Berliner: A JFK Story

Today, May 29, is the birthday of John F. Kennedy, who was elected the 35th president in 1960 and served until 1963 when he was shot in Dallas. Had he lived, he would be turning 92 today and would have the legacy of having been a notable president.

He had a good sense of humor, like our current president, and he would have enjoyed the humor about the Berliner Urban Legend.

When speaking to a crowd in Berlin, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, he said "Ich bin ein Berliner," or "I am a Berliner," by which he meant to say that he was one of them, a citizen of Berlin. The legend is that "berliner" also means jelly donut, and the joke is that his German listeners understood him to say "I am a jelly donut."

Although this joke has certainly had legs, the experts say that it is inaccurate. Residents of Berlin called their donuts by the German word for pancakes. The berliner term for donut was used to some extent in the rest of Germany but was not common. Berliners are residents of Berlin. Apparently it's just a legend, but it is a funny one.

Berliner Urban Legend

Data Driving: CR Rates 09 Cars

The Consumer Reports New Car issue comes out in April, and the current issue is titled Best & Worst 2009 Cars.

What with all the financial troubles in Detroit, I thought it would be interesting to see CR's take on the current crop of vehicles from the Big Three.

If you get your car news from car magazines, you’ll find a very different perspective in Consumer Reports. CR is practical and data-oriented with a focus on gas mileage and safety and reliability. The new car issue of CR has an economical Honda Fit on the cover.

To see what CR has to say about American cars (and trucks and vans and SUVs), I looked at their recommendations to buyers. To be recommended, they say, vehicles must "meet Consumer Report’s stringent testing, reliability, and safety standards... must perform well in our testing, have average or better reliability, and, if crash-tested, provide an adequate overall safety rating.”

Of the 250 vehicles they profile, 30 are new models and are not yet considered for recommendation, so that out of a possible 220, 117 are recommended; slightly more than 50% overall.

The percentages of Detroit vehicles recommended by CR are: 75% for Ford, 22% for General Motors, and 0% for Chrysler.

For reference, the percentages for Japanese vehicles are: 100% for Subaru and Mazda, 88% for Nissan, 86% for Honda, 84% for Toyota, and 20% for Mitsubishi.

CR's recommendations aren't a great surprise, and they reinforce the idea that things are looking up for Ford, mixed for GM, and uncertain for Chrysler, at least for now. Ford is still financially healthy and its cars are getting good reviews.

I have a friend who comes from “a Honda family” and who most recently has been driving a Subaru WRX. He says his next vehicle is going to be an Escape, Ford's small SUV. Recommended by Consumer Reports.

July Update

A July 1st NY Times article said: "Automakers had another difficult month in June, but sales figures released Wednesday included faint glimmers of hope for the industry." The article goes on to say that compared to last year, Ford sales were down 11%, GM sales were down 33%, Chrysler was down 42%, and industry sales overall were down 28%. A positive note for Ford is that they outsold Toyota for the third straight month and that in half the country their sales were even or better than a year ago, suffering only in the West and Southeast where the housing industry is hardest hit.

Alpha to Zulu: The Phonetic Alphabet

Every letter of the alphabet has a word to describe and clarify it in transmission. We’ve all seen movie air traffic controllers and cops and military people use the Alpha Bravo Charlie code for non-civilian lingo like, “Tango 33, you’re cleared for takeoff on Runway Whiskey Two.”

Every once in a while I'll grasp for the right word to clarify a letter as I give a mix of letters and numbers over the phone to describe something like an account number. And it's hard to quickly think of just the right word that will unmistakably translate a letter as itself and not produce an "E" where there should be a "D."

So what are the words in such a spelling alphabet? The list below is from the NATO Phonetic Alphabet. All you have to do is memorize its 26 words and you'll never have a letter clarification problem again. As long as you don't mind sounding like an air traffic controller.

Alpha	Bravo	Charlie	Delta
Echo	Foxtrot	Golf	Hotel
India	Juliet	Kilo	Lima
Mike	November	Oscar	Papa
Quebec	Romeo	Sierra	Tango
Uniform	Victor	Whiskey	X-ray
Yankee	Zulu

NATO Phonetic Alphabet

Cook Your Life: Edward Espe Brown's Zen Bread

The Sundance cable channel recently offered an interesting and offbeat documentary on Edward Espe Brown, a "Zen chef." The documentary, titled How to Cook Your Life, follows Brown to Buddhist monasteries -- mostly the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in California -- as he gives workshops on bread-making and life philosophy.

Brown is the author of a number of cooking books, including the classic Tassajara Bread Book which dates back to the 1970's. In this documentary he uses food preparation as a vehicle for teaching a simpler and more hands-on life style to the participants who are presumably there to learn about Zen as well as bread-making.

He stresses the importance of using our hands for more than mousing and clicking and on the need to focus on what we're doing. He quotes his Zen teacher, Suzuki Roshi, who said, "When you're stirring the soup, stir the soup." In other words, pay attention to, and immerse yourself in, what you're doing.

The current cook at Tassajara, as Brown once was, is shown kneading bread. He says, "When people ask me what I'm doing, I say 'baking bread.' When they ask me how I'm doing, I say 'baking bread.'" The ideas are simple and appealing and enhanced by the context, since the workshops are presented at simple and elegant monasteries in beautiful natural settings.

After watching this, my wife, who learned how to make bread from that same Tassajara cookbook, said she is going to start making bread again. And I'm going to practice thinking about washing the dishes when I'm washing the dishes. And so on.

How to Cook Your Life

The Tassajara Bread Book

Tassajara Zen Mountain Center

Not Wasting Time: Bertram Russell is 137 today

Today, May 18, is the birthday of Bertram Russell, who was born in 1872. That's him at 35. He lived to be 98.

“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time,” he said, and who could ask more from a philosopher than that?

Thanks to Garrison Keillor for reminding us of Bert's birthday on The Writer’s Almanac.

And it's also Sarah's birthday, so hope the card arrives in time.