Monday, August 9, 2021
[Sunday] 47 Down - Does a summer job?
. . .
Speaking
of the Garden Cafeteria, as we were last week, the notable dairy (milchigs) restaurant that
had an important intellectual as well as culinary role in the history of
the Lower East Side, I visited it regularly when I lived in Greenwich
Village, 1968-1971. While I owned a car then, a Volkswagen Beetle,
making me unnaturally popular among my friends and acquaintances, I also
had a bicycle. Weather permitting, I pedaled over to the Garden
Cafeteria on Sunday mornings for a Jewish refueling. My typical order
was lox and onions and eggs with a side of noodles and cheese, egg
noodles stirred with cottage cheese, nothing like the macaroni and
cheese that real Americans ate.
It
was one of those Sundays when I first recognized the Jewish Seating
Dance. A large group entered the cafeteria, coming from an unveiling --
the formal placement of a Jewish grave marker within the first year of
burial. This is another example of Jews balancing tragedy with food.
Tables
were pushed together to accommodate the crowd. However, as I watched,
no one sat. Occasionally, someone made a feint towards a seat, but
stopped short of sitting. It wasn't that they preferred being upright,
but they did not want to be first, losing the freedom of choice of
dining companion. God forbid the wrong in-law plopped down next to
them, exposing them to tedious conversation and placing them low in the
family hierarchy.
Jerome Robbins could not have choreographed it better. One step forward, slide right, pirouette. Alert, but not overeager.
Without doubt, some relatives were more seatworthy than others and no one committed until the machers (big
shots) took a stand or actually took a seat. I have continued to
observe the JSD through the years. In this regard, Gentiles are more
advanced than Jews, having introduced place cards late in the 16th century.
. . .
Flipping
houses is something people with too many teeth do on HGTV. A vital
element apparently is a workforce, carpenters, painters, electricians,
who keep appointments, a rarity in my experience. Nevertheless, if you
wish to demolish walls, refinish floors and shop for backsplashes,
consider the proper venue. https://nyti.ms/
According to this analysis, the best places to flip homes are almost inversely proportional to the best places to live in them.
. . .
On
your next trip to St. Louis, if you want to seek out a reliable source
of disease and infection, call Yo Transportation Services. Confused? "Charlie
Bullington owns Yo Transportation services, a business he started 16
years ago. Recently, he has made it a requirement that he will only
transport passengers who aren’t wearing masks and have not gotten the
vaccine."
Tuesday, August 10, 2021
If only Andrew Cuomo was a Republican.
. . .
Ready,
set, rationalize. "Ohio Court Sentences Black Woman to 18 Months in
Prison the Day After Giving White Woman Probation for Same Crime"
Wednesday, August 11, 2021
Braving
a genuinely hot day, Stony Brook Steve, Terrific Tom and I had lunch at
Ollie's Sichuan Restaurant, 411 West 42nd Street, one of a small local
chain. The place, which sits right next to Times Square, was surprisingly empty when we walked in, although a few other tables were eventually occupied while we lingered.
We ordered modestly, somewhat enervated by the heat. Tom and I shared cold sesame noodles ($8.50), too salty, and "Crispy Prawns w. Aromatic Pepper Salt [sic]" ($20.95), 8 plump fried shrimp in a light crust, excellent. Steve went for vegetable spring rolls (2 for $4.50) and shredded chicken in sesame sauce ($9.95), asking for it to be mildly spiced. Probably some word that he uttered has a dual meaning, because the dish as served would rate 5 chili peppers, as I can confirm after sampling some of the large portion that he left over. The waiter was unmoved by this information.
Thursday, August 12, 2021
I don't hesitate to admit that many American Jews are smug, rising from immigrant roots and overcoming institutional and social biases to become solidly entrenched in positions of power and privilege. Fortunately, we did not abandon our ethical values entirely on the way up although stretch marks are visible.
Our intragroup relations notably need work, however. "Respondents to the study [of Jews of color] describe other Jews presuming they are converts, asking intrusive questions about their backgrounds, and mistaking them for nannies and synagogue security guards."
. . .
I could fill page after page with the illogic of vaccine deniers/hesitators/skeptics. A 31-year old woman from the South Bronx offers this sample: “I have done heaps of research looking for things that would make me confident and comfortable getting the vaccine, but honestly I haven’t.” https://nyti.ms/3yJ3jAN
Somehow, the information that "[m]ore than 4.6 billion doses have been administered across 183 countries," with 354 million doses administered in the USA alone, has not landed on her heap. https://www.deseret.com/
It might be funny if such attitudes did not kill people.
Friday, August 13, 2021
Happy International Left Handers Day
. . .
Answer = ADDS
There was also a Garden Cafeteria in Williamsburg.I remember eating there with my father.
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