Breathe Easy

Monday, March 23, 2020

The president has offered businesses the opportunity to voluntarily do the right as they see fit in providing critically needed supplies in our healthcare crisis.  Those businesses, of course, have been granted the right by the United States Supreme Court to spend tons of money in political campaigns, equating corporations to ordinary citizens.  OK, but as we have had to do at other times of peril, let's conscript these citizens in the battle to save American lives and put them in virtual khaki.  Make those masks, gowns, gloves, ventilators and cleaning and disinfecting supplies right now!  Don't worry, you'll get paid.  Army privates get paid.  

. . .

Sorry, but quarterback Tom Brady should have parked himself on a couch instead of leaving for another team after 20 years with the New England Patriots.  Eli Manning not only beat him in two Super Bowls, but he showed how to retire with class.

. . .

A slightly belated Happy Birthday to Stephen Sondheim who turned 90 yesterday.  His work has delighted me so mightily for decades, although I got a late start.  I spent the '70s in exile on the Left Coast, while Sondheim was having his most prolific decade -- "Company," "Follies," "A Little Night Music," "Pacific Overtures," "Sweeney Todd."  I missed all of them originally on Broadway, but I've since seen each several times in various venues.

Allow me to share two of his brilliant rhymes in case you haven't come to appreciate him as much as I do.

From "Pacific Overtures":

The tea the Shogun drank'll

Make the Shogun tranquil.

From "Follies":

Faced with these Loreleis,

What man can moralize?

. . .

When we inquired on the condition of a friend who spent a year as a young girl hidden in a basement from Nazi troops, she replied, "Having lived through worse times, I take solace and hope from the following: I have food, shelter, electricity and running water AND no one is trying to kill me!"

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Last week, as we were getting used to confinement to quarters, I found some comfort in the 12 hours of daily rebroadcast of New York Rangers hockey games on the MSG cable network.  Of course, they showed only thrilling victories, overtime wins, come-from-behind wins, extraordinary individual performances.  It was a very effective non-narcotic mood elevation.

But, it was too good to last.  This week, the station is running New York Knickerbocker basketball games.  For the many of you who have been wisely ignoring this team, allow me to inform you that it has won 126 games while losing 284 in the last 5 full seasons.  Under these circumstances, you have to admire the station's heroic effort to find games worth replaying.  However, they can hardly serve as the tonic for the deflated spirits surrounding us.  Bring back the '86 Mets!

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

I thought that "dishpan hands" was a term that emerged in the 1950s, in time for the explosion of television sets in American living rooms.  In fact, I imagined that dishpan hands was no more than a malady invented by Madison Avenue, though less grave than the hundreds of fictional diseases in books, movies and computer games (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_diseases). 

A look at Google, however, finds "No More Dishpan Hands" appearing in a newspaper advertisement for Lux dishwashing soap as early as April 1927.  Regardless of its origins, I never considered dishpan hands a personal issue until now. Washing my hands 8 or 10 times every day, whether or not there are dishes in the sink, has produced red, splotchy, scaly areas on the back of my hands.  So, I will have to break into my trove of little lotion bottles accumulated from hotels around the world and why was I saving them anyway?
. . .   
 

I think that the late Eli Miller's hands must have been rough and red.  After all, he was a seltzer man, delivering heavy wood crates of seltzer bottles to households in Brooklyn for 57 years.  

 

 

Even though the Gotthelf family fortunes never rose much above misfortune, there were always regular deliveries by the seltzer man, whether Miller or not I can't confirm.  Before SodaStream, when ritzy people had "siphons," we had those thick glass seltzer bottles on the table every night.

 

R.I.P. Seltzer man.  https://nyti.ms/2QCYCo4

 

Thursday, March 26, 2020

If we weren't beset by the Trump Virus, today would be the opening day of the baseball season, a day especially welcomed by us Mets fans.  While the team's overall record over 57 years is 4,448 wins and and 4,808 losses, a .481 percentage (I know, not really a percentage, but that's how we talk in baseball), it has prospered on opening day, 38 winds, 20 losses, .655.  Amazing.

 

Friday, March 27, 2020

The quote of the day comes from a movie review:

"With its generous helpings of cannibalism, suicide, starvation, blood, guts and feces, how could it not be a crowd-pleaser?"

. . .

