For the Birds

My friend, Steve Jaffe and his wife Janice moved to Virginia, a stone’s throw from the Chesapeake Bay. Steve built a new house, a large pole barn and a garden.  With a combination of fields and woods, Steve always has something going on with flora and fauna.

Recently, Steve sent two photographs of birds sitting on his finger. Here are the pictures and his account of how they joined him. . .

We've had several birds hit the large glass windows on our house. These two guys survived the crashes. They both hit the ground motionless, but I could see they were still breathing.

In the picture above, I walked over and softly rubbed the bird’s head and feathers while several of his clan watched from the nearby fence. After a few minutes I lifted him so he could stand, and put my finger at his feet. He hopped on with no coaxing.

So at that point I'm beating the outside wall to get Janice's attention to get the camera. I walked all the way around the house to get her; the bird stayed on the whole time and obliged three pictures. We then sat on a front porch rocker for a few minutes; He wasn't much of a conversationalist. He finally gathered his wits and flew off.
 

The second guy hit with a real bang and must have been out for 10 minutes. I picked him up and held him ‘til he could stand. He stayed on my finger for about 20 minutes. He was such a wreck I had to help preen him. I put him in a shady spot where he stayed for some time, and he finally flew off.

I'm going to adorn the windows with something that keeps the birds away.

Summer Houses

The Sunset over Cape Cod Bay, September, 2011

Although the summer has rocketed by, there are still over two more weeks until Labor Day, summer’s official end.


If you have the time, this is a marvelous time of the year to take a vacation in the country before fall and winter return. A “vacation” can be anything from a day trip to an entire week at a cottage on the water.

Just a week ago, our friends Aosta and Seth invited us to a summer house party on Otsego Lake. Although the drive was less than two hours, it was if we had entered another world.

The view to the south of Otsego Lake

The house they had rented had a lakeside deck and it was possible to look all the way up and down the Lake. Much of Otsego Lake’s shores are wooded. If you squint just right, it’s possible to imagine that James Fenimore Cooper’s Deerslayer would come out of the woods at any moment.

After considering this historical fantasy, we were back in a congenial present. There was a large dinner table, crowded with food, lots of genuinely friendly and congenial people and the Lake was a delight to swim in.

Speaking of delightful swimming: when pools and lakes are too warm by the summer heat, swimming at a bay or ocean beach can be refreshing. Saltwater swimming can be the gift that keeps giving, even into late September. The water can be warm as the leaves are changing.

While out in the country, keep an eye out for fresh produce. In some communities, the farm stand is as busy as a supermarket. But there are also places where a farmer or gardener puts out a few ears of corn or tomatoes on a table by their driveway.

With the nationwide drought, the number and variety of vegetables may be less than last year. So, that makes any produce you do find all that more appreciated.

In July, lightning bugs ruled the night sky. They are now gone from our backyard. However, the night is still alive with a chorus of unseen insects that hum, buzz, whir and make other noises that might arise from a piece of music composed by Philip Glass.

I hope you have a great time between now and Labor Day. If you have any stories from present or past summer vacations, feel free to share them as comments at the end of this blog post!

Hassle-free Travel between JFK to Manhattan



A taxi to JFK is a fast, convenient and sometimes
reasonable way to get to the airport

(© Andrew K. Stauffer, akstauffer.com )


New Yorkers have the following old joke:

Lost tourist: How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

Man on street: Practice. Practice. Practice.

With practice and planning, we now have options in traveling from Midtown Manhattan to John F. Kennedy (JFK) Airport: personal car, taxi and the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)/Air Train combination.

Choosing car, cab or train depends on your schedule, number of travelers and budget. When we traveled between midtown and JFK in January, there were three of us and a large suitcase. Compared to the cost of three one-way tickets on the LIRR and Air Train, the taxi cost was reasonable, the service more convenient. Coming back, with two of us and no baggage, the Air Train was as convenient as the taxi and less costly.

Here’s how the options stack up:

Personal Car: If you already have a car in the city, this can be a reasonable option. The costs include tolls if you use the Queens-Midtown or Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and, possibly, short-term parking.

JFK has limited automobile access from the Van Wyck Expressway to the north and the Belt Parkway to the west and east. In rush hour, both roads clog up. Limited routes and rush hour traffic require planning enough time to get there.

