Monday, December 22, 2014
As I watched football over the weekend, I was reminded that the 49th Super Bowl was coming on February 1, 2015. However, in the world of grandiosity that is professional sports and the National Football League particularly, we are looking forward to Super Bowl XLIX. It does look so much more important that way, after all. You can almost hear the sound of the chisel chipping into the granite.
However, it is the system of labeling that interests me – Roman numerals. It’s been a very long time since I learned about Roman numerals, but I am still able to read and write them easily. On the other hand, I don’t think that I ever knew how to add and subtract Roman numerals. http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/math/how-to-add-and-subtract-roman-numerals
Now, it is specifically how the next Super Bowl is denominated that interests me. Why isn’t Super Bowl IL looming 6 weeks from now, instead of Super Bowl XLIX? If IV = 4 and IX = 9, why shouldn’t IL = 49? This is the sort of question that Google has ruined. I could (but won’t) look it up, tout suite. Once upon a time, however, several otherwise sensible people would spend hours debating the wisdom of the Roman numeral rules, offering varying theories of their origin and utility. Now, we Google it as soon as the topic arises, settling the issue and leaving idle hours to fill with silly pursuits and amusements.
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Headline: "U.S. Economy Grew 5% in Third Quarter, Its Fastest Rate in More Than a Decade"
It must be some African Socialist mumbo-jumbo.
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Last night, I went to Madison Square Garden to see the Rangers win their seventh game in a row. However, the most interesting part of the evening occurred before the game began. The Garden starts its hockey games with the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner, joined by O Canada when one of the six Canadian teams are playing. A color guard accompanies the evening’s singer and, last night, the color guard was from the New York City Police Department. The applause was longer and louder than I ever heard in the Garden before. Then, spontaneous chants of N Y P D arose. Was it a tribute to the two cops assassinated by a mad man last week, a tragedy for the victims and their families, as well as for the fabric of the city, or was it a choosing of sides? I don’t know, so I stood without clapping or chanting.
Thanh Hoai 1, 73 Mulberry Street, opened five days ago, replacing Pho Viet Huong, another Vietnamese restaurant. A welcoming dragon is scheduled for this Sunday, in my absence. The premises, inside and out, have been thoroughly renovated. The walls are faux brick, and the room is meant to resemble the inside of a hut, admittedly a faux brick sided hut. The ceiling was painted sky blue with floating clouds of graffiti. The joint is quite roomy. There are nine tables large enough for six people with a heater embedded in the tabletop for hot pot preparations. Additionally, there are 10 two tops, 5 four tops and one round table. However, when I sat down, near one o’clock, I was the only customer. Before I left, fortunately, another 15 or so people arrived, including three female generations of a Vietnamese family.
The menu is large and diverse, but, having come through a cold rain, I ordered Dac Biet + Bo Vien (diacritics omitted) ($7.75), a big bowl of rice noodle beef soup, with slices of beef, sausage, and miscellaneous parts of a cow (?), the traditional Pho. It was good, filling and warming. I’ll continue exploring the menu next year.
Thursday, December 25, 2104
Yesterday, within seconds, I received the article below from our lovely neighbor directly across the hall and the Cindy in Florida. Many more copies arrived before the day was over.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/12/why-american-jews-eat-chinese-food-on-christmas/384011/?single_page=true
There was an immediate reaction to this article offering a warning that our non-holiday traditions are now threatened by Gentiles going to the movies and eating Chinese food on December 25th. http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/24/the-war-on-jewish-christmas-must-be-stopped/?hpid=z2
It turns out that today the Upper West Side’s Power Couple followed this well-established tradition by joining Burt and Gerri, he from Stuyvesant days, and some of their friends at Fortune House, 82 Henry Street, Brooklyn. In fact, our group numbered 17 people, only one of whom not old enough to collect Social Security. The place was full, mostly of larger than normal groups of the Hebraic persuasion, gathered to celebrate the absence of celebration.
