Woulda Shoulda Coulda

Monday February 18, 2019

In spite of or maybe because of surviving only 16 performances on Broadway in 1981, "Merrily We Roll Along” is my favorite Stephen Sondheim musical.  As we left the latest revival yesterday, I counted a total of 6 productions of it that I have seen over the years, having missed the original.  This production was very good, but, as with other human experiences, my first remains special.  It was at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. in 1989 and the story of youthful aspirations and idealism laid low by time and tide knocked me out. 

I didn’t see myself in any of the three main characters, a composer, a lyricist and a novelist; none of those roles ever loomed as a goal of mine.  Nor did I (or do I) feel that that special somewhere or something has eluded me.  I just really felt sad for the characters back then in 1989 and again yesterday, because their dreams eluded them. 

Far from leading a disappointment-free existence myself, I am only saying that most of the mountains that I fell off before reaching the top weren't so high to begin with.  I never had my sights on Oscars, Nobels, Pulitzers, Senate seats or billions.  (I confess that I regret never going to be an answer in the New York Times crossword puzzle.)
. . .

To continue to celebrate Michael Jordan's birthday after the show, we went to The Palm - West Side, 250 West 50th Street, one of the two dozen outposts of this long-established, outstanding steakhouse chain.  My young bride, not a beef eater, thoroughly enjoyed the Porcini-Crusted Ahi Tuna Steak with truffled potato purée, garlic leaf spinach and Barolo reduction, while I successfully wrestled with a Chairman's Reserve Boneless Rib-Eye Steak.  I recommend it highly even if you have to pay for it yourself.

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An article this weekend challenged some conventional wisdom about the geographic basis of economic inequality.   https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/12/upshot/the-biggest-economic-divides-arent-regional-theyre-local-just-ask-parents.html

Geographic mobility may be less critical than we thought to economic achievement, unless it involves moving away from the television set to seek better opportunities. 
. . .

An errand took me to Ludlow Street, between Grand Street and Hester Street, once at the center of one-step-removed-from-the-shtetl Jewish life in America.  The changes in the neighborhood are jaw dropping.  Chi-chi boutiques and galleries.  Restaurants that have milchigs and fleischigs on the same menu.  Hotels and residences with their own toilets.  I stopped in front of 13 Essex Street, birthplace of Mother Ruth Gotthelf in 1909, which I hastened to tell the Chinese woman going in the front door.

Tuesday,  February 19, 2019

The British got one thing right.  You may remember that I kvetched to Arthur Miller backstage at a revival of his play "The Price" in 1992 because of the color of the NYPD uniform shirt worn onstage (January 25, 2016).  Here is a (tilted) photograph of a photograph of the current London revival of the play and the NYPD sergeant is wearing the proper dark-blue shirt.  

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

There are a variety of apps for navigating the Holy Land, but I am enthusing about https://citymapper.com/nyc  Typically, it gives a choice of modes of transportation, estimated travel time and the like.  In addition, however, it tells you where on a subway train to ride, front, middle or rear car, to optimize your exit, which is something that I have been studying since childhood. 
. . .

While I might have some facility in choosing the best staircase to use to exit the subway, Stony Brook Steve is a marvel at identifying celebrities in ordinary settings.  I don't share this talent, but I recall turning a corner on the Left Bank of Paris several years ago and walking right into Karl Lagerfeld, whose death received two full  pages of coverage in the New York Times today.  Described as "the most prolific [fashion] designer of the 20th and 21st centuries," it was impossible not to notice him, wearing his characteristic black suit and black shirt with stiff white collar.  If he were just wearing chinos and a Hard Rock Café T-shirt, I'm sure that I would have passed him by without a glance.

