It's A Magical World!: May 2006

Friday, May 26, 2006

On hiatus

It's A Magical World will be on hiatus through Sunday, June 4, as I will be on vacation without access to a computer. We'll return in ten days with all sorts of photos and exciting stories.

One of the benefits of all the travel I've done over the past few years has been obtaining Premier Executive status on United Airlines and its Star Alliance partners. For every 10,000 miles I fly on United, I get electronic certficates allowing me to upgrade to first class on domestic flights of up to 2,000 miles. First class makes air travel (at least the portion you spend actually on the plane) actually bearable, what with the extra leg room and the unlimited booze. United tends to assign its most personable flight attendants to the forward cabin. The best thing, in my opinion, is that first class represents the last vestige of free food on domestic flights. United even manages to serve a three-course hot meal on a flight of two hours.

I'm flying to Las Vegas tomorrow and I managed to upgrade my flight from Manchester to Chicago-O'Hare, and then onwards to Denver. My final leg is on a one-cabin aircraft, so no upgrade is available, but as Meat Loaf once said, two out of three ain't bad.

A toast...

... to friends, the ones who are there for you when all others have left you by yourself.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

The Joy of Labor

"I believe that the rendering of useful service is the common duty of mankind and that only in the purifying fire of sacrifice is the dross of selfishness consumed and the greatness of the human soul set free."

Today, I wish to pay tribute to this line by John D. Rockefeller. Earlier this afternoon, I found myself in the Cambridgeside Galleria, conducting some shopping. For the year and a half I spent as a title examiner before starting law school, much of my work brought me to this area, as it is the location of the Middlesex County South District Registry of Deeds. Being down at the Galleria reminded me just how pleasant it is to do work -- to help people through your labors. Whether it is for pay or on a volunteer basis, labor (and especially the accomplishment of completing your labor) is a wonderfully fulfilling feeling that, for the rest of my life, I can hopefully tap, both to help others and to help myself.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Top Five Villians of 24

1. Nina Myers (Days 1, 2, 3)
The quintessential villian of the series, Nina was Jack's co-worker at CTU and his former mistress. It turned out that Nina was a traitor, working undercover to effectuate the assassination of Senator David Palmer. Once her plan was foiled, she made arrangements to escape, but only before killing Jack's wife, Teri. In later seasons, she sold plans of CTU to a terrorist group that bombed it and released a computer virus into CTU's system that compromised its information to terrorist cells around the globe. Nina was about to kill Jack's daughter, Kim, before she was gunned down by Jack himself.

2. Christopher Henderson (Day 5)
A former member of CTU who was fired for taking bribes, Henderson developed a vendetta against Jack for blowing the whistle on him. Henderson became an executive of a defense contractor, using his position to supply Russian terrorists with nerve gas. In an attempt to save himself and pursue his vendetta, he attempted to kill Jack by blowing up a warehouse, allowed Jack to cripple his wife with a point-blank gunshot, survived a medical interrogation intended to kill him, stabbed former CTU director Tony Almeida with a lethal syringe, and after weaseling his way out of CTU custody, attempted to shoot Jack, only to find that his gon wasn't loaded. Jack took the opportunity to kill Henderson once and for all.

3. President Charles Logan (Days 4, 5)
Initially appearing as an indecisive and incompetent leader of the country, President Logan turned out to be a key player in a conspiracy that would allow Russian separatists to steal Sentox nerve gas and use it to foment revolution, that would ultimately lead to cheap oil for the United States. Logan even allowed a motorcade carrying his own wife and the Russian president to steer straight into a terrorist ambush. Once things went wrong, Logan did whatever it took to cover his own tracks, including authorizing the military to shoot down a commercial flight carrying fifty-plus diplomatic passengers.

4. Habib Marwan (Day 4)
This mastermind infiltrated a defense contractor and used its technology to have his sleeper cells carry out a litany of terrorist attacks during the course of the day. Marwan arranged for the bombing of a commuter train, the kidnapping and attempted execution of Secretary of Defense James Heller, the meltdown of several nuclear power plants, the destruction of Air Force One and the permanent incapacitation of President James Keeler, the theft of the nuclear football and a nuclear warhead, and a nuclear strike on Los Angeles that was thwarted at the last minute. Marwan committed suicide to avoid capture by CTU.

