Sunday, June 30, 2013

Streetcar #2

Last week, after dinner with a colleague, we jumped on the #2 streetcar to get back to our neighbourhood. He had told me how to buy a busplus card and I had purchased a ten ride card at a newsstand at the bottom of the hill. The WC has a pretty extensive transportation network, and mastering it will give eminent domain, so to speak.

He told me that the #2 streetcar makes a big loop, so today I decided to ride it and see if there was anything to see. I waited for about five minutes, and, when the streetcar arrived, I scanned my card, although it didn't give me a readout of the stored value, as it had the other night.


The car was empty, but it filled up quickly, and by the time we got to the end of the line, it was SRO. Not much to see though, just a bunch of small businesses and ugly apartment blocks. It was interesting to notice that no-one else scanned a card, or did anything else that looked like payment. Are the buses free on Sundays? I wondered. Do only suckers pay?

Everyone got off at the end of the line and I waited for the driver to start up again. We returned the way we had come, and after we passed my stop, went through downtown and the old city.

We stopped at the train station, and I decided to get off and check it out. I figured that I had all day to get home, and that I could get back on the streetcar, bumble my way into familiar territory, or, worst case scenario, hail a cab and get home  for  five bucks.

Not much action at the train station. The board showed trains for Nis and Subotica, but it didn't look like many people were going there. I followed my nose through a non-descript area, and ten minutes later I was back downtown, in familiar territory.

Not much to report, except that the Animals, Jamiroquai and Fatboy Slim seem to have joined Whitesnake and Depeche Mode as artists who come to Belgrade now that their appeal has become more selective. I had downloaded Barenaked Ladies new album for accompaniment, and after listening to it, I think they may be ready for Kalemegdan soon. Odds Are is pretty catchy, and that's what prompted me to buy the album, but the rest was nothing to write home about.

Update
I asked my colleagues about this. They said that, although some people have monthly passes that they can show to an agent if asked, the fact is that most people don't pay. Not the most efficient system. Why not just make it free for everyone, like Chapel Hill, instead of rewarding the scofflaws?

Friday, June 28, 2013

Happy St. Vitus Day

Locals have been keeping their eye on today's session of the European Council, hoping that it will mark the start of accession talks for Serbia to join the European Union. There seemed to be an undue amount of emphasis on the need for things to start today, rather than any other date, so I looked up June 28th.

Turns out that June 28 is St. Vitus day, or Vidovdan, the holiday that commemorates the sacrifice of Serbian martyrs defending their faith in the epic battle of Kosovo on this day in 1389.

But wait, there's more:
   I was aware of how Milosevic made his political career out of that speech on the 600th anniversary of the battle, but I did not know any of the other dates. The WW I dates are particularly interesting.

Update
It looks like they've received the go-ahead to begin negotiations in January. I think that will make everyone happy. But as I said, I've heard politicians say that "just a green light" is not enough. I don't know what that means exactly.

Update (2)
In a somewhat incoherent article, Prime Minister Dacic says that he is not too satisfied. He wishes the date was sooner, "but anyway, it's a historic day."

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Emerging markets

15 years ago in Skopje, we had a washing machine on an enclosed porch just off the kitchen. As I recall, the brand name was "Gorenje," and a quick search suggests that this memory is correct. The most interesting thing about this washing machine was that during the spin cycle it sort of danced around the porch--not a wide orbit mind you, but enough to be disconcerting. After awhile we got used to it, but nonetheless, every load seemed like it carried, along with your clothes, a not insignificant chance of something going horribly wrong.

Now my new apartment has a high-tech unit that is a washer/dryer in one, something that I'd never seen before, although, truth be told, I hadn't looked all that hard. The landlady was kind enough to leave a manual along with it, helpfully published in all EU languages.

And it works great. The only troubling thing is that washing and drying a medium size load takes six and a half hours. That seems like an awfully long time. The handy digital timer lets you keep track of all 400 minutes. But it's very quiet.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Taking Refuge

I've been looking at B92 most mornings for news of the region. Everyone is talking about EU accession and the announcement, which is expected on Friday, that Serbia is now officially a candidate for membership, with talks to begin on a date certain, the sooner the better.

It turns out that last Thursday was world refugee day, which afforded a chance to reflect on the 260,000 refugees in Serbia, a vestige of the war, now two decades past. My housekeeper, who is from Mostar, in Bosnia, is one of these, although she expressed no interest in returning home. In fact, she would rather join her daughters in Chicago.

Turns out she is not alone. The article goes on to state that only 5% of those displaced want to return to their homes. This seemed odd, but it seems that the mere act of fleeing, as well as the fear of persecution or reprisal on return is part of the status determination, and I guess there might still be some of that around, especially in Kosovo.

