Mangia Bene E Molto Costoso

Saturday, August 20, 2022 

In case you are not a member of the most despised minority in history, I want to share this collection of the 10 alleged best classic Jewish jokes.

https://forward.com/schmooze/421730/the-10-best-most-classic-jewish-jokes 

Of course, true to my heritage, I can’t leave well enough alone.  #9 is too specific and where is “so I shouldn’t have my mouth full when you call” and the blind man and the matzoh?

Sunday, August 21, 2022

I never thought that there was anything special about Pittsburgh, until I read about a wedding reception there.  “In Pittsburgh, it is traditional to have not only a wedding cake but also a cookie table.”

. . .

Who said: “Don't we have enough trees around here?"

• Smokey the Bear
• Woody Woodpecker
  
• Herschel Walker, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Georgia 

Monday, August 22, 2022

From lunchtime till dinner time today, my mobile phone rang regularly with calls nominally originating in:
Alfred, NY
Forest City, NC
Los Angeles, CA
Rockville, IN (twice)
Otterbein, IN
Dundee, NY
Buena Vista, CO

While I would like to think that friends and admirers in far flung places were eager to speak to me, these calls were, in fact, the same exact recorded message offering to help me avoid the consequences of cheating on my income taxes.  

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Stony Brook Steve and I had a simple lunch at Simply Noodles, 267 Amsterdam Avenue.  While occupying very small floor space, its pan-Asian menu covers a lot of ground.  I had Dan Dan noodles, thin noodles cooked with peanuts, sesame paste, scallions and mushrooms ($13).  It tasted good, with a spicy undertone, but should have cost less or was that pre-pandemic Grandpa Alan talking?

Steve  was satisfied with a scallion pancake ($6) and chicken shu mai, four vertical dumplings, usually made of ground pork and shrimp ($8).

Wednesday, August 24, 2022

I am almost finished reading "Grifter's Game," a hard-nosed crime novel by Lawrence Block, author of dozens of crime and mystery novels.  It was published in 1961 and one little sentence is gnawing at me.  While I'll open it up to all of you, I am looking to the homeboys (homepersons?) of my generation for (in)validation.  Heading downtown, Joe, the murderer-to-be, "walked over to Sixth and caught the D train to Chambers."  Today, the 1, 2, 3, A, C, J and Z trains stop on Chambers Street.  Did the D train stop on Chambers Street in 1961?

. . .

Hadassah Nakiza is a member of the Abayudaya tribe of Uganda, a community of several hundred Jews founded over 100 years ago, beleaguered at home, recognized by most major Jewish groups, but not the insular Orthodox rabbinate of Israel.

She has just finished working as a counselor at the Reconstructionist summer camp as when I first met her in 2017.  Recently, she graduated university, majoring in Media Technology and Photojournalism.  In addition, she has been serving as President of the Union of Jewish Women in Uganda, an affiliate of the International Council of Jewish Women.  

Tonight, we had dinner together, joined by her local friends Rachel S. and Chaya W., at Playa Betty’s, 320 Amsterdam Avenue.  Unlike our lunch in 2017, when she did little more than push around everything on her plate at a Kosher Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, Hadassah ate heartily and I could almost hear Mother Ruth Gotthelf breathe a sigh of relief from beyond.

I had a Hang 10 Burrito, filled with chopped steak, French fries, lettuce, jack cheese, guacamole and sour cream ($18).  It was a fistful, but the sturdy tortilla wrapper kept everything in place.  We ended the evening appropriately at Amorino Gelato, 414 Amsterdam Avenue, where I merely had two scoops, a rich, dark chocolate and black cherry ($7).

Thursday, August 25, 2022

Madam and I had dinner with Barbara and Bernie, cousins of cousins, at Masseria dei Vini, 887 Ninth Avenue.  The name translates as wine farm, but it is closer to a wine library as this photograph strikingly illustrates. 

 

The food here is consistently both very good and expensive.  My young bride and I shared a Caesar salad, chopped with extra anchovies ($18.50 on the menu, $24.50 as served to us I observed later).  She had Parmigiana di Melenzane (eggplant parmigiana), listed under antipasti, but nearly a full-size portion ($26.50).  I had Cavatelli Ai Frutti di Mare e Purea di Piselli, coffee bean-shaped pasta with mixed seafood sauce served on a bed of green peas purée, so delicious that I almost ignored the price ($34.50).   The cost of a meal here seems to move inversely with the size of the glaciers in Iceland, although at a faster pace.

Friday, August 26, 2022

My young physical therapist and I were discussing music today.  "What's an LP?", she asked.