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June 2007 Archives

Bangkok 54

Had dinner the other night with Mike and Arlene Roberts, from Denver. Mike is a custom home builder and Arlene is an elementary school teacher in Denver Public Schools. We ate at Bangkok 54, web site, 2919 Columbia Pike, Arlington, VA, 703-521-4070 [TCEDG | Washingtonian | WaPo | City Paper | Don Rockwell | openlist | Yelp | Gayot]

Arlene and Mike Roberts

Arlene and Mike Roberts



The only dish we tried that was so-so, and is not pictured, was the Tum Yum soup with shrimp. The shrimp was good, but the broth was very heavy and a bit greasy, not anything like the delicate Tum Yum soups we have had elsewhere.



Fried Soft Shell Crabs

The Fried Soft Shell Crabs were very good



Penang

Penang, curry chicken, was excellent



Pad Cha from the Sea

Pad Cha from the Sea was excellent



Mango Sticky Rice

The Mango Sticky Rice dessert is one of the few desserts worth trying in an Asian restaurant (the other is the ABC in a Malaysian or some Thai places)



June 30, 2007 10:37 AM   Link    Dining    Comments (0)

Glossary of Legislative Terms: "Passed"

Passed: Term for approval of bills and joint resolutions.

Booklets customizable for your organization

This definition is from our Glossary of Legislative Terms.

Perfect reference tool of Congressional jargon and procedural terms.
Learn how to translate words that are used every day on Capitol Hill.
4 x 9 inches, 16 pages

The cover and inside pages of this booklet can be customized with your logo and information. For more information, see our Booklets page.

The Pocket Dictionary is based on the Congressional Deskbook, by Michael Koempel and Judy Schneider.

TheCapitol.Net offers training and a Certificate Program in Congressional Operations and Federal Budgeting, we show you how Washington and Congress work. TM


June 29, 2007 08:17 AM   Link    Tips and Terms    Comments (0)

Fred Allen

"I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me."
-- Fred Allen


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June 28, 2007 09:07 AM   Link    Humor    Comments (0)

Education Program Developer / Client Liaison

TheCapitol.Net, the exclusive provider of Congressional Quarterly Executive Conferences, will have an opening later this summer for a full-time person for Education Program Developer / Client Liaison.

More information is available on our web site.

June 27, 2007 09:17 AM   Link    Business    Comments (0)

Shantaram

Then he smiled. It was the biggest smile she'd ever seen. It was radiant, and suffused with an irrepressible good humor. She looked into that prodigious smile, and a strange feeling took hold of her. She smiled back at him, despite herself, and felt a rush of well-being, an indefinable but overwhelming sanguine cheerfulness. Things will turn out right, the voice of her heart said to her. Everything will be all right. She knew, just as I'd known when I saw Prabaker for the first time, that no man who smiled with so much of his heart would knowingly hurt or harm another. (page 126)
When we're young, we think that suffering is something that's done to us. When we get older---when the steel door slams shut, in one way or another--- we know that real suffering is measured by what's taken away from us. (page 301)
You now the difference between news and gossip, don't you? News tells you what people did. Gossip tells you how much they enjoyed it. (page 363)
What characterises the human race more, Karla once asked me, cruelty, or the capacity to feel shame for it? I thought the question acutely clever then, when I first heard it, but I'm lonelier and wiser now, and I know it isn't cruelty or shame that characterises the human race. It's forgiveness that makes us what we are. Without forgiveness, our species would've annihilated itself in endless retributions. Without forgiveness, there would be no history. Without that hope, there would be no art, for every work or art is in some way an act of forgiveness. Without that dream, there would be no love, for every act of love is in some way a promise to forgive. We live on because we can love, and we love because we can forgive. (page 370)

Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts



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June 27, 2007 08:37 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Media Tip 7

Media Tip 7: Never say "no comment" -- it implies guilt.

Booklets customizable for your organization

This tip is from our booklet, Media Relations Tips: 102 Secrets for Finding Success in Public Relations.

Practical tips for anyone who works with the media, works with someone who works with the media, or who works at an organization that is covered in the media.  An easy handout for everyone in your group to make sure that they are prepared and confident if they ever have to deal with the media.
4 x 9 inches, 15 pages

Based on the Media Relations Handbook, by Brad Fitch.

The cover and inside pages of this booklet can be customized with your logo and information. For more information, see our Booklets page.

