Over Here/Over There

Saturday, May 2, 2026

We got a message this morning that said that "Gayle died last night." This was puzzling since the only Gayle (Gail) we could think of lives near Albany, New York and the message came from Florida. When I telephoned the sender, I learned that voice-to-text got it wrong. Gil Glotzer, whom I met in high school, died at age 85. After Stuyvesant, we went to different campuses of CCNY, but arrived at Cornell University at the same time, him in law school, me in graduate school. He has been a good friend for so long.

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Stony Brook Steve and his lovely wife Susan have been friends for about two decades, so we were happy to have dinner with them this evening at Canto, 2014 Broadway. The place used to be Luce (loo•chay), known for showing Susan to a bad table when it was otherwise empty. Tonight, it was jammed.

We shared a too small Caesar salad with only two anchovies ($18). Everything else was very good and amply sized. I had Pappardelle Cinghiale, wide noodles with a wild boar ragu ($26) and some of my young bride’s Tonnarelli Cacio e Pepe, thick spaghetti in a creamy sauce ($24). The waiter misheard my drink order and I wound up with vodka on the rocks which had a pacifying effect.

Monday, May 4, 2026

Caring Ken Klein suggested that we have lunch together, always a fine idea. We went to Vanessa's Dumpling House, 452 Amsterdam Avenue, an offshoot of a very successful business on the Lower East Side. It’s a very small place, narrow and deep, half a dozen two tops and some tables outside now that warm weather is approaching.

You order on a tablet or with a human; you pick up when your number is called. I had a small soup with four wontons, chicken and shrimp ($4.88). The broth was a little thin, but the wontons good and fresh. Then, I had a scallion pancake wrapped around Peking duck ($9.98). Actually, the wrapping was much closer to a sesame encrusted roll than a scallion pancake, but what’s not to like? To drink, I had an excellent coconut smoothie, an unusual choice for me, but a very refreshing one ($5.68).

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

What do Melanie and Jerry and Miriam and David and Marion and Peter and we all have in common? All of us are in England this week, in return for the visit of Camilla and Charles to the U.S. last week. 

We flew to London yesterday on a Boeing 777, an enormous plane. After the endless corridors of the airport, the distance to our seats seemed like a hop, skip and jump. The Gotthelf Gate Gambit was in play. Our departure was at Gate 2, right up front you would imagine. Ugh, ugh. At the furthest end of the terminal. The poor guy pushing my wheelchair had such a hard time that I offered to switch with him about halfway.

On the other hand, Madam had chosen wisely. In a section that had ten seats across, we had two seats alone facing a bulkhead, affording lots of legroom. Fortunately, nothing on the flight was more exciting than that.

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We are in a lovely boutique hotel in Knightsbridge, a posh neighborhood. The hotel is so swank that it has its own numbering system. Our room is #243 which is on the fourth floor not the second. In fact, the fourth floor would be the fifth in much of the Great Again America, because there is an unnumbered ground floor.

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We had dinner at Harry’s La Dolce Vita, 27-31 Basil Street, as we did on our two most recent visits. The excellent food and service in a very European setting is sufficient reason to return even if it were not two blocks from our hotel. By the way, blocks in London are rather amorphous, sometimes stretching great distances, but no two the same length.

I started with Zucchini Fritti, a large portion of lightly fried zucchini threads with a side of mildly spicy dipping sauce ( £8.50 ). A normal person might have been finished, but I soldiered on into a plate of Spaghetti allo Scoglio, fine spaghetti, sautéed king prawns, squid, clams & mussels, Datterini (plum) tomatoes, garlic & chilli (£24.95). I was definitely pleased although I had no room left for dessert.

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Inter Alia is coming! Inter Alia is coming! Joined by Lady and Lord Kennington, we saw this fabulous play written by Suzie MIller, brilliantly performed by Rosamund Pike (winner of the 2026 Olivier Award) this afternoon. It opens on Broadway November 10. If you can get out of bed, go see it.

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After the theater, we had dinner at The Ivy, 1-5 West Street, founded in 1917, now with branches all over the United Kingdom. Since I had a snack earlier at Canton, 11 Newport Place, a joint that I first went to in 1985, I was a little less hungry than usual. I ordered the delicious Ivy Classic Crispy Duck Salad, roasted cashew nuts, sesame, watermelon, ginger and hoisin sauce (£14.25). I didn't skip dessert, though. I had the Ivy Sherry Trifle, raspberries, strawberries, jelly sponge, vanilla custard and cream (£11.75). It needed more booze.

Friday, May 8, 2026

There is no question that the events surrounding Gaza have turned many people against Israel and have bred or released antisemitic feelings in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. Estimates of the deaths in Gaza exceed 70,000, from October 8, 2023, to the present. Just as it is idle to compare great sports figures from different eras, Babe Ruth vs. Shohei Ohtani, for instance, historical events have their uniqueness. However, some lessons maybe learned from this exercise. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, killed 2,403 people, presumptively Americans, according to Wikipedia. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killed at least 90,000 Japanese according to Wikipedia. Both dates, December 7, 1941, and August 6, 1945, haunt Americans and Japanese alike.

As I observe it, Americans and Europeans generally focus on October 8, 2023, and beyond, while we Jews cannot forget October 7, 2023, when 1,195 people, including 71 foreign nationals were killed in Israel, according to Wikipedia. 

Common perception  

December 7, 1941 = Tragedy / August 6, 1945 = Tragedy

October 7, 2023 = Incident / October 8, 2023 + = Tragedy 

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The many Middle Easterners in London come from all over the region, but their cuisine is generally identified as Lebanese. We had dinner tonight at Al Arez 2, 128 Brompton Road, one of a local group of five, the name meaning "The Cedars" as in the cedars of Lebanon. An open kitchen takes up most of the ground floor. The ground floor also has a handful of tables indoors and five outdoors, where hookah smoking is off

ered. There are two more floors upstairs. 

Its menu is lengthy, but we did not stray from the conventional, ordering Moutabal (Baba Ghanoush), smoked aubergine purée with tahini, pomegranate seeds and lemon juice (£9); Fatayer b'Sabanekh, Lebanese spinach pies shaped like hamantaschen (£9); and, mixed shawarma, shaved marinated lamb and shaved marinated chicken, served with rice, grilled tomato, grilled onion, grilled pepper and parsnip spears (£19.50). The table is set with a dish of olives, fresh pita, labneh (strained Greek yogurt) and muhammara (roasted red pepper dip), good by themselves or enhancing other food. I drank a non-ethnic strawberry smoothie (£5). By the way, the staff was mostly Lebanese, but the friendly manager is Moroccan. The food is Halal, of course.

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"A French academic is under investigation for inventing a Nobel-style prize for philology in order that he could win it."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g8pwjdp6do

Professor Montaclair meet President Trump.

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Financial news: 1£  = $1.35