The N.Y. Times sent Krishnendu Ray, professor of food studies at NYU, to seven local Indian restaurants. His reactions reveal snippets of immigrant expectations and cravings for tastes of home. The place I was most interested in hearing about had the shortest report, Indowok with its Indian-style Chinese cuisine. Ray’s comment: “Why don’t they just go to Chinatown? For one, it’s not sure to be vegetarian. For another, it’s just too Chinese.” (Where I live now, that niche is filled by Inchin’s Bamboo Garden.)

It’s tricky to fit 3 large cruise ships into one photo, but here’s a shot of the Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria, and Queen Elizabeth 2 (and their accompanying pilot boats) at their nighttime rendezvous in New York Harbor a few days ago.

With cheap instruments now available at discounters and “big box” stores, local music shops are feeling the pinch. Jon Bentley of Bentley’s String Instruments in Everett, WA cites prices of $150 and less at online shops, Walmart, Kmart and Costco for violins that are not as good quality as the $500 starter violin he carries. Cheap instruments use wood that isn’t properly seasoned which makes for terrible sound. The sound post, a crucial component, is placed in a standard location instead of adjusted for the individual instrument. Most importantly for a parent who may think that they can’t invest more until they know if their kid is going to be serious, these inferior instruments are usually more difficult to play and difficult to tune properly. Parents, if you can’t or don’t want to invest in a good instrument until you’re sure it’ll be worthwhile, rent a decent one first. Also ask around to see if someone’s got one stashed away under a bed or in a closet.

In Virginia, stealing a dog is considered a felony, but stealing a cat is a misdemeanor. Proposed law HB334 would make the two crimes equal, but some folks have brought up that cats are more independent and tend to wander off and get informally adopted by other families. The existing law also applies to the theft of a horse, pony, mules, cow, steer, bull or calf. Seems that farmers didn’t mind their cats disappearing when this first came on the books.

When a fashion article on the return of long gloves cites Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” as an example, that’s lovely. But when the next sentence goes on to say “Think Madonna in her music video for ‘Material Girl,'” the question arises: was the writer considering her audience’s perspective of 1980s cultural reference points or did she actually forget or not know that the original wearer of those long pink gloves was Marilyn Monroe singing “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend?” Also, to get even more pedantic, their gloves were actual the longer opera length, not elbow. Ah well, no use nitpicking the lint off of a fluff piece.

I’ve posted about industrial designer Russel Wright several times before. The Bellevue Arts Museum has been running an exhibit of his designs, titled “Living with Good Design,” which closes on January 20th, then travels to St. Paul. The exhibit photo gallery gives you a taste of the displays at previous locations.

The 360 Electrical outlet, with rotating sockets, is just the invention for our gadget charger laden times. But what I really need is a power strip that solves the same problem. Their “coming soon” menu hints that they are working on one. I found a “power strip space saver” on ThinkGeek that keeps adapters off the main strip. It’s a messier solution and harder to unplug, but fine for plugs that stay put.

The various Angel Flight organizations arrange for volunteer pilots to fly those in need of medical care to treatment locations. AngelFlight West serves the western U.S. states. Pilots pay their own costs. Last year 94 pilots flew 497 missions in Washington state, which means there’s a flight happening every day just in this state alone.

Buried in this article about a new condo development, Washington Square, in downtown Bellevue is the news that a Top Pot Doughnuts will be opening in the retail portion. Yummy doughnuts!

To add to your list of things to do when you’re out of things to do on the Internet (yes, it can happen): search yelp.com for reviews of U.S. post offices. I found a review of the tiny neighborhood post office I like to use, a murder location in Chicago, a happy encounter with a nice guy in NYC, and raves upon raves for a San Francisco USPS open until midnight. Who knows what else lurks in the other corners of the country?