Still, she seems to be doing pretty well, although it's very easy for me to make that kind of a conclusion, and it might be completely unwarranted. It's hard to tell.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Keeping it Clean

My triumphant return to the world of international development means a lot more suits and ties in my daily life, and the heat of the White City (dare I call it the WC?) means that my shirts need frequent laundering. Luckily there is a dry cleaner on the same block as my office, so it looks like it should be easy to manage. I made my first trip there last night, and, although my Serbian is slowly progressing, I didn't need too many words to complete the transaction. I just handed the shirts to a woman and she handed me a ticket with the 25th written on it, along with my name, which I gave properly, resisting the urge to transform myself into Brahnko.

One of the interesting things about dry cleaning in the region is that it goes by the name of Hemisko Chistenje--chemical cleaning--a more accurate, though less appealing description of the process. I snapped a picture of the shop this morning, but I was too timid to get close enough to get a good picture of the woman inside, who was folding and ironing up a storm.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Plug and Play

I am now fully plugged in at my new apartment, and have been for a couple of weeks. I didn't bring any of our big voltage converters from Egypt, and the only thing I've really missed is a microwave, although I'm sure my landlady would have got me one had I asked. Here is a list of all of the electronics that came with me:


  • Dell Netbook pc
  • Iphone
  • Ipad
  • Ipod shuffle
  • USB backup hard drive
  • Bose Speakerbox
  • Airport device

As luck would have it, all of these things are dual voltage (or charge over usb), and I bought a powerstrip on Amazon before I left that connects to a European outlet, but accepts either type of plug. I actually moved the pc into my office yesterday, but I had no problem buying an adapter in the Green Market.

I've been using Skype to connect with Worldwide in PNG, and I made two purchases yesterday--Lloyd's new album and Consider the Fork, which I'm reading on the Ipad. I can stream music wirelessly from my pc to the speakerbox, which is connected to the Airport device by an audio cable. I also use the remote app on my phone to control the music on my pc, which is backed up on the external drive. It works pretty well, though not perfectly. Even though I helped finance the album, and have a deluxe edition waiting for me at home, I couldn't wait to hear it. I'll listen to it again on my way to the gym this afternoon, although I'll switch to Wefunk once I get there.

Imessage allows for free family texting over wifi, and I have some skype credit, so I can still call Grandma Ruth fairly cheaply. I read the digital editions of the Economist and Entertainment Weekly yesterday, and I enjoyed my boy Tyler Cowen's column in this morning's New York Times, as well as Malcolm Gladwell's article in the current New Yorker. The digital edition for all four publications comes free for subscribers, and we are certainly taking full advantage of that feature.

I inherited my predecessor's wireless router and internet service, and it all works well, although I don't know yet how much it's costing me. The same company provides tv service, and I was able to watch the fourth quarters of the last two games of the NBA finals, as well as two of the movies you would only see if you lived here or your name was Young Jeezy--Sly in Shade as a slick card player named Dean making one last score, and Nicolas Cage in Lord of War as a NY gun dealer in Africa snorting a diabolical mixture of cocaine and gunpowder called "brown-brown", among other misadventures. Sometimes you just can't flip away.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Fresh Prince of Bel Grade

Yesterday, the Embassy had arranged for a private tour of the Royal Palaces. My entire office went, and, on a very hot Friday afternoon, we were part of what turned out to be a fairly small group.

Just outside downtown, maybe 10 minutes drive, the palaces--there are two, the Royal Palace and the White Palace, were built in the 1930s by King Aleksander. After the war, Tito made them his residence, and they were subsequently co-optd by Slobodan Milosevic, who received Richard Holbrooke there many times during the conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo. After Milosevic was ousted, the palaces were returned to the royal family, and they now enjoy some sort of quasi-governmental status

The palaces would look familiar to anyone who has visited Biltmore or one of the grand mansions built in the US during Jay Gatsby's era. The Crown Prince, who one of my staff told me is nicknamed "Google translate" for his poor Serbian, was not there on Friday, and the guide told us that his absence would give us a chance to look at his office, which included a host of dusty bookshelves, family photos and a huge wooden desk.

"What kind of computer does the crown prince use?" I asked the guide.

"Oh, he mainly receives visitors here," she told me. "Most of the living is downstairs."

"I just wanted to know if he was a Windows or an Apple guy," I told her, as we were leaving.

"I think," she said, "he is Apple guy."

The next room was a screening room, where apparently Tito like to watch movies from an easy chair on the balcony. Everyone else sat below.

"What kind of movies did Tito like?" I asked.

"He loved westerns," she told me. "John Wayne."

The rugged individualism of  the Duke seems a little at odds with the collectivist philosophy of Yugoslavia, but I guess there's no denying the power of a good story, and the iconic value of a man on a horse, six-gun by his side.

Update
Turns out there was a 2011 film, Cinema Kommunisto, that detailed Tito's attempts to create a Yugoslav film industry. The website for the film is here. It won best documentary at the Chicago Film Festival in 2011. Here is a Guardian article on the film from last year. I cannot find the interview with his projectionist. Perhaps Young Jeezy can help.

