Name Calling

Monday, April 20, 2020

I am Jewish, as if anyone could doubt it.  While I go to Jewish services regularly and observe many of the holiday rituals, I rarely spend time thinking about Judaism, the whys and wherefores of Jewish life.  This morning, however, I listened to a conversation with Sarah Hurwitz, a former speechwriter for the Obamas, who has spent the last several years studying and reflecting on Judaism, resulting in her book Here All Along, with the unforgivably long subtitle of Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life -- In Judaism (After Finally Choosing to Look There).  That mouthful aside and one other proclivity that I will mention below, Hurwitz gave the best "sermon" about Judaism that I could ever recall.  

Here is the recording, about 75 minutes, but worth it.

https://venue.streamspot.com/video/43f2978406

Two points really stuck me.  She regards the Torah, a word meaning instruction in Hebrew, the five books of the Hebrew bible attributed to Moses, as descriptive, not prescriptive.  This happened; learn from it.  Don't necessarily copy it.  This gives room for human imagination, something fundamentalists of all stripes seem to fear.  Yet, it keeps her in touch with thousands of years of Jewish civilization. 

Secondly, she cited the importance of Amalek, founder of the Amalekites, the archetypical enemy of the Jewish people.  (Amalek's name was often used as shorthand for his nation and later applied to other villains.)  When the Israelites were crossing the desert after fleeing Egypt, they were attacked by other tribes that they encountered.  Amalek, unlike other enemies, attacked the rear of the wandering horde, where the old, the weak, the infirm, the mothers and young children tended to gravitate, easy prey for a hostile force.  This earned Amalek the everlasting detestation of the Jewish people and urges us to be mindful of the needs particularly of that portion of society.  That's a great "instruction."

My only quibble with Hurwitz is the credit that she gives in shaping her thinking to Or Halev - Center for Jewish Spirituality and Meditation (https://www.orhalev.org/).  While the organization seems to seek transformation, inspiration and peace, it focuses on "Silent Jewish Meditation Retreats," an oxymoron by me.

Tuesday,  April 21, 2020

I will not comment on the surge of protests against reasonable measures to save lives in this time of plague.  If today's supposed conservatives had a conscience, this would be the greatest challenge to their peace of mind for generations.  They don't, so it won't. 

I did notice a demonstrator in Pennsylvania photographed with a sign reading "My body my choice."  Did Planned Parenthood put them up to it? 

. . .

The Republican governor of Georgia announced the lifting of some of the social restrictions meant to curb the coronavirus scourge, including the reopening of non-essential businesses, such as hair salons, movie theaters and bowling alleys.  https://www.ajc.com/blog/politics/when-comes-his-pandemic-decision-brian-kemp-who-said-was/fmMoaPjwVnRl9ubq0CSI1L/

Unfortunately, I am not geographically disposed to take advantage of the governor's generosity, which would have also allowed me access to tattoo parlors.  Instead, I have found something to occupy a bit of the time that I would have spent enjoying these amenities.  The Corona Study Team, a group of German social scientists, is gathering data during this period of, what is widely recognized as, the Trump-Had-Nothing-To-Do-With-It-Virus.  The team has created a survey, available in English, to track public attitudes and activities, starting now and going forward.  The initial session takes 15 minutes or so, not quite the length of a bowling game, but a worthy diversion nevertheless.  Sign up.  thecoronastudy.org

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Last night, the Republican lieutenant governor of Texas went on Fox News to announce that "[t]here are more important things than living."  I hasten to agree with him and here is my initial list:

• Sex after death.
• Chinese food after death.
• Not listening to Republican politicians after death.

. . .

An obituary today of a prominent opponent of affirmative action quotes her from 1998: “We do say that [affirmative action programs] haven’t made as much difference as is widely attributed to them, and that they carry with them a very high cost.  When it comes to race, the test of any public policy is, Will it bring us together or divide us?  Preferences flunk that test."  What she ignores, as is the case of other seemingly benign critics of affirmative action, is the history of racial preferences in America.  

