Bob Berring on the Structure of Law

This is an excellent video on the structure of the law.



I think what Prof. Berring is addressing at the end is the way that technology interpenetrates society as it, and society, progress. As Edelcrantz (the librarian of the Royal Academy of Turku, Finland, by the way) noted all the way back in 1796, technology follows a path of (as Stephen Jay Gould put it) punctuated equilibrium: technology and culture stay the same for a long time, then change rapidly. (Of course, one can also make the argument that what we're seeing lately is merely the exponential growth of technology; the pace of technological growth, the slope of the curve, is merely becoming steeper.)

Or, as I quoted in the chapter of my undergraduate thesis that explained what hypertext was (back in 1994), with respect to the social acceptance of technology,

It often happens, with regard to new inventions, that one part of the general public finds them useless and another part considers them to be impossible. When it becomes clear that the possibility and the usefulness can no longer be denied, most agree that the whole thing was fairly easy to discover and that they knew about it all along.

- Abraham Edelcrantz (Abraham Niclas Clewberg), A Treatise on Telegraphs (1796), quoted in Holzmann, Gerard J., and Björn Pehrson, "The First Data Networks," Scientific American, v. 270, no. 1 (January 1994): 124-129.

Gnocchi alla Romana--semolina gnocchi

Goody! I found a recipe for semolina gnocchi. Lots of work, though.

Semolina gnocchi--from about.com.

Becco, or Italian (mono)mania

As I said on Facebook, microblogging the New York trip, good Italian food is thin on the ground in South Florida. That's one reason B. and I went to dinner three times at the same restaurant in New York, Becco, in the Theater District, on Restaurant Row, owned by PBS celebrity chef Lidia Bastianich.

As I see it (and B. might disagree), there are four basic reasons we went to Becco so often (well, add a fifth).

First, the good food. There's nothing exotic about the dishes at Becco--the ideas for dishes are common ones, or variations thereof. Pollo al limone, for instance--a common dish, exceedingly well executed. Although our first night there, one of the pasta dishes was an exquisite semolina gnocchi, sauced with a cream sauce, then baked or broiled. Marvelous! (I must see if I can get a recipe.) The key is the execution, which at Becco was impeccable.

Second, the great prices. Becco is comparable in price to the restaurants--good ones--in South Florida. In fact, Michael's Genuine Food and Drink, a touchstone of our Miami fine eating experience, is, while excellent, comparable in quality to Becco--and probably half again as expensive.

Third, the fabulous service. Becco just takes care of its customers. An example: on our last night, Saturday, Halloween, the resaurant was quite busy. My entrée was late arriving, to the point where Marie, our waitress, at one point came by and asked if I was okay. (I was a bit restive, understandable under the circumstances.) Angelo, one of the floor managers that evening (and dressed as a quite creditable Burgess Meredith-era Penguin), without asking me, noticed my restiveness and inquired with the chef about the status of my entrée. He then came over--again, this was without being prompted--and told me that my entrée would be ready in a few minutes--which it was. Excellent.

A fourth reason dovetails (Dovetonsils?) with the above reasons. As those of you who know me well know, my father went to medical school at the University of Bologna (Italy), and my mother lived there with him for a time. My mom was a good cook before she went there, and when she came back, she had been schooled in the dark arts of Northern Italian cuisine. (Bolognaise lasagna has, I believe, two different sauces: Bolognaise ragú and what can best be described as a Bechamel sauce on steroids.) As a result, I know a little bit about Italian food, good Italian food. Becco delivers on this. The semolina gnocchi were a standout, but all their pasta, even the dishes we didn'tlike so much, were well executed. All the entrées we ordered were first-rate. My salmon filet the second night was on a bed of braised cauliflower so good that I ordered a side order--and we ate it all--with my hanger steak the third night. And I don't even like cauliflower. As our waitress Marie said, Becco is very good at making tasty vegetables (another dark art).

The fifth reason is simple: when dinnertime rolled around, B. and I were (I trow) so exhausted that picking a restaurant became a chore.

Well, picking Becco for dinner was never a chore. Becco has my highest recommendation.

A Clarification

In my last blog post, I wrote "So anyway, don't let your FFB (frum--Orthodox Jewish--from birth) status discourage you--kosher Indian vegetarian is out there."

All I meant by that was that few frum-from-birth Jews have eaten, and enjoyed, Indian food. As B. and I demonstrated, it's not impossible to instruct frum-from-birth Jews in the joys of Indian cuisine.

New York (Food) State of Mind

Well, back from the 212 in the 954. Tired and a bit loopy, and Big Things afoot tomorrow.

But there are two things that deserve blogging about while they're still fresh-ish in my mind, both about food--Indian cuisine.

I had two Indian meals in New York, not a large number for a week. But both meals were special. First, we took the daughter of our friends, herself a friend, who goes to Yeshiva University's Stern College for Women, and keeps kosher, out to Madras Mahal, what I had thought was the only kosher Indian restaurant (vegetarian) in New York. The food was serviceable, about a 7 or a 7.5 on a 10 point scale. B. and I agree that our local Indian vegetarian restaurant in South Florida, Udipi Café (which unfortunately is not kosher) gets about a 9.5. In any case, our friend's daughter loved it, loved Indian food (Which she had not had before), and pronounced it the best meal she'd had in Manhattan.

But imagine my surprise: there is another kosher Indian restaurant two doors down from Madras Mahal, Pongal. It's Zagat rated, but I see from the reviews that it may not be as good as Madras Mahal. Oh well--an embarrassment of riches. So anyway, don't let your FFB (frum--Orthodox Jewish--from birth) status discourage you--kosher Indian vegetarian is out there.

Oh, my goodness. My goodness gracious. There's a kosher Indian fleishik (meat) restaurant in South Florida, in North Miami: Thai Treat/Bombay Café (same seating, same kosher supervision, etc.). I'm excited, very, at the thought.

Just a quick note: the other meal was also vegetarian, vegan actually, and was from a street cart in Washington Square Park (at W. 4th and Sullivan), right across from NYU's law school. It was a simple dosa, with sambar and coconut chutney, and it was to die for. Thanks go out to Thiru Kumar, the Dosa Man. If you're in the area, hungry for inexpensive, excellent Indian food, go see Mr. Kumar. Or call him--he sometimes runs out of items--at 917-710-2092.

Well, enough excitement--and drooling over Indian food--for one night. TTFN!