Monday, March 12, 2018
I
thought that this past weekend would focus exclusively on merriment, as
10-year old Boaz was visiting his grandparents. However, when we had
lunch at &pizza, 740 Broadway, I
knew that I had a duty to report my findings. This long, narrow room
operates what might first be viewed as a gimmick, but turns out
excellent pizza. It offers only an oblong 14" x 4" pizza for $10.10 with unlimited toppings. Shrimp comes at an extra charge; all the dozens of other alternatives are free.
They
must use a nuclear oven, because the pizza is baked in about two
minutes. I had mushrooms, sausage, meatballs, pepperoni and peppers on
mine. It could have been twice the price and I would still highly
recommend this joint.
. . .
. . .
Escorting
a ten-year old around Manhattan gives you an excuse to see some pretty
cool things. I recommend that you borrow a child not yet at the age of
sullenness and proceed to the National Museum of Mathematics, 11 East
26th Street, open 10 AM - 5 PM daily, admission $17 for adults under 60,
$11 all others. It is well worth it, although the focus is primarily
on physics -- angles, optics, forces -- rather than mathematics. You can ride a square-wheeled tricycle or spin around on a pointy-based
chair. The gift shop has a strong assortment of games, puzzles and
books as well. It gave me the opportunity to get started on my Hanukkah gift
shopping.
. . .
Today,
I had to be in Midtown, so I headed to Num Pang, 140 East 41st Street, a
Cambodian sandwich shop, one of a half dozen locations in this chain.
This spot is set on one of the dreariest blocks in Manhattan, dark and
high-walled. Airport shuttle buses are the only sign of life or color.
Num Pang is a little box, very busy with take-out orders. A ledge and six stools provide the only in-house dining option, enough space for me. I really can't tell the difference between a Cambodian sandwich and a Vietnamese sandwich (the more familiar banh mi). Both take a baguette, add some meat, shredded pickled carrots, cucumber slices, cilantro and a chili-based sauce. The contents offered by Num Pang include peppercorn catfish, grilled skirt steak, roasted cauliflower and ginger BBQ brisket, at prices ranging from $8.95 to $11.95. I had coconut tiger shrimp ($11.25), tasty, but not particularly coconutty.
Num Pang is a little box, very busy with take-out orders. A ledge and six stools provide the only in-house dining option, enough space for me. I really can't tell the difference between a Cambodian sandwich and a Vietnamese sandwich (the more familiar banh mi). Both take a baguette, add some meat, shredded pickled carrots, cucumber slices, cilantro and a chili-based sauce. The contents offered by Num Pang include peppercorn catfish, grilled skirt steak, roasted cauliflower and ginger BBQ brisket, at prices ranging from $8.95 to $11.95. I had coconut tiger shrimp ($11.25), tasty, but not particularly coconutty.
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
I got a bit of a shock last night reading East West Street
by Philippe Sands, a French human rights lawyer, who explores his
family's Holocaust history and the coincident development of the legal
concepts of genocide and crimes against humanity. Sands writes that, as
WWII was ending, his mother's father, who had fled Poland for France,
"was working with the Comité Juif in the center of Paris at the Hôtel
de Lutèce, which had been a Gestapo headquarters." Whoa, wow. That
gave me chills, since on two of my five trips to Paris, I stayed at this
charming little hotel, in a row of 17th century townhouses on the Île Saint-Louis, which sits in the middle of the Seine.
I just couldn't see it full of Nazis, so I went trolling through the Internet where I found that the Hôtel Lutetia, built as a large hotel in 1910 on the Right Bank, "was requisitioned by the Abwehr (counter-espionage), and used to house, feed, and entertain the officers in command of the occupation," according to Wikipedia. Some less detailed accounts substitute the Gestapo for the Abwehr. Similarly, Lutèce may be confused with Lutetia, although a biography of Pauline Avery Crawford, an American writer who remained in Paris through the war, says that "[s]he wrote about the French police across the street that guarded the Hotel Lutèce, where the Gestapo personnel were housed." One final pedantic note -- Paris police headquarters then and now is on rue de Lutèce, across a short footbridge from the hotel. I'm not afraid of ghosts, but where will I sleep the next time in Paris?
I just couldn't see it full of Nazis, so I went trolling through the Internet where I found that the Hôtel Lutetia, built as a large hotel in 1910 on the Right Bank, "was requisitioned by the Abwehr (counter-espionage), and used to house, feed, and entertain the officers in command of the occupation," according to Wikipedia. Some less detailed accounts substitute the Gestapo for the Abwehr. Similarly, Lutèce may be confused with Lutetia, although a biography of Pauline Avery Crawford, an American writer who remained in Paris through the war, says that "[s]he wrote about the French police across the street that guarded the Hotel Lutèce, where the Gestapo personnel were housed." One final pedantic note -- Paris police headquarters then and now is on rue de Lutèce, across a short footbridge from the hotel. I'm not afraid of ghosts, but where will I sleep the next time in Paris?
Wednesday, March 15, 2018
It's
something like 30 years since former students of CCNY Professor Stanley
Feingold started meeting him for lunch every several months. Even
after he moved to Seattle, he would return for these sessions and
several of us cleared our calendars to not miss the opportunity to hear
his well thought out analyses of American politics. Stanley died last
year, but, without any formality, we decided to continue our lunches,
including today, maybe hoping to occasionally hear an idea worthy of him.
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Toys Ain't Us
. . .
In
response to the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy and his daughter in
Salisbury, England, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced
yesterday that no member of the British royal family will attend the
soccer World Cup in Moscow, to be held from June 14 to July 15. The
timing turns out to be ideal to make amends for a long-standing
diplomatic oversight. As I noted recently, Queen Elizabeth II, reigning
since February 6, 1952, has somehow skipped visiting Israel, even as she traipsed off to 129 other countries. Now, with this opening on the royal calendar
coming at a time when there are no major or minor Jewish holidays to
interfere (a cause to celebrate in itself), Israel should prepare to
roll out the blue and white carpet for Her Majesty.
Friday, March 16, 2018
Last night, we went to see a preview of the first part of the revival of Angels in America;
tonight, we plan to see the second part. This will total more than 7 hours sitting in very narrow, very shallow seats and/or experiencing a
major theatrical event. As impressed as I was by the work itself, I
have its author on my mind.
Tony Kushner won a Pulitzer Prize for Angels in America and had Oscar nominations for his screenplays of Lincoln and Munich.
He also lives in our building, is very pleasant in the elevator and has a toy poodle with which he seems to share hair style and color. But, I want to tighten my focus. Kushner has
to be a contender for the surname of the decade. There's Jared, of
course, everyone's favorite son-in-law.
If Tony and Jared weren't enough, please regard Harold Kushner, Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Israel, Natick, Massachusetts, the very successful author of When Bad Things Happen To Good People. I've met him on a few occasions, but not in settings where any pets would have been on display. While we had some pleasant conversations, I failed to convince him that he should publish When Good Things Happen To Bad People, which resonates with my Brooklyn-bred resentments. Jared would get his own chapter in that book.
If Tony and Jared weren't enough, please regard Harold Kushner, Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Israel, Natick, Massachusetts, the very successful author of When Bad Things Happen To Good People. I've met him on a few occasions, but not in settings where any pets would have been on display. While we had some pleasant conversations, I failed to convince him that he should publish When Good Things Happen To Bad People, which resonates with my Brooklyn-bred resentments. Jared would get his own chapter in that book.
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