#QuirkyNYC -- Signs of the Times

Four boroughs, five signs. I’ll say it right up front. Poor Staten Island. They get no respect. Clearly, I’ll have to do a special edition for this slighted borough of New York City.

There’s something for everyone at the San Marco Botanica in the Bronx.

Graffiti may be a dying art, but giraffiti has found a place in Queens.

End of the line in Brooklyn…

but a culinary experience awaits.

Before there were flowers, this Lower East Side Manhattan eatery made them!

#Resist – and how: Make a difference

Do you want to make a difference? Then join something. Join anything!

One of the things we find ourselves doing these days is ranting at our devices. I’m guilty as charged. Read the news. Rant! Check out Facebook postings. Rant! And not a thing has changed.

Joining can be scary. I recommend taking baby steps. As long as you’re in front of your device right now, (I know you are, because you’re reading this), why not google Meetup. Then add a term that interests you, say political. Voila! There are political meetups all over the world.

https://www.meetup.com/topics/political/

Now you can rant with others! Better yet, you’re a member of something bigger than yourself. As the saying goes, there’s strength in numbers. Numbers can attract attention, identify opportunities, take action.

Of course, you could always sit alone ranting at the universe. I hear there might be life on one of Saturn’s moons.

#WednesdayWomen Dr. Brenda on St. Marks Place, NYC

# RevolutionaryHeroes Rachel Carson

You may not know this, but Rachel Carson has had a HUGE impact on your life. Ah, where to begin? Unleaded gasoline. The discovery and control of acid rain in our forests. Making the dumping of toxic waste in low-income neighborhoods illegal. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) out of your life forever.

Exactly, 55 years ago, Rachel Carson wrote ‘Silent Spring.’ This book triggered a grassroots environmental movement so strong that it changed the government. Literally. Not only did her work manage to outlaw hazardous pesticides like DDT, it is also directly responsible for the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Yes, that EPA, which is in the process of being dismantled as we speak.

So what does the EPA actually do? The EPA makes sure that all Americans are protected from significant risks to human health and the environment where they live, learn and work, (i.e., everywhere).

How do they do it? Some may consider it the unexciting work of government. When Congress writes an environmental law, the EPA writes the regulations—and enforces them.

The big question is: who stands to benefit the most if the EPA disappears? Answer: Not you. The people, or rather the organizations, that would benefit are the same ones that tried to stop the EPA from coming into existence in the first place—chemical companies, corporations that burn fossil fuels, and the mining, lumber and agricultural industries to name a few.

Are you going to let this happen?

#RevolutionCookbook – Spring Soup

Winter is always the longest season for me. Long before it comes to a close—and especially when the weather teases: cold warm then cold again—I pine for spring.

For many years, I didn’t have a satisfactory substitute. A couple of years ago I found it, in a soup of all things. Who knew soup could taste like spring? The Greeks, that’s who. Not only do I share my love of democracy with these guys, I share my hunger for spring.

Spring Soup

Ingredients:
• 5 cups chick stock
• ½ cup of white rice
• 4 cups escarole, roughly chopped
• 3 eggs
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice for cooking, much more for finishing the soup
• Grated zest from 2 lemons
• Salt and pepper

Directions:
1. In soup pot, bring stock to simmer. Add rice and cook gently until tender, about 15 to 20 minutes
2. Stir in escarole for the last 5 minutes of rice cooking time.
3. In a bowl, whisk together eggs and 2 tablespoons of lemon. Once fluffy, slowly add I cup of hot broth to the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Add the broth slowly or else the eggs will cook.
4. Add the egg mixture to the soup. Simmer until it begins to thicken a little, about 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Serve by topping with lemon zest and as much additional lemon juice as you want. I like a lot (2-3 teaspoons per serving).

This serves 4 healthy portions, but you can’t freeze it! It lasts happily in the fridge for 4 to 5 days.

#QuirkyNYC Parking for Out-of-Towners

Parking is crazy here. I used to own a car. I paid what would pass for rent in almost any other American city to park my car. I am not a skilled parallel parker. Ultimately, it was alternate side of the street parking that killed me.

