Monday, May 31, 2021
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been awarded the Newt Gingrich Defender of Family Values Prize after the announcement that he married for the third time to the woman who moved in with him while he was still married to his second wife. Like Gingrich, his third marriage was conducted in a Roman Catholic church.
. . .
Ginia Bellafante is a New York Times
columnist with a left-wing perspective.
This weekend, she wrote about the New York County District Attorney
race, a law enforcement position of national consequence. She profiled several of the many candidates
and I found one comment of particular interest. “The issue with [a certain candidate] is not
that she lacks the sensitivities this particular moment is calling for; rather,
she offers no break in the long and dubious tradition of handing the office
over to those who live at the top of an intricately knit network of wealth and
power, far from the ordinary realities."
https://nyti.ms/3fttCnf
Note that the idea of "handing the office over" for major local offices disappeared with the demise of Carmine DeSapio. While the incumbent and his predecessor both emerged from "the
top of an intricately knit network of wealth and
power," each gained office initially in highly contested elections.
I don't think that Bellafante is trying to make an observation solely about
the New York County District Attorney. After all, New York City and State have been led by a Lehman, a Harriman, a Rockefeller, a Bloomberg in my lifetime. Of course, we would have to ignore the plebian origins of Giuliani, Dinkins, Koch, Beame, Pataki, et alia. As for Cuomo father and son, we have both sides of the coin, Mario rising from humble origins provided son Andrew with an elevated launching pad for his political career.
Behind these grubby details is the idea that
"the
top of an intricately knit network of wealth and
power" is not the proper starting point for our political leaders. What has been labelled "the arrogance of power" may be rooted in the arrogance of wealth and/or class. It is only one contrary example, but humble origins did little to instill virtue in Richard Nixon. In fact, one biography is titled "The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon."
. . .
If you believe in full exposure, someone has taken the trouble to rate the better and worse places to garden naked. https://nyti.ms/3fJ0GXu
. . .
It's not Popeyes, but madame and I enjoyed our anniversary dinner at Benoit Bistro, 60 West 55th Street, formerly the site of La
Côte Basque, which we visited when it was a "high-society temple of French cuisine" according to the New York Times. Although owned and operated by Alain Ducasse, reputedly the chef with
the most Michelin stars in the world, Benoit is relatively modest in design and aspirations. It is a bistro serving typical French food in an unfussy setting. I have to admit that I missed the lovely floral displays that decorated La
Côte Basque.
However, Benoit's more modest interior and menu are not accompanied by modest prices.
We shared a starter of "White asparagus, mimosa & gold caviar, hollandaise," tasty, delicate and grossly overpriced at $33. Our main courses were more appropriately priced; "Seared halibut, braised cabbage & capers, brown butter" ($39) for my young bride, "Skirt steak à
la Bordelaise, pommes frites" ($37) for me. She drank
a 2019 Domaine Marc
Brédif Vouvray ($16) in honor of the venerable David Goldfarb while I luxuriated in a 2015 Chateau le Puy Cuvee Emilien ($25). Those were glasses, not bottles.
Overall, the food and the service were very good. We skipped dessert, because of the two pints of
Häagen-Dazs awaiting us in the freezer at Palazzo di Gotthelf making for a very Happy Anniversary.
Tuesday, June 1, 2021
Today starts Pride Month, an expansion of the original celebration of the 1969 Stonewall riot. In 2019, the signature parade here drew an estimated 5 million spectators. Success, of course, is never good enough, so the Reclaim Pride Coalition has arisen in opposition to Heritage of Pride, the organization that runs the Pride march, and it has led the effort to exclude the New York Police Department from any role in the event. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/nyregion/lgbtq-pride-parade-reclaim-heritage.html
Reclaim Pride has "a broad agenda that goes beyond strictly L.G.B.T.Q. issues to include support for Indigenous people, Palestinians and people who have disabilities or are homeless." Now, far be it from me to tell people whom they should hang out with, but Reclaim Pride may want to read Amnesty International's latest report on human rights in Palestine.
