If your goal was to get a sample of all the major lineages on Earth on a single street, where would you go?!

Graphic: Oliver Uberti and M. Brody Dittemore, NG Staff

Astoria of course.  Well, that is if you are on a National Geographic assignment to retrace human migration since the dawn of time and then test whether you can find all of those genetic lineages on a single street.  That is exactly what Spencer Wells and his team did as part of their Genographic Project.

Read the full article here, but the basic gist is that this team spent four years traipsing the globe to find all genetic marks from hundreds of indigenous groups in order to retrace the migration paths of human existence.  After collecting the DNA samples, they decided to see if spending an afternoon on 30th Avenue in Astoria during a street fair would provide them with a sample of each of the genetic lineage that they had found during the course of their work.

Lo and behold, 193 volunteers later and they came very, very close to succeeding their goal.  Just one genetic lineage was missing from the sampling, which was the lineage of a Khoisan hunter-gatherer tribe in southern African (who had apparently diverged from modern humans over 100,000 years ago).

While Astorians may not have any Khoisan blood, I'm still impressed by this result, but not surprised that they chose 30th Ave as their study location!

Four stars

I saw 4 stars tonight on my nighttime stroll in Astoria!  That's 3 more than I've ever seen in Manhattan :)

Irene irks Astoria

A huge tree that fell half a block from our apartment, even lifting up the cement!  Amazingly the car next to it was hardly damaged.

So far the storm (which has been downgraded from a category 1 hurricane to a tropical storm as of 9am this morning) has brought rain, wind, and some damage to our fair city. In Queens 25,000 people are without electricity, but luckily Astoria itself has seemed to fare okay (knocking on wood as we may still a second wave coming our way).

Astoria's blowin' in the wind

Hurricane Irene is on her way up the east coast and we're bracing ourselves for a wet and windy rest of the weekend.  Our apartment building was spared from being on the zone list (albeit 2 blocks away from where Zone C begins), but regardless I'm sure it will be an interesting night and day tomorrow watching the storm unfold! To everyone in the path of Irene, stay safe and dry!

Well, at least retailers in NYC will meet their month-end quotas!

Irene is ensuring that New York retailers are meeting their month-end quotas by gracing us with her presence this weekend.  I ran a few errands after work and couldn't believe the lines!  First I waited 25 minutes in a line at the drugstore where people were stocking up on water, first aid kits, and snacks and then stopped by my grocery store to pick up a few items for dinner and waited a whopping 30 minutes in line (the 10 items or less line no less). As packed as that grocery store gets, I've never waited more than 5 minutes in line!  Both stores were more packed than I'd ever seen them and people are definitely heeding the city/media's advice to get prepared.

Hoping that Irene decides to change her plans for the weekend!

Census tract 281=most diverse place!

Census tract 281, which is a 3 block area in Jackson Heights, Queens (from 83rd St. to 86th St.), is officially the most diverse census in the city.  With 21 languages spoken and 51 different countries represented, I think it's safe to assume that this census is probably the most diverse in the country, let alone the world!  More than 70% of residents speak a language other than English, including (but not limited to) Spanish, French, Russian, Hindi, Chinese, and Tagalog!  All in 3 blocks no less.

What a fun area for exploration :) J and I often venture to Jackson Heights for its great dining options, but I think a specific trip to this census tract is in order!

Food update #4

Tierras Colombianas (3301 Broadway): Huge restaurant and menu offering a wide variety of Columbian foods.  I got the Bandeja Campesina (country plate) which was filled with every quintessential Columbian food group (meat, beans, rice, plantains, avocado, a unique bread made of corn, and topped with an egg) and J got a delicious fried chicken platter that came with similar sides.  You can't go wrong as there are so many delicious options, very large portions, and unbeatable prices! We will undoubtedly be back to make headway on this enormous menu :)

Harissa (34-05 30th Ave): Delightful mediterranean/North African restaurant serving traditional middle eastern and North African cuisine.  It looks like a takeout place at first glance, but there is table service in back.  We got the single front table that overlooks the sidewalk and it was a perfect evening to sit and enjoy the atmosphere of Astoria life.  This time around we stuck to their middle eastern offerings, but their North African options and breakfast menu sounds outrageous as well so we'll be sure to come back for a tasting of all of that.  Very reasonable prices to boot!

My vote: keep the dash

Unlike the other four boroughs that make up New York City, the addresses in Queens have a hyphen to provide people with additional information on their target address.  In a recent Daily news article (click here), I discovered that there is apparently a controversy over whether the hyphen should remain in the address or not.  The article describes the historical context and current hyphen controversy.

To get you up to speed, the logic in the hyphen's use is quite simple and, in my mind, very helpful in determining where the address you're seeking is located.  As the article describes clearly: "a typical street address in Queens has the form X-Y and Z.  If Z is a street, then X is the closest lower-number avenue.  If Z is an avenue, then X is the closest lower-number street.  In both cases Y, after the hyphen, is the house number." I think having this logic to the addresses is really beneficial as I can always figure out where I'm going without having to rely on google maps!

While the original need for the hyphen may not be necessary anymore (see article for historical explanation), I don't really understand why other Queens residents are baffled by this and against having the hyphen.  I am pro hyphen all the way!

[Update]: Waje

Okay so I cooked the waje and apparently you can't eat the shell, only the small seeds inside (picture below).  Definitely more of an involved side dish than I was planning on for dinner.  Quite an interesting legume!

A legume that can't be located on google... who knew that was possible?!

I decided to purchase a legume I had never heard of at the market that was named "waje."  Looks like a string bean and assume that I can cook it the same way...  I hope!  Just to be sure and to learn more about this bean, I googled it and can't seem to find anything on this food.  Did you think that was possible?  I sure didn't!  Either Trade Fair gave it the wrong name or they're discovered a new legume :)  What do you think?  Have you ever heard of waje?

Picture perfect weather

No picture enclosed as it wouldn't do the day justice, but we had such great weather today that I have to give mother nature a shout out. There were threats of rain predicted, but all day we had beautiful blue skies and the temp was in the low 80s with relatively low humidity. Definitely took advantage of it and hope you did too if you were fortunate enough to have this kind of weather (and didn't have to work)!  I have to admit after the July we had, I thought August was going to be a bit tougher than it has been!  Definitely no complaints here :)

Choices choices choices

How can you decide which type and brand of tortilla to go with when there are this many to choose from?!

How fitting

What a fitting name for the middle school near my apartment (although I do have to admit I was surprised they went with this name):

The characters of Astoria

Astoria is not only unique in its diversity, but also its characters!  Meet a few of the interesting people that I've encountered on my block alone since moving out here:

• Jimmy: my neighbor who is often found hanging out outside the entrance way to our building; anytime I have seen the UPS man on our block (3 times thus far), Jimmy is always chatting with him and walking with him from delivery to delivery 
• Neighbor #2: I don't know his name, but he's always leaning against a car outside the entrance way to our building smoking a cigarette nine times out of ten when I come and go from the building! He always has a smile on his face and a friendly hello when we pass, but I can't get past the fact that he is always wearing a sweatshirt and jeans... even when the temperatures were reaching well past 100!
• The neighborhood gossipers: several groups of men (sometimes Greek, sometimes Eastern European) sit on the benches outside the park at the end of my block and kibbitz all evening long. I often see my super hanging out with one of the usual groups and regardless of whose group's turn it is, it's always a packed bench!