Another Disloyal Jewish Democrat

Monday, August 19, 2019

The Upper West Side's Power Couple has been in the 5 college region of central Massachusetts for the last couple of days visiting friends.  We stopped first at the Yiddish Book Center on the campus of Hampshire College (the fifth one that you couldn't remember).  It's worth a visit by everybody, even if they never got closer to Yiddish than a bialy, to learn how one young man orchestrated the rescue of millions of books and, arguably, the culture that produced them. 
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Staying in this area also gave us the opportunity to have some good meals in Amherst, a very pretty town.  We had lunch at Judie's Restaurant, 51 North Pleasant Street, with a fairly standard, well-executed American menu.  It's very large, three storefronts wide, probably having expanded with success.  Popovers are its special feature, possibly the most Gentile item to be found on any menu after baked ham.  Judie serves popovers as a snack with apple butter, instead of bread with main courses, or as a main course, stuffed with seafood gumbo, pesto chicken, sirloin tips and the like.  

For years, there was a Popover Cafe at 551 Amsterdam Avenue, serving strawberry butter with its popovers.  Sitting immediately next to Barney Greengrass, The Sturgeon King, 541 Amsterdam Avenue, slightly mitigated Its goyische character.  On the other hand, nothing was allowed to curb the gentility of Patricia Murphy's Candlelight Restaurants, with Popover Girls dispensing popovers at the 9 Candlelights in New York and Florida.  My memory of them is somewhat clouded by the competitive presence of Lauraine Murphy's, a carbon copy run by Patricia Murphy's brother and two sisters.  I must confess that I ordered a popover in all of the aforementioned. 

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I can forgive Pleasant Street its name, because it is Amherst's Restaurant Row.  In fact, it has an interesting array of Asian restaurants, in an almost unbroken line.  Panda East, 103 North Pleasant Street; Miss Saigon, 96 North Pleasant Street; The Taste Thai Cuisine, 25 North Pleasant Street; MoMo Tibetan Restaurant, 23 North Pleasant Street; Arigato Japanese Restaurant, 11 North Pleasant Street; Oriental Flavor, 25 South Pleasant Street.  Pizza, pasta, pub food and doughnuts are also available for more conventional tastes.

We had only so much time to experiment, so Sunday night we ate at Miss Saigon.  It's the crummiest looking of the lot, but it was the most crowded, even at this low ebb before school begins.  And, it deserved to be.  The menu has the typical range of Vietnamese food, noodles, pho, stir-fried.  I had beef sticks, 3 skewered broad slices of beef with sesame peanut sauce on the side ($6.95), and chicken lettuce wraps, small pieces of chicken, cooked with onions, mushrooms, slivers of carrot and cucumber  in a pungent soy sauce ($8.45).  I left the lettuce alone, didn't want to get too full.  Miss Saigon also generously gives unlimited refills of Diet Coke for $1.95.
 

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Talk of mind-boggling detail, today's NYTimes.com identifies the music played at rallies by the leading presidential contenders, their playlists complete with recordings.  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/19/us/politics/presidential-campaign-songs-playlists.html

Pay particular attention to the list buried below Cory Booker.  It is a frequency analysis of the words in the songs used.  "Love" tops Booker's and Elizabeth Warren's list.  It is third, fourth, and sixth for Trump, Biden and Castro/Harris tied, respectively.  In case you fear that the president is going soft, "man" and "macho" are first and second for him.  As for Bernie Sanders, "love" comes in 38th, just above "inferno."
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William Franklin Harrison is 18-years old. We met today for lunch and to plan his 2040 presidential campaign.  I am encouraged by his prospects for many reasons, including capturing so much of American history in his name alone.  Additionally, he looks the part, tall and handsome, with curly blonde hair much of which I hope that he retains through maturity. 

Lunch today was an early training ground for his political career.  We went to the Gotham West Market, 600 11th Avenue, a food hall offering William a choice of diverse cuisines.  He considered the alternatives -- Italian, Chinese, Mexican, seafood, fried chicken -- and decisively approached the counter at Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop. 

William, appropriately humble, only consumed "Tokyo Shio Ramen, Sea Salt, Dashi-Chicken Broth, Sea Salts, Pork Belly" ($13).  I had "Triple Garlic Mazemen, Rich Chicken Broth, Roasted Garlic, Bean Sprouts, Minced Sesame Chicken, Scallions, Whole Wheat Noodles," delicious.  I added a spongy pastrami bun, with Spiced Creamy Mustard and Daikon Slaw, and an iced tea for the luncheon deal price of $21.  

Afterwards, we navigated the 12 feet separating Ivan from Ample Hills Creamery, my favorite ice cream in the continental United States.  I chose scoops of Ooey Gooey Butter Cake (sort of like carrot cake without the carrots) and "PB Wins the Cup, Vanilla Ice Cream with Peanut Butter Chocolate Flakes and Housemade Peanut Butter Cups."  William had Summer of Love, tie-dyed (!) cupcakes swirled into sweet cream ice cream.  I think that these strategizing lunches will have to increase in frequency as Election Day 2040 approaches.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019
In the past, I've resorted to the clichéd portrait of our domestic terrorists as dentally-challenged, white, Christian gentlemen of a certain age.  However, there seems to have been a generational shift in recent days.  Our latest mass killers are Patrick Crusius, 21 (El Paso, Texas); Connor Betts, 24 (Dayton, Ohio); Santino William Legan, 19 (Gilroy, California).  Recently apprehended before they could kill were James Patrick Reardon, 20 (Youngstown Ohio); Tristan Scott Wix, 25 (Daytona Beach, Florida); Brandon Wagshol, 22 (Norwalk, Connecticut).  Pushing the envelope slightly were the arrests on Tuesday of Eric Lin, 35 of Miami, Florida, after he boasted that the president "will launch a Racial War and Crusade," and Joseph Rubino, 57 of Lafayette Township, New Jersey, found with a stockpile of assault weapons and neo-Nazi paraphernalia.  I think that our white, Christian men need new hobbies.
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Thank you, Donald Trump.  Responding to your asinine comments about American Jews, Bernie Sanders said, "I am a proud Jewish person," something that he has not said out loud since his Bar Mitzvah.

Thursday, August 22, 2019

At dinner last night, our dear friends Arthur and Lyn told us of the facility that their son-in-law, a professional waiter, not an actor between roles, has in taking an order flawlessly without writing anything down.  I found that impressive, but I was completely awed this morning when I read about a tournament in Kyoto Japan, where "[o]ne winner, a 20-year-old college student, broke his own Guinness World Record by adding in his head 15 three-digit numbers that flashed on a large screen at the front of the auditorium — all in 1.64 seconds."  That was less time than it took the president to reverse his position on gun control.

Friday, August 23, 2019

Mets night in New York.  After sweeping the Cleveland Indians, an excellent American League team, we face the unlikable Atlanta Braves,  currently leading our division, tonight.  With that formidable Mets fan Amy C. by my side, I rushed out to the ballpark to savor the excitement and, by the way, get the free T-shirt given out at every Friday home game.

 

After 4 hours and 40 minutes of very competitive baseball, the moral arc of the universe bent to disappointment in the 14th inning.