We finished watching the four-part series "Unorthodox" tonight on Netflix.  It's based on a memoir by a woman who fled the nearly hermetically-sealed Satmar Hasidic community in Brooklyn and went to Germany to join her mother, an earlier exile.  Subtitles are used, because conversation is in Yiddish, English and German.  What's odd is when the Jews pray, which Satmars do on occasions large and small throughout the day, the subtitle reads "Yiddish prayers."  Hey!  Jews pray in Hebrew.  We have been for thousands of years.  This goof is surprising in that the program gets so many details right about the manner and mores of the Satmars, to the degree that I can determine (read The Pious Ones by Joseph Berger).  There are two possible explanations: A) the creators of the program are Jewish, but don't want to seem too Jewish; B) the creators of the program are Gentiles and what can you expect?

. . . 

 

"Senate Republicans inserted an easy-to-overlook provision on page 203 of the 880-page [economic rescue] bill that would permit wealthy investors to use losses generated by real estate to minimize their taxes on profits from things like investments in the stock market.  The estimated cost of the change over 10 years is $170 billion."  Now, you can relax.

Jews Gotta Eat

Monday, March 16, 2020

Palazzo di Gotthelf looms large over Amsterdam Avenue, but looming 11 floors above us someone has come down with the coronavirus.  No information has been provided about who, what, when, where and how, but the elevator suddenly seems too small for two people.

. . .

With all modesty, I take note of another example of the Upper West Side's Power Couple being ahead of the curve.  Last week, when we went to the Bronx's Little Italy after a totally benign visit to the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, we had a late breakfast at M&G Restaurant, 2390 Arthur Avenue, before shopping for pastry and pasta. 

It was a bustling place, operated and populated by Hispanic folk in the main, serving quintessential breakfast fare quickly and at reasonable prices.  Madam had pancakes and I had a bacon and cheddar omelet, with mashed potatoes as a welcome substitute for home fries.  I also got an English muffin instead of toast; we both had orange juice gratis and coffee.  The tab came to just over $16, a steal. 

And, what is on the front page of this weekend's Metropolitan section in an article about the Bronx's Little Italy, but a picture of M&G Restaurant. 
. . .

We had Italian food later in the week, but in our own neighborhood, at Tavola Della Nonna (Grandma's Table), 208 West 70th Street, open one month.  The two most interesting things about the restaurant were not what was being served.  First is the history of the location -- at least four other restaurants flopped on this site in recent memory, including Compass, Loi Restaurant and Lincoln Square Steak.  The space is large and attractively furnished; little changed with each iteration except the menu.  It sits next to Café Luxembourg, which, by contrast, has operated successfully since 1983, although whether anything survives the Trump Virus (branding is his specialty, after all) is uncertain. 

The second notable aspect of this new venture is its claim to have installed three “virus killing machines,” the Hextio Black Edition (https://youtu.be/803XZrfoMMk), which may each cost £144 (https://hextio.net/cartflows_step/checkout-page/) or $4,000 (https://ilovetheupperwestside.com/upper-west-side-restaurant-installs-virus-killing-machines/). 

Grandma claims to be the first American user, so it would be interesting to see what she has to say.  However, even if the site were not jinxed, the future has to be dim for a restaurant open only one month forced to close for an indefinite period whether or not it could promise its patrons a virus-free environment. 

. . .

Just in case you felt that everything was peachy keen before you knew what "social distancing" meant, the New York Times informs us that "Five percent of Americans live in counties where the economy was worse off in 2019 than in 2016, on at least two of three key economic measures."  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/upshot/american-counties-left-behind-trump.html

As for the rest of us, wash your hands and stop complaining.
. . .

The 2016 electoral college victory and the rabid loyalty of many Americans to the present regime are usually attributed to a surge of populism, a revolt against the elite(s).  So, I found this information particularly interesting.  In contrast to his 5 predecessors, Trump has notably appointed more graduates of elite law schools to the federal circuit courts of appeals, one step below the United States Supreme Court.  Clinton and Obama, who attended law school at Yale and Harvard respectively, each turned to graduates of top 10 law schools 51% of the time, while Trump has picked 69% from this pool.  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/us/trump-appeals-court-takeaways.html?searchResultPosition=2 

A victory for the "deplorables"?

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

"What a revolting development this is," to quote Chester A. Riley.
. . .

It's not all bad being cooped up with nowhere to go.  MSG, the cable network owned by the deplorable Dolan family along with Madison Square Garden, is replaying full-length New York Ranger games from the immediate past, victories of course. 

