Saturday, April 8, 2023
Mimi Sheraton, the New York Times food and restaurant critic from 1976 to 1983, died Thursday at age 97, far older than I thought she was. She was also the author of 16 books, including "1,000 Foods to Eat Before You Die," which I just reserved at the library. I found her very relatable, maybe because she came from Brooklyn and let it show.
. . .
Richard Pryor famously defended himself when his wife caught him with another woman, “Who are you going to believe, me or your own lying eyes?” Unfortunately, computer science has nullified that question by creating artificial images that are nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/
Sadly, seeing will no longer be believing.
Sunday, April 9, 2023
For Hank, Jay, John and Larry living in the Washington area, this article about your local bagels may be of interest.
It contains one comment, however, that is near toxic: “He wanted to import to the beltway the satisfaction he would get from biting into his go to order: an everything bagel, toasted, with pork or Taylor ham, eggs (fried with a runny yolk), American cheese, with salt, pepper and ketchup.” Understandably or not, the guy originally came from New Jersey.
. . .
We went to see the latest production of "Sweeney Todd" this afternoon on Broadway. It's the fifth time that I have seen the show, in versions large and small. It got the full Broadway treatment today, the cast and the orchestra both with over two dozen members. They all performed wonderfully,
The audience in the packed house interested me. It was surprisingly young and enthusiastic, the kind of crowd you might expect to see at “MJ” or “The Book of Mormon,” not at a cynical Sondheim near-opera.
Monday, April 10, 2023
Part of a message that I received read: “Thank you for being part of our 92NY community.”
If you don’t recognize the name, it’s a rebranding. Until weeks ago, it had been the 92nd Street Y, founded in 1874 as the Young Men's Hebrew Association (YMHA).
In 1945, the YMHA merged with the Young Women's Hebrew Association and became the YM-YWHA. In 1972, the name was changed to the 92nd Street Y and so it remained for 50 years.
Now, we all know, as Jesse Jackson once informed us, that New York is "Hymietown," which may have made the H in YM-YWHA unnecessary. But, it is nice to retain some connection to our roots, especially when they are 5,783 years old.
Tuesday, April 11, 2023
We
went to see "Summer, 1976" in preview, a new play starring Laura Linney
and Jessica Hecht, incidentally a member of our congregation and a very
pleasant human being. The story is simple, two young mothers become
friendly, then friends before drifting apart.
It's all dialogue, often
witty without straining. Both actors were splendid, Linney's character arch, Hecht's homespun. By the way, unlike other events that we have attended lately, masks were required for entry.
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
Jay Stanley, the ACLU’s policy expert on privacy, was available for lunch and we met at Aroy Dee Thai Kitchen, 20 John Street. It’s a very small space with eight two-tops. The interior is rather gloomy, the walls covered with bricks painted gray and wood planks.
There are no surprises on the somewhat narrow menu. We shared a very good chive pancake, cut up into eight 1” cubes ($7). Note that a chive pancake is totally unlike a scallion pancake, another of my favorites, or any other pancake. It is spongy, close to a soufflé.
I had Panang chicken curry, mildly spicy, rich sauce, large portion ($14). Jay had drunken noodles with chicken, also a large heap ($12). This was well-prepared food, conventional for its type, at a fair price.
. . .
As a result of doing cyber security work, this outfit has come up with the “50 Most Popular Passwords in America.” https://www.mentalfloss.com/
Ingenuity does not seem to go along with popularity. The #1 choice to protect your vital secrets is “guest” edging out “123456.” Internationally, "password" was the password.
Thursday, April 13, 2023
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose except in North Dakota.
On Tuesday, Doug Burgum, North Dakota's Republican Governor, signed a bill
barring transgender girls from female teams from kindergarten through college. In 2021, Burgum vetoed similar legislation, noting “there has not been a single recorded incident of a transgender girl attempting to play on a North Dakota girls’ sports team.”
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