I read the Dictionary of American Literature to prepare for Jeopardy! We got the book from someone we knew from the puzzle parties. He used to prepare the Sunday crossword for the L.A. Times and last year he was giving away many of his reference books. With the Internet he no longer needed many of them. He passed away last year.

This version of the Dictionary of American Literature was first published in 1959 and had an original price of $1.50. It's about 253 pages long and is organized by the writers' last names. In addition to entries for writers it also has entries for literature magazines such as Harper's or Smart Set and it has surveys each several pages long on Criticism, Drama, the Novel, Poetry, and the Short Story. The more famous writers usually have longer entries and more biographical information. The most famous have their photo shown in separate sections. The entries tend to focus more on the writers' works than their bios though they don't give plot summaries. There are entries for nearly every published author, poet, playwright, or critic up to that point. (There are some omissions that I'll mention later.) I had never heard of most of them.

In the Dictionary authors that are more well known under a pseudonym are listed under their pseudonym (e.g. Mark Twain). Authors that wrote under both their real name and a pseudonym have their full entry under their real name and a cross reference under their pseudonym. Some of them had rather humorous pseudonyms such as "Geoffry Crayon" for Washington Irving and "Timothy Titicomb" for Josiah Gilbert Holland.

The book is in pretty good condition for a 1959 paperback. I did have to tape the back to keep it from falling apart. It has all its pages and there's some underlining in pencil. This is probably where our fellow puzzler used the book to make up crossword clues. The book does show its age in the language it uses. Screenplays for motion pictures are called "scenarios" and screenwriters are called "scenarists."

Most of the entries are for Caucasian males, mostly deceased, though quite a few were alive at the time of the book. I was curious about whether any of the entries are still alive today and I only found one, Richard Wilbur, a poet born in 1921 making him 37-38 at the time of the book and 86-87 today. The youngest entry is probably for Truman Capote who was born in 1925 but I think he passe away in the 70's or 80's.

There are many female writers and some African American male writers such as Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison. However, African Americans James Baldwin and Zora Neal Hurston were missing and they put out works at the same time as many of the writers who had entries. I couldn't find any African American women that I knew of with entries. They didn't usually state the writer's race directly but they sometimes alluded to it. There didn't seem to be any entries for Latino or Asian American writers either.

The entries were hardly unbiased accounts and the compiler tried to make them interesting. Some writers had comical premises for stories and novels. Robert Herrick's The Common Lot concerns "an architect who builds cheap tenements that crumble on the tenants." Fitz-Jame O'Brien's short story "The Diamond Lens" is "about an inventor whose powerful microscope enabled him to see a tiny female in a drop of water, with whom he falls in love." Joseph Hergesheimer has a slightly funny entry describing how he "studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and in Italy until he had spent his inheritance." The most humorous opinion of the compiler is of Josiah Gilbert Holland: "His major distinction is achieving incredible popularity with incredibly poor work."

You might think that reading a dictionary of any kind would be rather boring and tedious and it more or less is. However, I still feel I got some things out of it. I learned of authors I had never heard of before such as Erskine Caldwell and John Gould Cozzens. It will also be worth it if it helps me on Jeopardy!

On the way home from the gospel concert at Our Lady of the Valley Church (OLV) on Saturday, April 5, we stopped by The Stand in Encino to have dinner.  We had heard about The Stand 3-4 years ago when it was featured on the cover of the Los Angeles Magazine restaurant issue.  It’s known for its hot dogs and sausages but it also serves burgers, sandwiches, salads, and breakfast on Saturday and Sunday mornings.  After moving out of the San Fernando Valley we figured we would never have a chance to try The Stand.  Luckily, this concert gave us an opportunity.  On the way to the concert we did “recon” and stopped by the restaurant to determine that it had convenient parking in the back and it was between the Balboa and White Oak exits off the 101 freeway.

After leaving the concert we parked in the back of the closest spot possible and went in.  It was a large space with a high ceiling and tables both inside and outside.  We went to the counter behind which was a large grill and many containers of condiments.  Above it was a large menu listing everything they serve.  The server who took our orders seemed very friendly.  She offered us some pickles to eat while we waited for our food.

While we waited and my wife was in the restroom the server came by and told me, “You’re a cutie but don’t tell your girlfriend I said so.”  I said, “Actually, she’s my wife.”  She answered, “I have to be careful.”