We ate a lot, three Peking ducks ($28), spare ribs ($8.95), scallion pancakes ($3.50) were ordered for the table. Additionally, folks got other dishes, offering them to those nearby. I thus added beef chow fun ($6.95), fish fillet in black bean sauce ($10.50) and eggplant in garlic sauce ($8.25). I let a few other dishes go by, as well. If you are in the neighborhood at lunch time, Fortune House offers over 30 lunch specials, mostly at $6, including rice and soup or soda. Oddly, mustard or duck sauce are 25¢ extra.
Friday, December 26, 2014
I went to work today, Boxing Day "traditionally celebrated the day following Christmas Day, when servants and tradespeople would receive gifts, known as a ‘Christmas box’, from their bosses or employers," per Wikipedia. Having distributed envelopes rather than boxes to the staff at Palazzo di Gotthelf earlier this week, I had no reason to linger on the grounds today.
And, I wasn't the only one not boxed in today. When I left Wo Hop, 17 Mott Street, at 1:30 PM, there were 19 people waiting to get in, lining the stairs and out onto the sidewalk. Unlike yesterday, there were no evident ethnic distinctions. We were back to being one big, happy family, or not.
Friday, December 26, 2014
Friday, December 19, 2014
Alphabet City
Monday, December 15, 2014
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey collects purchasing data on almost 1,000 goods and services in the US. Two academics have organized the data for the period 2007-2012 by 18 metropolitan areas and come up with some fascinating results.
For instance, New York City is last (farthest below average) for purchasing alcoholic beverages at home. Minneapolis-St. Paul leads in this category, and for alcohol purchases outside home, which may account for them being last in buying watches, since time must lose its meaning when in a perpetual buzz. The converse is also true, with New York City spending far more on watches (punctuality and fashion) than any other locale. Not surprisingly, New York City leads in dining out, women’s footwear, men’s suits and wigs and hairpieces, while last in spending on pets, new cars, and lawn and garden.
I’m disappointed, though, in New York City placing second from the bottom in book purchases, with Seattle and San Francisco-San Jose in the lead. We may have an excuse for this in the time we spend (along with the money) in dining out, but folks in Miami combine the lowest rates in dining out and buying books. There is no accounting for time spent in dermatologists’ offices. There are other natural combinations: Houston leads in mutton, goat and game purchases, while spending the least on china and other dinnerware. After all, mutton, goat and game are best served on paper plates.
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
I’ve been going to Tasty Dumpling, 28 Mott Street, more often lately because of their reliably hot soup on these chilly days. Today, I found that they make a very good, very cheap scallion pancake ($1.50, no tax, no tip in this modest joint where you order at the counter). It comes in a greasy waxed paper sandwich bag, which is a bit daunting at first. However, the bag seems to pick up most of the grease, leaving the pancake relatively dry. What is lacking is the soy-ginger-rice wine-vinegar dipping sauce that complements your best scallion pancake. Maybe, if you come here often enough, you can save up for your own bottle.
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
I was challenged twice today, even before lunchtime. Both arose in the offices of Dr. Jeffrey Liebmann, distinguished ophthalmologist, who, alas, does not own Liebman’s Kosher Delicatessen, 552 West 235th Street, the last remaining Kosher delicatessen in the Bronx. First, I had to take that infernal vision field test, the one where you stick your head into a large, hollowed-out pumpkin and you have to push a button when you see pinpoint flashes of light. This has frustrated me several times before, because I’m so competitive that I don’t want the machine to get one by me. The only good thing about it was that they tested my left eye only, the one that has been a bit wobbly in prior tests.
The second challenge, and the more profound one, came in the large waiting room. A little old man (just how old, I can’t say) came in, huddled over, packed in several layers of black clothing held together by safety pins. His mouth hung open and I could see one tooth in his lower jaw. So, what? Well, he reeked, he stank. Each time that he left the waiting room to see a doctor or a technician in back, the receptionist jumped up and sprayed air freshener behind him. For better or worse, I am sufficiently stuffed up when the weather turns cold that the 10 feet between us was an adequate buffer. But, it was nasty.