. . .

I've been paying attention to Kosher delicatessens in the last few weeks and if I were not grounded, I would be visiting a few more.  But, there is another side to the Kosher coin, dairy restaurants serving "milchigs" as opposed to "fleischigs," reflecting the basic divide of Kashrut, the Kosher laws. 

Just as the Holy Land once had hundreds of Kosher delicatessens, dairy restaurants, featuring eggs, cheese, sour cream, but no meat, were commonplace in Jewish neighborhoods.  A new book The Dairy Restaurant by Ben Katchor addresses this peculiar institution.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/books/review-dairy-restaurant-ben-katchor.html?searchResultPosition=1

Now, very few remain; a count is impossible since the word "dairy" appears randomly over so many portals.  In the past, I patronized Ratner's (138 Delancey Street and 111 Second Avenue), Rappaport's (somewhere on lower Second Avenue), and the Garden Cafeteria (165 East Broadway), where the leading writers in the Yiddish press came to argue from their workplaces at the competing newspapers down the block.

My longtime favorite is B&H Dairy Restaurant, 127 Second Avenue, not to be confused with B&H Camera, 420 Ninth Avenue, distinguished in its own right.  A line of stools at the counter, a very small number of very small tables, serving excellent soups and superb French toast made with thick slices of the challah baked on the premises.  The guy at the griddle is usually Dominican, probably with ancestors banished from Spain in 1492.

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

The New York Times offers a graphic illustration of the coronavirus risk by job or position.  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/15/business/economy/coronavirus-worker-risk.html

I could not find Blogger anywhere on the diagram.
. . .

Frank Bruni made a thoughtful comment about the coronavirus outbreak, comparing it to the immediate aftermath of 9/11.  "At the very moment when many of us hunger most for the reassurance of company and the solace of community, we’re hustled into isolation."  Indeed, I recall how a few days into that fateful week almost 19 years ago, I sat down with two lovely people, Charlotte Stanley from Riverside, California and David Brodie from London, England, at Ess-A-Bagel, 831 Third Avenue, my "office" while I was a "freelance consultant," that is unemployed.  The two never met before, but we were all so comforting to and comfortable with each other that I remember those special hours to this day.

Fortunately, America's Favorite Epidemiologist is close by now, so I have the rare combination of emotional support and scientific analysis.

Thursday, March 19, 2020

Progressives are agonizing over Bernie Sanders's woeful primary performance and the concomitant resurrection of Joe Biden.  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/us/politics/bernie-sanders-progressives-elizabeth-warren.html

Maybe two quotations from this article illustrate the progressive dilemma.  The founder of a progressive think tank said: "For progressives to have a seat at the table, we have to start speaking in the language that people are actually thinking in.”  Meanwhile, dynamic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said: "Intersectionality isn’t about virtue-signaling or wokeness."  I don't know about you, but that phrase never came to my mind.

Friday, March 20, 2020

It's reasonable to foresee the day when coronavirus is only a memory, at least for those survive it.  However, I fear that another problem will continue to prove more intractable.  Yesterday, acceptance to New York City's specialized high schools was announced.  If I were specious, I would crow about the 43% increase in black student admissions to Stuyvesant High School, my old school.  However, that translates into 10 students in 2020 compared to 7 in 2019, tragic numbers. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/nyregion/nyc-schools-numbers-black-students-diversity-specialized.html

 

A single test determines access to eight high schools, with Stuyvesant requiring the highest marks based on student preference.  "Just over 3 percent of black students who took the schools’ entrance exam scored high enough to receive an offer this year. . . . The percentage of Hispanic test-takers who received an offer dropped by about a percentage point compared to last year, to 4 percent.  By contrast, 26 percent of Asian students and 23 percent of white students who took the exam got into one of the eight schools."

 

I continue to support use of the test, because I believe that there should be a Stuyvesant, a school that operates at an elevated level, making demands on its students to get in and stay in.  I also believe in the value of diversity, having myself benefited from proximity to many "others," that is Gentiles not from New York.  And, I haven't heard of a plan that accommodates both of these values.  

 

This is not the Ivy League where preference is given to legacies, athletes, faculty children and the spawn of the rich and famous, squeezing the number of slots for the rest of the world.  In this century, the typical Stuyvesant kid lived below the poverty level in a household where English was a foreign language.  I can't abide pushing him or her aside.