They brought us our orders.  I had the Chicago Dog:  a large steamed hot dog on a poppyseed bun with pickles, diced tomato, diced yellow onions, neon relish, sports peppers, mustard, and celery salt.  I ordered it because it had so many things on it that I could eat.  It’s very colorful and it was the hot dog featured on that cover of Los Angeles Magazine.  The hot dog itself tasted great and everything else made it even better.  It was a bit messy with so many things on it but I was careful to make sure that whatever fell off fell on the chips that came with the hot dog.  The Stand chips were also good and not too salty.  They went well with excess condiments.  My wife had the Southern Slaw Dog: a steamed hot dog on a regular bun with Stand slaw, yellow mustard, and Stand chili.  She thought it was interesting that the Southern Slaw Dog cost the same as the Slaw Dog even though the latter was the same except it didn’t come with chili.  She enjoyed her hot dog and chips.

Usually one hot dog is not enough food for a meal but in this case it was.  The name The Stand is a bit of a misnomer since it’s actually a full-on casual eatery with a large and varied menu.  But the prices are still pretty good.  Our hot dogs were $4.25 each.  I wouldn’t mind going back there and trying some of their other hot dog or sausage selections.  They’re almost reason enough to return to that part of town.

As we drove home I mentioned to my wife wouldn’t it be nice if there was a place like The Stand in Azusa.  Well, after we got home I was perusing the San Gabriel Valley Tribune online and there was an article about a new hot dog and sausage place in Azusa.  It’s called Jake’s Hot Dog and Sausage.  Now we have another place to try.

We went to Max’s of Manila for lunch to celebrate Lola’s (my wife’s grandmother’s) birthday on Saturday, April 5.  I had been there once before but my cousins insisted I write a review.  Max’s serves authentic Filipino food and is known for its fried chicken.  I remember the chicken being good from my first time there.  They actually have two locations in Socal: Glendale and West Covina.  There are also locations in Northern CA and a location in every major city in the Philippines.

We arrived before everyone else and told the hostess our party would be 17 people.  Max’s does not take reservations and has a long bench and other seating for waiting.  We arrived just before 11:30 pm and there was no one else waiting.  They had our table ready within 10 minutes and by then some of our cousins had arrived.  Max’s looks like a large one-story house from the outside and customers can choose between valet and self parking.  Both cost $2.50.  Inside they have a large space with many tables of different sizes.  For our party, they moved several tables together in a slightly elevated part of the restaurant near the west window.
 
By noon just about everyone had arrived including Lola.  We ordered meal option C for 10 people and some additional entrees to supplement.  Some of us ordered Filipino drinks such as calamansi juice, mango juice, and a red-colored drink.  They started us with corn soup with what tasted like ham in it.  Pork and pork-related dishes would be common for this meal.  They brought us their famous chicken that was crispy and delicious as expected but still enjoyed.  The Lechon Kawali (fried pork) was also crispy and very good.  Kare Kare is beef, vegetables, and bamboo shoots in orange-colored peanut sauce.  It was pretty good, though a bit bland.  One of our cousins insisted on putting fermented shrimp paste on it but I had had the shrimp paste before and found it to be a taste I hadn’t yet acquired.  Miki Bihon is two sizes of pancit noodles mixed together with vegetables and meat (it tasted like chicken).  I found it good but a bit salty.

They started bringing us the dishes ordered in addition to the preset menu and the meal became like a small Filipino food festival.  There was Sisig: ground pork sautéed with lots of ginger and onions.  I found the ginger made the flavor a bit too strong.  Crispy Pata is fried pork leg and is darker than the aforementioned Lechon.  It was good though I didn’t have a taste for the soy-vinegar sauce that came with it.  There were some dishes I didn’t try because I was so full from the others.  My wife liked the sour broth of the Shrimp Sinigang a soup with shrimp and bamboo shoots.  They also served fresh lumpia and an entrée made of pig’s blood that I didn’t catch the name of.  There were lots of leftovers or baon.

The family brought a cake and cheese rolls for dessert in addition to the leche flan provided as part of the set menu.  Lola blew out the candles on her cake with help from her great-grandchildren.  The kids were given balloons by the waiter.  Everyone had a great time, most importantly, Lola who enjoyed many of the foods.

As we left we saw that the waiting area and the rest of Max’s were now very crowded.  We ran into one of our coworkers there who was going to lunch with her mother and son.  Max’s is very popular with families and big groups.  Maybe we’ll try the one in West Covina sometime.

We attended a gospel concert at Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church (OLV) in Canoga Park on Saturday, April 5.  The concert followed the regular 5 pm mass and was sponsored by the Oriental Mindoro Association of Southern California (OMASC) with which my in-laws and some of their relatives are involved.  It was put on by three priests from St. Augustine Seminary (SAS) in Oriental Mindoro, Philippines as a fundraiser for SAS.  Father Mimo Perez did the singing and presenting and the other priests did the work behind the scenes such as operate the projector.  They held the concert in the church.