5. Navi and Dina Araz (Day 4)
As the terrorists next door, the Araz family was working for Habib Marwan as part of a plot that would ultimately launch a nuclear airstrike on Los Angeles. Navi ordered their son, Behrooz, to deliver a briefcase to a co-conspirator, but when Behrooz's American girlfriend shows up, she potentially compromises the mission. Navi and Dina insisted that Behrooz kill her, and when he refused, Dina did the dirty work herself. Once Navi realized that Behrooz is not on board with their cause, he sent a hitman to kill his own son. Because things are different when it is your child who is about to be assassinated, rather than someone else's, Dina helped Behrooz escape and Behrooz ended up killing Navi.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

American Idle

Tonight was the first part of the season finale of American Idol. Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee are competing to decide who gets to be the next Kelly Clarkson. Having watched all of about six episodes this season, I can't say I really care, and I definitely didn't vote. But I did notice a certain pattern that has taken place in all odd-numbered seasons of Idol. I doubt it amounts to much, but it is a curious coincidence.

Fourth-place: In seasons one, three, and five, the contestant kicked off in the final four was expected to go all the way to the final. Their premature departure was a shock. However, Tamyra Gray and LaToya London both went on to decent commercial success. Chris Daughtry appears to be heading down the same road, whether or not he ends up as the lead singer of Fuel.

Third-place: The contestant kicked off in the final three stuck around much longer than they should have, and even the contestants themselves likely realized it. Nobody has heard much from them since, save for appearances on "Reality Show B-List Celebrity Fear Factor." Nikki McKibbin was third on Idol's first season, and obviously we remember Elliot Yamin who got the boot last week, but I actually had to look up season three to remind myself that the penultimate elimination was Jasmine Trias.

Final: In seasons one and three, the final featured one contestant (Kelly Clarkson, Fantasia) who was clearly head and shoulders above the other (Justin Guarini, Diana DeGarmo), and that contestant went on to win. Here, Taylor Hicks appears to be the favorite, but things are much less clear-cut, especially if last week's razor-thin vote totals are any indication.

On seasons two and four, the consensus is that the final matchup got things right. The best two contestants made it to the end, and while Ruben Studdard and Carrie Underwood got the record deals, runners-up Clay Aiken and Bo Bice have arguably done just as well, if not better.

Monday, May 22, 2006

List of Amazing Race Destinations I've Visited

The title should say it all. Destinations with an asterisk are those that I visited after seeing them featured in the show. I did not start watching The Amazing Race until season two. Cities are listed in their native languages. Airport transits do not count.

Amsterdam, Nederland* (TAR 4, 12) - Visited in March 2005
Athína, Hellás (TAR 9) - Visited in January 2006
Auckland, New Zealand* (TAR 2, 5) - Visited in November 2004
Barcelona, España (TAR 10) - Visited in March 2005
Budapest, Magyarország (TAR 6) - Visited in November 2004
Buenos Aires, Argentina (TAR 5, 7) - Visited in June 2002
Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay (TAR 5) - Visited in June 2002
Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas (TAR 5-end) - Visited in July 2004
Denver, Colorado* (TAR 9-start/end) - Visited in August 2006
Firenze, Italia (TAR 12) - Visited in March 2003
Friedrichshafen, Deutschland* (TAR 3) - Visited in May 2007
Grindelwald, Schweiz* (TAR 3) - Visited in May 2007
İstanbul, Türkiye (TAR 7) - Visited in March 2001
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia* (TAR 3, AS) - Visited in March 2007
Las Vegas, Nevada (TAR 2-start) - Visited countless times, most recently in May 2006
London, England (TAR 3, 7) - Visited in June 2002, March 2003, May 2006, and September 2007
Los Angeles, California (TAR 4-start, 5-start, 7-start, 12-start) - Visited three times, most recently in November 2005
Montréal, Québec (TAR FE) - Visited in December 2001 and May 2002
Munchen, Deutschland* (TAR 3, 9) - Visited in January 2008
New Orleans, Louisiana (TAR FE) - Visited in January 2005
New York, New York (TAR 1-start/end, FE-start, 10) - Visited countless times, most recently in June 2007
Ōsaka, Nippon (TAR 12) - Visited in March 2006
Paris, France* (TAR 1, 4, 10) - Visited in January 2004
Phoenix, Arizona (TAR 4-end, FE) - Visited in or around 1990
al-Qāhirah, Misr* (TAR 5) - Visited in August 2005
Queenstown, New Zealand* (TAR 2) - Visited in November 2004
Reykjavík/Keflavík, Ísland (TAR 6) - Visited in November 2003
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil* (TAR 2) - Visited in March 2002 and August 2005
Roma, Italia (TAR 1, 9) - Visted in March 2003
San Francisco, California (TAR 2-end, AS-end) - Visited four times, most recently in October 2006
Schaffhausen, Schweiz* (TAR 3) - Visited in May 2007
Seattle, Washington (TAR 3-end, 10-start) - Visited four times, most recently in February 2006
Singapura, Singapura* (TAR 3) - Visited in March 2007
Tōkyō, Nippon (TAR 9) - Visited in March 2006
Venezia, Italia (TAR 4) - Visited in March 2003
Warszawa, Polska* (TAR AS) - Visited in September 2007
Washington, District of Columbia (TAR FE) - Visited six times, most recently in May 2003
Wien, Österreich* (TAR 4) - Visited in November 2003 and January 2006
Zürich, Schweiz* (TAR 3) - Visited in March 2003 and May 2007

It's an Amazing World!

