Lunch With George!

May 9, 2002 - World Noodles

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Agenda

• World Noodles
• Sailing Update
• Climbing Update
• Temple Grandin
• Mini Update
• Control Those Experiment Variables!

World Noodles

Since George is working at the new Amex offices, we decided to try some of the restaurants at the

They offer noodles from around the world, with their menu segregated into at least three major sections which I can remember: Asian noodles, American noodles, and Italian Noodles. Portions are plenty large, and the food we tried was VERY tasty. Everything is fresh and presented well. I know we'll be back, since I still have to try two more continents!

It's a clever idea made real by some local chefs (at least I think that's what George said). They have one other location in Scottsdale, at the corner of Thomas and Scottsdale roads.

We walked around after lunch to see other restaurants, and to find the climbing wall which George had read about. We found the climbing wall, but it was closed (just as well!). We also picked up menus from an Italian place (Salute), and from Grilled Expedition, a unique restaurant where all the menu items are cooked over a wood-fired grill. Every establishment was being extra friendly (I think it was my American Express shirt), and at least one place is offering a discount to AmEx employees.

Sailing Update

Climbing Update

Emily on a 5.7

George and I started out (as all newbies do) on the "Beginner's Death Slab". The beginner's wall is just as tall as the rest (30 feet), but is slightly inclined and has really generous hand-holds ("bombers", as George calls them).

As you move around the room counter-clockwise, the wall becomes more vertical, the hand-holds become smaller and more sparsely arranged. About halfway down the first wall, brightly-colored pieces of tape begin to appear on the wall, placed at specific holds. These are routes that are designed by PRG staff. The intention is that a climber attempts to reach the top using only the holds marked with a particular color tape. Climbers always name their routes (on real rock, too), and the PRG is no exception. George climbed the "Evil Clown", and I think he tried "That's Entertainment". I saw a 5.8 called "Mis-fired Synapse".

I suppose I should explain the rating system (I learned about this while reading David Breashear's book High Exposure). all free climbs are rated 5.n, where 5 indicates it is a free climb (just you and the wall or mountain), and n is the level of difficulty. In the 1970's when Breashears was climbing in the mountains near Boulder, Colorado, all climbs were rated between 5.2 and 5.11, with 5.11 being the most difficult. Since then, climbers have found ways to ascend on routes once thought impossible, so the upper end of rating system has been expanded upward to 5.14.

At Phoenix Rock Gym, the easiest routes begin at 5.4. I've climbed one of these routes without cheating (using a hand-hold which is not designated as part of my intended route) only once. Emily seems to be more of a natural at climbing-- she scrambled up a couple of 5.6 routes on her second visit! I can take comfort on knowing that it will be a long time before I get bored from exhausting the available routes at PRG. I bought a monthly pass for $40, which means I'll need to go at least once a week to break even (a day pass is $10). That should be no problem, since I'll most likely be there once a week with George, and another dat each week with Emily and Hannah. The rental gear (climbing shoes, a harness, and a caribiner for belaying) is $5 each visit. I stopped by REI, but even their cheapest climbing shoes are $100. I'm going to keep renting for a while, because PRG lets me rent a size 14 for my left foot and a size 13 for my right! Buying shoes that way will cost me over $200.

PRG hosts birthday parties for kids, and also does a lot of corporate team-builders during the daytime hours (the gym's regular hours on weekdays are 3:00 to 10:00 pm).

Stairway to Bovine Heaven?

I first read about Temple Grandin in a book by Dr. Oliver Sacks entitled An Anthropologist on Mars. Temple's autism caused her to be hyper-sensitive to the bombardment of stimuli presented by the world. She couldn't bear to be touched, and would fight like a wild animal when someone would try to hug her and hold her. She now reflects that the "wild animal" analogy is quite acurate-- she feels that her response to the world is very much like that of an animal in the wild. Gaining an understanding of herself and identifying strategies for coping, she has put herself through graduate school and has become an expert in the animal psyche.

Working with McDonald's, she has developed a quantifiable measurement and checklist which can be used to rate slaughterhouses in their treatment of cattle. The number one item on the checklist? How much are the cows mooing! She discovered after years of study the types of vocalizations cows produce when they are stressed. A quiet cow is a calm cow, so she uses this as a prime measurement of how the cattle are responding to their environment.

Temple has helped more than one slaughterhouse redesign their facilities to help calm the cows and make their inevitable deaths much more humane. The ramps which take the cows, one at a time, up to the place where they are killed are now curved. She says the cows think they're turning back toward home. At the top of the ramp, the cows are gently picked up by a harness, so their weight is fully supported. A man is waiting there with a special tool which thrusts a rod into the cow's brain at the touch of a trigger. The cow goes limp, and the harness carries the carcass away. Temple Grandin has named her system "the Stairway to Heaven".

You can read the radio essay in its entirety at American Radio Works web site.

Mini Update

George and Toni finally got a chance to go to the BMW/Mini dealer and test drive a Mini Cooper. George was actually disappointed-- it didnn't have much pep, and the stick shift did not have a good feel (I think he's been spoiled by the RX-7 and the S2000). There was plenty of headroom and legroom, though.

The one mitigating factor is that the model they were allowed to drive was not a Cooper S, which is the special upgraded model. Hopefully, it will have ample power, a premium shifter, and good handling.

 

Hypertensive? Hug your Bunny!