Friday, June 21, 2013

On the Good Foot.

We were scheduled for a meeting at the Courts' finance office yesterday. One of my colleagues poked his head into my office and asked if I minded walking over there. "It's about 15 minutes," he said. As we were heading over, I told him and another colleague about how no-one would walk anywhere in Cairo, even a short distance, as it was somehow seen as demeaning."We walk everywhere," he told me.

My kind of town.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Morning Rituals

Back home, my weekday morning ritual was this: up between 5:30 and 6; drink coffee (timer set for 5:30) and read the Economist until 6:30; pack lunches, make breakfast and compose song of the day; wake up the BG; eat breakfast; walk the BG to the bus stop at 7:17; check e-mail; drive the OG to school at 7:45; start the day.

Belgrade is not that different, although it's a little less child-focused. I wake up at the same time. I don't have a timer on my coffee maker, so I get that going first thing. I read the Economist and check the day's news until 7; then I eat breakfast and listen to the most recent NPR news summary and last night's Pardon the Interruption; shower and shave; pack lunch and I'm out the door by eight.

I value not being rushed in the morning, and there's no better feeling than looking at the time on the top of my Ipad and knowing that I have 45 minutes before I need to do anything. I've yet to find good coffee, and I miss my family, of course, but I've settled into a nice groove on weekday mornings.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

The Information

My boy Tyler Cowen links this morning to an article about the last telegram, which will be sent in India next month. We used to use them for formal communications in Macedonia two decades ago, and they seemed like a relic then. One wonders what future generations will think of email, blogs and social media, or if they will at all.

On this topic, I recommend The Information, from last month's reading list, a survey of communication from talking drums to dna. Long, but interesting throughout.

Second Half Commute

Here is the second half of my short walk to work. I am running out of things to say.


Sunday, June 16, 2013

Keep on Rockin'

Updating my post about summer concerts, apparently Whitesnake played on Friday night for 15,000 grateful Belgraders.

The story is here

Saturday Shopping

Last Sunday, I wrote about the Green Market. I went back there yesterday, and, sadly, the strawberries were almost all gone. They were replaced, almost to a stall, with the fruit for which Serbia produces about one third of the world's output, the malinja.

Delicious. Lots of advice on the Internet about not washing them, washing them in a vinegar/water solution, etc. I chose to gently wash them in a completely ineffective manner, but, whatever, they were superb, and I hope they'll be around for a few more weeks.

After breakfast, I decided to do an exploratory walk around downtown. I had two destinations in mind: the first was a cafe/boutique called Supermarket, which I had read about in the hotel newspaper, and the other was a supermarket named Mercator, which I had stumbled on a couple of days earlier. I had asked someone in the office where I could find #4 coffee filters, and she directed me to a supermarket a few blocks away on Negocieva. I headed off that way, but when I got to the end of the street, including the pedestrian part lined with cafes that I'd been told to expect, there was no evidence of the promised supermarket. There was, though, this view from the other side of the street.
That looked like something, so I decided to walk over and check it out. At the bottom of the escalator, I was faced with a large set of electric doors and a fleet of shopping carts. I walked through them an into an Aladdin's Cave of gastronomic choices. It turned out to be one of the three Mercator stores in the city. Mercator is a Slovenian version of Whole Foods.

The store has extensive bakery, meat, cheese and wine departments, as well as a bunch of prepared and bulk foods.


 I bought some coconut milk, some blueberry juice (how could I not?) a nice piece of beef, some muesli, vinegar, cheese and a couple of bottles of Macedonian wine, both under $5. It was interesting to see T'ga Za Jug there, a holdover from our 90s tenure in Skopje. The label had changed though, suggesting that the company may have acquired a marketing department since then. In fact, I suspect that there were more labels from Macedonia on one shelf than were available in the entire country back then; an indicator that smaller producers may have been able to get started, or that the two giant producers have started to factor issues other than cost and quantity into their business model.

I was also looking for peanut butter, and I found it in the exotic foods section, but $10 is way too much, even for Teddie Brand. Note that it's about the same price as the maple syrup, produit du Canada, on the right.

I headed to the checkout, paid my 2800 dinars ($28) and was home ten minutes later, enjoying a nice cold glass of blueberry juice from my first and last bottle of the stuff. Why did I think it would taste differently?

But back to my walk. I had designed my route to end at the market. I walked through the pedestrian zone, past the National Assembly, and the many restaurants and cafes were full of attractive people having lunch or drinking coffee, taking advantage of the free wifi that everyone seems to provide.

