June 3, 2023
This story, unfortunately, has become an annual event. "Stuyvesant High School Admitted 762 New Students. Only 7 Are Black.” https://www.nytimes.
Last week, 762 students were offered admission to Stuyvesant, attended by both my brother and myself in the 1950s. According to the Department of Education, 489 are Asian, 158 white, 20 Latinx, 7 Black, 36 multiracial and 51 unknown. If anything, this is worse than last year, if we seek greater diversity. The recruiting of (some) minority students to formerly restricted private school premises may have some effect on the complexion of the Stuyvesant student body, but it doesn’t explain the gross racial disparity. Most prospective reforms dabble with the admissions process, abandon the single admissions test, augment the test, allocate some seats outside the limits of the test. Similar experiments at selective high schools in San Francisco, Boston and Alexandria, Virginia, have failed to achieve more equitable results.
It’s the barrel, not the spigot that needs remaking. Bring excellence to the first grade for all kids and aggressively educate the parents. Supply ample carrots and sticks.
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There are some hip parents out there, at least in Utah, where the King James version of the Bible has been removed from elementary and middle schools under state law banning “pornographic or indecent” books from schools. https://www.bbc.com/news/
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We had dinner with cousins Barbara and Bernie at Dagon, 2454 Broadway, our favorite restaurant of the Upper West Side, featuring Israeli, North African, and Mediterranean cuisine.
Its selection of mezze are superb and we have become accustomed to concentrating on them. We ordered every one on the menu, described as follows: Japanese Eggplant Confit, roasted garlic, tomato jam, buttermilk, shabazi breadcrumbs; Spicy Feta, harissa bbq, smoked salt; Sasso Chicken Liver Mousse, mustard seeds, date syrup, crispy shallots, baharat (Middle Eastern spice blend); Marinated Beets, horseradish yogurt, chickpeas, crispy beef tongue; Muhamarra, spicy roasted pepper & almond dip; Tahina, lemon, garlic, sesame ($47 for all 6, $12 individually) plus fresh herb falafel ($12). A hot from the oven flatbread comes with that, but you have to get the Kubaneh, a pull-apart cheesy bread with labnah (cow’s milk yogurt cheese) on the side ($19). That’s plenty of food of the highest quality. However, Bernie and I plowed on, sharing chicken schnitzel, a favorite dish of mine ($28) and I was disappointed. It was fried too long, dried out. The small lump of excellent potato/cucumber salad couldn’t rescue it.
Sunday, June 4, 2023
This is one list where I’m glad the Holy Land falls towards the bottom, postal workers bitten by dogs. https://about.usps.com/
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Here’s a survey of 22,514 adults under the age of 75 in 30 countries taken earlier this year. On average, 3% identified as lesbian or gay, 4% as bisexual, 1% as pansexual or omnisexual and 1% as asexual. https://www.ipsos.com/sites/
Collecting them as LGB+ amounted to 8% overall. The differences country-to-country and generation-to-generation are especially interesting. Brazil and Peru are at opposite ends of the list, yet they are physically adjacent. Keep in mind that the surveyed population was self selected which compromises the representativeness of the responses.
Monday, June 5, 2023
Speaking of gender, sex and identity, while most of us are concerned with death and taxes, Republicans in many parts of the country are obsessed with transexuality. I'm happy that they have found a way to put aside the challenges associated with death and taxes, but their new obsession seems to be a strange choice. Recent estimates vary, from "1.4 million adults identify as transgender in the United States" (https://
There just aren't that many to go around. Maybe that's why the threat posed by transexuals has to be wildly inflated, otherwise the politicians would have to go to work on real problems.
Tuesday, June 6, 2023
The Boyz Club celebrated the landing of Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy by eating lunch at Jing Fong, 202 Centre Street. Covid closed its huge, festive quarters on Elizabeth Street, but the new location is comfortable and far less hectic at about one-tenth the size.
As usual, I lost track of all the dishes that kept flying off the carts circling the room. In sum, we six had 19 dishes, several duplicated. Most items were cut into smaller pieces, so that all of us had many of many things to eat. We spent $27 each, always including a generous gratuity, as we lingered for a long time even after our plates were clean.
Wednesday, June 7, 2023
Lunch today was less raucous, but thoroughly enjoyable in the company of cousins Gerri and Michael Goldenberg, visiting from their new home in Florida. We met at Cafe Luxembourg, 200 West 70th Street, which has thrived by building a large outdoor section, designed to cope with weather fair and foul. It has been around a long time, with a menu similar to a typical Parisian bistro, but with New York fine dining prices.
Actually, I stayed on this side of the Atlantic with my choice, a lobster roll with big chunks of tasty lobster ($41), accompanied by a large portion of thin French fries. Otherwise, $23 was the price of choice for three-egg omelettes and Salade Niçoise. Luxembourg dropped the ball, however, with dessert, an ice cream sandwich whose mint chocolate chip ice cream tasted like toothpaste ($12).
Thursday, June 8, 2023
I went for a slightly extravagant lunch yesterday, because today was very special -- hip replacement surgery. I will be spending the night in the hospital, the first time since my birth way back in the last century. Since I don't write with the lower half of my body, I suppose that I will have something to say tomorrow about the experience.
Saturday, June 10, 2023
I guess that I got lucky and spent two nights in the hospital. This was not to maximize my comfort, just the opposite. Thursday night, once the anesthetic wore off, I was in great pain and was awake most of the time. Friday, I was so tired that I rarely got out of bed and then, so awkwardly, that I increased my pain and discomfort. I even had to forgo rescue by my young bride, because my mood was as black as my physical condition. Which should explain the late appearance of these comments.
I hope you are soon fully recovered Alan.
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