If you go to JFK for a passenger pick-up, you can park in short-term parking or use the recently opened “cell phone parking lot,” at the Federal Circle exit, near the airport entrance.

When your traveler is ready for pick up, he or she calls from the curb and you then go get them. If you try this plan, take time before arriving at the airport to learn where the flight is arriving, there are many terminals, and where arriving flight pick-ups are.

With two people available, one person can wait at the terminal for a welcome and helping out. The other drives back to the cell phone parking lot and waits for the call.

Taxi: The fares are $45 now, plus tolls and tip, if any (no surcharges apply, and there is no luggage charge in NYC) for any trips to OR from JFK and anywhere in Manhattan, or $52 starting September 4, 2012.

When we took the cab in January, it was clean; the driver was alert, careful fast. The big suitcase fit nicely in the trunk. The cab dropped us right at “departing flights” at our terminal.

If you leave from a hotel, hotel staff may push you to use a car service instead of a taxi. Car services are not constrained by a flat fare and you could pay significantly more.



Here is the Long Island Railroad station at Jamaica, where rail travelers can transfer to and from the Air Train
(Photograph courtesy of MTA Long Island Railroad)

 Air Train: This is a combination of LIRR and Port Authority rail service between Penn Station, at 33rd Street and 7th Avenue, and JFK. There is also a less expensive subway/Air Train connection, but it takes longer and may be more complicated for people new to the subway.

The Air Train is a set of computer-guided rail coaches that go between airport terminals, rental car offices and parking lots - - and the LIRR’s Jamaica station in Queens.

On the trip where we took the taxi out to Kennedy, we returned via Air Train. The walk from the Jet Blue terminal to the Air Train station took five to 10 minutes. It was speeded along with moving sidewalks and was in a covered, climate-controlled walkway.

The Air Train and LIRR trains run relatively frequently. Both services are clean, well-lighted and felt safe at 9 PM on a Sunday evening.

You pay the $5.00 Air Train fare when leaving the train at Jamaica or the stations in JFK. Staff will help with ticket machines; it is possible to buy an Air Train/LIRR pass, which saves a few dollars.

Once you pay the fare, you walk one or two minutes and are in Jamaica station. The LIRR takes about 15 minutes to get to Penn Station from there.

LIRR/Air Train pricing may be confusing. The price depends on whether you travel on a week day or the week-end - - or peak/off-peak. A one way Air Train/LIRR ticket ranges from $8.75 to over $13.00. The Port Authority website explains fares. The Long Island Railroad website also includes pricing information.

A Nice Change For Breakfast!



Paley Park, next to a Le Pain Quotidien
restaurant in midtown Manhattan



Le Pain Quotidien has both a communal and
individual tables (photo courtesy of Le Pain Quotidien)


  












Le Pain Quotidien is a bakery/restaurant that provides a tasty alternative to standard travel breakfasts.

What I find most frustrating about breakfast on the road is the relatively stark choice of healthy food with sparse taste or tasty food with lots of fat and salt. And the presence, early in the morning, of loud television at some places does no help, either.  Why does almost every hotel chain in America assume every breakfast diner is deaf and that the television volume should be set accordingly?

Le Pain Quotidien, a restaurant chain founded in Belgium, offers a mostly organic breakfast that is as plain or as rich as you would like. The chain has restaurants in New York, California, four other states and the District of Columbia and in overseas locations as diverse as Brussels and Qatar.

The Le Pain Quotidien breakfast menu is fairly consistent at each location. I particularly like their breakfast special which includes a croissant and a slice each of baguette, whole wheat and five-grain breads. The restaurant’s breads have the paradoxical properties of being both light and substantial at the same time. The bread has a slight, but not overpowering, taste of sourdough.

You can also get individual pastries, soft-boiled eggs, steel-cut oatmeal and fresh fruits. The orange juice is very nice. The coffee is all right, better than that at the Holiday Inn but without the pizzazz of coffee at the Marriott.

Later in the day, you could return for quiche, tartines (breads with assorted meat, vegetable and cheese toppings) and salads.

We have eaten at Le Pain Quotidiens in Pasadena, California and in midtown Manhattan.

At both, the dining room was quiet and peaceful, allowing a wake-up without crowds or loud television. The service is unhurried but if you have to catch a plane, the staff will speed your order.