I did venture into one upscale department store, which had a real Williams Sonoma vibe, but $40 for a garlic press and 30 for a very cool collapsible colander prompted me to press on. I arrived at the aforementioned boutique/cafe, and it was a very hip place selling expensive stuff--not unlike the way it was described. I could have bought a Jaime Oliver garlic press here for $28. but I think I'll try my luck in the green market. I had mentioned earlier that there wasn't much junk there, a comment that I'm hereby retracting. There's loads of it, and I think I'll be able to find what I need there for a lot cheaper. It only has to last six months, and my home kitchen in the Triangle is already fully outfitted.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Halfway to Work

Here's a brief walkalong of the first half of my commute. Hopefully I will get better with the camera and have more interesting things to say as time progresses.


Thursday, June 13, 2013

Who's that Lady?

In Skopje circa 1998, a lot of young women chose to colourtheir hair red. The combination of their black locks and whatever dye they were using produced a vivid orange, which made them look sort of like Heat Miser. It was very striking, if somewhat ridiculous.

I was looking forward to seeing this sight again, and, after a couple of weeks, I've decided that it's gone out of fashion. I've seen a few older women wearing the style, but it's not quite the same. Blue hair might work for Katy Perry, but on your wife, not so much. Or perhaps I've grown more conservative.

Goop

I wrote a couple of days ago about the pros and cons of the local cevapi. Last night, I experimented with a Balkan take on one of my personal favorites, a dish that nobody else in the family really likes, and my brother once dismissed as "goop."

I'm a beans and rice guy. I love risotto, red beans and rice, jamaican rice and peas, and I've tried endless variations. I always keep cans of black, white, kidney and refried beans in the cupboard, and I even added blackeye peas to the arsenal when we moved down south.

I am allowed to use the PX here (the American grocery store at the embassy) although I don't think I will. It's inconvenient to get to, and into, and I can't see wanting for anything. Maybe I'll crave a pint of Ben and Jerry's, but I doubt it.

Which is a long way of leading up to the fact that the former tenants of my apartment left a few things behind, including a jar of Tostitos salsa, which I'm sure came from the PX. The aformentioned goop is basically a pot of cooked rice, with some sliced chorizo, a can of refried beans, cheese, salsa and sour cream mixed in. I tried it last night with the cevapchichi subbing for the chorizo, some local white cheese (similar to edam), a can of white beans and Frito-Lay's best salsa. The results were good. As I suspected, the local sausages did a nice job complementing and soaking up the flavors of the dish.

I don't think we'll be seeing a Slav-Mex restaurant anytime soon, although, who knows, there may already be one in Belgrade. I asked one of my colleagues about a nearby Chinese restaurant, and he said that "Serbian Chinese food is different." That sounds interesting.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Big D Cribs Edition

Here's a tour of my new apartment. I'm not fully settled, but almost. I'm pretty happy, except for a few minor annoyances that seem to plague these luxury units in developing countries--showers that don't work as advertised, finishing details that diminish product utility, etc. But boo hoo, right? It's a pretty nice setup.


Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Cevapchichi

In Skopje, sometimes we would go for lunch in the old city. One of the most reliably good choices was a chevapi place, which sold small grilled sausages, which were served with bread and minced onions, with a small bowl of hot paprika on the side. They didn't blow your mind the way a gyro in Athens, dripping with tzatziki, or a bratwurst in Vienna, swaddled in black bread and mustard, or other similar street foods do--I could ramble on awhile here--but they were pretty damn tasty, as AJ would say. Apparently,  they are all over southeastern Europe, and the name is etymologically related to the Turkish "kebab," which is familiar to everyone,

Belgrade also has its chevapi, although they are called chevapchichi here. They are a little larger than the Macedonian version, and, sadly, they don't seem to have much in the way of flavor. One recipe I found suggests onion, garlic and salt, and that sounds about right.

The quality of the meat, though, seems pretty good. I brought home a half kilo from the supermarket last night, and pan-fried a few of them until they had a nice crust on the outside. With a little mustard, they were pretty good, and I think they have promise as an ingredient in pastas, rice dishes and stir fries. We will see.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Spice Guy

I made a trip to Penzeys in Raleigh and packed a few ziplocs of things I was likely to use or not be able to find in Below Grade (thanks Tom). Partly a cost saving measure, partly a security blanket. Here's what I brought:

  • Curry powder
  • Smoked paprika
  • Cajun seasoning
  • Italian herb mix
  • Szechuan pepper salt mix
  • Ground chipotle
  • BBQ 3000 rub
  • Cumin
  • Coriander 
  • Chipotles in adobo
Tonight I am making a little risotto with smoked paprika, beer and edam, along with a generous helping of baby spinach, spring onions and chicken. It will be ready in 5 minutes when the cheese is melted. I am looking forward to it.

Currently Residing in the Where are They Now File

Two big concerts at Kalemegdan this summer: Depeche Mode and Whitesnake. One band formed in 1980, the other in 1978. Here I go again; I just can't get enough. Hello Cleveland!

Tvdjava iz vazduha.jpg

Green Market

I went to the Green Market in my neighbourhood yesterday. It's basically a huge open-air space, ringed by more permanent buildings selling meat, bread and cheese.

