Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah

Monday, March 4, 2019

I am a New York Football Giants fan and I don't like the New England Patriots for several reasons.  However, I have had to admire its back office management and particularly Robert Kraft its owner.  Unlike others in his position around the league, he seems to have recognized that his talent for making money did not translate into a talent for making decisions on the football field. 

Until last week, his personal life was basically unremarkable for a billionaire.  He was known for his philanthropy, balanced somewhat by his friendship with the people's second choice for the presidency.  https://www.thekraftgroup.com/philanthropy/

That all changed with his being charged in Palm Beach County, Florida with two charges of soliciting prostitution.  He must have known that he was engaging in disreputable, dangerous, dubious conduct, because, according to the affidavit from the state's attorney's office, he visited a massage parlor on January 19, 2019, arriving in a Bentley driven by a chauffeur, for a sexual encounter.  The next day, probably to deceive any local snoops, he returned in a different chauffeur-driven Bentley for an encore.  Note that the lowest MSRP for a Bentley is currently $165,000, while the top-of-the-line Mulsanne starts at $304,670.  There is no rule against it, but the lower priced models are more likely to be owner-driven, a chauffeur properly placed behind the wheel of the Mulsanne, named for a village 116 miles southwest of Paris.  In case you are interested, there are two hotels in Mulsanne, but apparently no massage parlors.  https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g1747706-Mulsanne_Sarthe_Pays_de_la_Loire-Hotels.html
. . .
Home-owning here in the Holy Land is a minority endeavor.  The New York City Rent Guidelines Board claims that about 2/3 of the more than 3.2 million total local housing units are rentals, dramatically contrasting with the national average of 37%. 
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/realestate/slicing-new-yorks-housing-pie.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Frealestate&action=click&contentCollection=realestate&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=sectionfront
 

This might explain why suburbia was known for wife-swapping, while New York remains known for apartment-swapping.
. . .

Ella Fitzgerald, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Leonard Bernstein, Mia Farrow, Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Carter, Mahalia Jackson, Shelly Manne, Leroy Vinnegar, Dinah Shore, Julie Andrews, Andre Kostelanetz, Audrey Hepburn, Marcel Dupré, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Joseph Achron, Ernst Toch, Lukas Foss, Pierre Monteux, Walter Pidgeon, Fidel Castro, Jose Iturbi, Lassie, Jeanette MacDonald, Alan Jay Lerner, Katherine Hepburn, Johnny Mercer, Ernest Fleischmann, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Philip Littell, Reneé Fleming, John Caird, David Patrick Stearns, Tom Stoppard, Betty Bennett, Dory Previn neé Langan, Woody Allen, Heather Haines Sneddon, Esther Williams. 

This is a list of people (and one dog), omitting his children, named in Andre Previn's obituary in the New York Times that he encountered during his long, active career as composer, conductor and performer in jazz, pop and classical music.  He married five of them.  

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Gee, the Democrats have found a way to jeopardize their up-until-now excellent chance to win the 2020 presidential election.  Fight over Israel.

If my energized progressive friends are consumed by the need to save Arab lives, let them focus on Syria or Egypt or Yemen until 2021.  Then, they can return to their tacit, unholy alliance with American neo-Nazis, European fascists and miscellaneous Muslims and trash Zionists, who might be simply mistaken for Jews.  

. . .

Passover is holiday that has an important message for all people.  It celebrates the first recorded national liberation movement, but there is an interesting twist.  Successful rebellions usually result in the expulsion of the reputed oppressors from the occupied land, the American Revolution for example.  The Israelites, however, fled, leaving the land to the indigenous Egyptians.  Nevertheless, the Israelites gained their freedom, setting an example for millennia to come.

So, all of you make sure that you go to a Seder, the ritual meal that begins the 8-day Passover holiday.  This year, the first of two will be held on Friday night, April 19th.  Which is why I was taken aback today - March 5th - when I found several aisles in Fairway Market, 2121 Broadway, filled with Passover merchandise, items that signify a departure from ordinary life in order to commemorate the exile and exodus.  That's 45 days to shop for an 8-day period, leaving 320 days to shop for the other 357 days.  For the benefit of my young bride, that helps explain why I sometimes buy more chocolate chip cookies than are immediately needed.

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Elaine and Sandy were very patient when they found that Shanghai 21 f/k/a Shanghai Asian Manor, 21 Mott Street, the place that I picked for lunch, was closed for renovations.  They wisely escaped temperatures in the low 20s in a nearby store until I arrived. 

We headed to Shanghai Asian Cuisine, 14A Elizabeth Street, because I  promised them superior examples of some dishes and we found them.  We shared steamed tiny buns (soup dumplings) ($6.25 for 6 pieces), a revelation to Elaine, scallion pancake ($3.75), cold noodles with sesame sauce ($5.50), tangerine beef ($17.25) and chicken fried rice ($8.75).  One hit after another.  I think that we would all be prepared to face the cold again for a meal like that.  

Thursday, March 7, 2019

Instead of staying home to watch the New York Rangers lose by one goal again, which seems to be what the hockey gods require of them, I went to Fordham University to hear Noam Shoked, post-doc fellow at Princeton University's School of Architecture, talk about architectural issues in early Jewish settlements on the West Bank.  He navigated this potentially explosive (intellectual and physical) territory with such a display of scholarship that the audience remained attentive, respectful and peaceful throughout.  In brief, he concluded that the plans of the Israeli government and several prominent architects in designing settlements in the ancient city of Hebron succumbed to politics, economics, culture and demographics.  He reinforced my wavering belief in education.

 

Friday, March 8, 2019

Speaking of real estate, there is a new list of where to find the rich, the very rich, the really very rich.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-04/nyc-s-trendy-neighborhood-leaps-into-top-five-richest-zip-codes?utm_campaign=news&utm_medium=bd&utm_source=applenews

Nine states are represented in the top 20 richest zip codes, California with the most at 4, Florida, New York and New Jersey with 3 each.  The most interesting local angle is how 10007, a Tribeca neighborhood, has jumped to the fifth spot overall and overshadows traditional bastions of wealth and privilege, such as Bloomingdale's Country, zip code 10022, including the classic co-ops on Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue.  Residents of 10007 earn
$879,000 annually on average.  Of course, they are mere pikers compared to the folks on Fisher's Island, zip code 33109, a part of Miami Beach, Florida, who rake in $2.2 million on the average, a tribute to the American Way of Life.