Saturday, April 28, 2018

Back To Africa

Monday, April 23, 2018
I had a girl friend 35 years ago who was a great fan of "Dune," the popular science fiction novel by Frank Herbert.  (Today, the term "fantasy" has apparently squeezed out "science fiction.")  In my attempt to get or keep her enamored, I plowed into that 412 page novel, the first of a six book series.  After Herbert went to the big sandbox in the sky in 1986, his son continued with more novels set before and after the time period of the original.

It did not take me many pages to shed the thought of reading anything else Dune-like, although I made it through the end of the work at hand.  The romance ended soon thereafter, but the turgid Dune legacy has kept me away from any science fiction ever since, in any form.  I haven't seen a "Star Wars" or "Star Trek" film for all this time. I went to see the first of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001), to help entertain Max the Wonder Boy, then a teenager.  I recall beautiful scenery, but Frodo has faded while Fredo remains vivid in my mind.  As for Harry Potter, I'm sticking with Harry Truman.


One lasting sci-fi memory, however, is the immortal Star Trek phrase "Beam me up, Scotty."  This came to mind as we boarded United flight 134 to Zurich, Switzerland at Newark Airport at 6:30 PM Sunday evening, connecting to United flight 9764 to Nairobi, Kenya, scheduled to arrive at 6:40 PM local time Monday evening.  Even after subtracting the seven hour time difference, that's a long trip.  How nice if, in fact, Scotty could arrange a much faster means of getting us from place to place.

By the way, as with "Elementary, my dear Watson" and "Play it again, Sam," the phrase was never actually uttered in ur-Star Trek episodes.  http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/10/beam-scotty-never-said-original-star-trek/  
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The flights went very well, no drama, (mostly) quiet babies, approximations of food, particularly good desserts - lemon sorbet and frozen crème brûlée.  I made an observation on the Nairobi leg, a full Airbus with about 300 passengers that surprised me.  Others may find it naive, even stupid.  About 2/3 of the people on board were white, the others mostly black, a few Asian-appearing folk.  Of course, many of the whites may be African, while many of the blacks may well be American or some European flavor.  It just wasn't what I expected.

Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Our first full day in Kenya opened with heavy rains, which lasted for several hours as we drove east and then south from Nairobi to Kilima Safari Camp in the Amboseli National Park, our first stop.  As in other  developing countries, the acquisition of a motorbike seems to be the first accomplishment after meeting the immediate needs of food, shelter and clothing.  An unusual local touch, probably in response to the weather, was umbrellas sitting upright over the drivers even as they flew along.  Instead of a symmetrical round canopy, these umbrellas had a platypus-like trailing section to offer the semblance of protection to a passenger.

Once in the countryside, leaving the Long Island Expressway where we spent the first hour, there were frequent roadside animal sightings in the next three hours, but only of cows and goats, often intermingled, offering an encouraging picture of intergroup harmony.  But, even before we reached Kilima Safari Camp at the edge of Amboseli National Park, we hit the big time.  First, a small herd of zebras, really with stripes and everything.  Then, down the road, a large group of giraffes, about two dozen majestic creatures.  Everyone jumped out of our vans to watch, take photographs and marvel, but it got better.  After we checked into our large, beautifully furnished cabin, we went out to look for animals and we struck gold.  Elephants, zebras, two kinds of gazelles, jackals and lions, plus vultures and crown cranes.  The lions were the trophy sighting.  We were the second or third van to pull over to see the lions, but within minutes there were 20 or more vans, minibuses, Land Rovers and Land Cruisers summoned in Swahili by the first drivers on the scene.  The lion sighting was special not just because of their eminence in the jungle, but there are only about three dozen in Amboseli National Park.

Wednesday, April 25, 2018
We took an early morning drive around the park and saw hippopotamuses and wildebeests for the first time, as well as two families of elephants immediately in front and behind us.

Additionally, for Barbara Alfange and my other birder friends, we spotted some wonderful birds:
Black and gray herons
Ostriches (much larger than I imagined)
Crowned, blacksmith, spurwinged and long toed plovers
Black belllied bustards
Starlings
Pelican (1)
African spoonbill
Fulvous whistling ducks
Saddle billed and yellow billed storks
Black winged stilts
Fish eagle (1)
Egyptian geese

And that was all before breakfast!

Thursday, April 26, 2018
We left for Tanzania early this morning, but needed almost all day to get to Planet Lodge, Arusha, an urban hotel on lovely grounds that evoke the countryside.  The extra long drive was necessitated by the washing away of a key bridge connecting Kenya and Tanzania, a result of the heaviest rains in East Africa for many decades.   Fortunately, shortly after we we set out, we had two special sightings, which made the next many hours more bearable --three giraffes standing tall and three  dozen baboons gamboling about within reach.  At a rest stop on the way, I found cheeseburger-flavored Pringles on the market shelf.  My curiosity was satisfied just by looking at the package.