Where was a companion or relative to see to his personal condition, to escort him to the doctor and help explain some of the simple things that seemed to confuse him and led to tears? In New York City, can a person be that isolated? I may be a bit bourgeois in hoping that he could clean up, but he won’t be able to do it alone. (Note, that he got to the doctor’s office, at least.) If no friend or family is available to him, how much aid can society offer him? I tried to assuage my conscience by running through our charitable contributions, including DOROT, an organization devoted to supporting the elderly. http://www.dorotusa.org/site/
Even if I didn’t have the excuse of having my own doctor’s appointment and then being expected at work afterwards, I admit that it was unlikely that I would take on the responsibility of helping this man, extending a figurative or literal hand to him, assuming that he would even allow me to approach him. What if he is sufficiently addled that the prospect of soap and water would evoke an hysterical reaction? I don’t take rejection well. Is it enough to pronounce it a social problem, allowing me to walk on by?
Thursday, December 18, 2104
Today’s newspaper could keep me blogging for weeks, it seems. To start with, we have President Obama’s recognition of Cuban baseball players as a strategic asset for the continued dominance of the American way of life. This was a surprise for many of us, but may be viewed as a holiday gift to the management of the New York Mets and Yankees.
Next, we have the figures of declining law school enrolment to the lowest level since 1973, when there were 53 fewer law school in the US. According to the American Bar Association, 37,924 students entered law school in 2014, compared to 52,488 four years ago. My own anecdotal experience is somewhat contradictory on whether we are overpopulated with lawyers, justifying students seeking other paths to fame and fortune. I hear from many people that their recently-graduated-from-law-
Ultimately, I don’t think that there are too many lawyers, although I would make admission to the bar much harder. As with the medical profession, the deployment of our professional talent is severely skewed towards more prosperous urban and suburban areas, while needy segments of the population are underserved. Significant, even total, tuition abatement may direct young lawyers to those poorly represented areas. Also, a serious pro bono requirement should be imposed to remain professionally qualified for those parked in their glass houses.
Then, we have the North Korean response to satire. There is evidence that the hacking of Sony Picture’s e-mail is rooted in North Korea’s offense at the upcoming (but not any more) movie The Interview, a comedy about the assassination of North Korea’s beloved leader. Besides the hacking, physical threats to audiences are conveyed in messages received by Sony, which was sufficient reason for major movie chains to cancel planned showings of the film, and then Sony to cancel its release all together.
I know that the North Korean regime is headed by a megalomaniac and it has shown itself able to disrupt at least one major corporate computer system, as well as inflicting cruelties on its own people. However, North Korea has demonstrated no capability to use force on any scale beyond its land mass and the surrounding waters, no less get terrorists into the multiplex at the mall. And, we have CIA agents who have demonstrated their willingness to go to great lengths to get information about suspected dangers to Americans and cops everywhere who shoot when confronted by vaguely suspicious behavior. Instead, we now invite blackmail by anyone who can send an e-mail message, while we remain unwilling to disarm or inhibit gun ownership by anyone able to chew gun and pass gas simultaneously, or at least one of the two. What’s wrong with this picture?
Maybe the story that has greatest import for the way we live, or should live, is the refutation of the right-wing gospel that if welfare benefits are generous and taxes high, fewer people will work. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/
As the caption on a graph in this article reads, “the countries with the highest rates of participation in the labor force tend to have higher taxes and more extensive social welfare spending.” Another graph is headed: “Employment Rates Are Higher in Countries That Subsidize Child Care.” Now, the data comes from a professor with a foreign name at a foreign school, so the Domestic Enemies of Sanity will reject the “solid correlation . . . between what countries spend on employment subsidies — like child care, preschool and care for older adults — and what percentage of their working-age population is in the labor force.” As in other matters, our American Exceptionalists are likely to include exception from evidence.
