Flying Home

Monday, January 21, 2019

Saturday night, we walked into world famous Chez Panisse, 1517 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, at 6 P.M., and, lacking a reservation, walked right out.  Fortunately, César, right next door at 1515 Shattuck Ave, although not accepting reservations, had only a 15 minute wait.  César focuses on tapas and does so especially well.  We had six different dishes, doubling up on the albondigas, lamb meatballs.  Everything was very good or better, but the innocently-named Fried Potatoes with Herbs & Sea Salt deserves special mention.  It seemed to appear on every table in the medium-sized room.  Imagine potato chips, in 1/4” wide strips, appropriately spiced, with a globs of aioli on top.  Gran sabor.

Following dinner, we went to the Berkeley Repertory Theater to see the world premiere production of Paradise Square, a work drawing on the formidable talents of playwright Craig Lucas, choreographer Bill T. Jones, musician/composer Larry Kirwan, among others.  In brief, though, it needs work.  Set in New York during the Civil War, it takes place in Five Points, a downtown neighborhood notorious for its tolerance of immigrants and race mixing.  The work culminates in the Draft Riots, the worst civil unrest this country has ever experienced, when the new conscription law reached all white men, including immigrants, while shielding those able to pay $300 and black men.  

I was troubled by the need to be emotionally engaged with so many characters — the fugitive slave couple, the black widow of a white Union officer, the Irish woman tavern owner and her black preacher husband, the returning wounded Union soldiers, the Irish immigrant boy, the black Freedmen.  A little focus would have helped.

. . .

I agree 100% with Michelle Alexander's criticism of the current state of the Israeli/Palestinian dilemma.  Israel's treatment of the West Bank, Gaza and its own Arab citizens is offensive to international law, contemporary standards of justice and morality, and my Jewish values.  https://nyti.ms/2HmAeVx

However, the 100% view that we share is not 100% of the issue.  While Alexander displays a sensitive understanding of why Jews need Israel, she  ignores the anarchic violence that stimulated much of the cruel and unjust conduct of Israelis towards Arabs within and without its borders that is the basis of her criticism  The majority of Israel's population, since its founding, has been secular, educated and industrious (I might even tempt European anti-Semites by saying cosmopolitan).  As I noted recently, its crime rates qualify its cities as among the safest in the developed world.  Yet, periodically, it has experienced crimes against civilians, school children, cafe patrons, bus passengers, people at street corners, that drew not only headlines, but retaliation.  For better or worse, Israelis sometimes responded with more than thoughts and prayers. 

It's not enough to counsel the Israelis to be nice.  Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have benefited from cheap and convenient housing on the West Bank, while the society as a whole expends energy, lives, wealth and moral capital maintaining the status quo.  Alexander offers no guidance as to next steps for either side, but that doesn't disqualify her from speaking.  It's just that we need a voice that can reach both sides. 

. . .

Last month, my grandnephews Tomas and Benjamin visited the Holy Land and we were able to enjoy together two of the finest pleasures known to humankind, a Rangers win at Madison Square Garden and lunch at Wo Hop, 17 Mott Street.  So, yesterday, I reciprocated by driving down to Santa Cruz, where they both attend the University of California.  We had dinner at Laili Restaurant, 101 Cooper Street, Santa Cruz, a Mediterraneanish spot.  It distinguished itself with two flatbreads that we shared: eggplant parmesan with carmelized onion, qurut yogurt (an Afghan version) and mint, and apricot chicken parmesan with medjool dates, pomegranate and mint. 

Now, there are cynics out there who might claim that my visiting the young men was only an excuse to go to the fabulously competent Pacific Cookie Company, 1203 Pacific Avenue, by an odd coincidence located around the corner from Laili.  I don't care what Michael Cohen says, dropping in for a few cookies after dinner was merely incidental to my reinforcement of familial bonds.

Tuesday,  January 22, 2019

My young bride and I were reunited yesterday and proceeded to Yountville, in the Napa Valley, for the last couple of days of our vacation. 

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

The cold that I imported from the East Coast inhibited our plans for enjoying fine wine wine and food in the Napa Valley.  We managed some good meals, but not much wine, in between hocking and shpritzing and gasping and sneezing.  

