Monday, December 7, 2020Lists of best of anything and
everything appear at this time of year. I started to record these
compilations two weeks ago with the year's best books according to the New
York Times and the New York Public Library, but I soon realized that it was
a fruitless or maybe too fruitful pursuit. For every best television show
list from Time Out New York, expect one from The New Yorker.
Do you want the best movies from The Guardian or the Wall Street
Journal?
There will be best new restaurants,
classical recordings, cookie recipes, stand-up comedy performances and so
on. Even though it would be easier for me to track all this right now,
spending almost all my time inside Palazzo di Gotthelf, I am unwilling to be
limited to a role as a scrivener. I would like to think outside the box,
although confined to it.
On the other hand, I can't
resist, recognizing far and away the best book title of 2020, a biography of
chef and cookbook author James Beard, "The Man Who Ate Too
Much." Whether you read it or not, you want the cover of that book
to be on display in your household.
. . .
Some people definitely think outside
the box. "Just 27 congressional Republicans acknowledge Biden’s win,
Washington Post survey finds." https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/survey-who-won-election-republicans-congress/2020/12/04/1a1011f6-3650-11eb-8d38-6aea1adb3839_story.html
Part of me admires the stance of the
Republicans; annoy the Democrats, keep them off balance. It's politics,
after all. But, it doesn't stop there, unfortunately. "White
supremacist extremists will remain the deadliest domestic terror threat to the
United States, according to the Department of Homeland Security's first annual
homeland threat assessment," released October 2020. https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/06/politics/white-supremacists-anarchists-dhs-homeland-threat-assessment/index.html
Smug Republican legislators may
enjoy teasing the opposition, but, on the ground, repeated charges of rigging,
cheating and fraud may be pushing buttons that will prove hard to unpush.
Do I have a Republican friend who will claim to feel at ease amidst
heavily-armed, agitated Michigan militia members?
As we approach Inauguration Day, the
president continues to stir the paranoia pot vigorously. Last week, he
sent 135 Twitter messages complaining about the election, while addressing the
pandemic in just 4 messages, not quite living up to his job
description. https://nyti.ms/36LYxXy
Tuesday, December 8, 2020
Today is the long-awaited opening of
Pastrami Queen, 138 West 72nd Street. The excitement increased last week,
when a sign appeared in the window promising they would "Roll Back Prices
to Our Earlier Days," a frankfurter with sauerkraut and mustard for $.99 and,
most dramatically, pastrami on rye for $4.95 (normally $20 at their East Side
location). That was good enough to get Stony Brook Steve and me to walk
over at noon.
As we went along West 72nd Street, I
counted 75 people waiting in line, in 35° temperature. We kept walking,
of course, but here's a report from a more patient (??) friend.
I biked to the joint and got in line at the east end of the
Citibank at 11:45. I reached the Queen’s door at 1:45 (yup, 2 hours) and
placed my order—one pastrami promotion sandwich for Nancy, and a ½ lb of corned
beef for Nancy’s father. I then waited indoors in the back, between rows
of empty booths, until my name was called and I got the chow at 2:15.
Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Echoing what I wrote about on
Monday, “As Trump Rails Against Loss, His Supporters Become More
Threatening.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/us/politics/trump-election-challenges.html
The article describes behavior that "even some Republicans say has become
dangerous." How about some Law and Order?
. . .
I prefer corned beef to pastrami,
but Pastrami Queen's inaugural promotional offer of a pastrami sandwich for
$4.95 exerted a powerful magnetic force. In light of yesterday's crowd
scene, I came up with a different strategy today. I set out at 5:45 P.M.,
figuring that a hefty sandwich would make a good dinner and few others would be
foolish enough to come out on a cold night. Well, I was partly
right. When I got to Pastrami Queen, only 7 people were waiting ahead of
me. The only problem was the store's manager announcing that they had
just run out of food and they were closing down for the day. I confirmed
that they would be restocked and open tomorrow -- at regular prices.
. . .
