Saturday, December 21, 2024
After a couple of days with Trump dominating the political scene, we are already missing Joe Biden.
. . .
Today is Irit’s Birthday, the reason that we have come to the Boston suburbs. There was a wonderful party for her, although she baked her own birthday cake. Actually, she would have enjoyed the party less if she had not baked the cake.
Sunday, December 22, 2024
“The United States is home to by far the largest contingent of dollar millionaires: 22 million in 2023, representing 6.6 percent of the country's population.”
Doesn’t that seem like an awful lot? My Brooklyn upbringing left me with mixed feelings about millionaires, resentment and envy. As far as I was concerned, there were no millionaires in Brooklyn. You would have to go to Manhattan or Connecticut to find them.
Define your terms. Clinically, it’s not such a big deal to be a millionaire anymore. While a study from Charles Schwab concludes “that Americans now think it takes an average of $2.5 million to be considered wealthy,” a net worth of $1 million technically puts you in the millionaire class. It did not necessarily require the sweat of your brow to get there either. Buy
an apartment on the upper West Side or a small house in Oakland, California early enough and sit still.
Monday, December 23, 2024
Long ago, I acknowledged that I live to eat rather than eat to live, the equivalent of kissing your sister. But there is more to say about my eating or yours, for that matter. This test places you on the social hierarchy according to your interest in food. https://www.idrlabs.com/
The categories you may land in are Lower Class, Lower Middle Class, Middle Class, Upper Middle Class and Upper Class. I’ll tell you mine, if you tell me yours.
Did you suspect that the American public’s knowledge base has declined recently (cf. the 2024 presidential election)? Well, there were “almost three times as many removals [from school libraries] as during the previous school year,” thanks to the vigilance of some folks who are concerned about being the land of the free.
I found it interesting that, in May 2023, an Iowa law barred public K-12 schools from having books that depict sexual acts, with the exception of religious texts. Thank goodness, Iowa youth are able to learn how they did it in the good old days. After all, you don’t begat in a vacuum.
Wednesday, December 25, 2024
Santa Claus must know that I am Jewish, because for Christmas he gave me a cold.
Thursday, December 26, 2024
New York State has joined the dumb is enough club. In three years, the requirement of standardized testing (the Regents exams) for high school graduation will be eliminated.
Friday, December 27, 2024
To celebrate Hanukkah and commemorate my wife’s and Uncle Stu’s parents,
Aunt Judi hosted one of her celebrated dinners to a very large crowd.
Judi and Stu are now great grandparents and grandparents and parents. With a couple of us stragglers, that put 19 people around the table, mostly full-sized adults. However, I had it on reach and was able to get more than my fair share of the good eats:
- Challah, homemade, deserving its own line item
- Chicken soup with matzoh balls
- Coleslaw
- Faro with roasted vegetables
- Aunt Judi's Meatballs
- Roast turkey (drumstick for me)
- London broil (two actually, one rare, one medium)
- Carrot ring
- Potato latkes
- Applesauce
- Fruit salad
- Pecan pie
- Pumpkin pie
- Chocolate chip cookies
I hope you don't think that Santa is anti semitic. He gave my wife and myself colds also. Happy Holidays.
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