Last day of Eastern European History class today. And Boris Yeltsin died yesterday. Sort of sad. I often listen to the Soviet National Anthem on the way to class. Or sometimes Scorpions' "Wind of Change." But my I-pod is broken right now. American conservatives love to write about how evil the Soviet Union was. And certainly Stalin was evil. And certainly the Soviet Union, even before and after Stalin, failed to live up to Marxist ideals, big time. But that's just it. Unlike Nazism, which had an evil ideology, the ideology behind the Soviet Union was not evil. In fact, it was quite noble. Which is why I personally distinguish it in my mind from Nazism very easily. That's why we can fairly debate who was more evil, Stalin or Hitler (I still say Hitler) but we cannot fairly debate which is more evil, Nazism or Communism.

Also sad that David Halberstam died. My buddy Nick got me a copy of his book on Ted Williams, signed, with this dedication: "From one Crimson editor to another." I knew him only as a baseball writer, and he was a great one, but also a great man.

But enough of sadness. It's Yom Ha'aztmaut today! Israeli independence day. Of course, to some, this is Al Naqba (the catastrophe), a day of mourning. The two-sided nature of history. I have tremendous sympathy for the Palestinians and hope that we can achieve a fair, two-state solution soon, and also make sure that Israel's Arab citizens are granted real equality. All that said, Yom Ha'atzmaut is a great day for me. On my wall I have a picture of the two greatest human beings ever, sitting together: Albert Einstein and David Ben Gurion. Heroes. And both of them secular socialist Zionists, like ME! (We can argue whether Einstein was an atheist or not, but he was certainly secular). Also, they're both old at the time and look like adorable puppy dogs.

Am Yisrael Chai!

So these are my favourite things to eat in New York city so far, in no particular order:

1. Halal Chicken on rice.
-absolutely delicious. I like to get it with white sauce, because I think it's spicy enough with hot sauce. There are several good vendors near NYU. Sammy was voted best vendor in New York. He's on W. 4th near University, or is it Broadway. He's really good.

2. 14th street papaya
-any papaya will do, but this is my local one. I like the Papaya juice. And the Chili Dogs.

3. BB Cheesesteak sandwich.
-$2.50 with an NYU student ID!!! Unorthodox but very delicious.

4. Tonnies
-Delicious cupcakes. In the same establishment as BB. I always get chocolate. Two for two dollars with an NYU student ID!!!

5. Negrille
-delicious Jamaican restaurant. Never crowded. I think that's because there was shooting there once, or something. But delicious jerk chicken, curried goat, and mussels. Love the mussels.

So supposedly tonight's episode of LOST will again center around the Sawyer-Kate-Jack love triangle (by Jack I mean Matthew Fox aka Charlie from Party of Five). LOST has definitely been struggling this season, in large part because they focused on the characters in the triangle, but not enough of the triangle itself. You see, the triangle actually anchors the show. It is it the axis upon which the other characters revolve.

So I have this theory. I called it "The Triangle Theory of Prime Time Drama." Basically, the theory is that primetime dramas need a love triangle to be compelling. LOST has Sawyer-Kate-Jack. Dawson's Creek has Dawson-Joey-Pacey. Felicity had Ben-Felicity-Noel. And 90210, the greatest all the shows, had the genius of the rotating triangles: Brenda-Dylan-Kelly followed by Dylan-Kelly-Brandon. 90210 was so brilliant because it incorporated Val to form other mini triangles which were also compelling: Val-David-Donna, Val-Dylan-Kelly, Val-Brandon-Kelly. Val practically existed to be in mini triangles with Kelly.

Meanwhile, The O.C. had no triangle. It just had two central couples who would fight, break up, and get back together again. This is why the show failed. As funny as Seth and Sandy were, they couldn't keep it afloat. If Seth had hooked up with Marissa and Ryan with Summer, different story.

Anyways, I think there's a lot of truth to this theory. Maybe I should send it to Bill Simmons.