Lucky Number

Monday, April 8, 2019

The New York Times requires exclusivity on any submission.  Therefore, I waited until now to publish this marvelous tale from America's Favorite Epidemiologist, which they neglected to publish for several weeks in their "Manhattan Diary" section.

I was looking forward to our trip to Morocco in part to confirm the rapturous descriptions I’d heard of reasonably priced, high-quality leather goods.  In advance of the trip I’d decided to treat myself to a new leather jacket.  Arriving at the recommended factory shop, I was led to an upstairs room where sample coats and jackets were displayed.  The room was a riot of bold primary colors.  A salesman approached me and asked what style and color I was looking for.  I replied that I wanted a short jacket, probably black.  “Oh no madam,” he said, “how about this beautiful red leather jacket?”  I replied that I preferred to stick with black.  Next he suggested that I consider a bold yellow jacket, remarking how flattering it would be on me and again I replied that I preferred black.  A third time he led me to a blue leather jacket and again I replied that I preferred black.  “Oh madam,” he exclaimed, “are you from New York?”  “Yes” I said.  “Ok, I see,” he responded, leading me to the black jacket that I bought on the spot.    
. . .

Congressman Tim Ryan (D - Ohio) announced this weekend that he is running for president.  His goal, he told a hometown crowd, was "to bring this country back together."
https://www.cleveland.com/politics/2019/04/tim-ryan-tells-mahoning-valley-crowd-he-is-running-for-president-to-bring-this-country-back-together.html

This is a noble sentiment, although not previously unexpressed.  For instance, Republican Joe Straus, speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, said, "we need political leaders who can stop pointing fingers and start pulling our country back together."  https://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/We-need-leaders-who-can-bring-us-together-13358936.php

Michael Cohen, once the president's personal attorney, hopes to "be remembered in history as helping to bring this country back together."   
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://freebeacon.com/politics/cohen-i-hope-to-be-remembered-as-someone-who-helped-bring-this-country-back-together/amp/&ved=2ahUKEwie_ozxqr_hAhXFhOAKHeyTAekQFjAJegQIARAB&usg=

Brian Redmond, a psychology professor at Penn State offers "[a] simple and old trick to bring a divided country back together." 
https://sites.psu.edu/movingpsychology/2017/01/18/a-simple-and-old-trick-to-bring-a-divided-country-back-together/

A web site of the Smithsonian Institution informs us that "Lincoln had plans for bringing the country back together again, but without his leadership, the country was plunged into confusion that would take many years to resolve."   https://americanhistory.si.edu/presidency/timeline/pres_era/3_677.html

The "many years" has now stretched into a century-and-a-half apparently.  I guess that some people believe that it is easier to make this country great again than to bring it back together.

Tuesday, April 9, 2019

The first love of my life and the attendant first heartbreak were situated at West 113th Street and Broadway.  I returned today for the relatively unsentimental purpose of having lunch at Junzi Kitchen, 2896 Broadway, a pan-Asian joint featuring "bings & noodles."  Bings are the Chinese version of blintzes or burritos.  I chose noodles, however, with furu (fermented bean curd) sesame sauce, grilled chicken thigh, mushrooms, stir-fried bean sprouts, kale, sweet shallots, scallions, cucumber, long beans and some other stuff that I told them to throw on at no extra charge ($13.49).  It resulted in a hearty portion of tasty food.

The place itself is two storefronts wide, the walls either white-painted brick or square white tiles, giving a bright, open feel.  About half the floor space is taken by the kitchen and prep area, the other holds 40 seats at blonde wood tables or ledges on the side.  Students from Columbia University, right next door, occupied most of the seats.  My appetite was almost spoiled by sharing a table with two from the graduate business school, who spent the time struggling with their summer travel plans -- Barcelona, Munich, London.  While I directed dirty looks at them, I resisted dousing them with soy sauce.

By the way, in seeking a definition of "furu," I found that it is also a Norwegian word for being an extremely good lover.  Keep that in mind.   