Thanks to the wonders of television on demand with a huge assist from my mom, I just watched the season finale of The Amazing Race. It is unquestionably my favorite television show on the air right now. The concept is brilliant and the editing is very well done, but what I like the most about the show is the travelogue aspect. On more than one occasion, I have planned a trip around a location I was first exposed to on TAR, and at least once a season, I can count on seeing somewhere I've already visited selected as a destination on the show. In addition to stirring up some wonderful memories, showing such destinations usually gets me shouting at the TV, occasionally even in the native language, telling the contestants or the taxi driver where to go.

I was thrilled that B.J. and Tyler won the race this season. Aside from shameless nerds Dave and Lori (and perhaps the adorable Desiree and her mother Wanda), I was rooting for the hippies the most. Part of it was Harvard solidarity with B.J. (a 2002 grad), but most of it was grounded on the fact that B.J. and Tyler genuinely showed respect for the foreign cultures they were visiting. Unlike most other contestants, who whine about nobody being able to speak English or stick the letter "o" onto English words to make them into Spanish, B.J. and Tyler took the effort to learn the native language and customs. As someone on a single-person mission to counteract the stereotype of the Ugly American, I have great respect for others who share my mindset. Yes, the hippies were consistently goofy and occasionally annoying, but I wholeheartedly believe B.J. when he said they act the way they do not for the attention they bring to themselves but for the good cheer they bring to others.

And what a pleasure to see the final roadblock favor the team with the best brains rather than the team with the best nipple piercings or the sleaziest tactics for finding their way into girls' pants.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Congratulations, Sam!

This blog entry is dedicated to my brother Sam, who, today, graduated from Connecticut College magna cum laude with a bachelor of arts in economics and psychology. Sam was selected to the Psi Chi honor society in psychology and was recognized for distinction in both of his departments. Sam made the Dean's Honors list during his first three semesters at Conn and the Dean's High Honors List during his final five semesters. Up next for Sam is a move down the Washington D.C. area, where he will hopefully figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his life (or perhaps not, and that's perfectly okay).

On Saturday, at his graduation party, one of the guests asked Sam if he felt compelled to follow in my shoes. His immediate and confident answer. "No. We don't compete." Sam and I have always been incredibly proud of each other. We celebrate each other's achievements as they stand on their own, not in relation to what the other sibling has done. Sam's latest accomplishment is no exception. What he was able to do at Conn was, frankly, amazing. It was truly a pleasure to join him today as his efforts were rewarded.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

The Wonder Of It All

On my way home from my brother's graduation party today, I had an opportunity to stop by Foxwoods casino and see their brand-new poker room, with prominent branding by the World Poker Tour. It is easily the most amazing casino poker room I have ever witnessed. There are 114 tables, all of which are include automatic card shufflers that keep the game moving. Even on a relatively busy Saturday afternoon, there was rarely a wait to get into even the most popular games. The seats all have cupholders, so you don't need to deal with those unwieldy tableside trays, nor do you have to worry about drinks spilling onto the felt.

Taking a page from the world of online poker, Foxwoods offers sit-and-go tournaments. Tournament-style no-limit Texas Hold 'Em is the cadillac of poker, because with a simple declaration of all-in, you can change the game. The problem was that unless you waited around for the casino's nightly tournaments (and we lucky enough to get in), the only way to throw your chips all-in was to join a cash-based no limit game, which is not for the poor or the faint of heart. But with the sit-and-gos now in place, you can register at a tournament window, pay a $60 buy-in, and as soon as ten people show up, they assign you to a table and a dealer. Top three get prizes. These tournaments are available around the clock.

The coolest thing, however, was when the following announcement was made over the poker room PA system: "The massage therapist is now here. If you would like a massage, please raise your hand." Alas, the massages never made it over to the stud side of the poker room, so I did not get to partake or even witness said massages. Nonetheless, it might be the greatest casino gimmick ever.

The ironic thing is that about six months before poker became hot, thanks in large part to the WPT broadcasts on the Travel Channel, Mohegan Sun (Foxwoods' competitor) decided to close down its poker room and replace it with slot machines, since it would be a better revenue generator. While it is true that poker is a relatively low-profit game for the casinos, the cross-traffic Foxwoods must generate by being The Place To Be for poker has to be substantial. With no space available for a new poker room barring a massive retrofit, Mohegan Sun really missed the boat.

