Freedom From Speech

Monday, October 21, 2019
Mark Zuckerberg meet Mark Zuckerberg
“In a democracy, I believe people should decide what is credible, not tech companies.”  October 17, 2019

“Elections have changed significantly since 2016, but Facebook has changed too.  We’ve gone from being on our back foot to now proactively going after some of the biggest threats that are out there.”  October 20, 2019

I must admit that I am stymied by this issue.  I grew up with an absolutist position on political speech, rooted in the First Amendment and skepticism of authority.  However, we seem to have abandoned the marketplace of ideas for the brothel of lies.

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Until a few days ago, the Commonwealth of Virginia required racial identification of people applying for a marriage license.  Responding to a suit in federal court, Virginia's Attorney General lifted the requirement.  Each county was apparently allowed to establish its own reporting system.  One county in a rural part of the state had over 200 “approved races,” including French Canadian, Aryan, Blanc, Hebrew, Islamic, Israelite, Jew, Mestizo, Mulatto, Nordic, Octaroon, Quadroon, Red, Scotch, Teutonic, Cosmopolitan, Amish and White American.  Here is the complete list if you are having an identity crisis.  http://www.robinhoodesq.com/filings/read/2_Rockbridge_Races.pdf

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My first apartment in the Holy Land was a tiny studio in Greenwich Village.  It was in a great location enjoyed by me and dozens of cockroaches, lending it authenticity.  I've not been pressed for space ever since, but a studio apartment remains the first step towards independence for many people.  A recent study found that the average studio apartment was 530 square feet.  It also identifies the locations with the smallest and largest average studios.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/realestate/the-tiniest-tiny-apartments.html

New York City tied with Grand Rapids, Michigan at 6th place on the small side at 444 square feet, although the average rent per square foot in New York was three times that of Grand Rapids.  I wouldn't have guessed it, but Jersey City offered the largest average space and it rented for about $1,000 per month less than the nearly identical space in San Francisco. 

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A letter to the New York Times asks us/you/me not "to further alienate his [Trump's] supporters.  Let's bridge this empathy chasm and heal our nation."  OK, as soon as I hear the same from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh or the New York Post.
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I took Stony Brook Steve to Miznon North, 161 West 72nd Street, hoping that he would appreciate it as much as I do.  I ordered "Hummus Basar, plancha roasted rack of lamb and hummus" ($28).  Basar may be one of three locations in India, the Spanish verb to base on or the Hebrew noun flesh.  Given Miznon's origins in Israel, take the last one. 

I didn't know what to expect, but I got thin slivers of lamb and sauteed onions sat in a pool of silky hummus.  Verdict = delicious.  "Beetroot Carpaccio olive oil,salt, grated horseradish and sour cream" was my choice of appetizer and, in spite of the detailed description, it was still a surprise.  It also turned out to be wonderful, a dozen or more thin slices of beets covered with olive oil and spices.  Very inventive, but very simple.

Steve had avocado bruschetta, chunks of avocado on thick bread, drizzled with olive oil.  His main course was "Rotisserie Broken Chicken," stuffed into a pita, the dish that I delighted me a couple of weeks ago.  In sum, I believe that Steve now shares my high opinion of Miznon.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

The 2020 Michelin guide to New York restaurants was just announced.

https://ny.eater.com/2019/10/21/20924026/michelin-restaurants-nyc-stars-2020

It doesn't read like my diary.  No sesame noodles, no bagels, no chicken schnitzels, no ice cream.  But, there has to be room for wretched excess in this world and, if you have it, flaunt it at some of these joints.
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I may be the second greatest political deal maker in contemporary politics, behind Mr. Tangerine.  To solve a couple of near-intractable impasses, I am arranging for Bibi Netanyahu to move to London and Boris Johnson to Jerusalem. 
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Tonight, I went to my first Rangers game of the season.  To look on the bright side, they did not lose in regulation time.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Golden Unicorn, 18 East Broadway, hosted a hearty gathering of the Boyz Club today for dim sum.  I counted 23 dishes coming and going, costing $25 a person.  As usual, I lost track of exactly how much of what we ate, but it all went down very well. 

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The Open Syllabus Project has collected seven million English-language syllabi from over 80 countries in order to provide a picture of modern higher education.  https://opensyllabus.org/results-list/titles?size=50

The most assigned author in the collection is William Shakespeare, who appears nearly 50,000 times among the 1.4 million authors assigned in the syllabi.  Second place is Plato with more than 27,000 mentions; third is Diana Hacker, an author of books on how to write, whose works appear on more than 25,500 syllabi.  Of the top 10 individual works assigned, three are writing manuals, so why is there so much gibberish out there? 

Thursday, October 24, 2019
Back to the fabled marketplace of ideas.  Market research shows that the Psychic Services Industry in the United States, consisting primarily of (in the language of the industry) Palmistry, Cartomancy, Mediumship, Aura reading, Astrology, Lithomancy, Numerology and Psychometry, took in $2.2 billion in 2018.  https://www.ibisworld.com/industry-trends/specialized-market-research-reports/consumer-goods-services/personal/psychic-services.html

FDR spelled out the Four Freedoms in 1941, freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear.  Sadly, I suggest that we add freedom from intelligence.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Madam and I had lunch today with Alan Silverman, the only other surviving member of the All-Alan Chorus, accompanied by his charming friend Paula.  We met at Gazala's, 447 Amsterdam Avenue, one of only two Druze restaurants in the Holy Land, both owned by Gazala Halabi, an Israeli Druze.  Druze are an Arabic-speaking non-Muslim sect concentrated in Syria, Lebanon and Israel, where they serve in the military and police. 

The bigger-than-average space was formerly home to The Meatball Shop.  It is bright and open, with a rustic feel.  I can't readily explain the differences between Druze food and Israeli food or Lebanese food, but I recall an excellent Druze meal in Haifa, Israel that had distinct flavors.  Our lunch was not unique in that regard, but we ate abundantly and well.

 

We ordered four lunch plates ($14.50 each) and mixed them up.  There were two "Veggie platters," a combination of hummus, babaganoush, falafel, labane (thick-textured yogurt) and cheese cigars, and two bourekas, flaky crusted knishes, one spinach and one cheese, served with hummus and salad.  The bread alongside was not pita, as you might expect, but the deceptively named "Saag bread," rolled out thin, akin to Indian roti or French crêpe.  I say deceptive, because saag is typically "a leaf-based dish eaten in the Indian subcontinent . . . made from spinach, mustard leaves, finely chopped broccoli, or other greens," as in saag paneer or lamb saag, omnipresent on Indian menus.

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A line by Dawn Powell, an under-appreciated satirist of mid-20

th-century America, made me squirm a little.  Describing an impromptu cocktail party of mutually-uncomfortable guests, one man "talked so instructively of current events, that Vicky concluded he must have no job; such vastly informed men usually had their time to themselves."