The orphanage

It gives me certain patriotic pleasure to see Belén Rueda in places like ESPN, in the commercial for the movie The Orphanage, the Spanish movie of the year. It premieres in the US on Friday, December 28th. I recommend all of you go see it, I will while I am in Spain.

Lottery

When I realized I was arriving in Barcelona on Saturday afternoon, that is, after the annual Christmas Lottery draw [always on December 22nd, one of the most important lottery events in Spain, everybody plays, I mean everybody], I thought it was a bummer I couldn't play. Until I remembered the Internet lottery sale service offered by La Bruixa d'Or, [The Golden Witch, link goes to the English page] which is the most famous lottery vendor in Spain. And yes, there I could buy a ticket to play, even though I am in New York, and I am now the proud owner of a one-tenth part of the number 76071. Wish me luck!

[La Bruixa d'Or became famous because it's in a city called Sort, which means "luck" in Catalan. They foresaw very early the power of the Internet, and they started selling lottery online a few years ago. Thanks to that, they are now the vendor which sells more lottery in the whole country, even though Sort has a population of about 2,000, and obviously, by sheer force of numbers, they get a piece of the price almost every year. This only helps its popularity...]

Going back!

Tomorrow Saturday the first leg of this New York adventure comes to an end, and at 8:45pm I catch my plane back to Barcelona, to spend the holidays. I will try to update the blog from there with interesting things I find worth posting, but in any case, I will be back in Harlem on January 10th, 2008. Happy holidays!

Herbie

Herbie is the City College math department chairwoman's secretary. Herbie is also one of the funniest persons I've ever met. He always has a new twist on things, a joke for you. He sends e-mails to the department that are hilarious, they're really something. Herbie has an office which is completely covered in clutter. Figure dolls, newspaper clippings, magazines from 1967, you name it. You enter his office and you don't know where to look, there's interesting stuff everywhere. He even has some football helmets in a corner, maybe he knows why. But the best thing he has is this little wonder:

This is an acoustic coupler, i.e., a modem from the Stone Age, one of those where for the two computers to speak you had to put the phone handset on top of it, and they would communicate using beeps of different frequencies. Incredible.

Nixon

I'm back in New York. Today I was walking around Union Square, and in one of those anti-Bush stands they had a T-shirt I found very funny. It said: Never thought I would miss Nixon. My laughs must have been heard all the way to Barcelona XDDD

San Francisco

So today I went to San Francisco. I did all the touristy things, I crossed the Golden Gate, I walked on Fisherman's Wharf, on the Italian part, on Chinatown. I drove zigzagging down Lombard Street. Didn't take a cable car, way too touristy for me. I did go to the Apple Store though :-) Here are a few pictures of San Francisco.

The view from the top of Lombard Street.

A seagull in the Marina. Behind it, the Golden Gate Bridge.

The view of San Francisco from the other side of the Golden Gate.

RIP Cody's Books

Telegraph Avenue, the most emblematic street of Berkeley, is always bustling with people. Students, street vendors, homeless people, all mingle among the street stands, stores and restaurants. It was the epicenter of the student protests in the 1960s and 70s, and it still has that hippy flavor that makes this city so famous.

This afternoon I went for a walk on Telegraph, to walk among people, and also to visit a couple of important bookstores in the area. In particular, I wanted to go to Cody's Books. Located on the corner of Telegraph and Haste Street, Cody's was a gorgeous bookstore with a list of over a million books, and whose selection of math books was legendary. People said (half joking) that when Berkeley mathematicians wanted to find a book they didn't go to the library, they went to Cody's. Last time I was in Berkeley in 2004 I bought a few books there.

Besides, Cody's always preserved that hippy character from the protest era. In 1968, when police hit demonstrators in Telegraph Avenue, Cody's would shelter them and become an improvised hospital. Cody's kept in its shelves the "Satanic Versos", by Salman Rushdie, when all major chains had retired it, and that cost Cody's a bombing attack in 1989. Cody's Books was a symbol of Berkeley, and of freedom of speech, as well as an icon for the math community.

Cody's Books has closed, a casualty of the Barnes & Nobles and Fnacs of this world. Couldn't compete with the big chains, the Walmarts and the Carrefours. And ultimately the Internet finished it off. Today I got the disappointment of the year when I saw Cody's closed and with a large sign saying "Available."

This already happened to me in one of my trips to Boston, when Avenue Victor Hugo closed down. Later in Barcelona, when the historic Librería Francesa liquidated its stock. Now Cody's. Nothing makes me sadder than seeing a great bookstore disappear. Rest in peace, Cody's Books.

Berkeley

Berkeley is one of the mathematical capitals of the world. Besides the University of California - Berkeley math department, one of the strongest of the world, it hosts the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, a math research institute at the highest level. This means the density of mathematicians per square mile is incredibly high here, and it makes that all mathematicians in the world come here in peregrination every few years, be it for a conference, a special program for MSRI, or a visit, or whatever.

Besides, Berkeley is one of the most liberal cities in the US, it had many years a mayor of the Communist Party (unthinkable in the rest of the country). In Berkeley you can see many people on bikes, and bikes are admitted in public transportation, including buses, which have a special rack for them. You can also see many hippies, people with long beards and ragged look. I guess weather helps, because here they have here a Mediterranean climate, like in Catalunya. I feel at home :-)

MSRI is on a hill in Berkeley, and it enjoys a breathtaking view of the San Francisco Bay. I am putting here a small picture I took with the iphone, before a panoramic view I hope I can take before I leave. This is the central bay, at the far end you can see the (small) Golden Gate Bridge over the entrance of the Bay, and the Pacific Ocean behind it. The piece of land right to the left of the bridge is San Francisco. I plan to go there tomorrow, so expect more pictures in a few days.

Fry's, o Fry's!

Fry's Electronics is a chain of electronics stores. Fry's are my favorite stores in the whole world, as I told you already in the Microcenter post. Well, I still haven't been able to visit the Far East, maybe in places like Japan or Taiwan there are better electronics stores, but I haven't checked first-hand. Some day. I believe that when I set foot in Akihabara (Tokio's electronics neighborhood) I will get Stendhal syndrome or something.

But in the meantime, Fry's is the best of the best. It's 34 stores, 17 of them in California, the rest spread out in the West and South of the US. For some reason, Fry's doesn't have stores in the Northeast, not in New York or in any place a thousand miles from it. Precisely because of that, because I can't visit them very often, every time I go to a Fry's is a special event. Today [Sunday Dec 9th] I went to the Concord store, which is at a 15-minute walk from a BART station (the BART is the San Francisco area transportation system), so I could go without a car.

Fry's is simply incredible. I have seen in my life many electronics and computer stores, but none like Fry's. Microcenter is a distant close, but each Fry's is like 5 Microcenters. Fry's is a huge store, humongous, full of all types of electronic devices. All types. Besides the usual computers, TVs, and so on, in Fry's you will find the weirdest adapters, connectors, parts. CDs, DVDs, games, batteries, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, you name it.

From a hard drive to a blender. Fry's is so big that it has a coffee shop inside, because if you can't go through the whole store without a break.

Here are a few examples of things you can find at Fry's, so you can have a small idea:

A fridge for your beer keg, together with the faucet to serve the beer.

An oscilloscope.

A house number with a solar powered light.

A chair with speakers, to play your video console.

In which store do you find one of these things, let alone all of them? Only at Fry's. If I lived in California, either I would go broke, or I would quit doing math to go work at Fry's :-)

If that weren't enough, Fry's founder John Fry, is a math major qho had to quit academics because of family pressure to dedicate to the family business, and a football player who had to quit because of his bad knees. Fry is the main sponsor of an institute for math research, the AIM, which is located in a warehouse next to the original Fry's store in Palo Alto. I visited this institute in 2004, and there I found out about Fry's. John Fry is a math lover, and he supports mathematicians.

And finally, the last blow is that instead of ugly employees, Fry's hires a good amount of young girls with tight tops and short skirts. As if we didn't have enough reasons to go already. Fry's considers that their clients are already electronics geeks, so there's no need to get expert employees, it's better to have pretty girls. It's obvious that geeks are many times lonely people with problems to communicate with the other sex.

This morning I have spent three hours in the Concord Fry's (damages: $160), and probably, since I will be here until next Saturday, I will pay another visit to another Fry's in the area before I leave.

California

Today [Dec 8th] it's California. This afternoon I will take the plane and fly to Berkeley, where I will spend a week at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, working with other people. And enjoying the good weather, not like the harsh Winters of the East Coast. I will be telling you things about California. Berkeley is in the San Francisco area, which has many interesting things. Keep an eye on the blog.

Yes, I know, many of you are thinking: "this guy is traveling all the time, he should be ashamed." In my defense, I will say that when I arrived in the US my only planned trips were to Utah in September and California in December, the rest came because when other people and mathematicians find out you are in the US, they start inviting you to give a talk, or to spend a few days, and it's very hard to say no... But right now it's been over a month that I haven't spend more than a few days in a row in my house in New York, and I am kind of tired... Anyway. As we say in Spain, God gives bread to those without teeth :-)

And the 21st I fly back to Barcelona!

Hanukkah

As I told you when they celebrated their New Year, in New York there's an important Jewish community. These days they celebrate Hanukkah, which remembers the redidication of the Second Jerusalem Temple after the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd Century BC (Wikipedia to the rescue). It's celebrated in eight consecutive days.