In my part of town, in order to park for free, you have to move the car twice a week. In a city where cars are mostly for occasional weekend getaways and transporting your friends’ pets to the vet, this rule sucks. It’s supposed to be for street cleaning, which is random at best.

What’s an out-of-towner to do?

Get your car towed. What?!?! I’ll say it again. Get your car towed by New York’s finest. While the cost of the tow is $185, the overnight storage fee is $20. One night in a parking garage will average you $100. You do the math. Plus, at the Tow Pound, you have 24/7 NYPD security guaranteed! Don’t believe me? Check it out:
http://on.nyc.gov/1d1t176

The only catch? After 10 days, they sell your car.

#parking

#Resist – and how: Be curious

I don’t mean just wonder. I mean be radically curious. If you hear something that sounds weird or unbelievable or even makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, don’t just shrug it off. Look it up.

Information overload is a reality of our times. We have access to pretty much anything we want at the touch of a button. It’s hard to figure out the good from the bad, the right from the wrong, the fake from the true. But we each have something that computers will never have. We have that strange feeling in the pit of our stomachs that travels faster than the speed of light to our brains. Ding! The words aren’t even formed and we know instinctively that something is not right.

The challenge is to listen to that stomach flutter. Don’t ignore it. Don’t pretend it’s hunger or that you’re wrong because everyone else is saying it’s right.

As part of his commencement speech at Harvard last spring, Dean James Ryan spelled out the 5 questions we need to ask ourselves as we move through life.

1.) Wait, what?
2.) I wonder, why/if?
3.) Couldn’t we at least?
4.) How can I help?
5.) What really matters?

Benefit from a Harvard education with that speech:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW0NguMGIbE

His new book, ‘Wait, What?: And Life's Other Essential Questions’ is now available.

http://amzn.to/2oZ3tns

#Harvard

#WednesdayWomen Aqsa--chillin' in Washington Square Park, NYC

#RevolutionaryHeroes Sanford Johnson

You know him. You just don’t know you know him. Sanford Johnson, pictured here with his Mississippi First Co-Founder Rachel Canter, has a youtube video that has been seen almost 1.5 million times. You know him as the sock condom guy.

Yup, Sanford Johnson is the star and brainchild of the youtube video ‘How to put on a sock.’

For those of you who have forgotten (or have never seen) this brilliant and funny piece of public health messaging, it’s time has come again!

http://bit.ly/1Efg1aS

The video was made in response to Mississippi's sex education law that prevents teachers from showing teens how to use condoms. However, teachers CAN show kids how to protect their feet through correct and consistent sock use.

Check out the other good things this duo is doing for kids in the state of Mississippi!

http://www.mississippifirst.org/

#MississippiFirst #condoms #teenagepregnancy

#RevolutionCookbook – Green Florentine Pasta

This is an oldie and impressive goodie in my recipe book! I learned this recipe when I was visiting my friend who was in the Peace Corps in Swaziland. He learned it from this German guy whose sister lived in Florence. What?!?

This delicious recipe is simple and elegant. It relies on a few fresh ingredients and is topped off with caviar! Not caviar caviar. I use its humbler cousin: lumpfish caviar. If you can’t find it at your local supermarket, you can buy it online. They even sell it at Walmart! Without further ado, I give you:

Green Florentine Pasta

Ingredients:
• 1 box of Whole Wheat pasta (rotini or some other curlicue shape)
• 2 small ripe avocados
• Large handful of fresh basil, roughly chopped
• 2 ounces of lumpfish caviar (that’s the size of the jar)
• Olive oil
• Fresh ground pepper

Directions:
1. Boil water and cook pasta (9-10 minutes until al dente)
2. While the pasta is cooking:
a. Cut avocados in half. To make bite size squares, score the inside of each side of the avocado first diagonally one direction then turn and
score in the other direction (approximately three lines of scoring in each direction). Turn the avocado inside out and the squares should pop out into
the large mixing bowl.
b. Roughly chop the basil and add to mixing bowl.
3. When the past is done, strain completely and add to mixing bowl.
4. Add the caviar in spoonfuls across the top of the pasta.
5. Use the same amount of olive oil as you would in dressing a salad.
6. Grind fresh pepper, toss the whole thing and voila: dinner for four.

