Sounds Familiar

Monday, October 22, 2018

Verbissener, in German, translates as "dogged."  In Yiddish, it has evolved to farbissener and translates as "mean."  That's what came to mind when I read the headline "Trump Administration Eyes Defining Transgender Out of Existence."

Reading the story, we learn that evangelical Christians were "incensed" by the Obama administration's loosening of federal guidelines that disadvantaged people with gender and sexual behavior issues.  Far be it from me to preach to the converted, except these folks  seemed to have missed the point.  The Sermon on the Mount is at the core of Christianity and is summed up in the Beatitudes, which could probably serve all humankind.  (Matthew 5:3-10)

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

It leads me to believe that Evangelical Christians = Farbissener Christians. 

. . .

A high-rise residential building is being built almost immediately due east of Palazzo di Gotthelf.  It's supposed to be over 50 stories tall, which would reduce our direct morning sunlight.  This does not generally support a legal claim for relief.  However, there is now an interesting computer program for prospective buyers or the merely curious.  "Search the address of any building, and Localize.city will describe the sunlight on every side of the building, throughout the year.  The descriptions include hours of the day when it will be brightest, along with how different floors are affected by shadows cast from surrounding buildings."

http://labs.localize.city/sun-drenched-or-sun-starved-now-you-can-know-how-much-light-a-building-gets/

Tuesday,  October 23, 2018

Today's paper tells us that Bill Cosby has gone through 17 lawyers from 11 firms in his defense against sexual assault charges, so far unsuccessful.  Mentioned in passing is the notorious tale of a local divorce battle where the eventual ex-wife of an extravagantly wealthy man went through 21 law firms.  She failed to observe the 11th Commandment, as enunciated by Calvin Trillin, "Enough is enough."

One intractable element of the couple's dispute was child support.  New York State has a formula for child support to apply in everyday situations, that is up to $80,000 of the couple's annual joint income, with the court's discretion as to how to proceed above that figure.  The formula requires that 17% of the non-custodial parent's income go to child support for one child; smaller increments cover additional children.  Child support under the formula is supposed to cover housing, food and clothing; other child-related expenses, such as tuition, recreational activities, gifts, toys, and childcare have to be hammered out by the parties.  

Logic fails completely when you get to the very rich, billionaire rich in this case.  Pop is currently worth $17.4 billion, according to Bloomberg.com, but was probably in the more modest 10 figure range during the divorce battle, 20 years ago.  We can only guess at his annual income, but even a 1% return on $1 billion is $10 million.  Child support of 17% (not required under law at that level) would be $170,000 annually, more than $14,000 monthly, which is what the court ordered.  Unhappy mom had asked for $7 million annually to shelter, feed and cloth their daughter, 3-years old at the start of the battle, that is over $583,000 monthly, more than $19,000 daily.  

In this matter, two wrongs only make a bigger wrong.  $170,000 yearly from pop is a spit in the bucket; $19,000+ daily for snookums is absurd.  Is this a great country, or what?  

. . .

Approximately 2,000 men, women and children from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador 1,000 miles from the southern border of the United States constitutes, in the words of our fearless leader, a "National Emergy"?  Where has the Home of the Brave relocated to?

. . .

The white male Republican candidate for Georgia governor defended the retention of Confederate monuments.  "We should learn from the past -- not attempt to rewrite it."  After all, the South won the Civil War.

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Last night, Tom Terrific invited me to join him at The Winning Side, a new play, somewhere between Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway.  It deals with the amoral career of Wernher von Braun, whose fascination with rockets allowed him to ignore in what direction they were headed and the conditions under which they were created.  In parallel was the readiness of the American government and population at large to forgive and forget von Braun's history in order to beat the Russians in space, to be on the winning side. 

It was a very well done production, avoiding clichés on the whole.  A post-show discussion with the playwright and several science journalists was an unexpected bonus.  I almost remained silent, but then I raised my hand and recalled how soon the the national exhilaration over the Moon landing in 1969 dissipated and its influence gone.  "International students account for 70 percent of the full-time graduate students (master’s and Ph.D.s) in electrical engineering, 63 percent in computer science, 60 percent in industrial engineering, and more than 50 percent in economics, chemical engineering, materials engineering and mechanical engineering." 
http://www.nfap.com/pdf/New%20NFAP%20Policy%20Brief%20The%20Importance%20of%20International%20Students%20to%20America,%20July%202013.pdf

What if the Reds beat us to the Moon as they had with the first space satellite and man in orbit?  Would you care if Tang had a Russian name?  The difference would have been that a bunch of Nazis would have been kept in detention rather than laboratories in Huntsville, Alabama. 

. . .