The last word for today comes from a story about the failure of the New York City Housing Authority to get hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. The details are sorry enough, but my concern is more basic – how the New York Times handles acronyms. Quoth: “The Housing Authority, known as Nycha, also failed to secure $263 million from the Section 8 rental assistance program . . . .” That is bushwah. The Housing Authority is known, and appears constantly in legal papers, as NYCHA. Just like the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is NASCAR, not Nascar, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is HIPAA, not Hipaa. Feeble justifications for the Times style on acronyms of more than four letters include “an all-capitalized acronym calls attention to itself, possibly distracting a reader,” and “ a story filled with long, all-cap expressions looks strange on the page, as though someone were shouting at you: NAFTA, I say! NAFTA, NAFTA, NAFTA!” I say FUBAR.
Friday, December 12, 2014
The Mountain Comes To Mohammed
Monday, December 8, 2014
I didn’t have a job when I graduated law school in 2001. However, I was fortunate to have an assignment, as it were, to do research with an informal group of lawyers bringing a class action suit against the SNCF, the French national railroad. I got this role as an offshoot of a seminar on French and German law during the Holocaust in my third year of law school. As any of you who have been a third-year law student, or in contact with one, knows, the third year is typically a costly nine-month period of sloth and indolence. In so many ways, I differed from my classmates who were more than a generation behind me. I enjoyed the third year, as much or more than the two prior, and applied myself diligently to the course work. Unlike my “peers,” I wasn't eager to leave school and get into the “real world.” After all, I had been there for over 30 years, with more than my share of ups and downs. To be fair to the kids around me, I had some money in the bank (although I was blitzed by the stock market crunch at the turn of the century), and I was not burdened by debt.
The seminar was led by Professor Richard H. Weisberg, author of Vichy Law and the Holocaust in France, who connected me to this group suing the SNCF for its role in transporting Jews, captured Allied flight crews and others from France to Auschwitz and other fatal destinations. I was responsible for legal research on the US handling of tortious or criminal conduct by foreign governments (or their agencies) before, during and after World War II. Until passage of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) in 1976, there was no applicable statute on the subject. Also, for more than its first 25 years, there was no authoritative ruling on FSIA’s retroactivity.
The evidence was that the SNCF cooperated with the Nazis without hesitancy or objection. I recall the shocking fact that the company billed the newly-installed DeGaulle regime in 1944 for rental of box cars used to carry people to their death prior to liberation. In spite of the high competence of the lawyers that I worked with, the case was dismissed because of a US Supreme Court decision interpreting FSIA in another action.
Well, maybe patience is a virtue, because the Washington Post reported on Friday that “France has agreed to pay reparations to American survivors of the Holocaust [and certain other non-French nationals] who were deported to Nazi death camps in French trains, after a year of negotiations with the Obama administration. The agreement, a bilateral accord with the U.S. government to be signed Monday, includes a $60 million lump-sum payment to be distributed among eligible survivors, their spouses and, if applicable, their heirs.” Ultimately, it was not the legal system that made the difference, but, according to the Post, the agreement “is intended to close the door on pending state and federal legislation that would ban France’s state-owned SNCF railway or its foreign subsidiaries from winning contracts in the United States. A Maryland-based subsidiary of SNCF is part of a consortium of private companies bidding to build and operate the $2.45 billion light-rail Purple Line between Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.” Cherchez la gelt.
Tom Adcock is still on jury duty and graced my presence at lunch again today. We went to Shanghai Gourmet, 23 Pell Street, a consistent favorite. We shared a scallion pancake ($2.25), no worse than second best in Chinatown, and divided two lunch specials, General Tso’s chicken and beef with scallions ($5.95 each), into equal parts. Additionally, white rice and excellent hot and sour soup came with each order. Time and not much money well spent.
