Israel's National Anthem - Hatikva
In honor of my paternal grandparents Charles and Jessie Gross Schwartz, distinguished Jewish immigrants to the United.States from Romania and Germany respectively during the late 19th Century
~~ In English and Hebrew transliteration
~~ To hear instrumental Hatikva music, and read background & explanation, go to:
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/History/hatikva.html
In The Jewish heart
A Jewish spirit still sings,
And the eyes look east
Toward Zion
Our hope is not lost,
Our hope of two thousand years,
To be a free nation in our land,
In the land of Zion and Jerusalem
===
Kol ode balevav
P'nimah -
Nefesh Yehudi homiyah
Ulfa'atey mizrach kadimah
Ayin l'tzion tzofiyah.
Ode lo avdah tikvatenu
Hatikvah bat shnot alpayim:
L'hiyot am chofshi b'artzenu -
Eretz Tzion v'Yerushalayim
February 26, 2003
Addendum - Scientists as Poets
Checking the New York Times www.nytimes.com this morning, I find my hunch is right that the DNA double helix 50th anniversary interactive graphic is continuing online. I expect it is probably online for at least the remainder of this week which is special in its own right. As reported by Nicholas Wade in the New York Times yesterday, "Fifty years ago, on Saturday, Feb. 28, 1953, two young scientists [Watson and Crick] walked into the Eagle, a dingy pub in Cambridge, England, and announced to the lunchtime crowd that they had discovered the secret of life." This makes me wonder about the immediate response of the other lunchtime customers. :-)
Yesterday I didn't fully describe the interactive. It has six main sections:
--------
Introduction
Helix to Human (highlighted Tuesday, 2-25-03)
The First Paper (basis of my "Scientists as Poets" post yesterday)
Time Line (highlighted today, Wednesday 2-26-03)
DNA and Culture
Special Section
--------
The more I look through the information, the more impressed I am. Today the interactive graphic is a sidebar to an article "Watson and Crick, Both Aligned and Apart, Reinvented Biology" by Nicholas Wade.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/25/science/25FATH.html
Checking the New York Times www.nytimes.com this morning, I find my hunch is right that the DNA double helix 50th anniversary interactive graphic is continuing online. I expect it is probably online for at least the remainder of this week which is special in its own right. As reported by Nicholas Wade in the New York Times yesterday, "Fifty years ago, on Saturday, Feb. 28, 1953, two young scientists [Watson and Crick] walked into the Eagle, a dingy pub in Cambridge, England, and announced to the lunchtime crowd that they had discovered the secret of life." This makes me wonder about the immediate response of the other lunchtime customers. :-)
Yesterday I didn't fully describe the interactive. It has six main sections:
--------
Introduction
Helix to Human (highlighted Tuesday, 2-25-03)
The First Paper (basis of my "Scientists as Poets" post yesterday)
Time Line (highlighted today, Wednesday 2-26-03)
DNA and Culture
Special Section
--------
The more I look through the information, the more impressed I am. Today the interactive graphic is a sidebar to an article "Watson and Crick, Both Aligned and Apart, Reinvented Biology" by Nicholas Wade.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/25/science/25FATH.html
February 25, 2003
Scientists as Poets
In my own career in science and engineering, and continuing in retirement, I have moments of creativity that make me feel no different than a poet, an artist, a composer and so on. We approach the 50th anniversary of the April 25, 1953, paper to Nature by Dr. James D. Watson and Mr. Francis Crick proposing the now-famous double helix structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA). In a New York Times interactive graphic, the "anatomy" of this first of two Watson-Crick DNA structure papers to Nature, and a portion of the second paper, is presented.
Now about poetry. The writers of the interactive graphic point out that in the second paper, certain information is transformed into a poetic form "almost like a couplet" by Watson and Crick
Writing in the first paper, Watson and Crick describe pairs of connecting bases that connect the double helix strands of DNA as such:
----
"If it is assumed that the bases only occur in the structure in the most plausible tautomeric forms (that is with the keto rather than the enol configurations) it is found that only specific pairs of bases can bond together. These pairs are: adenine (purine) with thymine (pyrimidine), and guanine (purine) with cytosine (pyrimidine)."
----
The refined wording of Watson and Crick in the second paper, including the "poetic couplet," is:
----
"We believe that the bases will be present almost entirely in their most probable tautomeric forms. If this is true, the conditions for forming hydrogen bonds are more restrictive, and the only pairs of bases possible are:
adenine with thymine;
guanine with cytosine.
Beautiful!
Reference:
The New York Times interactive graphic - "DNA Double Helix - Helix to Human - DNA And the Body" - is a sidebar to today's New York Times Article - "DNA, The Keeper of Life's Secrets, Starts to Talk". <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/25/science/25HELI.html>
While I cannot say for sure, I expect the interactive graphic will be available at www.nytimes.com for an extended period of time in connection with the 50th anniversary of the first Watson-Crick paper.
In my own career in science and engineering, and continuing in retirement, I have moments of creativity that make me feel no different than a poet, an artist, a composer and so on. We approach the 50th anniversary of the April 25, 1953, paper to Nature by Dr. James D. Watson and Mr. Francis Crick proposing the now-famous double helix structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA). In a New York Times interactive graphic, the "anatomy" of this first of two Watson-Crick DNA structure papers to Nature, and a portion of the second paper, is presented.