"The Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and the Hamas de facto
administration in the Gaza Strip continued to crack down on dissent,
including by stifling freedoms of expression and assembly, attacking
journalists and detaining opponents. Security forces in both areas used
unnecessary and/or excessive force during law enforcement activities,
including when imposing lockdown measures in response to the COVID-19
pandemic. Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees were committed
with impunity. Women faced discrimination and violence, including
killings as a result of gender-based violence. Lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people continued to face discrimination
and lacked protection. In the West Bank, authorities made widespread
use of administrative detention without charge or trial. In Gaza,
civilians continued to be tried before military courts. Courts in Gaza
handed down death sentences."
On the other hand, watch "The Present" on Netflix, a short film (<30 minutes), about daily life for a Palestinian family.
. . .
I have defended the single-test-admissions policy of Stuyvesant High School, my alma mater, in spite of the blatantly inequitable results. I believe that the test itself is not discriminatory, but the testing process may well be (deficiencies in publicizing, preparation, support). Additionally, a variety of social and cultural factors may inhibit kids from getting on the right track. The fact that Stuyvesant is significantly populated by Chinese students living below the poverty line in non-English speaking households should be cause for celebration by all New Yorkers and inspiration for other minority students.
Some opponents of the current admissions policy advocate the elimination of the specialized academic high schools, open admissions, a position that leaves merit unrewarded. Others propose a holistic approach to admissions, taking several variables into consideration, presumably quantifiable and qualifiable. In theory, this is a good idea, considering a number of factors when making a critical choice about a young person's education. However, it is failing in practice here and now.
Where "students’ test scores, grades, attendance, or other academic measures [are] used to assess their qualifications for admission" to high schools that screen entry of all students (75 of 485), "clear racial trends" are evident. While the disparities do not reach the grotesque levels of the specialized academic high schools, Asians and whites take seats disproportionately to Blacks and Latinos.
Maybe we should just solve the Middle East first.
Wednesday, June 2, 2021
Happy Birthday, ABW MD.
. . .
The study found that, in the period 1996-2012,
juvenile court judges gave longer sentences in the week following upset losses by the Louisiana State University football team. LSU alumni on the bench were notably more affected by an unexpected defeat. So, judges are only human, right?
. . .
Here is a comforting thought before you go to sleep tonight.
"Since 2002, ViacomCBS and its predecessor companies, Viacom and CBS,
together avoided paying $3.96 billion in U.S. corporate income tax
through a system that involved subsidiaries in Barbados, the Bahamas,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Britain." https://nyti.ms/3fVOLWm
Thursday, June 3, 2021
I was amazed, at first, when I put in the address of the home that I owned with my Original Wife in Sherman Oaks, CA and found that its estimated sale price today is $1,334,772. Wow! When we split up in 1980, it had been appraised at $210,000. Then, I remembered that 1980 was a long time ago and I plugged $210,000 into another app that compounded interest. At 4.5%, a rate exceeded for about 2/3 the period (https://www.bankrate.com/banking/cds/historical-cd-interest-rates/), $210,000 would have grown to $1,324590, effectively the same as the home's estimated selling price.
But, aggravation arrived when I tracked the Dow Jones Industrial Average, unwisely considered the bellwether of the United States economy. $210,000 invested in the components of the Dow Jones in 1981 would today be valued at $6,667,456. That's some meatball.
Friday, June 4, 2021
The Upper West Side's Power Couple, in another step towards normalcy, boarded a flight to San Francisco this morning. It will be a quick trip to join in the celebration of Noah P.'s Bar Mitzvah, to be conducted at home with family and some friends. I hope that the conduct of fellow airline passengers doesn't get us off on the wrong foot for the weekend. I don't imagine that many of them will be accompanied by an epidemiologist.
Enjoy the Bar Mitzvah and mazel tov.
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