Not Yet, Brett

Monday, September 24, 2018

As she often does, America's Favorite Epidemiologist educated me in response to my dismissal of "The Best Cities to Raise a Child" last week.  Having raised two children with fabulous results, she pointed to my adult-centric view, stressing cultural, intellectual and recreational opportunities in greater abundance in the cities placing low on the list, notably the Holy Land. 

She described the typical consumers of a parent's time -- carpooling, homework helping, visits to the pediatrician, school nurse, emergency room, parent-teacher conferences, soccer practice, ballet lessons, birthday parties, bedtime storytelling, among other things -- leaving scant time or energy to go to plays, concerts, Ranger games, Met games, lectures, quilting bees, Chinese restaurants and other endeavors which occupy my schedule.

With this renewed appreciation of parenting, a phase that passed me by, I hope that those who graduate from it, if they are ever allowed to, will be able to enjoy adulthood.

Of course, one way of enjoying adulthood is on foot.  In contrast to last week's list of the ten best cities to raise a child, this week's real estate section lists the ten most and least walkable American cities.  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/20/realestate/take-a-walk.html

This list is close to a reverse image of the earlier one.  New York ranks as most walkable, followed closely by San Francisco, numbers 84 and 89 on the kid list, while Raleigh, North Carolina, number 6 on the kid list is second from the bottom in walkability.

Another view includes access to public transit and bicycling.  Again, places shunned when baby is on board predominate when the comfort and convenience of the rest of us are considered.
https://www.walkscore.com/cities-and-neighborhoods
. . .

Last week, I lamented the increasing floor space in the Strand Bookstore, 828 Broadway, given over to canvas tote bags, refrigerator magnets and T-shirts.  Well, it could be wurst, as has happened in a bookstore in Germany.  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/22/books/germany-bookstore-ahle-wurst-butcher-baker-bread.html

Buchhandlung Frühauf in Bad Sooden-Allendorf and the Strand Bookstore in Greenwich Village have different motives for diversifying.  Buchhandlung Frühauf, nearly 100 years old, sits in a town of 8,500 people.  As other businesses folded, it added food and baked goods to its stock in order to serve its local population.  The Strand's miscellaneous merchandise, almost none meant to be eaten, is directed to the visitors from near and far, who, when not shopping, stand in the middle of busy sidewalks, looking around, thereby impeding our walkability.
. . .

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told a group of religious conservatives this weekend to "keep the faith."  I think that this was wise advice, since so many religious conservatives, in these days of Trump, have abandoned integrity, morality, honesty and fairness, little else is left to them.
. . .

Normally, you have to wait until the springtime to hear about the fabulous meal that Aunt Judi sets out for friends and family, when I report on her Passover seder.  Last night, however, in observance of Succoth, the fall harvest festival, she magnificently fed a dozen of us, pious and impious alike.  Well, maybe 11 pious and me.

The menu, entirely Kosher as always, consisted of:

Zucchini pear soup

Osso bucco over pasta (something you don't expect in a Jewish home)

Beef brisket with mushrooms

Cinnamon chili chicken with carrots, butternut squash and sweet potatoes

Zhatar roasted cauliflower with tehina, pine nuts, chick peas and honey (zhatar, za'ater, zaater or za ater -- a mixture of sumac, sesame seed, and herbs used throughout the Middle East and Mediterranean)

Vegetable salad (a salad that I really liked)

Broccoli with garlic and olive oil

Apple cranberry crisp

Carrot cake

Cantaloupe and watermelon

Chocolate chip cookie dough (faux) ice cream (could have been real as far as I was concerned)

Let's hear it for Aunt Judi.

Wednesday, September 26, 2018 

I visited Las Vegas only one more time after August 1979.  That trip was memorable for three reasons: it was the last time that my original wife and I spent any civilized time together; the outside temperature never fell below 100 degrees, day or night; I saw Bill Cosby perform live.  It was the funniest show that I have ever seen in any medium or venue.  I cried from laughing so hard at his perfectly honed tales of children and childhood.  It may have been the thousandth time that he did his routine, but it came off fresh and brilliantly funny. 