Now about poetry. The writers of the interactive graphic point out that in the second paper, certain information is transformed into a poetic form "almost like a couplet" by Watson and Crick
Writing in the first paper, Watson and Crick describe pairs of connecting bases that connect the double helix strands of DNA as such:
----
"If it is assumed that the bases only occur in the structure in the most plausible tautomeric forms (that is with the keto rather than the enol configurations) it is found that only specific pairs of bases can bond together. These pairs are: adenine (purine) with thymine (pyrimidine), and guanine (purine) with cytosine (pyrimidine)."
----
The refined wording of Watson and Crick in the second paper, including the "poetic couplet," is:
----
"We believe that the bases will be present almost entirely in their most probable tautomeric forms. If this is true, the conditions for forming hydrogen bonds are more restrictive, and the only pairs of bases possible are:
adenine with thymine;
guanine with cytosine.
Beautiful!
Reference:
The New York Times interactive graphic - "DNA Double Helix - Helix to Human - DNA And the Body" - is a sidebar to today's New York Times Article - "DNA, The Keeper of Life's Secrets, Starts to Talk". <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/25/science/25HELI.html>
While I cannot say for sure, I expect the interactive graphic will be available at www.nytimes.com for an extended period of time in connection with the 50th anniversary of the first Watson-Crick paper.
February 24, 2003
Recipe for German Delicacy - Vareniki
On February 1st, I went to the annual "German Feast" sponsored by the Mennonite community of Corn, Oklahoma about 10 miles south of Weatherford. There was an especially big crowd because Corn is also celebrating its Centennial. The 1903 Mennonite settlers came down from central Kansas to claim plots still unclaimed after the Cheyenne-Arapaho land run of April 19, 1892. Supposedly the area where Corn now sits was the least desirable land. The Mennonites made good farm land out of it, a talent they are known for.
Anyway - back to the "German Feast" - the featured German delicacy, in addition to sausage, sauerkraut, etc., was vareniki. It is the first time to my knowledge I've eaten vareniki and it was delicious. It reminds me of food I've eaten in Jewish dairy restaurants on the Lower East Side in New York City (when it was still predominantly Jewish.) I've enclosed a vareniki recipe I found on the Internet.
-- Jack
PS - If it isn't apparent from reading the vareniki recipe, the finished vareniki are essentially a cottage cheese filled kreplach. For the vareniki made at the Corn "German Feast, " the dough circles after adding filling are pinched into a triangular shape. So the finished vareniki has an appearance like hamentaschen. a traditional pastry delicay for the Jewish festival of Purim.
------------------ recipe -----------------------
Post-Gazette.com Magazine: "Out of This Kitchen" Column
May 13, 1999
http://www.post-gazette.com/food/19990513cmbook4c.asp
Vareniki
Dough:
2 cups sifted flour
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons water (a misprint, we used 10-12 tablespoons water)
Filling:
1 cup dry cottage cheese
1 egg
Salt and pepper to taste
Dough: Mix together flour, egg yolk and water to form a dough. Knead well for 8 to 10 minutes until dough is elastic. Cut in half and roll thin on a floured surface. Cut into 4-inch rounds.
Filling: Mix cottage cheese, egg, salt and pepper to taste. Place a teaspoon of filling in the center of each dough circle. Bring edges of dough together and pinch tightly. Drop into boiling salted water. When done, they will rise to the top (a minute or two). Serve hot with sour cream. Makes 2 dozen.
Martha Ermakov, McKeesport, in "Out of This Kitchen"
Thursday, May 13, 1999
On February 1st, I went to the annual "German Feast" sponsored by the Mennonite community of Corn, Oklahoma about 10 miles south of Weatherford. There was an especially big crowd because Corn is also celebrating its Centennial. The 1903 Mennonite settlers came down from central Kansas to claim plots still unclaimed after the Cheyenne-Arapaho land run of April 19, 1892. Supposedly the area where Corn now sits was the least desirable land. The Mennonites made good farm land out of it, a talent they are known for.
Anyway - back to the "German Feast" - the featured German delicacy, in addition to sausage, sauerkraut, etc., was vareniki. It is the first time to my knowledge I've eaten vareniki and it was delicious. It reminds me of food I've eaten in Jewish dairy restaurants on the Lower East Side in New York City (when it was still predominantly Jewish.) I've enclosed a vareniki recipe I found on the Internet.
-- Jack
PS - If it isn't apparent from reading the vareniki recipe, the finished vareniki are essentially a cottage cheese filled kreplach. For the vareniki made at the Corn "German Feast, " the dough circles after adding filling are pinched into a triangular shape. So the finished vareniki has an appearance like hamentaschen. a traditional pastry delicay for the Jewish festival of Purim.
------------------ recipe -----------------------
Post-Gazette.com Magazine: "Out of This Kitchen" Column
May 13, 1999
http://www.post-gazette.com/food/19990513cmbook4c.asp
Vareniki
Dough:
2 cups sifted flour
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons water (a misprint, we used 10-12 tablespoons water)
Filling:
1 cup dry cottage cheese
1 egg
Salt and pepper to taste
Dough: Mix together flour, egg yolk and water to form a dough. Knead well for 8 to 10 minutes until dough is elastic. Cut in half and roll thin on a floured surface. Cut into 4-inch rounds.
Filling: Mix cottage cheese, egg, salt and pepper to taste. Place a teaspoon of filling in the center of each dough circle. Bring edges of dough together and pinch tightly. Drop into boiling salted water. When done, they will rise to the top (a minute or two). Serve hot with sour cream. Makes 2 dozen.
Martha Ermakov, McKeesport, in "Out of This Kitchen"
Thursday, May 13, 1999