NACUA Day Two

An early start and a half day for some reason. The US lawyers were on tenterhooks awaiting the result in Fisher v University of Texas, but it didn't issue today.

The early briefing on the changing role of University counsel was quite interesting (the tl;dr is that there are new external compliance duties which weaken academic autonomy, get over it). One of the panelists said it was an important part of his job to "be the breeder of new General Counsel" from his office - as one may imagine the choice of words was deplored.

Two more sessions - conducting an effective investigation and managing faculty members. Lots of tips for new players, and a reminder for General Counsel to do the due diligence, get the background and motivations of the players sorted out and then plan next steps. Too many conversations start "we need to sack Professor Insulting for misconduct". 

I think it is asserted that this sculpture of LOVE is the original, and lots of people take the picture with the spurting fountain a little incongruously behind. We walked down there to see some of the monumental buildings including a very large Masonic Temple and the Franklin Science Museum.

I'd forgotten to bring my suit belt, so went to Macys to buy one. This time around the organ was playing, so I took a little video...

Some more pics of Philly:

For lunch, Lynda and I went to a "food court" called the 4 Seasons. Seemed to have a mostly black clientele. Everything is laid out in trays, all sorts of food from soups to sweets, and one loads up a foam container as one pleases and pays by weight. I sampled a bit of lots of foods for research purposes, and it was all fairly rich - even the salads had lots of dressing, cheese and fried bits.

On many street corners are little shiny metal kiosks(*) serving food - grills with rice, any sort of sandwich roll or burger, hot dogs etc. It's telling that the standard menu has hot dogs in pairs, as if eating one hotdog is unknown. Everywhere is the Philly Cheese Steak roll, and lots of pictures of rolls groaning with sliced meat and cheese. It's seductive, I found myself thinking of the old Hungry Jacks Yumbo with nostalgia instead of disgust.

There are also newsstands which sell newspapers, magazines, chocolates, cigarettes and lottery tickets.  For some reason these are part of a chain run mostly by Sikhs.

Tonight the NACUA delegates are invited to the Barnes' Foundation for drinkies and a view of "one of the world's finest collections of impressionist, post-impressionist and early modern art".

(*) I would call a small fixed food cart a kiosk. Not here, a "kiosk" is a machine from which one buys parking tickets.

NACUA Day One

NACUA is the venerable organisation for Uni lawyers and the annual conference is a huge big deal. There are about 30 of us non-Americans, here to confirm that the problems are the same for General Counsel the world over. At least in the US, General Counsel is a "Vice-President" and an expected part of management (if not the "President's Inner Cabinet").

It's at the Marriott Downtown hotel, a nice old art-deco hotel with all mod cons. After the introductions, the first session was a conversation between experienced Supreme Court counsel which touched on an upcoming decision about race quotas - a hot topic in the USA and the subject of several contentious and contradictary approaches by the US Supreme Court (or SCOTUS as it likes to be called) over the years.

Then the simultaneous sessions started, and it's a judgment which to go to because they're all relevant to some extent. I chose one on major copyright cases involving university electronic library reserves - a couple of authors' rights associations have taken on unis and lost bad. The US copyright law allows a lot more "fair use" so the digitising universities are on a good chance to establish that the electronic libraries don't infringe against the law.

The evening reception was in a huge ballroom with very few chairs, so we set up a circle with some others, put our bags in the middle and had a base from which to venture out and try the food. Usual drinks service, but the food offerings included make-your-own Philly Steak and other "Hoagies" (meaning lots of meat and cheese in a roll), crab cakes cooked on the spot on a griddle, antipasti and grilled chicken salads for the modest eater. After a couple of hours of that, we adjourned to the bar and then to The North Star Bar and Restaurant, a music venue on the outskirts of the city. Nice blues, but a long stagger home.

Bellini Restaurant

A really nice evening meal with University lawyer colleagues Jane and Geraldine at Bellini Restaurant. It's an authentic Italian restaurant with a Venetian theme - a fresco on the ceiling and a nice painting of the canal side of Piazza San Marco. I had the crab ravioli, with a cassata-like Spumoni to follow.

Tuesday thunderstorms

It was overcast in the morning, and as I type it's raining steadily with lots of claps of thunder.

We decided to try breakfast with the Amish at the Reading Terminal Market. The local Amish community run a few stalls, and their breakfast bar "The Dutch Kitchen" was very busy. The menu is way over the top - stacks of food and very cheap. I tried a dish called Turkey Scrapple - imagine a slice of terrine of turkey fried like a fishcake - which was okay, and served with toast, scrambled eggs and cheese. Lynda had the Apple Dumpling with cream. Neither of us made much of a dent in the breakfast - the "diners" serve lots on the plate. I noticed the thinner Americans tended to leave most of the plate, so there's no shame in being beaten by the meal.

The serving and cooking staff were Amish, in the lacy hats and sober garb. There were quotes from the more scoldy proverbs around the place, reminding everyone to be scared of God.

After breakfast we walked to the Italian Market, an area of town which was quite the Little Italy with excellent butchers and greengrocers. As we kept walking, it turned into Little Mexico with amazing wedding supply shops and one shop with live chickens, rabbits and other animals for the chop all complaining noisily.