 

Yesterday, Cosby was sentenced to 3 to 10 years in prison after being convicted of aggravated assault and was labelled a "sexually violent predator."  His fall from grace is almost mythical, but it offers valuable perspective on the issue of the public person vs. the private person.  Go know.   

 . . .

Savour Sichuan, 108 West 39th Street, is heavy on decor, attempting to resemble a pagoda inside.  It has a very long menu and Vogue listed it among the 10 best local Chinese restaurants earlier this year.  https://www.vogue.com/article/chinese-restaurants-new-york-city   Stony Brook Steve, however, would demur.  He considered his lunch special of sesame chicken ($8.95 with soup and rice) to be thoroughly ordinary.  My stir-fried spicy chicken (also $8.95) was decidedly not.  While it showed only one little red pepper on the menu, it was the hottest dish that I can recall eating in this century, even as I studiously bobbed and weaved my way around the jalapeño peppers, the Szechuan peppers and the garlic, which occupied as much room on the plate as the chicken.  Not soon to be forgotten.

Thursday, September 27, 2018

9 Down - Card letters

. . .

I have previously expressed my admiration and respect for Dean Alfange, Jr.  I am not alone in this regard; his former students at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst have created a lecture series on constitutional law in his honor.  This afternoon, we visited the campus to hear Nadine Strossen, law professor and former president of the ACLU, deliver this year's talk.  She contended that hate speech in itself is not cause for censorship.  This is right from my hymn book, but UMass and nearby Smith College have had several recent bias incidents, so some of the (many) students in attendance may not have been ready to chill, but they listened respectfully and asked good questions.  

http://www.nepr.net/post/police-calls-campus-highlight-racial-bias-safety-tensions#stream/0

Friday, September 28, 2018

That guy should not be on the US Supreme Court.  He has a history of sexual abuse; he is an unrepentant liar.  He belongs in the White House.

. . .

Here is our closing headline for the week, in case your were feeling good: 

28,000 Public Servants Sought Student Loan Forgiveness.  96 Got It.

. . .

 

Answer - STL

Fast Forward

Monday, September 17, 2018

The weekend real estate section pointed to a study on "The Best Cities to Raise a Child."  https://www.zumper.com/blog/2018/08/the-best-cities-to-raise-a-family/

95 American cities were ranked on 10 variables covering income and expense, commuting time, crime rates, and unemployment.  "Of the ten best cities to raise a family, nine of them were either in the Midwest or the South, which was due largely to lower mortgage expenses for homeowners, shorter commutes, strong local economic conditions, and lower infant care costs."  Thus, such Edenic sites as Lexington, Kentucky, Omaha, Nebraska and Lubbock, Texas rise to the top of the list, while New York sits at #84, between St. Louis and Chicago. 

I don't doubt the accuracy of the data used and the scoring.  However, the question that looms large is "To what end are you raising a child?"  None of the chosen cities have a population over a million; all but one are under half a million.  Who are you going to talk to?   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population  

They are also very white.  None has a significant African-American population. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_large_African-American_populations

Don't even ask about the Jews or the availability of bagels.  Actually, it could be worse.  In noozling around, I found that Judaism is the second largest religion in 231 counties out of the 3,143 US counties.  Christianity is always first.
http://www.usreligioncensus.org/images/NL201703LargestNonXnMail.pdf

None of the traditional Big Five American symphony orchestras is located in "the Best Cities" nor are "21 Must-See Art Museums in America."  https://www.fodors.com/news/arts-culture/20-must-see-art-museums-in-america

If you are not in good enough shape to get around, sorry, but you won't find any of the best hospitals in "the Best Cities."  https://www.usnews.com/info/blogs/press-room/articles/2018-08-14/us-news-announces-2018-19-best-hospitals

Finally, while 3 of the top ten are home to major universities (University of Wisconsin, University of Texas and, as concession to my dear friend David McMullen, Florida State University), none of them has a team in any of the four major professional sports leagues. 
. . .

