a rather NYCentric post, and some tv
Mar. 24th, 2009 05:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lagilmanI am currently sitting in a cafe about a mile from my apartment, listening to the Rolling Stones on the cafe's system, using free wifi, drinking good coffee, and writing while I recover from lunch. New Yorkers, let me share with you one of the best kept non-secrets of Freelancers Who Lunch: Cafe Boulud has a $24 pre fixe lunch, Tuesday-Saturday that is to die for. I had a green salad, rare hanger steak, and an OMG decadent morsel of bittersweet brownie with ginger and vanilla bean ice cream. All small plates, but perfectly sized for lunch. And they offer a special $24 bottle of wine, one white and one red. And they've extended it from Restaurant Week to all year. Make reservations and treat yourself --it's not fantabulous but it's pretty damn amazing for the price.
Quick roundup:
"Castle" last night had nothing new by the way of plot -- prep kids killing one of their own" -- but it was well-done for all its familiarity, and the use of the investigation to highlight Castle's relationship with his own teenaged daughter was nice (although I think she's capable of a greater sin than the one she confessed to, myself). So, 3-3 in the "not original but enjoyable" category, and no clunkers. And the pairing between leads continues to be strong -- they're not going for the UST here, contrary to expectations, but allowing them to actually develop a seemingly platonic affection. Castle is a hopeless flirt but she doesn't take it personally at all -- exactly as tough-minded as a female cop would have to be, regarding that sort of thing -- and he's actually learning from the cops, not showing them up, which had been a concern of mine.
Meanwhile in what's laughingly called real life, NY Senator Charles Schumer has flipped his position and now supports marriage for all couples, not just male/female pairings.. He's been a work in progress, so I'm going to say he's evolving, rather than adapting to political expediency, and hope I'm not being too idealistic on that. However it happened, we now have two Senators and a Governor who are in favor of non-discriminatory marriage regulations. Let's get a move on, Legislature!
And a federal judge has ruled that the FDA improperly bowed to political pressure from the Bush administration in 2006 when it set 18 as the age limit for Plan B contraceptives.
Less happy news: transit fares are going up in NYC. Less than they'd tried for, but still enough that commuters are going to take a bad hit to their budgets -- and get less service for their money. It's a tough call: on the one hand -- can't afford it! on the other... transit costs a lot of money to run, and they're not getting it from the State these days. Either way, it's gonna hurt. As one woman said on the news last night, "I'm going to be walking more."
And now, back to work.
Quick roundup:
"Castle" last night had nothing new by the way of plot -- prep kids killing one of their own" -- but it was well-done for all its familiarity, and the use of the investigation to highlight Castle's relationship with his own teenaged daughter was nice (although I think she's capable of a greater sin than the one she confessed to, myself). So, 3-3 in the "not original but enjoyable" category, and no clunkers. And the pairing between leads continues to be strong -- they're not going for the UST here, contrary to expectations, but allowing them to actually develop a seemingly platonic affection. Castle is a hopeless flirt but she doesn't take it personally at all -- exactly as tough-minded as a female cop would have to be, regarding that sort of thing -- and he's actually learning from the cops, not showing them up, which had been a concern of mine.
Meanwhile in what's laughingly called real life, NY Senator Charles Schumer has flipped his position and now supports marriage for all couples, not just male/female pairings.. He's been a work in progress, so I'm going to say he's evolving, rather than adapting to political expediency, and hope I'm not being too idealistic on that. However it happened, we now have two Senators and a Governor who are in favor of non-discriminatory marriage regulations. Let's get a move on, Legislature!
And a federal judge has ruled that the FDA improperly bowed to political pressure from the Bush administration in 2006 when it set 18 as the age limit for Plan B contraceptives.
Less happy news: transit fares are going up in NYC. Less than they'd tried for, but still enough that commuters are going to take a bad hit to their budgets -- and get less service for their money. It's a tough call: on the one hand -- can't afford it! on the other... transit costs a lot of money to run, and they're not getting it from the State these days. Either way, it's gonna hurt. As one woman said on the news last night, "I'm going to be walking more."
And now, back to work.
