Reviewing Whatever

Image via Wikipedia
Peter Luger Steakhouse
255 Northern Blvd. Great Neck, 11021
(516) 487-8800

You should know
I mentioned last week that Chris just graduated from law school. He also just had a birthday. Between the two (and a wager I made with myself -- and lost -- to finish reading Ulysses by my own birthday), I told him I would take him out to dinner anywhere he wanted, so long as I had enough notice to make reservations.

He didn't tell me where he wanted to go until the same day we got the dinner, but at least he made the reservations himself.

Typical, though: I had terrible indigestion from brunch, and steak was the last thing I wanted.

Also, and this is something I didn't know until I got there: only the house credit card is accepted. Fortunately, they do accept debit cards, so I was fine, but consider having plenty of cash on hand (which I would have, had I been forewarned).

So?
Chris's original plan was for us to split the Porterhouse Steak for Two ($83.90), a wise move on his part since there's no way I could eat the same amount he can, even when I'm in the best of health. Since that wasn't in the cards, he instead got the Rib Steak ($39.99), while I got the Mixed Green Salad with homemade vinaigrette ($7.95). We split the Creamed Spinach (for 2) ($8.95) -- the food seems to be designed for groups -- a bottle of Avalon Napa Valley ($30), and, since my stomach was beginning to settle by the end of the meal, we split an apple strudel ($8.95) for dessert.

Chris loved his steak, to the point where he was very nearly gnawing on the bone. I tasted a few bites, and am convinced that I want to come back sometime in the future. My salad was very nice -- the vinaigrette dressing tasted a bit strange, not bad but seasoned with something I couldn'timmediately recognize (I think it was capers). The creamed spinach was good, though not sensational, but oddly tasted very good as a substitute for butter on the rolls.

The apple strudel was delicious, and came with a heaping bowl of the restaurant's specialty whipped cream, or "schlag". You could easily use this as a cannolli filling. Amazing, though I limited myself to a few bites.

I need to speak highly of the service here, as well. Our waiter was attentive without being intrusive. He didn't give me a hard time for ordering the salad, and when Chris asked for a half-bottle of one wine, he recommended a different wine, which cost less for a full bottle than a half-bottle of the other did, and which paired even better with the steak.

It wasn't a cheap night (even with my light fare), but it was great for a special occasion.

Rating
Go to celebrate
I highly recommend this place, but given inflation, the price of gas, and all that other fun stuff, I can't in good conscience recommend going on a regular basis. Once or twice a year, assuming you've budgeted for it? Absolutely.

The rest of the Internet
The Wikipedia entry.
Frank Bruni at the New York Times reviews the restaurant.
Liza at I Eat NY is brutal toward the hamburger buns.
Adam at The Amateur Gourmet offers an enthusiastic review and amazing pictures of the food (and Ben Affleck).
More positive words and hunger-inducing pictures at foodyi.
Alex Gordon at The Blogging Affair offers hints and tips for your visit.

Image via WikipediaI Am America (And So Can You!)
By Stephen Colbert, 2007, hardback

You should know
I got this book as a birthday present from my brother -- very appropriate, since today is his birthday. Happy birthday, Dave!

And as long as I'm doing shout-outs, I want to wish warmest congratulations to Chris, Taz, and Alli at NFC East Homers, as well as Connie, Geoff, Rebecca, Annabella, Gary, Brendan, and all the other brand-new Boston University JDs.

Right. The book.

I grew up without cable television, so there are a lot of shows that I'll watch, but that I never really followed. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are among these shows; I'll watch them and enjoy them if they're on, but if I don't see them for a year or two, I really don't care. However, I do have a copy of America (The Book) -- actually, that was a gift from my brother, too, now that I think about it...

So?
Please tell me you know better than to take Stephen Colbert seriously. Because if you take him at all seriously, you'll find this book offensive.

And that's pretty much it. Take all of Colbert's off-the-wall, contradictory, hilariously appalling (or appallingly hilarious, as you like) political positions, and roll it into book about life. We learn about Colbert's colorblindness, his dominance over the family dog, Gipper, and the secret agenda of baby carrots.

Rating
Read it if...
You like Colbert, and/or are not easily offended.