Commemorating the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the near destruction of economic viability throughout the world 10 years ago, The New York Times has a special section: https://www.nytimes.com/spotlight/financial-crisis-10-year-anniversary

The most telling article reminds us that the recovery has tilted the playing field even further off kilter.  "A decade after this debacle, the typical middle-class family’s net worth is still more than $40,000 below where it was in 2007, according to the Federal Reserve."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/12/business/middle-class-financial-crisis.html

On the other hand, H.L. Mencken said that "a wealthy man is one who earns $100 a year more than his wife's sister's husband."
. . .

It's been two weeks since the Village Voice, founded in 1955, the first countercultural newspaper in the country, folded.  Once an inch thick with classified advertisements for New York area apartments and sexual diversions, the Internet replaced it entirely.  I read it while living in Greenwich Village in the early 1970s and had it delivered once I went into exile in Los Angeles.  Upon my return to the Holy Land, divorce decree in hand, I turned to the Voice to seek my next one and only in its personal ads.  I answered them and I placed them. 

I still remember how my puckish sense of humor caused the usually libertine Voice to discover the limits of its tolerance.  I submitted my SJM ad under the headline "Dresses British, Thinks Yiddish," admittedly a borrowed phrase.  Nope, not Kosher, in a manner of speaking according to the Voice.  Embedding the J in my shorthand identification was OK, but "Yiddish" in the headline was treyf, even surrounded by the Voice's usual array of pansexual offerings.  I don't recall whether I substituted "Hates walks on the beach," but it took many more years to find Ms. Right. 

Thursday, September 20, 2018

I spent 28 hours without cable news, 28 hours without late night comedy shows.  5779 starts with a pretty clean slate, only my personal destiny at issue, no constitutional crises, no international trade wars, no additional charges of sexual predation, no changes at quarterback for the New York Giants.

In the spirit of the new or renewal, I headed for Sigiri, 91 First Avenue, only one of two Sri Lankan restaurants in Manhattan.  It would be a first for me, but after working my way downtown, I found the restaurant closed.  Actually, the door was open and the manager present.  However, the chef wasn't and the manager had no estimate of his arrival time.  So, wondering whether this was an omen for the new year, I moved up to The Tang, 120 First Avenue, a newish noodle shop. 

The chefs were at work at The Tang; two, in fact, crammed into a tiny space at the front of the narrow store.  It has 14 stools at 7 square, chunky wood block tables, offering a very small economic base to operate from.  The Tang features noodles, wet and dry ($12-14), and more than a dozen "small plates" ($6-12). 

I had "MJM" ($13), "House made sesame paste topped with sliced chicken thigh, cucumber slices (slivers really) and salted mustard" over noodles thicker than mei fun, thinner than lo mein.  One to three little red peppers appear next to other dishes, but MJM has none although hot, hot enough to merit two.  Fortunately, Diet Coke was close at hand, my lubricant for many Chinese meals.  

As with several other Lower East Side/East Village Chinese restaurants, The Tang's sincere efforts don't threaten my devotion to Chinatown, less than one mile away.
. . .

On the way home from the Lower East Side, I headed for the Strand Bookstore, 828 Broadway, a national treasure.  It advertises itself as having 18 miles of books, not further quantifying its stock.  That's a lot, maybe more than any other bookstore.  Toronto had the self-proclaimed "World’s Biggest Bookstore," asserting that it held “over a million” books.  However, it closed in 2014 and no one has reached for the title since.
 

The Strand is great, but not as great as it used to be.  It wasn't the range of titles that used to distinguish the Strand.  It was the prices.  The Strand was famous for offering reviewers' copies of the latest and greatest at half price.  It seems that new books customarily went out to dozens, even hundreds of prospective reviewers, many of whom simply forwarded their copies to the Strand at around 1/4 of list price, where they filled contiguous blocks, if not miles of shelves.  Today, I was told that reviewers' copies are scattered throughout the store.  

Reviewers' copies aside, The Strand now sells many books at list price, something I don't recall in the past.  The front of The Strand doesn't even look like a bookstore anymore.  Most visible are canvas tote bags, refrigerator magnets and T-shirts with witty sayings when not just promoting The Strand.

Friday, September 21, 2018

I am one of 87 Americans not on Facebook, it seems.  It's not that I don't recognize its virtues and my concern for privacy is no more than average.  Rather, I'm stubborn and not having led this parade, I refuse to join it.  Thus, my isolated status.   