From colonial days onward, racial preferences were central to many domestic policies, consistently White preferred over Black, typically White mandated over Black.  Again, I recommend When Affirmative Action Was White (Katznelson, 2005) and The Color of Law (Rothstein, 2017).  Brown v. Board of Education (1954) is only a recent attempt at a course correction in our history of discrimination.  There was cause for indignation at least 200 years earlier, but the quest for racial justice only arose for many when shoes and feet got exchanged.
. . .

Besides reading obituaries and filling out surveys, I have managed to find time on my schedule to attend lectures, discussions and religious services by telecommuting, usually on Zoom, which claims to have gone from 10 million daily users in December to 200 million in late March including me.  Tonight, I watched and listened to "Administering an Election During a Pandemic," a discussion by Nate Persily, professor of constitutional law and American politics at Stanford University.  Responding to the enthusiasm for improving our electoral system and the mechanics of voting, the professor explained the vast problems that confront a near-term attempt to introduce widespread vote-by-mail regimens, proposed by many as a simple matter.

Instead, he identified major issues of law, resources and procedure.  For instance, in parallel to our current health crisis, where ventilators and personal protective equipment are in painfully short supply in so many places, voting by mail would require an explosive demand for machinery (to read the ballots) and materials (the paper stock) that are nowhere in stock.  Even more elusive might be the production of reliable lists of eligible voters with their correct addresses.  

While I don’t doubt that Professor Persily, along with so many of us, yearns for a more efficient, more equitable, more reliable voting methodology, his delineation and analysis of the challenges to a speedy transition to vote-by-mail are formidable.  

Thursday, April 23, 2020

Mitch McConnell, Republican senator from Kentucky, the U.S. Senate’s majority leader, is threatening to strangle the flow of pandemic relief funds to Blue states, where California and New York head the list.  Let us note that Kentucky is the 5th neediest state in the union, taking far more federal funds than it contributes.    Https://wallethub.com/edu/states-most-least-dependent-on-the-federal-government/2700/ 

If we may be allowed to anthropomorphize for a moment, Kentucky might warrant the label of “Welfare Queen," as Ronald Reagan so unempathetically put it.

Is there anything left to say about Mitch McConnell other than that Amy McGrath, an Air Force veteran, is running against him in November?  https://amymcgrath.com

. . .

I "attended" a discussion of How I Constructed That NY Times Crossword Puzzle by Robyn Weintraub, an experienced cruciverber this afternoon.  She said that the New York Times receives 125 puzzles a week for the 7 available slots, which seems to be a better acceptance rate than admission to Harvard or Stuyvesant High School.  All submissions come unsolicited from independent contractors; among all periodical puzzle publishers, only The New Yorker employs staff constructors.  

 
I never had the urge to try and construct a puzzle, although I regularly labor hours solving one.  Naively, I believed that you sat down with a sheet of graph paper, a sharp pencil and a thick eraser to create a crossword puzzle, a prospect that held no joy for me.  It turns out that, in common with so much in modern life, computers have assumed a large role in the process.  Major league software can fill out a grid of your design from a master word list that you create or borrow/buy and edit.  The experienced constructor massages the result and still has to draft clues, easy for a Monday, tortuous for a Saturday.  The human touch continues to play a large role.

Alert: On Sunday, May 3rd, the New York Times will publish a special Puzzle Mania section as a temporary diversion from the nutsiness and craziness of our times.

Friday, April 24, 2020

Zoom reported today that its user base has grown to 300 million in the last three weeks.
. . .

Here’s a delightful map, showing the most popular last names by state.  

https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced/s3/2019-04/D75ACC83-6061-4172-B5A1-59273520B7F2.png?itok=y46qND13

Sadly, Gotthelf trails Smith, Johnson and Williams all across the country.  Isn't that a little boring?

