Breaking News

I was just leaving KSG when I caught a glimpse (in the plasma TV in one of the building lobby areas) of a breaking news report on a small plane crashing into a building in NY city.

My first reaction was of course, shock and a certain sense of deja vu. My second - that I have 8 classmates in New York, 6 of whom stay in the Upper East Side where the plane crashed.

Got back to my room and apparently the plane was flown by a NY Yankees pitcher, Cory Lidle. So it appears there is no connection with terrorism. I also sent out an email to check on the safety of my classmates. It crossed with another email from one of my NYC classmates saying:

My God, thank you very much. A small aircraft crashed a high building near our street today, it is just sited in 524 East, 72th street. And we are living in 301 East, 96th street,East.
Hope my God going on protecting us.

It was good to hear from him. Of course as a member of the Communist Party he is not supposed to believe in God but one should not quibble about such things at times like these. Especially since today's gospel is on the "Our Father" (Lk 11:1-4) so indeed the Lord has protected them.

Architectural Reflections

The other good thing about long weekends spent in Boston is that I have time to bring my blog up to date. Yesterday, I went to mass at St Francis' in Prudential Tower, and thereafter walked around Boylston and Newbury Streets, and Copley Square.

Copley Square is the site of Trinity Church, the John Hancock building and the Boston Public Library - three distinctive pieces of architecture. Here I portray two of the three:

It costs US$5 to tour Trinity church so I didn't go in. I have never paid any admission charge to enter a church thus far and I'm not starting now. It has always been on the basis of voluntary contributions. It also strikes me as rather, ahem, electic in design. But I love the way John Hancock building reflects all the buildings around it.

Boston Public Library is made up of two buildings. The original building is classical renaissance in design and the second, a modern reflection of the old:

There is a free public tour on the BPL's art and architecture, which I went on. What a contrast to Trinity Church's exhorbitant charge for a "self-guided" tour.

What I found fascinating about the Boston Public Library was the considerable European influences - the selection of the classical renaissance style, the murals within reflecting European traditions and culture. One of the three mural series was done by a French artist and a second was the story of Sir Galahad! The third was by John Singer Sargent but I much, much prefer his Parisian paintings to the rather dour "triumph of religion" mural series in the BPL.

I walked down Newbury Street after Copley Square. This has to be one of the more charming shopping areas I've been too. Small little boutiques line the street. Shops are either half a floor up, or half a floor down (down to the basement of the building). There are many restaurants and cafes along the road and their clientele were spilling out on the pavement to enjoy the sunshine of what was really a lovely day.

And here's the photo link!

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

Well, yesterday was the first of the 3-day long weekend (from 7-9 Oct, with 9 Oct being Columbus Day). Many of my classmates elected to go out of town this weekend but after two successive weekends on the road and two weeks in which I rushed through my readings I thought I had better do some catching up. So I went to Lexington and Concord (pronounced "conquered") yesterday, where the American Revolution officially began.

And that is where the interesting bit about Lexington and Concord begins (at least for those people who are not US history buffs). Where was the "shot heard around the world" fired from? The two towns have differing opinions. (Incidentally it is somewhat grandiose to call it a shot fired around the world? Had as much impact as the length of Cleopatra's nose?) Yes, there was a skirmish at Lexington before the skirmish at Concord. And the minutemen and militia fought in both places (see the two minutemen statues below). But history seems to favour Concord - it was where, apparently, the order was given to stand and fight, and chase the British out of town.

Both Lexington and Concord have statues of Minutemen. Lexington's (left) is not particularly impressive. But Concord's Minuteman was sculpted by Daniel Chester French, a Concord native. He went on to sculpt John Harvard (statue in Harvard Yard) and Abe Lincoln in the Lincoln memorial. So Concord seems to have won out all the way. Other photos of Lexington and Concord are here.

The big hero of Lexington and Concord, of course, is Paul Revere. However we found out that the poem by Longfellow is not really factual. Apparently Revere made it to Lexington but not to Concord. Revere got caught on his way to Concord and the chap who made it through was one of his two companions, a doctor with a good horse. He alerted Concord to the impending arrival of the British, and the rest, as they say, is history. Except that the doctor's place in it seems to have been taken by Revere. I guess it would have spoiled the poem.

NIAGARA FALLS!

The next day (1 Oct) we went off to the Cave of the Winds (where we got into touching distance of the falls) and rode on the Maid of the Mist to the Horseshoe Falls.

There are three falls altogether: two in the US - the American Falls and the Bride Veil Falls and one in Canada - the Canadian or Horseshoe Falls. The Horseshoe Falls are the most spectacular of the three. Apparently a greater volume of water is flowing over the Horseshoe Falls than over the other two, hence a more rapid erosion of the falls there.

We went first to the Cave of the Winds, where we were given little beach slippers and also a raincoat. We then walked down to the bottom of the Bride Veil Falls to see the Falls at pretty close range. This was quite exciting as the falls sort of spray you as you walk around the area. What I didn't dare do, however, was climb out to a platform about a third of the way up the falls. I did start up the stairs and then there was a sudden gust of wind which hit my face and my legs (including the bottom of my rolled up pants) so I beat a hasty retreat.

But, what was truly exhilerating was our ride on the Maid of the Mist to the Horseshoe Falls.