You will like to know that this holiday is when you use the famous Jewish candelabrum, the Menorah. It has nine branches, the central one higher than the rest, which represents the holiday itself, while you lit a candle on each branch each day of Hannukah. Hannukah falls in December most years, and many Jewish use it as an equivalent of Christmas (which doesn't exist for them since they don't recognize Christ as a Messiah). Jewish people wish each other happy Hannukah instead of Merry Christmas.

This year it's a little early, from December 5th to 12th. So today, 7th, is the day where one lits the third candle, as you can see in this little Menorah (electric, times change and one has to be practical) in the cafeteria of my college.

Hologram

In a Montreal mall I found this incredible machine. It was like an automatic picture machine, you sit, it takes the picture, but instead of four photos, it gives you a hologram of your face in an acrylic cube. Look:

On top of it, it's got a blue LED, so you can see it well. I thought it was incredible. It's not a real hologram, but somehow they manage to draw inside the plastic and make 3D portraits. Unbelievable.

Montreal

On Monday [December 3rd] I had to go to Maine, but weather kept me from doing it. I have friends in Montreal, so I went there on my way to Maine, to wait the storm out, and see if at some point I could continue to Maine. The storm lasted all day Monday and half Tuesday, so I decided it wasn't worth the risk, and I will just return directly to New York on Wednesday from here.

But at least I have visited Montreal. Without being the capital city of Quebec, Montreal is the largest city in the province. Located on an island in the Saint Lawrence river, it's a very liberal city, like all Canada. For instance, drinking is allowed here at 18, and not like that self-righteous absurdity Americans have of keeping kids away from alcohol until they turn 21.

As I said, we had a heavy snowstorm, with more than 12 inches of snow accumulating in day and a half. I arrived in Montreal on Sunday at 9:30pm, and when I got up the following morning, the city looked like this:

It took us some shovel exercise to get the car out of there.

The funny part is that the city doesn't stop for 12 inches of snow, just traffic goes crazy, but the day after, everything was back to normal. Montreal is a city completely prepared for bad weather. Downtown, for instance, they have a whole subterranean city connecting with tunnels a block with the next one, with malls, hotels, train and subway stations. Look at a map here if you are curious. You really can go a long way underground. I was there today and I have been at at least six malls without getting outside. Here's a picture of the tunnel connecting the Place Ville-Marie with the Center Eaton.

See how you go towards the street, and instead of a door, you find a glass window and a tunnel underneath the street that takes you to the next building. Very useful if outside it is -20 degrees and the storm is at its earnest. Look also the level of snow outside covering the wheels of the FedEx truck :-)

The underground city of Montreal has over 20 miles of tunnels, and occupies a surface of 4.5 square miles. It's really impressive. Check the Wikipedia entry if you are interested.

In Montreal people speak French. I felt like I was in France, with the difference that here most people spoke English too. Good, because my French is horrible. It's been a short visit, I will have to come with more time, or even better, with better weather... [This is a pun in Spanish because the words for time and for weather are the same.]

On nationalisms

In the picture you can see the Ottawa river, which has the same name as the city. This river is the border between the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. In the right hand side of the picture, you can see Quebec.

As you know, in Quebec there's a large percentage of the population which would like to be independent from Canada. In Quebec this is apparent in everyday life, as we people who live in Catalonia know very well. For instance:

• In Ottawa, signs are in English and below in French. In Quebec, they are in French and below in English.


• Montreal is the city in Canada with a larger population of arab origin, from Northern Africa or from the Middle East. The reason: they speak French.


• When you apply for permanent residency in Canada, if you do it in Quebec, most points are awarded to you if you speak French.

The possibility of Quebec separating from Canada is by no means remote. Canada is a young country, created in 1867, and it has undergone constant changes in history until today. Newfoundland-Labrador didn't join Canada until 1949. A new territory was created in 1999, the Nunavut. This means the Canadian borders haven't been the same for 500 years, they are changing even today. So, if one of these days there is a secession referendum and separatists win, Quebec will leave Canada.

But a crucial detail to understand the reality of a country with a separatist threat, and which many people don't know, is the following. Look at the above picture. As I said before, the left part is Ontario and the right one is Quebec. Well, the price of two exactly equal houses is 30% lower in Quebec than in Ontario. Why is that? Because many Canadians don't want to buy a house in the Quebecois side. They fear that if Quebec finally separates, they will be left in a different country, foreigners in their own house. And if demand is low, prices go down.

I would like to see what many Catalan independentists would think if they saw their apartment in Barcelona lose value, as much as 30%, because of the threat of Catalonia separating. I mean, it's good to be separatist, I am to a certain degree, but, are we aware that an independent Catalonia would have drawbacks, as well as advantages?

Kingston

I continue my Canadian tour. After working Thursday and Friday in Ottawa, on Saturday [Dec 1st] I went to Kingston, a small college town halfway between Ottawa and Toronto, to visit Maria, a friend from my department who is spending two months in Queen's University, in Kingston.

Saturday it really got cold. Here's a picture of Maria and me in Kingston, on the shore of Lake Ontario, at -12C [10F].

With that kind of cold we couldn't do much, so we just walked next to the lake, visited the Queen's campus, and in the evening, back to Ottawa.

O Canada!

Yesterday [Wednesday Nov 28th, I am writing the English version a few days late] I drove all day to go from New York to Ottawa, Canada's capital. I will be here until Monday, visiting a friend, professor at Carleton University, and I will give two talks.

Canada, as everybody knows, is a sort of US but more Europe-ized. It has a few traits proper of European countries, like the universal National Health System, which doesn't exist in the US, although Democrats say they will implement it if they win. In Canada, everything is like in the US, but a little different. Money in different denominations has different colors, which is nice after the uniformity of American bills. And the Canadian dollar, which used to be 60 US cents, is now even after the free fall of the US dollar.

The other interesting trait of this country is that it really is bilingual. Signs are also in French, and it's not difficult to hear French in the street. The border agent who checked my papers had a heavy French accent.

And it's really cold. Right now, at 11 am, we are at -3C [27F]. And it's snowing. It's my first exposure to snow this trip, but surely it won't be the last. Here's a picture of a white Ottawa from my hotel room window. The first building you see is the City Hall.

NBA

The other day we went to the NBA. You know I am a big sports fan, and I am taking advantage of this visit to the US to attend as many sporting events as I can, money permitting.

The New Jersey Nets were playing the Memphis Grizzlies. I chose this game because two Spanish guys play for the Grizzlies, Pau Gasol y Juan Carlos Navarro, both from the Baix Llobregat. They both started the game and played quite well, especially Navarro, with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Navarro, just arrived in the NBA, is showing he belongs, and he will be much talked about in the next years.

DIY neon

Look at my last acquisition:

You can buy the letters individually and create your own neon sign. And it's not expensive, $7 per letter and $30 for the power supply. The light can be fixed or blinking. Ideal for your home bar or to impress your friends, as I am doing right now :-)

For sale at Thinkgeek, the store for the coolest gadgets for geeks ever. It has great competition from Thanko though.

Phone stories

This morning the phone rings. Here's the conversation:

-Hello?
-Hey, when are you guys coming to visit?
-Pardon me?
-Rob?
-No, I think you have the wrong number.
-Elaine?
-No, no, you dialed the wrong number.

And then she lets go what I think is the sentence of the year:

-Well, I'd like to talk to Rob or Elaine. Can't you go get them?

Unbelievable. I don't know who she thought I was, maybe their friends' butler, or the neighbor who was paying a visit and answered the phone. And I don't know what else to tell her.

-Sorry, you have the wrong number, which number are you trying to reach?
-My friends Rob and Elaine, at 507-9008.
-Well, this is 507-0008, and you have made a mistake when dialing.
-Oh, OK.

And of course she hangs up without even apologizing a little.

It's amazing to me how some people, when they dial the wrong number, they get annoyed and act like it is your fault, as if saying: "who the hell are you and why are you answering my friends' phone?"

Some years ago, when I lived in Boston, there was a woman who used to call. I don't know if she misdialed or had the number wrong, but she called me about twelve times in two years. And every time, after I said "hello?" she would always say: "who is this?" The first few times I would say "who are you trying to reach?" or "you have the wrong number," but at the end, all fed up, I would say: "I don't know, you should know who you're calling." And she would hang up without a single word.

But the worst, the ultimate worst that can happen to you phone-wise is if your number is very very close to a number which gets calls around the clock. This has happened to me twice in my life.

When I lived in Salt Lake, I had the 532-3347, with such bad luck that the Salt Lake Hilton had the 532-3344. Every once in a while (although not too often, fortunately), I would get a call at 2am by someone who asked me if he could talk to room 210, or something like that. And a few years later, when I arrived back in Barcelona, the number I got (934185429) had very recently been a fax of a large company in Terrassa, whose name I have forgotten. There was some time when I was receiving faxes at any time of the day or night. And some fax machines are programmed to repeat the call if they can't connect, like 5 times at 5-minute intervals... Once a guy from Argentina called me (at 11:30pm) asking why wasn't the fax working. It was a nightmare. I ended up changing the number.

Barça at Nevada Smith's

Nevada Smith's is the mecca for soccer in New York. This is a bar in the East Village, on 3rd Ave between 11th and 12th streets, and which has a satellite subscription and every weekend it shows, either live or on tape delay, the games of the European leagues, Spanish, French, English, Italian and German, together with Brazilian and Argentinian soccer, and international games or Champions League. As they say in their slogan, Nevada Smith's is "where football is religion". I've been there twice, and both times it's been nice, but they say for some important international matches, there is a line to get in.