Thursday, February 21, 2019

If Burt Grossman keeps his shirt on, you would never know that he had heart bypass surgery a few weeks ago.  He appeared hale and hearty today when we had lunch together at Fortune House, 82 Henry Street, Brooklyn Heights.  We shared cold noodles with sesame sauce ($5), scallion pancake ($4.25) and then each had a lunch special, me Jumbo Shrimp w. Lobster Sauce ($8.25), including soup and white rice.  Only the shrimp dish was below par, 3 medium-sized shrimp in a thin, bland sauce.  By contrast, Burt's chicken chow fun ($7.80) was heaped high with chicken and noodles.

. . .

I spent more time with friends this evening, attending a talk with David Goldfarb and Michael Ratner at the New-York Historical Society on Richard Nixon, by John A. Farrell, the author of Richard Nixon: The Life.  Farrell made clear his personal dislike of Nixon, while admiring his political skills, sometimes misapplied.  The contrast with the present incumbent arose several times, explicitly and implicitly.  I concluded that Nixon produced two major unforgivable harms -- to the institutional image of the White House and to the lives of countless Americans, Vietnamese and Cambodians who perished when he cynically prolonged the Vietnam War.  Yet, his opening to China, his generally deft handling of foreign affairs, and his approach to the legacy of the New Deal, alternating between benign neglect and modest encouragement, strengthened this country overall.  To the contrary, the Menace on Pennsylvania Avenue has weakened us in every area of public policy, at home and abroad.

Friday, February 22, 2019

I stopped into Shakespeare & Co., 2020 Broadway, bookstore and café, for a fancy cup of coffee this afternoon.  What I found was possibly the start of the Counterrevolution, these signs pasted to the surface of several tables lining one wall of the café:

 

 . . .

I returned upstairs to meet Tommy P., who gave me an informal appraisal of my nearly 1,000 LP collection, which needs a new home.  To my delight, he told me that there's value in my 9½ boxes of vinyl and that he will return to make a detailed assessment.  This might allow me to buy many more fancy cups of coffee in the future.

Holidays and Birthdays

Monday, February 11, 2019

A column in Sunday's New York Times offers a passionate defense of Israel against the "progressives" who are now succumbing to the rhetoric of the boycott, divest, sanction (BDS) movement.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/08/opinion/sunday/israel-progressive-anti-semitism.html

While in many respects I am as progressive as those folks referenced, I oppose BDS, consider myself a Zionist and have visited Israel three times in the last 5 years.  On the other hand, I strongly oppose many of the signature policies of the present Israeli regime.

It boils down to this -- before June 1967, no Jews lived on the West Bank (with the possible exception of a vestigial remnant in the Old City of Jerusalem, under the control of Jordan); today, more than 400,000 Jews are settled in communities that provide reasonably-priced, conveniently-located housing outside Israel's recognized borders.  This influx is not a recent phenomenon.  While it started slowly after the Six Day War, it gained momentum under both left wing and right wing governments, including those of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres.  https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=graphs+of+israeli+west+bank+settlers&fr=tightropetb&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F_S6OPCTq1K7I%2FSez1KEkVoOI%2FAAAAAAAAARg%2FQRV1UupzD6o%2Fw1200-h630-p-k-nu%2FIsraeli_Settler_Population_in_the_West_Bank_1972-2008.jpg#id=1&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fpassblue.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F07%2FSettlementPopulation-1024x661.png&action=click

Some of these settlers are fanatics who provoke and abuse their Arab neighbors (see https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/world/middleeast/israel-west-bank-violence.html), but many others simply accepted a good deal in the Israeli real estate market that has been hot for years.  Whatever their motive, their occupancy may violate international law and is an ongoing provocation to the 2.8 million entrenched Arabs, noted for making highly-impulsive bad choices.  I can't imagine a deal that even rational, honest, responsible Palestinians might accept under these circumstances.  Ignoring this is the major cause of the deepening divide between the Israeli government and those of us otherwise inclined to support it.

. . .

Today's headline: "Trump to Sign Executive Order Promoting Artificial Intelligence"  This is necessitated by the absence of the real thing.

Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Today was the happy confluence of Lincoln's Birthday and the Chinese New Year, the year of the pig.  To celebrate, a plenary session of the Boyz Club was held at Shanghai Asian Cuisine, 14A Elizabeth Street.  It's a sister to Shanghai 21, 21 Mott Street, f/k/a Shanghai Asian Manor, which I found to have consistently the best scallion pancakes and cold sesame noodles in the Western Hemisphere. 

We began with those items, followed by soup dumplings, tangerine beef, Shanghai lo mein (thicker-than-usual noodles) with shrimp and mixed meat, and sliced chicken with eggplant.  It was a privilege to pay $20 each for this outstanding lunch.  My only regret was the bad weather, snow and sleet, that kept the celebratory dragons off the streets instead of welcoming the new year.
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The following is a public service announcement:

Proceed immediately to the 99 favorite chocolate recipes of The New York Times.  https://cooking.nytimes.com/68861692-nyt-cooking/408832-our-99-best-chocolate-recipes

Wednesday,  February 13, 2019

Columnist Frank Bruni writes: "The rapidly growing field of Democratic candidates is packed with impressive talent.  But right now it’s also lousy with obsequiousness."

. . .

Hearing loss usually begins with weakened ability to hear women's voices. 
https://www.audioclinic.com.au/latest-news/my-hearing/hard-hear-womens-voices/

So, it may be a miracle that so many Republican legislators have been able to hear the anti-Semitic comments of Ilhan Omar, Congresswoman from Minnesota, loud and clear while unable to recognize the spoken endorsement of domestic Nazi conduct at Charlottesville, Virginia by the president.  Did it take a trip to Lourdes to accomplish this? 
. . .

I don't claim to have the inside dope on many things, but I have gotten wind of the forthcoming deal between Congress and the president to avoid another shutdown of the US government.  The Bar Mitzvah of Jared Kushner's older son in 2027 will be paid for by Mexico., that's the band, that's the choice of beef or salmon, that's the flowers, that's the Viennese table, that's the photo booth, that's the imprinted yarmulkes, nothing left to chance.  Mazel tov!

Thursday,  February 14, 2019

My birthday is upcoming and I received this marvelous gift, handmade with loving care by my loveliest daughter-in-law, on Valentine's Day.  It may be a few days early, but it is exactly what is required to help me through the aging process.   

 

Clearly, her Harvard education has not been wasted.  

 

Friday, February 15, 2019

Let's close the week with a tale of stupidity at work.  https://www.npr.org/2019/02/15/695184555/americans-who-were-detained-after-speaking-spanish-in-montana-sue-u-s-border-pat

 

Says the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent, a federal employee paid by you (well, not you Brodie, you're an Englishman) to the two women in the grocery store in Havre, Montana: "Ma'am, the reason I asked you for your ID is because I came in here and I saw that you guys are speaking Spanish, which is very unheard of up here."  

Time Trials

Monday, February 4, 2019

The space-time continuum is the subject of scrutiny in physics.  I only have room to worry about time at present.  Two headlines this weekend pose a challenge for me on the meaning and use of time.

"Virginia Governor Ralph Northam Resists Calls to Resign"  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/us/politics/ralph-northam-virginia-governor.html

"He Committed Murder. Then He Graduated From an Elite Law School. Would You Hire Him as Your Attorney?"  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/business/bruce-reilly-murder-conviction-lawyer.html

Ralph Northam, the governor of Virginia is being assailed for staging and displaying an ugly, racist photograph in his medical school yearbook in 1984.  He was 25-years old at the time.  Bruce Reilly, an admitted murderer, who served 12 years in prison, subsequently graduated law school in 2014 and now works for a criminal justice reform organization.  He was 19-years old in 1992, when he stabbed and beat to death a college professor whom he met hitchhiking.  Reilly is not admitted to practice law anywhere and "it’s highly unlikely that he could pass the 'character and fitness' portion of the bar admissions process."

