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.