More and more Middle Eastern food options are popping up in northwest Vermont and that is a delightful development. This weekend we visited The Wise Fool in Burlington, open to dine-in service since October. Business seems to be good. We walked in just before they officially opened at 5 and the space filled quickly. We sat at the bar where one can get full service.
I ordered a steak skewer special. Wife and child shared a Fattoush Salad, a Fatayer with beef and the spicy Mixed Pickles, which they also generously shared with me. I thought everything was lovely. The kid also got a Mejadrah which they pronounced beautifully (just finished their third semester of college Arabic) but otherwise didn't care for - too bland, they said.
Only one beer on tap: Peroni, an Italian lager I feel like I'm suddenly seeing everywhere. Otherwise, there are plenty of options: beers in cans and bottles, multiple wine offerings, plenty of cocktails and some off-beat non-alcoholic choices. Service was friendly. Two big screens over the bar. One was playing Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
We'll definitely be back. It's great to have pre-concert or movie options on the way into Burlington and The Wise Fool seems likely to feature in our outings.
Jake Sisco tags along with Dr. Bashir to a medical conference, hoping to find an interesting story to write about. Instead, the story finds him. During the return journey, they receive a distress call from Ajilon Prime where a Federation colony is under attack by the Klingons. Reluctantly, in light of the danger he would be putting Jake in, Bashir heads down to help the medical staff. In what feels more like a M*A*S*H battalion aid station episode than Star Trek, Jake gets far more material than he bargained for.
Was it not just a couple episodes ago that I wrote about DS9's frankness regarding the horrors of war? "...Nor the Battle to the Strong" is the roughest, most intimate example. The writers drew heavily from literary classics: Stephen Crane's TheRed Badge of Courage, Erich Maria Remarch's All Quiet on the Western Front and, most extensively, Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. The episode title comes from Ecclesiastes 9:11.
It's worth nothing that at this late stage of the series, Jake Sisko, who because of child labor limitations has had by far the least material among the principals, is the central character for two of of the best episodes so far: this one and "The Visitor." While Tony Todd did most of the heavy lifting in the earlier story, it's all on 18-year old Cedric Lofton this time. It represents a major step forward for the character, too. Most Jake stories - even "The Visitor" - had been framed within the context of his relationship with his father. This time, he's a young man out on his own - a very young man.
18. In 2026, we still send 18-year-olds to the battlefield as professional soldiers. All of the fear, confusion and guilt we watch Jake endure would be perfectly understandable for someone twice his age, particularly for one with zero previous military or medical training. I and most of the people who are likely to read this have only ever experienced or even considered war from a great distance and thank goodness for that. I expect the same is true for most Star Trek fans.
Though other stories have had hints, no Trek episode has ever come anywhere near war with comparable personal intensity either before or, honestly, since. Yes, there has been death, pain, injury and recovery. But nothing like this. It was a one-shot deal and for my money, they did it right.
Food Notes
There isn't much levity in "...Nor the Battle to the Strong" but we do get a little in the beginning of Act One as Quark makes an attempt at creating a decaffeinated raktajino:
Andrew Kavovit played the role of Kirby, an orderly at the battlefield hospital. Kavovit was born in the Bronx, July 19, 1971. He was only 25 himself and a young-looking 25 at that. The script called for an actor not much older than Jake, a more worldly-wise mirror for our naïve hero.
Kavovit was a genuine soap opera star, playing Paul Ryan on As the World Turns from 1986-91, winning a Daytime Emmy in 1990. He also had a principal role on The Magnificent Seven TV series. Guest appearances include Full House, My So-Called Life and Married... with Children.
We were in Washington, DC over Christmas to visit my parents.