How much time is sufficient to demonstrate an elemental change in a person's character?  Is there never enough time?  Specifically, may a bleeding-heart liberal accept the rehabilitation of a murderer, while withholding support from an embarrassed politician, or vice versa?  Or, do we flush both of them down the great toilet of history?

. . .

The headline tells the story: "The Luckiest Sports Fans, Ranked"

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/01/opinion/luckiest-sports-fans.html

The sad truth is that Boston, whether or not it eats Wheaties, is the home of champions.  In the early years of this century, all of its professional teams have reached the top of their respective piles.  No other city comes close, although New York had an exceptional run in baseball 1951-1970, when all three home teams won the World Series.

As you may know, Atlanta has never broken through in any major sport.  However, it deserves honorary mention in at least one regard.  Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium, relocated from Stuttgart, which hosted the Super Bowl this weekend, charges $5 for domestic beer and $2 for hot dogs.  According to a study in 2016, the average price for a beer at NFL venues was about $7.40, and a hot dog was more than $5.00.   https://www.foodbeast.com/news/check-out-the-outrageous-beer-and-hot-dog-prices-at-each-nfl-stadium/

Madison Square Garden, where I regularly go to get my heart broken, is proud of its array of food and beverage offerings.   https://www.msg.com/madison-square-garden/food-drink  However, to go along with its first-class collection of vendors, it features ultra-class concession prices, domestic beer $11.50 and hot dog $7.  I could lose weight at those prices.

. . .

I came across a wonderful phrase this weekend, the Eurasian Pole of Inaccessibility, defined as the furthest point from any ocean or sea.  Near Kazakhstan’s border with China, you might still beat Gwyneth Paltrow to it.

Wednesday, February 6, 2019

My command of Chinese vocabulary is still weak, so I don't know how to say "medium" to specify portion size and maybe I don't need to.  When you order a pizza or coffee, you usually have a choice of small, medium or large.  However, I've observed that your typical Chinese joint serves soup, noodles or fried rice only small or large.  I'm not complaining; it may be more efficient for buyer and seller, for all I know.

This came to mind today at Dumplings & Things, 45-26 46th Street, Sunnyside (Queens), when I emerged from quarantine to get my car serviced in Long Island City.  This gave me the opportunity to dip into the culinary potpourri across the East River.  Dumplings & Things takes up very little room on a busy street just off Queens Boulevard.  It has 6 four-tops and 3 two-tops in a boxy room completely devoid of decoration.  The menu is simple as well, dumplings, noodles and soup (usually together) and a handful of rice platters.  I ordered pan fried chicken, shrimp and cilantro dumplings (5 for $4.25, but was served 6) and pan fried spicy beef and kimchi dumplings (5 for $4.25).  The dumplings were well prepared, but lacked zing.  The spicy beef wasn't.  I used the rice wine vinegar and soy sauce bottles sitting on the table to make a dipping sauce to help the cause.

But, I want to talk about the hot and sour soup, my first course.  I had the small ($3), which was decidedly larger than small, although not large ($6).  If they had a word for it, it should have been called medium.  Anyway, it might have been the best hot and sour soup that I have ever had.  It made me smile.  When was the last time that happened to you.  

I smiled even more when I left, turned right on 46th Street and right again on 47th Avenue (one of the marvels of Queens County is the presence of numbered Streets, Avenues, Roads, Lanes, Terraces and Drives, sometimes parallel, sometimes intersecting).  Heading west, there is an unobstructed view of the Empire State Building, square on.  I found it breathtaking, or maybe it was the tail end of my pneumonia.

Thursday, February 7, 2019

There is a new study of prescription drugs, who gets what.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/upshot/income-strong-predictor-drug-purchases-serious-diseases.html

"Patients in wealthier neighborhoods were much more likely to pick up prescriptions for lifestyle problems: erectile dysfunction, baldness, anti-wrinkle Botox injections and an eye medicine that thickens eyelashes."  Additionally, "richer patients were more likely to buy drugs for certain serious conditions, including mental health disorders."  However, "[s]ome mental health problems are more prevalent among Americans with lower incomes, evidence shows. But longtime holes in the health care system mean that richer patients are more likely to have private insurance or extra money to pay for psychiatric care that is not covered by insurance."     

