- Protests have erupted in far-flung cities, recruitment centers have been the target of arson, and thousands of military-age men have packed planes and vehicles to flee across Russia’s borders.
- By evening, demonstrations had spread across the country to many cities and university campuses, with large crowds in the streets clapping and defiantly chanting the mantras of the protests: “Women, Life, Freedom” and “We will fight and take Iran back,” according to videos on social media.
- Now the episode in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region, has unleashed the most defiant eruption of public anger against the ruling [Chinese] Communist Party in years.
Even as we struggle to maintain democratic values and institutions, I'd like to think that these are examples of a natural aversion to oppression that might transcend borders.
. . .
By lunchtime today, I had been directed twice to "the best pastrami in NYC," as anointed by the New York Post, Rupert Murdoch’s beacon of darkness.
https://nypost.com/2022/11/25/
It could be found at Tatiana, a new restaurant within the walls of the rebuilt Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, featuring "an exotic array of flavors from around the world, lovingly blended in a melting pot of culinary tradition, heritage and culture." It should not be confused with Tatiana Restaurant, 3152 Brighton 6th Street, Brooklyn, a Russian restaurant with a "Brighton Beach mystery of tradition."
Tatiana is offering a chunk of beef on the bone that has been "brined for three days in a spice mix that includes mustard seed, juniper, garlic and bay leaves . . . next coated with a Nigerian-inspired suya blend, also known as yaji, lending notes of ginger, paprika and cayenne." No mustard, no rye bread, yeah, but 70 bucks. It is, therefore, highly unlikely that I will sample Tatiana's pastrami, although Geffen Hall is just downriver from Palazzo di Gotthelf.
Sunday, November 27, 2022
I don’t understand all the fuss about the ex-president having dinner with two anti-Semites at Mar-a-Lago last week. It wasn’t like four anti-Semites, after all.
. . .
"Adaptive Reuse Apartments Up 25% from Pre-Pandemic Numbers, Led by Record Office-to-Apartment Conversions"
https://www.rentcafe.com/blog/
With new paradigms of work emerging from the pandemic, this trend is continuing. Cities that are leading the way are Washington, Philadelphia and Chicago. I am surprised that the Holy Land only lands seventh in this category with its apparent huge amount of underutilized office space and crying need for more housing. Of course, people sleeping at their desk is a well-established tradition.
Monday, November 28, 2022
My brother hipped me to a book by Kirsten Fermaglich with the exquisite title “A Rosenberg by Any Other Name: A History of Jewish Name Changing in America.” After reading thousands of court documents, the author found that 65% of New York name change petitioners in the 1930s had Jewish sounding names, "far out of proportion to their numbers in the city." Additionally, she reminds us that legal name changes could be accomplished without the cost and complexity of a legal proceeding by consistent use without a fraudulent purpose.
Anti-Semitism is almost never explicitly mentioned in the court papers, according to the author. Rather, the names being shed are described as foreign-sounding, too long, hard to pronounce, cumbersome. WWII caused a large increase in formal requests for name changes by Jews, ironically to replace the German-sounding names borne by many. Overwhelmingly, the name changer was the child or grandchild of immigrants, already settled in the New World, not the immigrant trying to fit in, a somewhat counterintuitive finding.
Another source on Jewish names is Jewish-names.org, which published a survey of the first names of 11,000 American Jewish people. Not surprisingly, it found that the more "Jewish" parents were, education, affiliation, occupation, friends, the more likely that their children will have "Jewish" first names (e.g., Jonah, Rebecca), rather than American names (e.g., Robert, Ellen). Less predictable was the finding that, "[o]ver the decades, American Jews became more and more likely to give their children names of Jewish origin (English or Hebrew Biblical, Modern Hebrew, etc.), with a major uptick after the 1960s."
In contrast to Fermaglich's work on family names, "[w]hile some Jews have changed their first names for various reasons, hardly any have done so to make their names less Jewish.”
Tuesday, November 29, 2022
21 New York City Hospitals received $1.5 billion in tax breaks in 2019. The Lown Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, calculated “fair share spending” by U.S. hospitals by comparing spending on charity care and community investment to the value of their tax exemption. The local results are eye-opening. https://
While a majority, 12 of 21, gave back more than their fair share, a total of $261.3 million, the amount held back by the other nine, $727 million, is almost triple. That will buy a lot of aspirin.
Thursday, December 1, 2022
What do the Holy Land and Singapore have in common? According to a new survey by The Economist, they are the most expensive cities in the world.
I am ending this week’s blog today, because the Upper West Side’s Power Couple leave early Friday morning for a family reunion in New Orleans over the weekend. My report will follow.
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