Saturday, August 16, 2025
Now we know that it’s true. Upon returning from Alaska, your president recounted: “Vladimir Putin said something – one of the most interesting things. He said: ‘Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting … No country has mail-in voting. It’s impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections.’
“And he said that to me because we talked about 2020. He said: ‘You won that election by so much and that’s how we got here.’ He said: ‘And if you would have won, we wouldn’t have had a war. You’d have all these millions of people alive now instead of dead. And he said: ‘You lost it because of mail-in voting. It was a rigged election.’”
“And he said that to me because we talked about 2020. He said: ‘You won that election by so much and that’s how we got here.’ He said: ‘And if you would have won, we wouldn’t have had a war. You’d have all these millions of people alive now instead of dead. And he said: ‘You lost it because of mail-in voting. It was a rigged election.’”
. . .
Involuntarily uprooted people relocate and mostly thrive in their new environment. A good thing? Not if they are Jews and you can label it Settler Colonialism.
. . .
The sofa in our living room is quite comfortable and we are often reluctant to arise from it. This evening, though, we decided to venture out to a movie. We chose “An Officer and A Spy,” Roman Polanski’s relatively faithful telling of the Dreyfus Affair, an ugly French antisemitic episode, not the first, not the last.
We agreed that it was an excellent movie, wonderfully photographed. Some reviewers drew a parallel to Polanski’s thoroughly justified prosecution and conviction for rape, which led him to flee the United States. The New Yorker had a particularly strong takedown of Polanski.
However, while I was willing to watch and enjoy a film written and directed by a sexual predator, French and vaguely Jewish as Dreyfus, my distinct views of Polanski the man and the artist remain unchanged. It’s a classic conflict — the public vs. the private person: Richard Wagner, Kevin Spacey, Woody Allen. At first, I thought of adding Donald Trump to this list, he is, after all, a convicted sexual abuser. But, nothing in his public life distinguishes him from his private life.
. . .
The movie was shown at the Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, on the southwestern edge of Greenwich Village. That afforded us a large variety of restaurants for dinner, leaning towards the funky, away from the corporate. We chose Jack’s Wife Freda, 50 Carmine Street, describing itself as “South African Israeli Jewish Grandmother Cuisine.” The availability of one of a half dozen tables outdoors on this balmy night was also an attraction. I can’t describe the interior, because I never set foot inside.
Our food choices were hardly ethnocentric although there were a few haimish items on the menu. Madam had the Grilled Eggplant Baguette with roasted tomato, mozzarella, olive tapenade & pesto, with a green salad ($20) and I had the Prego Roll, a smallish Portuguese skirt steak sandwich with garlic butter, accompanied by very good French fries ($25). Both were quite satisfying and good values.
In all, our loyalty to our sofa was weakened by the end of the evening.
Monday, August 18, 2025
There is an essay online today by a woman whose 29-year old daughter committed suicide after announcing her intentions only to a ChatGPT “therapist.” I was intrigued by the woman identifying herself as “a former mother.” Somehow, I believe that is a role that you can never leave.
Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Proving how nimble we are, the Boyz Club gathered for lunch far away from Chinatown at The Corner, 698 Ninth Avenue, a respectable Chinese restaurant. Coming uptown did not curb our appetites, fueled by a Groupon coupon that knocked a lot off our bill.
We five shared two filet mignon egg rolls ($6 each), Singapore style duck fried rice ($18), walnut shrimp in Grand Marnier sauce ($28) (so sweet that Trent suggested it come with vanilla ice cream), Chung King beef ($24, too chewy and too salty) and Tangy Tangerine Peel Chicken ($19). On the whole, a very good and abundant lunch with Diet Coke the beverage of choice.
. . .
Yes, Virginia, he is a racist. The president insists that "The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was.”
Wednesday, August 20, 2025
Ever
attentive Bob Saginaw wants to know if the proven socioeconomic
influence on the SATs also is found in the testing for New York City's
specialized high schools, particularly for our alma mater Stuyvesant
High School where Black students gain 1% of the seats year in and year out. In 2018, I found a 2016 survey of the nation's best
schools, ranking Stuyvesant third, claiming that 47.3% of the students
were living below the poverty line. It's an extraordinary figure, since 8
of the top 10 schools range from 0.0 to 18.9%, with one Chicago school
reaching 37.5%. https://www.newsweek.com/high-
A more recent source identifies 50% of the students as "economically disadvantaged," 3% homeless. https://data.nysed.gov/
Another current report has 43% of the students qualifying for the federal free lunch program. https://www.usnews.com/
The
wild card in looking at Stuyvesant demographics is the overwhelming
Asian (Chinese) student population. "Asian students constituted
6 percent of the enrollment at Stuyvesant in
1970 and 50 percent in 1994; they make up an incredible 73 percent of
the student body this year." https://nypost.com/2014/07/19/
Looking at the
nationwide
SATs, socioeconomic factors heavily influence results.
In New York, however, I believe the culture of the community and the family are the
drivers in the competition for high school admissions. "If, as sometimes appears the case, 'Harvard' is the first English word
that immigrant Chinese mothers learn, the second is probably 'Stuyvesant,' the name of one of New York City’s most competitive public
high schools." https://www.city-journal.org/article/brooklyns-chinese-pioneers
Friday, August 22, 2025
Stony Brook Steve and I had lunch at Shanghai Dumplings Fusion, 158 West 72nd Street, awkwardly named, now beyond its "soft opening," but not seeing much traffic. We have been there several times, never more than the second party eating in. I hope things improve. This neighborhood loaded with Members of the Tribe can absorb more Chinese restaurants.
Actually, I ordered Thai, Pad Thai, rice noodles with chicken, red onion, green onion, bean sprouts and lots of ground peanuts ($15.95). The very generous portion was very good. Let's keep them in business.
. . .
It took Donald Trump to make John Bolton likeable.
What a conundrum! Do we judge the work by the life of the artist? Can the worth of the work stand alone? I cannot decide.
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