Particles of Lantern Light
By Steve Herte
What
a whirlwind week! On Monday night I had to tell my Dad that it was
the only night he would see me. Tuesday night is karaoke night at
Gabby O’Hara’s Pub and I was celebrating my friend (and dancing
partner) Betty’s birthday by (she wanted to do this) letting her
pick all my songs without telling me what they were. Helene and I
started this tradition long ago but it was more interesting when
Helene was around because she knew me and could (and did) pick songs
I could sing but would never pick for myself. Betty was much more
conservative.
Wednesday
night I attended a Members-Only preview of Pterosaurs - First in
Flight, the new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. It
was awesome! Up until this exhibit I only knew three names of flying
dinosaurs. Now I know there were 150 species of them ranging in size
from a hummingbird to the Quetzalcoatlus, which was the size of a
two-seater plane! I know, they had a full-sized model of one
suspended from the ceiling. The children there had great fun at an
interactive video where they could control the pterodactyls on the
screens before them. I spent an hour and a half there and then had
dinner at Swagat, my 134th Indian restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue.
Thursday,
my sister (the nurse) was able to free up her busy schedule to slot
me in for her 60th birthday dinner (which I promised her on December
9th). We went to Nancy’s Fireside on Jericho Turnpike and had a
great evening of conversation and good food and drink. At family
gatherings we never get to talk that much, so it was a fun evening.
And
Friday? Well, you know what I do Fridays. Read on and enjoy!
Particle
Fever (Anthos
Media, 2013) – Director: Mark Levinson. Cast: Martin Aleksa, Nima Arkani-Hamed, Savas Dimopoulos, Monica Dunford, Fabiola Gianotti, David Kaplan, & Mike
Lamont. Documentary, Color, 99 minutes.
Why
is the universe so big? Why is it expanding at an accelerated pace?
Is there such a thing as a “Multiverse?” Why is gravity the
weakest of all forces? What holds the nucleus of an atom together?
Are there particles outside the electron orbits to be discovered?
These are among the questions to (hopefully) be answered when the
Large Hadron Collider powered up for the first time on September 10,
2008. This 17-mile-long loop of technology under Switzerland and
France near Geneva is the focus of this new documentary.
Produced
by David Kaplan and directed by Mark Levinson, this beautifully
photographed, majestically scored film attempts to compress the
18-year building, the first testing, the crucial power-up and the
resulting data involved in the creation of this complex marvel of
modern science.
The
movie starts in rural bucolic Switzerland and the camera pans a
peaceful scene until it focuses on the alien dome that is CERN
(“Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire” – in English,
the European Council for Nuclear Research). CERN was founded in 1954
and has been accelerating proton beams in the first Synchrocyclotron,
the Proton Synchrotron and the Large Electron-Positron Collider until
the late 1980s when ground was broken for the Large Hadron Collider.
We see the gargantuan machine being assembled and hear from various
international scientists of their first impressions regarding the
enterprise.
Kaplan
is a Theoretical Particle Physicist and professor of physics at Johns
Hopkins University. Martin Aleksa received his PhD in Physics at the
Vienna University of Technology and works on the ATLAS project at
CERN. Nima Arkani-Hamed is an American/Canadian theoretical physicist
on the faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New
Jersey. Savas Dimopoulos is a particle physicist at Stanford
University, California. Monica Dunford is a young post-doc from the
University of Pennsylvania working on the ATLAS experiment. Fabiola
Gianotti is an Italian particle physicist from the University of
Milan who also works on the ATLAS project. Mike Lamont is the LHC
Machine Coordinator at CERN and head of machine operations. We hear
impressions and insights from all these participants throughout the
film, share their excitement and awe and even chuckle at their humor.
At one point at a lecture an audience member asks David what possible
economic benefits could come from the LHC. His response: “I
absolutely don’t know.”