The New York Times, in one of its wonderful interactive features, illustrates the links that have been forged or facilitated by Facebook. 
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/09/19/upshot/facebook-county-friendships.html 

There is a wealth of fascinating data here, sliced and diced county-by-county.  Where there is a Marine Corps base or a retirement community, links extend widely throughout the country. 

The overarching factor is distance between connections.  "Counties with more dispersed networks — where a smaller share of Facebook friends are located nearby, or among the nearest 50 million people — are on average richer, more educated and have longer life expectancies."  By contrast, counties with tighter connections "are more likely to have lower labor force participation and economic mobility, and they have higher rates of teenage births."  So, consider updating your list of pen pals.

. . .

Stony Brook Steve and I took a walk to Cha Pa's Vietnamese Kitchen, 314 West 52nd Street, for our first lunch together in 5779.  It's a small place, long and narrow, twice the size of The Tang, but still small.  It was crowded at lunchtime and we had the misfortune of sitting next to a young couple of strivers who were eagerly planning to collateralize dandruff or something of that sort.  The food eventually outpaced the conversation. 

We shared an order of spring rolls ($6 for four), unaware that we would be served 2 gratis as a vorspeis.  I ordered Five-spice Chicken ($10.50 at lunch, $12.50 at dinner), one quarter of a husky chicken, where the spices were part of the marinade before broiling.  A generous mound of rice, cucumber slices and shredded carrots accompanied it.

Steve raised the question of how far back in the 20th century would a Vietnamese restaurant have appeared and thrived among the general population in the US.  Three joints in a row on Baxter Street in Chinatown have been around a long time, but I don't know if they reach back to the 1960s or 1970s.  I recall Le Colonial, 149 East 57th Street, as an early example, but it was and is a Frenchified Vietnamese restaurant, very attractively decorated to resemble the home of one of Ho Chi Minh's worst enemies.   

'Ello, Guv

 

Wednesday, September 12, 2018
While I kept my eyes and ears open for the last two days during Rosh haShana, I kept the keyboard closed.  Now, a little catch up.
. . .
Over the weekend, a psychiatrist tried to allay the fears of parents concerned "that modern digital technology is rewiring the brains of our teenagers, making them anxious, worried and unable to focus."  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/opinion/sunday/teenager-anxiety-phones-social-media.html

He concluded that "[o]ur teenagers — and their brains — are up to the challenges of modern life."  At about the same time, another article reported that "[m]ore than two-thirds of teens say they would rather communicate with their friends online than in person, according to a new study."
https://www.wsj.com/articles/most-teens-prefer-to-chat-online-than-in-person-survey-finds-1536597971?emailToken=fc9e8cff699ff7d0657470bca86d0c2dOQQ7i2UENxwBr8uWOBBIFmLWUu4h36Gp2oD61BbRmTJBY4+CKRIbuBob/TJqJqucLiTDxKoPFFcQag0ROJAgjgDaVVM8TKngECqVEveu96jvRtM9deD7e2lbbk1GXp1r&reflink=article_email_share

To sum up, our normal teenagers are well able to face the challenges of modern life as long as they don't have to do so in person.
. . .
A few months ago, I began reading a series of spy novels by David Downing, featuring John Russell, a journalist born in America, raised in England, living in Berlin in the late 1930s.  The first four novels deal with the onset and conduct of WWII, during which Russell, at various times, is coerced into working for American, British, Soviet and Nazi intelligence, often several at once.  They are good reading, without the intense introspection of George Smiley or the acrobatic feats of Jason Bourne. 
I am now reading The Lehrter Station, the fifth novel in the series, also named for a U-Bahn or S-Bahn station in Berlin.  It opens, however, in London, months after the end of the war, where Russell and the remnants of his family have relocated.  Times are tough, newspaper writing assignments hard to find.  Solly Bernstein, Russell's agent, urges him to write a book about his own adventures with the Nazis and Soviets, which "would sell like fresh bagels."  And, that's my problem.