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Over 15 years ago, before I went to law school, I sat on a grand jury in Manhattan. As I recall, we indicted 62 of the 63 accused persons presented to us. In only one case, I voted on the losing side not to indict. Therefore, I was surprised by the outcomes in Ferguson, Missouri and Staten Island, where grand juries failed to indict police officers involved in the deaths of unarmed men. I realize, of course, that those cases are much more complex than the muggings and drug buy-and-busts that we voted on. Yet, the pattern of police shootings of black men is troubling, and frequently demonstrates at least inadequate training, if not outright racial bias.
In light of this, I still think that Columbia Law School made an unwise decision over the weekend in allowing students to postpone final examinations at the imminent end of the semester. The dean wrote that “this chain of events is all the more profound as it threatens to undermine a sense that the law is a fundamental pillar of society designed to protect fairness, due process and equality.” He informed the law student body that policies for “trauma during exam period” provided for this postponement.
Without questioning the agony felt by some (I hope many) students at these events, I don’t think that the law school can ultimately cope with student psychology. First of all, students everyday may be genuinely upset by events of either universal or particular relevance to them. If they choose to suspend their normal attention to their studies and ask the administration for an indulgence, okay. But, I don’t want Columbia to be installed as the arbiter of empathy.
Second, I believe that the legal profession requires us to put aside personal concerns as much as possible in our practice. That means representing people or positions that we might not like or share in private. More basically, as in medicine, that means getting up in the morning, going to work and helping our clients (patients) regardless of the mood we are in. It is the wrong message to tell law students that, because you feel bad, very bad, really bad about current events and/or the legal system that you are training for, you will be given a time out. Life doesn’t usually offer us such consideration. Hard things, bad things, challenging things may come at us from all directions at any time. It ain’t always easy.
Friday, December 12, 2014
The New York Post has started an advertising campaign in the subways. This morning, I saw a placard that said, “The news doesn’t have to be boring to be news.” Given that the Post is a Rupert Murdoch publication, a more appropriate phrase would be, “The news doesn’t have to be true to be news.”
Here’s another of those fascinating New York Times maps, census tract by census tract. Instead of sports topics, this map illustrates unemployment in the US for men ages 25-54, presumably their prime years. http://www.nytimes.com/
Generally, it shows unemployment low in the states slightly west of center, such as, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and Minnesota, where energy production is often a significant economic factor, although they mostly have low population density. Ironically, wood and coal producing areas, representing older forms of energy, such as northern California, parts of Oregon and Idaho, northern Michigan, West Virginia, and eastern Kentucky have high unemployment, as do areas where Native Americans are concentrated. New England and the middle Atlantic states tend to look better than any other densely populated region. The Times identifies “the affluent sections of Manhattan; . . . the highly educated suburbs of San Francisco, Denver, Minneapolis, Boston and elsewhere” as areas of low unemployment for men in their prime years. Bring on the women.
Admittedly ethnocentric, only Hanukkah interests me among year end celebrations. However, today was the Winter Holiday Party of the Law Secretaries & Law Assistants Collegium, a supposedly social group for people working directly for judges or in the law department, my home. As a dues paying member, I was entitled to attempt to be collegial with many people whose name I still don't know after five years. Mirabile dictu, though, the delicatessen platters came from Ben's Best, 96-40 Queens Blvd, Rego Park, Queens, which I believe to be the best Kosher delicatessen in New York (not to be confused with Ben's Kosher Delicatessen, which has 7 locations in and around New York City, including West 38th Street). When Mother Ruth Gotthelf was still alive, we would go to Ben's Best before or after visiting her nearby, before if she had put in an order for us to deliver a corned beef sandwich. And I don't hold this opinion alone. America's Favorite Epidemiologist, not one to throw out superlatives without extensive field testing agrees, as does Michael Ratner, who used to have a sandwich named after him, and who bears no hard feelings even after having been thrown off the menu.
Friday, December 5, 2014
Healthy Skepticism
Monday, December 1, 2014
I like language. I use it a lot. But, occasionally, I find it confusing. Yesterday, Daniel L. Doctoroff, Bloomberg’s deputy mayor for economic development and Thinker of Big Ideas, proposed the development of a new convention center for New York City, located in Queens, to replace the generally unpopular Javits Center. I found the idea interesting, and I wouldn’t mind hearing more discussion of his proposal.