As a family, we've grown fond of the Hirshhorn, The Smithsonian's modern art museum. Modern art has always been an easy sell with our child, especially when they were little. The Hirshhorn is also significantly less crowded than other sights on the Mall and exhibits are always changing. A few current highlights:
Head by Nicolas Party
The Cyclist (Le cycliste) by Auguste Herbin
Woman in a Hat (Marie-Thérèse Walter) by Pablo Picasso
We did see a few National Guard folks around - what a joke. As a community, DC detests the current president so expressions of resistance are everywhere. This was one of my favorites, spotted on a bookstore bulletin board:
Finally, my wife and I shared this spectacular dessert, Pão de Açúcar, at The Grill from Ipanema:
Grilka, Quark's Klingon ex-wife, arrives on the station. Quark wants to sleep with her. Worf is deeply impressed by her, too, but alas his family dishonor puts him out of the running. Instead, he agrees to help Quark woo her. Meanwhile, Miles and Kira, the live-in surrogate mother of his child, are growing too close for comfort.
Star Trek can get pretty heavy. Every once in a while, we need a story that's just flat out funny. L4piAtWP delivers. The story is a Cyrano de Bergerac send up. The exploration of Klingon mating rituals alone is worth the price of admission. And the Cyrano character (Worf) gets the girl. But it's a different girl from the one he initially had in mind. Dax seduces him, the beginning of an important DS9 romance.
On top of everything else, we get the return of an original series guest star: Joseph Ruskin. This time, he is Tumek, Grilka's advisor, his second appearance in the role. In TOS's "The Gamesters of Treskelion," he was Galt. Overall, Ruskin had six different Trek roles over four different series and a movie.
Ruskin was born Joseph Richard Schlafman in Haverhill, Massachusetts, April 14, 1924. He served in the Navy before studying at Carnegie Mellon. Other television appearances include Mission: Impossible, The Twilight Zone and Hogan's Heroes. Films include The Magnificent Seven, Prizzi's Honor and Indecent Proposal.
Raskin was on the board of the Screen Actors Guild for 23 years. He passed away in 2013.
The child is home from college for winter break. On Saturday night, they suggested a Patrick Swayze movie...
It's 1963. Frances "Baby" Houseman (Jennifer Grey) is heading to Mount Holyoke in the fall. But there's still time for one more summer adventure before college. She and her family go to the same resort every year. This year, she falls in love with her dance instructor, Johnny (Swayze).
Dirty Dancing was a massive hit, the breakthrough film for Swayze. If 1986 was Tom Cruise's year as ranking heartthrob, the summer of '87 belonged to Swayze. The 1980s were teen movies' heyday and I have to say, Dirty Dancing holds up pretty well compared to most of them. Neither Grey nor Swayze was an exceptional actor but their characters are compelling. Baby always does the right thing even when she knows she's likely to suffer for it. Johnny is the guy who takes care of the people close to him - tough but loving.
Honestly, though, what really makes the movie work, even 38 years later, is the dancing. Dance movies were big at the time - Footloose, Flashdance, etc. It was a good time for professional dancers in the film industry. Dirty Dancing was different. The casting call for Johnny was for a dancer who could act rather than an actor who could dance. What's the difference, you ask? It's the difference between Gene Kelly and John Travolta. There are people who learn to dance and there are people who move like dancers. Patrick Swayze was clearly the latter. To play Johnny, he wasn't merely supposed to dance. He had to be convincing as a dance instructor.
Swayze's dance cred was real. His mother was a dancer and film choreographer. He grew up studying ballet, ultimately training in New York at Harkness and Joffrey. He hurt his knee playing football. On the bright side, the injury kept him out of the Vietnam War. On the down side, it hampered his dance career.
Fortunately, he was still plenty good enough to play Johnny. He moves beautifully through the entire film: strong, graceful, balanced, purposeful, precise. Of course his considerable good looks and muscular physique don't hurt. I think he only wears a shirt for about half of his total screen time.
Sure, Grey is good, too - quite charming in her first lead role. But there's no doubt, it's Swayze's film.