Each restaurant has common layouts and features. These include a choice between sitting at a communal table or individual table. Diners can also buy cookies, pastries or jams and spreads to go.

However, the restaurants also draw on their communities. In Pasadena, for example, we had breakfast outside. The Pasadena location also had an egg white omelet, which is very good. In New York City, we were delighted to discover that one of the midtown locations is just to the right of that wonderful mini-park, Paley Park.



Mega Bus

Despite the buzz it has created, Megabus gets a low grade for one of my least pleasant trips of the year.


The worldwide bus company offers eye-poppingly low fares. One way fares between Albany, New York and New York City ranged from $13 and $19, when I traveled last week. That is not the $1.50 suggested in the company’s advertising but is excellent value for traveling over 150 miles one way.

It appears these are online only fares. Yet, ordering online with Megabus is easy. Further, when I could not find my reservation in my e-mail, the woman at the company’s call center found it for me. She was friendly, efficient and was working in the United States. The other Megabus staff, drivers and staff at the stops are also generally friendly and efficient.

Low fares make Megabus popular and crowded. On my trip, the bus was either full or nearly full. At the Megabus stop in the City, on 10th Avenue between 40th and 41st Street, there were long, but orderly and good-natured lines of people heading for New England and for Pennsylvania.

The Megabus Albany to New York City run is not between traditional bus terminals. In Albany, the bus stop is at two small shelters at the north end of an open parking lot by the Albany-Rensselaer train station and the stop on 10th Avenue is on the street. If it was raining or snowing the City stop would not be comfortable.

The reason I give the service a low grade is that the company appears to have overbooked my trip. When my bus from New York City stopped in Ridgewood, New Jersey, there were three passengers trying to board and only two seats vacant. The driver directed a college-aged young woman to leave the bus because of no seats. She appeared to have a reservation from an online purchase and it was not certain what the company was going to do to make things right for her trip.

This situation was not just a problem for the passenger who could not travel. The bus driver was enforcing safety rules by not allowing the young woman to ride but the circumstances made him look like an ogre. While he and the passenger debated, the bus was not moving, passengers were squirming in the uncomfortable seats and the bus was delayed.

Several friends find Megabus fares, its routes and travel times irresistible and it certainly had a schedule that worked for me. But if you travel by Megabus, please . . . show up early, so you get the seat you paid for!

Crying Children and Southwest: A Revelation

A crying kid is not the first person one would think would offer a life lesson. However, on a flight home from California, I learned a lot from a little kid with big lungs.


Our Southwest flight was full. We had few seating choices as we boarded later in the check in. The only row with two seats together was in front of a family, with a crying child.

For two hours or so, adult beverages and an excellent mystery helped tune out the crying and wailing.

After awhile, the crying became hard to tune out. The noise was making me cranky.

However, when I walked back from the bathroom, I took a second to look at the family. The view from the behind was different than the sound from the front. The older sister was playing with her younger sister, trying to distract her with dolls. Unlike many families, where the kids are at each other’s throats much of the time, this girl was pitching in and trying to lead.

Then, later on in the flight, the little girl was calming down and peering over the seat. We started talking to the family. They were not bad parents. They were nice people. They were on their way home from a big family gathering in California, just as we were on the way home from our daughter’s graduation.

Sitting next to a crying child was annoying but the family worked together to calm the girl down. This was a refreshing change from the many times that families let young children just act out in public, standing there all the while with that look on the face that says, “Whose child is that?”

At some point in the conversation, the father said to us, “I don’t know why this is happening.” “We have,” he concluded with a puzzled glance, “flown before and never had this problem.”

I realized the phrase “I don’t know why this is happening” is universal to being a parent. Most parents try to do right by their children. Yet, regardless of how much hope and effort they bring, there are always surprises - - good and bad - - as parents, children and families move through life.

So here's to parents everywhere and, while we are at it, Happy Father’s Day!

Warmwater Fishing Heats Up!

Even though air temperatures are yo-yoing across much of the Northeast, water temperatures are is warming up enough for bass, pickerel and panfish to start moving.


This morning, we rowed across a lake in upstate New York’s Helderbergs. Our host, Willard, said the fish were hitting, “shallow, a few inches below the surface.”

For the first hour, it seemed as if the fish Willard had found were gone. Further, no fish were hitting a fresh night crawler, fished deep.