. . .

 

You don't have to be a self-proclaimed progressive to believe that Mitch McConnell is least deserving of being called a Public Servant.  Consider aiding his opponent.

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mcgrath2020-em-mar

 

 

In Sickness and In Health

Monday, March 9, 2020

Coronavirus hits Palazzo di Gotthelf. 
Don't worry, neither of the Upper West Side's Power Couple has fallen ill.  Rather, it is the idea of the coronavirus that has disrupted our normally frictionless decision making.  We planned to visit London for one week, leaving March 24th; airline tickets purchased, an excellent hotel booked, dinner reservations made at Ottolenghi Spitalfields, tickets secured for two major plays.  

 

Now, America's Favorite Epidemiologist points out how little information is available about this dangerous disease and, while we are remarkably healthy specimens, spending hours in a sealed metal tube breathing recirculated air surrounded by strangers substantially increases the risk of infection.  Even if we personally remain germ-free, we would be subject to a 14-day quarantine away from home if a fellow outbound passenger tests positive for coronavirus.  The comforts of the nicest hotel room would wear thin if it became the boundaries of our existence.  So, unless Mike Pence can pray the germs away, we will continue to shine our light only on this side of the Atlantic Ocean for now.
. . .

Another attraction of London is good friends, who would have been our company for various of the planned activities.  However, I need not travel far to find boon companions; I was joined at lunch today by Stony Brook Steve and Tom Terrific.  We visited Farida Central Asian Cuisine & Grill, 498 Ninth Avenue, a tiny joint serving Halal food from Uzbekistan and surrounding areas.  The menu has full-color illustrations making it easier to choose among dishes with unfamiliar names. 

We shared two orders of mini Umkas, 12 puff pastries filled with chopped meat, chicken or spinach, 4 each, $15 an order.  Additionally, we had "Mix spread," babaganush, humus, eggplant caviar, zucchini caviar, and "traditional tomato-onion spread," very tasty, but over-priced at $19.  The menu had many other interesting items worthy of another visit, shashlyks (kebabs), soups, salads, lamb dishes, at reasonable prices.  The presumably native-costumed servers were very friendly.  You have three votes in favor.

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Madam and I had an experience this morning that should help bury a cliché, at least temporarily.  We went to the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles to secure "enhanced driver's licenses," an exaggerated response to an exaggerated problem.  We took advantage of our mobility and went to the Bronx County office, 696 East Fordham Road, avoiding the reported crowds at the Manhattan office.  Unfortunately, this option really requires access to a motor vehicle, which may seem redundant, because at least one train and one bus are needed to get there from any Manhattan location.  

The good news is the efficiency of the busy operation in the half-block square room that handles motor vehicle registrations, driver's licenses, and traffic tickets.  Yes, really.  We were in and out in about 25 minutes, filling out forms, presenting documentation, answering questions and getting a picture taken.  How about that?

Going up to the Bronx also gave us the opportunity to shop in the nearby "Little Italy" neighborhood, where we bought manicotti at Borgatti's Ravioli & Egg Noodles, 632 East 187th Street, and pastries at DeLillo Pasticceria, 610 East 187th Street.  Mission very accomplished. 

. . .

Why I won't ride in an elevator with a Republican. 
The Pew Research Center has released its March 5, 2020 survey of 6,395 adults on the president's personal traits and behaviors.  https://www.people-press.org/2020/03/05/few-americans-express-positive-views-of-trumps-conduct-in-office/

86% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said Trump is "intelligent"; 71% said “honest” describes Trump very or fairly well, while 62% said “morally upstanding” describes him at least fairly well.

Thursday, March 11, 2020

Instead of just idly chattering about Kosher delicatessens, I decided that I had to spend more time out there where the mustard meets the roll.  So, in the company of Good Michael and Stony Brook Steve, I went to the 2nd Avenue Deli, 1442 First Avenue, not the one at 162 East 33rd Street, off Third Avenue.  In fact, the 2nd Avenue Deli hasn't been on Second Avenue since 2006, which reminds me of a favorite riddle: What do the Park Avenue Liquor Shop and the Park Avenue Synagogue have in common?  They are both on Madison Avenue.

