Poetry

Her Dreaming Feet

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by Simone Muench

Stretched in quotation marks, Times Square flares aortic in the bee-
bronzed dark. Broadcast of vendors & shoulders bustling with cannon
percussion in the retinal ring out of peignoir signage. A harmony
of women swim in the aquarium-fluorescence, unlined linen

dresses translucent beneath the yellow & claret lights. Compass
of this square fizzied orange soda sadness. Like gold teeth submerged
in a glass of green tea, a scrim between the lenticular & surreal–noble gas
marquees shift in the drizzle from flamingo to bordeaux, converge

with human activity, an arcade for the conspicuously need-to-be-kissed.
But digital billboards of nightgowns won’t hold us up when tenderness
turns to concept & is backswept from view. No more aerialist
tricks to resist, so the conductor retires to the wilderness

while the city smoke-stiched with bluing alleys writes its own discography
as its lights buzz out a new alphabet, divine a new topography.

Food, History, Security

Secrets of Sriracha

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The NYT gives an in-depth look into the Hot Stuff in a Squeeze Bottle

“I knew, after the Vietnamese resettled here, that they would want their hot sauce for their pho,” a beef broth and noodle soup that is a de facto national dish of Vietnam. “But I wanted something that I could sell to more than just the Vietnamese,” he continued.

“After I came to America, after I came to Los Angeles, I remember seeing Heinz 57 ketchup and thinking: ‘The 1984 Olympics are coming. How about I come up with a Tran 84, something I can sell to everyone?’ ”

What Mr. Tran developed in Los Angeles in the early 1980s was his own take on a traditional Asian chili sauce. In Sriracha, a town in Chonburi Province, Thailand, where homemade chili pastes are favored, natives do not recognize Mr. Tran’s purée as their own.

It’s described as a melting-pot of ingredients for America’s diverse tastes. One thing is for certain, Americans love sauce. The most interesting part of the story is how the family migrated from Vietnam.

To limit potential losses, Mr. Tran split the family into four groups: One group went to Indonesia, another to Hong Kong. A third went to Malaysia, and a fourth to the Philippines.

David Tran traveled on a freighter, the Huy Fong. Everyone ended up in United Nations refugee camps, before the family finally began to regroup.

“I was in Boston,” Mr. Tran recalled. “My brother-in-law was in Los Angeles. When we talked on the phone, I asked him, ‘Do they have red peppers in Los Angeles?’ He said yes. And we left.”

That was the start to a US operation that now generates 10 million bottles a year (2 million go into the non-Asian market) and is found across the country in chain restaurants. The plan today to limit potential losses is a completely different story.

Sailing

Charleston Tall Ships

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The wind died on the tall ships trying to sail into the Charleston Harbor Fest, leaving them adrift at sea with inexperienced crew:

Weather is not the only factor contributing to the Urania’s challenge. The 78-foot, double-masted ship is owned and used as a training vessel by the Dutch navy. At each port stop throughout the six legs of the race, the ship swaps crew members. Between five and 10 new midshipmen who are training to be Dutch naval officers join Van Schoonhoven and four other permanent members. Some of the men are already naval officers, but the majority have no sailing experience, Van Schoonhoven said. He became captain of the Urania last year but has been in the Dutch navy for 24 years.

The new crew may get four or five days of “dry training” on land but, for the most part they are cast out to sea when it comes time to get sailing experience, he said. The rookie midshipmen are exposed to every aspect of life at sea.

Exposed to swimming around the boat? What? No oars? No sponges and mops? Captain, crack that whip.

Security

Bozeman Privacy

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Note the survey results at the top of the story about Bozeman City job requirements. I’m surprised that 1% actually voted in favor of the policy. 98% have voted against:

Applying for a job with the City of Bozeman? You may be asked to provide more personal information than you expected.

That was the case for one person who applied for employment with the City. The anonymous viewer emailed the news station recently to express concern with a component of the city’s background check policy, which states that to be considered for a job applicants must provide log-in information and passwords for social network sites in which they participate.

European regulators regularly point to the US as a primitive and lax country in terms of the right to privacy. Stories like this just drive the nail in. The employer actually asked for the applicant to surrender their password? That is more than a violation of privacy, it actually begs the question of integrity and authenticity. How many people were allowed access to the passwords? Beyond that, one has to wonder how passwords were stored securely and when they allowed users to change the password. The value of this test is questionable as well since it is based on a record that the user can actively manipulate before and after, unlike a driving record. Clearly Bozeman is in serious need of some security consulting.