Maybe it's better that rich people get more/better treatment for mental problems, since they are more likely to do harm to the general public.

Never Too Late to Build the Wall

Monday, January 28, 2019

This story seemed to go by unnoticed: "Speaking Black Dialect in Courtrooms Can Have Striking Consequences"  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/us/black-dialect-courtrooms.html

In a study, court reporters "made errors in two out of every five sentences" when played recordings of sentences spoken in "African-American English."  No doubt, inaccurate transcripts of trial testimony or depositions can badly skew an understanding of a case at hand.  Most surprising: "Black court reporters who participated in the study made errors in transcribing at roughly the same rate as their white peers."
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A lot has been said about the racial exclusionary result of the single test for admissions to Stuyvesant High School.  This week's issue of The New Yorker describes how, more than 60 years after being founded as an alI-boys' school, Stuyvesant came to admit girls.  This happened almost a dozen years after I left and, until now, I knew none of the details. 
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/how-a-thirteen-year-old-girl-smashed-the-gender-divide-in-american-high-schools
. . .

This weekend had another wonderful example of the graphic representation of information by the The New York Times, this time illustrating the backgrounds of the members of the current US House of Representatives.    

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/26/opinion/sunday/paths-to-congress.html

Maybe the most predictable factoid, lawyers "constitute less than 1 percent of the voting-age population but more than one-third of the House."  

Tuesday, January 29, 2019
What does an examination of long commute times, unemployment rate, hours worked, population density, home-price-to-income ratio and percent of uninsured population yield?  The Most Stressed Cities In America. 
https://www.zippia.com/research/most-stressed-cities-in-america/ 

The top 10 are an odd mix: Miami, Jersey City, Newark, East Los Angeles, Inglewood, CA, New York, Elizabeth, NJ, Chicago, Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale.  When I lived in Los Angeles, the most stressful thing was figuring out how to get back to New York.
. . .

Speaking of stress, for the last three weeks, starting before our trip to California, I have been coughing my head off.  A visit to Doc in the Box before we left was reassuring.  Just a cold, I was told.  Still I coughed across the country and back.  Today, I had a previously scheduled appointment for my annual physical with Dr. Michael Perskin, who has ministered to me for 25 years, during which we both aged well.  Sure enough, the good doctor found a bit of pneumonia.  Why am I bothering you with his information?  You probably have your own aches and pains.  I just want you to know that I am not turning over a new leaf by staying home for lunch.  It's not entirely voluntary.
. . .

On the subject of public health, I was surprised to learn that "[o]lder adults are taking an awful lot of pills these days — 66 percent take five drugs or more per day, and 27 percent take 10 or more per day."  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/upshot/pharmacists-drugs-health-unsung-role.html

I'm happy to report that, by this measure, I am not an older adult.

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Staying home isn't the worst thing, especially with snow and sub-freezing temperatures outside.  Had I been inclined to venture out, I still don't think that I would have pursued "The Absolute Best Matzo Ball Soup in New York."  http://www.grubstreet.com/bestofnewyork/absolute-best-matzo-ball-soup-in-nyc.html

It's a very interesting collection of joints, about half of which I have patronized at one time or another, but never for matzo ball soup.  I like matzo ball soup; I've had it twice in the last week in trying to fight what I thought was a simple cold.  It's just that matzo ball soup belongs at home.  You don't go out for matzo ball soup.  That's why they invented mothers.  Sit down and eat; relax and eat; eat and enjoy. 
. . .

The Merriam-Webster dictionary web site found that justice was the word looked up the most frequently in 2018, 74% more than the year before.  The web site suggests that "[t]he concept of justice was at the center of many of our national debates in the past year: racial justice, social justice, criminal justice, economic justice.  In any conversation about these topics, the question of just what exactly we mean when we use the term justice is relevant, and part of the discussion." 