I had not patronized the 2nd Avenue Deli after it left its original location and I probably will not be returning after lunch today.  My pastrami sandwich was $22.50, medium-large, good meat, ordinary rye bread -- not a good value.  Michael had matzoh ball soup, Steve mushroom barley, each $10.95.  I'm almost glad that Mother Ruth Gotthelf wasn't around to see that price.
. . .

When I got home, I suggested that America's Favorite Epidemiologist take a break from the ever-more depressing coronavirus news that she understands far too well and watch a movie recorded on our DVR.  "Yesterday" is a magical tale of a young British musician who channels the music of the Beatles to a world that has forgotten them and it will chase the infectious disease blues away for at least a couple of hours.  What lingers after the movie ends is a renewed appreciation of the marvelous legacy of the Beatles, one fabulous song after another.  The memory of Lennon and McCartney will be treasured long after people stop spitting in the street at the mention of Trump and Pence.

Friday, March 13, 2020

"By late 2019, through nearly seven straight years of decline, national bus ridership in America was at its lowest level since the mid-1970s."  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/13/upshot/mystery-of-missing-bus-riders.html

 

How strange and unwelcome this information is.  There are certainly not fewer Americans.  Are they more sedentary, waiting home for the Fresh Direct grocery delivery, telecommuting, ordering dinner from GrubHub, riding bicycles to work?  As the article graphically illustrates, the decline is steep, widespread and not easily explained.

. . .

What happened to the free exercise of religion?  All my houses of worship have been closed down because of coronavirus:

Madison Square Garden 

West End Synagogue 

Jing Fong Restaurant

Never On White Bread

Monday, March 2, 2020

There are certain stores in Manhattan that put up big signs saying "Going out for business," hoping, no doubt, that bargain hunters won't sweat the prepositions.  What to look out for is the local eating establishment with the hand-written sign in the window announcing "Closed for renovations until further notice: sorry for the inconvenience” or something similar.  This is the Kiss of Death.  The only renovations will be to the owner's bank account.  It is exactly this wording that showed up in the window of Fine & Schapiro Kosher Restaurant, 138 West 72nd Street, within the last week.

Fine & Schapiro properly identified is a Kosher delicatessen, a place where you go to eat a pastrami or corned beef sandwich or maybe a pastrami and corned beef sandwich on rye bread, of course.  I am not going to test your patience by trying to explain the intricacies of Kashrut, the Kosher food laws.  (Here is a thoughtful, but very long, discussion of the subject: https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/297701/eating-our-way-to-holiness.) 

Suffice it to say that a "Jewish" or "Jewish-style" delicatessen is not a Kosher delicatessen.  If you have any doubts, a Reuben or a cheeseburger is not served in a Kosher delicatessen.

Is the distinction of any importance to Gentiles and non-observant Jews?  Decidedly.  With the rarest exception, you must not order a pastrami or corned beef sandwich at a non-Kosher delicatessen/restaurant.  It doesn't taste good.  For a turkey club or a grilled cheese, you can trust an experienced Greek short order cook.  But, it takes a counterman at a Kosher delicatessen, even if he is Puerto Rican, working with right ingredients to serve a first-rate pastrami or corned beef sandwich.  The exceptions - Katz's Delicatessen, 205 East Houston Street, Manhattan, and Langer's Delicatessen Restaurant, 704 South Alvarado Street, Los Angeles.  Once upon a time, I would have included the Carnegie Deli, 854 Seventh Avenue, closed three years now.   Note that there are other Kosher restaurants, but, in contrast to delicatessens, they are generally inferior to conventional establishments.  It's all about the pastrami and corned beef.

So, why is this important?  According to Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli by Ted Merwin, there were 1,550 Kosher delicatessens in the Holy Land in the 1930s.  With the demise of Fine & Schapiro, the number of Kosher delicatessens in the Holy Land is apparently down to 17 overall, 6 in Manhattan plus Katz's.  This has to support 8.5 million people, an impossible challenge.  Imagine then if the talented Mike Pence doesn't quickly put an end to the coronavirus outbreak emerging from China.  All those Jews who regularly patronize Chinese restaurants might turn to the comfort food of their ancestors.  Where will we put them?

Ruminating about Kosher delicatessens made me aim today at Gottlieb's Restaurant, 352 Roebling Street, Brooklyn, a Kosher deliatessen right in the middle of one of the densest Orthodox Jewish communities outside of Jerusalem.  However, when I got downtown to change trains, I learned that nothing was going across the Williamsburg Bridge, the necessary link from Manhattan.  So, I reversed course and took the subway to Turnstyle, the imaginative food court underground at the Columbus Circle station. 

