Flying Carpets?

Monday, August 16, 2021

The New York Times disappoints me when it fails to provide sufficient coverage of the New York Mets, ignoring, for instance, the doubleheader victory over Washington last week.  However, it usually redeems itself with imaginative graphic presentations of current issues.  Here is an easily understood illustration of the shifting ethnic profile of the United States, based on the 2020 census.      https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/08/12/us/2020-census-race-ethnicity.html 

 

Speaking before these results were released, Bill Gates (not that one), an Arizona Republican politician, made some telling observations about his party’s anti-democratic turn.  “I’ve thought about it a lot.  I believe the election of President Obama frightened a lot of Americans.”  He said that the fear isn’t entirely about race; it’s also about cosmopolitanism, secularism, and other contemporary values that make white conservatives uncomfortable.  In sum, “the diversification of America is frightening to a lot of people in my party.”  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/09/the-big-money-behind-the-big-lie

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Forays into whimsy also keep me devoted to the New York Times.  Here is a riff on the sounds of closing subway doors around the world.    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/08/13/arts/subway-train-sounds.html  I prefer Budapest, politics aside.  

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Growing up in New York City under modest circumstances, Connecticut felt like a special place, elevated, removed from the mundane conditions that we were familiar with.  Italians and Jews did not live there, as far as I knew.  There was grass in front of people's houses, but no sidewalks.  However, as I grew up, I learned that people in Connecticut put on their Sperry Top Siders one foot at a time.  But, it still seemed a cut above. 

 

This weekend brought Connecticut down to earth or even lower.  On the way to Massachusetts on Saturday to attend the gala 11th birthday party for grandson Noam, we stopped for late breakfast/lunch at Dottie's Diner, 787 Main Street South, Woodbury, our normal halfway stop, a reliable source of eggy things.  The small podium used by Dottie's host/greeter carried a large sign: "Governor Lamont, unmask our kids."  We sat down warily, but not for long as we observed that none of the half dozen waiters wore masks and the air was punctuated by the hacking cough of a patron.  

 

We fled to another place which had no propaganda, but no masks on servers.  Finally, we found some sense of caution and excellent pancakes outdoors at Chip's Family Restaurant, 775 Main Street South, Southbury.  We may have to pack a lunch for our next trip.

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Leaving behind a quantity of unconsumed birthday ice cream cake, we moved from the eastern section of Massachusetts today to the Amherst-Hadley-Northampton area in order to enjoy dinner with Barbara and Dean Alfange, celebrating his emergence from rehab.  Joining us were Charlotte Stanley and Don Robinson, who also have endured me for over half a century.  We ate at Johnny's Tavern, 30 Boltwood Walk, Amherst, which reminded several of us of Johnny's Big Red Grill, 202 Dryden Road, Ithaca, New York, where I practiced blowing smoke rings over the necks of Budweiser beer bottles after the nightly closing of the graduate school library.  Just to note that I stopped smoking in 1979 and Johnny's Big Red closed in 1981.  

 

In any case, I enjoyed a large portion of scallop spaghetti, homemade pasta and plump scallops in a sauce of olive oil, garlic and lemon abundantly sprinkled with hot red pepper flakes ($23).  It's definitely worth a detour. 

 

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Taking advantage of our overnight stay on the turf of the five college consortium (quick, name them), we had lunch with Richard and Shelley Holzman, longtime expatriates from the Holy Land.  Then, we continued west to Hudson, New York. 

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Speaking of dining out, a restaurant review from London forwarded by my brother provides the best quote of the week: "A £38 bowl of rigatoni bolognese has a grimly sweet and cloying sauce that tastes mostly of tomato ketchup and profit."  https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/aug/15/the-polo-lounge-at-the-dorchester-hotel-dismal-food-at-eye-popping-prices-restaurant-review?utm_term=8d346a374c846d610153f86db2bf5525&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUK&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUK_email

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The huge failure in American policy in Afghanistan may fairly be compared to Vietnam.  I think that there is an important difference between the theaters of operations, though.  The Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese were rooted in nationalism as much as communism, a tension between the particular and the universal.  The French, the Americans, the Chinese were all unwelcome intruders.  Independence was the goal.  The Taliban is an Islamic fundamentalist group, devoted to Shariah law.  Infidels, foreign and domestic, are the enemy.  Nationality is irrelevant.  Human weakness and modern life threaten each Taliban warrior, a struggle that may never end. 

 

One notorious aspect of the Afghan debacle might have been prevented.  While it will be impossible to quantify, it seems that many Afghans who worked with the American military are being left behind, likely targeted for Taliban retaliation.  For months we heard pleas to rescue them; Guam was offered as a safe haven, for instance.  https://www.civilbeat.org/2021/06/veterans-say-guam-option-is-the-last-chance-to-save-afghans-who-helped-the-us/ 

 

It may not be a perfect analog, but Israel conducted Operation Solomon which covertly airlifted 14,325 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in a two-day period in 1991 using military and civilian aircraft.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Solomon   

 

Other notable rescue missions include an estimated 170,000 Indians flown from Kuwait between August and October 1990 after the Iraqi invasion, and the United States evacuation by air of 50,493 people from Saigon between April 1 and April 29, 1975.  If anything, the present crisis was at least as foreseeable as any of these. 

 

Wednesday, August 18. 2021

Believe it or not, there are places where it is a buyers' market in real estate.   https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/boon-for-buyers-10-cities-where-sellers-are-slashing-home-prices/?identityID=60d35c56ce3ecf00f1134fea&MID=2021_0816_ArticleNL&RID=25223345302&cid=eml_promo_Marketing_NonPRSL_ArticleNL_cons.13249462_2021_0816_ArticleNL-hero-blogs_trends 

 

The locations range from coast to coast and include one place with teams in the MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL, even if it is Philadelphia. 

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No, no, no.  Hockey teams are considering selling advertising space on their uniforms, an ugly practice that cheapens international soccer and has been creeping into other sports.   https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/32039451/nhl-team-jersey-fronts-ads-starting-2022-23-season-source-says

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Would Floyd Ray Roseberry be still alive if he were Black?