TheCapitol.Net offers Media Training and Communication and Advocacy Training, we show you how Washington and Congress work. TM


June 26, 2007 09:17 AM   Link    Tips and Terms    Comments (1)

Teaching Inattentive Students

While lecturing, I learned not to check on the attentiveness of every student -- that would be counterproductive. To earn the students' concentration, I learned to "talk to the walls," that is, to speak in a low voice, pretending to be speaking to myself, which gave the impression that I was totally immersed in my ideas. The idea that I liked best was the idea that the students understood and remembered most.

"Teaching in Beirut," in "An Invitation to Laughter: A Lebanese Anthropologist in the Arab World," by Fuad Khuri, 2007



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June 25, 2007 10:57 PM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Democracy in Arab countries

Given the substantial stress placed on "justice" in Islam, I reckon that if democracy is to establish roots in Arab countries, it will have to be linked to the concept of justice more than to the confusing ideology of freedom.

"Open secrets: Discussable but not publishable," in "An Invitation to Laughter: A Lebanese Anthropologist in the Arab World," by Fuad Khuri, 2007



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June 23, 2007 06:37 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Glossary of Legislative Terms: "Scope of Differences"

Scope of Differences: Limits within which a conference committee is permitted to resolve its disagreement.

Booklets customizable for your organization

This definition is from our Glossary of Legislative Terms.

Perfect reference tool of Congressional jargon and procedural terms.
Learn how to translate words that are used every day on Capitol Hill.
4 x 9 inches, 16 pages

The cover and inside pages of this booklet can be customized with your logo and information. For more information, see our Booklets page.

The Pocket Dictionary is based on the Congressional Deskbook, by Michael Koempel and Judy Schneider.

TheCapitol.Net offers training and a Certificate Program in Congressional Operations and Federal Budgeting, we show you how Washington and Congress work. TM


June 22, 2007 04:17 PM   Link    Tips and Terms    Comments (0)

Faculty Favorites: Dining and Places - Judy Schneider

We asked our faculty and authors to share with us some of their favorite things about living in our nation's capital. Their responses are posted in "Faculty Favorites"

Judy Schneider (bio), co-author of the Congressional Deskbook, shares her favorites.

Places to Visit

Restaurants

Fun

For more, also see our Visiting Washington DC pages


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June 21, 2007 08:37 AM   Link    Dining ~   Dining and Things to Do & See ~   Faculty Favorites ~   Fun ~   Visiting Washington, DC    Comments (0)

Can you read this?

From a friend:

Spelling reconsidered! All that time wasted learning spelling words!

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too
Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aza! nmig hu h? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.

See this for explanation.

More



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June 20, 2007 07:37 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Media Tip 68

Media Tip 68: Develop a trusting relationship with your principal (boss). Learn your principal's views of the media and be supportive of his cause.

Booklets customizable for your organization

This tip is from our booklet, Media Relations Tips: 102 Secrets for Finding Success in Public Relations.

Practical tips for anyone who works with the media, works with someone who works with the media, or who works at an organization that is covered in the media.  An easy handout for everyone in your group to make sure that they are prepared and confident if they ever have to deal with the media.
4 x 9 inches, 15 pages

Based on the Media Relations Handbook, by Brad Fitch.

The cover and inside pages of this booklet can be customized with your logo and information. For more information, see our Booklets page.

TheCapitol.Net offers Media Training and Communication and Advocacy Training, we show you how Washington and Congress work. TM


June 19, 2007 12:27 PM   Link    Tips and Terms    Comments (0)

Consensus

Nothing is more coercive and less efficient than the insistence on consensus. . . . As a Lebanese proverb states: "Plenty of ejaculations, but no pregnancies."

"Establishing an Arab association for the social sciences: The tyranny of consensus," in "An Invitation to Laughter: A Lebanese Anthropologist in the Arab World," by Fuad Khuri, 2007



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June 17, 2007 08:37 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Glossary of Legislative Terms: "Star Print"

Star Print: A reprint of a measure, amendment, or committee report to correct errors in a previous printing. The first page carries a small black star.

Booklets customizable for your organization

This definition is from our Glossary of Legislative Terms.

Perfect reference tool of Congressional jargon and procedural terms.
Learn how to translate words that are used every day on Capitol Hill.
4 x 9 inches, 16 pages

The cover and inside pages of this booklet can be customized with your logo and information. For more information, see our Booklets page.

The Pocket Dictionary is based on the Congressional Deskbook, by Michael Koempel and Judy Schneider.


June 15, 2007 01:17 PM   Link    Tips and Terms    Comments (0)

Media Tip 58

Media Tip 58: Avoid calling radio stations during busy times (6:00 am to 10:00 am, and 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm) while reporters are primarily delivering the news at thirty-minute intervals.