The event was kind of a homecoming for me because I used to attend the 5pm mass at OLV when I lived in Woodland Hills.  I recognized a few faces but not the celebrant, Father Lawrence.  Two of the priests from SAS (not Fr. Mimo) helped celebrate the mass.  Though most of the congregants left after the mass, the middle section of the church was still about half full for the concert.  They set up a screen with a laptop projector to the right of the altar.  They projected the lyrics to the songs along with related images.  If the song was in Tagalog, they projected the English translation.  I had thought that the concert, both the singing and the presentation, would be all in Tagalog.  If it was I could use the concert to do the “technology project” for my ESL instruction class.  I needed to put myself in a situation where all I heard was a foreign language for one hour straight.  But most of the songs and the presentation were in English so the activity didn’t count as immersion.  I’ll look into finding a foreign language film or watching a foreign language channel.

The concert began with the title song “Jesus in our Midst” (in English) with Fr. Mimo singing and playing guitar.  Recorded instrumental tracks acted as his “band.”  He sounded a bit off on the timing and the key and even admitted afterward that he “sang like a nun.”  His other songs sounded better.  He sang with a young girl from OLV a song about Mary, the mother of Christ and the girl had a great voice.  My wife enjoyed the song Fr. Mimo wrote and sang about being his father’s son.  He prefaced each song with the stories behind them.  He sang four songs in Tagalog including “Bulson”, “Buntonghininga” about sighing, and “Pariseo”.  He spoke and sang in English very well without much of an accent.  He also spoke very earnestly about his songs’ subject matter.  But he wasn’t always serious and he was sometimes self-deprecating.  He elicited audience participation by asking, “When did Jesus suffer the most?”  There were several different answers and he said they were all good.  He gave the generally accepted answer as when Jesus said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” because at the time He felt abandoned.

Fr. Mimo told a story about his interactions with the Mangyans, the indigenous mountain people of Oriental Mindoro.  He prefaced another song by talking about the painting by Filipino artist Joey Velasco of Jesus at the “last supper” with poor Filipino children rather than the disciples.  Mr. Velasco also wrote a book about the children and he asked Fr. Mimo to write a song about them.  The translation of the song title was something like, “They are the Ones with Him”.  I thought the song was pretty good even though it was in Tagalog.  I read the translations on the screen.  It had a strong message that Jesus is with the most poor and not the well-off.

Towards the end they had a video presentation of St. Augustine Seminary.  They asked for and collected donations and pledges of support.  They ended with a song about world peace where Fr. Mimo was joined by the girl who sang with him earlier and Fr. Lawrence from OLV who celebrated the mass.  In the lobby they were selling CD’s of Fr. Mimo performing his songs.  Even though it wasn’t what we expected I’m glad we went.

We went to Mr. Pollo for dinner on April 2, 2008 to officially celebrate our third anniversary.  I had read about it in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.  It served chicken that most reviewers felt was second only to Dino’s in SGV and that was a pretty good place to be.  It also described the food as purely Peruvian.

Mr. Pollo is located in a strip mall near the gym we go to most frequently.  It is small with fewer than 10 tables and very casual.  Costumers order at the counter.  They have some small take-home menus and a very large menu above the counter with some photos of the food.  Some of the things on the menu above the counter are not on the take-home menu.  There was a large rotisserie oven behind the counter with several chickens in to.  One of the employees put some wood in it to keep the fire going.  We could also see more of the kitchen behind the oven and once one of the cooks had a lot of flames in a pan he was using.  The salsa music of Celia Cruz and others played on the PA system and gave the place a festive atmosphere.  A large family sitting near us ordered a lot of food family style but they had no problem finishing it.  The clientele looked like locals and Spanish was the primary language of them and the staff.  The employee would answer the phone with, “Hola.  Mr. Pollo.”

They brought us our first entrée, the Tallarin de Pollo along with an extra plate so we could share it.  It was sautéed chicken, onions, and tomatoes mixed with spaghetti noodles.  It tasted like it had some soy sauce in it and it was very good.  Peruvian food has some Asian influence.  Our food didn’t come all at once and it was good that we planned to share it.  They brought us our Chicharron de Pollo next that came with fries and salad.  The chicarron were like chicken nuggets as my wife described them only much, much better.  Their coating was think and crispy, and not greasy.  The chicken on the inside was mostly dark meat with the flame-roasted flavor similar to the chicken in the rotisserie oven.  The fries weren’t greasy either and were similar to the ones from Royal Fish House, a place from which we sometimes order fish for work lunches.  The salad had a sweet Italian dressing.

We had thought we would order so much that we’d take some home but the food was so good that we kept eating until it was all gone.  My verdict is that Mr. Pollo’s chicken is equal to Dino’s, not second to it.  Mr. Pollo also has an advantage because it makes chicken in many different ways while Dino’s only serves it one way that’s famous.  In addition to chicken, Mr. Pollo serves some beef and seafood dishes such as Arroz Chafa, fried rice with seafood.  After we left my sweatshirt still smelled like the flame-roasted chicken.  Between Mr. Pollo and Babita the day before, it was a great 3-year anniversary.