Wi-Fi was not working at Kilima Safari Camp so reentry to the Internet at Planet Lodge was a bit like a return from space.  However, I decided to reconstruct the wins and losses for the Mets since the weekend rather than keep up with the hirings and firings in Washington in the same period.

Friday, April 27, 2018

Arusha was only an intermediate stop to limit the day's driving time to about the length of some Trump appointments.  Again it was early to rise and hit the road to Ngorongoro Serena Safari Lodge on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater, a geological phenomenon about 20 kilometers across and 600 meters deep (nearly 12 1/2 miles and 1,970 feet).

Much of the ride for the last two days was through Maasai country, who number about 800,000 in Tanzania and closer to 900,000 in Kenya.  Many (most?) of them stick to the old-fashioned ways, wrapped in colorful robes, wearing bright beaded jewelery, devoted to herding their cows and horses, the men notably thin and rangy, polygamous with their wives literally doing the heavy lifting.


The long ride was broken up by a visit to Lake Manyara National Park, kept lushly green year round by spring water from the highlands in contrast to Amboseli which is usually arid except for the rainy season.  While we did not see any of the park's famous tree-climbing lions, we added to our animal collection by sighting a Cape Buffalo, impalas and wart hogs.  Also, we added to our existing inventory of animals were more zebras, wildebeests, baboons and ten hippopotamuses languishing in a shallow pond. 


Saturday, April 28, 2018

Another early wake-up call and then a drive down to the floor of the crater.  The Ngorongoro Crater was formed when a large volcano exploded and collapsed on itself over 2 million years ago, or in the 1820s on the Creationist Calendar.  Except for a few toilets and unpaved roads, it remains wild, populated by a wide variety of animals.  Today, we saw hyenas and a black rhinoceros for the first time.  We also saw lions and hippopotamuses much closer than before, as well as hundreds of wildebeests, zebras and gazelles.  In the bird department, we made initial sightings of an African harrier hawk and flamingos.

So where are his pictures, you might ask?  Why is he wasting my time with all of his verbiage.  Well, some unannounced conflict seems to have arisen among Samsung, Google and Blogspot, leaving me unillustrated and only partially illuminating.  Too bad, I really got a great shot of the lion.

Saturday, April 21, 2018

Gatherings

Monday, April 16, 2018
Time passes while in many instances real estate appreciates in value.  Here is a survey that connects the two, expressing the median rise in home value by location as an hourly rate.  It's as if you could stay home and let your house go to work for you, although you can’t take equity to the supermarket.

For 2017, 6 of the top 10 “earners” were in California.  All 10 of them voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 by large margin.  Just saying. https://www.citylab.com/equity/2016/12/mapping-how-americas-metro-areas-voted/508313/
. . .

Over the weekend, the New York Times had an essay entitled “How Skydiving Cured My Depression.”  Had I written it, the subhead would have been “Replaced By Hysteria.”
. . .

In an effort to stay close to the center of power, I had lunch with Irwin Pronin, 1962 CCNY Student Government President.  We ate at Swagat, 411 Amsterdam Avenue, a reliable Indian restaurant. We both ordered Brunch Specials, served daily, one appetizer, one curry, rice and naan for $14.95, a very good deal.  I had lamb samosa and chicken saag. While this made for an ample lunch, we both had just enough room to go across the street to Amorino, 414 Amsterdam Avenue, the local branch of an international gelato empire, which I have patronized in London and Paris.  My Classic cup ($6.45) held two flavors, stracciatella (how the Italians spell chocolate chip) and L’inimitable (a wonderful chocolate hazelnut). They were among the 15 gelati and 10 sorbets available.
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Today’s paper has an article “Whose Neighborhood Should Get a Street Named for Dr. King?” It centers on a dispute in Kansas City, Missouri,

The African-American mayor of Kansas City proposes naming a major thoroughfare that crosses through a variety of neighborhoods for Martin Luther King, Jr., against the vocal opposition of some African-American community leaders, who feel possessive of Dr. King's legacy.  The mayor wisely states that “Is Martin Luther King strictly a black hero? I would say not. I think he’s a hero for everybody, and he ought to be honored that way.”

