Trout Stuffed with Seafood and the End of a War

Growing up in Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay one of my favorite dishes was stuffed flounder. It was too expensive for my budget so I could only order when I was on a business trip, which for me was quite often. My first job was a research assistant at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Most of my summer and a bit of the winter was spent collecting data along Virginia's coastlines. When I moved to Dallas, I found the seafood here to be of a lesser quality and more expensive. However, over the years, the availability of fresh trout brought this dish back into being for me. So on Sunday I made Trout Stuffed with Crab and Shrimp with a Buerre Blanc sauce. The accompaniment was jambalaya and a mango salsa. A quick call out to a friend who had us over on Saturday...great gumbo and the reason I made jambalaya as a side dish.

The End of a War

This blog is about the IP ecosystem and information that influences it. However, I felt the need to note the end of the war in Sri Lanka. I know few of you have ever made the trek to Sri Lanka but I was asked to speak there in 1994. My specialty was open systems and the Internet. I was working for Tandem Computers at the time and we were just beginning to penetrate the market.

It was an interesting trip. I had tea with Sri Lanka's first female Prime Minister, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge, and Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001 A Space Odyssey, along with six to seven other invited executives. To enter the Prime Minister's Office, our cars were search for bombs, inside and under the carriage. We went through metal detectors and soldiers with machine guns and rifles were everywhere. I knew a war with the Tamil Tigers was under way but I had not expected to see its impact. The tea was a very special event and after an introduction to Mr. Clarke, I produced a book he had written concerning his proposal for geostationary satellite communications. It followed an article he had written on the subject in 1945, ultimately becoming his most famous prediction. He was quite surprised to see the book and very honored that I was carrying it for a friend to have it autographed by him. He told us a quick story about his early years and wrote a wonderful passage to my friend.

A few days later, I left Sri Lanka as the Tamil Tigers launched another attack killing many civilians and a few soldiers. It was sad to see such a beautiful country and people torn by war. On Sunday, 15 years later the Tamil Tigers were defeated and announced the war over. It was good to see Sri Lankans dancing in the streets of Colombo celebrating their victory.

On Wednesday I will be back to discussing our IP ecosystem. Please forgive this digression.