Every weekend, hordes of fans, mostly European, make their pilgrimage to this joint to see their favorite team's match. The English Chelsea fans are many and quite noisy, so if their game is at the same game as yours, you are doomed :-) They spend all game singing songs like "We are Chelsea and fuck the rest." It's an interesting experience.

Yesterday, Albert and me, together with Jesús, a friend of Albert's who is visiting, went to see the Barça-Recreativo match. Here's a picture where you can't see much except the screen, where you can distinguish a Barça player.

Nevada Smith's is the site of the Penya Barcelonista of New York-Nevada Smiths. There is a shirt signed by Puyol, and a plate/clock branded with the logo of the Penya Barcelonista de l'Alt Empordà :-) Every once in a while I like going there, watch the Barça game, have a beer and listen to the New York Barça fans, many of them expatriate Catalans, celebrate the goals by Barça, who won yesterday 3-0.

Cold cold

Winter is here. Temperature out is 33 degrees, and low today is expected to be 27. Brrrr!! Soon it will snow.

The other day I was in the elevator in my dorm and this girl comes in still shuddering from the cold. She said: "it's cold, huh?" and I answered "uh-huh" even though I thought it wasn't really, since it was about 40 degrees out. So I asked the girl where she was from and she said: "from Trinidad." Of course, used to the Caribbean temperatures, the poor girl was having a hard time with the New York cold. And it's only just started... She's gonna have a hard time.

Black Friday

Today is Black Friday.

Given that Thanksgiving is usually about a month before Christmas, it becomes the start of the holiday shopping season. Since Thursday is a holiday for almost everybody, and most people have Friday off too, although technically is a workday, all stores are open, and it's become the day when everybody goes shopping. On my first year in America, I thought naively: "hey, today it's a workday, so stores will be open." So I went and I found the whole city in the mall where you couldn't even walk.

Why the name Black Friday is not clear. Wikipedia has two versions: first, that traffic cops in Philadelphia coined the word because of the traffic nightmare of that Friday; and second, that businesses had so much volume that day that they went from red numbers (loss) to black ones (profit). Be as it may, it is one of the days with most commercial activity of the year.

American stores offer great discounts today, many times to the early birds.Stores open at 5, or even at midnight. It's crazy. There are people who stand on a line in the November cold to save $100 on a laptop, for instance. It's ridiculous. One more example of American consumerism.

My friends Truman and Ripleyz mention in their blog an initiative by the three or four people who hate Black Friday, called Buy Nothing Day, where they urge people not to buy anything today. It was inconvenient for me to go shopping today, because I was on the train back from the lake, and later I stayed home to catch up with things (and I also wanted to avoid the crowds), but I didn't want them to think I was on their side, so I made an online purchase :-) Because hey, if you don't want to buy anything, fine, but why go against those of us who love going shopping? Leave us alone.

San Guivin

I always remember fondly how, when I lived in the US, I was subscribed to a mailing list of Spanish people in the Boston area, where people would send news related to Spain, etc. This was at the beginning of the internet, when the Web wasn't as ubiquitous as it is today, and the newsgroups and mailing lists were quite common methods to communicate to large groups of people with similar interests. The association still exists, and if you dig in their website you will find El racó d'en Pep [Pep's corner], a guide to Boston restaurants written by yours truly. It's from 1997, so it's quite outdated and half of the restaurants are closed by now, but it must still be of some use since they don't take it out.

With traditional Spanish witticism, Thanksgiving was called "San Guivin" [which would be something like St. Givin's Day], a bad Spanish-ification of the word "Thanksgiving," but which sounds like a legitimate Spanish holiday. The name "San Guivin" always brings fond memories, and yesterday I got an e-mail from my friend Aldo saying "Happy San Guivin," which brought a smile to my face and made me remember the good old times.

Thanksgiving II

As you all know, on Thanksgiving people eat turkey. Turkey is original of America, And it's supposed that the pilgrims ate it during the first harvest celebration. To help the dryness of the turkey after four hours of oven baking, it's accompanied with cranberry sauce, an interestinc combination, to say the least. Also the stuffing of the turkey, made of bread, vegetables and spices, and gravy. For dessert, of course, pumpkin pie.

In the US Thanksgiving Day is the traditional day of family reunion. As in Spain families get together for Christmas, here they do on this long November weekend. Hence, Wednesday and Sunday are the days with more air traffic of the year, I have traveled in the past on these days and airports are really chaotic. Same for highway traffic, and trains (where they exist) are also pretty full. The train I took this morning was bursting with people.

I have spent Thanksgiving with Sean and Katherine at their lake house. With us there were a few siblings and cousins. We ate turkey and pumpkin pie, and we spent the evening playing cards. I learned a new game (hearts), not too hard to learn and interesting, and I even won a game :-) in hard competition with Meg (Katherine's sister), who is an expert. Little did they know that the game was really similar to a Catalan game I used to play when I was in high school, called the butifarra boja.

Thanksgiving

Tomorrow Thursday is Thanksgiving. As you know for the movies, it is one of the most important days of the American calendar, and the only four-day weekend of the year. It's celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, and most people also have Friday off. The University closes up for the four days, and in fact on Tuesday and Wednesday many students are already gone, off to spend the holiday with their families. Only us foreigners remain :-)

Thanksgiving Day remembers the first Fall spent here by the pilgrims arrived from England, who celebrated the first successful harvest, which ensured their survival for the upcoming Winter.

On Thanksgiving Day, people are supposed to give thanks for the good things they have in life. This holiday doesn't exist in Spain, and I believe this grateful feeling is not common among Spaniards, who many times are too busy coveting more and more things (more money, a vacation house, a better car, more sex), without stopping to think about the good things they already have and which are taken for granted (a job, enough money to live comfortably, a house, a family who loves them). I know some people who could use some thanksgiving.

The Dakota building

The Dakota is one of the first luxury apartment building constructed in New York. It's located at the corner of 72nd Street and Central Park West (8th Avenue).

Like most buildings facing the Park, the Dakota is one of those buildings where really wealthy people live. People like Lauren Bacall, Roberta Flack, Judy Garland or Boris Karloff have lived in the Dakota. But nowadays the Dakota is famous worldwide as the building where John Lennon used to live, and in whose door Lennon was killed on December 8th, 1980, it will be 27 years ago soon. Yoko Ono still keeps the apartment in the Dakota.

As a memorial to Lennon, the Central Park area across the street from the Dakota is called Strawberry Fields. In it you can find the monument to Lennon, a round mosaic with a geometric motif around the word "Imagine". People go there every day to revere Lennon. As you can see, the day I went there were some plants making a peace symbol, and also a guitar and few white paper peace doves.

I would like to remember Lennon and these verses from Imagine, in my opinion one of the most beautiful songs ever written.

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too

UN Headquarters

One of the visits we had planned was to the UN Headquarters, on 1st Avenue and 46th Street. The UN is in an area declared international territory, so for a few hours we were outside the United States. It has its own postage stamps and its own post office, so one of the favorite activities for visitors is sending themselves a postcard with stamp and postmark from the UN.

They have guided tours, and if you call in advance they will tell you the schedule of tours in different languages. In the tour they take you through several panels and expositions about the UN, its creation and its mission, and they show you the meeting halls. We couldn't see the Security Council because it was in session, but we saw the General Assembly, which we all have seen many times on TV.

My family

Here's my family in Washington Square:

And this smiling girl is my little niece Marina, who you can't see very well in the picture above because she's covered with a hat and a scarf.

My family visiting

My family is here visiting from Catalunya. We are doing all the touristy things. I will post the most relevant things as soon as I have some time.

Central Park

The other day I went for a walk to Central Park. The park, as New Yorkers call it, is the heart and the lung of the city. The person who had the great idea of saving that part of the city of building speculation and create a park would have to be worshipped in every corner of the city.

This park, 4km long by 500m wide, is the favorite relaxing place for New Yorkers, with two ice rinks, several lakes, separate tracks for pedestrians, bicycles and horses, even a wildlife reserve. It's a favorite resting place of migrating birds, which find an oasis in the middle of so much concrete. Birdwatchers love that time of the year.

Besides all that, it contains the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and across the street there is the Museum of Natural History. The most expensive buildings of the city face Central Park, obviously, because you don't have another building in front of you, and this green extension opens before you.

The famous Reservoir, in the middle of the park, has a running track around it, a favorite of New York City joggers.

I promise I will take more pictures of it as soon as the first snow falls and I can get Central Park covered in white.

Veterans Day

Monday it was Veterans Day. Most people in Spain, obviously since we weren't in that war, don't know that November 11th is the anniversary of the signing of the armistice which ended World War I. Since it fell on a Sunday, the holiday was moved to Monday. November 11th is also a holiday in France and England. I figure it isn't in Germany :-)

In any case it is one of those half-holidays that Americans have. Half-holidays because some things close and some others don't. There was no mail, but the university was open normally, stores were open too, but banks weren't. In each of these half-holidays, there's a list in the newspaper of things that open and things that close. There's a few of these, Presidents Day (George Washington's birthday) and Martin Luther King's Day, for instance.

Now. For a super-holiday, that would be Thanksgiving. That's next Thursday. I will tell you about it, and its curiosities, of which it's got many.

My office XDD

Atlantic City II

Atlantic City is a depressing place. There's few places in the world where you can see differences in class as clearly as in Atlantic City.

Atlantic City was founded around 1950, when someone thought that a beach hotel, just 40 miles from Philadelphia, and 120 from New York, could attract Summer tourism. The railroad company extended a track from Philadelphia to Atlantic City, and the city was born. During many years it was a prime Summer vacation spot, where people would go, by train, and spend extended periods of time in Summer, enjoying the sea breeze.

