Saturday, October 29, 2022
In a move designed to address controversies at home and abroad, the United States State Department, the Russian Foreign Ministry, the National Basketball Association and the Women's National Basketball Association are poised to announce the trade of Kyrie Irving for Brittney Griner.
Sunday, October 30, 2022
Sunday, October 30, 2022
I've said before that real estate in the Holy Land is a contact sport. Prices are often extraordinary, because of the physical and political limits to growth. While the excavation of soil to build the ill-fated World Trade Center provided the landfill to create the new neighborhood of Battery Park City, it was a rare event. Rezoning or repurposing is the usual path to residential development locally. Five of the 10 neighborhoods that experienced the greatest increase in home prices in the past year were not destinations a decade or so ago.
Hudson Square and Hudson Yards are rebrandings of formerly commercial and industrial areas, while Gowanus and Greenpoint kept their classic names as their downscale streetscapes were revolutionized.
. . .
This weekend, the New York Times had a 60-page supplement devoted entirely to fine watches. Most of the space was taken by advertisements for rare and expensive watches, many looking more like intricately engineered machinery than elegant jewelry.
The publication reminded me of the old Jewish joke about the mohel, a ritual circumciser, who opened a little shop in the middle of the shtetl. When asked why he hung a clock over the door, he replied, “What should I put there?”
The cover showed an attractive young woman and a horse. She is wearing a cowboy hat, jeans and a fringed buckskin jacket with seemingly nothing underneath. There’s not a watch in sight; why bother with the obvious?
Monday, October 31, 2022
The United States Supreme Court heard oral argument today on two cases involving affirmative action in university admissions. One phrase that is tossed around these days is "the Constitution is color blind" as a rebuttal to efforts to repair the damage of hundreds of years of our history. Let it be clear that the Constitution is not color blind and has not been since 1865 at least, when the 13th Amendment was passed, and, possibly from its inception, when it distinguished in Article 1, Section 2 between "free Persons" and, euphemistically, "other Persons."
My own stance on affirmative action is admittedly inconsistent. I support the single-test, meritocratic approach to admissions to several local high schools. Some accomplishments should be hard, evoking best efforts to succeed. On the other hand, it is shameful that so many children emerge from our educational system with inferior skills, which includes tens of thousands of Hasidic kids along with Black and brown children. The Jewish kids are being maltreated by design, the other kids by a partially opaque combination of circumstances.
Once upon a time there was unaffirmative action towards Jews in the Ivy League and other major private educational institutions, which lasted into the second half of the last century. That's why I lean towards a "fair" approach, disregarding identity. The current Supreme Court cases argue that Asian American students are being discriminated against in attempts to achieve diversity on campus. Certainly, as seen at Stuyvesant High School and Harvard University, for example, Asian American students are remarkably successful in academic pursuits, their high numbers leaving little room for others. However, a study that I just came across somewhat blemishes the view of the "model minority." https://
It "show[s] that teachers rate Asian students’ academic performance more favorably than observationally similar White students. This contrasts with teachers’ lower likelihood of favoring Black and Hispanic students, even after accounting for performance and behavior." A bias towards Asian students advantages them over White, Black and Hispanic students, a distinct form of affirmative action.
. . .
We went to the New-York Historical Society tonight to hear historian David I. Kertzer discuss his book "The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini and Hitler." At the macro level, there was nothing new -- Pope Pius XII was silent when over 1,000 Roman Jews were rounded up and sent to Auschwitz; his only public reference to racial and religious oppression came in a couple of sentences on page 19 of his 1942 Christmas message without mentioning Jews or any other beleaguered minority by name; he was surrounded by overtly anti-Semitic aides. The book's value is in the granular details of Vatican decisionmaking during the war years, what was the Pope being told and what was he telling others.
Supporters of the Pope, who is in line for sainthood, point to many acts of bravery by priests and nuns throughout Europe. The irony escapes them that moral courage was displayed only at the lower ranks of the Roman Catholic Church. There was one very interesting observation that had escaped me previously: When the Nazis invaded Poland, probably the most Catholic country in Europe, the Pope was silent, even as priests were murdered alongside Jews. Such consistency.
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
Joseph Pinion. That’s who.
. . .
I wasn’t surprised to read in today’s paper that
“Voting-related falsehoods and rumors are flourishing across social
media in the final stretch before Election Day on Tuesday.” Many
Republicans are already working on their version of the coin flip: Heads
I win, tails you lose.
Much
of the chatter goes back to the 2020 presidential election. Why are so
many people so insistent that the result was wrong? I see two different groups at work. The first group are insular folk, living predominantly in rural
areas, small towns, suburban and exurban enclaves. Their family,
friends, neighbors have much in common ethnically, educationally,
economically, socially. They more or less think alike and don’t
know (hardly) anyone who voted for the other guy or any reason to vote for the other guy. When they hear results that don't correspond with their world, initial doubt may morph into denial and anger.
The
second group may not be so insular; they may live and work anywhere,
but they feel like losers, always falling short. They see others getting ahead while they are stalled. Rather than grapple
with their impotence, they claim the game is rigged, whatever the game is. Promotions, scholarships, elections.
Thursday, November 3, 2022
Great N.Y. Noodletown, 28 Bowery, was the Boyz Club’s destination for lunch today. The place has undergone a complete makeover. Once crowded, dark, grungy in the best Chinatown fashion, it is now bright, well laid out, although not roomy. It has about 12 four tops and one round table for eight, which we partially occupied.
We ate well; salt
baked sea bass chunks ($16.95), ginger and scallion lo mein (delivered as mei
fun) ($8.75), Singapore chow fun ($13.50), chicken with black pepper sauce
($16.95), beef fried rice ($12.95). Portion sizes were average and tastes were
generally B, B+ good. Consider Great N.Y. Noodletown only if claustrophobia
keeps you away from Wo Hop's cavern underground at 17 Mott Street.
Friday,
November 4, 2022
I had mixed
feelings about the passage of the “Freedom to Walk” bill in California.
It will allow pedestrians to jaywalk, cross a street anywhere that appears to
be safe, although a cop’s view of safety may override the pedestrian‘s,
resulting in a summons and fine. Previously, crossings were only legal at
intersections with the light. Of course, it didn't just amount to a matter of Walk/Don't Walk. The sponsor of the bill cited government data showing that Blacks were up to four-and-a-half times more likely to be cited for jaywalking than whites. https://a19.asmdc.org/press-
When
I moved to Los Angeles in 1971, it was a challenge to obey the jaywalking law as I was a
product of New York’s post modern approach to foot traffic. However,
when I returned from exile nine years later, I found that I had
thoroughly converted to the system and applied it to the streets of the
Holy Land, waiting at crosswalks for the light to change. Well, I did it for a few days, at least.
The other side of the coin remains the same. Vehicles are required to halt when a pedestrian sets foot upon the
street, regardless of the legality of the pedestrian’s behavior. I observed compliance to be very high and not just by middle-aged bougies like
me. This was one aspect of California life that I considered civilized.
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