. . .

Still catching up with some reading after our vacation, I found this wonderful article, "Oops! Famously Scathing Reviews of Classic Books From The Times's Archive."  For instance, “Not one syllable of what Hemingway has written can or will be missed by any literate person in the world.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/09/books/scathing-reviews-classic-books.html

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

By coincidence, my new income tax preparer and the physical therapy facility that I have started visiting to strengthen my left knee are both in 1995 Broadway, in fact one floor above the other. 

So, what's wrong with this picture?

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Even though the underlying motives here may be questionable, a Hungarian opera company presents an interesting challenge by casting an all-white version of Porgy and Bess.  "George Gershwin famously turned down companies that wanted to perform the opera in blackface, and his estate stipulates that the work should be performed by an all-black cast."
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/10/arts/hungary-opera-porgy-and-bess.html

Putting the legal issues aside, consider the sociology.  "Today, the mainstream belief among scientists is that race is a social construct without biological meaning."  https://www.livescience.com/53613-race-is-social-construct-not-scientific.html

Certainly, Catfish Row in Charleston, South Carolina (actually named Cabbage Row), the setting for Porgy and Bess was "on the wrong side of the color line" and, as in the opera, only cops had white faces.  And, jobs for African-American actors are still far from abundant.  But, after all, aren't actors actors?

Friday, April 12, 2019
There is another story of possible cultural appropriation in today's paper.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/12/nyregion/lucky-lees-nyc-chinese-food.html

I am not in the least bothered that a white, New York (Jewish?) couple have opened a Chinese restaurant. The more the merrier.

Do we really know whose bucks are behind most of our favorite joints?  On the other hand, learning that Jared and Ivanka fund Wo Hop, 17 Mott Street, would give me pause at the the top of the staircase leading down to its basement location.  Pray that it never comes to that.

What is offensive, however, is the attitude of the owner lady.  Her restaurant, unlike run-of-the-mill alternatives, would save patrons from feeling “bloated and icky” the next day, or one where the food wasn’t “too oily.”  She poses it as a form of "clean eating."  In other words, she is running a Chinese restaurant for people who don't like Chinese food.  This reminds me of a cluster of alleged Chinese restaurants in the East 50s that seems to pride themselves more on their clientele rather than their food, with prices proportionate to fees for plastic surgery, the common denominator for many seated on their plush divans.  

. . .

While Chicago is proving to be a very dangerous place for human beings, it is most dangerous for birds.  A new study claims that an "estimated 600 million birds die from building collisions every year in the U.S.," with Chicago, Houston and Dallas posing the greatest peril for birds on both the southern (Fall) and northern (Spring) migration.

http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2019/04/chicago-tops-list-most-dangerous-cities-migrating-birds

 

It is "a combination of light pollution and geography . . . [that put birds] at the greatest risk of becoming attracted to and disoriented by lights and crashing into buildings."  New York has the buildings, but is slightly off the densest migratory path, reaching eighth worst on the Spring cycle and fifth in the Fall.

. . .

 

Speaking of buildings and bad luck, "[a] Chinese court has ordered a media company to pay nearly $30,000 to a real estate developer after it published an article that suggested a flashy building in Beijing violated the ancient laws of feng shui and would bring misfortune to its occupants."  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/world/asia/china-feng-shui-penalty.html

 

While the New York Times refers to feng shui as "an ancient pseudoscientific practice of harmonizing individuals with the invisible forces in their surroundings," it remains a potent force in today's China.  We learned a lot about this on our trip to China in 2008, shortly before the start of the Beijing Olympics on August 8, 2008, that is 08/08/08, thought to be a particularly propitious arrangement of numbers.  One big, new, brand-name hotel was being actively avoided because its front door faced the "wrong" way.  The Internet does not confirm this, but, more authoritatively, I checked with intrepid fellow travelers Jill & Steve and they remember the same thing.