But in 1950, with the universalization of the automobile in American life, and the accessibility of plane traveling, people could choose a great variation of touristic destinations, and wasn't subject anymore to places accessible by train. This marked the doom of Atlantic City as a tourist attraction. By the 1960s there weren't many tourists in Atlantic City and the economy fell to miserable levels.

So someone thought that allowing casino gambling in Atlantic City would revitalize the economy. Obviously all those new tourists would make the economy surge, attracted by gambling and the vice attached to it. Thus, in 1976 the first casinos opened in Atlantic City.

So what happened? Economy went up, yes, for casino owners, and maybe for the government in taxes, but the regular habitant of Atlantic City didn't notice it in the wallet, adding the aggravation of having next-door casinos tempting him with lights and mirrors to go spend his hard-earned dollars at the gambling tables.

So, the most shocking feature of 2007 Atlantic City is the big contrasts. The proximity of the luxurious casinos with nearly derelict houses. Walking on the city, away from the Boardwalk (that is, away from the casinos) is really a saddening experience. Here's an example, where you can see two big hotels (the Atlantic Palace and the Bally's) next to these three brick houses, in much worse shape. People living here aren't precisely rich.

Do you think that if the city was going well economically, there would be these nice empty plots of land just half a block from the Boardwalk? I don't think so.

Atlantic City

This weekend we went to Atlantic City for a little casino gambling. Atlantic City is known as The East Coast Las Vegas, because it is the only place where casino gambling is legal. Well, there are a few more casinos, mostly belonging to the original indian tribes, but in Atlantic City there are a lot of casinos and it does look a little like Las Vegas. Albert and me, we like to go to a casino every once in a while (not too often), and it is already traditional the yearly visit we do to the Casino de Barcelona during the Christmas vacation.

Atlantic City is on the coast, next to the beach, about two and a half hours South of New York. The main street is the Boardwalk, where most activity is located. As the name indicates, it is made of wood planks. See the picture of a casino, and the ground made of wood. To the left you can't see the beach, but it's there.

We had fun, gamble a little, lost some money, and had a few laughs. On our way back we took a little detour to stop by Delaware for a little shopping, since Delaware has no sales tax (Value Added Tax or VAT, as they call it in the UK). One of these days I will tell you stories about sales taxes in the US, which are quite interesting.

Thieves in Correos [the Spanish Postal Service]

I imagine many of you, if you have followed me for awhile, remember my ordeal with the iphone. Well, a few days ago, I bought another one for my brother. Last week, on Monday October 22nd, I sent it by Global Express Mail to him. The tracking service indicates that it left the US on Monday, but it didn't enter the Spanish international office until Friday. I was tracking it and wondered where it's been all these days? Now I know.

*** IT'S BEEN STOLEN ***

Check it out by yourself, at the Correos website or at the U.S. Postal Service, package number EB816886559US. Leaving International Office in US: Monday 22nd. Entering International Office at Destiny: Friday 26th. Where was it all those days? It was being open and robbed. Maybe it was stolen over the weekend at Customs but it really doesn't matter.

Some motherfucking thief in Correos, probably using a scanner or an X-ray machine to pick it out, opened it nicely, stole the phone, and closed it up again with tape. And the package has followed its way until today, when my brother picked it up and found it empty.

I think it's a shame that in the 21st century, in a service like Correos, in a first-world country like Spain, there are still thieves robbing packages, and it can't be trusted that a stupid package with a fucking $400 phone arrives safely. There's some son of a bitch in Correos getting a nice extra paycheck reselling stolen merchandise. And of course, in Correos nobody accepts any responsibility, since they are funcionarios, [State workers, tenured for life, can't be fired] so what do they care? It's a royal shame.

Now you know, if you have to send a package which is worth more than 5 euro, use SEUR or MRW [Spanish private companies, similar to FedEx or UPS], because the chances of your package being robbed in Correos are high. At least in private companies they do care if their employees steal.

Barça/Madrid and Sox/Yankees

My two favorite sports teams are Barça in soccer and the Red Sox in baseball. And what happens is that both teams have followed parallel paths along history, with many common details. Among them, the worst catastrophe of their history in 1986, or the two championships won recently. If you don't believe me, check out this table I have written with the coincidences. Read it, and then tell me the similarities are not amazing. These two clubs should sign a cooperation agreement or something :-)

Sox win!

The Boston Red Sox are the winners of the World Series, after a sweep of the Colorado Rockies. This team, which was once cursed for 86 years, now has won two championships in four years.

Together with the Patriots having won three Super Bowls in the last years, it's a great time to be a sports fan in Boston.

NFL

Today we went to an NFL game, the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills were playing. The game was awful, horrible. Pictures are good though.

The best part has been to observe first-hand an interesting aspect of American culture: tailgating. Tailgating consists in going to the stadium like six hours early, open the car trunk, and get out all sort of picnic material as if you were in the middle of the country, instead of a football stadium. People have everything: barbecues, tables and chairs, tents, even TVs with satellite dishes (to watch other games and the pregame shows of their game). Supporting groups with buses full of stuff, food, booze... Inflatable dolls, flags, power generators, you name it. It's a great spectacle to walk around the parking lot of a stadium the morning before the game. Here are some pictures so you can see for yourselves.

Macy's

Macy's is a department store. But it's huuuge. It occupies a whole block (between Broadway and 7th Avenue, and 34th and 35th Street), and it's got like, 12 stories. You can imagine like 10 times the El Corte Inglés in Plaça Catalunya [one of the largest department stores in Barcelona]. It's unbelievable. It even has a Starbucks on level 3 and a McDonald's on level 7. And it specializes in clothes, complements, and housewares, unlike El Corte Inglés, which has books and electronics. Not in Macy's. It boasts the title of "the world largest store", and very likely it is. Macy's is always full of people.

Founded in 1858 by R.H. Macy, occupies the current location since 1902. The house on the corner of Broadway and 34th St. is a separate property, which Macy's rents from the owners, and covers it with red signs so as to look like it's Macy's too. It has one of the oldest escalators in the world, between the first floor and the lower level. It's made of wood. Looks weird.

The "other" New Yorkers

They say that in New York there are more rats than people. It's not difficult to see them on the subway tracks, and since the first day I saw one, I wanted to catch them in a picture. I finally did the other day, there was this big rat with a little mouse.

But the ultimate has been today, when I found one in my office! I threw my morning Dunkin Donuts coffee cup to the trash can, and then I hear this noise coming from the can. I looked and there it was, a little mouse, very tiny, but gross nonetheless.

Turns out that since the cleaning crew stole some computers, the offices simply aren't cleaned. If you want a clean office, you clean it yourself. Unbelievable.

Anyway. All things considered, I think New York, as famous and glamorous as it is, it is a tad dirty for my taste. I've seen cleaner places.

Gone, baby, gone

Last night Albert and I saw a movie. Gone, baby, gone is a thriller about a missing girl, and it deploys a fascinating moral dilemma over what's the right thing to do. See the spoilers below if you don't mind, but I recommend you see it, it's not the same if you know the ending. It's based on a book by one of my favorite authors, Dennis Lehane.

Lehane is the author of Mystic River, the book on which the movie with the same name was based, starring Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins, and directed by Clint Eastwood. Besides Mystic River, Lehane is the author of a series of five novels based on a detective couple, Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, who live and work in Dorchester, one of the worst Boston neighborhoods (and where Lehane was born and raised). Gone, baby, gone is the fourth book in the series. I highly recommend Lehane's books to everyone.

And as a side note, the premiere of this movie in the UK has been delayed due to the similarities with the case of Madeleine McCann, the missing English 4-year-old girl.

SPOILERS

(highlight with your mouse to read)

The movie is about a missing girl, but it's all a ploy by the chief policeman, who lost his own daughter a few years back. He arranges everything to keep the girl, planning her supposed death at the kidnappers' hands. The moral dilemma comes because the real mother is a drunk druggie, and Kenzie, when he uncovers the whole case, will have to decide whether he stays mum and lets the cop keep the girl, where she can live a normal, loving life, or he blows the whistle, probably sentencing the girl to a life of poverty, drugs, or prostitution. Moreover, Angela has clear and strong ideas about the subject, so he risks losing everything...

The Brooklyn bridge

Today I wanted to take a walk and the weather was good, so I thought I'd walk across the Brooklyn bridge. The Brooklyn bridge is 5,989 feet long, and is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the US. Built between 1870 and 1883, at the time of its construction it was the suspension bridge with a longest span in the world, and the two supporting towers were the tallest buildings in the Americas. The engineer who designed it planned for the structure to support six times more weight than it was needed, and that's the reason it is still standing today.

Besides the six lanes for cars, it has an elevated platform for pedestrians and bicycles. It takes almost exactly half an hour to walk across it. Here's a picture, taken from the middle of the bridge, where you can see its structure and the Manhattan skyline.

In this other Southbound picture, you can see a small Statue of Liberty. Also you can see Governor's Island, and at the back, Staten Island, the fifth borough of New York. You can also see the orange-colored Staten Island ferry. This ferry is free, and it goes by the Statue of Liberty, so it's become one more tourist attraction.

Bumper stickers

Here in the US there is this long-standing tradition of bumper stickers, that is, stickers you put in the back of your car to declare your opinions on something, politics, religion, or whatever. Here's an example:

Here, the owner of the car declares that he can't wait till January 20th, 2009, the last day of Bush in office. But this other one I think is fantastic:

If you are one of the four people in the world who still don't know, Voldemort is the ultimate evil guy in the Harry Potter books. So, first this sticker causes a smile, since it is using this fictional character in a political context. But the real message is that if Voldemort were real, he'd be a Republican, and this kind of means that all Republicans are evil. Can't do a much better job in just three words.