Dairy Days

Monday, April 13, 2020
To help us through these dark days, the New York Times informs us of how many consecutive hours of binge watching we can have of real estate porn.*   https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/realestate/how-long-does-it-take-to-binge-watch-every-real-estate-tv-show.html

"House Hunters," a favorite, may occupy you for 33 days, 13 hours and 34 minutes uninterrupted.  Unfortunately, no division is given between the domestic and international versions.  Here at Palazzo di Gotthelf, there is little if any interest in the property market in or around Jacksonville, Florida, but we are suckers for Phnom Penh, Cambodia or Utrecht, Netherlands.  Even an exposé of the artificiality of some hunts hasn't deterred us.   https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/06/house-hunters-true-story-of-being-on-the-show.html
  

* When I used the term "real estate porn" I was thinking only of the thrills and chills one may get from viewing properties that you would not approach in real life, for reasons good or bad.  However, I then learned that there is a subset of actual pornography wherein agent and client meet and mate while inspecting residences for sale or rent.  Go know.

. . .

I recently mentioned two books that interested me, Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century by John Loughery & Blythe Randolph and The Dairy Restaurant by Ben Katchor.  Other than being partially set in the Holy Land, the works have nothing in common.  Yet, thanks to our Good Neighbor Lynn, I am holding both in my hand, on loan.

In a burst of vanity, I first turned to the index of the Dorothy Day book.  For a good part of my first year in graduate school, I researched the Catholic Worker Movement founded by Dorothy Day during the Depression.  It was the culmination of her migration from her Bohemian Greenwich Village days, cavorting and cohabiting with poets, playwrights and founding members of the American Communist Party, to her conversion and devotion to the theological and social, but not political, doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church.  

I eventually turned over a shoe box full of note cards to William D. Miller, then history professor at Marquette University, who later wrote A Harsh and Dreadful Love: Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement (1972) and Dorothy Day: A Biography (1982).  Sadly for my ego, my name failed to seep into any of the works, old or new.  I'll have to be satisfied with the reference in Ammon Hennacy's Book of Ammon (1965), an extended version of his Autobiography of a Catholic Anarchist, wherein I appear as the "Jewish guy from New York."
. . .

While I spent one year more or less involved with the Catholic Worker Movement, I have been in and out of dairy restaurants for much of my life.  And, we're not talking about some grimy Zen vegan chamber of righteousness.  I mean lox and eggs, onion rolls, blintzes, challah, thick soups, sour cream, pierogies everything a Jew needs until he can get to Chinatown.  (Note that by some, pierogi is itself plural.)  Katchor's wonderful book, lacking an index, names 97 dairy restaurants operating, and eventually closing, on the Lower East Side during the 20th Century (pp. 320-367).  Today, only B&H Dairy Restaurant, 127 Second Avenue (pp. 480-484), which I have commended in the past, remains standing in all of Manhattan. 

Among the many delights of Katchor's book, profusely illustrated with his own drawings, are menus, including one from Rappaport's Dairy Restaurant, 91-93 Second Avenue, a personal favorite back then (pp. 336-342).  It advertised 500 seats, possibly the largest restaurant in New York at the time.  Rapport's menu is undated, however, so I'll refer to Steinberg's Dairy Restaurant, 2270 Broadway at 81st Street (pp. 386-393).  On May 9, 1935, among hundreds of items, Steinberg's offered borscht hot or old with boiled potato for $.25; cheese blintzes, $.30; mushroom omelette, $.50; "No. 1 - Special" sandwich, cream cheese, smoked salmon, sardine, tomatoes, $.35; coffee, $.10; Budweiser beer, $.20.  Where have we lost our way?

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Mitch McConnell and 27 other Republican senators expressed total agreement today with the president's claim that his "authority is total" and announced their immediate retirement from the U.S. Senate for lack of anything to do.  

Sorry, did I fall asleep?  

. . .

Headline: "The Trump administration and a group of major airlines have agreed on a $25 billion bailout"

Query: Will they use any of the money to make the seats larger?

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

The United States Treasury Department announced that the president's name will appear on every check issued in the pandemic relief effort.  In addition, I suggest that he be acknowledged on another item that many Americans eagerly await -- toilet paper.

Thursday, April 16, 2020

Last week, an advertisement reminded me of Don Elliott, my boss for a few years in the early '70s and then my friend for decades.  Today, an obituary connected me to the late '70s, an improbable connection at first glance.  "Willie Davis, the Hall of Fame defensive end who played on five Green Bay Packer championship teams and anchored one of pro football’s greatest defensive alignments, died on Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif.  He was 85."  

