China Road

Whenever we're hungry for Chinese food, we head for China Road. http://www.chinaroad-ny.com/index.html It's a bit of a drive for us. Located a little north of Syracuse proper on Route 11 (Brewerton Rd.) in the village of Mattydale, it's near the airport. It's just across the four lane main drag from the Hollywood Cinema, a long-lived, second-run movie house. It's an unassuming place, even a little worn. The building décor is very modest. If you didn't know the best Chinese food outside New York City was inside, you'd pass right by. It has changed little in the past fifteen years or so that we've been eating there.

The front room is small, maybe ten tables with red cloth tablecloths covered with white paper. A larger back room is used for parties. You will always find Simon Teng or his wife Jenny at the cash register. They great every customer with a happy “Hi, how are you.” We often come here on Sunday evening. On most visits the place is nearly full with about half the tables filled by Chinese people: professionals, families and students. Some nights it's very busy and the service a bit slower. Some nights only the front room is open and take-out is the main business. The fantastic food and the friendly atmosphere keep us coming back week after week.

The menu is truly infinite. In addition to a “regular” Chinese menu in English with all items found in nearly every other Chinese restaurant, there is a second menu printed in Chinese with a much longer list of specialities. There are also seasonal specials printed in English and Chinese on white boards in the dining rooms. Then there is the vegetarian menu featuring everything imaginable made from tofu including vegetarian duck, vegetarian beef and vegetarian pork. Finally, there is anything else you can name, made to special order.

We once brought a bunch of workers' comp lawyers from Queens here. After they spent a lot of time looking over all the menu selections, one of them announced his favorite dish from a restaurant in Flushing was not listed. As soon as he mentioned the name of the favored item, Simon the owner, said without hesitation, “I will make for you.” The result was proclaimed “better than in New York City.”

I think some diners are disappointed in China Road because they only order familiar items off the English menu. Those items are good, but not truly special. I suspect Simon and his crew of wok-men are so used to making them that they don't get the same lavish care as some of the less common items with more expensive ingredients.

For an example of the unique cooking coming out of Simon' kitchen stop in during the weeks following Chinese New Years. On the board you will see half a dozen unfamiliar items. Ask the server what they are, then try some of them. Take a chance. Shanghai soup dumplings turn out to be dumplings filled with savory hot soup. Lobster any style is an eye popping disarticulated two pounder with your choice of sauce. There is always something that catches our fancy, then in a few weeks it's gone, at least until next year.

Perhaps the peak experience we've had here is a full Chinese banquet. We couldn't help notice that the groups of Chinese customers often receive items served family style clearly not from the menu. Nearly every Sunday some group has a party in the large room. We would watch as steaming dishes of every kind pass us by. We finally asked Simon about the food for the parties. He explained they are ordered in advance. The number of dishes determines the price.

When one of the members of our book club went on a study tour of China, we decided a celebratory Chinese banquet was in order to welcome her back. The week before the event Merry and I met with Simon to choose the items. We had some favorites, but Simon really set the menu once he knew how much we wanted to spend ($25 per person, I think). The night of the banquet we just sat back as the meal unfolded. On the lazy susan table top appeared three trays of appetizers, two different tureens of soup, a large whole crispy fish in black bean sauce, four more main courses, a mountain of rice and a special dessert. It took us about two hours to eat it all. We could not have feasted better anywhere.

Next time you find yourself hungry in Syracuse, give China Road a try.

Week off

I've been sick with a cold this week and am still fighting it off. My mind is a bit clouded, so I've decided to take a week off from the blog.

Anyone looking for some terrific writing should pick up this week's (Mar. 22, 2010) New Yorker and check out John McPhee's “Pioneer.” It's about the lacrosse match-up just last month between the University of Denver and Syracuse University. It's non-fiction writing at its very best. You can read a sample on the New Yorker's web site here: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/03/22/100322fa_fact_mcphee

I'll be back next week.