It's London!  It's1945!  Even today, you are just as likely to find a babka in Barcelona as a bagel in Britain.  In 2014, an expatriate New York writer found that, regarding bagels, Londoners "had never tasted the real thing."
https://forward.com/food/196697/desperately-seeking-a-new-york-bagel-in-london/https://forward.com/food/196697/desperately-seeking-a-new-york-bagel-in-london/

Adding to the improbability of Solly's imagery is how even today London can't get the name right.  According to Yelp, the best bagels in London are found now at "Beigel Bake" and "Beigel Shop," both on Brick Lane, once the main drag of London's Jewish East End, now otherwise occupied by Bangladeshi restaurants and sari shops.  My advice if you are going to Brick Lane -- stick to the biryani. 
. . .
Stony Brook Steve and I began the new year at the newest branch of an explosively fast-growing Japanese steakhouse chain, Ikinari, 2233 Broadway.  Since its start in 2013, Ikinari has opened over 280 locations in Japan and 9 in Manhattan.  Except for the central product, it bears no resemblance to the traditional, hairy-chested New York steakhouse.  The premises on Broadway are small.  The lacquered wood tables are either waist-high or chest-high, bifurcated by a tray of utensils, condiments and sauces.  

Steak is the only protein on the menu; your choice is ribeye, sirloin or filet, cut thick.  At dinner, you order the meat by the ounce, a minimum required: ribeye, $1.60/oz., 10 oz. minimum; sirloin, $1.50/oz., 7 oz.; filet, $2.40/oz., 7 oz.  At lunch, a small salad and a small cup of beef miso soup are added plus a choice of rice or mashed potato at a fixed price for a fixed portion — ribeye, 14 oz., $25; sirloin 7 oz., $13.50.  (There are other combinations, but I wrote down what we ordered.)

The meat is served on hot, hot metal platters, which keep it cooking; best to order it rare.  The meat was good, not fork tender, but juicy and tasty.  Two steak sauces are on the table and, while they are worth trying, they can be ignored.  Ikinari serves beer and wine, but you’re not going to find young financial geniuses celebrating the Big Deal with Jereboams of Château d'Excès Vulgaire here.  

Thursday, September 13, 2018
Speaking of vulgar excess, Weil Gotshal is one of the most powerful law firms in the world, and often the most profitable.  Its billing rates were reported in a filing last year for partners at $990-1,400 per hour, associates $640-900 per hour.  I sought this information when I read that the board of directors of CBS turned to Weil Gotshal for guidance in handling the peccadillos of Les Moonves, its CEO.  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/12/business/cbs-les-moonves-board.html

"Directors sought guidance from their outside lawyers about whether they should suspend Mr. Moonves."  Are you ready?  Want to know what $1,000+ per hour buys you?  "The lawyers were equivocal, saying it depended on the circumstances."
. . .
 “Among all American adults with your education, age, race or ethnicity, and marital status, 10% are lower income, 51% are middle income and 39% are upper income.”  I learned this from a calculator devised by Pew Research.  http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/06/are-you-in-the-american-middle-class/

The residents of Palazzo di Gotthelf fell "in the MIDDLE income tier, along with 48% of adults in NEW YORK-NEWARK-JERSEY CITY."  Bourgeois respectability is apparently a little harder to achieve in the New York Metropolitan area than the country at large, still far too accessible for some tastes.

The report is titled "Are you in the American middle class?"  Yet, its calculations are entirely income-dependent.  "Thus, to step over the national middle-class threshold of $45,200, a household in Jackson needs an income of only about $37,150, or 17.9% less than the national standard.  But a household in Urban Honolulu needs a reported income of about $56,250, or 24.4% more than the U.S. norm, to join the middle class."  
Right there is one significant reason that American politics has differed from European politics.  We identify class by income, not status, heritage or societal role, thereby eliminating class consciousness from our ideological makeup.  In England, for instance, many (most?) people are characterized by their accent or lineage without any regard to their income or bank balance.  Americans have gained social mobility, emphasizing individualism, but weakened our ability to effect social change through collective action. 

Friday, September 14, 2018
Who said the following, Sarah Palin or Mark Zuckerberg?
"There’s really no newspaper that I pick up and read front to back. Well, that might be true of most people these days—most people don’t read the physical paper—but there aren’t many news Web sites where I go to browse.”  

