Plus ça Change

Saturday, January 29, 2022

Thinking about the defacing of public displays honoring Jackie Robinson and other significant Black Americans, which I referenced last week, it is easy to resort to popular punditry -- the presumptively white vandals reacting to their economic, social and cultural marginalization.  But, recall the photographs of white mobs around schoolhouse doors in the early stages of integration after Brown v. Board of Education, 347 US 483 (1954).  Young and old, male and female are snarling with rage at the sight of a Black child. 

60-70 years ago, those people were in charge.  The government, the news media, the entertainment industry, business large and small were almost solidly, often exclusively, white.  One might argue that the white mob's irrational hatred led to its loss of control of the levers of power, rather than a prescient reaction to 21st Century America.  I believe that an understanding of today's white nationalists and their evangelical Christian and Republican political enablers should be rooted in sociopathy, not sociology.

. . .

On a trip to Trader Joe's, 2073 Broadway, I saw this interesting product display. 

 

DIY heroin?

Sunday, January 30, 2922

Sarah Palin is infected with Covid-19.  At a conservative conference last month in Phoenix, Ms. Palin told the crowd, “It’ll be over my dead body that I’ll have to get a shot.”  Are you listening, God?

. . .

Being homebound for the last 22 months has given people plenty of ideas, especially about making their living space more comfortable.  A new study finds that home improvement is the leading reason for refinancing across the USA.   https://www.lendingtree.com/home/mortgage/reasons-for-home-equity-study/

Looking at each major metropolitan market, it is interesting to note that Las Vegas leads the country in using the funds for debt consolidation, but they'll make it back at the table.

Monday, January 31, 2022

Showtime started a four-part series on Bill Cosby last night, basically asking  "What did we know and when did we know it?"  

In August 1979, in an effort to keep our failing marriage afloat, my Original Wife and I went to Las Vegas for the weekend with two other couples.  We stayed at the Las Vegas Hilton and two vivid memories remain with me after all this time.  First, the temperature never went below 100° outside the entire time, day and night, which probably indicated the Deity's interest in maximizing casino revenue. 

Second, we went to the Hilton's Saturday night show starring Bill Cosby.  It was the funniest performance that I ever saw in any form.  Tears of laughter rolled down my chubby cheeks for minutes on end.  In his classic fashion, Cosby's humor was no more than PG.  His routine was brilliantly fashioned and timed perfectly.  Alas.

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

New York State, along with almost all others, is redrawing congressional districts after the 2020 census.  My district, currently the New York 10th, is and is likely to remain the most Jewish in the United States.      https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/nyregion/nyc-congressional-district-nadler.html

What surprised me to learn from this article is that Jerry Nadler, my Congressman, a Stuyvesant High School graduate, who does his own shopping at Fairway Market, 2131 Broadway, is the only Jewish representative from the Holy Land.  In fact, only one local representative may be considered "pure white," Carolyn Maloney, Democrat, a Presbyterian from a district directly across town from ours.  You might give honorable mention to Nicole Malliotakis, a Greek Orthodox Republican from Staten Island, with a Cuban mother.  Eight others identify as Black or Hispanic and one as "Afro-Latino."

. . .

Choose: 

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis - “Nobody should lose their job due to heavy-handed Covid mandates.”

New York Guru Alan Gotthelf - "Nobody should lose their life due to heavy-handed political posturing."

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

I'm with Whoopi.  Calling Jews a race is limiting, whatever the meaning of race.  We are an ethnic group as defined by the Encyclopaedia Britannica: "A social group or category of the population that, in a larger society, is set apart and bound together by common ties of race, language, nationality, or culture."  We might be called a religion, but where do the irreligious fit in?

. . .

With most of my co-conspirators unavailable, I set off to celebrate the Year of the Water Tiger by myself.  There are 5 elements (metal, water, wood, fire, and earth) that are a subset of the 12 Chinese Zodiac signs (Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig), thus the Water Tiger.

I took the subway to Yumpling, 49-11 Vernon Boulevard, Long Island City, one-half block from the #7 train, at the first stop in Queens.  This is an interesting neighborhood, old storefronts in the shadow of new glossy, glassy apartment buildings.  You were probably here once when you got lost looking for the Queensboro Bridge.

Yumpling opened last year, facing more of a challenge than the usual startup.  However, it had already been operating a food truck for four years by then.  The interior is airy and bright, about half the floor space taken by the open kitchen and prep area.  A large map of Taiwan is painted on the wall.  There are six butcher block two-tops against a long wooden bench with six fire-engine red metal chairs on the outside and a wooden counter by the front window with five fire-engine red metal stools.  Not many other people sat and ate, but there was a very active takeout and delivery business.

Yumpling has a simple menu, dumplings, rice bowls, a few random items.  I had the fried chicken sandwich; two thick, juicy pieces of crispy fried chicken overlapped on a potato roll with basil aioli ($11).  Shoestring fries were really shoestring, about 1/8" thick ($3.50).  Both were very good.  To drink, I reached for a can of HeySong brand sarsaparilla ($2.25), made in Taiwan.  The young woman at the cash register showed surprise and asked if I knew what I was drinking.  I thought she might then ask if I knew who was Gabby Hayes. 

In all, lunch was very good, though hardly Chinese or even vaguely Asian, but neither am I. 

Friday, February 4, 2022

The Upper West Side's Power Couple left for Massachusetts this morning in order to participate in the celebration of grandson Boaz's birthday, the first in this month's collection of distinguished individuals, presidents, athletes and miscellaneous superstars, adolescent and superannuated.  However, before hitting the road, we took took rapid Covid-19 tests and found that neither of us resembled Sarah Palin.

The drama began once we left Palazzo  di Gotthelf.  The icy rain all along the route slowed us down a bit, but otherwise the first 150 miles passed uneventfully.  Then, suddenly, our very rock solid motor vehicle decided that it had gone far enough and stopped moving on the Massachusetts Turnpike, fortunately with just enough oomph to pull onto the shoulder of the road.  

There we sat, reading error messages on the dashboard, frantically looking at the owner's manual, hoping that a remedy would come leaping out.  No leaping, so we called the state police, then the Lexus hotline (which proved to be lukewarm), then the state police again who dispatched a tow truck to haul us to the nearest dealer.  Meanwhile, in that 35-minute interval, trucks, buses and automobiles came speeding by in the icy rain, through the fog, just inches from my left ear. 

The car is now in the tender clutches of Lexus of Northborough, awaiting examination by the light of day.  Remarkably, they moved our luggage into a low-mileage SUV and gave us its complimentary use for the weekend.  Maybe the world is not coming to an end.