Frankly, it is difficult to see much of the Horseshoe Falls. The most active area is shrouded in mist and so you only see one of the ends more clearly. Nonetheless, it is spectacular - the water falling all around us, the roar of the water as it falls, the cold of the spray and mist around us. I must admit however I carefully tied my blue martian raincoat around my face and turned my face away from the mist and the spray of water when the wind inconsiderately blew it towards us.


After the MotM, we went up to the observation deck for a good view of the falls. The bridge between US and Canada was on our right and I could see why it was called the "Rainbow Bridge" because there was one just in front of us.

Oh yes, I forgot to add. We met one chap from the Masters in Public Policy (MPP) Prog in the School at Niagara Falls! He was doing a term in Columbia (this is part of the School's exchange programme with Columbia) and he chose to visit Niagara that weekend too. Talk about coincidence.

We left the Falls soon after and went back to Boston. But this trip has truly been the highlight of my US trip thus far. It really brought me face to face with what must be one of the wonders of the natural world. A moment to remember indeed.

See here for more Niagara (and Thousand Island) photos, the Multiply link on the left will bring you to my videos of Niagara (and other videos too).

Night at Niagara

We got to Niagara Falls City US at about 8pm on Sat 30 September. We had paid our $5 to the driver for his overtime work in driving us to the falls at night (he has a good thing going).

It was pretty chilly and windy at the falls. And frankly visibility was poor at that hour of the night. Theoretically there was supposed to be a nice laser light show but it did not really light up the falls that vividly. But, very surprisingly, once I took a photo (using the auto feature) the laser light seemed to somehow suffuse the mist which was rising from the falls:

Anyway, after a chilly half hour or so we checked into our hotel, which was clean and drab and dull. I pulled some of my classmates out and we had a drink at the bar across the road. Beer is surprisingly cheap in Niagara, just $1 per mug. The bar itself looked like the bars one sees on TV. But the bartender behind the bar was pretty helpful. She spotted us looking at the menu and told us that the kitchen was closed, but there was a pizza place which was open down the road and if we were keen, she could give them a call and ask them to bring something over. That's what I call customer service!

Thousand Islands

First things first. Yes, this where the dressing comes from. I reproduce from ask.yahoo.com (complete with links):

Dear Yahoo!:
How did Thousand Island Dressing get its name?
Salad Spinner
Chesterfield, Virginia

Dear Salad Spinner:
With a toss of lettuce and a sprinkling of croutons, we searched for the "history of thousand-island salad dressing." This led us to the original birthplace of the creamy condiment. This slightly sweet, chunky salad dressing got its name from the Thousand
Islands area of upstate New York. The region is filled with about 1,800 islands and stretches along the St. Lawrence River to Lake Ontario, reaching into both the U.S. and Canada. In the 1870s, vacationers discovered the area and began building summer homes and hotels.

In the early 20th century, Sophia LaLonde of Clayton, N.Y., served the dressing at dinner for guests of her husband, who was a popular fishing guide. One of the dinner guests was leading actress May Irwin. It was Irwin who christened the dressing with the Thousand Island name, and the dressing was
served by Irwin's request at the Herald Hotel in Clayton. The actress also introduced the dressing to the wider world when she gave LaLonde's recipe to the owner of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.

Thousand Island Dressing is a variation on the so-called Russian dressing popular around the time, which consisted of a yogurt base with chili sauce or ketchup added for flavor. Early Thousand Island recipes used mayonnaise instead of yogurt and added pickle relish, chives, and sometimes chopped hard-boiled eggs. In the 1950s, Thousand Island Dressing made of mayo, ketchup, and pickle relish became a standard condiment, used on sandwiches and salads alike.

We visited the Thousand Islands on our way to the Niagara Falls on 30 Sep 2006. As the little story above suggests, the Thousand Islands is a scenic stretch of islands within the St Lawrence Waterway. One-third of the islands belong to the US and the other two-thirds to Canada. We took a cruise around the islands, so at times we were in Canadian waters. The houses on the islands still remain largely private property so can only be looked at from the boat. However, one island, Heart Island, and Boldt Castle on the Island has been bought by the state. The story is that the original owner of the island actually bought it and started building the castle for his wife. He planned to give it to her on her birthday, which was on 14 Feb, Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, she died before her birthday and he was so heartbroken that he never went back after that and made his children promise not to go back either. The castle fell into disrepair until it was bought and restored for public viewing.

More pictures of the Thousand Islands can be found here.

After our cruise, we proceeded on to Niagara Falls where we had a stop for dinner. Did I mention that our tour operator (Sunshine Tours) is actually run by a Chinatown company? It should be no surprise, after this piece of information, to hear that we stopped at a Chinese buffet restaurant for dinner where the two Singaporeans and one PRC Chinese had a hearty meal. (Some had heartier meals than others. I had one plate of food, one plate of dessert, in the same time as my Chinese classmate had three full plates of food and dessert. He says it was the best meal he has had in the US.) Our Indian classmates, on the other hand, had a nice time shopping in K-Mart and ate the pratas they had prepared before coming. Talk about a clash of civilisations!

Watch this space for the Niagara Falls post...

Niagara Falls

Just came back from Niagara Falls. This has to be the highlight of my US stay thus far. I will write a more detailed post later on, but this is to introduce my new Multiply website, where I have posted some videos of the visit. The website has also been added to my links on the left.