A valuable article in The New Yorker has the answer and a whole lot more to annoy you.     
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/17/can-mark-zuckerberg-fix-facebook-before-it-breaks-democracy/amp
 

Name That Jew

Monday, September 3, 2018

Joseph Berger's obituary for Rabbi Rachel Cowan got me thinking about some of "the big questions."  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/01/obituaries/rabbi-rachel-cowan-dead.html

Joe, by the way, is probably the third best Jewish writer after Moses and Philip Roth.  It's not Rabbi Cowan's ideas that engaged me, as insightful and encouraging as they may be.  It was the facts of her life that gave me pause.   Her ancestry traced back to the Mayflower.  She met Paul Cowan, a thoroughly secular Jew, through their involvement in social justice causes.  Ten years after they married in 1965, the death of his parents in a horrible accident motivated him to explore his Jewish roots and Judaism, eventually writing several books on the subject.  Rachel found her own reasons to be attracted to Judaism and converted in 1980.  She went on to graduate from rabbinical school in 1988 almost at the same time as he died of leukemia at age 48.  And that's what I'll always remember, the random cruelty of existence for Paul and Rachel Cowan. 

I have no understanding or insight into astrophysics, the origin of the universe and that heavy stuff.  However, I have a view of our role as humans in the vast void.  In contrast to people of faith, I see us as little balls in an enormous pinball machine with disabled flippers.  We bounce, we ricochet, we carom, and eventually we fall through the bottom guided only by the laws of physics.

Joe's obituary said that in Rachel's last two years, aware of her cancer and its inevitable toll, she was supported by friends singing, praying and reading with her.  That, if anything, might give meaning to a life.  Supplying the time and energy in behalf of another.  Does there have to be a reason?
. . .

A wedding announcement this weekend reported that "a friend of the groom who is a minister in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, officiated."  This, naturally, led me to investigate the Pastafarians, as they are known.  If you are also curious, information is available at:  https://www.venganza.org/about/
. . .

The University of Chicago is one of our leading intellectual institutions.  It abolished intercollegiate football in 1939 and humor shortly thereafter.  On December 2, 1942, the first human-made self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction occurred underneath its abandoned football field.  It will always be remembered, however, for the work of Albert Madansky, a professor at the Graduate School of Business.  In 1975, in conjunction with Martin Shubik, an economist from Yale University, he conducted a study of corned beef and pastrami at four of New York's leading delicatessens.  A contemporaneous report appeared in a University of Chicago newsletter; be warned that it may be found buried under several feet of academic prose.  http://campub.lib.uchicago.edu/text/?docId=mvol-0002-0068-0003 

A more readable account is given at: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-the-best-deli-new-york

There are a couple of things worth noting.  All four joints have closed, the Carnegie the last in 2016.  They were Jewish-style delicatessens, but none were Kosher.  Does that explain their fate?

Today, such an exercise would be almost futile.  While delicatessen appears in the name of many establishments, I can only think of six Kosher delicatessens in all of Manhattan (two of which only to be visited in an emergency and one after you receive the insurance settlement check) and I personally would not entrust my pastrami to Gentiles.

Tuesday, August 4, 2018

"Eugene, Ore., to St. George, Utah, to Joliet, Ill., to Adelanto, Calif., to Norwich, Conn., to Fresno, Calif., to Reading, Pa., to Scranton, Pa., to Magallanes, Venezuela, to Ottawa to Daegu, South Korea, to Allentown, Pa., to Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, to Albuquerque to Mexicali, Mexico."  That sounds like a ride on the Crazy Train, but it is the path of Brian Mazone, a minor league baseball player who never appeared in a major league baseball game in a 13-year career.   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2018/08/30/feature/he-spent-his-whole-life-working-toward-one-goal-the-big-leagues-then-it-rained/?utm_term=.437dc96d89b4

In fact, the one day that he was listed on a starting lineup card for the Philadelphia Phillies, it rained.  While once upon a time it might have been Mazone's dream as a young boy to play major league baseball, it seems to have approached a nightmare.
. . .

