Monday, September 25, 2017
A new study of the U.S. stock market's long term performance produced some discouraging results. "Only 4 percent of all publicly traded stocks account for all of the net wealth earned by investors in the stock market since 1926." So, I recommend that you dump the other 96%.
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This summer, I met and spent some time with Hadassah Nakiza, Solomon Walusimbi and Aron Sebagala, 3 college students from Uganda, who belong to Abayudaya, the local Jewish community, which originated about 100 years ago with the conversion of a local leader. The Abayudaya are in a difficult place, in several senses, but they just had a major celebration, reported by the New York Times, a joint wedding of 5 couples. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/0
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Away from the social pages, the New York Times gauged how "pet-friendly" the 100 largest American residential markets are. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/
I am happy to see that New York was 96 of 100, scraping the bottom. I've never been a pet person and only during my tenure in Marriage #1 did I have to share living quarters with a four-legged animal. I should also note that the 10 cities at the top of this list are almost exactly those that I go out of my way to avoid. Lassie, go home.
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An errand in midtown gave me an excuse to have lunch at Kung Fu Little Steam Buns Ramen, 811 Eighth Avenue. I was pleased on my first visit, February 8, 2017, and then especially enjoyed the Peking duck buns ($7.25). Today, the buns disappointed me; they were freshly cooked, plump, but just didn't taste very ducky. However, the scallion pancake with beef ($6.95) saved the day. The crispy pancake was wrapped around slivers of beef and onions cooked in a thin (but not watery) sweet sauce. It was delicious. I hope it stays that way on my next visit.
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
The Boyz Club met at Jing Fong, 20 Elizabeth Street, the enormous dim sum palace. As always, I failed to keep count of the steamed, pan fried, boiled, deep fried, baked, sauteed items that landed on our table in rapid succession. All I can say is that the six of us happily spent $15 each, including a generous tip.
On the other hand, Jing Fong's uptown branch, at the corner of 78th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, blessedly close to Palazzo di Gotthelf, has not yet opened for lunch, only offering dinner after 5 PM. I don't understand this posture. Dim sum, Jing Fong's specialty, is a daytime activity and the location is probably only second to Jerusalem in the density of Jewish occupants, notorious for their devotion to Chinese food, at all hours day and night. I await the proper alignment of its schedule.
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These are dire times and it's not just the prospect of a nuclear confrontation that threatens us. Frosty pod rot is attacking cacao beans in Latin America and may be moving to West Africa, thereby imperiling the world's supply of chocolate.
With the billions of people in India and China beginning to learn to save room for dessert, the chocolate market is already under pressure. Should the supply be seriously impinged by crop failure, I fear to contemplate the depth of the resulting crisis.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Deb Amlen is the editor of “Wordplay,” the crossword column of the New York Times. I was delighted to read, in her own words, that she "received her bachelor’s degree in Strategic Guessing from Syracuse University, although they insisted on calling it 'Marketing.'”
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When Attorney General Jeff Sessions, an unreconstructed enemy of freedom, starts bleating about free speech, I am ready to burn my ACLU membership card. Our legal view of free speech has been distorted from the outset. Before even the introduction of the First Amendment, the unamended Constitution offered copyright protection, arguably desirable, but a limit on the freedom of expression.
Now, we are thoroughly accustomed to truth-in-advertising and product labeling legislation and, with a president who lies with every breath, we might yearn for similar strictures to be extended from the grocery store to the White House.
A New Yorker magazine movie review this week says: "At the start of 'Fargo' (1996), the Coen brothers, keeping the straightest of faces, informed us, 'This is a true story,' and proceeded to unwrap a pack of delicious lies." The subsequent television series uses the same technique. Should we accept this exercise in cuteness as artistic expression, a protected form of free speech, or recognize that mislabeled ideas may be as dangerous as mislabeled food products? Forgetting the legal issues for a moment, the overriding problem with trying to police the political marketplace is "Who's to judge?" In this regard, I think that conservative philosophy, if not its current adherents, offers the best answers -- personal responsibility and self control. Of course, we may have to wait until we have a national leader to whom this applies.
Thursday, September 28, 2017
I have an excuse. It was Germany. Germany made me sit home last night watching several episodes of "Shetland," a very good crime series set off the coast of Scotland, when I had tickets to the last Mets home game of the season, which they won, by the way, beating the ignoble Atlanta Braves 7-1.
You see, Germany is 6 hours ahead of New York and I adjusted my mobile phone accordingly on our recent trip. However, resetting the local time upon our return to the Holy Land did not affect all the storage locations in memory, in the cloud, under the bed, wherever that stuff is kept. So, the Mets game previously entered into my calendar for 7 PM on Wednesday, September 27th, was displayed as 1 AM, Thursday, September 28th. Being a big picture guy, not bogged down with details, Thursday stuck with me and that's how I arranged my schedule.
Wait 'til next year.
Friday, September 29, 2017
Going into the weekend, here is the standing of New York football teams:
Columbia University 2-0
Jets 1-2
Giants 0-3
Let the fasting begin.
Roar, Lions, Roar!
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