Peace Nobel Prize

I find out that they have awarded the Peace Nobel Prize to Al Gore. In my opinion, this is blatant proof that this prize is completely worthless and they give it to almost anyone.

Former winners of this prize are, among others, Henry Kissinger (puppet master of Latin American dictators), or Yassir Arafat, Menahem Begin or Shimon Peres, presumably for bringing peace to Middle East. You can take a look over there to see the peace they brought.

In Gore's case, he is just a rich boy who wanted to be president and lost (or rather, was robbed), and now dedicates his time to tell us gloomy tales about global warming. To do that, he gives inspirational speeches at $100,000 a pop, and produces commercial documentaries to cash in on people who are environmentally concerned.

I'm not saying that he is not doing anything interesting for the environment, he is, but he is not an altruist, and I believe the Nobel Prize should go to someone who has a longer history of fighting for humanity, and not to someone who a few years ago was just a politician. Had he won the election he would not have done anything for the environment (what did he do when he was vice president?)

Precisely the opposite to the Nobels in literature, physics, chemistry or medicine, which are quite impressive and really significant, the Peace one is weak. There's so few people fighting for peace that if one of them all but moves a pinkie, they give him the Nobel.

By the way, check out the contract for Gore's talk in San Diego, at the link above to The Smoking Gun. Airfare for Gore and a partner, $12,200. I will defend the climate, but I fly first class...

And while we are at it, mathematicians' legend has it that Nobel didn't make a mathematics Nobel prize because his wife cheated him with (or left him for) a mathematician, named Mittag-Leffler. Although it seems the legend is false.

Autumn in New England

New England is the northeastern corner of the US, and it includes the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Although southwestern Connecticut is really a suburb of New York and it shouldn't be considered New England. They root for the Yankees and not the Red Sox after all, so they aren't real newenglanders.

One of the most interesting features of New England is the intensity of its deep forests. Weather is quite wet, and that makes for incredibly green woods. And in the Fall, the leaves start turning, from their original green, to different tones of ochre, brown and even deep red. You can see an example here, taken in Maine this weekend from the car (with great peril to my life XDDD).

Here's another example, a tree which is starting its process, taken Saturday on the Bowdoin College campus. Imagine the sight of going up a mountain, and seeing the next one covered with a cloak of all colors, from green to red.

It is very spectacular to see a tree with its leaves deep red. See these two beautiful trees, which flank the door of the Tufts math department. My office window was in front of the right hand one, and in the Autumn afternoons there was this red glow coming in through the window. Quite spectacular.

Maine

Today Sunday I arrived from spending the weekend in Maine. Maine is the notheast corner in the US, see it in the map, and it is famous for its woods, mountains, and the rocky coast. Also for a large Navy base, and for its lobsters. It's really beautiful, quiet, and people are very friendly. I have been visiting my friends Jen and Thom, professors at Bowdoin College, and their lovely kids Maia and Micah.

During this trip I have experienced some sensations I hadn't felt in a long time:

• The pleasure of driving during hours on the impressive American interstates. These big highways, with six or eight lanes, give me an incredible feeling of freedom. I love it.


• The beauty of the New England Autumn. This deserves a post by itself. Next post.


• The feeling of being at 44 degrees again. Being cold when you take your clothes off, then get under two comforters and warm up. Mmmm.

Tomorrow back to work.

Visit

This weekend I have had the pleasure of hosting Jaume, a good friend and coworker. Jaume is visiting the University of Delaware for the month of October, and since I was here he decided to spend a weekend in the big city. We have spent a very enjoyable weekend walking around New York. In the picture we are sitting at an outside table in Union Square.

And a warm hi to all our friends and colleagues back in the department, especially to Mónica, Xavier and Narciso.

Les Misérables

Last night we went to a Broadway play. The play was "Les Misérables" at the Broadhurst Theater, on 44th Street, and I must say I was quite pleasantly surprised.

Based in the well-known, melodramatic novel by Victor Hugo, Les Misérables tells the story of Jean Valjean, a French ex-con who climbs back to a respectable life and ends up in the higher classes of Paris, living first-hand the social events taking place in the first half of the 19th century, right after the Napoleonic Wars.

Having read the more than a thousand pages of the 19th-century drama, I was wondering how they were going to fit it in a two-and-a-half-hour musical, but they do a great job. The stage has a moving, circular part, which lets the company change the set very quickly and scenes just go by at a fast pace. The singers were exceptional, with wonderful voices, and I really wanted more. Maybe I'll go to see some other musical before I go back to Barcelona.

I recommend to anyone the TKTS service, where you can get tickets for same-day Broadway plays at half price. It has two locations, one near Times Square and one down on the Seaport area. Get there early, the lines are long.

The New York Subway

This blog wouldn't be complete without a post about the Subway. The New York Subway is really the city's soul, without which it would collapse immediately. With 2058 miles of tracks, 734 stations, and more than 4 million travelers every day, it is the way to move about the city we can't do without. Everybody in New York takes the subway, rich and poor, white and black. Even the mayor takes the subway to work.

The New York Subway has some features that make it different to the rest. For instance, it is so big, that it has local lines and express lines. The express lines only stop in every fourth or fifth station, and they are great when you have a long trip. Obviously, the local lines and the express lines can't go on the same tracks, but they do share the stations. This is possible because each line has four tracks, two in each direction. This is the most important feature of the New York Subway, in each direction you have two tracks, the local track and the express track. You can see the green line (4,5 and 6) in the picture, which is a detail of the subway map, of the 5th Avenue area. Lines 4 and 5 are express, and line 6 is local. On 59th and on 42nd Street, they all stop, but on 23rd, 28th or 33rd, only the 6 train stops. The same way, in the orange line, the B is local while the D is express. The only way the express trains can pass the local ones is if they go in separate tracks.

As everybody knows, the New York Subway never closes, it runs 24/7. Again, this is possible because of the four tracks in each direction. In every subway in the world, the tracks need maintenance, and to be able to do it, the tracks have to be empty for some time (usually at night). That's why the Barcelona subway stops from 12 to 5. I had a student once who worked in the subway maintenance and he told me that they run up and down all night repairing tracks.

In New York, thanks to the double track in each direction, they can fix one track while the trains in that direction can still run on the other track. This is crucial to be able to keep the train running at all times. But then, at night, or on the weekend, the local or express lines can change at any time, or run on a different track than they normally do. You can be riding a local train and suddenly they announce that it's running late and it becomes express. So you see some people getting off, because it doesn't stop at their station, and some others quite happy because now they arrive faster. Or you can find the train running on a different track than usual, which can be quite confusing.

Every weekend there's a long list of changes, due to maintenance, and which you can see in the weekend changes website. The employees post the changes signs in each station, which you must read if you are taking the subway at night or on the weekend, because your train may have changed.

As you can see, this coming weekend (October 6th-8th), the C train doesn't run. In small print you can read that you must take the A instead, which is the express in the same track. But if you were expecting the A to be express, now it's local. And so on.

The New York Subway has its own jazz song, Take the A train, by Duke Ellington. It's said in it that the A is the fastest way to get to Harlem.

A ticket is $2. If you use a MetroCard the ticket goes down to $1.66. And there's daily, weekly and monthly passes. I am currently using a monthly pass, which is $76.

Anyway. The New York Subway is expensive, dirty and chaotic. But it also is fast and reliable.

Winter Crocs

I am sure all of you know the Crocs, those rubberized clogs/sandals that have become quite the rage this Summer and which are so ugly (but so comfortable). I am sure many of you who think they are ultra ugly are thinking that people won't wear them now that Winter is coming. Well, think again.

Digital Life

Yesterday, my friend Albert and I went to Digital Life, the computer fair at the Javits Center in New York.

It was OK, but I thought it was small and actually not that great. Madrid's SIMO is much better. But anyway, we spend a couple hours, and we saw a few novelties. The best was a stand where they were giving away tattoos with the company logo.

When I was a kid, these tattoos were called calcomanías. [Removable tattoos for kids]

Conference

Today Friday and tomorrow Saturday we are having a conference. We celebrate the centenary of Wilhelm Magnus, the founder of the New York Group Theory Seminar, around 1950, continuing up to this day, and being one of the oldest seminars continuously running in the US. We have a few of the best mathematicians of our field, giving talks and sharing memories of Magnus. You can see one of the speakers in the picture, and visit the conference website.

New York rudeness

Today, while shopping and walking in New York, I had my dose of rude New Yorkers.

• First, in the corner of 34th Street and 8th Avenue, a young woman comes and asks me, point blank, "do you know if 9th avenue is that way or that way?" I point the way and say "that way" and right away, without uttering an extra word, she starts walking that way. That woman must not know the words "excuse me", or "please", or even "thank you". She had what she wanted, the information, so why lose two seconds saying "thank you"? Had I known she was going to be this rude, I would have pointed the wrong way.


• Then I head to a well-known store, B&H Photo Video, which was nearby (34th and 9th), because I was looking for a set of waterproof headphones I had seen in their website last week, while I was in Utah, at $19.95. I enter and ask some guy there "I would like these headphones". He calls and while we wait for them, he tries to charge me $29.95. I tell him: "excuse me, but the web price is $19.95." He looks it up and it really is $29.95. I ask him "has the price changed?" and he answers "no, they've always been $29.95". I tell him: "Excuse me, but last week they were $19.95 in your website". And he says: "That's not true". What do you mean it's not true? Am I blind or don't know how to read or what? Tell me it was a special, or it has changed, or that it was a mistake, but don't tell me it's not true. Here's a capture of the froogle entry where it still is $19.95. Froogle wouldn't have it at $19.95 if it weren't true.
  