I didn't want to buy meat first, so I ventured inside to check out the fruits and vegetables. It would look very familiar to any of you who have been to the Green Market in Skopje, although it was a little bit larger, and didn't have as much non-perishable stuff, although there was one guy selling batteries, and another with a counter full of faucet heads. I wish I had needed one.

It looked like it was going to rain any minute, but there were still lots of people there. I'm sad to report that my first experience was a purse snatching. Right after I took this picture, an older woman screamed and a young man ran off down the street. Several men took off after him and a crowd quickly gathered to offer succor and demand police intervention. I stayed around for a couple of minutes, but eventually I moved my wallet to the front pocket of my jeans and got down to business. I'll let you know if I hear anything.

Everybody is a specialist; there is no one-stop shopping here. By far the most appetizing items were the strawberries, cherries and raspberries. I bought a half kilo each of the first two, thinking that the raspberries are just starting to come in (they weren't nearly as abundant) and I can only eat so much fruit.


I also bought a half kilo of gorgeous baby spinach from this woman, who never stopped yelling at me, after I was slow to decide and misunderstood the price (about $3/kilo. The same money will buy you 12 ounces at the Harris Teeter). I'm sorry the picture didn't come out better, but I was afraid she might ban me if she caught me taking it.



After that I stopped in at the MiniMax, a supermarket right outside, to pick up a few things. There is also a market right across the street from my apartment, and I was able to pick up some prosciutto and parmigiano reggiano there for my dinner, which was penne with roasted hazel nuts, diced prosciutto and baby spinach. Very nice.

For breakfast today, I had yogurt with strawberries and muesli, sweetened with a little jam. Sadly, my apartment seems to be furnished with only a handful of plastic forks and knives at present, but luckily the yogurt was plenty thick. I also can't seem to locate coffee filters for sale anywhere to use in the coffee maker I asked for, but luckily the kitchen also has one of those Turkish stovetop pitchers, so I've survived. There's also a Costa Coffee just up the block, which makes a mean americano, so life is not as hard as I make it sound.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

In the Klub

I've been a gym rat for the last two decades, and I've managed to squeeze in about three cardio/weight sessions a week at the gyms in the Administrative Office, the Federal Circuit and Jones Day in DC, the Y in Winston Salem, Olympia and Chapel Hill, the CSA in Cairo and Club Life in Skopje. I've switched between morning, lunchtime and after work sessions as my schedule allowed, but I've pretty much kept to the regimen, and I have every intention of continuing to do so here in the White City.

There is a fitness club a block equidistant from my office and apartment called Tonusfit. The exterior is modest, but the website looks promising.

So yesterday after work, I walked through the iron gate and came to an unmarked door. I could hear music inside, so I pushed it open. I came into a windowless room about the size of two ping pong tables. It was dark, and some kind of electronic music was pulsating madly. Crammed into the space were a half dozen treadmills, cheek by jowl, each occupied by a determined looking woman. No towels or cold beverages for members; no cheerful instructors; no big screen tvs or ipod docks. I turned around and was headed for the door when a woman came out to greet me. She seemed as surprised to see me as I was to have encountered a fitness club that looked so positively, um, Dickensian. "Do you speak English," I asked. No answer. "Francais? Makedonski?" "Serbski" was the reply. "Imate li visitcard?" I asked, hoping that the Macedonian and Serbian were similar, as they sometimes are. She handed me a card and I headed out the door, grateful that she didn't try to give me the hard sell. I've got two other clubs to check out today, but I'm pretty certain Tonusfit is not in my future.

Update

I joined Spin Masters, which is just a few blocks from my office and apartment, and right across the street from the Green Market. At present I am harboring Utopian fantasies of picking up the ingredients for a delicious dinner after a satisfying workout.

The facility reminds me of CSA in Cairo, although a bit smaller. Nevertheless, it has everything I need and wasn't too crowded when I visited yesterday afternoon. It's $20/month, so the level of commitment is comfortably low. I'm headed over there this afternoon. I'll let you know if the weights are properly labeled.


Thursday, June 6, 2013

Salt Pancakes

It's my next-to-last day at the elegant Metropol Hotel; I will move into my apartment tomorrow. I've been enjoying the lavish breakfast bar, which included lots of baked goods and hot dishes. Despite all of the choices, my breakfast every day has been pretty much the same: a bowl of muesli and yogurt, with a few hazelnuts, followed by a couple of decent smoked sausages and a generous portion of strawberries, which are in season right now, and quite delicious. I wash it down with coffee and a glass of orange juice, spiked with the sour cherry juice we fell in love with in Turkey almost twenty years ago (yikes). I slip an orange into my backpack for lunch and head up to the office, which is about a ten minute walk.

One thing I've been avoiding on the bar is the "salt pancake." The name itself was so off-putting that I didn't even open the tureen to have a look at them, but after walking around the college area last night and seeing a proliferation of fast food stalls selling the selfsame product, I decided to try one this morning.

