Welcome 5780

Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Where do you find the underlying philosophic basis of this presidency?  Plato or Aristotle?  Locke or Hobbes?  Nietzsche or Marx?  No, Richard Pryor.  "Who you gonna believe, bitch?  Me?  or your lying eyes?"
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If you were in the vicinity of Palazzo di Gotthelf in recent days, you wouldn't have missed the warm glow emanating from it.  We were graced by the presence of America's Loveliest Nephrologist and the Oakland Heartthrob for the onset of the Jewish New Year of 5780.  I hope that the next new year that you celebrate  arrives in such a joyful fashion.
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The weekend's real estate section had a chart with disturbing data, comparing a school teacher's starting salary to "typical" local rents.  https://nyti.ms/2lkymCy

The numbers are intimidating up and down the scale.  In San Jose and San Francisco, rents exceed salary.  The best ratio is found in Pittsburgh (30% of salary needed for rent), the only location that does not exceed the 30% "rule of thumb" for rent vs. income.  https://www.lendkey.com/blog/personal-finance/how-much-of-your-income-should-you-spend-on-housing/ 

Teachers deserve better pay, but many, many renters deserve a better deal as well.
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Which state has the highest percentage of advanced degrees among its population, 19.5%? 
https://www.workandmoney.com/s/most-highly-educated-states-ad9348de8897441f

New York is sixth, with 15.8% of the population holding an advanced degree.  Did you say Massachusetts?  District of Columbia actually does better, if that means having a larger number of over-educated people misapplying their skills, at 33.4%, but Congress has made sure that the District of Columbia is not a state, only a state of mind.

Thursday, October 3, 2019

I got a D in the last Latin class that I took at CCNY, lo those many years ago.  But, that was adequate for me to understand the term quid pro quo, which has been thrown about in discussing the president's appeal for "a favor" from the president of Ukraine.  Republicans claim the alleged absence of an explicit quid pro quo as inoculating the president's conduct, choosing to be obtuse about withholding American aid from Ukraine, considering it purely coincidental.  Republican senators seem to regard the incident as the political equivalent of one hand clapping.

However, it doesn't take two to tango (not quite resorting to a foreign language) for a president to violate his oath of office and betray the trust of the American people. 

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Today, the president and I both turned to the same source of support -- the Chinese.  He asked the reliably lawless Chinese government to go after Joe Biden and son as an extension of his campaign for reelection or is that only my imagination?  While the president was making his appeal, I was joining the Boyz Club at Jing Fong, 20 Elizabeth Street, for our first group fueling of 5780. 

We four shared 13 items, including only two duplicates, adding up to $21 each, with a generous tip.  I can't speak for the president, but I was thoroughly pleased by how I was treated by the Chinese.

Friday, October 4, 2019

Keeping the momentum of the New Year going, I met Max, the retired Wonder Boy, for lunch at Spy C Chinese Cuisine, 72-06 Austin Street, Forest Hills, near Max's lair.  It occupies a long, narrow space, wider at the front than the back, the opposite of the layout of many other places.  The menu has two distinct identities, a conventional collection of familiar dishes and, consistent with its name, an array of spicy dishes, rife with Sichuan peppercorns.  

 

Both of us were in a bland mood and stuck to the ordinary choices.  From the lunch menu of 21 items, I ordered baby shrimp with scrambled eggs ($8.95), accompanied by brown rice and particularly good hot and sour soup.  Max had chicken lo mein ($10.95) and we shared Beef in Pancakes ($6.95), a scallion pancake wrapped around sliced beef, hoisin sauce and scallion threads, cut into four pieces.  All good, nothing great. 

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Starting a new year with Chinese food is the proper course of action.  However, turning our attention to pizza is a constructive next step.  There is a new attempt to identify the country's best pizza.  https://www.thedailymeal.com/101-best-pizzas-america-2019

It cites 101 pizzas, allegedly culled from almost 1,000 possibilities.  New York State may not be saturated with advanced degrees, but it leads with 28 outstanding pizzerias, far outdistancing Illinois (9) and California (7).  Another publication has aided our curiosity by extracting the best New York joints from the master list.
https://patch.com/new-york/bronxville/here-are-best-pizza-places-new-york

Jews have 613 commandments to obey, not the measly 10 prescribed to the world at large.  Would it be easier to track down 101 superior pizzas than obey 613 commandments?