I was not a Green Bay Packer fan.  In fact, the Packers had some of their greatest victories back then over my New York Giants.  Willie Davis was a client of my little computer company, founded in 1976.  After retirement, among other ventures, he owned a beer distributorship and a radio station in South Central Los Angeles.  He had a small business computer that needed programming and, somehow, I latched onto him. 

He was a doll, smart, focused, gentle.  Except for his size and the stiff-legged manner in which he walked, a result of the punishment that his knees took in his playing days, he well reflected the MBA from the University of Chicago that he earned after quitting football. 

. . .

In case you haven't been to the Holy Land for awhile and don't anticipate an early return, I provide this bit of  audio memorabilia.   https://www.nytimes.com/video/arts/100000007085224/best-ny-accent-instagram-new-york-nico.html?smid=pl-share
 

The Recent Future

Monday, April 6, 2020

Fortunately, not all of us are sitting around moping, impotently complaining about the altered state imposed upon us by the Trump Virus.  Grandson Boaz, age 12, has built a website and an entertainment channel on YouTube in the last few days, complete with a tutorial on using them.  I am thoroughly impressed by the technical effort and the poise of his presentation.  As I praised his accomplishments, I couldn't help but harken back to 1969, when I was hired as a computer programmer trainee by a company bringing an established German computer to the U.S. market. 

I told him that the smartyphone that I was using to have a video chat with him was far more powerful than anything we used back then to operate entire businesses.  That bit of reverie sent me to Google to search for any trace of the Nixdorf 800 Computer.  And, indeed, I struck a very thin, but evocative, vein of information.

While I was pleased to see the advertisement of the machine that I spent years with, appearing so deceptively simple, but a beast to control, it was seeing the guy that grabbed me.  He's not a professional model; it's Don Elliott, always looking businesslike.  He was my boss for several years and my dear friend for several decades thereafter.  He died three years ago of cancer that started on his tongue, usually an affliction of smokers and, of course, he never smoked.

. . .

When a friend asked about America's Favorite Epidemiologist's view of the pandemic, I replied:

"Madam is crazed because of the mismanagement of this crisis.  The need for responsible action was evident 3 months ago.  Instead we got denial, posturing, fingerpointing, contradictions, lying, stalling, chortling about the TV ratings of the daily briefings and now Jared to the rescue."

. . .

A book review this weekend of a new book about Hitler's rise to power states:

"Undoubtedly, all attempts to draw comparisons, let alone parallels, [to today] stumble on the fact that the sense of political threat in the 1930s and the era’s economic malaise were profoundly deeper and more intractable than the problems of today."  That was certainly written before 10 million Americans filed unemployment claims in the last 2 weeks and 9,624 died of coronavirus as of April 6th.  Nah, no comparison.

Tuesday, April 7, 2020
I start the typical day (will we ever see that again?) with two cups of coffee, but continue through the afternoon and evening with tea, brewed from loose leaves, preferably Earl Grey, Assam or Russian Caravan.  It turns out that I am doing my body a favor. 

This article claims that "Daily tea intake as part of a healthy habitual dietary pattern may be associated with lower risks of CVD [cardiovascular disease] and all-cause mortality among adults." 
https://academic.oup.com/advances/advance-article/doi/10.1093/advances/nmaa010/5732737   However, my healthy habitual dietary pattern of Chinese food and ice cream is severely inhibited by the present health emergency.  I pray for relief.
. . .

At first, I brightened at the sight of a recipe for "Traditional Sangria" in today's paper, since more than tea may be occasionally desirable, even necessary, in these times.  Then, I looked at the ingredients, including "dry garnacha red wine, dry rosado (Spanish rosé), Torres orange liqueur, Romate or other Spanish brandy" (elisions omitted) plus some soda and fruit.  We normally have a couple of dozen wines on hand and an array of liquor and liqueurs.  In fact, yesterday, we received a delivery of three different white wines, chardonnays from France and California and Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. 

But, not having any of the specified ingredients for the recipe in our inventory, coming close only with a bottle of French rosé, evidently disqualifies us from any pretense of cosmopolitanism.  It looks like it will have to settle for Diet Pepsi.
. . .

