Monday, October 23, 2017
My favorite headline for the weekend, maybe the week or the year:
"To Complain Is to Truly Be Alive"
. . .
Football scoreboard
Columbia University 6-0
New York Jets 3-4
New York Giants 1-6
While we New York Giants fans are understandably upset by these results, surprisingly so are some Columbia University partisans, unused to success. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/1
I have had mixed feelings about Columbia University. As an undergraduate at CCNY, not even one mile away, a tuition-free institution then renowned as "the proletarian Harvard," I resented the "rich kids" at Columbia, that is those able to pay even a little towards their college education.
Eventually though, I came to be surrounded by Columbians. America's Favorite Epidemiologist got her masters and doctorate at Columbia, as did my brother; stepson David got his bachelor's degree there and his brilliant wife received her law degree from Columbia. While I eventually graduated from CCNY, Cornell University and Cardozo Law School, I missed adding a fourth C for a Columbia degree. So, for now, I am rooting for Columbia to march to the national college football championship game and beat the University of Alabama handily.
. . .
Last week, I had the pleasure of hearing Professor Deborah Dash Moore discuss her new book Jewish New York in person. Right afterwards, the library got me a copy an earlier book by her, the deliciously titled GI Jews.
Having interviewed more than 30 Jewish war veterans, starting 50 years after the war's end, and with access to letters, diaries, and published and unpublished memoirs, she lets the men, including her father, speak for themselves to a great degree. We learn about confronting ham and eggs for breakfast for the first time and entering a concentration camp where "[b]odies lay everywhere, with no way to distinguish between the living and the dead."
Professor Moore concludes that "Jewish veterans took from their years in service new understandings of their place in America . . . [and] earned respect as Jewish men, in their own eyes and in those of other servicemen." Read the rest of the book.
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Tavish McMullen, safely returned to Key Largo, Florida, reports on the cookies that he carried back home from the Holy Land. Levain's "was very soft and had a doughy texture when you bit into it. I agree that it feels like you are eating a huge helping of butter, but I enjoyed the rich flavor and gooeynish. I did find a glass of milk was required. . . . [Regarding the Jacques Torres cookie,] I believe this is still the best chocolate chip cookie around. The cookie is firm with a great ratio of chocolate to cookie in each bite. The chocolate is great giving off a similar rich taste as their hot chocolate and not too sweet that it overpowers the flavor [of the] actual cookie. It can be enjoyed on its own and at the same time holds up well being dipped in a glass of milk." That's another generation heard from.
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
R.I.P. Fats Domino. The following provides a good overview of his work with musical accompaniment. https://newsstand.google.com/
. . .
For those of us who graduated college in the 20th century, it may be too late to make a career change, but here is a very interesting look at job growth and decline over the next decade.
It's no surprise that we geezers will require an increasing number of non-professional healthcare workers, while "Locomotive firers" (coal stokers?), Watch repairers and Telephone operators will get lonelier. I only hope that the decline in need for Respiratory therapy technicians results from the increased employment of Solar photovoltaic installers and Wind turbine service technicians, at work supporting the production of clean energy thereby lessening air pollution.
Thursday, October 26, 2017
I assume those responsible for creating the advertisement below were interested in selling men's clothing to the general public. However, giving even a cursory glance at the cut and fit of the suit the young man is wearing, I can only conclude that their intent was sabotaged somewhere along the way. What we see is a poor fellow who has not gone shopping since experiencing a dramatic growth spurt. Maybe that's meant as an incentive to go out and buy new clothes, so as not to be caught in the same embarrassing pose.
Friday, October 27, 2017
Tom Terrific and Stony Brook Steve joined me at Mee Noodle Shop, 795 Ninth Avenue, serving the closest approximation to Chinatown food outside of Chinatown. Tom and I shared crispy anise duck rolls ($5), cold noodles with sesame sauce ($6.50), pan fried seafood dumplings ($8.25 for five), and Singapore ho fun (another name for chow fun) ($9.25). Only the duck rolls failed to delight. Steve had a lunch special of tofu with lobster sauce ($9.25), which included brown rice and a superb egg roll in his estimation.
Note that Mee's takeout menu differs considerably in format from its in-house menu. Each seems to have almost the same food and prices, but the headings and organization widely vary. The takeout menu is more fun to read, containing almost 400 distinct items, sure to arouse hunger even in the sated.
. . .
"Is Bridge a Sport? E.U. Court Says No" because it was “characterized by a physical element that appears to be negligible.”
This ruling came from the European Court of Justice and addressed an issue of taxation; sports events avoid certain taxes, other events do not. There is no indication whether similar determinations have been made about synchronized swimming, ice dancing and a variety of events where people "ski off a ramp that propel them into the air where they perform multiple somersaults and twists before landing." The latter activity arose, no doubt, to spitefully aggravate parents who drove hours into wintery locales, spent a lot of money on expensive outfits and equipment, rented comfortable quarters and paid for orthopedic services.
Judges in these Olympic so-called "sports" award points, often to two decimals, based on characteristics opaque to an ordinary human being. Admittedly, they are contests and require athletic skill, but they ain't sports. Bridge is a sport. Teams oppose each other; high card beats low card; you'll pardon the expression, but trump beats all other suits. There are no subjective standards of form, difficulty, or finesse involved. Bridge players keep score; it's that simple.
Finally, anyone who follows any real sport knows that mental errors often make the difference between the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. And, bridge is decidedly mental. Plus you have the physical challenge of sitting on a bridge chair (where do you think they got the name from?) for hours and days. A social game might last for a couple of hours, while a major tournament might go on for a week. Try that on your tuchus.
