The Ides of a Moscow March

Beware the Ides, so the sage said to Caesar and he should have listened.  While no extreme tragedy has happened here as in did in Rome those many years ago, the weather has been as confused as Caesar and at times as snow white as his wife’s heart. This morning the temperature was 36° at seven, by 10:30 it was 28°, dark and snowing, by noon it was 40° and sunny and now at 4pm it is 35° and as dark as the armpit of a blacksmith.

I went to work with Cindy this morning, and talk about a general sense of confusion on my part.  I have my morning routine very well established.  Up with Cindy, turn on the BBC news at six, into the kitchen to make coffee and get her cereal and other breakfast options sorted out. When the coffee is done I make one to go and one for her breakfast all the while putting away dishes, pots and pans and flatware from the night before.  This morning I also had to shave and shower and put on a suit and tie and I got plenty confused about timing, but things worked out and we were out of the house and in the car by 7:15.

Today was the College Fair at Cindy’s school and I had volunteered to represent SDSU, Boston University, The University of Maryland University College, the University of Massachusetts and the University of Connecticut.  I have been an administrator at the first three and a student at the last two.  Only SDSU and BU actually came though with materials for me to distribute and in fact, it was only those two that any students really wanted to discuss.  The students came in two waves, the first were in 10^th grade that the others in 11^th.  I must say, I’ve never been around students that were so engaging, asked all the right questions and were ever so polite.  As you can imagine there is a huge financial difference in attending BU or SDSU and on several occasions I asked the students if money was an issue in deciding where to go.  Some looked at me like I was nuts and other very politely said that money was no issue.  How nice!

I was really surprised at how expensive it is to go to college now.  BU for instance is about $54,000 per year.  SDSU is $32,000 if you are not a resident of California and only about $12,000 if you are.  When I started UCONN in the fall of 1963, tuition was $180 per year and room, board and books added another $170 bringing a full year to a total of $350!  However, I remember that even then it was a struggle to come up with the money and I had to work two part -time jobs during the school year and work construction every summer to cover costs.  I don’t ever remember saying in my entire life that ‘money is no issue’.

On a lighter note, here is one of the reasons we don’t use the Russian mail.  Here are some marvelous old photos of Moscow from 1909. The horse track is still here and is still used for races and special horse related events.

For dinner last night I prepared Mahi Oreganata.  This is a famous Sicilian dish that we used to have a lot in Little Italy in San Diego.  All you do is mince about three cloves of garlic with some fresh parsley and coarse salt.  Toss it in a bowl with a quarter cup of breadcrumbs, three tablespoons of dried oregano and enough olive oil to make it all hold together.  Pat it on two mahi fillets and bake at 425° for about six to eight minutes, just until the fish is firm to the touch.  I served this with Parmesan risotto and buttered corn.  The smell filled the house while we were eating our salad and we couldn’t wait to dig into this great fish dish.

Mahi Oreganata

If you want to know how far the relationship between the USA and Bahrain has deteriorated, just read these quick communiqué. There is no good that is going to come from this intervention by Saudi Arabia and poor little Bahrain is going to become the next flash point of sectarian violence in the Middle East. Bahrain ruling elite, like Qaddafi in Libya, is using the cover of the crisis in Japan to flex their muscle while the world media is otherwise engaged.

Happy Ides, Cindy and Wm.