Wednesday, April 18, 2018
Burt from Borough Park, Shelley the Neighbor, Stony Brook Steve, Tom Terrific, Uncle Stu, Uncle Myron, Aunt Martha and Cousin Harry joined America’s Favorite Epidemiologist and me, as well as numerous students and faculty, at Brooklyn Law School this afternoon to hear Professor David Webber discuss his new book “The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder.”  His presentation was learned, cogent and persuasively reasoned, giving examples of the socially conscious use of the billions of dollars held by labor union pension funds.

Thursday, April 19, 2018
The Boyz Club gathered at Jing Fong, 20 Elizabeth Street, for a dim sum experience.  As expected, it was a success. Five of us had 14 plates, 12 unique dishes; bottom line, $18 each.  

Jing Fong remains a reliable source of a very large assortment of dim sum items at reasonable prices.  During weekdays, most items cost $3.50, usually three pieces to a plate. The joint is also enormous. It is a full block long and I think that it is the largest restaurant in New York City.  I would suggest though that it is not the place to tell your significant other “It's not you, it's me.”

Friday, April 20, 2018
In noodling around the Internet, I came up with some interesting “Best of” lists.  Condé Nast Traveler offers an eclectic list of New York's best restaurants.  https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/best-restaurants-in-new-york-city
It earns my respect by including Russ & Daughters Cafe, 127 Orchard Street, alongside some more rarefied choices. Russ & Daughters Cafe is an adjunct to its legendary appetizing store at 179 East Houston Street. In case the term is unfamiliar to you, Wikipedia informs us that "[a]n appetizing store, typically in reference to Jewish cuisine, is best understood as a store that sells 'the foods one eats with bagels.'"  Fifty years ago, I dated one of the Daughters' daughters.  It didn't last and I've had to buy my own lox ever since.

NYC.com is a multi-faceted website that provides broad information resources as well as hotel and theater services. Notably, it has about 100 lists of best restaurants by cuisine, location and special features. https://www.nyc.com/best-of-new-york/best_restaurants_in_nyc.2166/. There's a lot to argue with, but the sheer volume of information should delight you. Best Theater District Restaurants? Best Meatballs in New York? Best Kid-Friendly Restaurants in New York? It also recaps the city's Michelin-starred, New York Times four star, and James Beard Award restaurants.
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Roger Cohen has an essay on Gaza, the Palestinian condition and the failure of Israeli leadership that almost perfectly reflects my views. https://nyti.ms/2JcYlST The only thing that I would add is the failure of the Arab world generally to support their brethren. Neighboring states seem content to stand aside while rioters burn tires and try to outrun Israeli bullets rather than make any serious attempt to aid in the building of a civil society.

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Ladies First?

Monday, April 9, 2018
The weekend's newspaper had several numbers that surprised me.  First, there was an extensive study of evictions nationwide.  https://nyti.ms/2GIJfrq

While we think that Americans are afforded equal justice under the law, location, location location seems to be as significant to evictions as to real estate generally.  One in 25 Milwaukee renters faced eviction, while the eager landlords in Richmond, Virginia threatened one in five renters with eviction while actually moving against one in nine.  The article lists the top ten locations with the highest eviction judgment rates.  Five of the ten are "in Virginia, which lacks some tenant rights available in other states."  Not surprising was the correlation of evictions with poverty, a low minimum wage and a high concentration of African-Americans.  
 
Locally, I was surprised to learn that there are 612 Dunkin’ Donuts and 433 Subway sandwich shops in New York City, obviously succeeding in the absence of my patronage.  https://nyti.ms/2EprveB  

Finally, how many airlines do you think there are in the world?  That's a question that I never contemplated before and I don't even know what I might guess.  A profile of a master chef reported that his company provides meals for about 300 airlines.  
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/business/airline-chef-tastes.html

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), a trade association of major airlines, has 278 members.  However, IATA and the International Civil Aviation Organization have designators (abbreviations or tags) for about 5,000 airlines.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airline_codes

Not included is Mrs. Grace L. Ferguson's Storm Door & Airlines Company made famous by Bob Newhart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvx0Duqy3N8
 
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
Today is Equal Pay Day.  The average woman who worked throughout 2017 and continued until today earned what the average man earned in 2017.  In case you would like to read a tortured defense of this disparity, go to http://thefederalist.com/2018/04/10/equal-pay-day-hype-ignores-the-facts-and-womens-feelings-about-the-workplace/

Back in the real world, according to the 2016 Census, where the average white male earns $1, a Latina earns 54¢, a Native American woman 57¢, a black woman 63¢, a white woman 79¢ and an Asian woman 89¢. 

If you really want to groove on statistics in this subject, see
 
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan announced today that he will not run for reelection, removing him from an office that placed him immediately behind the vice president in the line of presidential succession.  He acted in deep disappointment at being omitted from the latest edition of "Profiles in Courage."
. . .
 
