Saturday, August 5, 2023
Today, Oregon loses the distinction that it shared only with New Jersey. Customers will have to pump their own gas at filling stations, although attendants will be available at some locations.
It is expected to put at least 2,000 people out of work and result in more accidental fires. That’s progress.
. . .
CNN says that its latest poll, “conducted in July, found that 71% of registered Republican and Republican-leaning independent voters think Biden’s win was illegitimate compared to 27% who think it was legitimate.”
That’s a lot of crazy.
Sunday, August 6, 2023
In July, the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the Holy Land was $3,980, the highest in the country.
Tuesday, August 8, 2023
This is more than 2-1/2 times the national median of $1,506 and more than 5-3/4 times the median rent in Wichita, Kansas, the least expensive location of 100 surveyed. That could explain why “[t]he five boroughs have lost nearly half a million people since April 2020, according to an analysis of U.S. census data.”
Could some of those people have fled to Wichita to dramatically cut their cost of living? There are currently only 392,878 people living in Wichita and the population has been declining, in fact, since the most recent census.
Further, I could find no business in Wichita with bagel in its name and a review of Bakers Haus, 8641 West 13th Street North, in Yelp said, “This is the only place in this God-forsaken cowtown to get lox and bagels.” So, the current Exodus has not seemed to have led to Wichita.
. . .
We had dinner with intrepid fellow travelers Jill & Steve at Stella 34 Trattoria, 154 West 34th Street, which turns out to be the sixth floor at Macy’s. It’s a big room, running almost a city block. It has a semi-open kitchen and is bright and airy with clear views of the upper floors of the Empire State Building. In spite of or because of the unusual location, it was near full.
The menu is conventional Italian, well executed. I had caccio e pepe, spaghetti in a rich sauce of pecorino cheese and black pepper ($23), a large delightful portion. For a little overkill, I added one tasty meatball ($5). Where some good Italian bread used to come automatically to the table in an Italian restaurant, we had to buy “Wood Oven Toasted Sourdough Boule” with extra virgin olive oil, cultured butter and Trapani sea salt (from the Sicilian province of Trapani) ($8). It was almost worth it.
Monday, August 7, 2023
A webinar hosted by The Forward asked “What did our great-grandparents eat for breakfast?” The charming Rukhl Schaechter, distinguished Yiddishist, led the discussion. The best answer — bread and butter and chicory, because coffee was too expensive.
Caring Ken Klein accompanied me to an exhibit by the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum in the lower lobby of Chase Plaza, 28 Liberty Street, entitled "Shanghai, Homeland Once Upon a Time." https://www.npr.org/2023/08/
It's the fascinating story of the 20,000 or so Jews who fled Europe in 1938 and 1939, landing in Shanghai, a city controlled by the Japanese but open to anyone, in effect the only place in the world accepting stateless Jews. These refugees were predominantly middle class, more secular than observant, from Berlin and Vienna. They included my future in-laws in my first marriage, the Bergers, whose children Ellen Esther and Gary Victor were born in Shanghai. I was able to find the names of Ellen and Fritz, her father, on a wall in the exhibit containing over 18,000 names of that Jewish community.
The exhibit may be closing on August 14th, so try to get there in the day or so remaining.
It was lunchtime when Ken and I finished our visit and the narrow streets of the Financial District were loaded with office workers rushing in and out of the myriad holes-in-the-wall serving Chinese, Thai, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Mexican and Greek food plus hamburgers, donuts and ice cream. We first tried Xi'an Famous Foods, 8 Liberty Place, one of the dozen locations of this very successful chain of spicy Western Chinese joints, rarely larger than two shoe boxes. Indeed, we were deterred by the long line ahead of us, so we retreated to The Kati Roll Company, 22 Maiden Lane, where only six people waited in front of us. As with most of the other places, most business was takeout, but there was some counter space for the two grandpas.
A kati is effectively an Indian burrito, seven or so inches long and one inch in diameter. It was offered in 13 versions, either wrapped in paratha (Indian bread) or roti (Indian pancake), $4.50-8.75. I had chicken tikka roti roll, chicken breast marinated with yogurt and spices ($7) and unda shami roti roll, minced lamb, herbs and spices, and a fried egg ($8.75).
Wednesday, August 9, 2023
Today's Headline: "Teenager Accused in Dancer’s Killing Is Not Muslim, His Lawyer Says"
Good, now you only have to worry about the Christians.
Thursday, August 10, 2023
I came across the term “enclothed cognition“ today. It was coined by two social psychologists over 10 years ago. https://www.sciencedirect.com/
It’s a formal way of saying that “Clothes make the man.” It was given eloquent expression by the Smothers Brothers 50 years before it resounded in the halls of academe in their version of a classic cowboy ballad.
As I walked out on the streets of Laredo.
As I walked out on Laredo one day,
I spied a young cowboy all dressed in white linen,
Dressed in white linen as cold as the clay.
"I can see by your outfit that you are a cowboy."
"I see by your outfit you are a cowboy too."
"We see by our outfits that we are both cowboys.
If you get an outfit, you can be a cowboy too."
As I walked out on Laredo one day,
I spied a young cowboy all dressed in white linen,
Dressed in white linen as cold as the clay.
"I can see by your outfit that you are a cowboy."
"I see by your outfit you are a cowboy too."
"We see by our outfits that we are both cowboys.
If you get an outfit, you can be a cowboy too."
. . .
We went to dinner with Barbara & Bernie, cousins of cousins. We ate at Dagon, 2454 Broadway, which we have enjoyed together several times before. Recently, I have concentrated on their mezze, superb small plates with a Mediterranean, Middle Eastern slant. Tonight, I went for the Restaurant Week menu, three courses at dinner for $45. I started with Local Fluke Crudo, with heirloom tomato vinaigrette, crispy shallots, minced okra, lemon and extra virgin olive oil -- excellent. My main course was Lamb Shoulder Confit Skewer, with French fries, Tunisian pickles, pomegranate molasses and arugula salad -- better than excellent, except more meat was called for. Dessert was flourless chocolate cake, again superior.
Even if I hadn't drunk a few glasses of the Sequoia Grove Napa Valley Chardonnay 2018, I would have been giddy over this meal. Dagon charged $68 for the wine, which retails at $25-35. The industry standard is to mark up a bottle of wine 200-300% over its retail sales price.
. . .
Stephen B. Billings, economist at the University of Colorado, examined
concealed handgun permits (CHPs) and crime victim reports from 2007 through 2011 in Charlotte, North Carolina. https://www.sciencedirect.com/
He found that CHP
holders were typically white, aged 30 and older, male, politically more
Republican and more likely to have been a crime victim. They were no
less subject to violent crime, but, ironically, having a CHP increased non-violent crime victimization by 46%, particularly experiencing a 69% increase in burglaries and a 268% increase in having a firearm stolen. Losing a weapon made them feel less secure, no doubt, but it probably made their neighborhood more dangerous.
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