Sorry, Wrong Number

Monday, November 15, 2021

At 9:48 this morning and 2:38 this afternoon, I received telephone calls on our land line from Credit Suisse, according to the Caller ID.  However, when I answered each time, I heard the chirpy recorded voice of "Amy" announcing that I have been recommended for a medical alert system.  This is unfortunately commonplace and, no doubt, many of you have experienced and continue to experience such annoying interruptions.  We have a robo-call blocker on that line, which hangs up after one ring.  However, today's calls, and many like them, went undetected.  I am not sufficiently technical to understand why some calls are trapped and others not and I know that the scammers are often one step ahead of the forces of peace and quiet.   

 

There is one small step for mankind that our telephone companies should be obliged to institute in the absence of an effective blocking mechanism.  Display the name of the calling party, that is the entity owning the calling instrument, as is ordinarily the case when Aunt Myrtle calls.  I should be informed that the telephone call is from the Grace L Ferguson Airline and Storm Door Company and not Credit Suisse.   By the way, in neither case did I expect that Credit Suisse was, in fact, calling me.  I answered because I just wanted to know which scammer was on the line and take the opportunity to express.my displeasure. 

. . . 

 

A concise movie review by Anthony Lane in The New Yorker: "'Spencer' is, in many ways, baloney, abundantly spiced with slander." 

 

Tuesday, November 16, 2021 

A headline in today's science section reads: "Covid Vaccine for Pets Isn't Seen as a Priority."  I agree heartily, not until we cure cancer. 

. . . 

 

Maybe MAGA?  The New York city colleges were tuition-free; mail was delivered twice a day; rich people paid taxes. 

 . . . 

 

Speaking of New York's city colleges, a current report informs us that 43% of Harvard’s white students are either recruited athletes, legacy students, on the dean’s interest list (meaning their parents have donated to the school) or children of faculty and staff.   https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/713744?journalCode=jole 

 

Now, that's affirmative action. 

 

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

I had lunch with Mossad Moshe today.  Abiding by the confidentiality agreement he made me sign, I am unable to tell you where we ate and what we had.  

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Several people called my attention to an obituary in today's paper of Bob Gill, a very talented graphic designer."His father, Jack Gill, left when Bob was 2, and his mother, Frieda (Gotthelf) Gill, struggled to make a living as a piano teacher."  A relative?  

 

Last week, I extolled the work of Jerry Latter, my second cousin, in creating a family tree identifying almost 200 individuals connected to his father's father and my father's mother, who were brother and sister.  However, I don't have a scrap of information about Joseph Gotthelf, my father's father.  I don't know anything about him, other than he was a tailor, and his birth family.  He died months after I was born and my father and his three brothers and one sister were not particularly effusive.  This group of siblings formed their own social circle after their mother died in 1955, but it never broadened to include any Gotthelf cousins, although I heard vague references to various ones over the years.  Now, my brother and I sit atop the family pyramid, but I am sad to say that we have little to share with those coming after us. 

 

https://www.locatefamily.com lists 396 Gotthelfs, with a high degree of duplication and some obvious gaps.  About 10% are German or Canadian, therefore ranging from the impossible to the unlikely to be related.  Who are the others?

 

Thursday, November 18, 2021

It seems to be a bad week for royalty, or maybe ex-royalty.  The New York Times review of "Diana, the Musical" says that "it may well win the prize as the tawdriest and least excusable wholesaling of a supposedly true story ever to belt its way to Broadway."

. . . 

 

R.I.P. Dave Frishberg.    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/17/arts/music/dave-frishberg-dead.html?smid=em-share

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Art Spar writes poetry and I write prose, but we shared several good dishes at lunch today peacefully at Sala Thai, 307 Amsterdam Avenue.  We sat at one of the four tables in the hut at the curb, choosing that over the six unsheltered tables on the sidewalk.  We had Kha Nom Jeeb, a pleated dumpling made of shrimp and pork ($10 for 5 pieces); Yum Ped, crispy duck tossed with chili, red onion, pineapple, cashew nuts and scallion in spicy lime dressing ($16); Pad See Ew, wide rice noodles stir-fried in a dark soy sauce with shrimp, Chinese broccoli and egg. 

. . . 

 

The Social Season has begun.  For the first time in over 20 months, we went out.  Out, out.  We saw "Twyla Now," a new program by Twyla Tharp's dance company.  Typical of her work, the dances leaned towards the formal with a heavy injection of funky and folksy moves.  Her choice of music was decidedly eclectic, ranging from Bluegrass to Brahms.  It was a wonderful evening in spite of the challenge of wearing a mask indoors for two hours. 

 

Here is a taste of Twyla Tharp's work, a portion of a program based on Frank Sinatra.   https://youtu.be/hA-hJNZo85o  

 

Friday, November 19, 2021

Us fressers (Yiddish for gourmands) have had an increasing hard time over the decades.  As I have noted before, the number of Kosher delicatessens has dwindled down to a precious few.  Similarly, the possibly unique Holy Land phenomenon of the Cuban Chinese restaurant has almost entirely disappeared.  They were supposedly the byproduct of the Cuban Revolution when fine dining was abandoned along with other bourgeois trappings, sending unemployed chefs to less ideological pastures. 

La Caridad 78 thrived for a half century on the Upper West Side even as its peers were replaced by nail salons, drug stores and bank branches until it caught Covid-19.  Now, the premises have been redecorated and reopened as New Cottage Restaurant, 2199 Broadway.  I had the pleasure of having lunch there today with Henry Saltzman, author of "Oy! Oy! Oy!  The Teacher is a Goy," his amusing memoir of starting his teaching career at an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva.

 

He is at work now on a novel based on the general strike of 300,000 workers in Amsterdam, led by Communists in February 1941, against Nazi treatment of the Jews.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_strike  

 

Except for a statue in the formerly Jewish quarter of Amsterdam, it is forgotten by everyone except Henry.

 

New Cottage succeeds The Cottage, which was one block away on Amsterdam Avenue for many years until it too caught the virus.  When I arrived at 12:30, only one other table was occupied; by 1:00, all dozen were full.  However, no one, including us, sat at one of the six tables in the windy, chilly temperature outside.  Neither of us ordered a lunch special, $11 with a choice of soup.  After we shared an ordinary scallion pancake ($8), I made a bland choice, although most of the menu carried little red peppers denoting spicy dishes.  I had a very large bowl of shrimp won ton soup with chow fun noodles ($11).  A spoonful of hot mustard goosed up the soup, which was crowded with two dozen won tons.  

 

Conclusive judgment on New Cottage must await a deeper dive into the menu.  I want it to succeed, because the Jewish population of the Upper West Side needs sustenance. 

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Have you heard the new version of "The Tears of a Clown" by Brett Kavanaugh and Kyle Rittenhouse?