Change of Face

Monday, January 6, 2020
Thank you, Mr. President.  As our country became more and more divided, our people losing faith in themselves, retreating from pursuing common goals, you have found a way to bring us together, uniting us as a nation.

Yours truly,

 Ali Khamenei

. . .

For 3 1/2 years of my employment in the New York State Court system, I dealt with divorce actions.  Therefore, I was particularly interested in the following information. "From 2000 to 2018, marriage in the United States declined, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The number of divorces also declined in those same years, dropping to 2.9 per 1,000 in 2018 compared with 4.0 per 1,000 in 2000."  This confirms something I learned on the job.  Marriage is the leading cause of divorce.

. . .

Why now?  Why should we believe the president and his minions about the supposed need to assassinate Qassim Suleiman right now when they have been lying about subjects large and small ever since taking office?

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Still with traces of my holiday cold, I took an important therapeutic step by going to the Ranger game tonight.  Just what the doctor ordered: Rangers 5-3.

Wednesday,  January 8, 2020
"In 2017, the number of independent restaurants in the United States fell by almost 11,000, to 346,100, from the previous year, according to an analysis by the NPD Group, a market research company."  The Boyz Club rose to the challenge today and had lunch at the decidedly independent Shanghai Asian Manor, 14A Elizabeth Street. 

We shared cold noodles with sesame sauce, steamed tiny buns (soup dumplings), crystal noodle with chicken and sesame sauce, scallion pancakes, tangerine beef, scallops in white wine sauce and house special lo mein.  While this made for a big numerator, there were eight of us, resulting in a charge of $15 each, including a gratuity that will make us very welcome to return in the future.
. . .

"The New York metropolitan area is the most linguistically diverse urban center in the world, probably in the history of the world.  Based on a decade of work, ELA [Endangered Language Alliance] has mapped 637 languages and dialects to nearly 1000 significant sites around the metropolitan area."  
https://elalliance.org/programs/maps/

And you don't understand your spouse?

Thursday, January 9, 2020

I know a lot of Davids, many Susans, a handful of Jerrys (although they might actually be Geralds, Gerards, Jeromes).  What they all seem to have in common is being over 40 years old.  What's really strange, though, is they don't appear on the latest list of popular baby names.

https://parenting.nytimes.com/culture/most-popular-baby-names?module

Calliope anyone?

. . .

In my ongoing attempt to be evenhanded to my fellow human beings, I set today to go to Chinatown with four women classmates from CCNY, a Girlz Club to follow yesterday's Boyz Club  An appropriate starting point was Wo Hop, 17 Mott Street, naturally.  Well, Effie, Phyllis and Roberta, Judy and I are still waiting for you.  Actually, we stopped waiting and ordered Singapore chow fun and Szechuan orange-flavored beef, which earned a rare C+ for a Wo Hop dish.  But, this way Judy and I could spend our time talking about Effie, Phyllis and Roberta. 

. . .

In case you enter this new year with a shred of joy, read how the climate crisis and the resulting deadly firestorms in Australia are being discussed.  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/world/australia/fires-murdoch-disinformation.html

Friday, January 10, 2020

No, I didn't lose a bet.  It's not a New Year's resolution.  I haven't made a lifestyle change.  What happened was that, at the start of Hanukkah, I got a cold which took a long time to disappear.  I mostly stayed indoors and, as a practical matter, didn't bother to shave.  So, I wound up sporting more facial hair than at any time in the past.  Of course, you might not notice this unless you stand very close, because there is effectively no contrast between the white growth and my ashen complexion.