At first, I was surprised to read today that Il Laboratorio del Gelato, a provider of high quality ice cream to local restaurants, has 275 flavors.  That seems like a large number, but a quick look into the Gotthelf Files shows that it is really not that unusual.  Herrell's of Northampton, Massachusetts has a master list of 300 flavors; it regularly offers about 40 in its flagship store.
http://www.herrells.com/frozen-treats/gourmet-premium-ice-cream 

Quality does not suffer at Herrell's because of quantity.  On two visits to Herrell's last year, I really enjoyed coconut chocolate chip, "More cookies than cream", "Emerald City" (peppermint ice cream with Andes mints and green sprinkles), and mudpie (espresso ice cream with Oreos and a fudge swirl).  Before I reach for the car keys, I remind myself of the proximity of Ample Hills Creamery, in the Gotham West Market, 600 11th Avenue (45th Street).  It only serves 12 flavors at a time, but it comes up with some that Herrell's hasn't imagined yet, such as, Salted Crack Caramel (salted caramel ice cream, with saltines covered in butter, sugar and chocolate) and "Ooey Gooey Butter Cake" (vanilla ice cream with cream cheese and "St. Louis-style" butter cake).  Isn't ice cream wonderful?
 
Thursday, April 12, 2018
It is Stony Brook Steve's birthday and we celebrated at lunch at LaSalle Dumpling Room, 25 West End Avenue, a frequent destination when foregoing Chinatown.  We ate up a storm: pan fried pork dumplings ($9 for 6 pieces), spicy chicken dumplings ($9 for 6 pieces), popcorn chicken ($11.95), cold sesame noodles ($8.50) and beef wrapped scallion pancake ($9.95).  To further celebrate the occasion, I had a passion fruit slush ($4.25).  A fine party.

Friday, April 13, 2018
"Knowledge Gap Hinders Ability of Congress to Regulate Silicon Valley"  This a headline in today's paper that could be used in Mad Libs (that wonderful series created by Roger Price, Leonard Stern and Larry Sloan).  Ask for any noun in place of "Silicon Valley." 
. . .
 
Tonight, we went to dinner at Riverpark, 450 East 29th Street, a restaurant indeed edging on the East River.  The occasion was in honor of the recent Bat Mitzvah of Leonore Max, only a few decades after she graduated from medical school.  While she has never wielded a scalpel around me, she handled the Hebrew texts with care and confidence.
 
Her husband Jon Silverberg picked the restaurant, which the New York Times describes as "hard to find, . . . occupying a chasm between the New York University Medical Center and the sprawling wards of Bellevue Hospital Center."  The review concludes that "[i]t is a sophisticated restaurant with an excellent kitchen, moderately priced, with good service," an opinion we now share with the vital exception of the immoderate pricing.  With that understood, you can have a very lovely evening. 

Saturday, April 7, 2018

Sand In My Shoes

Monday, April 2, 2018
Mel Brooks reminded us that it's good to be the King.  A recent group of studies reported by the New York Times (referenced herein in the last two weeks) show that generally the way to the top in America is to start there.  The exceptions are black boys who have a difficult time maintaining an elevated socioeconomic position and Asian-Americans who doggedly move up the ladder even from woeful circumstances. 

A report by the Equality of Opportunity Project gives us some interesting collateral data.  "For people born over the five years from 1980 to 1984, the marriage rate for upper-income students who attended Ivy League institutions was 14 percentage points higher than the rate for lower-income students."    https://nyti.ms/2uyfC6q  

Another disparity in the measure of "success" emerged from a study of women who started college in the same dormitory at Indiana University in 2004.  ("Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality," by Elizabeth Armstrong and Laura Hamilton.)  None of the working-class students had graduated five years later, while the affluent ones "all graduated.  Even the ones who chose easy majors, did very little studying, got mediocre grades and spent most of their time partying were able to find jobs after graduation."  https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/04/education/edlife/elizabeth-a-armstrong-on-her-book-paying-for-the-party.html
. . .
Digesting the weekend's seder meals is almost complete, so I can report on my ingestion.  First, Friday night from daughter-in-law Irit's kitchen:
Crudités (mirabile dictu, her children eat raw cucumbers)

Potato leek soup
Salmon with Savta Mila's sauce
Squash kugel
Matzah lasagna (yes, it works quite well)
Chocolate frogs (which melted quickly when rubbed over children's faces)
Chocolate chip biscotti (a/k/a mandelbrot)
Almond butter chocolate chip cookies
Chocolate cream cheese cake with blackberries and raspberries