  So visibly upset and half yelling I tell him: "Are you calling me a liar?" and he says: "No, but what you say is not true". "You've just lost a customer". And he incredibly says: "We never had it". Then, with all the yelling, a manager comes, I tell him what happened, and he nicely apologizes. I accept the apology and leave. But they've really lost a customer, it will be a while before I set foot in B&H again, no matter how cheap.


• Finally, when I get back to Harlem, I go to my local Duane Reade (125th and Frederick Douglass) to buy a couple of things. It's 8:35pm and I know they close at 9:00. I enter and buy my stuff and when I leave, the door is locked. A big guy comes and opens it. I ask: "is it closed?" Before he answers a woman tries to enter the store and he says "it's closed". I look at my watch: 8:42. "Don't you close at 9?" I ask him. And he says, quite upset: "You were inside the store, sir. Did you not hear the announcement?" I say "No" and he answers "You weren't paying attention." And leaves inside the store. Of course I wasn't paying attention to the announcement, 95% of the time they say "Johnny, come to cashier please." The big idiot implied it was my fault for not paying attention instead of theirs for closing the store 20 minutes early.

This city has two major drawbacks: first one, that everything is hugely expensive (a tiny studio in Harlem is $1,100 and is a great price?); and the second one is that some people are rude as hell.

Linux-based plane

Some of my readers (hey, Krako!) will love the fact that, in the Delta plane that took me today from Salt Lake to New York, the entertainment system was Linux-based.

Smoking room

Incredibly, the Salt Lake airport still has a smoking room. In my days as a smoker, it would have been a blessing, these days it surprises me and it seems old fashioned, so 20th century.

The Salt Lake Roasting Company

As I said two posts ago, when I arrived in Utah in September 1991, it was quite difficult to have a decent cup of coffee in Salt Lake City, because to the well-known weakness of American coffee one has to add that mormons, which were a majority here, don't ever take coffee. After a few desperate days without a coffee the right way, some friends took me to the Salt Lake Roasting Company, and sky opened for me :)

Founded in 1981, the Salt Lake Roasting Company is one of the places with more feeling in Salt Lake City. It's just a coffee shop, they only have coffee and pastries, no coke or alcoholic beverages. It's located right downtown, one block from the City Hall. But its most peculiar trait, which makes it unique among all coffee shops I know, is that (as its name indicates) they roast their own coffee. You can see in the picture the two roasting machines, which take up half of the space, together with the coffee sacks.

If you happen to go while they are roasting, which happens quite often, a strong coffee smell will welcome you and will be stuck to your nostrils for three hours after you leave. Needless to say, the Roasting Company serves a wonderful espresso, black, bitter and with foam, along with all coffee specialties you can think of. It also sells coffee by the pound, and all coffee paraphernalia. That first day I went, I spent 60 dollars right there in an Italian coffee maker, a coffee mill, two pounds of coffee and little espresso cups and plates. I still have that coffee maker in my house in Barcelona, and it has the curious feature that it is half metallic and half clay, with the top part being clay to preserve heat. Very cool coffee maker.

So, the Roasting Company became (and still is) my favorite hangout in Salt Lake, and I still remember quite fondly that I wrote my first math paper sitting at one of its tables some evening in 1994.

Everything is different nowadays, and neither mormons are a majority in Salt Lake, nor it's difficult to have a decent cup of coffee here, with the invasion of imports that happened in the late 90s and then with the Olympics, especially from California, escaping rising real estate prices and violence in Californian streets. But the Roasting Company is still there, with its faithful clients. We hope it will stay this way for many years. I recommend anyone who goes to Utah, and likes coffee a little bit, that he stops by the Roasting Company. He won't be disappointed.

Dr. Seuss

Today I went for dinner to my friend Aldo's house. Aldo is Chilean of Italian descent, and we did our PhDs together here in Salt Lake, we shared an office for four years. After many misadventures he ended up leaving mathematics and now he works in a biology company, but he still lives here in Salt Lake with his wife Laura and their daughter Giuliana (age almost five).

After dinner we read a few Dr. Seuss books to the kid. [And now I go on a lengthy explanation about Dr. Seuss' books, which are virtually unknown in Spain, and which I will spare my American readers, who probably know more about Dr. Seuss than I do.]

Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City is the capital of the state of Utah. It has a population of about a million and a half people in the whole metro area, which goes North to South from the Great Salt Lake (which lends its name to the city) to the Utah Lake, about 40 miles South. It is 4,200 feet over sea level in the valley, surrounded by mountains which go over 10,000 feet. The mountains are impressive, as you can see in the picture.

Salt Lake City is worldwide famous for being the capital of the mormon church. The mormon temple is the city center, and all streets are numbered starting at the temple. Although we must say that the percentage of mormons is decreasing every day as the city becomes more and more cosmopolitan. It also became famous because of the 2002 Winter Olympics, which, as it already happened in Barcelona, brought many improvements to the city, and since I left in 1996, the city has a new tram, the interstate I-15 has been widened and improved and the airport has a new terminal, to mention a few examples. There are eight ski resorts at less than an hour drive from downtown, and Utah brags about having the greatest snow on Earth. Skiers say it really is exceptional, due to the dry climate of the area. And of course, the Utah Jazz play here.

I lived here between 1991 and 1996, I got my PhD at University of Utah, and the main reason to come back was to visit my advisor, and some friends who remain here. It is quite weird the effect that it has going back to a city you know well after a few years: everything is more or less the same, but everything has changed a little also. You feel like you know everything, as if you never left, but then you realize the small things that have changed, a store you liked has closed, that building is new, etc. I am especially fond of Salt Lake, five years is quite a long time.

Mormons make the city slightly different. It used to be quite difficult to have a good cup of coffee, since mormons don't take stimulants. Nowadays there's plenty of Starbucks as everywhere else. But the large percentage of mormon population makes that the possibilities for naughty entertainment, night clubs, discos, strip clubs, is quite limited for a city this large. Bars where they serve hard liquor (that is, anything but beer) have to be, by law, private clubs that only admit members. But anyone can become a member for a night at the door paying a 5 dollar fee. A low-class bar Albert and I used to go (the "Norwood Club") used to have promotions like "become a member for a dime". You make the law, I'll find the loophole. These days, this private club business is an anachronism, but it's kind of cute.

So, it is a very pretty city, very green, great mountain backdrop, very clean, but at the same time quite boring and conservative, with a limited entertainment offer, except if you are the outdoors/mountain/hiking/skiing type, in which case the opportunities are endless. People are extremely friendly, and many have visited Spain or other Spanish-speaking countries, since mormons have to go on missions for two years. Yes, it's these kids you see in shirts and ties with a book underarm and a black plaque with its name in the left breast. But this fact also makes it quite international. American Express has its international center here, where more than 130 languages are spoken, most of them by mormons who learned them in their missions.

Salt Lake City, a very peculiar place, very pretty, and sociologically very interesting. You have to live here to fully grasp it.

And by the way, if you like basketball, you will enjoy knowing that the Second South Street has been renamed "Karl Malone Way" :)

Utah

This evening I fly to Utah. It's a very peculiar and interesting place, and I know it well, I lived there for five years. I am going to visit the university, my PhD advisor (who's not getting any younger) and a couple of friends I still have in Salt Lake. I will keep posting to tell you cool things from there.

Incommunication

Today I was having breakfast at a Starbucks (for a change) when this couple arrived and sat in the next table. In the hour and a half I have been there, they haven't said a word to each other. I thought this was the ultimate incommunication: a couple having breakfast together, each one with a laptop, and without saying a word. Maybe they were telling each other sweet things by instant messaging, who knows.

Bike-cabs

Lately you can find these devices everywhere in the touristic area of Manhattan. In them, a guy just pedals and pedals to take you wherever you want to go, or to a tour of Manhattan. You should see the kids, usually college students, pedaling like crazy on the streets while a tourist couple admires the city from the seat behind. I think it's the ultimate exploitation, although I believe the rates they charge are quite high and the guys make a very good living anyway. It's just that instead of a step forward, it seems to me it's a step back, as it would to anyone who has read The City of Joy.

Brooklyn

I went for dinner to Brooklyn today to my friend Murray's house (Murray is an Australian gay mathematician, a very funny guy). Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs of the city of New York, which is special for its traditional way of life, far away from the idea people have of New York, and immortalized in movies like "Smoke". Where Manhattan is the land of skyscrapers, suits and tourists, in Brooklyn there are brownstones, neighborhood stores and normal people. Houses even have backyards. Here is a picture of Murray's backyard and the houses surrounding it.

Jewish new year

This week Jewish people celebrate Rosh Hashanah, their new year. Due to that, there are no more classes this week. The college is open, but there are no classes. American universities, even though many of them are nonreligious, are quite respectful of everyone's religious holidays. I remember when I was at Tufts that it always surprised me that there were classes on Easter week, and the chairman told me that if I wanted to observe the religious holidays I would be allowed to take them. I didn't though, since I am not religious.

Happy 5768 to all Jewish people!

September 11th

Today is September 11th, and the flags in New York are at half staff.