On
the American side, the audience is treated to the reasons why the
proposed collider in Waxahachie, Texas, (which would have been bigger
than the LHC and finished first) was scrapped. Congress canned it
with comments such as, “Understanding the universe is not
important…” and “Let the Europeans build it first! We’ll
steal their technology…”
We
see the great anticipation when the first particle beam is set in
motion (a year or two before the grand start up) and the tension in
the room waiting for that first “blip” of light on the view
screen. We watch as digital graphics depict the two particle beams as
they draw closer and closer to collision and exult when the ATLAS,
CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid), LHCb (Large Hadron Collider Beauty), and
ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment – to detect quark/gluon
plasma) particle detectors start lighting up their respective screens
with collision data. We wonder at the initial measurements when the
Higgs Boson is detected and it weighs in at 140 GeV
(Giga-electron-volts), meaning there are no new particles to be
discovered and the “Multiverse” has been proven. The scientists
explained that they were hoping for it to be 114 GeV at which weight
the Standard Model of physics would be complete with the Higgs Boson
at the center and “Supersymetry” proven. Then, the final
measurement comes in at 125 GeV, right in the middle and we know that
neither extreme has been proven. We wonder with the physicists where
to go next.
Lastly
we applaud Peter Higgs, who appears in the movie teary-eyed that his
particle has been discovered in his lifetime (he’s 79 at the time),
and as he is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics with François
Englert in 2013 "for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism
that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of
subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the
discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS
experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider."
Particle
Fever, though it tries with animated graphics to make the topic
“user friendly,” is not for the uninitiated. No matter how the
director attempts to entertain, the topic becomes dry and sleep
inducing. Fortunately, the musical score is quite explosive at
crucial times to bring the audience back to life. In the hour and 39
minutes we see David and Nima furiously scribbling Greek lettered
equations on blackboards which are cryptic at best, a pictorial
graphic of the Standard Model with the “H” for Higgs at the
center but without any further definition of terms, and we can’t
help but notice that physicists all seem to have dreadful hair. I
guess they have a lot of other things on their minds besides
grooming. Also, the four collision points and data detectors were not
decrypted as to how they received their names. I would have liked to
see that. I’m glad that I saw the movie, since my minor in college
was physics, but I needed a little more information.
Rating: 3
out of 5 Martini glasses.
Lantern
Thai Kitchen
311
2nd Avenue (at 18th Street),
New York
The
glass-fronted property on the northwest corner of Second Avenue and
18th Street with the tastefully small neon sign merely saying
“Lantern” over the door is almost unnoticeable. Had I not been
searching for it I might have missed it. Inside, the two chandeliers
with faux candles and the skinny foot-long incandescent bulbs
suspended from the recessed white ceiling compete (unsuccessfully)
with the street light coming in the floor-to-ceiling windows. Three
artfully constructed “trees” form the centerpiece of the
restaurant and divide the rows of tables into two.
The young lady at
the Captain’s Station met me and asked if I would like to eat at
the bar. I told her I prefer a table for dining and she led me to the
last table in the front window where the bar began. I thought it was
perfect, cozy but isolated, warm but drafty (though far from the
entrance) and unfortunately (as Arthur Schwartz would describe it)
“Mongolia.” “Mongolia” is where you are seated and no one
sees you right away (or in the worst case ignores you) and service is
what you make it. I had no problem with that. I know how to get
attention.
It
turns out that the one who seated me, Tong, was my prime server. Four
different servers attended me during my stay, but hers was the name
on the check. Tong presented me with the menu, the drinks and wine
list and a glass of water. Shortly before I started reading she asked
if I wanted a cocktail. I explained that I hadn’t had time to read
the menu yet and she left. The time it took to decide on my
Strawberry Long Island Iced Tea (Grey Goose Vodka, Bacardi Rum,
Patron Silver Tequila, Bombay Sapphire Gin, cola and strawberry
garnish) and the time it took for her to reappear gave me an idea of
how long my entire dinner would take.
