On Target

Monday, February 19, 2018
After the school shooting in Florida, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he wants the Justice Department to study how mental illness and gun violence intersect.
http://www.theitem.com/stories/sessions-wants-mental-health-gun-violence-studied,303568

Sessions and his ilk, however, have refused to permit study of the elementary issue of how gun ownership and gun violence intersect.  In 1996, Congress passed the Dickey Amendment which mandated that "none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may be used to advocate or promote gun control."  In what might have been an excess of caution, studies of gun violence disappeared, because recognizing the connection between gun ownership and gun violence was taken as advocacy.
. . .

An opinion piece by Ross Douthat, one of the New York Times's conservative court jesters, evoked a sure-to-be ignored letter to the editor from me this weekend.  "Ross Douthat says that 'I am not a gun owner but I can imagine many situations and political dispensations in which a morally responsible citizen should own a weapon.'  He fails to identify any such situation and certainly none that most urban Americans removed from a Randolph Scott or John Wayne movie might relate to.  In fact, he has not persuaded himself, likely a morally responsible citizen, to own a gun, any gun.  There is no morally responsible reason for any American civilian to own an AR-15 or the like at any time at any age.  In this case for Mr. Douthat: Do as I do, not as I say."
. . .

If you like charts and lists, as I do, the following should interest you.  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/19/opinion/how-does-trump-stack-up-against-the-best-and-worst-presidents.html

The data was gathered from 170 members of the American Political Science Association’s Presidents and Executive Politics section.  Maybe Donald Trump's position at the bottom or near the bottom of every ranking would have been elevated if more shared Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch's view that Trump was the “greatest president in the history of our country,” better even than presidents Washington and Lincoln.  Actually, that's what Trump said Hatch said, and if you can't believe the president . . .    https://www.thewrap.com/trump-says-orrin-hatch-called-him-all-time-greatest-president-not-exactly-says-orrin-hatch/
. . .

And now to chew on something else -- Chinese food.  Stony Brook Steve and I celebrated the Year of the Dog, in part, by going to lunch at Zai Lai, Homestyle Taiwanese, 1000 Eighth Avenue, stashed at the southern end of the Columbus Circle subway station, right next to the beloved Bolivian Llama Party (August 24, 2016).  As with many of the other operations down there, you take your food from Zai Lai's tiny counter and find a seat at the block-long collection of tables in the subway corridor.  

From the very limited menu, we both ordered a scallion pancake ($3) and Mama's Special Chicken rice bowl ($12 for the regular size, $9 for "Petite").  The pancake was very good and the tasty bowl had chicken, bamboo shoots, mushrooms and eggplant over rice.  Three other rice bowls are available at the same prices, Ama's five spice pork, Chef's Lion's Head Meatballs, and Ayi's bamboo eggplant.  If I return to this feeding area, however, I probably would choose the Bolivian food over the Taiwanese food, because Bolivian joints are hardly a peso a dozen.

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

For about two months, I haven't read any fiction aside from statements from the White House.  In fact, I chose thoughtful storytelling over illogical, ahistoric, reality-denying bleats from on high.  It's just that I used another medium to arouse my curiosity and stimulate my imagination.  I binge watched.  Specifically, I watched the 86 episodes of "The Sopranos" in order.

While binge watching seems to imply uninterrupted, hypnotic attention to a video screen, the 86+ hours needed for "The Sopranos" takes time.  I gave over an hour or two many weekdays, normally reserved for reading, to those happy warriors of north central New Jersey and it was wonderful.  While I often wanted to take in more at a time, eating, drinking, sleeping, marriage kept Tony and friends on a somewhat restricted schedule.  Now, I have to steel myself from returning to "Breaking Bad."

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

I will remember Billy Graham as an anti-Semite or as a  toady to power, or both.

. . .

With the temperature at 77° (25°C), a record high, I enjoyed walking the mile and a third to Ollie's Sichuan Cuisine, 411 West 42nd Street, to meet Mark Nazimova for lunch in furtherance of Chinese New Year.  This Ollie's is the most formal of a four branch chain, but still quite casual.  We fit right in.

We shared one plate of crispy orange flavor beef, one of 18 lunch specials at $9.25, including hot and sour soup and brown rice.  We added a small order of spare ribs (4 pieces, $12.25) and Singapore chow fun ($11.25).  The menu lists Singapore mei fun only, but, as often necessary, you patiently explain to the waiter that you want the wide noodle.  You will then get a good, large bowl of chow fun, shrimp, pork, eggs, bean sprouts and green onions cooked in a dry curry sauce.  The food was more or less reasonably priced considering the real estate.

