All posts by Davi Ottenheimer

Poetry, Security

DR Prose: The San Bruno Blast

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Let’s call it a N.E.W. day
by Doc Gurley

Imagine the entire chain of human activity. The firefighters who drove straight toward the blaze, even as the tower rose higher and higher to engulf the very sky, knowing this was something no one with a hose and a truck could stop or even contain. The sweat and the sizzle as you run from one paint-bubbling house to the next, imagining the screams of children as you knock and yell and draw an X on one house, only to sprint, heart pounding, to the next. Flames flicker and lick and you think, “God, let the other rigs come.” And then they do – rigs from other counties, people who were supposed to be sitting down to supper, firefighters who’ve never even driven these streets. Sixty-seven trucks came. Just think about that for a moment. No ego, no jurisdictional posturing, no hemming and hawing about budgets or how the assignment ought go to someone else, someone closer. All those teams, all those men and women, strapping on heavy gloves and helmets and feeling the claustrophobia and vertigo of wind whipping past as you accelerate onto a freeway in an open firetruck, the straining rumble of the screaming RPMs making your stomach shake. Then you hit the ground and ask, “what can I do?” and you join in, the sprint, the yell, the heavy lifting and the search, the endless search even now, the day after, through embers, dreading what you might find, what will give you nightmares for decades to come. And when you get home, and wipe the ash from your neck, you cough up soot and look at it, hoping your lungs are tougher than average because you’ve been in this, you’ll stay in this, for the long haul.

Security

Belgian Guards Force Female Lawyers to Remove Bras

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The Telegraph reports the Hasselt jail is using the security scan as an excuse to get women to remove their bras

Joseph Rowies, a representative of criminal barristers in the Flemish city, stressed that while women lawyers have no problem with the security checks they had spotted that the prettier the visitor, the more sensitive the scanner became.

Rowies points out that even with a high volume of complaints the jail management uses security as a defensive method to stall any investigation.

Mr Rowies has told the prison authorities that he is receiving at least one complaint a month from furious female barristers. “It always strikes me that the younger, and the more babe-like, a lawyer is, the more difficult the device becomes,” he said.

“I’ve suggested that the prison guards to wear name tags so we can verify if it is always the same officers. But the management has refused for security reasons.”

Babe-like? Why not just describe and pinpoint the offending guards the same way — how they look? The situation does raise the inevitable question about trustworthiness of a security control. Perhaps Rowies could also ask that the scanners be randomly audited by a standard calibration.

Security

Welfare Fraud Dissapears 230K Japanese

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An audit of Japan’s welfare system has been initiated after an innocent gesture uncovered irregularities in payments: more than 230,000 Japanese centenarians are “missing”

The inquiry followed the discovery of the mummified remains of Sogen Kato, who was thought to be the oldest man in Tokyo.

However, when officials went to congratulate him on his 111th birthday, they found his 30-year-old remains, raising concerns that the welfare system is being exploited by dishonest relatives.

He was mummified? Could it be there is a modern form of sokushinbutsu to help one’s family, or is this more like a Weekend at Bernie’s effect related to the shame of fraud?

Privacy in Japan will surely take a hit after this kind of incident. The fund manager is likely to want to have more ability to verify a recipient and that means more visibility by the government into family affairs. Birthday visits with gifts are probably the least intrusive form of verification and that clearly is not working.

The Japanese government leaves it up to local communities and independent healthcare bodies to check up on centenarians, and methods differ from one municipality to another, said a health ministry official.

“In a small town, it’s easier to check up on the safety of centenarians by visiting them. But in a larger city, officials may just give a quick telephone call to family members who will confirm that the centenarians are alive,” the official said.

In Tokyo, ward offices said it can be difficult to check on the elderly because relatives sometimes refuse to cooperate and prevent welfare workers from entering homes, according to a survey by the Yomiuri daily.

It is easy to see how the fraud became so pervasive. Refusal to cooperate could soon mean an end to payments.