Again, I was thwarted when I found Chick'n Cone (fried chicken stuffed into a waffle cone) closed for operating without a permit.  I cruised the many open stalls, chose Russian Dumplings by Daa! Dumplings and ordered a combination of potato/mushroom dumplings and chicken dumplings (7 of each) in dill-flavored chicken broth ($11.50), a very satisfying luncheon dish. 
. . .

"When Your Ex Starts Dating Lady Gaga" was a headline that sort of kind of spoke to me.  https://www.nytimes.com/weekender

Shortly after starting graduate school, I got engaged to Laura, a young woman whom I dated as a college senior.  She was the first holder of the Gotthelf Diamond, with the curse.  We broke up at the end of that first academic year and had no contact for the next 5 or 6 years.  When we sat down for drinks then, I learned that, among others, she dated Joe Namath, Super Bowl hero, in that interval.  Hoo Hah!  I was delighted.  What a validation of me, I thought with juvenile glee.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

When Stony Brook Steve joined me for lunch today, we chose to simply cross Central Park rather than the East River for Kosher delicatessen.  We went to Pastrami Queen, 1125 Lexington Avenue, ordering one pastrami sandwich and one corned beef sandwich ($20 each) and trading halves.  Unfortunately, this turned out to only be half right.  The pastrami was fine, but the corned beef wasn't fatty, it was fat.  When I showed this to the waiter, normally a very responsive guy unlike the stereotype at the center of so many "Waiter!  Waiter!" jokes, he said to order "lean" next time.  However, this would have only yielded lean fat.  

. . .

The good news was that tonight's Rangers game was the quickest hockey game that I ever attended, over in two hours and ten minutes; the bad news was the bad news.
. . .

I discussed my interest in the Catholic Worker movement recently and now a biography of Dorothy Day, its founder, appears.  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/03/books/review/dorothy-day-john-loughery-blythe-randolph.html

The headline on the review is appropriate: "Was Dorothy Day a Saint or a Subversive?"  She is on the path to sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church, because of her devotion to the poor and powerless in society, exemplified by the creation and maintenance of houses of hospitality devoted to the works of mercy.  Today, 40 years after her death, over 200 Catholic Worker communities offer food, clothing and shelter unconditionally to those in need.

It was her subversiveness, however, which first attracted my attention, when she sat in City Hall Park during annual citywide air raid drills, getting arrested regularly.  This in itself was unlikely to gain her sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church. 

I haven't read the book and I don't know what the authors think, but I believe that she held a profoundly radical view of society, much more than a subversive stance on some political issues.  "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" is a teaching of Jesus found in the gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke.  This is considered an early statement of the separation of church and state or, at least, a recognition of the legitimacy of civil authority.

However, Dorothy Day, a convert to Roman Catholicism after a period of profligacy, rejected this proposition, recognizing only one realm, governed primarily by the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).  Following Jesus's precepts devotedly would obviate the need for civil authority, which is why I encountered Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement in a seminar on Anarchism.

Wednesday, March 4, 2020
I had lunch a K-Bap, 62 West 56th Street, a small, busy Korean joint.  It is long and narrow, with an assortment of chairs and stools at 6 tables of varying size.  One long wall is exposed brick, the other covered by rough planks. 

I ordered a seafood pancake (pajun), a cross between a scallion pancake and a frittata, loaded with little pieces of shrimp, scallops, octopus, squid and some of their friends, none of which are served in a Kosher delicatessen ($11).

. . .

I think that there aren't enough smart people to go around, so I loved listening to Elissa Bemporad, a Queens College historian, discussing her book, Legacy of Blood: Jews, Pogroms, and Ritual Murder in the Lands of the Soviets, tonight at Fordham University.  While the subject is hardly entertaining, I hung on her every word.  She maintains that the Soviet regime repressed pogroms, but continued to use anti-Semitism for its own purposes.

Thursday, March 5, 2020  

"Some people have a knack for buying products that flop, supporting political candidates who lose and moving to neighborhoods that fail to thrive."  Read this to learn if you have a flair for failure.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/opinion/harbinger-failure.html

Friday, March 6, 2020

According to Andy Borowitz: "Susan Collins Unable to Decide Whether to Wash Hands."