Saturday, January 18, 2025
“Will” (2024), on Netflix, is the most powerful anti-Nazi movie that I have seen in a long time. It is set in Antwerp in 1942, dealing with two rookie police officers, weaving between collaboration and resistance, as they work alongside the Nazi occupiers. Much of their time is spent hunting Jews and Communists. Watch it.
For all the historical differences, I found challenging contemporary moral parallels. Collaborate or resist. The oligarchs of 2025 seem to be mimicking the oligarchs of 1933. Did someone say “Eat the rich”?
Sunday, January 19, 2025
“Breaking Home Ties” is a current feature of the New York Jewish Film Festival at Lincoln Center. A silent melodrama from 1922, it was lost for many decades. After a crude print was found in Germany, a digital restoration has recently emerged. It is the story of a Russian Jewish family torn apart when the son flees to the United States, believing that he murdered his best friend in a jealous rage.
I was touched by the movie. It portrays traditional Jewish home life in a fairly realistic manner, a lot less operatically than many other works of the time or since.
By coincidence, another movie with the same title appeared more than half a century later, with a cast including Jason Robards and Eva Marie Saint. It had no relation to the original. Instead, it was based on a Norman Rockwell cover for the Saturday Evening Post of a young man leaving for college.
. . .
After the movie, we went to Jaz Indian Cuisine, 813 Ninth Avenue, for a late lunch, aided by a Groupon coupon for $15 off. Additionally, they offer a good $19.95 lunch special — appetizer, main course, naan and rice. I had onion Bhajia (fritters) and chicken tikka masala, the sauce leaning a bit Italian, less Indian. My roommate enjoyed Lasuna Gobi, cauliflower florets in garlic sauce, and Palak Paneer, cottage cheese cubes in puréed spinach, her go-to South Asian dish.
We shared a delicious coconut sorbet, frozen in a coconut shell, as a dessert extra ($8.32).
Monday, January 20, 2025
This long quote from Ezra Klein is worth considering.
In 2024, Donald Trump won the popular vote by 1.5 points. Trump and Democrats alike treated this result as an overwhelming repudiation of the left and a broad mandate for the MAGA movement. But by any historical measure, it was a squeaker.
In 2020, Joe Biden won the popular vote by 4.5 points; in 2016, Hillary Clinton won it by 2.1 points; in 2012, Barack Obama won it by 3.9 points; in 2008, Obama won it by 7.2 points; and in 2004, George W. Bush won it by 2.4 points. You have to go back to the 2000 election to find a margin smaller than Trump’s.
Down-ballot, Republicans’ 2024 performance was, if anything, less impressive. In the House, the Republicans’ five-seat lead is the smallest since the Great Depression; in the Senate, Republicans lost half of 2024’s competitive Senate races, including in four states Trump won; among the 11 governor’s races, not a single one led to a change in partisan control. If you handed an alien these election results, they would not read like a tectonic shift.
And yet, they’ve felt like one. Trump’s cultural victory has lapped his political victory. The election was close, but the vibes have been a rout.
In 2024, Donald Trump won the popular vote by 1.5 points. Trump and Democrats alike treated this result as an overwhelming repudiation of the left and a broad mandate for the MAGA movement. But by any historical measure, it was a squeaker.
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Time spent with Terrific Tom is a partial antidote for the political gloom. We headed to Tasty Hand Pulled Noodles II, 648 Ninth Avenue, for lunch, discovering that they are closed on Tuesdays. Why Tuesdays? Fortunately, Nan Xiang Express is a few doors away at 654 Ninth Avenue, and they were open for business. It is a narrow, deep space, still looking bright and new after being open about eight months.
I chose to speak to a human being rather than enter my order on a tablet at the front of the store, the modus operandi for so many joints these days. I shared chicken soup dumplings with Tom, 6 for $10.95. They tasted remarkably fresh, just made. Then, I had a large bowl of tasty Beef Shanghai Stir-Fried Noodles, fat lo mein with a good amount of tender beef strips ($14.95).
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
I received a statement today covering my hospitalization last month, four days, three nights at Columbia-Presbyterian. I was under observation for my movement disorder, ultimately eluding precise diagnosis. The bill for the hospital stay, identified as being in the intensive care unit although I perceived it as the random care unit, was $95,643.32. That’s before tip. Amazing.
The whole subject of medical economics is a complete mystery to me. The best part or maybe the worst part or the screwiest part is the bottom line; I owe $0.00 for the whole thing. “Medicare/plan discounts” lopped off almost $80K, then Medicare paid over $14K and my retirement health plan picked up the crumbs, $1,632. I am agog at all this, but fortunately not impoverished.
Thursday, January 23, 2025
Ssh! Don’t tell anybody.
Trump’s team has told the staff at Department of Health and Human Services—including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—to stop issuing health advisories, scientific reports, and updates to their websites and social media posts for the time being.
Friday, January 24, 2025
A
recreation of Anne Frank’s secret hiding place is being put on display
at a museum here for three months before moving to other venues. An
article about it notes the poor level of knowledge about the Holocaust
among American young people.
I’m
not surprised. I don’t have the data, but I imagine that there is
similar ignorance about the significance of Gettysburg and Valley Forge.
. . .
That’s not a Nazi salute and I’m not overweight.
Alan, you ought to contest that bill. Of course, you're not paying anything, but I am (and all of us taxpayers). You ought to protest the ICU item, and any other items that are questionable. I was in a hospital in 1988 and they charged me for three blood transfusions which I didn't need, and didn't get. I made them take those off the bill.
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