By the way, I ended up $15 ahead after two hours of $1-3 seven-card stud, winning three hands and only having to show my cards once. Then, I promptly blew five bucks in a slot machine and decided to call it a day.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Jerry vs. Maury

My rather unusual class schedule for this past semester left me without a class before 1:15 p.m. on any day of the week. Consequently, I spent many mornings at home, and without cable television, my viewing options at that time of day were limited. Fortunately, 9 a.m. brought us new episodes of The Jerry Springer Show, followed immediately by new episodes of Maury. Let us take a few minutes now to analyze each show and decide which one is better. And by better, I mean less bad.

Here's your typical Jerry Springer episode. First they introduce some redneck guy who usually works as a busboy at Waffle House or something similarly menial. Then, on comes his wife or girlfriend. Jerry announces that the man has something to share. Because the wife obviously thought she was the first person in history to appear on Jerry Springer so that her husband could tell her that their relationship was perfect, she is utterly shocked to find out that her husband has been fooling around with her sister. On comes the sister and an all-out catfight ensues. Once the guests are in various stages of undress and have been separated by Steve and the other security people, some stagehand rings a bell and the fight starts back up again. Meanwhile, Jerry walks around the studio with his head in his hands, incredulous that the show has disintegrated into such chaos for the 3,005th straight time. Then, in the final ten minutes, Jerry goes into the audience where various spectators hurl insults at the guests and challenge them to fight while women flash the camera in exchange for "Jerry Beads."

Now, your typical Maury Povich episode. First they introduce some woman, usually black (I'm not racist -- it's just a fact), who has her child sequestered backstage. Then they show a man who she believes is the baby's daddy, while the man vehemently denies fathering the child, oftentimes referring to side-by-side photos of himself and the baby while pointing out how they don't even look like one another. Maury is handed an envelope with paternity test results, rips it open, and then makes an announcement. If the test is positive, Maury says "In the case of two-year old LaKeisha, DaJuan, you ARE the father." The man remains seated, disconsolate, while the woman gets in his face, tells him that she told him so, and demands child support. But if the test is negative, Maury announces, "you are NOT the father." The man gets up and prances around as if just won the heavyweight title, while woman sits and sobs, knowing that she must now find out which of the other thirteen guys she slept with that month is her baby's daddy. Repeat five more times.

Well, it looks like we have two losers here. But I'm actually going to have to give the nod to Maury. I love the camp value of the scantily-clad toothless women on Jerry Springer going at it, but it gets old. The guests on Jerry Springer are people playing the same characters, day after day. At least with the paternity tests on Maury, you feel like you are seeing people's natural reaction, rather than what the producers told them to say backstage. It has yet to cease to entertain me how people can be so irresponsible with their sexual relations that they do not actually know who their children's father is. Go Maury!

Till next time, take care of yourselves, and each other.

Why I'm Not Doing Law Review

A brief introduction for the uninformed. Every American law school hosts a student-edited academic journal called a law review. Rising second-year students are generally appointed to the law review through a combination of grades and performance in a year-end writing competition. Being named to the law review is considered the ultimate honor for a law student. The Harvard Law Review, naturally, is the most prestigious of them all. But they don't make it easy to get on.

Students who wish to participate in the law review competition must show up at a designated place during a two-hour window on the second day after exams to pick up their materials. Then, they have one week to subcite and edit a sample article (including source checking) and write a comment on a recent Supreme Court case. The reward for spending the penultimate week of May subciting and writing case commentary? Two more years of subciting and writing case commentary as a law review editor.

The Harvard Law Review offices are in a small white building on campus called Gannett House. You have no need to ever go into Gannett House unless you a member of Law Review. Editors must devote 3-5 hours of their time to subciting and editing and writing articles for 18 of 30 days each month, on top of their class work and interviews for jobs and any other social or extracurricular activities. Needless to say, it quickly becomes an all-encompassing commitment.

Well, I want no part of that ivory tower. I have no desire to stroke the egos of some of America's most brilliant legal scholars. I have no desire to slave away in the furtherance of academia. I have no desire to fake my way through writing my own scholarly contributions that I don't even get to put my name on. Why would I want to devote the next two years of my life to sulking my way through academic fantasyland in order to secure a certain credential when I can spend my time actually making a difference in the world by serving as a teaching assistant for first-year legal writing or representing indigent clients through a clinical program, which wouldn't even require me to seclude myself from the rest of my fellow plebians on the law school campus?

