China Celebrates First Dragon Boat Festival in Space

BEIJING â€" Whenever Chinese astronauts blast off into space, there’s interest here on earth in China about what they will eat. As the saying goes: “for the people, food is heaven.”

So it was fitting that the Beijing News recorded on its front page, of 14 pages of coverage about yesterday’s launch of the Shenzhou 10 capsule, that the two male and one female astronauts will eat “dousha zong,” or sticky rice dumplings stuffed with sweet red beans and wrapped in green leaves, usually known as “zongzi.” Today is Dragon Boat Festival in China, a public holiday when the celebratory, triangular food, stuffed, wrapped and boiled by millions of families at home, is widely consumed.

As the China Daily noted, this is the “First Dragon Boat Festival in Space.”

In 2003, when Yang Liwei, China’s first astronaut to enter space, took off in the Shenzhou 5, China’s first manned spacecraft, he ate another national favorite which is also beloved of non-Chinese: “Kung Pao chicken,” or “quick-fried chicken with peanuts,” as the Shanghai Star reported (the dish also includes plenty of chili. Translated literally, it’s grander-sounding: “Palace Protect Chicken Cubes.”) The Shenzhou 10 astronauts will have some Kung Pao chicken with them as well as other food, including tea, China Daily said, citing other media reports, in a story also carried by People’s Daily online.

On earth, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, hailed the successful launch of the space capsule with a Long March rocket as a “Space Dream” for China, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. That seemed to project further afield, into space, Mr. Xi’s so-far terrestrial “China Dream” which he, and state and party media, have spoken about regularly since he took power.

President Xi was at the launch site on the edges of the Gobi Desert at Jiuquan as the Shenzhou 10 lifted off at 17:38 on Tuesday, Xinhua reported.

“In his speech, the president highlighted the Space Dream that China has pursued continuously by developing the space program and turning the country into a space power,” Xinhua wrote.

“The Party and the people will never forget the prominent achievements made by all the comrades for the nation’s space undertakings,” Xinhua cited Mr. Xi as saying.

As well as  food, numerology can be a serious business here, and the Beijing News noted that the Shenzhou 10 capsule represented an auspicious collection of 10s: “10 years, 10 times and 10 people,” referring to how it’s the 10th year since the first manned space flight, there have been 10 trips in all and 10 Chinese have entered space, it said.

It cited the chief designer on the engineering project, Zhou Jianping, as saying: “In China, 10 has a special meaning. We are confidently expecting that the Shenzhou 10 will complete its tasks ’10 whole 10 beautiful!’” slang for “flawlessly.”

Those tasks include giving science lessons from space, The Associated Press reported. The Shenzhou is to dock in the small Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) space station, a forerunner for the space station China wants up and running around 2020.

“On the heels of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield’s wildly popular YouTube videos from the International Space Station, the Chinese crew plans to deliver a series of talks to students from aboard the Tiangong,” the A.P. reported.

Food, numerology and education aside, there are other issues, Reuters reported. “While Beijing claims its space program is for peaceful purposes, a Pentagon report last month highlighted China’s increasing space capabilities and said it was pursuing activities aimed at preventing its adversaries from using space-based assets during a crisis.”

It added, “Fears of a space arms race with the U.S. and other powers mounted after China blew up one of its weather satellites with a ground-based missile in January 2007.”

The Dragon Boat Festival is believed to commemorate the suicide of a poet and statesman, Qu Yuan, nearly 2,300 years ago, during the Warring States period, in 278 B.C.

French Foodies Fight Boil-in-a-Bag Trend

LONDON â€" In a fight back against a rising tide of boil-in-a-bag meals and other gastronomic horrors, France is to consider a law change that would limit use of the word “restaurant” to establishments that use proper ingredients prepared on the premises.

In a proposal being formally presented on Tuesday, the National Assembly is being asked to consider a measure that would bar about a third of the country’s outlets from calling themselves restaurants, according to estimates from a restaurant trade union that is backing the ban.

Some of France’s top chefs say the list of offenders is much higher, claiming preprepared “industrial cooking” is the norm in three out of four of the country’s 150,000 restaurants.

The brouhaha comes less than three years after Unesco, the international cultural agency, added French cuisine to its “world intangible heritage” list.

But it also follows the European horsemeat scandal, which tarnished France’s foodie image because some of the tainted meat may actually have ended up on French restaurant tables.

In a proposed amendment to an upcoming consumer protection law, Pascale Got, a legislator of the governing Socialist Party, says restaurants worth the name would have to guarantee their meals were made from raw materials cooked on the spot.

Menus would have to inform diners whether what was on their plate was freshly made or was a reheated industrial dish.

