Saturday, May 3, 2025

Old Friends

Saturday, April 26, 2025
Message for Kristi:
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The CNN headline reads: “The ‘fun part is over’ for Trump’s second term.” Query: When did it begin?
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Stephen Sondheim's prodigious output of music and lyrics for Broadway and Hollywood has been repackaged several times in revue format, such as "Side By Side By Sondheim" and "Putting It Together." When “Old Friends” was announced as the latest compilation debuting in London in late 2023, we booked a trip, conscripting Lord and Lady Kennington to accompany us to the theatre. Needless to say, but I'll say it, a good time was had by all.

Tonight, madam and I saw "Old Friends" on Broadway without old friends, but with the same leading ladies, Bernadette Peters and Lea Solanga. Again, we were delighted and I was reminded how much enjoyment Sondheim has given me over many years. By the way, when I was unmarried, I lived on the East Side three blocks from his famous townhouse and, on Election Day in 1994, we were in the same polling place at the same time. He was wearing a T-shirt promoting "Carousel," then revived on Broadway. I had seen that production and not liked it very much, but I kept my mouth shut.

Sunday, April 27, 2025
Speaking of London, today was the running of the London Marathon, which brought back an even older memory than seeing "Old Friends." On April 21, 1985, I was standing in front of Buckingham Palace when the leading runners came down The Mall on the way to the Marathon's finish line nearby. 40 years ago today, twice as long as it took Sergeant Pepper to teach the band to play.

It was my first trip to Europe other than a quick business trip to Germany in December 1972 and I was thrilled to reconnect with old friends David Mervin and Adrian Crutwell-Vaughn (https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/anthony-charles-adrian-cruttwell-vaughn-24-1pqsp0) whom I had not seen for 20 years.
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“Only the Dead Know Brooklyn” Thomas Wolfe wrote in 1935. Today, more and more, only the rich know Brooklyn. According to Jonathan Miller, the leading local real estate guru, housing prices continue to rise in my native land. 

Average price for a home is $1,281,704, while the more representative median is $995,000, both record highs. 2798 Pitkin Avenue, where I grew up in one apartment of a two-family house, sold two years ago for $450,000. When I last saw it four years ago, it looked like a dump, far worse than in my boyhood. 
 

This property is clearly closer to the dead than the rich.
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The current population of the metropolitan Tucson, Arizona area is about 1.08 million, having tripled in the last half century. Note that daily high temperatures during the summer are around 99°F, rarely falling below 89°F or exceeding 107°F.
Is there a reason why people would subject themselves to such brutal living conditions? I can find one. The current median housing list price is $395,000. While it ain't Brooklyn, it is $600,000 cheaper.
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We headed to Bengal Tiger, 58 West 56th Street, a familiar, crowded Indian restaurant for dinner, up a steep flight of stairs, that doesn't take reservations. We left early expecting to wait in the narrow, dark space. However, it wasn't there when we got there. It had moved to 234 West 56th Street, two long blocks west. It now takes reservations, was bright and airy, sat at street level and had at least twice the seating capacity. There are 17 two-tops and six booths decorated in cream/beige tones. While it was increasingly busy during dinner time, there seemed to be no wait to be seated.

We shared pakora, 11 onion fritter pieces ($9). I then had chicken biryani, a rice casserole, my frequent choice in an Indian restaurant ($19). Overall, the dish was good. The portion was very generous, the chicken slightly overcooked. I would try the lamb biryani next time. Madam enjoyed her malai kofta, cheese and potato dumplings in a sweet curry sauce ($18). 
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After dinner, we had a cup of coffee with old friends Bonnie and Gil who are here from Florida on a quick weekend visit. Our respective schedules did not allow for more than an hour together, but it was energizing to see someone that I have known since Stuyvesant High School.

Tuesday, April 29, 2025
I went back to school today, not high school, but Cardozo Law School at an event celebrating a new book by Professor Richard Weisberg, “Law, Literature, and History: A Fateful Rendezvous with the Shoah.” As a 3L, I took a seminar with him on law under the Nazis. I wrote a paper on  the Channel Islands, a British Crown Dependency, sitting in the English Channel between Britain and France. It was under Nazi occupation longer than any other place in the world.

Academics and distinguished practitioners spoke in tribute to Weisberg, including Floyd Abrams, the First Amendment expert. I would like to read his book which has a chapter on the Channel Islands, but it lists for $190, enough to feed seven people in Chinatown.

Thursday, May 1, 2025
Baruc is a young old friend. I have known him less than 35 years. We had lunch today at Sarabeth’s, 423 Amsterdam Avenue, one of a handful of local locations. While the business was founded by a Jewish couple (she Sarabeth), it has a distinctly genteel/gentile feel (popovers, anyone?). 

I got right with the program and ordered chicken pot pie with wild mushrooms, rainbow carrots, fingerling potatoes, herb béchamel under a beautiful, flaky crust ($29). As much as I enjoyed it, sitting on the Upper West Side kept me from feeling too Episcopalian.
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There has been a sign of life. Microsoft dumped Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, a major law firm that capitulated to Donald Trump, and engaged Jenner & Block, which has been fighting for its independence in court.
 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/business/microsoft-drops-trump-compliant-law-firm.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Note to CEO, making more money in a year than your great-grandparents' shtetl made in a lifetime, if you are considering moving your company's business to one of the gutless law firms -- How confident will you be that your attorneys won't sell you out under pressure from the White House?

Friday, May 2, 2025
After yesterday’s excursion into gentility, I restored the natural order by having lunch at Moon Kee, 2548 Broadway, with Mel Scult, professor emeritus of Jewish thought at Brooklyn College, his wife Barbara and Jerry and Jerry. The restaurant was very busy and very noisy. We huddled around a small table in the back in order to hear each other.

We ordered Steamed Shrimp & Scallop Dumpling ($8 for 3 pieces), Steamed Vegetable Dumpling ($8 for 4 pieces), scallion pancake ($8), Signature Crispy Roast Duck ($24 for 1/2), Crispy Orange Flavor Beef ($24), Mushroom & Vegetable Fried Riced ($16). It was a good meal, overall. Portion sizes were large, in line with the prices. The duck was well-lacquered and only moderately fatty. 
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Don't be caught dead in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. 
 

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