Anyhow, I picked up my competition packet today -- all 1,300 pages of it, including the inane rules specifying that each line may contain no more than 55 characters and the requirement that six photocopies be turned in with the original. I popped it open, took one look, and declared myself liberated from law review.

I've made it a personal rule that life is too short to be miserable, no matter what credential you might be able to secure. In college, I resigned as sports editor of the school newspaper because, besides the actual sportswriting, the work was too much of a drain and the editor-in-chief was a jerk. A year after graduating, I left my $54,000-per-year job with Capital One, even though I didn't have anything else lined up, because the job was frustrating and my boss was crazy. I think I ended up just fine. And you know what, I have never had a single regret about those choices I made. Not one.

So, the 1,300 page law review competition is destined for the recycling bin. I don't quite know what I'll be doing for the next week, and then the next two years, but I guarantee that I'll enjoy the alternative a lot more than I would law review.

My Passport

It's time for a gratuitous self-serving list. I have here compiled every stamp in my passport, by page. Since I exceeded the 14 pages made available in the standard passport, I obtained a 24-page insert last summer so that I can keep my collection growing.

Page Eight:
Brazil, Entry, Sao Paolo-Guarulhos Airport, 22 March 2002
Argentina, Entry, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza/Ministro Pistarini Airport, 7 June 2002
Uruguay, Exit, Puerto Colonia del Sacramento, 10 June 2002

Page Nine:
Brazil, Tourist Visa, Consulate General in Boston, 5 March 2002

Page Ten:
Uruguay, Entry, Buenos Aires-Puerto Madero pre-clear, 10 June 2002
Argentina, Exit, Buenos Aires-Puerto Madero, 10 June 2002
United States, Entry, Chicago-O'Hare Airport, 18 January 2004
Israel, Entry, Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion Airport, 8 January 2001
Israel, Exit, Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion Airport, 17 January 2001

Page Eleven:
Argentina, Entry, Puerto Colonia del Sacramento pre-clear (Uruguay), 10 June 2002
Argentina, Exit, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza/Ministro Pistarini Airport, 13 June 2002
Iceland, Entry, Reykjavik-Keflavik/Leif Ericsson Airport, 4 November 2002
Spain, Entry, Madrid-Barajas Airport, 15 January 2005

Page Twelve:
Switzerland, Entry, Zurich Airport, 3 March 2003
Austria, Entry, Berg Border Crossing, 13 November 2003
France, Exit, Paris-Roissy/Charles De Gaulle Airport, 18 January 2004
Germany, Exit, Frankfurt-Main Airport, 17 November 2003

Page A:
Canada, Entry, Toronto-Pearson Airport, 30 May 2006
United States, Entry, Washington-Dulles Airport, 17 August 2005

Page B:
Jordan, Exit, Wadi Araba Border Crossing, 4 August 2005
Israel, Exit, Arava Border Crossing, 4 August 2005
Austria, Exit, Vienna-Schwechat Airprot, 19 January 2006
Israel, Entry, Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion Airport, 2 August 2005
Israel, Exit, Taba Border Crossing, 5 August 2005

Page C:
Jordan, Tourist Visa, Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority, 4 August 2005
Jordan, Entry, Wadi Araba Border Crossing, 4 August 2005
Israel, Entry, Arava Border Crossing, 4 August 2005

Page D:
Japan, Entry, Osaka-Kansai Airport, 27 March 2006
Japan, Exit, Osaka-Kansai Airport, 1 April 2006
Switzerland, Entry, Zurich-Kloten Airport, 18 May 2007
Switzerland, Exit, Zurich-Kloten Airport, 22 May 2007

Page E:
Italy, Entry, Domodossola Train Station, 20 May 2007

Page F:
Canada, Entry, Montreal-Dorval Airport, 22 May 2007
Egypt, Entry, Taba Border Crossing, 5 August 2005
Germany, Entry, Frankfurt-Main Airport, 8 August 2005
Egypt, Exit, Cairo Airport, 8 August 2005
Germany, Exit, Frankfurt-Main Airport, 9 August 2005

Page G:
Egypt, Tourist Visa, Consulate General in New York, 28 June 2005

Page H:
Luxembourg, Entry, Luxembourg-Findel Airport, 1 June 2006
Singapore, Entry, Singapore-Changi Airport, 22 March 2007
Austria, Entry, Vienna-Schwechat Airport, 13 January 2006
United Kingdom, Entry, Brussels-Zuid/Midi Station pre-clear, 3 June 2006

Page I:
Singapore, Exit, Woodlands Border Crossing, 25 March 2007
Belgium, Exit, Brussels-Zuid/Midi Station, 3 June 2006
United Kingdom, Entry, London-Heathrow Airport, 31 Aug 2007
United States, Entry, New York-John F. Kennedy Airport, 19 January 2006