Speaking of swallowing, a book reviewed today tells "the story of a single pharmacy in Kermit, W.Va., population 382 [that in] just two years in the mid-aughts . . . distributed nearly nine million opioid pain pills to its customers."  
https://nyti.ms/2XfcUPU

Not only is my liquor cabinet seemingly understocked, my medicine cabinet is even more so by this measure.  I can't even imagine the pain caused by the profligate use of these painkillers.

. . .

Pick your poison:
1) "African-Americans are suffering coronavirus infections at disturbing rates in some of the largest cities and states in the United States, emerging statistics show."

2) "On social media and in interviews with CNN, a number of people of color — activists, academics and ordinary Americans — expressed fears that homemade masks could exacerbate racial profiling and place blacks and Latinos in danger."

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Considering the sources of the following item, I would normally discard it entirely.  However, these are not normal times, so here goes with a Fox News report of an Uber Eats survey of its restaurant food deliveries in March by state.  French fries rule; 6 of the 35 states report it (them?) as first choice.  Additionally, variations appear as favorites in other states -- carne asada fries twice, waffle fries, notso (?) fries.   https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/quarantine-cravings-uber-eats-popular-takeout-america 

While there is nothing French about French fries, I'm really surprised by the international character of the list, especially as much of the country increasingly demonstrates xenophobia.  Chicken tikka masala (California, it figures); burrito bowl; pad Thai (5 first places including Tennessee and Kentucky!); poké bowl; burrito; garlic naan; crab Rangoon twice; enchiladas; Chicken teriyaki bowl; jerk chicken; nachos; spicy tuna roll.  Real American food appears only a few measly times.  Is this what you can expect down the VFW hall on Saturday night?

Thursday, April 9, 2020

When it comes to nutrition, I follow the advice of having a good breakfast as long as it is served around noon.  French toast, lox, eggs and onions, egg and cheese sandwich on a roll, fried chicken with a waffle, all of these things belong properly in front of you at lunch, when those of you who still have a job are not scurrying to get to work in the morning. 

It's not that I stay away from the table until midday; I usually begin each day with coffee and a big bowl of cereal with berries and bananas, until Passover that is.  While our cupboard usually contains 6 or 8 boxes of cereal, every one of them is based on wheat, corn, oats or rice, all items on the Passover No-Fly list.  (Note -- Sephardic and Mizrachi Jews, those with roots on the Iberian Peninsula or in the Middle East, are allowed rice.)  This makes my breakfast for the eight-day holiday period particularly trying.  How can one be expected to face a forty-year trek in the Sinai desert without a good breakfast?  I'm not sure how I did it in the past.

Now, however, multi-talented daughter-in-law Irit has come to the rescue.  She has provided us with the following recipe for a delicious Passover granola, which is good enough to be eaten every day of the year but Yom Kippur.

3 cups matzoh farfel (the only ingredient not readily found in Utah)

2/3 cup sliced almonds 

1/2 cup sweetened or unsweetened coconut

2/3 cup coarsely chopped pecans

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) margarine or unsalted butter

1/3 cup honey

1 1/2 cups (7 ounces) chopped, dried mixed fruit of your choice, including raisins

---

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the farfel, almonds, coconut, pecans, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

In a microwave or pan over low heat, heat the margarine or butter and honey until the margarine or butter melts. Stir this mixture into the farfel mixture, coating all the pieces. Spread the mixture evenly into a 9-by-13-inch baking pan or similar and bake for 15 minutes, stirring halfway through to ensure even browning. It should be lightly golden.

Remove from the oven, transfer to a large sheet of wax paper and set aside to cool for about 10 minutes. Add the dried fruit and toss to combine. Set aside to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Friday, April 10, 2020

Last night we virtually attended the second of two seders, so expertly conducted by Law Professor David.  The last words in the Hagaddah, the script for the evening, are L'Shana Haba'ah B'Yerushalayim, a fervent hope that we will all gather in Jerusalem next year.  Following that, I silently uttered L'Shana Haba'ah B'Chinatown.

