What’s in a Letter?

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So, I was intrigued with the letter Pres. Trump wrote to Turkish Pres. Erdogan, with the following text:

Let’s work out a good deal! You don’t want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don’t want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy — and I will. I’ve already given you a little sample with respect to Pastor Brunson.

I have worked hard to solve some of your problems. Don’t let the world down. You can make a great deal. General Mazloum is willing to negotiate with you, and he is willing to make concessions that they would never have made in the past. I am confidentially enclosing a copy of his letter to me, just received.

History will look upon you favorably if you get this done the right and humane way. It will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don’t happen. Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool!

So, I put it through a “Paper Rater” and it received the following results:

  1. Transitional Words Score: 52 (Your usage of transitional phrases is below average.)
  2. Total Sentences: 12 (Your sentence length is below average. You may need to focus on writing more complex sentences.)
  3. Simple Sentence Starts: 42% (Code RED! Your sentence starts scored below average.)
  4. Vocabulary Score: 153.85 (Your paper scored below average for vocabulary usage.)

The results of a very stable genius.

Sushi Eating // Fingers or Chopsticks?

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I personally use chopsticks only, but one can utilize either from what I’ve learned over the years. For people that like to use their fingers, some restaurants provide a wet cloth placed on a small tray and positioned for “pinching” your dirty fingers after each bite to wipe them off so the next bite is “clean.” Regardless, I always wash my hands before consuming.

I like to use chop sticks particularly for nigiri and rather than placing the entire piece into the soy/wasabi mixture (assuming it needs sauce), I’ll just remove the meat from the top, place that in the sauce to season, and then back on the rice for consumption (this way the rice does not get soggy or otherwise break-a-part).

Here’s a source if interested:
https://japantoday.com/category/features/food/hands-or-chopsticks-4-tips-for-eating-sushi

I also came across this posting on Japanese table manners that this Westerner found informative:
https://www.metro-classic-japanese.net/japanese_table_manners/

Sushi Eating // The Hamilton // Washington DC (xv)

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The Hamilton

Website: www.thehamiltondc.com

Ambiance: swanky. not really a sushi “look” but a swanky DC bar scene.

Ordered: Happy hour (half-off) ordered “Hamilton Signature Rolls” of Fire Dragon and Queen’s Trident maki (rolls). And STHR, of course.

Thoughts: Everything about this place is great. Food… ambiance… drinks… The Sushi is surprisingly good and creative, which is one of the reasons why I like it. The STHR was a cone and decent.

My Rating: 4.9 / 5, Google Rating: 4.5 (3,870 reviews).

Image(s):

(Next time I go here, I’ll update with a photo or two)

Sushi Eating // Sushi Gakyu // Washington DC (xiv)

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Sushi Gakyu

Website: www.gakyudc.com

Ambiance: decent. nice. Doesn’t knock your socks off, but also clean and welcoming.

Ordered: Edo Nigiri (10 pieces of nigiri) + STHR. The Edo Nigiri was $50, which amounts to $5/piece and I’m not sure if that’s economically worth it.

Thoughts: Good and flavorful. Although the meat seemed more “squishy” than I’d noticed with other places but I didn’t let that stop my enjoyment. It would’ve been nice if the server explained what each piece was/seasoned/etc. No need to use soy sauce on any piece as they are all seasoned to be consumed as presented. STHR was the “tube” version rather than the “cone” and was surprisingly good.

My Rating: 3.82 / 5.0 , Google Rating 4.1 (80 reviews).

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