Besides offering far more space for conventions than now available, the plan (in its current blue-sky phase) "would provide the foundation for a dynamic new neighborhood, accommodating nearly 14,000 new units of housing, . . . office and retail space; several hotels to support convention visitors; vast expanses of public green space; a job-creating technology campus; and a new transit center." Never mind that we heard similar promises for the Barclay's Center, the World Trade Center site, the new Yankee Stadium and other projects where the developers put stars in our eyes and money in their pockets.
I’m interested in language right now. Let’s go back to the quote, which actually read "accommodating nearly 14,000 new units of housing, of which about 50 percent would be affordable." 50 percent would be affordable. Half of the new housing will be A-double F-O-R-D-A-B-L-E. So, how might you describe the other half? Maybe that half should go unbuilt because it would be (what is the opposite of affordable?) unaffordable? Then, 100% of the housing would be affordable.
I was privileged to have Tom Adcock, novelist and reporter, join me for lunch. Tom, who now looks more like Perry White than Jimmy Olsen, is a juror on a criminal case and will, therefore, be available several more times in the days ahead, I hope. We met at Wo Hop, 17 Mott Street, and shared shrimp chow fun ($6.75) and sliced chicken with eggplant & spicy sauce ($11.25). Just about every Wo Hop dish is large enough for sharing, and we agreed that the food was good and plenty. We spoke of the foolishness of paying either Clinton hundreds of thousands of dollars for speechifying, although we both had tales of Bill’s magnetism in person.
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
I’m sure that my blood pressure was normal when I walked into the lobby of the NYU Medical Center this morning for my annual physical examination by Dr. Michael Perskin, a wise and caring physician whom I recommend as heartily as the beef chow fun at Wo Hop or the lamb burger at Xi’an Famous Food. Although I had been to the building many times before, I had asked the receptionist to confirm Dr. Perskin’s location within its sprawling premises. Tower H, suite 7B. However, as I looked around the lobby, the alphabetic designations of the towers (elevator banks) were gone, replaced by the names of rich Jewish guys. Go down to Schwartz, continue past Tisch and turn right at Silverstein. Making the connection between the former rational pattern and the my-tax-accountant-found-a-new-way-to-avoid-paying-my-fair-share-while-presenting-a-philanthropic-image-to-help-obscure-some-of-my-past-dodgy-business-dealings identification plan took several extra minutes. I finally arrived at the right place nearly at the right time, and the examination produced quite satisfactory results, after the aggravation that I felt at the new navigation scheme receded.
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
After taking a book out of the library branch on East Broadway, I hopped across the street to Golden Unicorn, 18 East Broadway (August 28, 2013, April 15, 2011, May 3, 2010) for an excellent dim sum lunch. It was more expensive than other similar recent meals, the dishes averaging over $4 each. There were two other notable differences at Golden Unicorn. First, cards on the front of its carts identified the contents by name and picture. This saved the often embarrassing exchanges with the cart lady about what was in that round thing that she was offering you. While she seemed to know a word or two in English, most of us can’t even say "please" or "thank you" in Chinese. Second, and this was new to me, the cart ladies wore face shields, clear plastic panels reaching from the tip of the nose to the bottom of the chin. This is apparently the individualized equivalent to the sneeze guard now omnipresent at serve-yourself salad bars. It seems like a good idea, although it is certain to meet strong opposition if it can be traced back to Barack Obama, that fiend whose health care plan brought the number of uninsured Americans down from 17.7 percent to 12.4 percent, and cut the rate of growth in healthcare spending to an all-time low. Go back to Kenya so that I can get a meal without any damn plastic getting in the way, and let us get sick whenever we want to.
