I'm Clark Smart

Dave knows that I have little crushes on some other men.  He's OK with it.  One of my favorite radio guys is Clark Howard.  His show is syndicated out of Atlanta.  He's also on HLN TV.  I'm a proud student of the school of Clark-o-nomics

Clark's a consumer advocate.  He wants us to "Save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off."  Also, after listening to him for years, I know he's a really nice guy who does wonderful work for all kinds of folks who need help.   He flies all over the world but has never checked a bag.  He eats lots of fast food.  He builds houses for Habitat for Humanity.

He says he's cheap.  But I like to think he's more like me and Dave.  Frugal but generous.

Today, when we went for our regular Saturday morning walk on Park Avenue in Winter Park, who do you think was there?  Clark Howard!  Wow.  It was "Clark in the Park" day.  He was doing his show from the band stand. 

We talked.  I was thrilled.

Check him out.  You'll spend less, save more and avoid getting ripped off.


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Good Advice

I like good, straight forward advice.  But the best is when it makes me think so I can make my own decision. 

A few years ago I talked with my minister about my big romance with Dave.  I told my minister that I didn't think I wanted to get married because Dave was older than me and might get sick.  Then what? 

He didn't yell at me or laugh at me.  He simply said, "What are you planning to do if he gets sick now, Cess, leave him? "

That was all it took.  I went right home and asked Dave to marry me.  And now I can't imagine being away from him for very long - ever.

Carolyn Hax is a newspaper columnist I really like.  She's a "Dear Abby" type columnist but with much more depth.

In this morning's column her question came from a  20 something woman who is sleeping with her guy friend (friends with be benefits.)  Her girlfriends are telling her that this situation will end in sorrow.  She asks Carolyn, "Do you think my situation will end in sorrow, or is it possible to have benefits without feelings?"

The beginning of Carolyn's answer is great.

"It could end in sorrow -  in marriage -  in an infection - in parenthood -  in court - or in July."

She's right.  We don't know how things will end.  (Just for the record, I prefer benefits with feelings.)

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"The Getty"

Last Wednesday Dave's kids took us to the Getty.

The Getty Museum, close to Los Angeles, is full of art but is also an amazing work of art itself.  It was designed by Richard Meier and paid for by J. Paul Getty.  

It's built into the side of a mountain.  

Both J. Paul Getty and Richard Meier were and are fascinating guys.

J. Paul Getty was a billionaire back when that was a lot of money.  He's the guy who refused to pay the ransom when his grandson was kidnapped until the kidnappers mailed him the grandson's ear - and promised more body parts would come.  Still, Getty negotiated the ransom down a bit.  The grandson was rescued but never really survived the trauma.

Getty's also the guy who had a pay phone installed in his mansion. 

But he did some good things as well.  One of them was to fund the arts. Hence, the Getty Museum.

Richard Meier is famous for designing white buildings.  I've seen several.  All stunning. Last spring we toured his museum in Rome.  While it's magnificent, I didn't like seeing this contemporary stark white structure in this ancient city. 

But the Getty is his greatest.  And it's free.


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Molecular Gastronomy

We just returned from several days in Los Angeles.  We had a grand time.  Our hosts knocked themselves out to entertain us. 

Here's a highlight.  They took us to a restaurant that specializes in molecular gastronomy, The Bazaar by Jose Andres.

Fortunately, I'd recently read an article about the concept.  It's sorta like breaking food down to essential elements and reinventing it.  Very cool and somewhat scary.

The Bazaar served tapas, i.e., each entree was one bite each.  We had several.

Dave's son ordered a smoldering cocktail with the consistency of a slushy, called a Liquid Nitrogen Caipirinha.  It's a mixture of lime juice, egg white, green tea, and vodka mixed in a bucket of liquid nitrogen.  Yummy.

Our appetizer was "Olives, Modern and Traditional."  One regular olive each.  Then one olive each that had been deconstructed and reinvented. 

And so on.  Quite an experience.  And while we were eating Halle Berry arrived and sat a couple of tables away.

I know you're dying for more info so here it is.  First, many chefs who are into this don't like the term "molecular gastronomy."  They prefer  "modernist cuisine" or "sous vide."  It means "under vacuum."

Or you can buy "Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking." It's 2,438 pages and costs $625.  The writer, Nathan Myhrvold, is  the former chief technology officer at Microsoft. 

Or you can fly to L.A. and visit this restaurant.  Take money.


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Are Gnomes Taking Over?

I'm not exactly afraid of gnomes.  I just think they're kind of creepy.  Always have. But now I can't get away from them.  They're everywhere. 

Due to the phenomenal success of the film "Gnomeo and Juliet" they've become movie stars.  Who would have thought they'd do Shakespeare?

But then who would have thought that a roaming gnome would be the official Travelocity mascot? 

And now I read that a woman in England has 2,000 gnomes, all named.

And that in 2009 a German artist posed 1,250 gnomes in a Nazi salute in protest of modern fascism.

 No wonder I'm afraid of gnomes.  No, wait I'm not afraid of them.  Really.


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Will We Be Limitless?

A while back I wrote about the movie "Limitless."  It's about a guy who takes a pill to make his brain work on all 8 cylinders at once, thereby making his intelligence limitless.

A couple of nights ago we saw Ray Kurzweil, renowned futurist and all around smart guy on the Corbert Report.  (No, we don't watch the Report at 11:30 PM.  We watch a day later at 7:30 PM.)

Kurzweil said a couple of amazing things:

- Right now a kid in Africa with a Smart Phone has more information available to him that the president of the U.S. had 15 years ago.  (That president would have been Bill Clinton, another really smart guy.)

- Thirty or so years in the future our minds will merge with technology and we will be on billion times smarter!

You may remember that my big problem with the guy in the movie "Limitless" was what he did with his new intelligence. 

I just hope that when we become one billion times smarter we don't become one billion times greedier.  I hope we become one billion times more loving, generous and altruistic.


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The Ethicist Says Goodbye

You already know that I love the New York Times Sunday Magazine.  After reading it himself, My Mr. Oldie used to hand it over to me on a timely basis.  For the last couple of years I've been getting the magazines from the library. 

By the way, the price for magazines at the library has gone up from 10 cents to 25 cents.  That's a one hundred and fifty percent increase, but I'm not complaining. 

So I'm probably the last to know that, after writing his excellent advice column for  12 years, The Ethicist has retired. 

So now how are we to know:

- If it's OK to sneak our own popcorn into the movies.

- If  I should tell my observant Jewish brother-in-law that the food he's about to eat isn't kosher.

- If it's OK to move to the closer, higher priced empty seats at intermission.

- If I can load up on fancy hotel soaps and shampoos even if I'm giving them to the homeless.

- If I should tell my friend I saw her husband having lunch with a blond.

But the thing is, if we have integrity, we pretty much know the answers for ourselves.  On the other hand, as former The Ethicist columnist Randy Cohen says,

Ethics is a subject about which honorable people may differ.  

So thanks, Randy Cohen, for 12 years of thoughtful, sometimes funny and always humble sharing.  I feel kinda bad that I never subscribed to The New York Times and read your columns the legitimate way.  I guess that would have made a good subject for the "The Ethicist."


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