I can recommend the following, all in Yountville, California: 

Soupe À L'Oignon at Bouchon Bistro, 6534 Washington Street and the delicious bread and butter

Mushroom pizza with asiago, taleggio, spinach, red onion, chili, garlic at Redd Wood, 6755 Washington Street

Crême de Tomate en Croute (tomato soup in puff pastry) at Bistro Jeanty, 6510 Washington Street

Notice -- No desserts, that's how much I was off my game.

. . .

The non-stop flight home today was unique, in my experience.  Alaska Airlines flight 1204, an Airbus 320, with a capacity of 160 passengers was less than half full.  That's not a complaint, mind you, just a contrast from today's typical flying sardine cans. 

Pacific Standard Time

Monday, January 14, 2019

Remembering the saga of my grandparents and so many others like them, who crossed an ocean, with empty pockets, knowing no English to seek opportunity for their children and themselves, I have had little sympathy for economically displaced Americans who have substituted Trump and opioids for missing mines and factories.  I keep citing the statistic that 94% of New York taxicab drivers are foreign born, as of 2014.  http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/downloads/pdf/2014_taxicab_fact_book.pdf   A West Virginia high school diploma is not a disqualification from driving a New York City taxicab.

A new study mutes some of my thinking on this subject.  "For decades, workers migrated to big cities in America that promised abundant jobs and decent wages."  The change in the character of the American economy, the export or automation of low-skilled manufacturing jobs, has changed this significantly.    "For workers without any college education, the added wage benefits of dense cities have mostly disappeared."  

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/upshot/big-cities-low-skilled-workers-wages.ht

Yet, local dry cleaners, candy and newspaper stands, fast food joints, bodegas and grocery stores, and nail salons seem to be owned and operated almost exclusively by immigrants, following in the footsteps of Esther Malka Goldenberg who opened a grocery store on the ground floor of a tenement at 123 Henry Street on the lower East Side and then at 997 Belmont Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn.  

I suggest, without any supporting data, that the malaise of today's white working class is partly self-inflicted.  Once the relative comfort provided by New Deal programs and organized labor's efforts began to fade in a changing job market, workers willfully forgot what had brought them success.  Propelled by battalions of shysters and scam artists, multi-level marketing schemes, house-flipping, and day-trading siphoned off money and energy from many who at least sought to improve their condition.   

I am not sure which comes first, the draining of opportunity or the draining of optimism.

. . .

When I informed David Webber that, in one week, the Upper West Side's Power Couple would be spending a few days at an inn located at 2020 Webber Avenue, Yountville, California, he responded that it would be less ominous than heading for Gotthelf Avenue.  I took that as a challenge.  Is there such a destination?  Well, yes and no.  The best that I could find is:

Gotthelfriedrichsgrund, Reinsberg, Sachsen, Germany 

Gotthelfgasse, Donaustadt, Austria

Rua Gotthelf Engicht, Escola Agrícola, Blumenau - Santa Catarina, Brazil

Gotthelfstrasse, Murten, Switzerland

Gotthelfstrasse, Nidau, Switzerland

It seems that Palazzo di Gotthelf stands alone in the geography of North America, although it only appears on certain limited-edition maps.  If I aimed for any of these byways, Switzerland would be closest, just under 4,000 miles, while Brazil is nearer 5,000 miles.  

. . .

The  phenomenal success of Hamilton on Broadway and other venues, has aroused historical kickback.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/13/nyregion/hamilton-lin-manuel-miranda-the-haunting.html

Ishmael Reed, "a prolific and often satirical writer," targets Lin-Manuel Miranda's play and the biography by Ron Chernow that inspired it.  Reed believes that Alexander Hamilton does not deserve to be considered "a fervent abolitionist," as Chernow proclaims, and failed to recognize the plight of Native Americans.  

This dispute raises the interesting question of where and how do we learn.  I am sure that most of the countless thousands who have seen Hamilton in one of the six  productions now running emerged from the show impressed by the favorable stage characterization of the man.  Some probably subsequently sought out the Chernow book, although I don't see a lot of people carrying around copies of The Federalist Papers.

I came out of the theater with the (dis)advantage of years studying American political history and American political thought, including working with Clinton Rossiter at the time that he published Alexander Hamilton and the Constitution.  Accordingly, I don't trust this entertaining theatrical work, or any other, as a source of nuanced political/historical/philosophical insights.  While I quibbled with the treatment of Thomas Jefferson, Hamilton's philosophical foe, unfairly portrayed as a buffoon, I reminded my obsessive self that it's a musical!  They are singing and dancing up there!  It's not your Ph.D. orals!