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Tasty Dumpling, 28 Mulberry Street, does a healthy business in its new, brighter, larger location. I often pass by without going in because the 5 four tops are usually occupied, and, although the turnover is rapid, it’s not conducive to satisfying my secondary need at lunchtime, doing the crossword puzzle. Today, however, there was a momentary lull that promised me at least a few minutes to concentrate on the always-tricky Thursday puzzle before, during and after my ingestion. I ordered pan fried chive and pork dumplings (5 for $1.25) and wonton noodle soup ($4.25), in all a satisfying meal. While the soup broth was a little thin, the wontons were good and the soup was nice and hot.
It got busier as I sat, so I left to complete the puzzle on a park bench across the street, finding a spot sunny enough in the chill air. Of course, the heat of the soup helped keep me comfortable as I grappled with several anagrams, allowing multiple correct entries in the space, such as, dangers vs. ganders vs. gardens (although I never spotted gardens until much later). Also, this puzzle had alternate correct answers that intersected the anagrams, such as, notary vs. rotary, blockade vs. blockage. Again, my compliments to the constructors, the nimblest minds that I know of.
Friday, December 5, 2014
In today’s New York Law Journal: "A chimpanzee cannot bear the legal duties or responsibilities of a human being and thus is not entitled to the corresponding rights afforded to people, an Appellate Division [New York], Third Department panel ruled Thursday." However, according to your United States Supreme Court, a corporation is entitled to the corresponding rights afforded to people and thus can bear the legal duties or responsibilities of a human being, or can it?
The New Republic was getting ready to celebrate 100 years of publication when the owner hired a new chief executive officer from Yahoo. This resulted in a mass staff exodus, led by the magazine’s editor, Franklin Foer, and its veteran literary editor, Leon Wieseltier. At the same time, the new CEO sent out a memo saying that he wanted to reimagine the publication "as a vertically integrated digital media company." When someone mouths crap statements like that, I think that their enterprise is more likely to last 100 more days rather than another 100 years.
I like language. I use it a lot. But, occasionally, I find it confusing. Yesterday, Daniel L. Doctoroff, Bloomberg’s deputy mayor for economic development and Thinker of Big Ideas, proposed the development of a new convention center for New York City, located in Queens, to replace the generally unpopular Javits Center. I found the idea interesting, and I wouldn’t mind hearing more discussion of his proposal.
Besides offering far more space for conventions than now available, the plan (in its current blue-sky phase) "would provide the foundation for a dynamic new neighborhood, accommodating nearly 14,000 new units of housing, . . . office and retail space; several hotels to support convention visitors; vast expanses of public green space; a job-creating technology campus; and a new transit center." Never mind that we heard similar promises for the Barclay's Center, the World Trade Center site, the new Yankee Stadium and other projects where the developers put stars in our eyes and money in their pockets.
I’m interested in language right now. Let’s go back to the quote, which actually read "accommodating nearly 14,000 new units of housing, of which about 50 percent would be affordable." 50 percent would be affordable. Half of the new housing will be A-double F-O-R-D-A-B-L-E. So, how might you describe the other half? Maybe that half should go unbuilt because it would be (what is the opposite of affordable?) unaffordable? Then, 100% of the housing would be affordable.
I was privileged to have Tom Adcock, novelist and reporter, join me for lunch. Tom, who now looks more like Perry White than Jimmy Olsen, is a juror on a criminal case and will, therefore, be available several more times in the days ahead, I hope. We met at Wo Hop, 17 Mott Street, and shared shrimp chow fun ($6.75) and sliced chicken with eggplant & spicy sauce ($11.25). Just about every Wo Hop dish is large enough for sharing, and we agreed that the food was good and plenty. We spoke of the foolishness of paying either Clinton hundreds of thousands of dollars for speechifying, although we both had tales of Bill’s magnetism in person.