There
were 16 Appetizers, 7 Salads, 3 Soups (with a choice of chicken,
vegetable, tofu, or shrimp), 7 Noodle dishes, 6 Wok-Fried dishes, 4
“Curry” dishes, 4 Rice dishes, 9 Poultry and Meat dishes, 12 Fish
and Shellfish dishes, and 9 Sides. Lots of choices. I chose Lantern
Thai because of the several vegetable and seafood dishes listed on
the menu.
Little did I know I would find two of my favorite Thai
appetizers. From previous experience, I have loved Curry Puffs
(onions, potatoes and curry powder) and Cheese (actually, Crab)
Rangoon (yes, I know Rangoon is in Burma – or Myanmar if you’re a
revolutionary) and there they both were. I decided to order both. A
different girl delivered my towering drink (which was delicious) and
took my dinner order. I noticed right away we had not only a language
problem, but a hearing problem as well. The noise level in the
restaurant was not that bad, but I think her hearing was. Between my
shouting and her repeating my order we established communication.
The
Curry Puffs and Cheese Rangoon arrived first on matching long
rectangular platters. The finely mashed potatoes and onions in the
Curry Puffs were only lightly flavored with aromatic curry and sealed
in a crisp rice dough and came with a white coconut dipping sauce.
The Cheese Rangoon had a crab stick wrapped in home-made cream cheese
wrapped again in crispy rice batter and came with a sweet duck sauce.
My Vegetable Tom Kah Soup made its appearance at the same time. I
prayed that my main course was not right on their heels but suspected
it would be at my table way before I finished what I had (and had
room for it). I tasted everything first to see what was hottest in
temperature and to determine which would cool down first. The soup
was indeed hottest. The coconut-based broth was delightful and a
treasure trove of broccoli, zucchini, celery, onions, tomatoes,
string beans and some vegetables I’ve never seen before. It was
excellent: alternating between appetizers and spoonsful of soup
worked out fine.
Oh
no, here comes a third server with my main course! It’s too big to
fit on the table with the three less than half-finished prior
courses. I sent it back wondering how long it would take to recover
it. But, as I said, I know how to get attention. I enjoyed the food
that I had and carefully sipped my drink until they were all
finished. Then when Tong came to ask if I wanted another drink I
ordered a glass of Malbec and let her know that I was ready for my
fish. It didn’t take that long.
The
Three-Flavor Red Snapper was a golden-fried whole fish and the three
flavors were chili, basil, and spicy “tamarind lava.” It was
topped with slices of red and green pepper and the tamarind lava made
a bloody-looking sauce on the plate. Granted, this dish looked
appetizing only to me. When I tried photographing it the closest I
could come was “ghastly,” but it tasted great. The spice
overwhelmed the basil and tamarind (usually sweet) and the frying
made a super crispy coating on the outside that required a steak
knife to cut the flesh from the bones. It was work, it was delicious
and I had no problem with “surprise” bones (ones that suddenly
appear in your mouth and have to be removed). Although it looked
daunting at over a foot long, I finished it proudly and the Malbec
served to compliment it perfectly, adding its spicy flavor to the
chili.
Server
number four cleared my table and asked if I wanted dessert. I said
yes and he brought me the menu. I thought the Home Made Volcanic Ice
Cream topped with pineapple sauce sounded the most interesting and
ordered it with a pot of Hot Green Tea. The tea arrived almost
immediately in a remarkably heavy black iron pot accompanied by a
handle-less white ceramic cup. It was wonderful. I waited for the
dessert, and waited, and waited, but as nine o’clock arrived I
asked for the check. When Tong brought it, sure enough the dessert
was not there. Server number four did not record the order.
Slightly
disappointed, but sated, I paid the check and asked number four where
the restroom was. Though not surprised at the cardboard “Out of
Order” sign on the men’s room urinal, I used the other available
facility in the room, returned to my now less accessible (two people
were sitting on stools at the end of the bar) table, got my coat and
bag, snagged a business card and left Lantern Thai.
I
believe that if I ever decide to return to Lantern Thai Kitchen, it
will be with a small group. I still love Thai cuisine and there are
enough interesting dishes to try, but I’m not sitting in that
corner again.
No comments:
Post a Comment