Monday, November 4, 2019
This headline shouldn't be a surprise. "A new study shows America’s drug overdose crisis is by far the worst among wealthy countries." https://www.vox.
In spite of my guise of worldliness, I am quit uninformed about drug-taking, Lipitor aside. My curiosity about the world usually deterred me from using/taking/trying any (non-alcoholic) mind-altering substance, even when freely available. I have been spared serious injury and the resulting need for possibly addictive medication. Nevertheless, allow me to take an overarching look at our drug crisis.
I see the American population of drug abusers as crudely divided into three groups, requiring different responses, although with modest expectations of success. The first group consists of people who were given pain medication as part of a healing process. Unfortunately, they did not know when or how to stop, especially when they moved from ending pain to providing pleasure.
The second group are unhappy with their station in life, deprived socially, economically or emotionally, seeking a boost of mood or temporary opacity of their current circumstances. The third group, illustrated to me by the recent overdose death of Saoirse Kennedy Hill, a granddaughter of Robert Kennedy, are those for whom life has been too good, offering reward without much exertion. When faced with the need to meet some goal, they back away from the effort previously unrequired and seek diversion.
I'm not sure what we should do with my simplistic tripartite analysis, but it might help in developing strategies to deal with this plague or does it make the search for corrective steps three times harder?
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There were two somewhat related real estate stories this weekend. The first identifies the 20 local neighborhoods that saw the largest drops in median sale price of residential properties in the last year. The decreases are substantial, over 30% in the Garment District, Soho and Tribeca. https://www.
The other article looks at the price change by apartment size. https://www.nytimes.
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Quick, go get your grandchildren. They have to see this.
Sunday's business section had three pages of Want Ads, the cave drawings of newspaper publishing.
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Last night was the second annual Stanley Feingold Lecture at City College, where he had a long, distinguished and influential career in the Government Department. (It was to be many years before it became Political Science.) Jerry Nadler, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, was interviewed by Jeffrey Toobin, author and legal analyst. While there were no startling revelations, it was a delight to hear our politics discussed in an intelligent, informed, honest fashion.
Jeanne Friedman, CCNY '63, came in from California for the event and my young bride and I took the opportunity to have lunch with her today. It also gave us the chance to come to an interim evaluation of Miznon North, 161 West 72nd Street, the new Israeli restaurant that has divided our household.
Lunch, unlike dinner, is automatically two courses. The list of appetizers remained unchanged from my two earlier visits, but the main courses were entirely different. I started with the delicious, erotically textured crème fraîche, olive oil blend. While I was dipping pieces of the crunchy sourdough bread into this wonderful goo, the two women were sharing the imaginative beetroot carpaccio (at my recommendation) and the baked baby cauliflower, a house specialty that I haven't had yet. Almost immediately, my cred was solidified.
They each proceeded to have the Old City Mezze as a main course, fresh vegetables, falafel, baba ghanoush, olives, hard boiled eggs and a cheese that looked like feta ($18). I chose lamb kebab, a spicy 7" bar of chopped lamb resting on a slightly-larger, freshly-baked bread loaf ($33).
The final score -- Miznon North 3-0.
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
The Upper West Side's Power Couple took to the air today and landed in San Francisco late in the afternoon. The flight was as benign as air travel might be today, once I managed to get us seated across an aisle from each other instead of the two middle seats, 10 rows apart originally assigned.
The excitement began on the ground at San Francisco International Airport (SFO). The details are boring and wearying to recount, but it took us well over one hour to get in a rental car reserved months ago. Then, driving to Oakland took more than another hour, given the need to go through downtown San Francisco at rush hour. We finally reached the welcoming arms of America's Loveliest Nephrologist and the Oakland Heartthrob more than three hours after we landed, having traveled a distance of 25 miles.
| Thursday, November 7, 2019 Even though we both slept on Eastern Standard Time, it was still late morning before we went to have breakfastat Rick & Ann's Restaurant, 2922 Domingo Avenue, immediately adjacent to the stately,elegant Claremont Club & Spa, effectively the OMCA, Old Mens' Christian Association. R&A is a very reliable place to get cornmeal pancakes, spicy turkey sausage and eggs scrambled with cheddar cheese ($13.75). Madam had the day's special omelet, apparently containing many vegetables, with a cranberry scone to remind her of the value of carbohydrates ($13.75). It was more than sufficient fuel to sustain us for an afternoon walking around downtown San Francisco. We took BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) from Rockridge, the fifth station in Oakland, to the Embarcadero, the first stop in San Francisco. It cost $8.90 round trip. You can't make a meaningful apples to Big Apple comparison of transit fares, but here goes. Every plain New York subway ride costs $2.75 and includes a free transfer to an intersecting bus line. BART fares are based on distance. The cheapest unqualified fare is $2.50 for a short trip on the same side of the bay. A special extension in New York goes to JFK Airport for an extra $5, while one BART line goes directly to SFO for around $10 from stations in central Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco. New York has 472 stations in 4 boroughs (counties); a self- contained railroad on Staten Island, the fifth borough, is ignored by all. BART has 48 stations, stretching over 3 counties, above and below ground level. It began service in 1972. New York subways date from 1904; elevated lines ran as early as 1868. BART stations and cars seemed cleaner, though the seats are upholstered, looking shabbier than our molded plastic. The most significant difference was with the people, not the equipment. At rush hour, passengers lined up at each door opening in order of arrival. When I casually strolled down the platform to a good position section, I risked being pushed to the tracks for cutting in, violating a protocol that was unknown to me.
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