On the other hand, I understand the power of pseudo-history on stage or screen.  Many people’s views of Kennedy, Nixon and George W. Bush probably come from Oliver Stone’s films.  I admit that my "knowledge" of several American political assassins mostly comes from Stephen Sondheim's stage treatment of the subject.  

In the end, does art/culture have to be "right”?  In any case, I doubt that Reed's efforts will make any difference to those bedazzled by the stage Hamilton and I think that its predominant cast of black and brown actors deflects much of his critique.

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

I never said that I didn't collude with Rudy Giuliani on this blog.

Thursday, January 17, 2019

Our first day in Oakland, California got off to a rocking start.   

https://www.sfgate.com/napa-northern-california-earthquake/article/oakland-bay-area-earthquake-strength-location-13540953.php?utm_campaign=CMS%20Sharing%20Tools%20(Desktop)&utm_source=share-by-email&utm_medium=email

We visitors failed to notice it, although our hosts, America’s Loveliest Nephrologist and the Oakland Heartthrob felt the 3.5 shock.  Maybe the pounding rain was sufficiently distracting.  It finally let up late morning, in time for us to meet Jeanne Friedman, CCNY ’63 for lunch at Vik’s Chaat Corner, 2390 Fourth Street, Oakland, a local institution, combining a grocery store devoted to Indian and British products, with a very large, informal Indian restaurant.  

It holds a couple of hundred people, serving them quickly cafeteria-style.  You order and pay at one counter and moments later your name is called at another counter with your food ready.  Lunch specials range from $12.50 to $14.50, served on a compartmented steel tray, with roti, basmati rice, papadum (small piece), achar (hot, spicy pickle) and your choice of chicken, lamb, shrimp, fish or vegetarian curry (varies by day of the week).   

By the time we left, the joint was about half full (a lot of people) and Jeanne says that it’s packed on weekends, attracting Indians, surgeons and motel owners, from all over the region.  I admired the size and efficiency of the operation, but, as one familiar with Indian food, I would have rated it an ordinary lunch except for the quality of Jeanne's company.

Friday, January 18, 2019
If you read about the "Mad Hugger" today, you might imagine that you were reading a police report.  It's inconceivable that someone  would now willingly accept this label, describing conduct offensive to germaphobes, genderphobes, relationshipphobes and those many people who simply want to be left alone.  However, Joe Plut bore this label proudly.  https://blogs.mprnews.org/newscut/2011/11/you_should_meet_joe_plut/

Joe died today after a long siege with prostate cancer.  No obituary has yet appeared, but they are certain to refer to the Mad Hugger, an expression of his honest affection for and enjoyment of fellow human beings.  I knew him as my brother's Columbia graduate school classmate and I remember his joy and enthusiasm, as someone born and raised in northern Minnesota, as more and more of New York City's charms, challenges and treasures opened up to him.  

Soon after he returned home to teach college, I visited him while wandering the Midwest, in a period where I was either trying to find myself or lose myself.  I don't think that I ever saw him again, but it has been easy to retain warm memories of him for all this time.

Melania or Carmela

Monday, January 7, 2019

My brother corrected my memory of the secret I confessed to last week about the New York State Regents College Scholarship Test that I thought that I held tight for 60 years.  He said that I told him and my parents about my odd choice of an essay subject long ago, but probably after the awards were announced.  Further, he claimed that my mother admired the creativity of my seemingly risky choice, an expression of liberality and tolerance that I never expected from her and that I never heard directly.
. . .

Henry Sondheimer, who lives in the second most famous residence in Washington, DC suggests that the decline in bar examination results also discussed last week may still be a shakeout from the economic turmoil of the late 2000s.  What is known is that law school enrollments have not recovered from that near financial meltdown.  They peaked in 2010 at 52,404 new students and now sit at 38,392.  The difference makes for a lot of Uber drivers.
https://data.lawschooltransparency.com/enrollment/all/

Is it reasonable to assume that those who turned away from law school in the last decade, because of inflated enrollment, inadequate job prospects, and high tuition, were the better students, leaving the chaff to struggle eventually with the bar examinations?
. . .
The average national apartment rent closed the year at $1,419, rising 3.1% over 2017.  That's just over 1/3 of the $4,200 average Manhattan apartment rent.
https://www.rentcafe.com/blog/rental-market/2018-year-end-rent-report/

There is some bad news/bad news in this report.  Odessa, Texas saw the greatest annual rent increase, 21.8%, and you'd be in Odessa, Texas.  One result that's bound to change dramatically this year is the "stagnation" of rents in the borough (county) of Queens, NY.  While next-door Brooklyn had a 1.7% increase, Queens rents declined 0.2%.  And then came Amazon.  As a recent headline in the Wall Street Journal put it, "Amazon’s Move to Long Island City Sparks Condo Frenzy."