Food

Bialys and Protein Flour

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I have never been a fan of the bagel. Ever since my grandfather told me the joke about the Brooklyn bakeries of the old days…one hot summer day a man goes in to place an order. He sees a guy in the back of the bakery, shirtless and covered with sweat, slapping dough balls against his chest before he sprinkles on onion and bread crumbs and then tosses them into a 700F degree oven. The customer says to the man at the register “That’s disgusting! So that is how you make the shape of a bialy?” The man at the register says “Yeah, that’s nothing. You should see how he makes the bagels!”

Seriously though, even the best Brooklyn bagel never left me as satisfied as the Bialy. The more I have read about the history of the Bialys, and their origins in Bialystok, Poland, the more convinced they are a great start to the day. They are unlike the bagel in that they are not boiled, they have no sugar and they use high protein flour.

The amount of protein in a flour influences the gluten produced, as explained by the Oregonian. High protein means better structural support as the bread rises, which allows the bialy to be light and airy on the inside while crispy on the outside.

Bialys also differ from bagels because they tend not to come in a million flavors. However I suspect the crazy flavor phenomenon of bagels was a late byproduct of their wide popularity. Blueberry bagels? Come on, that never ever would have happened in Brooklyn. Sesame yes, chocolate chip, no.

Here is the best recipe I have found so far for the Bialy; as soon as I find a brick oven that can go to 700F I will be taking my shirt off and making these.

Amount    Measure  Ingredient -- Preparation Method
--------  -------  --------------------------------
   6      cups     high protein flour
   3      cups     very cold water
   2      tbsp     non-iodized kosher coarse or sea salt
   1/2    oz       fresh bakers yeast -- I used dry instant
   
Topping
   1      med      sweet white onion. -- 1 c when finely chop
   2      tbsp     coarse bread crumbs (from bialys)
   3      tbsp     poppy seeds & a little garlic salt
                             
Another Topping
   1      Tbsp     oil
   1 1/2  tsp      poppy seeds
   1/3    C        onion & a little garlic powder or garlic salt -- minced
   1/2    Tsp      salt -- kosher

Prepare toppings 3-5 hours before needed. Peel and chop onion very 
fine. Mix 1 tbsp crumbs into onions and set aside, loosely covered. 
Reserve extra crumbs. After about 3 hours make sure mix has 
thickened to texture of loose wet sand. Can add more crumbs - 
waiting 10 minutes between each addition.

Mash yeast into 1/2 cup cold water. When dissolved, stir into 
remaining cold water.  Add 5 c high protein flour and salt  into 
bowl. Mix and slowly add flour only if mix is too sticky, or more 
water if needed.  Gather dough and place in large, unoiled glass or 
ceramic bowl. (Do not knead yet)  Cover loosely with towel and set in 
warm, draft free corner.  Let rise for 3 to 3 1/2 hours, or until 
double, or until an indentation made with finger springs back into place.

Knead 10-20 minutes. Shape into ball and place back into bowl, 
covering loosely with towel. Let rise in warm, draft free corner for 
1 1/2 hours until depression made with finger springs back into place.

Punch down dough, divide into 4 postions, roll each between palms 
into ropes that are about 2 inches in diameter.  From each rope, 
pinch off 3-4 pieces. Roll each gently into ball between lightly 
floured hands. Cover shaped rolls to prevent them from dying out as 
you work with remainder.  When all are formed, cover with kitchen 
towel and let them rest 45 minutes.

Slide baking stone onto shelves in lower third of oven and preheat 450.

To form center indentations, work with well floured hands and left 
each round of dough slightly off work surface and slip index and 
midddle fingers of both hands underneath, with both thumbs working on 
top. Press and lightly stretch center bottom dough, forming a well, 
not a hole, and leave aboaut 1 1/2" rim of unpressed dough.

When all are formed, add onion topping. If you are going to use 
poppy seeds, brush top of bialys with tiny bit of water so seeds will 
stick. Smear about a scant teaspoonful of mix over each bialy with 
fingers, being sure to get thin coating in well and around its top 
edge, spreading the well slightly again. Then sprinkle 1/2 tsp 
poppyseeds over each bialy..

Put on stone, leaving 1 inch between. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until 
bialys are golden brown