THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Monday, October 28, 2013

M at Mellon Auditorium 

I was at the Mellon Auditorium the day after being at the Baird Auditorium. The two are only a block away from each other (although on the opposite side of Constitution Ave).

I was doing Mashgiach work for an event sponsored by the America Media Abroad. They had about 450 attendees (only about 250 were expected about 10 days before that).

It seems there were a fair number of orthodox Jews and some observant Muslims on the Advisory Board and among the attendees which is why they went for a kosher caterer. 

One of the interesting things the caterer did was served soup (butternut squash) in small cups instead of bowls. It made it less messy but the soup is so thick you leave some in the cup.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 10:21 PM

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Ann and Martin at the Baird Again 

We went downtown to the Baird Auditorium to see the Beethoven Sonata No 9 (a.k.a., The Kreutzer, Opus 47). It is a piano/violin duet. 

It was another in the "What Makes It Great" series. Which is organized by Rob Kapilow (second image). There is a lecture with music examples and then a performance.

This is a famous piece of music. One of the things I've always wondered about this is why did it start off so weird with some odd duck chords by the violin for 4 measures and some similar weirdness by the piano for another few measures before the first movement theme emerges.

There is a Q&A in this and I got to ask Prof Kapilow that question. He said that Beethovan's purpose seems to have been to proclaim that the violin's importance as well as stating all musical themes of all three movements. If I had had a followup, I would have asked why Beethovan had to make it weird (I think I referred to it as adagio weirdo).

Anyway, we went with Alan and Hanna Fischer and some other people. This was the second "What Makes it Great" concert we've been to see (Alan was the one who told us about this series). The first was in March 2013 listening to Mozart's Jupiter

posted by Martin Weiss  # 11:10 PM

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Its Electronically Ironic 

A few weeks ago we bought some new netbooks. They were a generic Chinese knockoff of an Android operating system machine. It came with an power to device electric cord that was only about two feet long. G got an power to power extension cord at radio shack. It didn't fit the odd size of the netbook power to device cord. G went back and got an power to power extension cord with bigger holes and which also had a longer length. It fit. The ironic thing was the longer extension cord with the larger holes cost less.

It reminded me of the video, "Its finally ironic" which updates a 1990s song called "Its Ironic" which uses 'ironic' incorrectly.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 9:08 AM

Monday, October 14, 2013

Anti Semitic Kosher Restaurant 

I had a dream that I was doing mashgiach (kosher inspection) work at a restaurant. The restaurant seemed pretty normal but I had a strange feeling about it. For some reason, I had my 3-D glasses with me and put them on and saw all kinds of antisemitic images in this kosher restaurant. Then I woke up before I could call someone.

The image at the left is a restaurant in India just before they changed their name to The CRoSS.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 8:42 PM

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Eggspot - Oh my 

On Oct 9, I was doing kashrut supervision (the person who does this is called the 'mashgiach') at a caterer.

This catering company makes its own pastry and sometimes they make a lot of pastry. When they make a lot of pastry, they need a lot of eggs.

This day, they needed the whites of some 150+ eggs.

One of the jobs of the mashgiach is to check for egg spots. I hadn't seen egg spots in many years but this time I found two within about 5 minutes.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 12:34 AM

Thursday, October 03, 2013

Free Composting Bin from MoCo 

Someone from Montgomery County called me for a survey on recycling.  About the last question they asked me was whether I knew that I could get a free composting bin from the county (I didn't).

I went to the recycling center which was very near the Potomac 18 caterer I was working for on Oct 2 and the county guy at the administration building told me that I could have two bins for free.

I set one up today.

It's about as primitive as it looks. The bin has no top or bottom. It is black to absorb heat and help the composting process along. I can tell that turning the composting mixture will be difficult. Also, the instructions say to keep twigs and small branches out which is essentially impossible without extra hours of sifting. The instructions suggest alternating layers of nitrogen rich material (like discarded flowers) and carbon rich material (like dead leaves). Interesting the county's instructions and the Geobin company's instructions do not completely agree on some issues (e.g., whether eggshells should be composted in the bin).

posted by Martin Weiss  # 8:11 PM

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