Thursday, February 22, 2018

The ever-civic minded National Rifle Association outlined the causes of the Florida school shooting today, including the FBI, families and the failure of school safety.  I have a few more items for this list:

Genetics

Unrequited love

Neurosis

Sadism

. . .

The great urban warrior sitting in the White House has suggested arming teachers as a response to school shootings.  According to a 2014 study in the International Journal of Police Science & Management, at 18-45 feet, trained law enforcement officers hit their target 37.95% of the time. 
http://www.forcescience.org/articles/naiveshooter.pdf

An earlier study found that, in cases where New York City police officers intentionally fired a gun at a person, they discharged 364 bullets and hit their target 103 times, for a hit rate of 28.3 percent.  http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/weekinreview/09baker.html

Might Miss Grundy do better?

Write On, Professor

Monday, February 12, 2018

Our president gives insincerity a bad name.

. . .

Here is some very interesting rent data.
https://www.trulia.com/blog/trends/rent-getting-damn-high/#_ftn1

Rents have increased 19.6% nationally since 2012.  Among the biggest increases in 2017 were a hodge podge of locations -- Tacoma, WA, Milwaukee, WI, Gary, IN.  However, 7 of the 10 highest rental markets are in California.  New York City doesn't even climb that high, although Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk Counties) sits fourth, between Orange County and Oakland.

The only good news, if you wish to call it that, is that the rate of increase for rents in 2017 was half of the estimated median home price rise in the same twelve months.  What it all amounts to is a compelling argument to not move a damn inch.  

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Occasionally, I "discover" an eating joint before the New York Times does.  Today, I was hours behind, going to lunch at Kebab Empire, 934 8th Avenue, reviewed this morning.  It features "the food of the Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking and mostly Muslim minority in China and Central Asia."  While this/they are new to me, the prominence of lamb in the write-up was the major attraction.

The menu offers lamb kebab ($2.53), cumin lamb ($6.89), lamb shank ($6.89) and lamb chop ($6.89).  As a platter, including rice cooked with carrots and raisins, a small salad, and yoghurt, served on a 12" tortilla (substituting for an authentic flat bread), all these selections cost $9.87.  There are also chicken, salmon and shrimp kebabs with similarly erratic pricing.  Several vegetable kebabs appear only in print, but apparently not in fact.  I had a lamb chop platter and an extra chicken kebab ($1.84).  The food was very good.  The lamb was a rib chop, small but thick.  Fortunately, Diet Coke has reached western China.

The Empire isn't very large, just 8 two tops fashioned out of rough lumber in a room painted matte black.  One person takes orders behind the counter and four others scurry around cooking and assembling them.  There was some mild confusion sorting the many take-out orders from the eat-ins, but a good time was had by me.

. . .

The New York Times reports that the Berlin Wall has now been down a few days longer than it stood, but the legacy of the East/West division is quite strong.  This experience has valuable lessons for us.  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/world/europe/berlin-wall-equinox-east-germany.html

East Germans grew up lacking freedom and prosperity and, in their eagerness to catch up with West Germans, are somewhat impatient with democratic governance.  Authoritarian, nationalist sentiments are strong among those left behind by the unified, globalized system now in place.  Immigrants are a convenient target of antagonism, even when scarce.  "[T]he regions that produced the most votes for the AfD [the far-right wing Alliance for Germany] in the former East have the fewest immigrants."  However, Germany, on the whole, has accepted immigrants in numbers unthinkable to the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.  It is also currently led by politicians who are trying to remain faithful to democratic values under stressful circumstances.  

Thursday, February 15, 2018

I got home late from a meeting last night, so I had to wait until this morning to gather thoughts and prayers in response to the 17 deaths in a high school shooting in Florida.  It's not always easy to corral all those thoughts and prayers at a distance of more than a thousand miles.  Maybe we should organize these efforts along the lines of our college athletic conferences.  A shooting in Florida would belong to the Southeastern Conference, extending into Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and other contiguous states.  This would allow us to focus our thoughts and prayers into a more efficient delivery system and connect to America's secular religion.  It would free folks in the Midwest to concentrate their thoughts and prayers on their own Big 10 mass shootings, for instance.  Another example of American ingenuity.

Friday, February 16, 2018

If you are agonizing over what to give me for my birthday tomorrow, I have a suggestion.  Give yourself a gift, specifically a copy of Professor David Webber's important  new book, The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder: Labor’s Last Best Weapon.  It is about to be published by the Harvard University Press and has already earned praise as "a common sense argument that will appeal to anyone with an interest in the current labor movement" and "a rare good-news story for American workers."  It may be ordered on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Working-Class-Shareholder-Labors-Weapon/dp/0674972139) or you may attend one of the many talks and book signings that David will have beginning next month. 