I was fortunate to have Gentleman Jerry as my companion at lunch today.  We met at his office in midtown and stuck close by because of his crowded schedule.  I was, however, able to take him to a joint that was new to him in spite of its proximity, Num Pang Kitchen, 140 East 41st Street, one of a small chain of Cambodian sandwich shops.  In fact, if you subtract the Num Pang group, you have one Cambodian restaurant left in Manhattan.  While a gourmet may be able to make meaningful distinctions among Cambodian food, Vietnamese and Thai food, a gourmand like me is content to enjoy what is put in front of him without possibly stirring up resentments rooted in the sometimes sad history of Southeast Asia.  

In any case, Num Pang makes a good sandwich, a banh mi by any other name.  I had the coconut tiger shrimp, with cucumber, pickled carrots, cilantro and chili mayo, on a toasted roll, not quite a baguette ($11.25).  Jerry had grilled steak with the same trimmings ($11.95) and expressed his satisfaction.  Most of Num Pang's business at all its sites is takeout, but we sat on stools at a counter opposite the order/prep/pay counter, ignoring most of the hustle bustle surrounding us.    

We walked a half block to have coffee at Maison Kayser, 370 Lexington Avenue, one of a dozen or so high quality, local bakery/cafés originating in France.  I had a tarte tatin (I think I heard the clerk call it apple cake) ($4.95), that was so good that I didn't notice that it wasn't chocolate.

Thursday, October 25, 2018If you are a New York City kid of roughly my vintage, growing up in a Jewish household of modest means, edging towards assimilation, occasionally your parents would strain their wallet and challenge Holy Writ by going to a Chinese restaurant.  The restaurant you went to was either up a flight of stars or down a flight of stairs, no doubt to hold down the rent, which made it more likely to attract our patronage. 

I thought of this as Michael Ratner and I approached Wu Liang Ye, 36 West 48th Street, up a flight of stairs.  Once inside, we were entirely divorced from our exotic boyhood memories.  The room was quite grand, high ceilings, crystal chandeliers, gold-trimmed crown molding, maybe what the French consulate in Shanghai would look like.  The menu also left Brooklyn far behind.  No column A, no column B.  And the prices, you couldn't even see Pitkin Avenue in your rear view mirror; even Mott Street seemed a blur.  However, it was just about worth it.

We shared pan seared pork dumplings ($11.95 for 6), mixed seafood with noodles in soup ($14.95) and camphur (sic) tea smoked duck (half, $26.95), all at the head of their class.  The only thing that could have been better is if they charged the prices on the takeout menu, 15-25% lower than our bill.  But, I'm not complaining (much). 

Subway Sight

Friday, October 26, 2018

This afternoon, a Florida man was arrested on suspicion of sending pipe bombs to Barack Obama, George Soros, Joe Biden and others.  He owned a “white van, the windows of which were plastered with a thick collage of pro-Trump stickers.”

In other news: 

September 27, 2018 – “Dutch police grabbed terror suspects from inside a white van during a series of flash raids, which they said foiled a major attack using suicide vests, assault rifles and car bombs.”

August 10, 2018 – “The Metropolitan Police was called to Aldgate East underground station this morning after the white van was left in the middle of the road.”

June 26, 2018 – “Terror as white van drives into Dutch newspaper offices in ‘slap in face for democracy’”

April 23, 2018 – “At least nine people were killed and 16 others were injured after a white van jumped the curb on a busy Toronto street Monday afternoon."

March 25, 2018 - [Hartlepool, England] "this particular white van driver . . . drove at the three people who were standing outside of the house and then pinned them up against the wall with his van." 

December 28, 2017 - "6 sent to hospital after [white] van jumps curb, strikes pedestrians in downtown Seattle."
  

August 21, 2017 - "A French official says a suspect who rammed his white van into two bus stops in the southern French city of Marseille, killing a woman, is being treated for psychological problems."
  
August 17, 2017 "A white van mowed down pedestrians along Las Ramblas, a popular boulevard in the heart of Barcelona, Spain, on Thursday."

June 18, 2017 - "Moments earlier, a white van had ploughed into a group of people outside the Muslim Welfare House in north London as they left evening prayers."

June 4, 2017 - "Police were called after a white rental van was driven into pedestrians on London Bridge at about 9.58pm on Saturday night."

November 5, 2014 - "IDF troops found the white van which was driven by a Palestinian motorist who plowed into three soldiers who were standing on the side of the road in the Gush Etzion bloc on Wednesday night."

October 21, 2012 - "film of a white van swerving across four lanes of traffic to deliberately hit a couple pushing a pram in the Cardiff hit-and-run horror was being studied by police last night."