Dealing with New York City's one
million plus public school children during this pandemic is a problem that
might defeat King Solomon. "New York’s issues with remote
instruction begin with a lack of basic infrastructure for students learning
from home. Many low-income students, including some living in homeless
shelters, cannot even log on for classes because they still do not have devices
or Wi-Fi. Educators also said they were scrambling to make lessons more
engaging for students without much helpful guidance from the city. So
while individual teachers and schools have honed creative strategies to improve
online instruction, there is no clear citywide plan to do the same, leaving a
patchwork system of learning across the city’s 1,800 schools." https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/nyregion/ny-schools-reopening-inequality.html
It should follow that low-income
(euphemism for minority) families would be eager to have their children in the
classroom where equipment and planning would best serve them.
Wrong. "There are nearly 12,000 more white children returning to public
school buildings than Black students — even though there are many more Black
students than white children in the system overall. Latino students are
returning at a rate roughly proportional to their overall representation in the
school system." Discuss and then explain to me, because I still
don't understand the situation.
Thursday, December 9, 2020
Can you remember way back to 2012,
when Mitt Romney was challenging Barack Obama? He claimed that
"[t]here are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no
matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are
dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the
government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are
entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it." This
was quickly characterized as "makers vs. takers." See, for
instance https://www.deseret.com/2012/9/19/20506887/makers-takers-and-mitt-romney-s-47-percent-comment
and https://www.economist.com/special-report/2012/10/11/makers-and-takers
In Mitt's case, enough makers joined
the takers to limit his access to the White House to the guest entrance.
Eight years later, the makers moved even further from the Republican
presidential candidate. "Biden won 17% of the nation’s counties, but
those counties account for 71% of U.S. gross domestic product."
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-2020-election-deepened-americas-white-collar-blue-collar-split-11606219208
While I don't expect that the makers
will soon host a dinner in honor of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, this time, they
found a line that even a big tax cut couldn't get them to cross.
. . .
Last night's sojourn to Pastrami
Queen was not a total failure. Before leaving the house, I took aim at
the curse of wearing a mask outdoors, blinding me with fog on my glasses.
One mask or two, cloth mask or paper mask, I can't proceed more than a few
yards without having an opaque barrier before my eyes. I stop and wipe
off my glasses a few times and then wind up holding them at arm's length while
straining to discern what I am approaching or what is approaching me on the
sidewalk.
At the suggestion of America's
Favorite Epidemiologist, I taped the top of my mask to my face, using masking
tape, what else? It worked. I saw every step of the way to not
getting a bargain sandwich and back. Today, I bought surgical tape to do
the job right; removing the masking tape, in fact, resembled a surgical
procedure. On my walk to Barnes & Noble, 2289 Broadway, and back,
with stops at Zabar's and Fairway, over 5,000 steps according to my (you'll
pardon the expression) fitness tracker, everything was crystal clear. I
didn't step into a pothole, stumble over a small animal, or bump into any
object fixed or moveable. Now, I am ready for cold weather.
Friday, December 11, 2020
I promised to skip end of year lists
at the end of this year, but there are some unique items that deserve
recognition on their own. On the other hand, breaking a three decade
tradition, the British editors of the Literary Review have suspended an
annual contest to award the worst sex writing in the English language.
They announced that 2020 was bad enough. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/books/bad-sex-fiction-award-canceled.html
. . .
The Republicans are a gift that
keeps on giving. Now, they have redefined States' Rights, a beloved
principle on the right, for their temporary convenience. State of
Texas v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, State of Georgia, State of Michigan and
State of Wisconsin proposes that the State of Texas has the right to
interfere in other states' elections. For the sake of brevity, it may be
referred to as Texas vs. Democracy.
. . .
"Senator Mike Lee, Republican
of Utah, blocked the creation of Smithsonian museums honoring women and
Latinos, warning they would worsen societal divides." https://nyti.ms/3qP1FtI
You are right, Senator Lee. If we don't tell them how they have been treated, they won't bother us.
. . .
Late news flashes
-
Democracy Wins
- Indoor Dining Banned In NYC
·