Then, things woke up. The first fish was a pickerel, just about the legal minimum length, in New York - - which is 15 inches. Pickerel are nick-named “snakes” for their long, submarine like bodies. The best part of catching this pickerel was that I was able to release it without hurting the fish or getting a handful of its needle-like teeth.

Next, we caught - - and immediately released - - several large- and smallmouth bass. Some of the fish were small, but two of them were good-sized.

The trip wound up with a few hits from rock-bass, and a sunfish following a lure.

On this trip, lures were successful but bait was not. We had luck with a Panther Martin, several different Mepps spinners and a wonderfully fishy-looking jointed Rapala.

The fish on this trip are what are called warmwater fish; they can live in waters much warmer than the cold streams and lakes required by trout and salmon.

Even though we had a great session on the water, the best is likely yet to come! We did not see any nests made by panfish, such as sunfish. The fish, while plentiful, were still hitting the lures in a sluggish manner. So, more and livelier fishing is likely to arrive soon.

Opening Day of New York Trout Season, 2012

  Returning from salmon fishing in the Yemen to upstate New York, the 2012 Opening Day for trout season was low-key, yet productive.

   In New York’s Capital Region, weather was back to seasonal temperatures, two weeks after record-breaking spring temperatures. Water levels were perfect, with no run-off. It was cool and overcast, which helped when sneaking up on the stream. The only drawback was that water temperatures were cold.

  On a trip to several streams in Rensselaer County, the county between the Hudson River and Massachusetts, Pete Howard and I saw many cars parked by streams. Yet there were many places to fish with no other anglers.

  At our first stop, a small stream off a county highway, we each caught and released brook trout that were eight or nine inches long and had many nibbles.

  At our second stop, the water looked incredibly fishy - - but no fish were biting. I learned the next day that people on the same stream had experienced slow fishing, punctuated by catching a 23 inch long brown trout, a good fish for any stream, let alone this smaller stream.

  Many anglers do not like to fish in the early season, disliking the erratic weather or the cold water. However, one of the most valuable parts of fishing Opening Day was the chance to sweep out the winter cobwebs.

  Pete and I got our tackle in order, learned what was running low and now have everything in the correct vest pocket or tackle box compartment. We had extended casting practice in flowing water, rather than in the backyard. And we caught some fish!

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen: The Movie

In this scene from Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Fred Jones,

played by Ewan McGregor, presents to

Harriet Chetowode-Talbot a salmon fly named after her. 

          

           The movie Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is as witty, whimsical and thoughtful as the novel by Paul Torday.

            Director Lasse Hallstrom’s and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy’s vision of the story in Torday’s first novel sometimes goes in different directions than the book does.  However, Hallstrom’s light but sure directorial touch and Beaufoy’s screenplay capture the essential truth of the novel and, in some cases, make the story and characters more real than they are in the book!

            Emily Blunt plays Harriet Chetwode-Talbot, who represents a mysterious sheik who wishes to bring salmon fishing to the Yemen.  Blunt captures Harriet’s romantic side and the gamut of her feelings as she falls in love with a British Army captain and then waits after he is called up for dangerous duty - - and she is smart and determined in undertaking the sheik’s project.

            And Chetwode-Talbot needs smart and determined when she approaches the British government for assistance.  Senior civil servants think the idea of salmon in the Yemen is batty and fob her off on Doctor Alfred “Fred” Jones, a fisheries functionary specializing in the life of the caddis fly, played by Ewan McGregor.

            After several rude, condescending conversations with Chetwode-Talbot, Jones is suddenly is attracted to the idea and falls for it, hook, line and sinker.  McGregor convincingly shows Jones’ progression from skeptic to believer in the sheik’s plan; this progression is key to the movie exploring issues of faith and belief. 

In short order, Chetwode-Talbot and Jones are flying north to Scotland, to meet the sheik, played by Amr Waked.  Each person comes to Scotland as an individual, with their own hopes and fears.  But over several days, they become a team, each learns to pool their strengths and help the others overcome weakness.

            Hovering over the project, like puppet master wannabes, are Patricia Maxwell, , the Prime Minister’s Press Secretary, played by Kristin Scott Thomas, and Bernard Sugden, Jones’ boss, played by Conleth Hill.

            In the book, the Press Secretary is a man and casting Thomas did not initially seem like a good idea.  However, Thomas quickly won me over, playing the role with verve and satirical wit.