I was underwhelmed, perhaps due to the fact that deep fried products don't do well on buffets. The pancake was also a little eggy for my taste, and lacking flavor. Turns out, perhaps I should have added some jam. I disovered, via Wikipedia this morning, that what I was eating was a mekitsa, described thusly:
Mekitsa (Bulgarian: мекица, also transliterated as mekica or mekitza; plural mekitsi, mekici, mekitzi) is a traditional Bulgarian dish made of kneaded dough made with yogurt that is deep fried. They are made with flour, eggs, yogurt, a leavening agent, water, salt, and oil, and are traditionally served with jam or white cheese (sirene). At breakfast, they are eaten with sugar or honey, and can also be eaten with yogurt.[1] They are similar to Hungarian lángos.[2]Mekitsa is conventionally a breakfast dish and is inherently similar to Hungarian lángos and Albanian petulla. After the dough rises, it is torn into small balls, spread into circles and fried in fat. In some recipes, yeastbread sodamilk or yogurt might be used. 
Mekici and jam.JPGMaybe my new landlady's mother will make some for me, or maybe I'll give one of the fast food joints a try. Not exactly my thing, but I think that, all things considered, they deserve another chance.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Greatest Hits

With Worldwide and the Gs getting ready to embark on yet another drive from the Triangle to Camp in upstate New York, and with Worldwide posting her playlist on Facebook, I thought it might be fun to try and remember all of the songs that we've had in heavy rotation in summers past.

From our drive across the country to start a new life in Olympia in 2003 to our peripatetic wandering around the eastern seaboard and Ontario, there have been, at times, songs that would fill one or more of the family members with a glee that has gradually become less overtly shared over the years. I can't claim to have remembered them all, but I assure you that the songs on the list below belong, even though many of them have been since disavowed by my ever more sophisticated and urbane daughters:

Raffi, Bananaphone
Wiggles, Dancing with Wags the Dog
Splash 'n' Boots, Treasure of Gold
Bruce Springsteen, Old Dan Tucker
Stompin' Tom Connors, Bud the Spud
Lynyrd Skynyd, Sweet Home Alabama
Nelly, Hot in Herre
Shawn Colvin, Cimb On (a back that's strong)
Juliana Hatfield, Spin the Bottle
Liz Phair, Banana Splits Theme
Tribe Called Quest, Ham and Eggs
Kurtis Blow, Rappin' Basketball
Katy Perry, California Girls (possibly "Gurlz")
Taylor Swift, Mean
Iconapop, I Love it

Update

Realized over the weekend that I should have included the following, plus something by High 5, although I couldn't remember any songs:

Beastie Boys: Triple Trouble (Sharp cheddar, my rhymes are better)
Barenaked Ladies: Another Postcard, Testing 1-2-3
Clash: Police on my Back; Pressure Drop (You're doing it wrong wrong wrong)

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Serbian Drivers

I know you are thinking that this is going to be a post about crazy drivers, who gleefully ignore traffic laws and seem to focus their driving on a quest to menace as many innocent pedestrians as possible.

It isn't.

Over the last week, I have been amazed, perhaps even astounded, by the courtesy with which drivers in Belgrade treat pedestrians; stopping at crosswalks of their own accord, and patiently ceding the right of way to people in the crosswalk. It is so unlike the Macedonia of 1997 and the Cairo of 2009, where you walked anywhere at your peril.

On the way back from a meeting at the EU this afternoon, I asked one of my colleagues about it. He explained that the government has installed cameras all over the city and instituted a points system with heavy fines to punish scofflaws. People don't break the law, because they don't want to get caught and get punished. And everyone is safer as a result.

Sometimes the fact that Big Brother is watching is a good thing.

Monday, June 3, 2013

I need to buy a lottery ticket

The Country Code for Serbia is 381, same as our address in Chapel Hill, and the first three digits of my mobile number. Plus it's three to the fourth power. There must be a message in there somewhere.

Random Serbia Stuff

It is estimated that 300,000 people left Serbia during the 1990s, and around 20% of those had college or higher education

Lots of old people and low birth rates. Serbia has among the most negative population growth rates in the world, ranking 225th out of 233 countries overall.

Serbia suffers from a high unemployment rate (23.7% as of February 2012) and an unfavorable trade deficit.

The major processed vegetable crops in Serbia are potatoes, tomatoes and pepper. Serbia grows about one-third of the world's raspberries.

89% of households in Serbia have fixed telephone lines, and with over 9.60 million users the number of cell-phones surpasses the number of total population of Serbia itself by 30%. 

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Comments Not Working

For some reason, comments are not showing up for me to approve. The spam comes through, though. Keep 'em coming, and I will try to get it fixed. Worldwide has volunteered to help out, should my location be the source of the problem.

