Monday, April 27, 2020
The biggest irritant is the Southern accent affected by John Turturro as the Lindbergh sycophant Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf. While the rabbi is supposed to be a native of Charleston, South Carolina transplanted to Newark, New Jersey, he sounds like he has been cast as Blanche DuBois in a gender-bending version of A Streetcar Named Desire.
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Today, Stony Brook Steve invited me to join him on a walk outdoors and we crossed and recrossed West End Avenue in the 18 minutes that we walked before plopping down on adjoining benches. It was an interesting feel standing upright for so long.
It wasn't that Shanghai was welcoming. It was ruled by the Japanese after 1937, but they were essentially distracted from regulating this inflow of Europeans by massive numbers of Chinese fleeing active war zones within China. The Jews aimed for Shanghai simply because no visa or passport was required for entry, while the rest of the world closed its doors to them, with the exception of Britain's Kindertransport program. However, Jewish adults who managed to escape continental Europe were initially interned as enemy aliens, along with other Germans, Austrians and Italians.
Saturday's puzzle: 16 DOWN - Flight simulator
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I have been watching the television series The Plot Against America, based on Philip Roth's novel. The book is a brilliant example of counterfiction, or what Kellyanne Conway calls fact. Much of it takes place around the time that I was born, in a family and neighborhood similar to mine back then. Maybe I liked the book too much, but I struggle with the television show. The word flat keeps popping into mind. None of the characters seems genuine; none stands out from the washed out palette of the cinematography. Actually, the embedded black and white historic newsreel footage seems more alive than the scripted drama.
The biggest irritant is the Southern accent affected by John Turturro as the Lindbergh sycophant Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf. While the rabbi is supposed to be a native of Charleston, South Carolina transplanted to Newark, New Jersey, he sounds like he has been cast as Blanche DuBois in a gender-bending version of A Streetcar Named Desire.
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Tom Stoppard, the British playwright, commented the other day, “This is the life I’ve always wanted — social distancing without social disapproval."
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Speaking of social disapproval, Abby Stein invited a massive amount, when, as the eldest son in a Hasidic rabbi's family of 13 children, ordained as a rabbi, she decided to trans into a woman. https://www.bbc.com/
She has been shunned subsequently by most of her family, the Hasidic community generally and her ex-wife, although able to get weekly visits, joint custody, split holidays, joint decision-making on major life events and every second weekend with his son through a civil proceeding. By contrast, in Manchester, England, the court prevented a trans woman from the ultra-orthodox community from being "sensitively reintroduced" to her 5 children. https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/transgender-charedi-dad-of-five-abandons-legal-fight-to-see-children/
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
With the calendar as a victim of coronavirus, I am trying to remember the last time I went outside and crossed a street. Last week, I went to Rite Aid, 210 Amsterdam Avenue twice, because it had a 2-for-1 sale on Häagen-Dazs. While the exact distance door-to-door is more than one block, I only had to cross a driveway to get to the store. Otherwise, the compost bin immediately behind our building was the furthest that I ventured from home in the last month.
Today, Stony Brook Steve invited me to join him on a walk outdoors and we crossed and recrossed West End Avenue in the 18 minutes that we walked before plopping down on adjoining benches. It was an interesting feel standing upright for so long.
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Microsoft has authoritatively ruled that two spaces after a period ending a sentence is unacceptable.
I always thought that, on the contrary, it was the height of responsible (type)writing and have acted accordingly. Actually, it was when the typewriter replaced the quill that this convention arose, but those days are long gone. Now, the Modern Language Association Style Manual, among others, prescribes the single space. https://www.theatlantic.com/
I guess, like other important changes in my life, it can wait until next week.
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Gee, I thought that all I needed was a test for coronavirus, when the government sent me 12 supersonic fighter jets instead.
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
"The U.S. surpasses 1 million known coronavirus cases." We're #1!
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For years, the Holy Land has seen a pair of strange bedfellows, left-wing Mayor Bill de Blasio and the local Hasidic community. He courted the collection of ultra-Orthodox Jewish sects, sometimes at war with each other, throughout his political career, resulting in their financial support and large majorities in contested elections for him. As mayor, de Blasio turned a blind eye to some Hasidic practices that other citizens, including less dogmatic Jews, regarded as illegal and even dangerous, notably regarding education (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/nyregion/yeshivas-education-report-new-york.html) and ritual circumcision (https://nypost.com/2017/03/08/new-case-of-neonatal-herpes-caused-by-jewish-circumcision/).
This alliance has apparently broken down under the pressure of our pandemic, with both sides acting badly. Hasidic religious and social practices are extremely communal. While religious services require a minyan, a gathering of at least ten adult men, Hasidic weddings and funerals typically draw hundreds even thousands of guests. https://youtu.be/2pxfZpWocxk Not surprisingly, Hasidic neighborhoods have seen elevated rates of COVID-19 infection and death. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/
Also predictable has been the continuing stubborn defiance of some Hasidim to the public health threat. Last week, a wedding in Chicago drew crowds that had to be broken up by police. https://www.newsweek.com/
While I believe that de Blasio's outrage was justified, he, as is often the case, put his worst foot forward, admonishing "the Jewish community" (along with the general public) that "what I saw WILL NOT be tolerated so long as we are fighting the Coronavirus.” He has "instructed the NYPD to proceed immediately to summons or even arrest those who gather in large groups."
This pushed the hypersensitivity button that so many of us Jews always keep close at hand. One Jewish publication came out this morning with the headline "The Blood on de Blasio’s Hands," claiming that he aims at "this small and already-targeted minority" and "[i]n singling out the [Hasidic] Jews for spreading the virus, the mayor was targeting all of us, making us all less safe." Meanwhile, goyische joggers saturate Central Park unmolested. https://www.tabletmag.com/
Okay. Can you all shut up for awhile?
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This walking business isn’t so bad. This afternoon, I stood upright for 55 minutes, although some of the time was spent shuffling through the aisles of Fairway Market, 2131 Broadway. It reminded me of the 20th Century.
Thursday, April 30, 2020
Last night, I Zoomed into a talk about the Jews who fled to Shanghai during WWII. About 20,000 Jews, predominantly from Berlin and Vienna and environs, went to Shanghai from 1938 to 1941, an extremely daring move considering that the sea voyage was 10,000 miles or more to a destination that was completely unknown to them.
It wasn't that Shanghai was welcoming. It was ruled by the Japanese after 1937, but they were essentially distracted from regulating this inflow of Europeans by massive numbers of Chinese fleeing active war zones within China. The Jews aimed for Shanghai simply because no visa or passport was required for entry, while the rest of the world closed its doors to them, with the exception of Britain's Kindertransport program. However, Jewish adults who managed to escape continental Europe were initially interned as enemy aliens, along with other Germans, Austrians and Italians.
My Original Wife was born in Shanghai to a couple who left Vienna shortly after Kristallnacht. The parents never spoke of the experience, although my wife, her younger brother and I later learned some terrible details from family friends and deduced others.
Friday, May 1, 2020
Answer - Stairmaster
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