            While Hill’s role is minor, he makes every second count.  He has a pasty demeanor; his performance evokes the best of Ricky Gervais in The Office and the pointy-haired boss in the Dilbert comics - - and adds his own comic flourishes.

            The actors move quickly beyond individual great performances and come together in a seamless, appealing repertory.

            Salmon Fishing in the Yemen was filmed in London, Scotland and Morocco stood in for Yemen.  The clear photography makes it easy to feel the damp coolness of Scotland or the blast-furnace heat of the Middle East. 

            Catching salmon is unpredictable; they are nicknamed “the fish of a thousand casts.”  Yet the production crew gets salmon to miraculously appear on cue in the nick of time.

Simon Beaufoy chooses the book’s most pertinent scenes and adds his details that build on the book.  In the book, a girl brings water to Chetwode-Talbot and Jones in the heat of the day.  The scene illustrates hospitality - - and provides a clue leading to the success of the project.  Beaufoy sticks to the structure of Torday’s scene and makes the points concisely and vividly. 

Then, he, McGregor, Blunt and the other actors come up with wonderful acting details.  I particularly liked a scene where McGregor is looking for the right picture to illustrate a caddis fly monograph.  He shuffles absent-mindedly through pictures of caddis flies from a high-powered microscope, hoping to find something that will appeal to “modern readers.”

            With its wit, great acting, striking settings, wit and the exploration of believing, this is a great, must see movie for celebrating spring and optimism.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen: The Book

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, by Paul Torday, Harcourt, 336 pages, $14.


This book review is the first of two posts about Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. The second will discuss the movie that the book inspired.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a wonderful book about the beauty of salmon fishing and the beauty of finding hope in an often hopeless world.

This is the first novel by Torday, an Oxford graduate and British businessman, described on the book jacket as “a keen salmon fisherman.”

In this book, Harriet Chetwode-Talbot, a partner in the real estate firm Fitzharris and Price, asks Doctor Alfred “Fred” Jones, a fisheries biologist at a government agency in London, to help with an astonishing project. Harriet has a client who wishes to fund introducing salmon and salmon fishing to Yemen.

Jones is a bland, George Smiley-esque civil servant, with a self-described “dislike of the irrational, the unpredictable and the unknown.” His wife is an ambitious financier but his main passions in life are fishing and researching topics such as “The effects of increased water salinity on the caddis fly larva.”

Fred thinks the plan is stupid and avoids Harriet. However, the Prime Minister learns about the proposal and takes up the cause. In a bureaucratic drama, David Sugden, Fred’s boss, summons Fred and tells him he can leave the office with either a lay-off notice or a signed letter eagerly offering to meet Harriet.

The ultimatum peeves Fred. Yet, as his wife is about to jet off to bank meetngs in Switzerland, something stirs in Fred. Suddenly, he is enthusiastic about the project. Then Harriet introduces reveals her client, Sheikh Muhammad ibn Zaidi bani Tihama.

The Sheikh wishes to bring salmon fishing to Yemen to reconcile warring factions. But Fred soon realizes the project has bigger aims. The Sheikh sees the project as a form of faith. “Without faith,” he says, “there is no hope and no love. Faith comes before hope, and before love.”

In the West, many are ignorant of Middle Eastern people and societies. Torday opens a window on life and religion in that region. He shows how people of good will in the West and Middle East can work together and respect each other.

This book rests on a wacky idea. Yet with vivid description and a gift for character development, Torday makes wackiness routinely believable. Each person in Salmon Fishing is imperfect but Torday gives most of the characters delightful imperfections, not psychoses. There are beautiful descriptions of Scotland and Yemen, quirky humor, with a kilt, romance, intrigue, political shenanigans and the project itself.

In this highly recommended read, Torday takes readers through many surprises as the story moves swiftly to book’s end. The pace and suspense are much like the experience of a big salmon burning line off the reel on its first run after being hooked.

Finding Salmon Fishing in Yemen is an experience that may be as challenging as salmon fishing itself.  Perhaps with the upcoming movie launch, copies will be more accessble soon.

One of my favorite Capital Region bookstores, the Open Door, is planning to order a few copies for the shelf.  My favorite California bookstore, Vroman's in Pasadena, says it can order the book.  If you bought the book at Vroman's on a Sunday, you then could go over to the Pasadena Casting Club and try some casting!