The Fifth Beatle, Once Removed?

Saturday, October 24, 2026

Malcolm Gladwell makes some very surprising points about American policing in a recent article in The Atlantic.  America Has a Police Shortage - The Atlantic

 

He asserts that we are under-policed in quantity, if not in quality. He compares Los Angeles and its 8,500 person police force to Berlin, of about equal population, and its 18,000 police officers in a far more compact area. Similarly, Phoenix has 2,500 police officers while Munich, with a population of roughly the same size, has nearly two-and-a-half times as many. Dallas and metropolitan Brussels have comparable populations; Dallas has 3,100 officers, Brussels 6,700.

Sunday, October 25, 2026
Cousin Jerry Latter and I went to the annual memorial meeting of the Zuromin Landsmannschaft (a benevolent society for Jewish immigrants). Jerry's paternal grandfather and my paternal grandmother, brother and sister, were born in Zuromin, a town 75 miles northwest of Warsaw. My father was also born there. The 40 or so people in attendance had roots in Zuromin, up to four generations back. Once about half Jewish, Zuromin is now Juden frei.

The meeting was held at Noah's Ark, 493 Cedar Lane, Teaneck, New Jersey, a Kosher delicatessen. On the subject of Kosher delicatessens vs. Jewish delicatessens, see https://share.google/6w6iq7TEwF2vt0pEZ. Lunch was included. The tables were set with coleslaw, wonderful garlicky pickles, Caesar salad, French fries and small pitchers of Coke and Diet Coke needing frequent refilling. I ordered matzoh ball soup, matzoh ball A, soup C, and a corned beef sandwich, B because of its modest size. 

A couple of people who recently visited Zuromin spoke and we heard of plans to restore the town's Jewish cemetery, now an overgrown, unmarked field. I recall my father saying that he had no need to visit Europe, he was born there.

Monday, October 26, 2026
I won't dignify the food critic taking part in a tasting who made this absurd statement: "The cookie part is as solid as can be, but I found there to be an excessive amount of chocolate chips."

Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Dear American Jews,
The polls in Israel closed a couple of hours ago. Nothing definitive is yet known about the results except that Jewish voters seem to be narrowly split between pro and anti Bibi Netanyahu camps, giving each side 50 or so seats in the Knesset (the unicameral legislature with 120 seats). Arab parties (about 20% of the Israeli population are Arabs -- Muslim, Christian and Druze) are expected to gain 18 or so seats. During the campaign, Jewish candidates denied any interest in Arab participation in a new government. Under these circumstances, neither bloc will encompass 61 seats needed to form a stable government. 

I believe that Netanyahu has, as the columnist Ezra Klein wrote last week, won the Middle East and lost the world. Removing him from office is a vital step in restoring integrity and respect to Israel internally and externally. Survey data show that a majority of American Jews share this view. Unfortunately, many Israeli Jews, responding to the perilousness of their geopolitical position, feel that Bibi the Warrior is their best protector. Israel, unlike all of its neighbors, is a vital democracy with very high civic engagement, Jew and Arab alike. The results, though, seem to continue to be harmful, even dangerous, to all concerned.

Wednesday, October 28, 2026
What do these locations have in common?
Round Lake, Illinois; Qulin, Missouri; Richfield, Wisconsin; Asheville, North Carolina; New Philadelphia, Ohio; Amarillo, Texas; Lake Isabella, California.

All are the alleged origins of recent telephone calls about my phantom loan request for my non-existent business. Chirpy voices promise easy processing of up to $500,000. I have received one call a day for months, too often while I am napping. Requests to desist result in an immediate hang up. Blocking won't work, because the same number never appears twice even as the prerecorded message repeats.

In 1927, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote "Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society." Today, the price seems to be robocalls.

Thursday, October 29, 2026
So, the provost of Dartmouth University wrote an essay for the Washington Post about student cheating using A.I. Used A.I., he's gone.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/28/us/dartmouth-santiago-schnell-ai.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

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Final result of the Israeli election: Netanyahu supporters, 53 seats in the Knesset; Gadi Eisenkot supporters (opponents), 48 seats; two Arab parties, 19 seats, a record high, including one retired Jewish senior police officer. In the last election in 2022, the Netanyahu bloc won 64 seats and the Arab parties 10 seats.

Friday, October 30, 2026 

Friday factoid: Paul McCartney is married to the ex-wife of Bruce Blakeman, Republican candidate for Governor of New York State.

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Stanford law professor Nate finished his lecture at Columbia Law School early enough to have coffee and cake with me at Rosetta Bakery, 1928 Broadway, this afternoon. We shared a cannoli and a fabulous pistachio mousse chocolate concoction as we recalled old memories and created new ones. 

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I got home to a great message. The New York Times accepted my comment about a column by Nicholas Kristof. Nicholas Kristof writes, "Another hard lesson I learned covering Tiananmen: Victims lie or, more charitably, misremember. It’s human nature to doubt oppressors and believe victims . . ." Unfortunately, he may have forgotten this lesson when commenting on the wretched circumstances of the conflict in Gaza.