Hold Your Breath

Monday March 30, 2020

I don't know about you, but with nothing to do, I can't find time to get anything done.  Part of the time is spent keeping up with the bad news, especially since there isn't much of the other kind.  This weekend, it got personal.  Trader Joe's on Broadway at 72nd Street closed after one employee (that they know of) came down with coronavirus.  

I need not list all the items that I regularly buy at Trader Joe's, although they are not all chocolate-covered.  I last shopped at that particular Trader Joe's around noon on Monday, March 23rd, exactly one week ago.  That's significant because the infected employee reportedly worked in the store until Thursday, the 26th.  It's not that my memory is that sharp, by the way.  In fact, accompanying my current inactivity is a general fuzziness concerning ordinary details of date and time.  Accordingly, the only way I know when I last shopped at Trader Joe's was rereading a text message from my young bride, reminding me to buy cauliflower on that shopping trip, as if I could forget.  

I had direct contact with 3 employees at Trader Joe's then, that is face-to-face.  Indirect?  Who knows?  There were very few customers, quite unusual for that store.  Tape strips on the floor positioned us a reasonable distance apart when checking out.  I understand if you stand back from this blog at this time.  I hope that we will be able to get back together again eventually. 

 

On the other hand, this venture may play a larger role in meeting your information and entertainment needs now that Playboy Magazine has ceased publishing.  Sources of truth and beauty are becoming harder to find.

We did find one particularly bright spot this weekend.  On a tip from neighbor Roberta Katz, I turned to a group of volunteers for a grocery delivery.  It's a brand new operation, founded by a couple of local college students in response to the Trump Virus scourge.  At no charge, a volunteer shops for you at a store that you designate and delivers as close to your front door as allowed. 

On Sunday, before noon, I entered my shopping list (the more precise the better) and Fairway Market as my destination, along with my name, address and telephone number.  No credit card number, no bank account routing, no donation pledge.  How wonderful.  And, even more wonderful was the appearance in our lobby of Nancy and boyfriend Spencer with 3 shopping bags full of the groceries, exactly as we ordered, in less than 4 hours from my first keystroke on the website.  Not wanting to leave anything to chance, for the 2 pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, I listed 6 flavors to choose among; we received Cherry Garcia (cherry ice cream with fudge flakes) and Chunky Monkey (banana ice cream with fudge chunks and walnuts). 

. . .

You may have been enchanted by the suggestion of Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick that grandparents "take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren."  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/24/covid-19-texas-official-suggests-elderly-willing-die-economy/2905990001/

In other words, alte kockers tote that barge, lift that bale to keep our economy maldistributing wealth in the great American tradition.  If this means standing shoulder-to-shoulder, ignoring the the social distancing guidelines, remember it's not for Uncle Sam, he's too old.  It's for future generations of Texas oil men, many still in swaddling clothes.  My suggestion -- Texas elected officials first.

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Happy Birthday to law school professor David W.  Being surrounded by his lovely wife and his three effervescent children all day, morning and night, every waking moment is certainly a prescription for staying young.

. . .

Every so often, I drop a bit of the mommaloshen, the mother tongue, Yiddish, into this stew.  It's not a mistake and I'm pleased to do it.  My parents knew Yiddish and spoke it regularly with their parents, as did their many siblings.  My father, I recall, wrote letters in Yiddish for Esther Malka, his mother-in-law, with whom he had an admirably warm relationship.  As a result, I picked up some of the more common words, phrases and curses.  This article gives a good introduction to Yiddish.  Sei gesund.   https://theamericanscholar.org/my-mothers-yiddish/?utm_source=email#.XoQQp1F7nZ5

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

While Queen Elizabeth II was born on April 21st, she observes her official birthday on the second Saturday in June, a tradition for the monarch since 1936.  This abandonment of randomness was intended to maximize the chance for good weather on this public holiday for the British people. 

Additionally, all thoroughbred horses in the Northern Hemisphere have January 1 as their official birthday.  This facilitates organizing races by age category, a convention of the sport. 

Allow me to suggest that we adopt a similar approach for this president and, with any luck, for this president alone.  Let's make April 1st Donald J. Trump's official birthday.  It won't be hard to remember, since we have observed it as April Fool's Day for decades.

. . .