The measure appears to have a cross-party support. A similar amendment was put forward by Daniel Fasquelle and 30 of his parliamentary colleagues from the opposition U.M.P.

Didier Chenet, head of the Synhorcat restaurant and hotel union, which supports the amendment, said a survey showed a change in the law could encourage two-thirds of establishments to abandon industrial food and go back to real cooking.

He said the word “restaurant” had been abused in France. “In the United States, a grill is called a grill,” he told France’s Lyon Capitals. “There’s nothing wrong with a grill but it’s not the same thing as a restaurant.”

Mr. Chenet’s union believes the law change could create as many as 27,000 jobs in the industry.

Others are not so sure. Six organizations from the restaurant, hotel, cafe and fast-food trades, say the name restriction could lead to a loss of jobs and would be confusing to the public, particularly foreign tourists.

They favor the creation of an “artisan-restaurateur” designation that would have the same effect of specifying establishments where traditionally prepared food was on offer.

Some of France’s leading chefs have decided to take their own action against a boil-in-the-bag food culture and not wait for a change in the law.

Michelin-starred chefs, who include Alain Ducasse, Joël Robuchon and Anne-Sophie Pic, have begun an initiative to save France’s food image by creating a Restaurant de Qualité label for restaurants and bistros that prepare fresh food in their own kitchens and give diners a proper welcome.

According to Mr. Ducasse, “The average person has no idea what they are in for when they open the door to a restaurant.”

Do we really know what we’re eating when we sit down to a restaurant meal? Are French foodies right to defend traditional cuisine from a fast food takeover? Or is it all a storm in a sauce boat? Let us know your thoughts.

Spoiler Alert: Phrase Is Overused

A graph from the “Chronicle” tool â€" created by my colleague Alexis Lloyd to track use of words and phrases in The Times â€" shows the history of the phrase “spoiler alert.”

This colloquial, even cutesy, phrase became popular some years back in online discussions of movies, books and TV, as a courtesy to alert a reader if a plot twist was about to be revealed. But as the graph suggests, we’ve become infatuated with it in the last few years, and we’re on track for a record this year. The expression has spread far beyond its original purpose, and now often seems like an all-purpose plea for attention: Hey! I’m about to tell you something interesting! In most cases it does nothing to actually alert the reader, since the “spoiler” is often the very next phrase.

Let’s raise the bar for this overused quirk. A few recent examples we could probably have done without:

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If a kitchen represents a temperate forest, few of its plants would be poison ivy. Most of the inhabitants are relatively benign. In any event, eradicating them is neither possible nor desirable. Dr. Fierer wants to make visible this intrinsic, if unseen, aspect of everyday life. “For a lot of the general public, they don’t care what’s in soil,” he said. “People care more about what’s on their pillowcase.” (Spoiler alert: The microbes living on your pillowcase are not all that different from those living on your toilet seat. Both surfaces come in regular contact with exposed skin.)

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With the season finale of “Parks and Rec” suggesting that his character may about to become â€" spoiler alert! â€" a father, Margy Rochlin met with Mr. Offerman to find out about his one-man stage show; what advice Frank might give Ron about parenthood; and what’s on the menu at a Ron Swanson-themed tailgate party.

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While some people may question why the Army is getting into a genre like program-length commercials, “We approach it in such a way that would belie any such negativity,” Ms. Nocella said, by “pulling the curtain back on the recruiting process” and depicting “the truth of what it means to be a soldier.”

The Army “may not be for everybody,” she added, “and everybody is not for the Army.”

Spoiler alert. Of the 10 civilians who appear in “Starting Strong,” initially “two decided to join the Army and a third decided to join the Army Reserves,” Mr. Davis said, adding that subsequently the number reached “seven or eight.”

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While the museum will not confirm who will attend until Monday night, things do tend to leak. As usual, the star power will be overwhelming, and while things can always change, those rumored to be coming (spoiler alert!) include Jennifer Lopez with Michael Kors, Gwyneth Paltrow with Valentino, and Jennifer Lawrence and Marion Cotillard with Dior. Alexander Wang is said to be working on a custom Balenciaga look for Julianne Moore.

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So I ignored Kevin’s texts and calls, patiently waiting for him to realize we really were supposed to be together. When I was back home for New Year’s I made sure every status advertised my whereabouts for the night. How else was he going to burst in at midnight to tell me he couldn’t live without me? Spoiler alert: he didn’t.

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Zicasso, an online luxury travel service, is offering an eight-day journey starting at $3,250 per person (excluding airfare) that visits Highclere Castle in Newbury, England, home to a real earl and countess that doubles as the Downton estate in the show, as well as other filming locations in Oxfordshire, and a country home in Staffordshire. You can also channel (spoiler alert!) poor Matthew Crawley’s last days by adding on an excursion to Inveraray Castle in the Scottish Highlands, a place that Season 3 viewers know as Duneagle.