However, there are a few voices who have started questioning how long should celebrations take place, asking how long they should read the victims' names, and so on. In my opinion, they are kind of right, people should get over it , without forgetting of course, but it's about time each September 11th is not made into a special day anymore. I believe that seeing that we have gotten over it would annoy terrorists more.

The laundry room web

You're not going to believe this. Here is a picture of the laundry room of my residence hall:

If you go now to the Laundryview control page, you can check in real time the status of the laundry room. This way, we can check if there are available washers and dryers when we need to use them, or we can check if our cycle has finished. Incredible. Check out how the red washers move a little bit when they are in use. A great detail from the Flash programmer.

I think this is the ultimate use of the Internet :)

My apartment II (the bathroom!)

Attending to the insistence of my friend Yolanda (:*) in the comments to the previous post about my apartment, here you have two more pictures of the apartment. The first one is the bathroom, and the second one is the hall with the door that leads to the bathroom. This way you can have a complete idea of the apartment. The bathroom itself is very nice, its problem is that it is too large, especially for the apartment it is in. The bathroom must take up like 30% of the total area, and if it were 3 feet narrower, the whole apartment would gain like 25 square feet, which would make a world of a difference.

Flag backwards

This is a picture I took of the back part of a bus this morning.

Look at the flag, which is backwards. The stars don't go on the upper left corner, and not on the upper right? What a mistake, right?

Well, no. This is a detail many people don't know. When the flag is displayed on the sides of a person or a moving vehicle, it has to be displayed as if this person or vehicle had it on a staff and was moving forward, and then, from the right-hand side, you would see it like this. I mean, imagine that the flag was on a staff on top of the bus. When the bus moves forward, the flag waves backwards, and from the right-hand side, you would see it this way, with the stars on the upper right. So the flag has to be displayed this way on the right-hand side of the bus.

Here you have a few more examples.

[Again, sorry to all Americans who already know this, but I thought it would be interesting to Spaniards, since our flag looks the same from both sides.]

The NAC stairs

I was going down the staircase of the NAC building and it reminded me of how in horrow movies or in catasptrophe movies, the characters always escape (from fire or from the bad guy) on some starcase of the building, which is slightly dusty because nobody uses it, and it is always painted in white. Besides, in this one, the protecting cage (so you don't fall) gives it a really creepy look.

How can I be so jinx?

It can only happen to me that four days after I buy my iPhone, Apple goes and lowers the price by 200 dollars. They have left the 4gb at 299 (exactly as I suggested) and the 8gb at 399. It's incredible how this company has so many fans, when they get milked so badly. If you are a big fan and can't wait, you pay through the nose, while if you are a casual one who waits, you get it cheap. Doesn't make sense. They deserve that I return it. Maybe I'll do just that.

UPDATE

I must learn not to post in the heat of the moment :) I went to the Apple store just to ask, and immediately they have refunded me $200, no questions asked. Everyone who bought an iPhone for the last two weeks is entitled to this refund, because if not, they could just return it and buy a new one at the new price. To avoid that, the company prefers to pay them back. Amazing service. Squeezing early adopters is still a shame though.

ANOTHER UPDATE

The guys at engadget have opened my eyes. This price drop can only mean one thing: at Apple Expo on September 25th, the new iPhone with 3G and 16GB will be introduced on time for the Christmas season, at $599. Obvious. These past few weeks have shown there is a market for a $600 phone. And the new iPod Touch has 16GB already. No question about this one.

Taxi strike

There is a threat from New York City cabs to strike tomorrow Wednesday. They refuse the installation of a GPS which would track their movements. I guess they won't be able to slack anymore. The worst part is that in 2004 there was a rate hike of 26% for them to pay for the GPS (and another device so they could accept credit cards). And now when it's the moment to install the devices, they are crying foul.

In any case, I believe most people will be delighted with this strike (as it happens in many cities, Barcelona among them), since traffic is going to improve tremendously without the yellow monsters filling up the roads. Let them strike, good riddance. Here in Harlem we don't see many of them anyway.

Buchholz's no-hitter

While we were at the US Open, something exceptional was happening in Boston: a rookie pitcher was throwing a no-hitter. What's more impressive is that the kid, only 23, was playing his second game in the big leagues. This is as if this kid from the lower teams comes up to the big club and in his second game, he scores four goals. Kind of like what Messi did at Barça two years ago :) [Sorry for the soccer analogy, but it's the only way for the Spanish people to understand how important a no-hitter is].

The great thing was, I could follow the baseball game inning by inning from the US Open stands thanks to my new shiny iPhone :)

US Open

The other day we went to the US Open. We were treated to an incredible match between Nicole Vaidisova and Shahar Peer, which went to the tiebreaker on the third set. Very exciting. After that, we saw the James Blake match, but at 12:30am we left and they were still in the third set (it would go four).

I... couldn't... resist...

Already while I was writing the other post about the iPhone, I was thinking: "But, who are you kidding?" Then I was a few days with my head spinning, doing what all addicts do: finding reasons to keep feeding your addiction. So, there are several reasons which convinced me to buy an iPhone:

• The $60 for the service you have to pay anyway. Since I arrived on August 8th, until the 31st, I had paid over $50 to the pre-paid T-mobile service, so at that going rate I would have paid more than $60 every month. Moreover, the $60 from AT&T include unlimited internet, the other one doesn't (no internet at all).


• The fact that you can buy it refurbished on the Apple web site for $399. Apple gives the exact same warranty to the refurbished devices than to the regular ones.


• That unlocking is already possible, although still not available to the general public. It will be soon. Can't stop the unstoppable.


• That probably I will be able to sell it at a reasonable price when I go back to Barcelona.


• That the iPhone is the coolest device available right now, by far.
  

So, a few days ago I gave in, and I am now the proud owner of a 4GB iPhone.

The truth is that it's really awesome. What's more impressive to me is the maps, an icon takes you directly to Google Maps, and you can see a map of any area (in the world) covered by Google Maps. It's like having a world map in your pocket. And this is possible because the iPhone is permanently connected to the Internet. If there is a Wi-Fi available it uses that, and if not, it connects via the AT&T EDGE network. It's kind of slow (2.5G, between 70 and 135kbps, about twice as fast as the old modems), but it works. It's expected the European version will have 3G, which is more developed in Europe than in the US.

I configured my email right away, and now I can see my email directly in the iPhone. It updates the mailbox every 15 minutes. Actually that takes away one of the pleasures of the internet we had grown used to: getting home and going directly to the computer to see which emails have arrived during your absence. Now you can read them as they arrive.

It has a few drawbacks. The browser does not accept Flash, and it's ridiculous how many pages nowadays use Flash. Only Youtube works, because of the special agreement between Apple, AT&T and Google, the same agreement that makes Google maps work. Then, the fact that it's not 3G. On top of this, Apple has restricted the Bluetooth capabilities, it only lets you pair it with a hands-free device, and not with a computer or with another Bluetooth phone. I guess they don't want you to use the iPhone as a modem. But the biggest drawback is the price. I believe they would have sold twice as many at 299 or something like that.

In any case, I am sooo happy :)

My apartment

With the arrival of the couch my apartment is finally finished. Here are some pictures so you can have an idea. My warmest thanks to Sean who helped me with the couch two days in a row.

Red Sox-Yankees

I went to the ballgame today. Red Sox-Yankees, the two richest teams in the league and with a rivalry only comparable to Barça-Madrid. Even though the Yankees won 5-0, they are five games behind the Sox in the stands, with the playoffs waiting ahead in October. Most likely the Sox are in, while the Yankees are fighting for dear life in the wild card. We have a very interesting last month of the season ahead of us.

Jamón and chorizo in the Lower East Side

There is a gourmet food store in Boston, Formaggio Kitchen (244 Huron Ave, Cambridge), where I used to get my jamón, chorizo and cheese when I lived there. In my trip two weeks ago, I bought enough to fill my pantry, but I found out that they have a branch in New York, Formaggio Essex. I went there today to check it out, and it's really worth it. If you are interested in buying quality Spanish sausages and cold cuts, go to the Essex Street Market (120 Essex St) and you'll find them.

By the look of the picture, you would think you are in any Castilian butchery, and not in the Lower East Side in Manhattan.

First day of class

Today was the first day of class in my College. It's always charming to see the students on their first day, with their new backpacks, looking for their classes :) A lost girl this morning had missed her way and asked me: "Excuse me, which way it is to campus? It's my first day." This picture is the view from my office window, where you can see the building across (Shepard Hall) and all students walking on campus. What a change from last week, where campus was totally deserted.

Charlie Parker Jazz Festival

As I promised a few days ago, we went to the Marcus Garvey Park to check out the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival. I know you can't see much in the picture, but hey, that's the best I can do with my phone camera.

We've seen a band play for a while (the first song they played was Autumn Leaves), but the most interesting thing was the crowd. There was a middle-aged couple with a green parrot. But I found this family very charming, with the kid sleeping on top of his father.

In New York there's also top manta

[top manta is the name that in Spain is used for the vendors of pirated movies and CDs on the street, on top of blankets (mantas)]

I... must... resist...

This morning I was wandering around and I entered one of those joints which will spell my doom: the Apple store on Fifth Avenue :) This is the ultimate Apple store, open 24 hours a day, it contains everything Apple and related stuff.

The store is underground actually, the only thing which is above street level is the transparent cube you see in the picture, but when you enter there is this huge basement bustling with people. Although most of them are tourists checking their e-mail.