Before I write off Odessa, Texas, it still is a relative bargain at $1,363 monthly.  That may offer comfort for a full-time writer, whose median pay was $20,300 in 2017.
https://www.authorsguild.org/industry-advocacy/authors-guild-survey-shows-drastic-42-percent-decline-in-authors-earnings-in-last-decade/   So, a full-time writer in Odessa, Texas would still have a few hundred dollars left to spend every month after paying rent.  

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

I was amazed that The New York Times was able to construct a sentence mentioning only Yale and the University of Alabama.  Its report on yesterday's college football championship game said that "Alabama was the first team since Yale in 1900 to beat every team by at least 20 points during the regular season."

Wednesday, January 9, 2019
I know that prison reform is proving popular with segments of the left and the right these days.  I am hesitating getting on board until after Mary Boone, prominent Manhattan art dealer, is locked up.  She is awaiting sentencing on two counts of tax fraud, each carrying a potential sentence of three years.  Her lawyers are asking for "home confinement and probation with up to 1,000 hours of community service."  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/arts/design/mary-boone-art-dealer-cites-early-trauma-in-bid-to-avoid-prison.html

It seems that "the poverty of her early life had left her fearful that, despite her success, she would end up destitute and dependent upon others."  To compensate, literally and figuratively, her 2012 tax forms reported a false business loss for the previous year of about $52,000 although her gallery actually made a profit in 2011 of about $3.7 million.  So Mary was able to live without fear for a few years until she opened the envelope from the IRS.

. . .

While Mary Boone's travels might be constrained for the next year or two as she applies her artistic flair to license plate design, you're free to wander hither and yon.  To aid you, The New York Times has come up with a 2019 list of 52 places to visit.  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/travel/places-to-visit.html  [NB -- I am having some troubles with this link.  I hope it's only me.]

Given the number of years that I have been around, my batting average isn't too bad.  But, rather than offer a simple tally, I want to cite one destination where the Upper West Side's Power Couple visited 5-1/2 years ago -- Plovdiv, Bulgaria, the second largest city in the country, #48.  The New York Times offers a winning description of "this European gem [that] is ready to shine."  However, we don't recall anything they mention.  Maybe it was the Slivovitz.  

Thursday, January 10, 2019

One year ago, at this time, I was engaged in an activity that did not seem to meet the working definition of binge-watching -- "watching between 2-6 episodes of the same TV show in one sitting."

https://www.cinemablend.com/television/Unsurprising-Netflix-Survey-Indicates-People-Like-Binge-Watch-TV-61045.html

Rather, over a period of two months, I watched all 86 episodes of "The Sopranos" in order, one or two episodes per day.  However labelled, it was a wonderful escape from the closing days of the first year of the American Dark Ages.  It was like trading in your black-and-white TV for a color set.  Instead of Jared Kushner, I had Christopher Moltisanti; instead of Kellyanne Conway, I had Livia Soprano; instead of Mike Pence, I had Big Pussy Bonpensiero; instead of Ivanka, I had Adriana La Cerva; instead of Steven Mnuchin, I had Hesh Rabkin.  There was less contrast between the president and Junior Soprano, aging mob bosses falling into senility.  

The 20th anniversary of "The Sopranos" is being celebrated now.  I just had a one year head start.  Join the party here.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/09/arts/television/the-sopranos-seasons.html

. . .

So what does "Shtisel," a series about an ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) family in Jerusalem, have in common with "The Sopranos" other than my affection?  Both deal with how ordinary people are often denied choices by the system that encompasses them.  The rules preceded them and will survive them.  The most striking similarity was the inability of family members to tell each other the truth.  