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/word-of-the-year-2018-justice

So, what do we mean by justice?  Generally, I believe, that justice is equated with fairness, the Golden Rule: Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.  This concept goes back thousands of years and you can find versions of it in ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, ancient Persia, ancient Rome, Confucius, Hillel and on through the millennia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule#Ancient_Egypt

Our legal system codifies justice/fairness as due process; for instance, no double jeopardy, confronting your accuser, a jury of your peers, no ex post facto laws.  Is it sufficient that justice be regarded as a path, not as a destination?  I think that the average person perceives justice when she prevails, not just when she is offered due process.  It is hard to be satisfied with merely being considered a good loser. 

Is it possible to define justice as a thing, a goal as elusive as love?  In many disputes that justice thing is indivisible, forcing a winner and a loser.  What we then feebly do is try to mollify the unsuccessful parties with the assurance that they were treated fairly, regardless of the result.

Thursday, January 31, 2019
Thanks to my brother's good example, I grew up a rabid Brooklyn Dodger fan.  Yet, while living in a segregated neighborhood (two black brothers were the only non-whites in my elementary school, K-6) and raised in a not particularly progressive household, I felt the excitement when Jackie Robinson joined the Dodgers and relished the team's and his success for the next decade, including Brooklyn's first World Series victory.  Therefore, when in late 1957 the Dodgers traded Robinson to their bitter rival, the New York Giants, followed within a year by moving to Los Angeles, my enmity towards the Dodgers was established forevermore.

Today is Jackie Robinson's 100th birthday, and The New York Times has a special section in his honor, with 100 photographs of his life and career.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/31/sports/jackie-robinson-photos-100th-birthday.html

My friend Tavish recalls that we met Rachel Robinson, Jackie's charming widow, at a numismatic convention in 1997, where several commemorative coins were being issued on the 50th anniversary of his entry into the major leagues, breaking the foul color bar.

Friday, February 1, 2019

Let's be clear about this.  The Jews were there first.  In World War II, Agnes Waters said: “There are 200,000 Communist Jews at the Mexican border, waiting to get into this country.  If they are admitted, they will rape every woman and child left unprotected.” 

Who was this prescient Agnes Waters?  At first my research was stymied because, according to Wikipedia, Agnes Water (sic) "is a town and a locality in the Gladstone Region, Queensland, Australia."  It is the most northerly surfing beach along Australia's east coast.  After wading through all the references to this coastal community, I finally found the Agnes Waters person in Women of the Far Right: The Mothers' Movement and World War II by Glen Jeansonne (1997), where she gets a whole chapter. 

Although claiming to be descended from British royalty, Agnes was militantly anti-British, maintaining that Neville Chamberlain paid Hitler to pose as a danger in order to raise taxes.  She attended the 1936 Democratic National Convention as a Roosevelt supporter, but her hatred of Communism drove her to the far right and beyond.  

A sampling of her ideas includes:

• Roosevelt and Churchill were disciples of Lenin.
• At the end of the war, Hitler would reveal himself a Bolshevik.
• Jews would bring the United States into the British Empire.
• The "British Israel" movement was scheming to build a world government led by the Duke of Windsor.
• The New Deal was written in Moscow.

Waters frequently testified before congressional committees on matters of domestic and foreign security.  She sought the presidential nomination of both major parties in 1944.  If elected, she promised to shoot every black person in the country, since most were traitors and Communists.  She would withdraw from the war and let the rest of the world fight it out.  She vowed to expel all Englishmen and Russians from the US, arrest Communists, Nazis and Jews to prevent obstruction of national defense, and prohibit immigration.  When the parties nominated Franklin Roosevelt and Thomas Dewey, little more was heard from her.

It seems that the 200,000 Communist Jews never made it across the border into the United States, but there is lasting evidence of their presence in Mexico and therein the threat they posed.  What, after all, are burritos but the Spanish name for blintzes?