Unlike the Confederacy, the New York Mets actually won something and I was hoping that this year might again be cause for celebration, an optimism carried over from my days as a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers.  Today, I would have attended my first game of the season, an afternoon game against the Philadelphia Phillies.  In fact, the tickets were a gift from the team, rewarding my loyalty. 

As of now, however, nobody's winning anything, except for corporate lobbyists striving to maximize the amount of public funds they can siphon off that was otherwise intended to lessen the current economic pain for ordinary slobs. 

. . .

Speaking of games, after a week of New York Knickerbocker basketball replays, a test of patience for any sports fan, New York Ranger hockey games are being replayed on the Madison Square Garden cable network.  Two weeks ago, watching games from this season, including ones that I attended, was a bright spot in this dark time.  It's different this week.  Today's repeats are from 2014, the Rangers most successful season of this century. 

While most of us have the same wife or husband as in 2014, at least as of yesterday, only 4 Rangers remain on the 23-man roster since then.  I find it sad to hear the names of so many past favorites on the broadcasts, some still playing with opposing teams.  Just as I will remain figuratively with the team forever, can't they do the same?

Thursday, April 2, 2020

"It's too soon," we often hear after a distressing event, whether to make a joke or propose legislation.  We are in the midst of a major public health disaster, but it's not too soon to consider what comes next, not just in the critical area of public health, but of public policy generally.  Staying home, watching the news incessantly gives further exposure to the major inequities in our social and economic systems. 

"Never let a good crisis go to waste" may have been uttered by Winston Churchill well before Rahm Emanuel was even born, but, in any case, right now's the time to move towards more fairness in American society.  We have two overarching problems, racial and economic inequality, overlapping, but not entirely identical.  I have done more reading on the former and I commend Ira Katznelson's When Affirmative Action Was White (2005) and Richard Rothstein's Under Color of Law (2017).  They share the same theme -- Government consciously separated Black and White America to the severe disadvantage of Black Americans.

Katznelson documented the consistent policy of the federal government in the New Deal and post WWII periods to advantage white Americans without offering the same benefits to black Americans, notably with Social Security, the GI Bill, housing subsidies and loan programs.  While the scales were eventually levelled in these areas, more or less, Rothstein contends that this discrimination robbed black Americans of opportunities in education, housing, business formation and wealth accumulation that kept and keeps them, to a great degree, on the margins of American society.

Not all whites gained from the disproportionate treatment of the population on racial grounds.  The factory or warehouse worker earning 1/221, at most, of his CEO is almost as likely to be white as black.   https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-compensation-2018/   The surprising result of the 2016 presidential election was partially rooted in this economic imbalance.

I think that coronavirus will leave us with more than a bad memory.  The economic dislocation has been so sudden and so substantial that the new normal will be far from normal, jobs will be lost forever, businesses will not reopen, people will not return home.  That's our opportunity to push and pull, prod and pound our economic and social policies into more equitable shape.  Whether or not we need Bernie's revolution, our society's tolerance for change will be tested by reform, if we can even accomplish that.  I don't have plans; I would defer to Elizabeth Warren, the next Secretary of the Treasury, there. 

It's not too soon.  The bad guys aren't waiting.  Here's a headline and sub-headline today: "Obamacare Markets Will Not Reopen, Trump Decides -- The move would have made it easier for people who have recently lost jobs to obtain health insurance."

Let's roll.

Friday, April 3, 2020

We drafted a shopping list for the good souls of the volunteer shopping group this morning, but learned that it has paused accepting orders until Monday.  When we found Fairway Market's own delivery service was completely suspended, we tried its pickup service; we have a car that could pull up curbside on Broadway and get what we ordered on-line.  First the bad news, the earliest slot for filling an order was Tuesday morning.  Then the bad news, the virtual shelves seemed nearly empty.  You could only get what no one else apparently wanted. 

. . .

And now for the final bit of news that you don't want to hear: Jared Kushner has been put in charge of the White House's coronavirus response behind the scenes. 
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/01/jared-kushner-coronavirus-response-160553

 

Michelle Goldberg, New York Times columnist, aptly describes this as "dilettantism raised to the level of sociopathy."