. . . 

In addition to David's accomplishment, today you have another reason to celebrate.  It is the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Dog.  The celebrations have begun and will continue through the Spring Festival for 23 days.  That provides so many wonderful opportunities to have Chinese food in solidarity.  I took a risky position by making a lunch date with Dan K., a fine gentleman, although skinny and a vegetarian.  However, we made the sound choice of LaSalle Dumpling Room, 25 West End Avenue, which provided a good lunch for an omnivore and a more fastidious eater -- cold sesame noodles, scallion pancake and steamed vegetable dumplings.  Maybe the cash register got stuck, but each dish cost $8.50.  
. . .

Unlike Donald Trump, the typical American Jewish husband might pay women to announce that they did have sex with him. 
. . .

Gong hei fat choy and Shabbat shalom. 

This Is Spot, My Youngest

Monday, February 5, 2018

Thanks to Republican Congressman Devin Nunes for demonstrating his investigative and analytic skills.  I hope that he turns his attention next to bit coins.

. . .

We returned to Earth today from a weekend in an alternate universe, Super Bowl-obsessed suburban Boston.  The majority of families seen out in public were bedecked in New England Patriots garb, mother, father, Jack and Jill.  The late night news broadcasts were similarly preoccupied.  They were just about 30 solid minutes of Super Bowl.  Even the weather forecast toggled between Boston and Minneapolis, as if a local viewer was likely to be catching a last minute flight to Minneapolis for the big game.

Boston's tunnel vision continued long after Philadelphia's upset victory.  The game ended about 10:20 P.M., Eastern Standard Time.  All three local affiliates of the major networks, ABC, CBS and NBC (I have no use for or knowledge of the F-word network), each immediately had a team picking apart what had transpired for the preceding hours.  None of the stations paused for any news at 11 o'clock and kept churning out nuggets of inanity until at least midnight, when, tiring of twirling channels to find something of transcendent interest, I shut the television. 

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

You don't have to be Jewish to enjoy this story from a Jewish woman acquaintance who had to travel to Chicago alone during Passover.  She was pleased to receive a dinner invitation from an aunt and uncle and was reassured after she advised them of her vegetarianism.  Dinner was served and, respecting her religious and personal scruples, she was presented with a healthy portion of spaghetti with clam sauce.
. . .

The Boyz Club eschewed spaghetti with clam sauce, but seemed to eat everything else in sight today at Jing Fong, 20 Elizabeth Street, the giant dim sum establishment.  At first I announced that I would record everything that we ate, but the speed that dishes hit the table overwhelmed me.  I was only able to recap when the check came: 22 plates, probably 14 distinct dishes, 8 duplicates.  Lunch cost the six of us $19 each, including a generous tip, as always.

Thursday, February 8, 2018
Andy Borowitz reports that the "Pentagon has turned down Donald J. Trump’s request for a grand military parade in Washington, D.C., citing a sudden outbreak of bone spurs that would prevent men and women in uniform from participating."

. . .

Kungfu Kitchen, 805 8th Avenue, sits one door away from Real Kung Fu Little Steamed Buns, 811 8th Avenue, an unrelated enterprise. Both are very small, KfK holds about a dozen two tops and cramped four tops.  At 1 PM, every table was occupied, at least in part.  I ordered Kung Fu Noodle w/ Special Spicy Sauce ($9.75), lo mein, minced pork, chives, peanuts, and red pepper flakes, hot stuff.  I also had Pan-Fried Bun w/ Egg & Chives ($5.95 for 2 pieces), looking like large empanadas, rather bland tasting.  The menu had another dozen and a half dim sum items that seem worth trying next time.  The only inhibition is the $6 charge for a pot of tea.  On the other hand, KfK simplifies matters by adding 15% to the bill as a tip. 

Friday, February 9, 2018

I thought that I would tie up some loose ends from last week.  First, the matter of photographs appearing in newspaper death notices, something that aroused no interest whatsoever, giving me license to explore freely.  I asked whether you would choose to have a picture of a younger you or an older you appear posthumously.  Today's New York Times offers an interesting variation on the issue.  It carries two long death notices of a distinguished attorney, who lived 93 years.  Each was illustrated with a photograph, different photographs, each reflective of the source, although in both he is dressed in very lawyerly fashion.  One submission came from his firm, one of the most powerful in the world.  I would guess that it showed him at no more than 60 years old, serious gaze, mouth firm.  The other, from his family, showed him 15-20 years later, with a friendly grin, "Come, sit down."  I am glad that he was able to muster a pleasant expression after decades immersed in the cutthroat world of Wall Street law.