Fish'er Chips

I held hearings this past week in Canton, NY. Canton was chosen for hearings because it is somewhat centrally located in the part of the state colloquially known as The North Country. This distinct geographic area is the northern-most part of New York. The north country runs along the Canadian border down the St. Lawrence River valley from Watertown to the Thousand Islands to Ogdensburg then Massena. Then it leaves the river to follow the inland border to Rouses Point at the top of Lake Champlain. It forms a narrow band just north of the more rugged and mostly wooded Adirondacks. The land here is generally flat and open – thin soils on top of limestone. The primary occupation is dairy farming. There's a little light industry, some state prisons, and a few colleges. In the past decade Amish farmers have bought a substantial number of farms. Their horse-drawn buggies are everywhere. The St. Lawrence Seaway provides some port and lock jobs. The Akwesasne Mohawk reservation spans part of the border with a casino, a bingo hall, tax-free cigarettes and allegedly an active smuggling operation. There is a big Border Patrol presence.

It's hard to make a good living in the north country. A great deal of the work is part-time and seasonal. To be financially independent everyone needs at least two jobs.

The SSA hearings are held in a conference room at the Canton Best Western Hotel on the edge of the St. Lawrence University golf course. I hauled two briefcases of portable computer equipment in from my car and my hearing clerk, Pat, set up the room. SSA also hires a security guard from the private security firm Wackenhut to protect me from who knows what.

After all our preparations the claimant in my first case of the day didn't show up. This gave me a chance to get a cup of coffee and relax for a few minutes. I struck up a conversation with Steve Fisher, my security guard for the next three days. I discovered Steve had retired from the Ogdensburg Police Department a few years earlier at the age of 47. He a stocky youthful looking guy with a round face, his sandy hair cut into a dutch-boy with bangs. I asked him how he got the security job.

“Well, I was over at the Social Security office visiting my wife who works there. The manager for Wackenhut happened to be there that day. He asked me if I'd want to do part-time security work, and gave me an application. I took it home to look at, but it was a big packet of papers, so I tossed it into the cupboard. A week later he called me to ask why I hadn't sent in my application. I told him I was too busy to fill out all the paperwork. A week or so later he called again and told me he had set up an interview down in Syracuse. I drove down. After the interview they asked if I would be available so many days a month. I asked how much they paid and they showed me a chart. I told them for that much money I'd be available anytime. They hired me on the spot and here I am.”

I felt sure Steve had at least one other part-time job. He admitted he did own a few rental units around Ogdensburg and that kept him busy some of the time. When I asked if that was all he did, he remembered that he and another guy also did some snow plowing. “We do about a hundred places, by the job only. No contracts, when you have a contract they think they own you.” His main job, however, is his restaurant, Fish'er Chips.

When he retired from the PD he bought a former sporting goods store in downtown Ogdensburg. It's a small concrete block building. He tore out everything inside and remodeled. He scored a complete, nearly new, stainless steel stove hood for next to no money, but needed to move it. He told me the biggest issue was the built-in fire retardant system. He wasn't entirely sure how to take it apart and accidently set it off spraying himself and some of the ductwork with chemicals. He talked to friends across the river in Canada and got the recipes and procedures for first-rate fish and chips. He set up picnic tables outside for summer. His father agreed to work for him. As the local Dairy Queen had recently closed, he decided to add ice cream to the menu. He sweet talked the former Dairy Queen manager to come work for him. The Amish haul off his used cooking oil. He wasn't exactly sure what they do with it.

He was justifiably proud of what he had accomplished, building the place with his own hands from scratch. “On a nice summer day they're five deep in there.”

He opens for the season on Ash Wednesday. “Ogdensburg is a Catholic town, what with two cathedrals and all. You got to be open for Lent.”

He had not yet gotten in his ice cream supplies for the season, and lamented the recent warm weather that had brought in customers seeking ice cream. “The walkers were on the streets yesterday,” he told me on Wednesday. “I wish I had ice cream. I hope to be ready early next week.”

