Tourism

 Interesting set of days... last night a friend turned 30 so I attended his birthday.  I reminded him not to make the same mistake I did for my 30th (get engaged), and he assured me he would not.  Fine.  It was fun, though I -- being stupid -- graciously volunteered to drive a drunken person home (we were on the West Side; he lived north of 71 on W. 130th).  This was fine...til this morning, I discovered he had left his cell phone in my car.  Grr.  So, on my lunch break, I hauled ass back there to deliver it... did he thank me?  Yes... but it's not like he offered to pay for gas, lunch, etc.,  Now, not that I would have accepted, but... of course, said person is a Hope and Changer (he disparaged both Trump and Top Gov!), so his sense of entitlement was... high.  I am sure his student loans are being cancelled, too, not that I had to pay ALL of mine off. 

More seriously, I do wonder how that will play out in the election.  Will Millennial voters turn out in droves?  Or will those of us who had to pay full freight become incensed and march to the polls instead?  I guess it will come down as to who can get the best ads out.  If this were the Vance campaign, they wouldn't make any...  given that the red wave is supposedly fading, I suspect it will help Team Blue more.  Alas.

https://a16z.com/2022/08/15/investing-in-flow/

This could be me, but giving a guy who blew through billions of dollars (of other people's money, of course) a chance to do it again seems... well, to use a favorite phrase, this will end poorly.

So...since I was in the neighborhood, delivering phones, I decided to go and cross another restaurant off my list....and off I went to Cafe Everest (off Puritas), serving Nepalese and Indian food.  It was...good?  I ordered chicken choila -- chicken grilled with onions and spices, fried soybeans, a vegetable salad, and some (late-arriving) rice.  It was good; the chicken had a bit of a late kick (the server was warned about my needing a second bottle of water) but good flavor.  The rice was outstanding -- best saffron rice I have had!  The other sides were...fine; good but nothing special.  I ordered dessert -- no kheer (the horror) but was offered Ras Malai (even if no one could explain to me what it was -- I had to wikipedia it).  That was quite good; I could taste sweet and cardamon, and the milk base did solve the burning esophagus issue.  Also started with lentil soup -- delicious.  Service was a little off... odd as it was not crowded, but they had 5 DoorDash orders, so my mother's eternal question -- Who Eats That &%$# -- would have had a ready answer.