With the temperature at 91˚ and the humidity close behind, I quit my plan to go downtown for Chinese food and stuck to the neighborhood.  I went looking for a presumptively good sandwich, albeit not a Kosher pastrami sandwich.  I went into Lenwich, 302 Columbus Avenue, a spot that I have passed countless times without entering.  It's wide and deep, seating about fifty people.  Most of the left and back walls are taken by food ordering, preparation and payment. 

The menu is simple, but detailed.  There are salads and sandwiches, the salads assembled before your very eyes from a laundry list of ingredients.  You might elect to design your own sandwich as well, if somehow the 50 versions listed don't appeal to you ($6-12).  I chose "The Big Daddy" ($10.49), containing grilled steak, avocado, melted fresh mozzarella, crispy onion, roasted red peppers and sriracha on ciabatta, and I was happy I did.  It was delightful, it was delicious, it was delectable.  With efficient air conditioning, it was a top notch lunch.

Wednesday, September 5, 2018

Yesterday, 212-695-3160 called a couple of times with a recorded message in Chinese.  Curious, I called back and spoke to a woman with a faintly East Asian accent, who convincingly denied knowledge of the earlier calls.  Today, as soon as I blocked telephone calls from 212-695-3158, 212-695-3178 called.  This time, the recorded burst of Chinese was followed by a message in English informing me that the Chinese Consulate is holding a delivery for me.  I held on to learn more; maybe a panda was on the way to me.  But, the call ended on their end, relieving me of the need to clear space in the spare bedroom. 

Thursday, August 6, 2018

With members of the current administration slinging mud at their own president, it is reassuring to hear from South Korean diplomats that Kim Jong Un of North Korea has proclaimed "unwavering faith in President Trump."  What a relief.
. . .

Bidding adieu to 5778, the Boyz Club gathered at Wo Hop, 17 Mott Street, for expiation of our sins and lunch.  We successfully shared egg rolls, spare ribs, beef chow fun, honey crispy chicken, pork fried rice and beef with scallions, costing us $15 each.  Everyone at the table denied being the author of the anonymous op-ed garnering worldwide attention, although Melania was absent.

Friday, September 7, 2018
Pronounced ko-hayn in Hebrew, Cohen is more than a name.  It means priest and identifies privileged descendants of Moses's brother Aaron.  That is male descendants, because, in one of those pious hypocrisies that religion and Republicans thrive on, priesthood is patrilineal while Jewish identity is matrilineal.  Scratch a Cohn, Cohan, Cowan, Cahn, Kohn, Kahn, Conn, Caan, Kahan, or Kahane and you'll find a Cohen underneath.

I was surprised to read that, according to a recent census, "Of the 87,266 Americans named Cohen, 4,806 are black."  That's over 5%.  The article that informed me meanders somewhat, but has an interesting conclusion.

https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/267320/the-black-cohens

Which only goes to prove the wisdom of Lenny Bruce: "If you live in New York or any other big city, you are Jewish.  It doesn’t matter even if you’re Catholic; if you live in New York, you’re Jewish.  If you live in Butte, Montana, you’re going to be goyish even if you’re Jewish.”

Read Any Good Books Lately?

Monday, August 27, 2018
"Whenever things sound easy, it turns out there's one part you didn't hear."  John Dortmunder.
. . .

The New York City Department of Buildings has developed a fascinating tool to examine construction in the city, based on building permits filed. 
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/buildings/html/nyc-active-major-construction.html

It appears to be updated on a daily basis, which is an accomplishment in itself.  There are over 5,600 active permits, about 60% for new buildings with almost 106,000 dwelling units, 40% for renovations affecting over 122,000 dwelling units.  The map has a dot for every project and allows you to interrogate each one, although in many parts of the city the dots meld into a big blob. 

If you are primarily interested in superlatives, in the tradition of our fearless leader in the White House, lists of the most expensive, tallest, and biggest projects are provided, among others.  Queens, particularly Long Island City and Astoria, is the site of 5 of the 10 biggest projects, promising 4,600 dwelling units.  A good view of this activity is available from the # 7 train between the Court Sq[uare] and Queensboro Plaza, the third and fourth stops after Grand Central. 

