomorrow's Post really fills a lot of the gaps in the Chang saga. Very worthwhile read, especially for anyone who wants a clearer picture of what has been going on with Chang for the last 10 years or so, and in some aspects the challenges faced by the larger Chinese émigré community.

Commander's Palace is the classic recommendation for Sunday Jazz brunch. IIRC they are credited with inventing the concept. It is a little dressy though, and not a quick in and out, if that matters. Book well in advance, especially for the Garden Room.

Bon Ton's crab meat au gratin is a signature dish, and one of John Besh's (of August) favorite things.

Can't be sure of course, but my guess is that was Lydia, Chang's daughter.

You're right that Discover still doesn't have the acceptance universality that the ordinary cards have, but it is getting much better (for example I haven't pulled into a gas station for a long time where it wasn't accepted); and using it overseas apparently works because they piggyback on Diners Club's merchant payment system which is very widespread outside of the US. As I understand it, all merchants including little ones are going to have to modernize their card readers before next October when the new chip-and-pin rules take effect. Adding NFC (near field communication) to the new readers is a cheap add-on so one would think most will opt for it. We'll see, but for those who do acceptance of smartphone-based payment systems will then be very easy. So we should expect to see a lot more of it. I am on record as projecting that Apple Pay will become a major revenue source for Apple within the next 5 years or so. It will indeed be interesting to watch (no pun).

Another update to my remarks above. As noted above, I have a Fidelity-based Amex card that pays 2% cash back across the board. For me, straight cash back from a card with no annual fee is the optimal choice for a rewards card -- don't bother me with complicated points deals where I have to stay in a particular hotel or whatever to get my reward; just gimme the cash -- at my stage of life I don't use all those "perks" things much any more anyway. That card has some drawbacks however, since you have to have a Fidelity account, and since you can't use it where they don't take Amex. When Apple Pay came out I wanted to have the option to use it. Unfortunately, although most Amex cards can be used with Apple Pay, Fidelity has not seen fit to include its card in the system. So I went looking. Citi has a new no-annual-charge Mastercard they call "double cash back" (it's a gimmick but it still works out to 2% flat cash back) -- they've been advertising it heavily, and it works on Apple pay, and obviously you can use the card nearly everywhere. So I got one. So now I have two cards that give me 2% cash back, one of which I use when I use Apple Pay, and I can basically charge everything to one or the other of them. Meanwhile I still have the Discover Card that gives me 5% cash back on a rotating series of types of business, changing every three months, so I use it for the transactions where I can get 5% back (right now it's gas; starting in April it will be restaurants). Works for me.

I don't know about the wholesale sushi situation in the DC area specifically, but my understanding is that True World is (1) by far the largest supplier of sushi in the US, and (2) it is a Moonie-owned operation. Apparently anytime you eat sushi, including the high end stuff, there is a high probability you are but one step away from doing business with the Unification Church.

I remember my business law professor, back in my MBA days at Columbia, talking at length and very picturesquely about Schweggmans and their legal travails. In fact, it's about all I remember from that course. The Old River Control Structure is still holding back the Mississippi, but it won't hold forever. The river is more powerful than anything man (in this case the Corps of Engineers) can do. When it finally fails and the river takes its new course down the Atchafalaya, it is as they say good bye Louisiana. New Orleans will be left as backwater. So get'um while they're hot.

Was the reference to the Massachusetts Institute of THEOLOGY a Freudian thing, or a deep sarcastic twist that I'm missing? At great personal peril, I will once again foolishly wade into one of these discussions. I read back through many if not most of the links above, and further links from them in turn. Left me confused as to what Bill Nye's actual position on GMO's is or was, or for that matter what connection MIT or NG were claiming between GMO's and environmental degradation. even indirectly and certainly directly. What is very clear to me is that what has been happening to the Monarchs is because their food supply has been greatly diminished. It has been very popular to claim this in turn is due to Round-up and Monsanto. This is grossly over simplistic. A much better case can be made that (aside from Mexican wood-choppers) it's due to ethanol and Congressional policy, which has led to farmers planting corn from fence to fence everywhere, and eliminating milkweed in much of the Monarch's flyway in the process. True they have used Round-up in so doing, but if there were no GMO's or Round-up they still would have done it, likely in ways that would have been more destructive to the environment than what actually did take place (much greater application of much nastier herbicides). You just can't glibly blame everything bad on GMO's. The science is still the science. Nobody has found credible scientific evidence that GMO's are the great evil they are portrayed to be. That's why so many credible scientific bodies have endorsed them. Of course we don't and can't know what all the effects might ultimately be, but you can say that about anything new. Progress and change IMO shouldn't and won't be stopped because of fears based on nothing more than feelings and guesses (and theology?) -- if that were how humans treated new technology, we'd all still be living on the farm and plowing behind mules, not sitting in front of computers posting on websites. FWIW here are some time series data on the annual Monarch population.

