Saturday, November 22, 2025

Pushcarts R Us

Saturday, November 15, 2025
This list of 25 of supposedly the world's best sandwiches is seriously flawed. While it temptingly describes the contents of each sandwich, it gets you no closer to the source than the country or city limits of where you can find it. 

Do they expect you to walk up and down the streets of Philadelphia saying "Cheesesteak, where are you?"
.  .  .

Last week, we went to a university in the United Kingdom for some ugly antisemitism. Today, it's UK, but much closer to home. University of Kentucky law professor Ramsi Woodcock "demand[s] that every country in the world make war on Israel immediately and until such time as Israel has submitted permanently and unconditionally to the government of Palestine.” 

Or am I unfairly conflating anti-Israel and antisemitism? How would a war on Israel not be a war on Jews?
.  .  .

Then, again, nasty people are everywhere, including Boston, where the president of the Boston University Young Republican Club called ICE to raid a neighborhood car wash. "I’ve seen how American jobs are being given away to those with no right to be here."
No doubt, the derision from pinkos like me is balanced by the gratitude of BU English majors afforded employment opportunities.

Sunday, November 16, 2025 
R.I.P. - Sid Davidoff, the youngest person on Nixon’s Enemies List.
.  .  .

Affordability! Affordability! There's hope for putting a roof over your head and still having a little left over for lunch, that is, if you live in Wichita, Kansas; McAllen, Texas; Little Rock, Arkansas; Toledo, Ohio; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, among other urban areas, where you can rent an apartment for under $1,000.

Assuming you don't need to take the subway to work, the selection isn't that bad. 
.  .  .

I was somewhat surprised at a survey of American rabbis, excluding only the most Orthodox denominations.  https://atrarabbis.org/research/rabbinic-pipeline-study/

Over 4,000 rabbis were polled; 56% work in congregations; 60% are men. "Among current students (projected ordination 2025 and later), 58% are women and 12% identify as non-binary . . . [and] an estimated 51% identify as LGBTQ." That's a very different face of Judaism than most of us grew up with.

 .  .  .

Saturday Night Live usually provides humor for the weekend. Today, Sunday morning provided some giggles when the Secretary of the Treasury explained in an interview that cows accompanying illegal immigrants across our borders are a reason for the inflationary beef prices. https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/cant-be-serious-trump-official-roasted-for-bizarre-take-that-migrants-bringing-cattle-with-them-are-to-blame-for-higher-beef-prices/

It makes for a healthier diet than cats and dogs.

.  .  .

The Boyz Club met at Wu’s Wonton King, 165 East Broadway, once the site of the Garden Cafeteria, famous for late night debates among the left-wing writers for the Yiddish publications down the block. It was a regular breakfast stop in my distant past, lox, onions and eggs with noodles and cheese on the side. I wish I could remember what it cost.

Today at lunch, it was Dried Scallop, Ginger & Scallion Lo Mein, curry beef brisket, soup dumplings, scallion pancakes, beef with bitter melon, shrimp with garlic sauce, “Famous Garlic Aromatic Crispy Chicken.” With all the trimmings, rice, tea and Diet Coke, it came to $21 for each of the six of us.

 

Wednesday, November 19, 2025
We watch a lot of stuff on Netflix. Right now, we are in the middle of The Beast In Me starring Clare Dane in the quintessential Clare Dane role, a woman living alone in a big house suspecting a powerful neighbor of murder. She’s so twitchy that I can’t believe that the fillings don’t fall out of her teeth 

.  .  .

 

Montclair (New Jersey) State University is going through a planning process, restructuring departments and programs. “The departments of English, classics, philosophy, world languages and Spanish and Latino studies, for example, will be grouped into the tentatively titled School of Human Narratives and Creative Expressions.”  https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/nyregion/montclair-state-restructuring.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
 

I have no doubt that this plan was created by administrators, not members of the departments of English, classics, philosophy, world languages and Spanish and Latino studies.


Thursday, November 20, 2025
Talk about gentrification. Orchard Street on the Lower East Side has just been named one of the coolest streets in the world by Time Out magazine.

Now, that was cool.


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