Ant the star device is, of course, the iPhone. It's amazing. It's a combination of cell phone, Ipod and WiFi terminal. I have been debating with myself whether I should buy one as soon as it came out. There's two versions: 4GB and 8GB, which cost $499 and $599 respectively. If that were all I would have bought it already, but on top of it you have to sign for two years with AT&T, at the price of 59.99 a month (the cheapest plan), and all of this plus taxes, which are several of them in the AT&T bill. But that's not all, because since I am here only for six months, when I leave I would have to pay a penalty for early termination (like 175 dollars). So all together it would be well over a grand, and I think that's not worth it, no matter how cool. But oh, it's soooo cool... It's a technology marvel, phone, WiFi and ipod, great aesthetics, incredible. I am still resisting, but... it's... hard... very... hard... I... must... be... strong... and... resist...

The Delfonics at Jackie Robinson Park

Taking a walk in Harlem this evening with a friend, when we were walking next to Jackie Robinson Park on 145th Street, we heard live music, and it turned out there was a free concert sponsored by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. It was The Delfonics, a Philadelphia soul band, most famous in the 60s and 70s. Needless to say it was full of people dancing, and we stayed until the end. In the picture you can't see much, but you can imagine the singers, clad in their sequined jackets :)

The baseball player painted at the back of the stage is Jackie Robinson, the Dodgers number 42, and who was the first black player in the Big Leagues in 1948.

Exiting the concert, someone gave us a flyer of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, which will be held this weekend, here in Harlem on Saturday and in Lower Manhattan on Sunday. We'll go and see some free jazz.

Against fascism

In the hall of the building where my office is, the North Academic Center, there's a memorial wall for alumni of the City College who fought in different wars. Among the plaques, this one with the Guernica stood out to me, until I saw that it was dedicated to the alumni, students and teachers who died fighting against fascism in Spain.

Unfortunately, many of the Spanish people who fought alongside them are still buried in anonymous mass graves in forgotten Spanish roadsides. It's the worst shame in current Spain that there still are spiteful, stone-hearted Spanish people who deny these victims of fascism the memory and homage of their friends and family.

Rain

I'm back in New York, came back Sunday, and I have actually started to work, I took over my new office yesterday. It's been raining nonstop for two days though, don't feel like going out of the house at all...

Harvard and MIT

Harvard. What can we say about Harvard. Harvard is considered one of the best universities in the world, if not the absolute best. Founded in 1634, it has always sought the maximum level of excellence, both scientific and artistic. The strong points of Harvard are basic sciences and humanities.

When I was looking for jobs in American universities, it surprised me that there were never job offers from Harvard. I found out later that Harvard never advertises jobs, because Harvard goes after the professors it is interested in. You don't apply for a job at Harvard, it's Harvard who comes calling if you are worthy.

Harvard gives its name to the neighborhood surrounding it, which during the 1960s and 70s was the epicenter of protests and revolutions in the East of the US. You can still see some remains of that era, like the Communist bookstore, but part of its charisma has been lost with the appearance of banks and fast food joints. The bohemian life has moved a little bit up the road, to Davis Square.

Taking Massachusetts Avenue towards Boston, just before arriving to the river, one finds MIT. If Harvard is the mecca for scientists and humanists, MIT is for engineers. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology occupies several buildings on the river Charles, among them the characteristic dome. MIT is well known worldwide for its engineering programs, and its research in robotics, artificial intelligence, and many other subjects. Its math department is also one of the best in the world. It is in great part because of these two behemoths that the Boston area is considered one of the best in the world in academic life.

Related to these two universities, I have a small regret. In my career as a mathematician, I haven't been able to give a talk neither at Harvard or at MIT. I have given talks at Columbia, at Yale and at Cornell, but not at the two Bostonian meccas. I am gonna have to work harder...

Ziggy, Alicia and little Sergei

My friends Ziggy and Alicia have been nice enough to let me stay with them during my visit to Boston. They are a wonderful couple. Ziggy is a math professor at Tufts University, where we used to work together, and his wife Alicia is an English professor at Bentley College.

Alicia told me a great story yesterday. Ziggy and Alicia have a friend, with the name of Misha Brin, also a mathematician at the University of Maryland. There was this time, several years ago, that Ziggy and Alicia were visiting Misha, and Sergei, his 11-year-old son, was there. Alicia was surprised because little Sergei would spend all day talking about computers. Alicia, who doesn't know much about computers, asked him why he liked computers so much, and little Sergei, very seriously, answered: "because you can store all the world's information in them". This could be just an outrageously nerdy answer in an 11-year-old boy, but in this case it wasn't. The boy, at 11, wanted to store all the world's information in computers, and he appears to be doing exactly that. Because years later, together with a friend, little Sergei founded a small computer company you might have heard of. Its name is Google.

Micro Center

In Boston (actually it's in Cambridge, just at the other side of the river) you can find Micro Center, which is my favorite computer store in this part of the country. It's a combination of Alcampo [a Spanish large supermarket] with PCCity [a Spanish large computer store], that is, a really large supermarket, but only with computer products, not even consumer electronics (no TVs or stereos). Row after row of cables, adapters, discs, peripherals, software, and whatever you can imagine remotely connected to computers. Micro Center is close to my idea of paradise, but it is not complete paradise because of Fry's, a computer store chain in the San Francisco area which is the ultimate, really, it's unbelievable. I plan to go to California in December, I will go to Fry's then and I will let you know.

There's also a Micro Center in New York, but it's out in the suburbs, and you need a car or to take a train and then walk 20 minutes from the station. The Boston one is easily accessible by subway. This picture doesn't make it justice, but you can start to appreciate how big it is.

Boston

These days I am in Boston. I arrived Wednesday and I will be here until Sunday. Boston is my favorite city in the US, I lived here three years and I loved it, I would have stayed in a flash if my contract hadn't run out. I come back every chance I have, to walk on its Victorian-style streets or next to the Charles river.

Boston is the capital of Massachusetts, one of the most liberal states of the US. It's the only state where gay marriage is legal, and of course there's no death penalty (unlike New York). So to have an idea, in the Massachusetts House of Representatives there are 140 Democrats and only 19 Republicans. That's a majority if I ever saw one :)

Bocadillos?

Yesterday I saw these vending machines in the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal. Since it says "Vending, bocadillos" [in Spain, bocadillo means sandwich], I looked to see what they were vending, expecting to find some ham sandwiches or something. But besides the usual sodas, chips and candy bars, there were no sandwiches. I wonder why it says "bocadillos".

Todai

Todai (32nd between 5th and 6th Ave) is an incredible Japanese restaurant, all-you-can-eat, with lots of food. You go in and see an 80-feet-long bar, with more than 30 types of sushi, plus meat, soups, saladas, seafood, and of course, desserts. Included are oysters (with a limit of 3 per person). An incredible place. If you are in a city where there's one, try it, although it will be necessary for you to be in the US, Hong Kong, or Korea. Or, if you are an entrepreneur who wants to make a lot of money, open a franchise in Barcelona. You'll become rich.

Hunns Lake

My friends Sean and Katherine (and Daniel, age 2 and a half) have a house next to a lake in upstate New York. Yesterday I spent the day there with them and we have all come back to the city this morning. It's a small lake, called Hunns Lake, in Stanfordville, NY, straight north of the city. Sean and I went yesterday for a walk around the lake and we did it in about 45 minutes. It was great being there, with silence, nature, peace, although I am a city person and I have enough with one day, or else I may OD on pure air :)

J&R

Every time I come to New York I go to see how the constructions go at Ground Zero. And also because located very close to them is one of the best computer stores in New York, J&R. Four stories of computers, accessories, cables, and so on. A great place for computer nerds like me.

World Trade Center

In this empty space you can see in the picture, a few years ago there were two impressive skyscrapers over 1000 feet high.

I will always remember because the first time I was in New York, I stayed at the "New York Vista Hotel", which was located exactly between the two towers, which dwarfed it with its mere 22 stories to the towers' 105. My friend Javier surely remembers. I arrived at the hotel at 11pm and went directly to sleep, so the first thing I remember from New York is the following morning, getting out of the hotel, look up, and see these two towers that climbed up to the clouds like two infinite columns.

That day, the clouds were really low, and the top of the towers was higher than them. If you look carefully at the picture, the dark part at the top of the tower is the shadow of the clouds. To make it worse, the two towers were spectacular because they were completely straight. If you go to the Empire State, it's not that impressive from the ground because the building is staggered, only the central part is really high, but the two towers were completely vertical. You could stand right next to the tower and this monster would climb and climb, and it would look like it was going to fall on top of you.

Well, as everybody else, I will never forget September 11th, 2001, how I spent all day glued to CNN seeing the Towers fall...

Ensaimada

Having breakfast this morning in a Starbucks I was surprised to see they have ensaimadas:

The funniest thing is the name, as you can see in the picture. They are called Mallorca sweet braids :) I ate one for patriotic reasons.

El Chory

Look at the name this guy has chosen for his store :) [El Chory sounds extremely funny in Spanish from Spain].

Also, look at how expensive cigarettes are in the US. In fact, they are very expensive in every country except Spain.

Boeing 757 Bonds

Bonds (see my previous post) has decided I am not to see his nome runs. A few hours after my post he hit 755, and on Tuesday, also a few hours before I landed in the US, number 756. And on Wednesday, while I was sleeping all jet lagged, number 757. Looks like a Boeing plane.

Yet again, I wouldn't have been able to see them because I still don't have a TV. I want to get one today, I am planning to get a TV tuner for my computer. My triangular apartment has cable TV, with my favorite channel (ESPN). Let's see how it works. Can't wait to see SportsCenter, [ta-da-da ta-da-da].