I don't think I'd watched the movie since my own teenage years. As with many such films, one watches differently with life experience, particularly from the parent perspective. Parents are the villains in 1980s teen movies. They're abusive, neglectful or just plain foolish. Baby's father, Dr. Jake Houseman (Jerry Orbach) is an exception. Baby believes he's being a class snob when he forbids her from dating Johnny. But that's not it. Dad misunderstands the situation. He believed Johnny knocked up his previous girlfriend, then abandoned her for Baby. Frankly, I wouldn't take well to that either. Once Dad learns the truth, he apologizes. He just wants his daughters to be safe and happy - to be with men who respect them. Because he's a good father.
I do wish they stuck with period music throughout rather than sprinkling in 1980s contemporary hits. I realize it's hard to argue with success. The soundtrack is one of the best-selling albums of all-time at 32 million copies. The lead track, "I Had the Time of My Life" by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes, topped the charts and won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Grammy. But in the film itself, while all of the '60s songs hit just right, the '80s songs pull me out of the moment.
But it's hard to argue with success.
A parting treat... the Muppets make everything better.
Torres is having dreams. Powerful dreams. Deeply erotic dreams. They don't feel like dreams. They feel real. Could it have something to do with the race of emphaths who are visiting Voyager?
"Remember" was originally intended as a NextGen episode - a Deanna Troi story. In many ways, I'd say it works better as a Torres vehicle for the simple reason that, as she is not emphathic herself, it takes her longer to figure out what's going on - and what to do about it. Oddly, the implanted dream idea feels similar to "The Inner Light" in the beginning, before the plot's dark turn...
"Remember" is a Holocaust narrative. Jora Mirell, one of the visiting Enarans, shares her memories with Torres in order to expose the dark history of her world, specifically the genocide exacted upon the Regressives, members of a low-tech society. In her youth, Mirell had a clandestine love affair with one of the Regressives. Her lover was executed right in front of her. Her long-term, suppressed pain drives her to share the truth.
The ultimate resolution - "We can't really do anything, B'Elanna, because of the Prime Directive" - is frustrating, though probably the right call, at least in the Star Trek context. In 1996, war in the Balkans (discussed here) was still ongoing. The 1994 genocide in Rwanda was also very much on people's minds. The intervention questions hadn't gotten any easier.
"Remember" is an emotional roller coaster and a meaningful one.
Bruce Davison played the role of Jareth, Jora Mirrell's father and an Enaran leader during the "resettlement" of the Regressives. Davison was born in Philadelphia, June 28, 1946. He got a Bachelor's in art from Penn State, then an MFA in acting from NYU.
Films include Willard, X-Men and X2. On television, he had principal cast roles on Hunter, Harry and the Hendersons and Close to Home. He was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe for Longtime Companion. He has two Emmy nominations: one for acting in Touched by an Angel and one for directing for Off Season.
Regular visitors have probably caught on that I've fallen in love with Northampton, Massachusetts over the past few years. With big changes coming for our child in the near future, I'm starting to feel wistful about the place in anticipation. Each visit feels precious. I'm excited for new adventures ahead, too. But Northampton is a special place. Assuming the next step will move our family geography in new directions, I'm already starting to miss Noho.
It was just me going down this time - for a variety of reasons, not such an easy time for my wife to get away. No worries. I enjoy time alone with the kid.
You may have heard that it's been unseasonably cold in New England this month. As such, sitting and chatting at a bar or café held a lot more appeal than wandering around town. You also may have heard that the young generation doesn't drink as much alcohol as mine did. It's certainly true in our family. As I sampled IPAs, the kid - despite being of age AND despite the fact Dad was buying - was happy with root beer.
Chatting was wonderful. The kid is at an exciting life stage. College has aroused passions and helped form a vision. Growing up, making decisions - about anything - was like pulling teeth. No more. They know what they want. Finding it might be a trick. But a vision is a great start.
With the combination of the cold weather and the engaging conversation, taking photos wasn't a high priority. But I did get a shot of the charming Whatley Diner on the way home.