Next, there's the issue of chocolate-covered pretzels.  I explained the need to seek real chocolate-covered pretzels, preferably dark chocolate, avoiding the brown Crisco versions.  Right afterwards, I came across an interesting alternative, barkTHINS, infelicitously named, but quite delicious. 

 

The ingredients are simply dark chocolate (real dark chocolate), pretzels and sea salt.  The short, straight, thin pretzel pieces (not the curved minis pictured) sit in a flat chocolate bark, providing a much higher chocolate/pretzel ratio than the usual chocolate-covered, twisted pretzel.  A 10 oz. package costs $8.99 at Fairway Market, 2131 Broadway.  At $14.38 a pound, you get a lot of chocolate for your money, but much less less salty crunch.  You decide.  

. . .

Except during my first marriage, I've led a dog-free existence.  My starter wife owned a toy Pomeranian when I met her, kept him throughout our seven-year marriage, and had him depart her life well after I did.  He actually was a pleasant little fellow, not given to the yippiness typical of his breed.  We coexisted fairly well; at least neither of us took the other to court.  However, once apart, I had no inclination to replace him in my life.  Sharing almost any ordinary New York apartment with another person is challenge enough, adding a four-legged friend would push me into witness protection.  Therefore, I approach this article about New York's favored breeds with only modest curiosity.   https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/08/realestate/dogs-of-new-york.html

The data comes from the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s dog license registrations from 2012 to 2016.  Besides the data by breed, Yorkshire terrier #1, and geographic distribution, lap dogs and pit bulls rarely occupy the same zip code, I found the names given to dogs very interesting, although ultimately inexplicable.  With no provision for gender fluidity, male Max (3,990) edges out female Bella (3,985) as the most popular name, followed by male Rocky (2,769), female Lola (2,677) and male Charlie (2,590).  For comparison, here are 2017's favorite baby names.  http://www.babynamewizard.com/the-most-popular-baby-names-in-new-york

Fortunately, the overlap is minimal.

Taste Buds

Monday, January 29, 2018

Whole Foods' prices have impressed me as much or more than their reputation for quality and variety.  So, even though their closest store is only a pleasant ten block walk from my home, I probably hadn't spent more than $20 there in the last decade.  The other day, however, I cruised their large underground space on Columbus Circle to see what has resulted from the takeover of Whole Foods by Amazon. 

Much seemed the same, at least as far as I could tell from previous forays when my hands remained buried in my pockets.  I did notice some attractive offerings, though, such as fresh salmon steaks or fillets just under $10 per pound and, while pricey at $9.99 per pint, packaged Ample Hills Creamery ice cream, nearly the best there is. 

I skipped these items, but made one purchase.  Not a cookie nor ice cream, not Chinese, one of my most favorite things to eat is a chocolate-covered pretzel, dark chocolate-covered pretzel, real dark chocolate-covered pretzel.  That's important.  What appears to be chocolate in many items, candies, cookies, ice cream and pastry is not.  The giveaway is the wording, typically "fudge" or "chocolatey" as the disguise for what is no more than brown Crisco.

Real chocolate must contain cocoa solids and cocoa butter, the result of processing the seeds of the cacao tree by fermenting, drying, cleaning, roasting, grinding, liquefying and cooling.  So-called white chocolate lacks cocoa solids.  Those fudge and chocolatey things replace cocoa butter with an alternate fat, usually a vegetable oil.  This cheapens the product in several senses.  Avoid.

If a list of ingredients is not immediately available, two of your body parts should help you detect the real thing.  Your tongue will greet the taste of real chocolate with joy, rejecting the waxy imitation.  Before even reaching your mouth, real chocolate will begin to melt on your fingers if held for more than a moment.  That's why M&Ms are coated, so that they melt in your mouth, not in your hand. 

Back to Whole Foods, which offered chocolate-covered pretzels, milk, dark and white, at $11.99 a pound.  Li-Lac Chocolates, a longtime Manhattan chocolatier, sells them for $34 a pound.  Asher's Chocolates, a reliable Pennsylvania-based company, sells them for $24 a pound at a number of local retail stores.  So, I bought half a dozen dark chocolate-covered pretzels from Whole Foods and enjoyed them over the next couple of days.

