Saturday, December 7, 2024
Andy would have been 80 today.
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Can anybody tell me who are the good guys in the Syrian civil war?
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/
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Main Street is the most popular address in the United States. Oddly, the next few in order are Second, Third, First.
Similarly, Second Avenue is more common than First Avenue.
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I hope that you have a friend as kind and thoughtful as Anne Williams.
Sunday, December 8, 2024
A little good news, a little bad news. About 1 in 5 local apartment rental listings offered some concessions. Citywide, median asking rent increased to $3,676. A little more good news, a little more bad news. The inventory of available apartments rose in Brooklyn and Queens, while it shrank in Manhattan.
https://streeteasy.com/blog/1-
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The phrase “knowledge is power” has distinguished origins. It is attributed to Sir Francis Bacon as recorded by Thomas Hobbes.
I’m not sure if it was ever true, but, these days, the opposite really seems to prevail. Power is knowledge. “Get out of my way. I’ll tell you what’s true.”
Monday, December 9, 2024
We have admittedly been focused on local real estate prices, but we are not alone in facing steep inflation in property values. In England now, average homes are beyond the reach of most people.
The article speaks of “Britain’s broken housing market” where the average home price was £298,000 last year, that is $380,315 in real money. On the other hand, last week we learned that the least expensive domestic Zip code, Benton County, Arkansas, had a median home price of $408,403. Hmm.
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You might think that 2 out of 3 ain’t bad. 1) Samuel Fuchs was my companion for the evening. His service as a naval officer at sea offers me a perspective that is otherwise absent from my circle of friends and colleagues. 2) We ate at bb.q Chicken, 25 West 32nd Street, that very reliable server of Korean fried chicken. I had a box of boneless classic recipe, nine crispy, crunchy pieces ($15.99). 3) The Rangers lost.
Listening to the discussions about the Daniel Penny verdict, the white ex-Marine who choked the deranged Black homeless man on the subway, brings back O.J. Simpson in reverse.
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I had lunch at Pastrami Queen, 138 West 72nd Street, with Art Spar, neighborhood poet laureate. Not as hungry as I normally am, I passed on the Tuesday Special, pastrami and corned beef each on a dinner roll, French fries, coleslaw and a pickle for $19.95 and had the Lunch Special, a bowl of matzoh ball soup and half a roast beef sandwich ($23). In brief, Tuesday beats Lunch.
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
I had a video visit with my neurosurgeon this morning to review last week’s hospital experience. And guess what? I’m healthy, at least to the degree of not having what they thought that I had. Now, a new team of doctors is being gathered to plan an assault on Mount Gotthelf.
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“My whole life, I’ve been afraid of being broke,” thus spake Richard L. Zeitlin in federal court yesterday at his sentencing hearing. He was sufficiently motivated by his fear that he pocketed at least 80% of the more than $145 million that he raised in bogus charity appeals.
Thursday, December 12, 2024
Temple Emanu-El is the largest Jewish congregation in the world. Appropriately, it operates the Streicker Cultural Center, 10 East 66th Street, which offers an extensive and sophisticated array of programs of Jewish and general public interest. Tonight, I went there to see a new documentary, “Torn: The Israeli-Palestine Poster War On NYC Streets.”
Soon after October 7th, photographs of the hostages taken by Hamas appeared on walls, windows and lampposts in many local neighborhoods.
Friday, December 13, 2024
Big brother’s birthday.
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Absolute Bagel, 2788 Broadway, considered by many to have the Holy Land’s best bagels, closed yesterday preemptively, with no explanation.
I believe that they are one of the three best bagel shops, along with Zucker’s Bagels & Smoked Fish, 273 Columbus Avenue and other locations, and Utopia Bagels, 120 East 34th Street and 1909 Utopia Parkway, Whitestone. I can only hope that they reopen closer to Palazzo di Gotthelf.
Alan, thank you for another entertaining and informative blog! Not sure if you’ll remember me but we met on a Road Scholar trip through India… Just thought I’d let you know you can count me as one of your fans. My wife and I are fans of the big Apple and so are also entertained by your lunchtime travels in the neighborhoods where my grandmother raised me and I grew up for a short time.
ReplyDeleteAnother Road Scholar alumni, how nice. I am not going to complain about my rising maintanence anymore. A renter in my building is paying 5K for a one bedroom!
ReplyDeleteThe two of you were on the same trip. We returned to US on January 29, 2020, just weeks before everything shut down.
ReplyDeleteI am also a fan of Alan G. I hope to go to Pastromi Queen sometime soon. And on the matter of knowledge as power i remember taking my son age ten [ now in his fifties ] to the Players Club. He was into Houdini and there was some memorbilia at the Players and i remember saying to him as we came out remember " knowledge is power . " Problem is that not enough people have enough knowledge.
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