"Shtisel" is on Netflix, in Hebrew and Yiddish, with good subtitles.  Like that old advertisement for Levy's rye bread, you don't have to be Jewish.  It's like me watching "Downton Abbey."   https://www.netflix.com/title/81004164

Friday, January 11, 2019

I never much envied the trappings of status and wealth displayed in "Downton Abbey" or its real-life counterparts.  However, I do recollect fondly a few minutes in early 1969, when I felt above and apart from the crowd.  My boss asked me to move his car from in front of our Midtown office.  Where and why are long forgotten, but not the car.  British racing green, E-Type Jaguar, coupe.  He knew that I could drive stick, because I once ferried him to an airport in my VW Beetle.  

I drove down Lexington Avenue (or maybe up Madison Avenue), arriving safely wherever I was going, no mean feat, because one set of brake pads was defective, causing an inadvertent lane change when applying the brakes.  King of the Road.

An article today reminded me of this brief exposure to elegance.  Jaguar is planning to offer classic E-Types converted to electrical power for under half a million dollars.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/business/electric-conversions-classic-cars.html

Under these circumstances, history is not likely to repeat itself.

Auld Lang Syne

Monday, December 31, 2018

Redemption!  

After more than half a century, I have been redeemed.  In my senior year in high school, I was more concerned about the New York State Regents Scholarship Test than the College Boards (what was later dubbed the SATs).  I was pretty certain that I was headed to CCNY, where standardized testing was only a small part of the admissions process.  Graduating from Stuyvesant High School seemed to insure acceptance.  

So, it was the money promised by the Regents Scholarship that attracted my attention.  At the time, "the actual award can not exceed the cost of tuition and fees or $350, whichever is greater."  https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED011280.pdf  

CCNY was then tuition-free.  In fact, many of the state universities throughout the country were tuition-free as well, while the fancy-schmancy private schools were still cheap.  In 1960, Columbia's tuition was $1,460, Harvard's $1,520, MIT's $1,500, Brown's $1,400.  

http://www.clearpictureonline.com/1960-Food-College-Income.html

Of course, the difference was even greater between us and them, because we schnorrers lived at home, taking the subway to school.

So, $350 was a blessing.  Yes, you had to buy books, maybe new, maybe used, and there was a nominal student activities fee.  (Stony Brook Steve recollects $4 charged at Queens College in 1960, a sister institution to CCNY.)  But, added to the pay from the part-time job during the school year and summertime job that we all seemed to have, we could buy pizza slices at 15¢ and ride the subways for 15¢ with reckless abandon.  

Which brings me back to the Regents Scholarship, awarded to 5% of New York State high school seniors in the period 1957 to 1961.  https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED011280.pdf

Under these circumstances, the test could not be taken for granted, or so one might think.  

I recall that an essay question was at the heart of the test.  "Discuss a person whom you admire most/a lot/scads"; pardon me, but it was a long time ago.  Oh boy, I was stymied.  Albert Einstein?  What did I really know about him back then?  My command of high school physics was limited.  My mathematics ability declining.  I was unaware of his messy personal life, hardly the stuff of admiration.  

My father?  Having grown up in a household that was more Eastern European than American in many ways, I realized that my father was maybe a bigger mystery to me than Albert Einstein.  After all, he won no international prizes generating front-page newspaper coverage.  Even more than a century later, I have been unable to document his birth in Poland or his migration to America.  Years after his death, I discovered that the 1930 Census found him in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Huh?

I understand that my admiration for my father, and it was genuine, was not rooted in biographical details, but I could not get started writing about him without them.  Now, almost exactly 60 years to the day, the subject of my admiration is recognized by The New York Times.   https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/nyregion/the-man-behind-the-times-square-ball.html

I chose to write about the man who dropped the ball in Times Square on New Year's Eve (hold your pens gender warriors, we are talking about 1958), characterizing him as critical to the peace and tranquility of millions of people, on site and around the world.  According to Wikipedia, NBC started radio and television coverage of the event, which originated on December 31, 1907, in the 1940s, while CBS incorporated it into its famous Guy Lombardo broadcasts from 1956 to 1976.  Dick Clark didn't jump in until 1972.  Imagine, I wrote, if the man who was supposed to drop the ball -- well, dropped the ball in another sense.  Everyone out there in TV Land would be thoroughly disoriented, while the huddled masses in Times Square might erupt in frustration, wreaking havoc on life and property at the Crossroads of the World.  