Page J:
Germany, Entry, Düsseldorf Airport, 31 August 2007
Germany, Exit, Düsseldorf Airport, 31 August 2007
Malaysia, Entry, Johor Bahru Border Crossing, 25 March 2007 (with handwritten exit notation, 27 March 2007)

Page K:
Canada, Entry, Toronto-Pearson Airport, 17 May 2007
United Kingdom, Entry, London-City Airport, 4 September 2007
Singapore, Entry, Woodlands Border Crossing, 27 March 2007
Singapore, Exit, Singapore-Changi Airport, 28 March 2007

Page L:
Germany, Entry, Munich-Franz Joseph Strauss Airport, 24 January 2008
Germany, Exit, Munich-Franz Joseph Strauss Airport, 27 January 2008

Page M:
Canada, Entry, Stanstead (Rte. 56) Border Crossing, 24 August 2007
Canada, Entry, Halifax-Stanfield Airport, 6 September 2007

Page X:
Canada, Entry, Toronto-Pearson Airport
Brazil, Entry, Rio de Janeiro-Galeao/Antonio Carlos (Tom) Jobim Airport , 11 August 2005

Page Thirteen:
Brazil, Exit, Sao Paolo-Guarulhos Airport, 30 March 2002
Italy, Exit, Rome-Fiumicino/Leonardo da Vinci Airport, 11 March 2003
Liechtenstein, Vaduz Tourist Office, 5 March 2003

Page Fourteen:
United Kingdom, Entry, London-Heathrow Airport, 30 May 2006
United States, Entry, Philadelphia Airport, 18 January 2005

Page Fifteen:
Netherlands, Exit, Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport, 24 March 2005
United Kingdom, Entry, London-Heathrow Airport, 20 June 2002
Spain, Exit, Madrid-Barajas Airport, 17 January 2005
United Kingdom, Entry, London-Heathrow Airport, 3 March 2003

Page Sixteen:
Iceland, Exit, Reykjavik-Keflavik/Leif Ericsson Airport, 6 November 2002
Austria, Exit, Berg Border Crossing, 13 November 2003

Page Seventeen:
France, Entry, Paris-Roissy/Charles de Gaulle Airport, 13 January 2004
New Zealand, Entry, Auckland-Jean Batten Airport, 13 November 2004

Page Eighteen:
Germany, Entry, Frankfurt-Main Airport, 11 November 2003
United States, Entry, Chicago-O'Hare Airport, 1 April 2006

Page Nineteen:
Turkey, Exit, Istanbul-Ataturk Airport, 31 March 2001
Turkey, Tourist Sticker Visa, Istanbul-Ataturk Airport, 23 March 2001
Turkey, Entry, Istanbul-Ataturk Airport, 23 March 2001

Page Twenty:
Poland, Entry, Warsaw-Okecie/Frederic Chopin Airport, 2 September 2007
Poland, Exit, Warsae-Okecie/Frederic Chopin Airport, 4 September 2007
Netherlands, Entry, Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport, 20 March 2005

Page Twenty-one:
Slovakia, Entry, Petrzalka Border Crossing, 13 November 2003
Czech Republic, Entry, Prague-Ruzyne Airport, 31 August 2007
Switzerland, Entry, Basel-Lisbuechel Border Crossing, 21 May 2007
Czech Republic, Exit, Prague-Ruzyne Airport, 2 September 2007

Page Twenty-two:
Germany, Entry, Friedrichshafen Ferry Port, 21 May 2007

Page Twenty-four:
Slovakia, Exit, Petrzalka Border Crossing, 13 November 2003

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

So now it's my turn to weigh in on the political firestorm du jour that is the immigration debate. Rather than address any of the most contentious issues at this time, however, let me take this opportunity to state, for the record, that I cannot understand how anyone could oppose President Bush's plan to build 370 miles of triple-layer fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Look, I love to travel to all sorts of new and interesting foreign countries. But I also realize there are procedures that need to followed. When you arrive in a new country, you must clear customs and get your passport stamped (which is one of my favorite things about travel). The reason is that every country, as an exercise of its national sovereignty, has the right to secure its borders and ensure that any visitors pass through the proper channels, where they can be denied entry as a security threat or a risk to overstay their visa.