Will they let you have a coal-fired one? I've heard of many strange HOA requirements, but that seems a bit beyond, certainly if you have an underground or otherwise hidden propane tank. Oh well! You might want to consider an electric induction range or rangetop. A wall oven typically means less stooping over, which becomes a more salient benefit as the years pass by. Trust me on this. It also means you have a little more flexibility in your choice of features of each item, since they are separate and can be even different brands if you want.

I thought it was the "War of Northern Aggression" Virginia's move to boldly go where no sensible historian has gone before!

Well, FWIW, I was.... ....born and raised in Southern Indiana. A town where there was nothing good to eat (other than at home), and that's still pretty much the case. Dad operated a baby chick hatchery and we had a commercial egg production operation at home -- we kids were the slave labor but the point of it was to generate money to send us to college so that was OK. Got out of there as quick as I could and went to Ann Arbor for four years of undergrad (economics). Better food, and introduction to other cultures, foreign and domestic. A real eye opener for a kid from rural Southern Indiana. From Michigan decided to hit the big time so went to Columbia in NYC. New York was, of course, the ultimate eye opener. Spent about 10 years there, got an MBA and a PhD out of the place, and found a career niche for myself in maritime and aviation economics and consulting, while spending time doing what I really loved which was eating well and enlarging my wine inventory (and my waistline). Also got married and lived in Park Slope Brooklyn for a while, long before Brooklyn became trendy. Then got an opportunity to go to work for the UN in Geneva. Spent nearly three years there, including significant time in Singapore, mostly falling in love with Italy but loving the time in Europe and driving all over the place. After Geneva landed a job in DC, arriving in early '78. Spent nearly 30 years there, along with a year spent mostly in Santiago Chile running a project. Food-related high notes for me were winning a Wash Po Mag contest to come up with a signature dish for Washington in 2000 (half-smokes served on a bed of white beans) and my connection with the Peter Chang saga particularly the New Yorker article by Calvin Trillin, not to mention my association with the Washington Wine and Cheese Seminar. Too many good friends and good times to remember it all. Especially enjoyed our legendary New Year's Day open houses. Retired in 2005, and moved to NC in 2006, now with a beach shack in Florida as well (from where I'm typing this). Have traveled around the US a lot (have now been in all 50 states) by RV, since we have these dogs and I have resisted kenneling them for overseas travel. But are now doing more of the overseas stuff as well, including cruises. We will actually leave from DC in late March to fly to Sydney and cruise trans-Pacific back to Vancouver.