 
In a Word

This week’s grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers.

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Mr. Griffin argued MSNBC’s coverage of the Boston bombings matched any other channel’s, though he acknowledged that the network had access to Mr. Williams, one of the stars of the Boston coverage, only when he wasn’t on NBC.

This would be smoother and read less like journalese with “that” after “argued.”

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At the time, experts believed that a married woman should work only to kill time while searching for a husband or to fill time after the children had left home.

A confusing sentence; clearly the first situation applies to an “unmarried woman.”

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But large amounts of foreign alcohol is smuggled in, and many Iranians drink a kind of homemade vodka known as arak sagi, or dog sweat.

Agreement problem. Make it “large amounts â€" are smuggled in” or “a large amount … is smuggled in.”

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Ms. Tutterow said she was not taken aback by the amount of negative reactions or their tone, but, “We’re a bit surprised it’s turned into a story.”

Number, not amount, with the plural “reactions.”

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But Aaron Goldman, a former accountant and sales manager in a blue baseball cap, jumped to his feet and banged on the table as plastic wear bounced.

We meant “ware,” not “wear” (later fixed online), and the compound should probably be one word, like silverware.

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Us joke-makers both professional and nonprofessional need to be adept at temperature-gauging, and to be quick to put the “more” in “remorse.”

Even with the light tone of this piece, we needed “we joke-makers” as the subject.

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The Chinese government has insisted it is a victim of cyberattacks, not a perpetrator, and Chinese officials have vigorously denied the extensive evidence gathered by the Pentagon and private security experts that a unit of the People’s Liberation Army, Unit 61398 outside Shanghai, is behind many of the most sophisticated attacks on the United States.

An awkward phrase. They deny the allegation, or they dispute or reject the evidence.

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The risks became apparent on Sunday when relatives confirmed that Mr. Samaras, 55, along with his 24-year-old son, Paul, and his colleague, Carl Young, 45, were killed while chasing the storms that ravaged parts of Oklahoma on Friday.

Agreement problem. Make it “Mr. Samaras … was killed.” The prepositional phrase beginning “along with” does not make the subject plural.

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The setting was not a dark city street but a 9,000-square-foot estate in a green, historic Connecticut town whose residents have included Eugene O’Neill, Judy Collins and Henry Luce.

Presumably we meant that the house â€" not the entire estate â€" was 9,000 square feet, which is less than a quarter of an acre.

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Tomic said he had not decided whom that person would be, but that perhaps it would come before the grass-court season begins in the run-up to Wimbledon.

Make it “who,” not “whom.”

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GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. â€" In the middle of the enduring conflict between liberty and public welfare stands Joyce Osborn Wilson and her teeth-whitening business.

Make the verb plural to agree with the compound subject (“stand Joyce Osborn and her teeth-whitening business”), or rephrase.

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But really, neither the Radwanskas, who are much younger, nor Serena, who might be playing the best tennis of her career at age 31, are in Venus’s position.

In a neither/nor construction, the verb must agree with the nearer part of the subject, in this case the singular Serena. Better still, rephrase.

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But neither Rutgers nor Parker were aware of the existence of a two-page letter that her players wrote in 1997, saying she abused them and forced them to “endure mental cruelty.”

Another agreement problem. Make it “neither Rutgers nor Parker was aware.”

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“I fully anticipate the mainstream liberal media to put a detrimental spin on my decision not to seek a fifth term,” she said in a gauzy network-television quality video posted on her campaign Web site.

We needed two hyphens to hold the modifier together: “network-television-quality.” Or simply “network-quality.”

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Already, the mulish behavior of Congressional Republicans has led to the creation of the sequester, blocked action on economic growth and climate change, prevented reasonable checks on gun purchases and threatens to blow up a hard-fought compromise on immigration.

Not parallel. The “has” is understood with the subsequent verbs, but it doesn’t work with “threatens.” Rephrase.

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Accusations about Ms. Hermann’s behavior at Louisville and Tennessee, including reportedly abusive conduct toward players on a volleyball team she coached, dominated the college sports world, plunging her and Rutgers into a controversy for the second time in as many months. …

Others said that it felt like Ms. Hermann had been fast-tracked ahead of other candidates.

In the second sentence, don’t use “like” as a conjunction; make it “it felt as if …”

In the first passage, note the admonition in The Times’s stylebook:

as many. Avoid this mannerism: twice in as many days; third in as many days. The wording is untidy because the phrase as many requires a cardinal number for completion (as many as two; as many as three). Make it twice in two days and third in three days. With a cardinal number (five times in as many days), the phrase is more grammatical, but still journalese.