Seriously, I enjoyed the book, but really, there's not much to say about it. Either it's self-explanatory, or you won't get it. Colbert plays a character, and this book is the character's story.

The rest of the Internet
The Wikipedia page.
Janet Maslin at the New York Times enjoyed the book, but found it fell short of the show.
The book's official site.
Alynda Wheat at Entertainment Weekly gave it a "B."
Read an excerpt at ABCnews.com

Image via WikipediaDawn and Imago
By Octavia E. Butler, 1987 and 1989, from the library


You should know
These two books are the first and last in the Lilith's Brood or Xenogenesis trilogy; I had read the second book, Adulthood Rites, several years ago. I've also read, and really enjoyed, Butler's Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents . Butler had talked about writing a third Parable book, but despite her expectation (quoted in her author biography) "someday to be an eighty-year-old writer," she passed away in 2006.

I actually met her once, when she came to speak at St. Joe's. In fact, I accidentally hit her with my book bag...


So?
At the beginning of Dawn, Lilith Iyapo wakes up after centuries of suspended animation. Nearly all of humanity has long since died in a global war; the few survivors were rescued and preserved by an alien race called the Oankali.

The Oankali are explorers by nature, driven to find new worlds and learn and absorb everything about them. When there is intelligent life, they interbreed with the natives; when there is not, they leave behind genetic material in hopes that one day, their descendants will find intelligent life there.

Lilith wants nothing more than to escape the Oankali and return to Earth. Her guide, Nikanj, is an ooloi, a member of the Oankali's third sex and as such a master manipulator of genetic material. Nikanj undergoes its final metamorphosis to adulthood while in Lilith's company, so the two are drawn together; its care enables Lilith to be a guide to other humans she chose to begin repopulating Earth.

The middle book, Adulthood Rites, focuses on one of Lilith's sons, created by Nikanj from the genetic material of two human and two Oankali parents. It describes the society of the repopulated Earth, where humans either live in harmony with the Oankali and parent constructs, or hybrid children; or else live as sterile, long-lived resisters, fearing what they perceive as invaders.

The trilogy, having thus far featured male and female protagonists, concludes with a novel in which the protagonist is an ooloi, the first human-Oankali construct ooloi ever born. Jodahs, another of Lilith's children, was seemingly created through and accident on Nikanj's part, and deeply fears being sent away from Earth for isolation and training.

During its metamorphosis to adulthood, Jodahs stumbles upon a colony of miraculously fertile, but dangerously inbred, humans. It must carefully balance its Oankali fears concerning how dangerous humans can be, its human desires for independence without interference, and its own deep need for human mates.


Rating
Read it if...
...you really like post-apocalyptic sci-fi or compassionate-alien-invader stories, or if you've been itching for some science fiction with a protagonist who is a female of color. Also, if you've enjoyed Butler's Parable books, you should check these out; they're not the same at all, but they're good.


The rest of the Internet
A biologist remarks on the aliens of the series and how they reflect modern humanity.
Zubon at Zubon Book Reviews appreciates how alien the Oankali are and how they interact with the humans.
Butler's biography on Wikipedia.
Read an excerpt from Dawn.
Jonathan Scott at ChickenBones: A Journal presents a tribute to Butler.
Shara Saunsaucie at Calico Reaction reviews the trilogy.
A tribute to Butler and her works by Tyler Cowen at Slate.
Butler's New York Times obituary.
Dawn, Imago, and the full trilogy at LibraryThing.


Awesome link of the week
I don't recall how I first came across Apropos of Something, but I know it involved Lost-vivor.

Lost-vivor is a Survivor game where, after every episode, blogger Jess tallies all the awesome and awful things. Take "The Shape of Things to Come." Sawyer has a good week ("Bestowed nickname on Hurley ("Chicken Little"): +1. Launched a successful attack on Siberia: +1"). Hurley, not so much ("Get the baby away from the window, Hurley: -1. Hurley! Seriously, get the baby away from the window: -1. Dammit, Hurley, stop waving the baby around in front of the window: -1"). And hey, Vincent's doing well ("Found Doc Ray’s corpse (of course, Bernard tried to take all the credit): +3").