I've always likened the two to Provincial French and Classic French. Not a perfect analogy by any means, but it helps focus the mind a little at least. The two cuisines stem from very different peoples and very different histories. Cajun cuisine was developed in the rural Louisiana bayou by the Acadians (Cajuns), a group of French descendants who were kicked out of the maritimes of Canada (Evangeline and all that) and sought a new homeland, eventually settling in (the rural bayous of Southern) Louisiana which due to its own French history and culture was accepting of them. They, like immigrants everywhere, proceeded to use local ingredients, combining them with their own cuisine and methods, to create the style known as "cajun" cooking. It is a home-based, rural, and "rough" sort of cuisine. The Cajuns were never really part of the New Orleans scene and still aren't I would say. Creole cuisine is the much more highly developed and refined cuisine of New Orleans, developed over a century or two both at home and in restaurants in New Orleans. and to a lesser extent on upriver plantations, to appeal to the palates of wealthy people. It has mainly French and Spanish roots, but other cultures as well in a city that was influenced by many cultures (the term Creole refers of course to a mixed origin). There is remarkably little "Cajun" influence however, as far as I'm aware. Many of those who were preparing the food were African-American slaves and later servants, and later paid kitchen employees, so the African influence is there as well. It features often-expensive ingredients, elaborate sauces, sometimes elaborate presentations, and so on, and was based on both local and imported ingredients (NO being a major port city). Creole has branches including Soul-Creole and Italian-Creole, reflecting the various ethnic groups that settled in New Orleans. I think it's safe, though not necessarily nice, to say that Cajun culture and cuisine were traditionally looked down upon by folks in NO who considered them hicks and swamp rats, and certainly wanted nothing to do with them. It's like the city/country divide everywhere, but perhaps a bit moreso. Of course the Cajuns considered folks from NO to be snooty city slickers, or something of that nature, if they thought about them at all. For Cajuns to go to NO and sit down in a fine restaurant would be like Ma and Pa Kettle going to Beverly Hills. They would definitely not have recognized most of the food put before them. The key point is that the two cuisines are very distinct, and share very few dishes, at least traditionally. The only one that comes immediately to mind is gumbo, which in Cajun country is usually spicy and thickened with filé (sassafras) but in NO is milder and more sophisticated, relying more on its roux. Until the last few decades or so Cajun cuisine was very rarely found in New Orleans. The Bon Ton was about the only place in town known to serve Cajun food. That has changed of course, Donald Link's places being a prominent example, but his food has been refined some from its swamp roots.

FWIW my double oven is right next to my refrigerator (actually its the free standing freezer half of a fridge/freezer duo) and it never has seemed to be a problem. My island is right there so I use it as a landing area, but yes it would be a problem if you have no place to put things when you take them out of the oven. There are lots of kitchen designers out there, but of course you pay the price if you go that route.

Apropos the content of this thread, especially the question asked by jandres that started the most recent series of responses, here is a fairly new Chowhound thread currently running, addressing many of the same issues, so it may be of some interest: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/1003817

I would generalize this comment a bit further. Any horizontal surface, no matter how small, will gather dust and grime. Cabinet doors with those decorative cutouts around the edge, that most seem to have, fit this description. Unless you hate 100% flat cabinet doors, you might think about flat doors -- much easier to keep clean. However, I'd avoid shiny finishes, especially on a flat door but really any door. They are also a pain to keep looking good. Go for some texture in the finish.

As I think I posted previously in this thread, choose base cabinets (the ones below the countertop) with drawers, not doors with shelves. Very wide drawers. You will get far better use from the space and it is infinitely easier to get at things. Three rather than four is best -- that way you will have at least one with lots of depth to store your large items like big pots and pans. (Google "base cabinet drawers" and look at the images) Also something we did that worked pretty well was to install a strip of electrical plugs just under the island and peninsula countertops, along their length, above the drawer openings (our cabinets were custom made and 38" high so there was room). That way you have an easy-to-access electrical outlet every foot or so along your counter. (Google "electrical plug strip kitchen" and look at the images).

The jerk is my new senator. Lucky me. Well deserved for my new stupid state of North Carolina. Of course the irony of his stupidity is that, to eliminate this "burdensome" regulation, he himself, apparently unwittingly, posits a new regulation, that the restaurant would be required to inform its customers that they don't abide by the other regulation. It's truly breathtaking. It reminds one of Click and Clack's old line about being "unencumbered by the thought process." These people don't seem to possess a thought process.

Pete Wells' take on the reopened Brennan's, from today's NYT. The old and the new living side-by-side, helping each other along. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/dining/brennans-in-new-orleans-walks-the-tightrope-of-tradition.html?ref=dining

I realize this is a dishwasher thread, but could you briefly expand on your likes and especially dislikes about the induction? Is it just that range or induction generally?

Keep us in the loop on your range purchase decision process. There are many options.

Not exactly, but yeah it's complicated. The Brennan family saga is one of the great family stories, in the restaurant or any other business. Anyone who is seriously interested can read this, but is well advised to refer to this as they go along (full-size graphic recommended). Bottom line is that the family split long ago, but those who kept the "original" Brennan's drove it into the ground and finally lost it to Ralph Brennan who is part of the other side of the split, so now all or nearly all the restaurants are, in effect, reunited under a single wing of the family, and to that extent are affiliated.