Perfect Tense

Monday, May 21, 2018

Normally, a daily headline or two gets me going into a fit of impotent blathering.  Today, I look back thousands of years for words to gnaw at.  Deuteronomy 15:21 says: "If an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the Lord your God."  This statement is part of today's Torah reading.  (Jews in synagogues read through the entire Torah each year, several paragraphs at a time.  You would think by now that they would understand it.)  

This injunction is also found at Leviticus 22:22: "Anything blind, or injured or maimed . . . you shall not offer to the Lord."  People are also subject to the same high bar.  Priesthood is denied those suffering, among other things, blindness, lameness, disproportionate or crippled limbs, or "hath his stones crushed"(!).  Leviticus 21:17-23.  By the way, Leviticus is notorious for its finger wagging.

The search for perfection extends to the fruit stand.  An etrog, a yellow  citron, is used by Jews during Sukkot, the autumn harvest festival.  Waving it in the air in a ritualized pattern is considered a good thing (a mitzvah).  However, if the etrog is damaged or blemished, it is barred from use.  https://forward.com/news/207016/hunting-for-the-perfect-etrog-in-brooklyns-back-st/

Without bogging us down discussing the existence of a deity, I wish to observe that a well-qualified deity should be able to tolerate living things without regard to size, shape, condition, wear and tear.  After all, the animals, the people, the fruits ultimately spring from the deity and should be expected to be viewed lovingly without fear or favor.

Further, who among us is qualified in drawing the line between the acceptable pure and the unacceptable impure?  Isn't that a futile attempt to know the unknowable?  And, why are the distinctions based only on external characteristics?  Is that any way to run a universe?

. . .

Wikipedia has a list of the 27 most deadly mass shootings in the US, starting in 1949, when 13 people were killed by a man walking through his neighborhood in Camden, New Jersey.  The list is up to date, through the shootings in Santa Fe, Texas on May 18, 2018.  15 of the 27 occurred this century, including the 5 most deadly.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_shootings_in_the_United_States

The Washington Post has another detailed compilation starting in 1966, with very good graphics.   https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/mass-shootings-in-america/?utm_term=.064faf9d47e5

What is evident is how the good old USA leads the planet in the senseless shooting of civilians, not yet an Olympic competition.  What is mostly the case in these tragic events is the identity of the perps, white, Christian men.  Just saying.

. . .

While white, Christian men can't seem to break the habit of killing lots of people at one time, there is one trend that is being at least temporarily halted, if not reversed.  In March 2016, a grocery store named Albertina's opened at 2020 Broadway, between West 69th Street and West 70th Street, replacing a shoe store that had been a long term tenant.  I was pessimistic from the very start  about its chances of succeeding among very picky Upper West Siders,  already serviced by a broad array of high quality grocers (led by Fairway, Trader Joe's and Zabar's), sidewalk fruit and vegetable stands, 24 hour drugstores (CVS, Rite-Aid, Duane Reade) selling milk, eggs, ice cream, cereal, and potato chips (my normal diet) alongside prescription and over-the-counter drugs, and a scattering of bodegas with and without cobwebs on their shelves.  Indeed, by June 2016, Albertina's was closed and the space stands empty.  However, this weekend, I saw a sign in the window announcing the future occupancy of Shakespeare & Co., a bookstore and café.  It's a bold move, considering the number of bookstores that have abandoned Manhattan over time.  Maybe the lattes and scones will keep the literary ship afloat.  I pledge to buy one overpriced coffee there each week.

Tuesday, May 22, 2108
San Francisco at $3,440 and Detroit at $590 are the opposite ends of the bell curve for median rents of a one-bedroom apartment.  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/17/realestate/cost-of-renting-one-bedroom.html

What I found more interesting were those cities that experienced unusual rates of change for those apartments.  Houston, Texas, described in August 2017, as "the already submerged city" due to Hurricane Harvey, had the highest increase in median rents for a one-bedroom apartment.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/08/27/catastrophic-flooding-underway-in-houston-as-harvey-lingers-over-texas/?utm_term=.3236953a263e

Of course, Houston won the 2017 World Series and maybe many people wanted to belatedly jump on the bandwagon.  On the other hand, Miami, Florida, which narrowly escaped major damage last year from Hurricane Irma, had one of the steepest declines.  Go figure.

Thursday, May 24, 2018
Hurricanes Harvey and Irma play a role in "The Places in the U.S. Where Disaster Strikes Again and Again," an interesting feature article that identifies those areas of the country that seem to attract natural disasters at an unnatural rate.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/24/us/disasters-hurricanes-wildfires-storms.html

Data from the Small Business Administration on disaster-related losses from 2002 to 2017 show that 11% of all losses emerged from 10 zip codes in the vicinity of New Orleans, while Puerto Rico itself accounted for almost 5% of all losses in the period.  History may not be repeating itself, but lightening seems to have struck twice literally on occasion and figuratively more often.   
. . .

The National Football League has announced a new policy regarding the national anthem, requiring players on the field to stand, alternatively allowing them to remain in the locker room.  As a certified pinko, you know that I think that it is a phony sop to patriotism, ignoring the substantial issues of social justice that motivated the players to protest in the first place.  I am impressed, though, by the waiver given to players who have bone spurs, excluding them from being forced to stand during the national anthem.
. . .

Dean Alfange, American civilization at its best, is in town and we had the pleasure of dining with him at Joanne's Trattoria, 70 West 68th Street, owned and operated by Lady Gaga's parents.  In spite of that dubious provenance, we found it to be entirely satisfactory, though not exceptional, presenting familiar Italian food in a comfortable setting at fairly reasonable prices.  To its credit, our Caesar salad was adorned with a dozen anchovies, as requested. 

Friday, May 25, 2018

Yes, it's been 15 years.  

. . .

While Albertina's failed in spite of sitting in a prominent position on Broadway, Stile's Farmers Market, 352 West 52nd Street, has prospered although almost unrecognizable from the street, a side street that doesn't particularly come from or go to anywhere.  

It looks like nothing more than a storage shed for the adjacent parking lot.  It stocks miscellaneous grocery items, but concentrates on fruits and vegetables, and, as can be seen in the photograph, large volumes of produce come in and out.  The merchandise is fresh and prices are low.  

Tom Terrific tipped me to it and now you know about it, too.  I bought peaches as an anniversary gift.