Today, we have a name and a face for this servant of humankind, but, back then, I shared my regard with only the person grading the test.  I kept my somewhat idiosyncratic approach to this test secret, especially from my parents, who were aware of is financial implications.  In fact, I believe that I am revealing this secret today for the first time, redeemed at last by the attention of the world at large, thanks to The New York Times.  By the way, I got the $350.

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

I want to briefly look at a new member of Congress from Minnesota, Ilhan Omar, a Muslim refugee from Somalia, so far the only national political figure to support BDS, the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel for its handling of the Palestinians in the occupied territories.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/30/us/politics/ilhan-omar-minnesota-congress.html

I suggest that my fellow Jews relax and gain a perspective on this young woman.  As a Muslim, we should not be surprised if she shows a partiality to her fellow Muslim Palestinians.  Don't we instinctively feel a kinship with the imperiled Jews of France or Argentina?   While I see Arabs anarchically running at the fence between Gaza and Israel or driving trucks at people peacefully waiting for a bus in Jerusalem, she might have a romantic vision of people very much like her striving for national liberation, a script that the Hebrews originated in Egypt. 

Meanwhile, millions of Palestinians are hemmed in physically and psychologically by the cynical behavior of leaders on both sides of the barrier that separates them from the 21st century.  Might Representative Omar's new perch in Washington afford her the opportunity and resources to learn for herself and teach others about the dilemma that plagues Arabs and Israelis, Muslims and Jews?

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

I am puzzled by the results of the latest California bar examination.

https://abovethelaw.com/2018/12/a-breakdown-of-california-bar-exam-results-by-law-school-july-2018/

"The overall pass rate for the July 2018 exam was 40.7 percent (down from from 49.6 percent in July 2017), while the pass rate for first-time takers was 55 percent (down from 62 percent in July 2017).  This was the worst pass rate the state had seen in nearly 70 years."  By comparison, 63 percent passed the July 2018 New York bar examination; first-time takers passed at a rate of 74 percent.  https://abovethelaw.com/2018/10/the-new-york-bar-exam-results-are-out-and-theyre-not-so-great-july-2018/

California's aspiring lawyers have had a lower success rate than their New York peers for a long time, for two reasons.  California's bar examination is considered the hardest in the country, with more weight given to writing than multiple choice questions and, early in my 14 years in the court system, I learned how badly even established lawyers write.  Second, California has a disproportionate number of law schools lacking American Bar Association accreditation, the JD Powers standard of legal education. 
https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-law-schools-20150726-story.html

In spite of the noticeable disparity in results, the California flu may have also infected New York.  Above the Law reported that the New York "results are certainly not as good as they were last year [68% overall, 78% first-time], and seem to be dangerously close to July 2015’s results [61% overall, 70% first-time], which were the worst the state had seen in at least 35 years."  Why this bi-coastal trend?  Beats me.  You can't even blame the intellectual poverty of the present administration, since the class of '18 entered in the Obama years.

Speaking of Obama, Michelle Obama leads the list of famous people who at first failed their bar examination.    https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/deenashanker/fail-the-bar-become-president

Thursday,  January 3, 2019

I've never been to a Rangers game where they were beaten by 5 goals -- until last night.  Accordingly, I sought comfort with the Boyz at lunch at Yee Li, 1 Elizabeth Street, and I drowned my sorrows in spareribs, chicken chow fun, beef chow fun, sliced fish in black bean sauce and a whole Cantonese fried chicken.  Bottom line was $17 a person.  As a result, I should be able to sleep tonight. 

Friday, January 4, 2019
We had shabbos dinner with family and friends of the late Stephen Cohen, on the second anniversary of his death, described by one former Israeli deputy defense minister as "the lone guerrilla warrior for peace."  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/world/middleeast/stephen-cohen-dead-mideast-negotiator.html

He labored long and privately in the 1970s and 1980s to effect lines of communication between Arab and Israeli policymakers.  He was too smart to try to make enemies into friends, rather he aimed for familiarity and acquaintanceship.  While he was not a direct participant in the later Oslo negotiations, his ability to bring both sides to the table set an honorable precedent.  Today, when Oslo is no more than the answer to a crossword clue "Northern capital," let's hope that other Stephen Cohens are working as diligently as he did, away from the spotlight, for shalom and salaam.