From there, we walked (a bit too far) to the end of South Street to look at the street art and the shops - all a bit more arty and counter-culture. Lots of bong shops, comic shops, and interesting T-shirt shops. We stopped at the South Street Diner to be further amazed at American cuisine and how much is provided for $9.95.

On the way back, we passed by the Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital established in the United States, and by Benjamin Franklin no less. It's a prosperous University hospital now, set in an attractive suburb with Londonesque rows of townhouses.

We visited Macy's, the famous department store with the Philadelphia branch distinguished by an enormous pipe organ and eagle statue within an Art Deco monument. Clothes were a bit pricey by Australian standards, and the selection not much better than DJ's.

One place worthy of a mention is Di Bruno's, an established Italian merchant and cafe in several locations around the city. The first store, in the Italian Market district, is marked with a mural and the store is fabulous. The inner city one, just around the corner from my hotel, is a haven for coffee lovers and a severe cardiac risk with wholly extravagent cookies cakes and pastries.

Cautiously approach the table

Monday night - a dinner at the Lonely Planet-recommended "Monk's Cafe", which turns out to be a variation on the Belgian Beer Pub theme. Interesting old building, a bit shabby but everyone was having a good time listening to 80s music and drinking wheat concoctions.

I decided to opt for the Duck Confit, which came out quite unremarkable apart from a mountain of mashed carrot. Lynda, boldly, chose the Hot Chicken Wings despite the several warnings that these were not wussy Buffalo Wings or Spicy Wings. They were apparently a bit hot, as evidenced by Lynda downing two glasses of whitish beer and taking some care to remove as much of the sauce as possible. Back home to catch up with the Mad Men episodes that were held back during exams.

Arrived in Philadelphia

Going the long way, or so it seemed - Perth to Sydney, Sydney to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to New York by plane, then shuttle to Penn Station and a train to Philadelphia. About 37 hours door to door.

No particular problems with the travel, but a mental note that it's not really worth booking the shuttle from JFK airport online - you have to queue at the Ground Transportation booth anyway. The shuttles arrive as needed, so apart from a possible discount for online purchase it's not a bit difference to reserve a seat.

Pennsylvania Station is an art deco wonder, but a number of monuments in the city of Philadelphia have an impressive scale and lean towards Art. Many buildings have stylised brickwork, or engraved reliefs of Masonic symbols, showing the town to be quite the 18th Century boomtown.  Now, of course, in post-imperial decay the continuing American boosterism is not matched with confident building works. Urban renewal and restoration is said to have made Philadelphia less scary, at the cost of yuppies.

The Philadelphia Sofitel is a nice, restored older building and I was upgraded to a good suite with such mod cons as the Americans desire - a lockable bar fridge (but no milk) and complimentary cookies. We had just started supper when the power went out, and come the morning there was still a problem with water, power and then hot water. Hopefully it's mended now, but it was a bit of a reminder that standards are down.

A couple of nice walks - to the Penn Landing on the Delaware River, site of the founding of the city and then to the Magic Gardens for a look at some fabulous mosaics. We stopped at the Reading Terminal markets - think Victoria Markets crossed with a broad food hall - and admired the stuff that people eat. There are a lot of obese people and lots of ways to eat one's way there. Lynda tried for a healthy breakfast at another food market, but the yams were candied and the bacon sweet-as. I had an iced-coffee under the Starbucks brand which was (a) disgusting and (b) surprisingly drenching when shook.

Natch we walked past the queue to see the Liberty Bell, seeing as it's an old urban myth that the bell had anything to do with the story of the American revolution. Instead, the "Olde City" has some curious attractions, such as the layout of a normal workman's cottage (think smaller, fewer rooms than a tent) or a prosperous lawyer's home (attics and cellars seemed the invariable rule). The bigger old buildings have that American pretend-classical look from when the country longed to be the New Greece and it's interesting that the rock columns are not ageing well.

Lots of quaintness - along the Avenue of the Arts there are some old gaslights and there's evidence of old transport patterns with cobblestones and tram tracks.

It's quite warm and a bit humid; Sydney t-shirt weather. Very satisfactory as Perth was just starting to get unpleasantly cold with all the ailments of winter.

Lynda has sampled two of the local delicacies - the "Philly Steak Sandwich" (minced beef and cheese in a roll) and Oyster Stew (a milky soup). There is every sort of cuisine as far as I can see with the only surprises being a lot of Afghan restaurants with water pipes a key feature, and a tendency to have Chinese-Japanese restaurants with a lot of Vietnamese or Thai dishes on the menu.

The other odd thing we saw when walking was a number of Psychics shops, usually offering all the divinations from palmistry to tarot. Obviously they're set up like hairdressers, for a substantial passing trade. Presumably they know I'm not going to visit. Pennsylvania was founded, like Rhode Island, on a bedrock of religious toleration and even today there is a surprising number of the softer theologies having their own venerable meeting rooms - Quakers, Ethicists and Humanitarians alongside the Baptists and Catholics.

Here are some of the buildings I liked:

Restaurants in NYC

Two bookings so far - Daniel and Bouley. Both highly lauded, reports to follow.