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
I’m sure that my blood pressure was normal when I walked into the lobby of the NYU Medical Center this morning for my annual physical examination by Dr. Michael Perskin, a wise and caring physician whom I recommend as heartily as the beef chow fun at Wo Hop or the lamb burger at Xi’an Famous Food. Although I had been to the building many times before, I had asked the receptionist to confirm Dr. Perskin’s location within its sprawling premises. Tower H, suite 7B. However, as I looked around the lobby, the alphabetic designations of the towers (elevator banks) were gone, replaced by the names of rich Jewish guys. Go down to Schwartz, continue past Tisch and turn right at Silverstein. Making the connection between the former rational pattern and the my-tax-accountant-found-a-new-way-to-avoid-paying-my-fair-share-while-presenting-a-philanthropic-image-to-help-obscure-some-of-my-past-dodgy-business-dealings identification plan took several extra minutes. I finally arrived at the right place nearly at the right time, and the examination produced quite satisfactory results, after the aggravation that I felt at the new navigation scheme receded.
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
After taking a book out of the library branch on East Broadway, I hopped across the street to Golden Unicorn, 18 East Broadway (August 28, 2013, April 15, 2011, May 3, 2010) for an excellent dim sum lunch. It was more expensive than other similar recent meals, the dishes averaging over $4 each. There were two other notable differences at Golden Unicorn. First, cards on the front of its carts identified the contents by name and picture. This saved the often embarrassing exchanges with the cart lady about what was in that round thing that she was offering you. While she seemed to know a word or two in English, most of us can’t even say "please" or "thank you" in Chinese. Second, and this was new to me, the cart ladies wore face shields, clear plastic panels reaching from the tip of the nose to the bottom of the chin. This is apparently the individualized equivalent to the sneeze guard now omnipresent at serve-yourself salad bars. It seems like a good idea, although it is certain to meet strong opposition if it can be traced back to Barack Obama, that fiend whose health care plan brought the number of uninsured Americans down from 17.7 percent to 12.4 percent, and cut the rate of growth in healthcare spending to an all-time low. Go back to Kenya so that I can get a meal without any damn plastic getting in the way, and let us get sick whenever we want to.
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Tasty Dumpling, 28 Mulberry Street, does a healthy business in its new, brighter, larger location. I often pass by without going in because the 5 four tops are usually occupied, and, although the turnover is rapid, it’s not conducive to satisfying my secondary need at lunchtime, doing the crossword puzzle. Today, however, there was a momentary lull that promised me at least a few minutes to concentrate on the always-tricky Thursday puzzle before, during and after my ingestion. I ordered pan fried chive and pork dumplings (5 for $1.25) and wonton noodle soup ($4.25), in all a satisfying meal. While the soup broth was a little thin, the wontons were good and the soup was nice and hot.
It got busier as I sat, so I left to complete the puzzle on a park bench across the street, finding a spot sunny enough in the chill air. Of course, the heat of the soup helped keep me comfortable as I grappled with several anagrams, allowing multiple correct entries in the space, such as, dangers vs. ganders vs. gardens (although I never spotted gardens until much later). Also, this puzzle had alternate correct answers that intersected the anagrams, such as, notary vs. rotary, blockade vs. blockage. Again, my compliments to the constructors, the nimblest minds that I know of.
Friday, December 5, 2014
In today’s New York Law Journal: "A chimpanzee cannot bear the legal duties or responsibilities of a human being and thus is not entitled to the corresponding rights afforded to people, an Appellate Division [New York], Third Department panel ruled Thursday." However, according to your United States Supreme Court, a corporation is entitled to the corresponding rights afforded to people and thus can bear the legal duties or responsibilities of a human being, or can it?
The New Republic was getting ready to celebrate 100 years of publication when the owner hired a new chief executive officer from Yahoo. This resulted in a mass staff exodus, led by the magazine’s editor, Franklin Foer, and its veteran literary editor, Leon Wieseltier. At the same time, the new CEO sent out a memo saying that he wanted to reimagine the publication "as a vertically integrated digital media company." When someone mouths crap statements like that, I think that their enterprise is more likely to last 100 more days rather than another 100 years.
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