Instant Replay?

Monday, December 21, 2020 

I was so bored on Saturday and afraid I would fall asleep reading that I did something rare, watched some college football, switching between Northwestern vs.Ohio State and Clemson vs. Notre Dame.  However, I grew increasingly indignant.  As Clemson kept scoring, the television camera panned the sidelines to show the team celebrating.  No one, coaches, players, staff, appeared to be wearing a mask, unlike the cautions taken at the Northwestern/Ohio State game (forgetting for a moment whether there should be any game at all). 

I tried calling Clemson, a South Carolina university, to complain, but only got voicemail in the financial aid office.  Since the game was being played under the auspices of the Atlantic Coast Conference, I identified the ACC commissioner, John Swofford, and, while the game was still going on, sent him an e-mail criticizing this breach of public health.  His reply came quickly, but confused me: "The game hasn't started yet."

An hour and a half later, after doing some checking, I sent this message to Mr. Swofford: "Sorry.  Completely fooled by a replay of 12/29/18 game.  I'll save my righteous indignation for another occasion.  Thank you for your understanding."  Clemson and Notre Dame, both ranked very high in the standings, were set to play late in the afternoon and some aggressive program scheduler decided to run a game from two years ago as a vorspeis. 

. . .

The real estate section offered an interesting look at this wacky year.  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/17/realestate/fewer-home-listings-higher-prices.html

"In 45 of the 50 metro areas, the number of listings [of homes for sale] fell by at least 25 percent year over year."  This resulted in noticeable increases in asking prices, which, nevertheless, hasn't lured other sellers into the market a bit of a twist on classic supply and demand theory.  

. . .

Ginia Bellafante, a consistently provocative columnist in the New York Times, proposes that "Ivy League Schools Randomly Select Students (At Least for a Little While)."  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/18/nyregion/ivy-league-admissions-lottery.html

Central to her position is the shunting aside, at least temporarily, of "the exceptionally credentialed[.]  What if elite colleges chose students whose resilience had so far eluded them?"  Is there equity in allowing a student to go forward via a lottery in the absence of any record of accomplishment or with a modest record, at best?  What are the reliable indicators of potential, after all?  

She makes an argument for standardized testing that is contrary to the normal progressive position and seemingly at odds with her ultra-democratic stance.  "Given the difficulties of administering standardized tests during the current crisis, 500 colleges and universities have waived the SAT as a requirement for admission.  While that might seem like a welcome curative for so much anxiety, in the absence of test scores (as well as so many extracurricular activities that have fallen by the wayside since the onset of the coronavirus) a capable student from a little-known school in the South Bronx may be more challenging to evaluate."  This is consistent with the original purpose of the SAT, first known as the College Boards, early in the 20th Century -- give the disadvantaged, urban kid (read Jewish nerd) a chance to distinguish himself (herself was still far in the future) in the admissions process. 

Generations of students, predominantly, but not exclusively Black, have been ill-served by our public education systems.  Would a lottery be limited to those students alone?  What portion of the Ivy League student body would be selected by lottery?  What conditions, if any, would qualify a student for the lottery?  In sum, I think that a lottery is unworkable and a bad idea, but it's a great idea to stimulate debate. 

Here's my modest proposal.  Leave the operation of the Ivies alone, at least for the time being.  Instead, have them use some of their enormous endowments to sponsor secondary schools in their communities, weaving their exceptional faculty and student talent into the high school setting.  Combining the ivory tower with the real world should benefit both sides considerably.

. . .

My brother sent me this snippet from the frontiers of gastronomy.  "McDonald’s is selling a sandwich made of Spam topped with crushed Oreo cookies Monday in China in an attention-grabbing move that has raised eyebrows."

It was not my eyebrows that were raised reading this, but rather my gorge.

. . .

In attempting to establish guidelines for coronavirus vaccination, "a much broader group of Americans [has been] defined as essential workers — about 90 million people with jobs designated by a division of the Department of Homeland Security as critical to keeping society functioning."  https://nyti.ms/3aoxAf0 

I did some math.  Our current population is 330 million.  24% are under 18, 79.2 million; 16.5% are over 65, 54.45 million.  That amounts to 133.65, leaving 196.35 million minus the essential 90 million; 106.35 million Americans just taking up space.

