Margie’s Candies

I do not know how panda bears have anything to do with dessert. This month’s National Geographic has some really cute pictures of panda cubs (check them out), and looking at the pictures made me crave for dessert late last night.

I went to Margie’s Candies in the end. It is supposedly Chicago’s landmark candies store, where Al Capone used to frequent (I am not sure it was a blessing to the store owner). One can spot the store from two intersections away. Big pink neon lights. The store is more than retro. It has retained its 1920’s decoration. Gold-plated walls, mirrors, dollhouses, old-style telephones and music boxes that I used to play with at my grandparents’ house… One can slide into one of those old clumsy-looking sofas, and enjoy a huge serving of sundae in a shell-shaped bowl. The servings there are more befitting to the Great Depression than the weight-conscious new millennium. The sundae was quite good, but definitely not for weight watchers.

By the way, do you know newborn pandas are only the size and weight of a stick of butter? Please explain to me why they have such trouble with reproduction?

On a separate note, I just found out I am going to teach an undergraduate Macroeconomics class in spring 2007, which I am excited about. Hopefully I will get to discuss current political issues such as taxation and social security.

Chicago

Nadine, Ansel’s sister, came to visit Chicago for five days. Before she arrived, I had a detailed plan on getting work done and hanging out. After she arrived though, the weather was so beautiful and the outdoors was so tempting that I dumped my books all together and played overtime for five days.

Showing people around gives the locals a new prospective of the city. It’s been a while since I last leisurely walked around the loop or downtown. More often than not, I either aggressively search for parking spots or hurriedly shop as if the bargains would disappear in the next instant. But really, Chicago is beautiful. The city is very clean, and with a tree-hugging mayor, we have lots of greens and floral decorations. You would not lose sense of seasons in Chi-town. The skyscrapers are built in complement of each other and a good distance away from Lake Michigan so the city retains its old-time elegance despite its prosperity.

Chicago has good food, so we pigged out. I had an excellent piece of filet mignon. The medium steak is cooked to perfection. We went to Café Iberico, a Spanish tapas place where I always bring visitors, and an authentic Korean BBQ place that my Korean friends at school told me about. We had Chicago deep-dish pizza at a fast-food-looking joint, and it is really quite good. We had authentic Mexican food where they serve horchata in huge glasses. The horchata there is spiced up like Chai but retains its rice flavor. It is excellent.

The Uneasy June

For those who pay attention to Chinese news, around June every year, you will hear overseas Chinese political activists condemning China’s Communist Party and demanding apologies for the Tiananmen Square Incident. For those who read Chinese and are interested in Chinese politics, you will have no trouble finding articles discussing big questions on Chinese democracy, some of which are quite insightful and interesting. Having read many other comments, I cannot help making some comments of my own.

Some Chinese articles parallel the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen Movement, saying both create chaos and are destructive to the society. They quoted rising crimes, paralyzed public services, and hotheaded students running around as their support. To me, social unrest is a by-product of most major political shake-ups; and that both events exhibit similar social patterns does not mean they are the same in nature. The Cultural Revolution, unfortunately, built up its momentum from the top ruling bunch manipulating the uninformed populace to serve their political hunger. The Tiananmen Movement, however, is an expression of frustration directly from the people. Students may be hotheaded and idealistic, but the working class echoed their concerns -- corruption, inflation, and lack of opportunities were indeed problems faced by 1989 China.

I am equally unconvinced by many political statements made outside China. For example, cardinal Joseph Zen from HongKong, who was newly appointed by the Vatican, made a very political statement on June 4. He commented on the social problems existing in China, which was fair, and that “if they [the government] had listened to the kind advice of the students and workers”, today’s country would be a better country. To me, the Cardinal should think twice before speaking. The movement pointed to many social problems, but did not offer any solutions. Too much credit was given to the student movement. How to fill the power vacuum from the Communism era and transit to a different social structure is a task easier said than done.

I remember those days fifteen years ago, when I was in my formative years. Some of the images I saw left such strong impressions in my head that my views on democracy today are still influenced by them. Time will tell how this movement is evaluated. Regardless of how this episode finally appears in history books, the movement has its impacts. To be fair, the government is concerned with problems that may cause social unrest, and does try to remedy them in one way or another. To me, they have learned a lesson.

An interesting and related piece of news: China banned the showings of Da Vinci Code in theaters this week, because the government is concerned about the social unrest potentially stirred up by Chinese Catholics. I found it ironic and comical – the Vatican and Chinese Communists are walking along the same line the first time ever. I am sure the movie is circulating well on the streets and the cyberspace. Oh well, Dan Brown is rich enough.

Herbal Garden

I went to a plant nursery today. My neighbors on the block are such avid gardeners that my hands are itchy too. I brought ten kinds of herb home in the end, re-plotted them, sampled them, and stared at them at the back stairways for a good while.

I had four plants at home before the new additions. The carnivorous Venus flytrap has survived the harsh winter. It is back on the windowsill now, and has already eaten a fly. The pepper tree used to be doing so well and yielding weekly red hot peppers until around Christmas when it started to wither. I do not know what’s up with it. It has lost all of its leaves but still grows a few little peppers. It was re-plotted today and hopefully will recover. The cactus plant and the African violet are as hardy as they are uninteresting – they do not create concerns or produce anything. I dried the Eucalyptus branches that I got a while ago and hung them on the walls as decorations. I love the smell of Eucalyptus. It brings out memories of the beautiful California, my favorite place in the US even though I only visited and never lived there for long.

Now the horserace is on for the herbs. All of them ask for full sun in their care descriptions, yet my apartment is not sunny enough throughout the day. We will see which is the hardiest one.