From Alex Kjerulf:

I’m in Victoria, BC. Tonight we had dinner at my favourite Thai restaurant in the world, Baan Thai.   There are two reason why I love it.   First the food is fantastic…homestyle Thai food that is slightly to the high end of medium priced, but is worth every penny.   And second, if you stay there until closing you will witness a lovely ritual.   At closing, the staff pull all of the tables in the middle of the restaurant together and they lock the door and they all sit down together to eat their supper.   The chefs lay out a meal of fresh food, not leftovers, all prepared just for the staff.   To witness it is to see a business that runs like a family and you quickly realize why the staff are so cheerful and full of recommendations about the food.

On that merit alone, I would support a business like that.   So kudos to the owners of Bann Thai…we see what you are doing there, and it adds something beautiful to the world.

Douglas Rushkoff on President Obama:

When there’s a big blackout in New York, especially during the summer, some people take it as a “cue” to start looting. It’s not that the blackout itself makes it significantly to break down store fronts; it’s not that the police are so very busy with the blackout. The lights going out is a cue to behave differently – to release the hidden potential for vandalism and long-repressed rage.

Likewise, the election of a black man to the presidency is a cue that something has changed. As my friend, Ari Wallach explained to me on my new radio show last night, it’s a kind of “shock and awe.” There’s a thoughtful, progressive and black president-elect on the cover of the New York Post. The cognitive dissonance this generates is an opportunity to reprogram. It’s what advertisers and social programmers try to do in pretty much every communication they make. It’s as big a disconnect and reconnect as 9-11 was, only constructive instead of destructive. A narrative is broken; another is born.

I had that same thought…on the morning of September 11, 2001 I realized that one event could change things for the worse and I felt concerned for the fragility of the narrative of who we are.   Likewise with Obama’s election I still feel the fragility in the narrative, but I’m encouraged that single events can have positive impacts too.

One last point about Obama for now…I was talking with my friend Dyane, a social entreprenuer and rapper from South Central LA about George Bush’s legacy.   He asked the question, what will Bush be known for>   In no time at all we had the answer: he was the last white President of the United States.

Delayed at the Vancouver Harbour by a beautiful fog bank this morning.   Turning to my feed readers, here’s what friends have been noticing this week.

• The Mars Lander Phoenix bids farewell via Metafilter
• The New York Times I want to read.
• Rob Paterson on why the current market crises may not be a blip
• Dustin Rivers, who always writes illuminating posts on the deep history of my region, is appearing on a panel about First Nations – South Asian relations in the Vancouver area.
• Jeremy Hiebert muses about Manufactuared Landscapes.
• Jon Husband, from one of his periodic trips to Europe, muses on top-down organizing systems in France.

To Be of Use

By Marge Piercy

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.