Weekend Getaways

According to Belgrade Insight, these are the places I should be looking to escape to on the weekends. My predecessor suggests Rome; apparently there is a fast, cheap JAT flight;

  • Hvar (island on Croatia's Adriatic coast)
  • Sveti Nikola (quieter Adriatic island in Montenegro)
  • Albanian Riviera (More beaches)
  • Black Sea (Bulgarian and Romanian beaches)
  • Greece (Mykonos, Santorini, Rhodes)

Not really a beach guy, but you can always convince me to go to Santorini. My boy Arnold Kling also recommends Slovenia and has lots to say about travel from an economist's perspective

May Books

What is the value of a college degree if it leaves you with few job prospects in a tough economy and buried in debt?

College (Un)bound asks the burning question on every prospective student, parent, and new grad's mind. Student-loan debt in the United States crossed the $1 trillion mark in 2011. To say that the cost of a four-year college education is inflated on many campuses would be an understatement—and that education bubble is about to burst.

Jeffrey J. Selingo, editor at large for The Chronicle for Higher Education and senior fellow at Education Sector, argues that America's higher education system is broken and that the great credential race has transformed universities into big business. In the wake of the 2008 recession, colleges can no longer sell a degree at any price as the ticket to success in life. Brand-name universities like Harvard, Yale, Cornell, and Stanford will always find students and families willing to pay the sticker price because of their institution's global prestige, influential alumni networks, and considerable endowments. But the campuses that the vast majority of Americans attend, where some students go into tens of thousands of dollars in debt for degrees with little payoff, will need to adapt fast to the changing job market and new technological breakthroughs.

As an industry insider who has covered higher education for more than 15 years, Selingo offers a critical examination of the current state of affairs and the pressing issues faced by students and parents. He also seeks out institutions like Arizona State University and the University of Central Florida that are leading the way into the future. Selingo predicts that the class of 2020 will have a college experience that is radically different from the one their parents had, and the college of the future will be personalized, leaner, and better able to arm students with the hard skills they need to enter the workforce of tomorrow. College (Un)bound will be a great resource for prospective students, but more important, it will change the way you think about higher education.

Note
More people and institutions chasing more people and more dollars, demanding results that are less than assured. Something’s gotta give. Doesn’t it?

James Gleick - 2011

James Gleick, the author of the best sellers Chaos and Genius, now brings us a work just as astonishing and masterly: a revelatory chronicle and meditation that shows how information has become the modern era’s defining quality—the blood, the fuel, the vital principle of our world. 

 The story of information begins in a time profoundly unlike our own, when every thought and utterance vanishes as soon as it is born. From the invention of scripts and alphabets to the long-misunderstood talking drums of Africa, Gleick tells the story of information technologies that changed the very nature of human consciousness. He provides portraits of the key figures contributing to the inexorable development of our modern understanding of information: Charles Babbage, the idiosyncratic inventor of the first great mechanical computer; Ada Byron, the brilliant and doomed daughter of the poet, who became the first true programmer; pivotal figures like Samuel Morse and Alan Turing; and Claude Shannon, the creator of information theory itself. And then the information age arrives. Citizens of this world become experts willy-nilly: aficionados of bits and bytes. And we sometimes feel we are drowning, swept by a deluge of signs and signals, news and images, blogs and tweets. The Information is the story of how we got here and where we are heading.
Heathcliff comes to the brooding mansion of Wuthering Heighths as an orphan child. Cathy is the daughter of the wealthy family that takes him in. They are drawn together from the moment they meet, their love consuming, destructive, and full of desire. They cannot be together, and yet they cannot stay apart. The consequences will haunt generations.

Heathcliff comes to the brooding mansion of Wuthering Heighths as an orphan child. Cathy is the daughter of the wealthy family that takes him in. They are drawn together from the moment they meet, their love consuming, destructive, and full of desire. They cannot be together, and yet they cannot stay apart. The consequences will haunt generations.
This is the chilling story of two people who experience love and all its intense complications. It is a story readers will never forget.
 
Yet these hard-wired shortcuts, mental wonders though they may be, can also be perilous.   They can distort our thinking in ways that are often invisible to us, leading us to make poor decisions, to be easy targets for manipulators…and they can even cost us our lives. 
 
The truth is, despite all the buzz about the power of gut-instinct decision-making in recent years, sometimes it’s better to stop and say, “On second thought . . .”  
 
The trick, of course, lies in knowing when to trust that instant response, and when to question it.  In On Second Thought, acclaimed science writer Wray Herbert provides the first guide to achieving that balance.  Drawing on real-world examples and cutting-edge research, he takes us on a fascinating, wide-ranging journey through our innate cognitive traps and tools, exposing the hidden dangers lurking in familiarity and consistency; the obstacles that keep us from accurately evaluating risk and value; the delusions that make it hard for us to accurately predict the future; the perils of the human yearning for order and simplicity; the ways our fears can color our very perceptions . . . and much more. 
 