Perhaps his best decision was to paint two murals on the outside of the restaurant. “This high school girl I knew came in and asked if she could paint a wall as a class project. After a bit she convinced me and I paid for the paint. She did an aquarium. It turned out really neat and people liked it. The next summer she wanted to do some more, so I suggested an octopus holding up the things we sell. Now there's a purple octopus all around the front door. Kids love it. She did a really great job. I gave her some money to help with college.”

Of course I told Merry this story. She drove up, photographed the murals and had lunch there the next day. Before she got back, Steve's dad called him on his cell phone.

“Your wife liked our sweet potato fries.”

Deadbeats

“I guess you see a lot of people who try to fake being disabled.”

This is one of the first things new acquaintances say when I tell them that I'm an Administrative Law Judge for Social Security. Because nearly everyone has had some personal contact with Social Security, everyone has an opinion about the disability programs. Inevitably, almost everyone thinks a large number of people receiving benefits don't really deserve them. It doesn't matter if the person I'm talking to is an unemployed neighbor, a waitress, a business owner, or a politician. They all have an unquestioned belief that a great many people somehow cheat to get Social Security benefits.

This has not been my experience at all.

If there were a lot of deadbeats applying for benefits, I would certainly see some of them. The screening process used on applications pretty well assures that any marginal case is denied initially. All the deadbeats would have to appeal and come before an ALJ in order to trick their way to benefits. It just doesn't happen.

In fact, virtually everybody I see in my court genuinely believes they are too disabled to work. I see an amazing array of people of all ages with all kinds of disabling conditions. They come to my court to tell their sad story. Most have only the vaguest idea about the legal standard for disability, or how to meet it. They just know they can't work. They have tried.

So, what is the source of the opinion that a lot of Social Security claimants are deadbeats? Many people tell me they know someone who knows someone whose neighbor down the street is getting benefits but doesn't deserve them. On closer questioning, however, they admit they don't really know all the facts of any particular case. They have accepted someone else's opinion that they know a deadbeat, and that's enough proof for them.

The reason people are so quick to believe in the existence of Social Security cheats is the deep-seated belief that America is uniformly a country of rugged individuals who work hard to support themselves. The corollary of this belief is that someone who does not work for a living is just plain lazy. Unless they have personal experience with a disabling condition, it's hard for many people to believe a person can't work at least doing something. It's true I see a lot of people in my court who have lost the motivation to work because of their disability, but that certainly does not mean they could somehow magically be capable of earning a living if they only tried a bit harder.

Somewhere during this discussion I usually point out there is little financial incentive to cheat to obtain benefits because the benefits are barely enough to live on. For a person 60 years of age with a lifetime of past work at minimum wage, the SSD monthly benefit is only about $700. If the person had average lifetime annual earnings of $40,000 the benefit would be about $1,170, or about a third of what they were earning. Benefits are proportionate to the person's age and wage earning history but are never a real replacement for wages. You can check out the numbers yourself by using Social Security's handy benefit calculator at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator/. If the person did not work long enough or recently enough to qualify for SSD, they can only qualify for the Supplemental Security Income monthly benefit of about $675. People do not live like kings on these amounts.

Finally there is the fact that for any deadbeat to get benefits they would have to convince an experienced ALJ that they have a severe disability that has so eroded the occupational base that they can not perform the essential duties of any job. This is a hard test for anyone to meet.

For adults under age 50, the basic question I try to answer is, “can this person reasonably be expected to work at any job where they can make just barely enough money to live?” In a great majority of these cases I am faced in the end with the question of whether this person with their background, work history and limitations can now do unskilled sedentary work. Many judges, myself included, directly ask the claimant to explain why they could not do simple work such as receptionist, parking lot attendant, desk clerk, and so on. One ALJ in South Carolina told me he once took this line of questioning a step too far.

“So, tell me, sir, are you too disabled to do a desk job like mine?”

“Judge, I figure I could probably do your job, I just can't work.”

The ALJ quickly excused himself, but was overheard howling in laughter out in the hall.