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I spent much of the weekend on my quest for the perfect weekend breakfast. Much of the mornings, anyhow. I'm not quite mad enough to have breakfast at 8 and then follow up with a brunch excursion at noon, but I do take my morning breakfast pretty seriously. While I was unemployed, it was one of the only activities that got me reliably out of the house and in contact with people.

I scored immediately in the "cheap and close and tasty" category, down at the Neighborhood Restaurant in Union Square. I went in, I got seated at the same table as a nice couple, I established that it's OK and I'm not invading personal space and it's just a cozy restaurant. This is actually kind of a minus since I like to linger over coffee and my book, but no big.

Then, when I'm ready to order, a waitress came over and asked if I'd like hot cereal or fruit. Well, I wanted a bacon omelette, but she explained that this was bonus food. Bonus food! Good deal. I got the hot cereal and ordered the omelette. Said cereal was cream of wheat with a ton of cinnamon on top. Just about perfect for a winter morning.

The omelette came with an enormous plate of bread on the side. I actually wasn't sure it was for me until the couple next to me got their own enormous plate of bread. Four pieces of toast, a muffin of some kind, a croissant, and an apple turnover thingie. Amazing. Apparently there's a bakery out back, and they have some sort of deal where they'll go to hell if they don't bake every hour of the day, and they get rid of the extra by feeding it to us. Or so I imagined.

So the food was good, and incredibly cheap -- $7.35 for the whole schmear. The menu wasn't super-extensive and it was certainly crowded. Still a total win, just on the basis of price and convenience and quantity. I'll go back.

The Rosebud Diner was not quite as good. More expensive, and the chorizo omelette really didn't rock my world, and I had to sit at the counter -- which I don't mind but I like to have the option and it really kills the sitting around drinking coffee aspect of the breakfast. Also the menu didn't have anything beyond the usual breakfast fare, which is OK but since the Neighborhood Restaurant satisfies that, why would I wanna drive down to Davis Square?

At this point, I need a decent medium to high end place where I can get an omelette with pesto in it. My journey continues next weekend.

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The Justice and Development Party has won the Turkish elections, kicking out the ruling coalition in a landslide. This seems likely to be more a reflection of discontent with the Turkish economy and a corrupt government than it is a return to Islamic fundamentalism, although the Justice and Development Party was formed from the remains of an Islamic fundamentalist party.

However, they ran on a pro-Western platform and have disavowed their Islamic roots. This isn't the Taliban, and the victory does not represent a repudiation of Turkish assistance in the US war on Iraq. I expect some will claim it does, but this one isn't Bush's fault. It may not even be a crisis.

Either way, this does not change the status of the Kurds. The US still needs to arm Kurds in Iraq to fight a war there; Turkey still hates the idea, because it would encourage Kurd separatists in Turkey. Messy.

Also note that the Turkish army is perfectly willing to engage in a coup should the government become overly Islamic. They did it in 1997, and several times previously. It's not really that democratic a country.

[Population: One] <A HREF="http://popone.innocence.com/ar

Just a quick Turkish update -- the leader of the Justice and Development Party, Recep Tyyip Erodgan, says he's opposed to a US strike on Iraq unless approved by the UN. Thanks to Carneggy for the heads up.

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As an English major, I've heard the story about Alan Sokal, physics professor, who got a paper published in a postmodern literature journal. In fact, I've heard it one too many times. Consequently, this report fills me with utter glee.

It might be worth rereading some of Mr. Sokal's discussions about his hoax, by the by. He never meant it to demonstrate that the study of English literature is inherently flawed; rather, he was making some fairly interesting points as a leftist regarding the dangers of whole-scale adoption of structuralist dogma by the American radical left wing. This is a point too often missed when discussing his hoax. I hope he has something to say about this one -- I think it'd be an interesting read.