Booklets customizable for your organization

This tip is from our booklet, Media Relations Tips: 102 Secrets for Finding Success in Public Relations.

Practical tips for anyone who works with the media, works with someone who works with the media, or who works at an organization that is covered in the media.  An easy handout for everyone in your group to make sure that they are prepared and confident if they ever have to deal with the media.
4 x 9 inches, 15 pages

Based on the Media Relations Handbook, by Brad Fitch.

The cover and inside pages of this booklet can be customized with your logo and information. For more information, see our Booklets page.


June 12, 2007 07:27 AM   Link    Tips and Terms    Comments (0)

"the real world, which is not the world of Britney Spears...."

Teens in America are in touch with their peers on average 65 hours a week, compared to about four hours a week in preindustrial cultures. In this country, teens learn virtually everything they know from other teens, who are in turn highly influenced by certain aggressive industries. This makes no sense. Teens should be learning from the people they are about to become. When young people exit the education system and are dumped into the real world, which is not the world of Britney Spears, they have no idea what's going on and have to spend considerable time figuring it out.

"Trashing Teens: Psychologist Robert Epstein argues in a provocative book, 'The Case Against Adolescence,' that teens are far more competent than we assume, and most of their problems stem from restrictions placed on them." An interview with Hara Estroff Marano, Psychology Today, March/April, 2007

Hat tip: 2 Blowhards

Quick media-world fact: ad people pursue kids and youngsters because young people can be hoodwinked and pickpocketed, er, influenced. They're buying their first cars and sofas, they're vain and insecure, and they're trying to attract mates. So they spend money on silly products, on clothes, on fashion, and on style. (Older people aren't so open to being affected by ads.) Well, how great it would be for business if the entire population could be kept in a state of perpetual anxiety, yearning, and dissatisfaction -- in a state of teenagehood?

"Adolescent Nation," 2 Blowhards, July 16, 2004




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June 11, 2007 08:37 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Faculty Favorites: Dining and Places - Dan Parks

We asked our faculty and authors to share with us some of their favorite things about living in our nation's capital. Their responses are posted in "Faculty Favorites"

Dan Parks (bio), an editor at Congressional Quarterly, shares his favorites.

Best place to take an out-of-town guest to show off your knowledge of the Washington area

Best beer selection

Best place with view in a hip neighborhood

Best bike ride


For more, also see our Visiting Washington DC pages


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June 9, 2007 07:57 AM   Link    Dining ~   Dining and Things to Do & See ~   Faculty Favorites ~   Faculty and Authors ~   Fun ~   Living in DC ~   Visiting Washington, DC    Comments (0)

Sen. Craig Thomas

Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., died Monday at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where he was undergoing treatment for leukemia. His family announced the death in a statement.
Sen. Craig Thomas

Thomas, 74, was diagnosed with leukemia in November, a day after easily winning re-election to a third term.

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, will name a replacement, who would serve until a successor can be chosen in a November 2008 special election. But under Wyoming law, he must choose from a list of three candidates put forward by the Republican State Central Committee because Thomas was a Republican.

Thomas was a member of the Finance Committee as well as the Energy and Natural Resources, Environment and Public Works, and Indian Affairs panels.

Like most Western lawmakers, he was a fiscal conservative who strongly supported oil and gas exploration on public lands, protecting private-property rights and farmers’ issues.

The senator’s wife, Susan, was at his side at the hospital Monday, along with their sons, Patrick and Greg, and daughter, Lexie.

"Wyoming Republican Sen. Thomas Dies of Leukemia," CQ Today, June 4, 2007.

More

June 5, 2007 10:17 AM   Link    Senate    Comments (0)

You have two cows - additions from Hannah and Gen

Here are two new "You have two cows...." from Hannah and Gen in Australia

You have two cows.  The government...
AUSTRALIANISM: You have two cows. You take one to the beach and teach it to surf, then you bung the other one on the barbie, drink some VB, and laugh at the idea of a surfing cow. What's a government?

BITCHISM: You're a cow!

"Bung" is Australian slang for: To put or place. E.g., bung another snag on the barbie.

For more Two Cows, see YouHave2Cows.com



June 5, 2007 07:17 AM   Link    You Have 2 Cows    Comments (0)

Greatest Italian tenor?

Who is the greatest Italian tenor of all time? Many love Luciano Pavorotti, Enrico Caruso, and Placido Domingo, but our vote is for Beniamino Gigli.



But do not miss the elephant version of Luciano Pavorotti singing La donna e mobile, from Rigoletto, in Elephants, Yeah! Yeah!




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June 1, 2007 07:47 AM   Link    Fun    Comments (0)