A Red Death is Walter Mosley's second novel in his ongoing series of Easy Rawlins mysteries. I had read the first one, Devil in a Blue Dress, that was made into a movie starring Denzel Washington and a later one in the series, Little Scarlet, that was the One Book One City selection for L.A. back in 2005. A Red Death take place in early 1950's Los Angeles, mostly in the Watts area. The title alludes to both the fear of communism at the time and the graphic descriptions of the murders.

The book begins rather slowly and picks up halfway through. I've read some mysteries that were mostly slow but then got very fast and exciting at the end with an unexpected twist or two. This isn't one of those mysteries. The story does have its subtle clues in at the beginning and has some build up but it never hits the reader over the head with action. The final resolution to the mystery, though still unexpected, isn't much more than the sum of its parts.

Plot development is not Mosley's strength and he wisely focuses more on character development, what really makes his writing good. The protagonist/detective, Easy Rawlins, is not a faultless or heroic figure. He spends stolen money, his best friend is a cold-blooded killer, he lies to his friends and cheats them. He also has some feelings of inferiority, especially when events become too puzzling. He'll share his theory with his thoughts (the book is written in the first person from his point of view) and be so sure of it you think he's right but then he turns out to be wrong. Most of the characters are just as imperfect if not moreso. The only more virtuous characters are also the prime suspects.

Overall, the book is readable and a page turner, just not a very fast one. What keeps it going isn't the wanting to know the resolution, but wanting to find out what kind of fix Easy will get into and how he'll get through it.

We went to Babita on April 1, 2008 to celebrate our three-year anniversary one day early with the immediate family.  Babita has been a popular "destination" restaurant in San Gabriel for the past several years.  My wife had been there a couple of times before and it was my first time.  I had read about it in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

The afternoon/evening started off well since my wife had learned that we could take the 487 metro bus from work to the house.  We caught the bus just one block from work.  Since that's one of the first stops there was plenty of seating.  The bus did get very crowded before it left Downtown so it's good we could catch it at that stop.  It drove on the bus lanes when it got to the 10 freeway and we were never "stuck in traffic".  It stopped at USC Medical Center and Cal State L.A. before exiting the freeway at Del Mar in San Gabriel.  It went north on Del Mar and then turned west (left) on Valley.  We got off at Valley and New Avenue and walked to Mom and Dad's (my in-laws) house.  In all it was a 50 minutes bus ride and seven-minute walk. 

We all drove to the restaurant in Mom and Dad's car found parking along Norwood Street nearby.  The building that houses the restaurant is right next to someone's house.  We entered the front door that's right at the northwest corner of San Gabriel and Norwood.  The room is very small with no more than 8-10 small tables and many of them moved together for larger parties.  We made a reservation and our table for five was ready for us.  The room was lit with ambience.  It had a high ceiling and a high shelf all along with wall with many different kinds of Tequila bottles on it.

The server took our orders and we started with chips and salsa.  The chips were good but I didn't really like the salsa.  They brought us their famous guacamole that I couldn't have because they sprinkled cheese on it.  But then they brought us the appetizers and I started to taste why Babita is a destination.  The fried calamari was very good and it came with a very spicy red sauce.  But the brown mole with mushrooms topped it.  I had just the right amount of spice and a slight taste of chocolate that went great with the mushrooms.  We also had it with the calamari and the chips.

Our food came slowly perhaps because quality takes time.  This left plenty of time for conversation.  When our main courses came they were worth the wait.  My wife got the Chicken and Shrimp Elba on top of squash with brown sauce.  It also came with rice, beans, and a little red pepper cut look like a flower.  She enjoyed it.  I had the Cochinita Pibil which is pork slow-cooked in banana leaves and mild red spices.  It came in a bowl sans leaves with cabbage and pickled onions on top.  It was flavorful and very tender.  The main course showstopper, though, was the tortillas.  The server came around with one of those circular tortilla contains and gave a hot corn tortilla to each of us.  They were thicker and slightly larger than most corn tortillas.  I used it to make a taco out of my Cochinita Pibil.  It tasted great and despite being thick enough to hold a lot, it wasn't tough or chewy but the right consistency.  It was also very filling.  There were enough tortillas for some of us to have more than one.

Babita was nearly at capacity the entire time we were there.  They turned people away because all the tables were reserved.  Good thing we made a reservation.  It was a great anniversary eve and we thank Mom and Dad for taking us.  We’re lucky to have destination restaurants so close to home.