This pasta dish is easily halved and great cold. The bad news is that I rarely have any leftovers!

#QuirkyNYC My secret, New York

Do you really believe you can keep a secret in New York? Not when businesses like these abound! Yes, private detectives are alive and well.

In my never-ending quest to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, I had an informational interview at an investigation services office. Sure! I could be a private detective.

The quarters were cramped as the Private Detective, who requested anonymity in return for information, removed the last of the fast food wrappers from the only other chair in the office. I couldn’t help but admire the floor to ceiling electronic spy equipment that was humming and flashing—just like on TV!

Surveillance. Yup, sitting in the car, in the park, in the diner, drinking coffee and eating donuts for hours on end. Apparently, most of the business is about unearthing cheaters, taking damning photographs and using the evidence as grounds for a lucrative divorce.

Live and learn. And know that if you go shopping here, someone is going to tell your secret…

#Resist – and how: Do the Right Thing

Hold the door for your elderly neighbor, who really can’t move faster to catch the door as you breeze through. Even if it makes you late.

Volunteer to deliver Meals-on-Wheels. Better yet, write to your Senator and your Congressperson and say ‘Seriously? You’re going to cut food delivery to people who won’t get meals otherwise. Is this what America stands for?’ Seriously, that’s all you have to say. Many politicians actually make this easy for you to do online. Just google the person’s name and contact information to find out more.

Say hello to the cleaning lady or janitor. Every day.

Live contentedly knowing that you are being your kindest most generous self, even if you don’t have a penny to spare.

#dotherightthing

#WednesdayWomen Lena in Spring! New York City

#RevolutionaryHeroes Andrew Schaeffer

Andrew started out as a humble personal trainer. He wanted to share his passion for health and fitness with others who maybe didn’t have the time or the know-how to reach their fitness goals. Heck, some of them didn’t even have fitness goals!

They all had one thing in common, though. This time, they wanted it to work. They made personal commitments to do what it takes to reach their goals. More importantly, they wanted to sustain their efforts once they got there.

This got Andrew thinking that it really is all about sustainability. He realized that how we live makes us and the world around us either healthier, or unhealthier. This a-ha moment changed his life.

Now he’s the founder of Utmost, dedicated to fitness and an environmentally sustainable way of life. Utmost helps us to see the connections and make the choices that promote long term wellness, while simultaneously contributing to the health of our planet.

Say so long to a fitness-obsessed culture that surrounds us, but does us no good. Instead, say hello to a culture of fitness that includes both us and the world around us. Thanks, Andrew!

http://www.reachutmost.com

#RevolutionCookbook Vanilla

What makes chocolate taste like chocolate? Why vanilla, of course.

Vanilla adds great taste to a lot of things and it is SO easy to make!

Vanilla

Ingredients
• Fresh vanilla beans
• Vodka or rum (doesn’t have to be fancy)
• Jars with tops (cork, twist, whatever you’ve got—pretty helps)

Directions
1. Break vanilla bean into pieces.
2. Distribute vanilla bean pieces into bottles.
3. Use funnel to pour vodka or rum into the bottles. One bean is good for about half a bottle of alcohol.
4. Place bottles in window and leave them for a month and you’re done!

You can redistribute the vanilla extract into pretty small bottles—makes an excellent gift. You can also use for mixed drinks. One note on this: upgrade on the booze if you’re going to make vanilla infused cocktails…

#QuirkyNYC The Buddha Knows

Whenever I want to escape the hustle and bustle of NYC for the hustle and bustle of Asia, I head to NYC’s Chinatown. Of course, these days there are three or four Chinatowns including those in Brooklyn and Queens. I can be a traditionalist and besides I know all of the highways and bi-ways in my downtown Chinatown.

One of my all-time favorite places in Chinatown is the Eastern States Buddhist Temple of America, Inc. There you can find something for everyone. It’s a museum: there are special Buddhas hidden in the back room—public not invited. It’s a place of worship. Those gorgeous Buddha’s aren’t there just for show. It’s a place for gossip and is always filled with folks with shopping bags and a story to tell. It’s a tourist destination, with a shop that sells all kinds of goodies made in China.

