Minority Report

Saturday, July 26, 2025

We had dinner tonight with Barbara & Bernie, cousins of cousins. We drove our great looking Supersonic Red Toyota Crown over to Maiella,   4610 Center Boulevard, Long Island City, behind the Pepsi-Cola sign on the East River waterfront. It’s a neighborhood now composed of new glassy, glitzy high-rise residential buildings where there was once a hodgepodge of small homes, factories and empty space. Between 2010 and 2017, 41 new residential apartment buildings were built in Long Island City (and many more since then).   https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Island_City

Not surprisingly, street parking was near impossible, forcing me to break one of my commandments and pull into a garage.

Maiella occupies most of the ground floor of a new tower. It is large, the shape of a skewed square, wrapped in glass on two sides, interior walls of dark red brick and a high ceiling covered with thick slabs of wood. It was busy and noisy. Prices were almost reasonable.

An excellent heirloom tomato salad was attractively arranged ($17). Bernie and I shared calamari fritti ($18), a little too chewy, as was Bernie’s chicken parmigiana ($29), which I inherited a piece of. I had cacio e pepe, spaghetti and black pepper mixed in a scooped out wheel of pecorino cheese ($29), fattening and delicious.

The women had the salad, eggplant carrozza ($18), eggplant slices stacked with mozzarella, and roasted salmon ($32). No one had room for dessert. We also passed on strolling on the waterfront, just feet away, otherwise a pleasant way to end the evening.

Sunday, July 27, 2025

This website defines luxury homes as those in the top 5% of their respective metro area based on selling price. https://www.redfin.com/news/luxury-homes-million-dollar/

Currently, only seven major urban areas have luxury homes with a median price under $1 million, six are in the Rust Belt. Less than 10 years ago, 35 areas were presumably more affordable. Personal income has not moved up that sharply.

.  .  .

Tom Lehrer is gone. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/arts/music/tom-lehrer-dead.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

.  .  .

The New York Times has three full pages today on "Inside the Rise of the Multiracial Right.” https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/07/24/opinion/minority-voters-trump-right.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

It looks at Black, Asian and Hispanic Americans who have become Republican/Trump supporters. It boils down to this: The Democrats failed to keep their promises to improve their lives. Instead, they chose Republicans who made no such promises.

Monday, July 28, 2025

Flip Wilson, the very funny comedian who died far too young in 1998, portrayed Geraldine Jones, a somewhat impetuous young woman who often proclaimed that “The Devil made me do it!” Today, we have Eligio Regalado, a pastor at the online Victorious Grace Church, who said that God told him to sell cryptocurrency to his followers and was subsequently indicted on dozens of theft- and fraud-related charges for selling a digital coin that prosecutors said had no real value.  https://ministrywatch.com/online-pastor-indicted-in-3-4m-crypto-scheme/

.  .  . 

There was a terrible scene in midtown Manhattan this afternoon when a gunman from Nevada parked his car in front of 345 Park Avenue, walked into the building openly carrying a rifle, killed four people, including a policeman, before shooting himself in an office on the 33rd floor. 

I worked in 345 Park Avenue from August 1980 through December 1982, moving back to the Holy Land to take the job with a major financial services firm. As I write this, nothing is known about the killer’s motive. I don’t want to be irreverent, but only an out-of-towner would park his car on Park Avenue on a weekday.

 

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Last week, I described a phony L.L. Bean website offering great bargains on their merchandise. Well, the scam continues on the website “www.iieabnn.shop.”

.  .  .

What’s wrong with this picture? “The New York City police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, has said the gunman [who killed four people at 345 Park Avenue] had a documented mental health history and legally purchased a revolver in June using a Nevada concealed carry permit.” https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/29/nyregion/nyc-shooting-manhattan?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

 

Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Michael Ratner lives at Fifth Avenue and East 84th Street and I live at Amsterdam Avenue and West 69th Street. Lunch at Maison Pickle, 2535 Broadway at West 84th Street was about halfway and, even though the temperature was at 96°, I walked my part.

The joint is narrow and deep. You pass a long bar when entering, backed by mirrored shelves holding at least 100 bottles of spirits. 

I ordered from the three-course $30 Restaurant Week lunch menu, offering a good discount from  à la carte prices. I started with D’Olived Eggs (sic), four hard boiled egg halves, made with extra virgin olive oil, chives and too much Maldon salt, flaky sea salt produced in the village of Maldon, England. I then had Pickle’s signature dish, Classic French Dip, “Roasted Sirloin of Beef, House Baked French Bread, Horseradish Aioli, Big Dill Pickles, Maldon Sea Salt, Mustard.” Actually, I didn’t eat the pickles, else the sandwich was excellent.

The waiter kindly wrapped the Oreo Icebox Pie for me to take home, which was my main course for dinner. In all, there was enough food to provide a satisfying lunch for two normal human beings.

 

Friday, August 1, 2025

The New York City Police Department has 34,000 uniformed officers. Nearly 12 percent of them are Asian. Thirty-three percent of uniformed officers are Hispanic and 17 percent are Black. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/nyregion/nypd-didarul-islam-bangladesh.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

 

According to the 2020 U.S. Census, 15.6% of New Yorkers are of Asian origin, 28.3% Hispanic origin, and 20.2% Black. 

.  .  .

Thanks to Governor Ron DeSantis, today is “Hulk Hogan Day in Florida.”   https://www.flgov.com/eog/news/press/2025/flags-half-staff-honor-hulk-hogan

In case those of you in the other 49 states feel left out, sleep with your friend’s wife and sue for invasion of privacy when the sex tape is released. Gawker Media, LLC v. Bollea, 170 So.3d 125 (2015). In these progressive times, that celebration is available to both men and women.

 .  .  .

The New York City Department of Education announced the composition of the next entering class of the city’s competitive high schools. At Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, the most selective of the specialized schools, eight of the 781 offers this spring went to Black students while 27 went to Hispanic pupils. Asian students were offered 509 spots, and white students were offered 142. 95 students had either multiracial or unknown backgrounds. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/nyregion/specialized-high-schools-black-students-stuyvesant.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

In the public school system, 42 percent of students are Hispanic, 20 percent are Black, 19 percent are Asian and 16 percent are white. As glaring as the problem is, it eludes solution.