explodingstressball

Thank you! I thought I was going to be locked out, but it turns out no! And I think the next time someone complains about you being glued to your phone, you should do a Smeagol voice and tell them to piss off.

Not to feed the vicious troll that is your obsession (at least that is how I describe my own), it was 11 pm West Coast time. And the school is also on the West Coast. Rawr.

There have been several articles about law schools in the past few weeks along the same line.

Yes, I replied to one about off hours responses, and the general consensus was that NO ONE!!!! ever got a response on the weekends, or late at night. They were kind of stunned with by 11.36 pm on a Saturday acceptance e-mail.

I keep waking up because I've had a dream that my iPhone is buzzing because someone is calling me to welcome me to my dream school.

I'm tempted to go over to Berkeley and ask them what's going on myself

I live in Northern California. Preachy locavores and preachy Prius drivers constitute 80% of my city, and the other 20% are preachy locavore-Prius-driving-raw-fooders.

That place opened right after I moved out of DC. I really wanted to try it! Glad to hear it is good. But in general, I didn't find much good food in the District itself, but a lot of awesome food in Virginia.

I salute you for applying political science principles to food! I am a big supporter of the local food movement because of its focus on ingredients. While taste is entirely subjective, I love learning what the farms around me produce and what talented chefs are able to do with what is around them. I think it forces the attention away from crazy ingredients ("Libyan chicken feet with Bolivian foie gras sauced with Persian saffron and Indian berries") and puts it where — in my opinion — it should be: on the food, the flavor, and the texture. I also think it makes it easier to compare the flavor of ingredients and find things that I like more than others. I have not had enough of the extremely exotic foods to often make qualitative judgements about their preparation or the freshness of the ingredients. I also am a fan of the local food movement for focusing on more traditional ingredients and heirlooms. While this can be taken to the extreme (anyone see the first episode of Portlandia?), I find that there is really something to be said for using traditional ingredients in traditional recipes.

Can I ask where your skepticism comes from?

You will rarely catch a San Franciscan dead at the wharf. They are as rare as the elusive blue lobster.

Having spent a lot of time in Denmark, I can fairly confidently say that in general, Danish food is pretty standard Eurogermanicpeasant faire. Lots of heavy Rye breads, cheeses, butter, beer, and pork/beef with fish as well. It is quite hearty, and not unpleasant, but I will say that in general, there is a reason that Scandinavian food in general hasn't been a big hit in the US. However, when you take the concept of some of the ingredients (fresh fish, heartiness, a fairly simple presentation) and a number of delicious berries, you do have the base ingredients for an interesting food experiments. That's what Aquavit in New York has done at least, and what I think Noma has done as well. My family is well acquainted with the chef of a common Top Chef judge and the executive chef at a famous molecular gastronomy restaurant on the Lower East Side. I have yet to really enjoy molecular gastronomy — for me, it too often looks to far away from what I would consider to be "food."

Not a waste at all, my friend.

I only applied to places that I thought had a good food culture. Not sure I could live for five/six years with bad produce.

I was pretty amused by this review of Biutiful on Slate. I'm also addicted to documentaries. Watched "Pie In The Sky" last night, about Brigid Berlin. It was really good.

True. Totally forgot about them. I agree, I don't think there's a "best." I don't much like contemporary country music, but Nashville is the center of that genre's recording industry. And I've been meaning to teach myself how to roast coffee beans.

Agreed. But at least it'd be something to do for a year to bulk up one's resume. And since they're more professional degrees, I'd guess that their admissions periods would tend to be more flexible.

That's a really interesting and unique thought, I'm going to have to ponder that for a while. In essence, I think you may be right, although I can't really flesh out my thoughts right now. I think I care WAY too much about food. Helsinki, eh? I would never have thought of that as being a place to go to eat!

I got an e-mail from the New School that said that they are still actively accepting applications.

I got the chance to eat at Noma last year ... pretty mind boggling! It was a great experience. I've been slowly teaching myself how to make desserts. Whenever I cook, I tend to experiment by throwing things together and waiting to see what happens. It's been a real change having to measure out ingredients precisely and master technique. I've now become a fairly accomplished pie baker, though.

Have you considered an Almodovar binge session as well? I love his last six movies dearly. And Columbia will be getting back to people at the end of the week at the very earliest.

I have family who moved to Austin a year ago. They report that the food is VERY college-student-pub-grub heavy, but that there's not much beyond that. This could be a really good thing, depending.

I would love to get some good news from UPenn ... that'd be a good day! And by ten days, did you happen to ask if they meant business days or calendar days? Because I am absolutely not marking my calendar with a freak out date.

I think Austin has a few great music festivals, but how many bands have come from Austin? I can't think of any at all. Compare that to say, Brooklyn or Chicago, and I'm always surprised people rank Austin so highly.

I'm also a comparative person waiting for Berkeley ... I wouldn't write them off yet, it'd be pretty hard to imagine them accepting NO ONE in a major subfield!