Not too long ago, this area was almost entirely industrial, anchored by Eagle Electric Manufacturing Company, with about 2,000 workers in several large factory buildings, a client of mine in my waning days of computer consulting.  It had the wonderful slogan, "Perfection is not an accident."  Eagle is no longer in business and I'm not sure that any of its buildings are still standing as new residential towers are popping up all over the place.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Senator Lindsey Graham gave a touching speech about his friend and fellow senator John McCain, on the Senate floor today.  I never liked the politics of either, but I feel that McCain has to be honored for the torture and agony he endured as a prisoner-of-war in Hanoi.  McCain also demonstrated a sense of humor and irreverence that is rarely displayed in public by a politician.  The sound quality is  poor, but you might enjoy his "conversion to Judaism" announced at a tribute to Senator Joseph Lieberman.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwyLW8LYUdA&feature=youtu.be

Graham's grief seemed genuine as he lauded McCain's independence.  Now, I await Graham's course correction, separating himself from the president whom he described in 2016 as "a kook.  I think he’s crazy.  I think he’s unfit for office.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lindsey-graham-trump-kook_us_5a20bf36e4b03c44072c68d5

 

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

We joined the Brothers Poloner at ETC Steakhouse, 1409 Palisade Avenue, Teaneck, New Jersey.  It's a Kosher restaurant that serves very good beef, which is hard to pull off, since Kosher beef has to be essentially bloodless.  Maybe they cheat; I don't know.  I'm not going to ask.  I had the rib eye steak ($51), 12 oz., rare, and it compared favorably with traditional steakhouses.  ETC has two other virtues:  its suburban location brings menu prices down to an almost reasonable level and its BYOB policy allows the emptying of several wine bottles without commensurate emptying of the wallet. 

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Sala Thai Restaurant, 307 Amsterdam Avenue, has just opened where a branch of Grand Sichuan used to be.  This is a net benefit for the Upper West Side.  I've enjoyed the original Grand Sichuan on Ninth Avenue and its Chinatown branch on Canal Street, but a couple of visits to the location in my neighborhood were very disappointing.

The new owner has entirely redecorated the premises.  A large bright mural wraps around the rear of the restaurant, which has a long, narrow footprint.  There is also a generous use of teak or teak-looking wood.  There was a pretty good crowd at lunch today, something of a surprise because my fellow West Siders tend to prefer having their Asian food delivered.  It might be agoraphobia or just a shortage of sun block that keeps them at home indoors. 

In any case, Stony Brook Steve and I ventured forth with good results.  We both ordered from the lunch menu, which features 11 different combinations of spices and sauces applied to chicken, pork, shrimp, beef or squid, priced from $12 to $14.  Included is a choice of soup or salad, choice of appetizer and a bowl of white rice.  I had a small bowl of a tasty chicken soup, two small deep-fried shrimp and crab meat rolls, and chicken praram, deep-fried chicken strips in peanut sauce, with steamed baby bok choy.  Very good and filling enough that I walked right by the Jacques Torres Chocolate Shop, 285 Amsterdam Avenue, without stopping for an ice cream sandwich made with its world-class chocolate chip cookies.  On sale, no less. 
. . .

The unpopularly-elected president today refuted allegations of irregularities in the White House.  "We do everything by the book," he said.  Immediate bibliographic suggestions included Madlibs and A Confederacy of Dunces. 

 

Friday, August 31, 2018

I'm bothered by an article today about mental health treatment on college campuses.  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/28/us/college-suicide-stanford-leaves.html

 

The article recounts a few anecdotes about students who displayed or expressed mental distress.  While the drift is that these students were ill-served by how their institutions handled their situations, the failures seemed to be particular to each case.  Some students were asked to leave campus, while others were deterred from returning home.  Of course, there are lawsuits, some charging over-treatment and some charging under-treatment.  

 

In general, I don't believe that a college administration can or should cope with students' mental health issues.  Accommodations for depression, suicidal ideation, or a variety of traumas are of a different order of magnitude than accommodations for physical limitations.  Most colleges and universities long abandoned the policy of in loco parentis.  It is unwise for them to try to act now in loco autem medicus.  Returning the student to the family home may be harsh, but the dormitory or sorority/fraternity house is hardly a therapeutic environment.