Saturday night from Aunt Judi's kitchen:
Deep-fried gefilte fish balls (such a wonderful creation, it should be protected by copyright)
Sweet and sour meatballs
Corned beef (begging for rye bread)
Carmelized onion chicken
Dermaless derma (when Jews got embarrassed at the sound of the word kishka -- beef intestine stuffed with meat scraps, fat, and grain -- they started calling it derma, for skin, or stuffed derma; once a staple at any catered affair, it has been pushed into the compost heap of history.)  Aunt Judi serves a meatless version without a casing. 
Cauliflower soufflé
Broccoli kugel
Cous cous
Matzoh jam pudding
Apple strawberry relish
Cole slaw
Health salad
Trifle with chocolate mousse and whipped cream
Strawberry mousse
Chocolate chip mandelbrot
Almond cookies with chocolate chips
Brownies
Fruit (for the big eaters)
With this intake, it was hard to make a running start into the Sinai Desert.
Tuesday, April 2, 2018
In what has not been recognized as an international competition in principled decision making, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday reversed his position on settling and resettling African refugees in one hour and 53 minutes.  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/02/world/middleeast/israel-african-migrants-un-resettlement.html 

This easily beat President Trump's volte face on gun control after a meeting with the NRA, an interval of almost two weeks.  
Immigration and refugees are hot buttons almost throughout the world.  The administration has just funded a replacement plaque at the foot of the Statue of Liberty, reading, in part, "Give me your Norwegians, yearning to spend their trust funds . . ."
Israel has its own problem -- Eritreans and Sudanese escaping genocidal regimes, who entered Israel at the border between Egypt and Israel in the Negev Desert.  The border has since been sealed, but nearly 40,000 Christian and Muslim refugees remain from a total of 60,000 who arrived.  Israel has been trying to eject them with some success, although it recruits manual laborers and household help from far away, jobs that Jews refuse. 
It is particularly ironic to be discussing this during Passover.  The Haggadah, the Jewish text that vies with the food for centrality at the seder table, says, "All who are hungry -- let them come and eat.  All who are needy -- let them come and celebrate the Passover with us."  Then, get lost?
By coincidence, I saw "Levinsky Park" tonight, a documentary film about these African refugees who cluster in this South Tel Aviv park day and night.  Here is a trailer for the film.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auHbTliG2LA&feature=youtu.be
 
We visited the park on our recent trip, escorted by a director of Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, an organization trying to assist these African refugees, now labelled infiltrators by the government.  https://hotline.org.il/en/main/  They exist in a legal limbo, their applications for asylum endlessly deferred, while the government tries to get them to leave using carrot and stick.  According to Hotline, "Israel has recognized refugee status for one Sudanese and 10 Eritreans, out of thousands of applications for asylum." 
I drew two positives from the film.  Israel offers the semblance of due process to the refugees; maybe someday it will be full fledged.  The refugee detention camp in Holot, deep in the Negev Desert, was considered much better than a Sudanese jail, according to one young man who experienced both. 
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
I prefer things to be intuitive, so that I might handle them effectively without having to read the homework.  But, sometimes nature, Mother or human, throws us a curve.  So, I was surprised to learn that male fans of the Montreal Canadiens hockey team, under 55 years old,  are more likely to suffer a heart attack the day after a victory, not after a defeat.  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180329083305.htm
I imagined that these fans, fiercely devoted to a team that represents their beleagured Francophone heritage as well as ordinary sports loyalty, would be driven to physical as well as emotional despair by a loss, a feeling that I have frequently had as a Rangers fan this season.  Instead, it is the thrill of victory rather than the agony of defeat that leads them to the emergency room.  Go figure.
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A further note on fors and againsts:  It seems that Israel may expect more support from Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman than British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
https://nyti.ms/2q3oziJ

Thursday, April 5, 2018
Republican Senator Ted Cruz is running for reelection with the slogan TOUGH AS TEXAS.  This is the guy who CNN describes as "suddenly Trump's biggest fan" after Trump insulted his wife and accused his father of being involved with the assassination of JFK.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/23/9-truly-awful-things-that-were-said-between-ted-cruz-and-the-man-hell-now-support-donald-trump/?utm_term=.a9ad54aba810
Hang tough, Ted.  By the way, donations to his Democratic opponent Beto O'Rourke can be made at https://betofortexas.com/
Friday, April 6, 2018
Today's headlines:
"Park Geun-hye, South Korea’s Ousted President, Gets 24 Years in Prison"
"Judge Orders Brazil’s Ex-President ‘Lula’ to Begin Prison Term on Friday"
Does it give you any ideas?