The Rare Book Room

The three of us took advantage of nice weather to eat sushi outdoors, at a restaurant across the street from the main library. I asked what tempura came with the tempura+nigiri lunch plate, and when I was enthusiastic about sweet potato, she offered to bring me only sweet potato, which I happily accepted.

It was good tempura, and I was pleasantly surprised that my ten pieces of nigiri included ama obi (raw shrimp), which was excellent. In the past, when I've specifically ordered ama ebi, the servers have asked if I know that it's raw shrimp. The plate also included the much more common cooked shrimp, along with fish, octopus, squid, and rice-stuffed tofu skin, which I gave to Adrian and Cattitude.

On our way to lunch, we passed a table with a sign offering people $2 to swab their noses. After we ate, I asked what they were studying--it's sampling for whatever viruses happen to be going around, as a supplement to wastewater testing, done by the same people. Sure, we'll do that; it wasn't even uncomfortable (unlike swabbing my nose for at-home covid and flu tests).

My other small contribution to public health was filling out the Your Local Epidemiologist weekly survey of people who live in or near the cities where the World Cup games are being played. The questions are about World Cup-related health and safety concerns, if any, and where I'm getting health-related information. They're sending questions weekly to people who signed up ahead of time.