My absolute favorite part is the wishing well of fortunes: $1 donation. I have a personal rule that I invite you to follow. All fortunes must be good or better to count.

#Resist – and how: Take a mental health day

Did you know that last year 55% of Americans did NOT use all of their vacation days? Is that crazy?!? If you don’t use your vacation days—days off that you’ve earned—it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine that you don’t use your sick days either, unless you are physically unable to crawl out the house.

What happens when you are mentally unable to leave the house?

I know. That sounds so weird. But it only sounds weird because we use other terms like burnout and wasted to describe—and then go on to ignore—the mental fatigue that leaves us dragging and pretty much useless.

I used to be like you and think that a mental health day was shirking—until I took a really needed day off. What a difference a day makes!

Research is just piling up that says time off is REQUIRED for productivity and happiness. All of us actually need to recharge in order to be better at work, better at home, and better at life.

Go ahead. Take that mental health day. Maybe you could use it to plan your next vacation.

You won’t regret it. Neither will your boss.

#WednesdayWomen Maureen & Miss Rogue hiking at Pound Ridge, Upstate New York

#RevolutionalryHeroes Nora Fisher

6 AM. Early March. The sky is dark gray, but may be as bright as it’s going to be today. The water is freezing. Nora Fisher and the rest of the Trinity College Women’s Rowing Team are out for the first of the day’s several workouts preparing for the big race day. These young women are guaranteed to burn thousands of calories on this one day alone.

Fast forward to the Oxford Cambridge Boat Races 2017. The crowds are huge. All of the media are there. Competitive rowing has become a lucrative and popular spectator sport across Europe, but nowhere more popular than in Great Britain. All of the historic colleges and universities in the region send men’s and women’s rowing teams to compete at this prestigious event.

In fact, as with the just-ended NCAA tournament, it is the women’s teams that are providing the nail-biting level of excitement in this year’s race. This latest turn of events has led to much more active betting on the women’s races than for the lackluster men’s teams.

Yet when millions of millennials turned to Snapchat to learn about the race results, the women were nowhere to be found. Only the men’s results were reported.

Nora Fisher immediately initiated a social media campaign to right this wrong. Before the day was over, Snapchat had added a “women’s section.” The lesson learned? Ignore women and their accomplishments at your own peril.

#snapchat #fearthefuscia #rowing

#RevolutionCookbook – Perfect Salad Dressing

Have you ever been confronted by a salad that shows up in front of you accompanied by a bottle of oil and a bottle of vinegar and thought ‘Oh, I hate this.’ How many salads have you ruined or nibbled on as rabbit food simply to avoid the dreaded DIY dressing of the salad.

Worry no more!

I confess to being a huge vinegar fan. It turns out that my passion for sharp fermented liquids was my problem—and the key to delicious tastefully dressed salads! It really is all about the vinegar, just in moderation. (Ha! A word often missing from my vocabulary.)

Perfect Salad Dressing

As counterintuitive as it sounds, the ideal mix, the perfect concoction is simply 3 to 1. That’s right: 3 olive oil to every 1 vinegar. If it’s a big salad, use a big spoon. If it’s a small salad, use a small one. It’s that simple.

As far as what kind of vinegar should be used on which type of salad. Here’s my rough guide:

Balsamic: This is my go-to vinegar because I tend to like a hardy salad of red or green leaf lettuce topped by grilled chicken of some sort.

Red wine: Surprise! Surprise! It doesn’t have to be the fancy vinegar. Store brand is just fine. Works well with a tomato focused salad or one with lots of vegetables, not just lettuce.

White wine herb (Tarragon is my favorite): When I include fish—from canned tuna to grilled salmon—I always turn to my herbed vinegars.

Fruit flavored: Not surprisingly, fruit goes well with, you got it, fruit! The key is to create complementary flavors. I make a salad that includes pears which I pair with fig infused white balsamic. The salad with pomegranate seeds is made with a citrusy vinegar. Options are limitless!

Champagne: Want your red onions their brightest and perkiest? Use champagne for a low key and tasty salad. Bonus points for including strawberries in the salad.