Along the way, Herbert reveals the often-bizarre cross-connections these shortcuts have secretly ingrained in our brains, answering such questions as why jury decisions may be shaped by our ancient need for cleanliness; what the state of your desk has to do with your political preferences; why loneliness can literally make us shiver; how drawing two dots on a piece of paper can desensitize us to violence… and how the very typeface on this page is affecting your decision about whether or not to buy this book.   
 
Ultimately, On Second Thought is both a captivating exploration of the workings of the mind and an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to learn how to make smarter, better judgments every day.  

Note
From talking drums to machine readable code and DNA; The instructions that every thing seems to contain appear to be as important as what they actually are, if not more so.

Stephen Crane

Henry Fleming leaves home and joins the army. He wants to be a hero! But what will he do when the battle starts? Henry and the other new soldiers are tested. They measure their courage against the enemy, their comrades, and themselves.

Note
Lauded by many for its realistic description of civil war battles and soldiers’ behaviour and introspection; I didn’t buy it. I remember liking it when I was 12; this time, not so much.

 Emily Bronte's dark romance, with an introduction from best-selling author Alice Hoffman


Note
I’ve always lumped Jane Austen and the Brontes together. No more; Brontes are wild and crazy. Never boring, but they do wander frequently into the incredible.

Jim Ottaviani - 2013
In this substantial graphic novel biography, First Second presents the larger-than-life exploits of Nobel-winning quantum physicist, adventurer, musician, world-class raconteur, and one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century: Richard Feynman. Written by nonfiction comics mainstay Jim Ottaviani and brilliantly illustrated by First Second author Leland Myrick, Feynman tells the story of the great man’s life from his childhood in Long Island to his work on the Manhattan Project and the Challenger disaster. Ottaviani tackles the bad with the good, leaving the reader delighted by Feynman’s exuberant life and staggered at the loss humanity suffered with his death.

Anyone who ever wanted to know more about Richard P. Feynman, quantum electrodynamics, the fine art of the bongo drums, the outrageously obscure nation of Tuva, or the development and popularization of the field of physics in the United States need look no further than this rich and joyful work.  

Note
My second graphic novel. Left me wanting more. Fascinating guy.


The recent revolution in Egypt has shaken the Arab world to its roots. The most populous Arab country and the historical center of Arab intellectual life, Egypt is a linchpin of the US's Middle East strategy, receiving more aid than any nation except Israel. This is not the first time that the world and has turned its gaze to Egypt, however. A half century ago, Egypt under Nasser became the putative leader of the Arab world and a beacon for all developing nations. Yet in the decades prior to the 2011 revolution, it was ruled over by a sclerotic regime plagued by nepotism and corruption. During that time, its economy declined into near shambles, a severely overpopulated Cairo fell into disrepair, and it produced scores of violent Islamic extremists such as Ayman al-Zawahiri and Mohammed Atta. In The Struggle for Egypt, Steven Cook--a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations--explains how this parlous state of affairs came to be, why the revolution occurred, and where Egypt might be headed next. A sweeping account of Egypt in the modern era, it incisively chronicles all of the nation's central historical episodes: the decline of British rule, the rise of Nasser and his quest to become a pan-Arab leader, Egypt's decision to make peace with Israel and ally with the United States, the assassination of Sadat, the emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood, and--finally--the demonstrations that convulsed Tahrir Square and overthrew an entrenched regime. Throughout Egypt's history, there has been an intense debate to define what Egypt is, what it stands for, and its relation to the world. Egyptians now have an opportunity to finally answer these questions. Doing so in a way that appeals to the vast majority of Egyptians, Cook notes, will be difficult but ultimately necessary if Egypt is to become an economically dynamic and politically vibrant society.

Note
Mismanaged for decades, seemingly hopeless, despite its potential. I am not optimistic.


Brimming with gluttony, booze and lust, Roger Micheldene is loose in America. Supposedly visiting Budweiser University to make deals for his publishing firm in England, Roger instead sets out to offend all he meets and to seduce every woman he encounters. But his American hosts seem made of sterner stuff. Who will be Roger's undoing? Irving Macher, the young author of an annoyingly brilliant first novel? Father Colgate, the priest who suggests that Roger's soul is in torment? Or will it be his married ex-lover Helene? One thing is certain - Roger is heading for a terrible fall. Outrageously funny and irreverent, One Fat Englishman (1963) is a devastating satire on Anglo-American relations. 

Note
Mean to everybody. Funny at times, although the satire often seems forced and the protagonist is a bit implausible, particularly his powers of seduction.

Our lives are composed of millions of choices, ranging from trivial to life-changing and momentous. Luckily, our brains have evolved a number of mental shortcuts, biases, and tricks that allow us to quickly negotiate this endless array of decisions. We don’t want to rationally deliberate every choice we make, and thanks to these cognitive rules of thumb, we don’t need to. 

Note
More heuristics. Stop me, I’ve had enough.