We can argue all day about whether illegal aliens who have snuck into this country and managed to evade the authorities for two decades deserve a "path to citizenship," or whether employing one of those aliens should constitute a felony. But, for the life of me, I cannot see how anyone could reasonably oppose making it for difficult for those people to sneak into the country in the first place and ensure that all visitors to the United States must pass through the proper channels. I agree that our current immigration system is heavily bloated with red tape, and one of the best ways to make people respect the rule of law is to streamline the process and make it possible for people to actually comply, disincentivizing the need to sneak in illegally. But whether the system is streamlined or not, illegal entry is just that: illegal. And last time I checked, countries have the right to protect against illegal activities.

We have a fundamental right to make our borders airtight. Good fences do make good neighbors, because they keep the bad neighbors out.

Bottom Five List

Okay, now we get to do the five worst public transit systems. This should be fun. As you can probably tell by now, I enjoy riding around on subways.

1. Los Angeles
To get from the LAX airport to Pasadena, here is what you must do: Hop a shuttle bus to the Green Line station. Buy a ticket from the unmanned ticket machines (good luck if you don't have singles or quarters). Take the Green Line to its connection with the Blue Line. Take the Blue Line (through Compton) to its terminus at the Red Line. Take the Red Line to its terminus at the Yellow Line. Take the Yellow Line to its terminus at Pasadena. And they wonder why nobody ever bothers with this system. Sure, blame it on Angelenos' love of their cars. But with no reasonable alternative, what else are you going to do?

2. Philadelphia
It's an intermodal system with light rail, heavy rail, and streetcars. But the fare structure is perplexing. To go from Norristown to downtown Philly, you must pay the fare for a two-zone trip on the light rail and also buy a transfer which will get you onto the subway. Forget to ask for your transfer in advance, and it will cost you more. Buy single rides instead of buying tokens in bulk, and it will cost you more. On the light rail outbound, you must pay while departing the train, so make sure you have money on you. Additionally, streetcar routes aren't even marked on the map outside the immediate downtown area. I guess that they assume that since the streetcars go to West Philly, if you don't see it on the map, you don't want to go there.

3. Seattle
The Seattle monorail takes you from the downtown area to the Space Needle at Seattle Center. The intent was that it would be the foundation of a city-wide monorail system. But they ran out money. Recent bond measures to extend the monorail have failed. Therefore, what's left is a system that isn't convenient for anybody except for tourists, and even then, if you want to go see anything else in the city besides the Space Needle, it won't do you a lick of good.

4. Las Vegas

There are all of seven stations on the Las Vegas monorail, which can only be accessed by hiking through the bowels of Strip casinos. When they initially opened the monorail, they charged $2.60 per person. Nobody was riding the monorail and the project was shaping up to be a money-bleeding white elephant. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Strip, there is free transportation between the Mandalay Bay and Excalibur as well as between the Monte Carlo and Bellagio, as well as Mirage and Treasure Island. So, what did the brain trust decide to do? Raise prices to five bucks a head. Then again, logic gets turned on its head in Vegas, and the system has reported record revenues.

(Any significance to the fact that items one through four are all in the United States? I would say so.)

5. Venice
So this a major cheap shot. Because of the nature of the city public transit is impossible beyond the ferries that ply the Grand Canal. I love Venice. I really do. The only point I'm trying to make is that it's a city where you must walk everywhere, and there isn't really a darned thing they can do to fix it.

Another Top Five List

As a corollary to the last top five list, we'll now do top five most distinctive public transportation systems. You can't choose anything from the last list.

1. Budapest
The original Budapest metro was built back in the 19th century. It was the first subway system in the world. You ride around in these little yellow caboose-like trolley cars, going between stations that are a block apart. It took me fifteen minutes to walk half the line on the street. However, the other two lines were built by the Soviets in the 1970's. The stations display industrial-style steel and concrete at their finest while the cars themselves bear manufacturer's plates featuring the hammer and sickle.

2. Istanbul
There's just something incongrous about state-of-the-art light rail train cars snaking their way along the crowded, chaotic, centuries-old streets of Istanbul with nary an electric hum. But it's impressive that one of the, shall we say, less advanced countries of Greater Europe has made the investment in an ultra-modern system. They also have a fledgling underground line, which is well-designed and included futuristic rolling stock, even if it didn't go anywhere particularly useful.

3. Washington, D.C.
The ribbed concrete tubes that make up this system are incredible works of civil engineering, even if they use the exact same design for every station. Like the bureaucracy that supports the city, the DC Metro is incredibly bland and homogenous. But unlike the bureaucracy, the Metro is efficient and highly functional. Also, DC had zone-based fare structures with automated ticket machines back in the 1980's. It was cutting-edge back then, and while technology has caught up, the forward-looking conceptualization of the DC Metro is still apparent.

4. Pyongyang
I've never been, but the North Korean metro stations are sunk deep into the earth with chandeliers and gigantic portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il watching over you. Now, if only they could figure out how to feed their own people.