On the other hand, "[a]ccording to a very old Jewish mystical tradition, at all times in history there are 36 righteous men who wander the earth unknown to everyone else, including one another.  These are the Lamed-Vavnik, or the Tzadikim Nistarim. These men, who wander the earth unknown, are absolutely critical to the existence of the human race, because as long as they continue to exist, the anger of almighty God is held back from the earth for their sake."  https://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/general-news/20120519/the-legend-of-the-36-righteous-men

Admittedly, holding back the anger of almighty God is a bigger challenge than driving a bus, but we should consider where and how we fit.

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Andrew Coe, author of "Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States," passed a difficult test this afternoon.  He spoke on "Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese Food," sponsored by YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and offered a sensible overview of the subject.  He solidified his credentials by making explicit reference to Wu Han, not the alleged ground zero of Covid-19, the Chinese restaurant upstairs on Pitkin Avenue in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where I first entered Heaven on Earth and Wo Hop, 17 Mott Street, the quintessential Chinatown Chinese restaurant, where I have spent the best hours of my life in the absence of my young bride.

His presentation was relatively brief.  You can replay it here, if you've never had lunch with me in Chinatown:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG0lcfFJhLI

. . .

Staying in the food and beverage aisle, consider the link between Rabbi Dov Behr Manischewitz (1856?-1914) and Billy Eckstine (1914-1993).  https://slate.com/business/2020/12/manischewitz-wine-taste-judaism-black-americans.html

. . .

Two weeks ago, I kvelled over the title of a new biography of James Beard, chef and cookbook author, "The Man Who Ate Too Much."  In noodling around, I discovered that I used the same title on my blog dated April 27, 2013.  Is there a copyright lawyer in the house?

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

It's no secret that Members of the Tribe frequently respond to reported events by asking "Is it good for the Jews?"  Consider this: "President Trump will appoint Andrew Giuliani[, Rudy's son,] to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, the White House announced [last] Wednesday . . . Giuliani, will serve a five-year-term on the 55-person board, which meets twice a year."  https://www.washingtonian.com/2020/12/16/trump-has-nominated-andrew-giuliani-to-the-united-states-holocaust-memorial-council/

 

Compensation per diem at an annualized rate of $170,800 plus expenses.  5 U.S. Code § 5315.  For more information, "Meet Andrew Giuliani – Donald Trump’s golf pro in residence."  https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/golf/meet-andrew-giuliani-donald-trump-s-golf-pro-in-residence-1.4128341?mode=amp

. . .

I can't speak for African Americans, but if they asked "Is it good for African Americans?", I believe that the answer would be No far too often throughout American history.  I think that this is a perspective that we white Americans generally fail to recognize.  An obituary of a former governor of Mississippi said that, until 1982 "Mississippi was the only state without public kindergarten, and it was the only state without funding for compulsory public education, a vestige of its extreme reaction to the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision striking down school segregation."  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/us/william-winter-dead.html

The median age of the U.S. population is 38.3, meaning that 1982 was within the lifetime of half of us.  It ain't ancient history.  While there were ugly acts of racial violence before, during and after 1982, this example of institutional racism took its toll on so many lives for decades.

Thursday, December 24, 2020

I am a faithful reader of The New Yorker.  This week's edition, cover date December 28, 2020, is labelled "The Cartoon Issue."  The cover itself is a brilliant lampoon of the outgoing presidency and Calvin Trillin, my hero, writes "Some Notes on Funniness" that are, of course, funny.

But, 18 pages (18 pages!) are given to a graphic vignette that is not only humorless, but pointless, in my rarely humble opinion.  The next-to-last panel has a character saying what we should be hearing from the editor: "I'm really sorry if you feel that I made the wrong decision, but I have my methods, and I was doing what I thought was right."  Maybe that's the joke.

. . .

The American Dialect Society determined that one of the words of the year was the Yiddish-based oysgezoomt, meaning fatigued or bored by Zoom.  https://www.americandialect.org/wp-content/uploads/2020-Word-of-the-Year-PRESS-RELEASE.pdf

Appropriately, I am thoroughly oysgetrumpt.