I could not rest easy, however.  How could Whole Foods be offering such a bargain?  When I returned today, I found the answer.  "Natural Chocolate Confectioners Coating (sugar, non-hydrogenated vegetable fat, cocoa powder, nonfat dry milk, whole milk powder, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, natural flavor, salt)" read the label that was missing on my prior visit.  Is it Natural Chocolate or is it Confectioners Coating (let's not worry about an  apostrophe)?  Is it akin to "Genuine Leatherette"?    

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Obituaries in the New York Times are usually well-written, brief biographies of interesting people.  Today, for instance, I read about Arno Motulsky, "a founder of medical genetics, recognizing the connection between genes and health long before mainstream medicine did," who died at age 94 in Seattle.  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/obituaries/arno-motulsky-dies-medical-genetics-founder.html?action=click&contentCollection=obituaries&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

Mr. Motulsky was notable not only for his scientific accomplishments, but for the fact that the American government literally turned him away from our shores, along with more than 900 other Jews, fleeing Naziism, on board the steamship St. Louis in 1939.  Great Britain took in almost one-third of them, others found their way to neutral countries.  However, "532 St. Louis passengers were trapped when Germany conquered Western Europe.  Just over half, 278 survived the Holocaust.  254 died: 84 who had been in Belgium; 84 who had found refuge in Holland, and 86 who had been admitted to France."    https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005267

Mr. Motulsky, 16 years old, born in Germany, was sent to Belgium when the ship returned to Europe, something that met the approval of our nationalists then, and would now, no doubt.  After all, the boy spoke no English, did not finish high school and had no marketable skills.  Definitely a candidate for extreme vetting.

Adjacent to staff-written obituaries in the paper are death notices, provided by and paid for by family and/or friends of the deceased.  I am not sure if any editorial control is exercised on these submissions.  In many instances, photographs accompany the text and that's what I want to address.  Some photographs show old people, probably taken in the last years of their lives.  Okay, but others show healthy folks, clear-eyed, well turned out.  Yet, according to the text, the subject may have lived into his/her 80s or 90s.

Head shots taken 50 years ago may be indistinguishable from those taken last week.  A picture of a man in a dark suit, wearing a white shirt and tie or a woman in a cardigan with a string of pearls might have been taken in any of a half dozen recent decades.  How do you want to make your last public appearance?  What should it be, now or then?  

Wednesday, January 31. 2018

Last night was the State of the Union address.  Along with the Oscars, the Miss America pageant, the All-Star Baseball Game and the Olympics, I stopped watching the televised live event years ago.  If anything important happens, it will be repeated over and over in a carefully edited segment.  It's not that my interest in politics or movies or good-looking women or sports has waned; I prefer to deal with these matters in the least hype-free setting available.  Of course, I fully realize that least hype-free nowhere approaches actual hype-free.

In fact, politics remains one of my central concerns and I have been thinking about making America great again, like back in the Kennedy years.  I remember my brother's good friend, Danny D., who was decidedly left wing, railing about our politics.  Congress, which I believe had Democratic majorities in both houses, was considering raising the minimum wage, then $1 per hour.  The Democrats proposed $1.25 while the Republicans urged $1.15.  Ten cents, Danny said, that's the difference in our politics?

Today, many Democrats propose a $15 per hour minimum wage while many Republicans, having had more than a half century to read and reread Ayn Rand, simply want to abolish it.
. . .

According to one source, we lefty/liberal/pinko/progressives should be hanging our heads, not because of the inferiority of our ideas, but because our appearance might scare people.  "Research Finds Attractive People More Likely to be Conservative."  https://www.susqu.edu/about-su/newsroom/research-finds-attractive-people-more-likely-to-be-conservative

The study suggests that, as good-looking people "are generally treated better, achieve higher social status and earn more money, influencing them to see the world as a just place," they may see less need for government intervention, a key component of left wing thought.

As an empiricist, I think that it comes down to choosing to snuggle with Mitch McConnell or Chuck Schumer.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Rob Teicher and I, after dinner at Ben's Kosher Delicatessen, 209 West 38th Street, headed to Madison Square Garden for a hockey game.  However, the Rangers were seemingly replaced on the ice by the Strangers, a group of random skaters who, after standing in a straight line for the Canadian and American national anthems, went off in various directions with no common purpose.  Enough said.

Friday, February 2, 2018

The Upper West Side's Power Couple packed up and drove to Massachusetts for Boaz's tenth birthday celebration.  His birthday tomorrow is also the tenth anniversary of the New York Giants Super Bowl victory.  Even though he has lived for the last 7 years in the shadow of the New England Patriots, the loser on his birthdate, he had maintained his Giants pride throughout.  We will probably watch the Super Bowl together Sunday night, but I doubt that he will root for a massive power failure at and around the stadium as vigorously as Grandpa will.