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While trying to stand up, the agent, who suffered a wound to his face from the table that required stitches, drew his gun and saw Mr. Todashev running at him with a metal pole, according to the official, adding that it might have been a broomstick.

We should have started over with this awkward and confusing sentence.

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Who says pizza delivery is just for dorm rooms and children’s birthday parties?

This lead is odd. Plenty of grownups, including most of our readers, order pizza for delivery occasionally. Rather than start with a question premise that seems off-kilter, perhaps we should have focused on the trend in question: delivered pizza as the main course at otherwise fancy public events.

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City officials say that the carousel’s operator may not take “creative liberties” with any future renovation work, but instead must follow the painting pattern that has already been proscribed.

“Proscribed” means forbidden or denounced; we wanted “prescribed.”

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This is behavior not becoming of a congresswoman.

This construction with “becoming” â€" or, more commonly, “unbecoming” â€" doesn’t take “of.” For example: “conduct unbecoming an officer.”

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While the bacteria, which causes fruit to turn bitter and drop from the trees when still unripe, affects all citrus fruits, it has been most devastating to oranges, the largest crop.

“Bacteria” is plural.

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On a sunny Wednesday, with a faint haze hanging over the Rockies, Noah Fierer eyed the field site from the back of his colleague’s Ford Explorer.

The verb “eyed” has a tabloid flavor and is oddly vague. Did he carefully observe, survey, gaze at, study?

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Consumer spending has also been strikingly resilient so far this year, given the tax hikes.

The stylebook says, “Do not use hike as a synonym for increase, whether noun or verb.”

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Ms. Francis’s show, originally broadcast from Sardi’s, the theater district restaurant, became known for the wide range of guests Ms. Bach booked, including Ellington, Leopold Stokowski and Carl Sandburg.

Following two sibilant sounds, we didn’t want another S after the apostrophe here. From the stylebook:

possessives. Ordinarily form a possessive by adding ‘s to a singular noun (the boy’s boots; the girl’s coat), even if the noun already ends in an s (The Times’s article). If the word ends in two sibilant sounds (ch, j, s, sh, x or z) separated only by a vowel sound, drop the s after the apostrophe (Kansas’ climate; Texas’ population). But keep the s after the apostrophe when a name ends in a silent sibilant letter (Arkansas’s; Malraux’s).

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But the Obama-Christie bromance is about so much more than that.

This recent slang is already looking awfully tired.

IHT Quick Read: June 11

NEWS President Bashar al-Assad’s gains on the battlefield have called the United States’ strategy on Syria into question, prompting the Obama administration to again consider military options, administration officials said on Monday. Michael R. Gordon and Mark Landler report from Washington.

As Justice Department officials began the process Monday to charge Edward J. Snowden, a 29-year-old former C.I.A. computer technician, with disclosing classified information, he checked out of a hotel in Hong Kong where he had been staying for several weeks, according to two American officials. It was not clear where he went. Michael S. Schmidt and Eric Schmitt report from Washington, and Keith Bradsher from Hong Kong.

Several high-profile rape cases involving foreign women are keeping tourists away from India, with one trade group reporting that visits by women are down 35 percent. Neha Thirani Bagri and Heather Timmons report from Mumbai.

Ghana has begun cracking down on Chinese migrants who have overstayed their visas in the hope of getting wealthy in one of Africa’s richest gold fields. Adam Nossiter and Yiting Sun report from Dakar, Senegal.

Apple introduced on Monday a major redesign of its mobile software system and upgrades for some of its Mac computers. It also unveiled a new online music service. Brian X. Chen reports from San Francisco.

Two longtime friends â€" Jens Weidmann, the president of the Bundesbank, and Jörg Asmussen, a member of the executive board of the European Central Bank â€" will appear before Germany’s highest court on Tuesday to argue opposite sides of a fateful question: What if the promise that holds the euro zone together is unconstitutional? Jack Ewing reports.

The international lenders overseeing Greece’s bailout were back in Athens on Monday for their latest audit, with Greek officials hoping that dissent in the lending group might allow them new negotiating room. Niki Kitsantonis reports from Athens.

Air traffic controllers in France have planned three days of strikes beginning Tuesday to protest a proposal by the European Commission to accelerate the integration of air traffic management systems across the Continent. Nicola Clark reports from Paris.

ARTS The British artist and sculptor William Turnbull leaves works tracing the full trajectory of postwar art with 40 pieces exhibited in the gardens of Chatsworth, one of Britain’s grandest houses. Roslyn Sulcas reviews from Chatsworth, England.

SPORTS After all the fuss of the Spanish Grand Prix, when some teams and fans complained that problems with the Pirelli tires were turning the racing into a farce, the Canadian Grand Prix was as classic a race as the series has produced. Brad Spurgeon reports from Montreal.