5. Buenos Aires
First of all the price -- 70 centavos, which is about US$0.20 -- can't be beat. It is the oldest Metro in South America, boasting original wooden train cars from 1930 on Linea A. With five lines (and that many more on the way), El Subte is comparable in scope to all but the largest cities in the United States. For South America, I found it pretty impressive.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Top Five List

One of my favorite intellectual exercises is the Top Five list. With the It's A Magical World blog, we can make it interactive. Here's how it works: I name a category. You see my top five things in that category. Then, you think of the top five things you would include in that category and post them as a comment.

Today's category: Cities with amazing public transportation systems

1. New York City
It runs 24 hours a day. You look at the tangled web of colored lines on the NYC subway map and ask yourself whether there is anywhere in the city that you can't get by subway. Besides Laguardia Airport that is. Or Red Hook, or Staten Island, but who really wants to go there? I have literally spent ten hours on the NYC subway on a given day and did not come close to seeing even half of it. The Metrocard system is the most user-friendly fare collection mechanism ever designed.

2. Tokyo
Riding the rails in Tokyo is every bit the experience people say it is. Take the most densely populated city in the world and throw in the reduced version of personal space in the Far East, and you'll become very close friends with whoever you find yourself stomach-to-stomach with. They also have television monitors on the train with lessons in how to speak English, so you can educate yourself while you get to where you're going.

3. London
Okay, so it shuts down before midnight. But again, you can get pretty much anywhere you need to go on The Tube. The stations have wonderfully informative signs telling you when the next train will arrive, the conductors wear cute royal blue polyester uniforms, and the announcements are made in lovely British accents reminding you to mind the gap. Plus, when you say Bakerloo, the accent goes on the last syllable.

4. Paris
The great achievement of the Paris metro is that it has fully integrated the subway system with the RER commuter rail. Transfers within Le Metropolitain are seamless, though you might have a bit of a hike through some of these mega-station complexes. Many of the stations possess historic charm, and the arte nouveau entryways into the oldest stations just can't be replicated anywhere else.

5. Barcelona
If you're a trooper like myself and you're willing to walk everywhere, then Barcelona's public transit system won't do you much good. But it is an incredibly comprehensive system, especially for a city that size. It will take you anywhere you want to go, even up mountains on a funicular line and across the harbor on a cable car. With a ten-ride ticket costing EUR 5.90, it's an amazing bargain.

Outwit Outplay Outlast

So I spent three hours Sunday night watching the finale of Survivor: Panama Exile Island while pretending to look through my notes in preparation for my torts exam the next day. For those of you who have been living a rock or just didn't really care (and I can't say I totally blame you), the sole survivor was Aras, the yoga instructor from Santa Monica, CA. Yawn.

This season of Survivor had one thing going for it after the merge: Terry, the fighter pilot who managed to capture five consecutive immunity challenges and stay in the game while all his former La Mina tribemates were voted off one-by-one and the Casaya members had to turn on each other. I was hoping to see Terry pull off the impossible,

and in a run reminiscent of Tom Brady and the 2001 New England Patriots, go undefeated in immunity challenges through the final tribal council and win the championship. Alas, or should I say Aras, Terry did his best impression of Peyton Manning and the 2005 Indianapolis Colts, choking when it counted the most and finding himself voted off the island in the final three.

(And yeah, I wanted the opportunity to post a gratuitous Tom Brady picture.)

Anyhow, I made it through this season of Survivor managing to catch every single episode. Therefore, in twelve seasons of the show, I have missed only four episodes. Two of them were from Season Two: The Australian Outback (Maralyn's and Mitchell's elimination), one was from Season Three: Africa (Linda's elimination), and one was from Season Ten: Palau (Stephenie's elimination). Doing some quick back-of-the-envelope calculations here, it means that I have heard Jeff Probst say "The tribe has spoken" on 166 separate occasions. Wow. Am I proud of myself or what?

Greetings!

To all those out there in cyberspace who don't know me, the name's Ben, and I'm a law student at Harvard. It has been a dream of mine for many years to pontificate and share my ruminations about whatever important random matters I feel like discussing with an audience that is willing to listen. Finally, through the wonders of the internet, the day is at hand where my dream can be fulfilled!

So, what should you expect in the days to come? I make no promises, because I intend to let this blog run down whatever road I feel like traveling on a given day, but I can foresee a smattering of television reviews followed by sports commentary followed by stories from my adventures in international travel. Come along for the ride -- it should be fun!

And to get this blog off on the right foot, I'd like to submit for your approval my favorite comic of all time. It serves as the namesake for my blog as well as my personal motto for life. Enjoy!

It's A Magical World!