What's In A Name?

Monday, October 25, 2021

The real estate section offers an interesting list this week.  Where in the Americas are U.S. people looking at residential property via online searches?   https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/realestate/top-real-estate-destinations-in-the-americas.html  

 

No information is provided on outcomes.  Are these people headed for House Hunters International?  Are they looking to relocate or just vacation periodically?  Or, are they merely pretending to be busy when their spouse starts talking to them? 

 

The prominence of Mexico and Canada does not surprise me, although, because of my language limitations, I would have reversed them at the top.  The big surprise was Argentina in the 20th position, something that may well injure its vaunted pride.  Aside from Canada and its hockey teams, I  am most familiar with Argentina and consider it an attractive place to live, ignoring wild currency fluctuations. 

 . . . 

 

I went to Urbanspace Lexington, 520 Lexington Avenue, for lunch, the food hall carved out of the first floor of the Art Deco General Electric Building.  Two or three of the vendors have not reopened, consistent with my observations of light pedestrian traffic around Manhattan office buildings.  The few dozen other patrons were only a bit older than grandson Boaz.   For health reasons, seating has been restricted to an upper level, separate from food preparation, with a half dozen two-tops outside on Lexington Avenue or East 51st Street, where I perched after getting food from Bao by Kaya.   

 

A bao is a fluffy 4" dough disc folded over contents.  I had a combination, two baos -- shrimp tempura and Szechuan beef -- and popcorn chicken ($13.50).  The baos were crowded, the shrimp with red cabbage, red onion, cilantro, black sesame seeds and spicy mayo, the braised beef shank with carrot, red onion, cilantro, crispy shallots and Szechuan sauce. The popcorn chicken consisted of ten chunks of dark meat, slightly overcooked, but still on this side of tasty.

. . . 

 

Jews in America never had it so good.  We don't face the existential threat that Israelis do.  Despite persistent anti-Semitism, few opportunities are actually denied to us.  We have prospered in almost every corner of American life.  Yet, we continue to act, at times, like urchins begging for scraps of attention and approval.  Consider this article: "Why this will be the most Jewish World Series in baseball history."  https://forward.com/culture/477100/world-series-jewish-baseball-alex-bregman-garrett-stubbs-braves-astros-joc/?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_3080695 

 

If that's not enough, the same online edition of The Forward has "The NHL has a historically good set of Jewish hockey players right now."    https://forward.com/fast-forward/477117/the-nhl-has-a-historically-good-set-of-jewish-hockey-players-right-now/?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_3080695 

 

Message: Look at us.  We're normal.  Be nice to us. 

 

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

R.I.P. Herb Downer 

. . . 

 

An appointment with dedicated dermatologist Dr. Donnelly downtown gave me the opportunity to have lunch at 1803 NYC, 53 Reade Street.  So, what's with the name?  It's not the address and doesn't reflect a significant date in the history of the Holy Land.  It hearkens back to the date of the Louisiana Purchase, I was told, and accords with the restaurant's Cajun/Creole cuisine.  

 

About two dozen white-painted tables sit on the sidewalk under a sturdy shelter, decorated with faux foliage, attractive nevertheless.  Only one other table was occupied when I started eating at 2 P.M.  I never even peeked inside.  I had two appetizers, pricey but very good -- buttermilk fried oysters rolled in cornmeal ($18) and Cajun blackened shrimp ($12).  There were five pieces in each order, which made for an ample meal. 

 

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

The Boyz Club gathered for lunch at Joe's Ginger, 25 Pell Street.  While it promised outdoor seating, the seven of us could only be accommodated inside at a conveniently sized round table. We ate a lot -- soup buns, scallion pancake, beef pancake (scallion pancake wrapped around beef slices), cold sesame noodles, Singapore mei fun, beef chow fun, orange beef and spicy fried chicken on the bone.  The soup buns were the only item that rose above average, but there were no leftovers either.  It amounted to $22 per person. 

 

Thursday, October 28, 2021

The young cashier at Trader Joe's, 2073 Broadway, explained her name as soon as I pointed to the name tag that she wore.  Jazzmen.  Her parents were not in the music business, she said, but they wanted a distinctive spelling.   With that, I asked her to be patient for a moment while I extracted this classic photograph from the bowels of my phone.  

"A Great Day in Harlem or Harlem 1958 is a black-and-white photograph of 57 jazz musicians in Harlem, New York, taken by freelance photographer Art Kane for Esquire magazine on August 12, 1958. The musicians gathered at 17 East 126th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenue."  Wikipedia.   

 

With few exceptions, almost every important jazz musician of the time was standing there, including Dizzy Gillespie at the far right, sticking his tongue out at fellow trumpeter Roy Eldridge.  I identified a few others for Jazzmen, so many of whom were probably not even alive by the time that she was born. 

 

Friday, October 29, 2021

Headline in the business section of the New York Times: "Billionaires Of America Are Thriving."  Feel better now?

 

Campus Capers

Monday, October 18, 2021 

Every time that I read about a campus controversy these days involving a grownup irking near-grownups, I am reminded of the many CCNY classrooms that I sat in or even the few Cornell University classrooms that I stood in front of.  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/15/arts/music/othello-blackface-bright-sheng.html

Ideas not feelings were addressed in those classrooms.  It's difficult enough trying to shape brains, perish the thought of trying to reach hearts.  The saddest, most wrong-assed comment in the University of Michigan incident came from a freshman; “I was stunned,” she said, adding that the classroom was “supposed to be a safe space.”  No!  No! No!  You should emerge from the best classroom dazed, amazed, enthused, confused, enlightened, frightened.  Why bother to leave a warm bed otherwise?

By chance, a story about the reaction to comedian Dave Chappelle's rhetoric says "part of his enduring popularity is his ability to manufacture a sense of danger." 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/15/arts/television/dave-chappelle-netflix.html 

WARNING!

Comedy club closed to undergraduates

. . .

Manhattan shows signs of resurgence.  Automobile traffic seems as bad as it has ever been.  My trifecta of grocery stores, Trader Joe's, Fairway and Zabar's, are busy.  Upper West Side restaurants are crowded at meal times, although some others did not survive the lockdown.

You see the toll of the pandemic, however, in midtown where tall office buildings normally harbor thousands of accountants, secretaries, salespeople, computer programmers, copy writers, and others whose workday is spent at a desk.  They are, in many cases, working, but not coming to work.  A computer, a telephone line and a flat surface are often sufficient to earn their pay.  

This results in very light foot traffic in the 30s, 40s and 50s during office hours and ghostly quiet at night, outside the resurgent theater district.  Economic indicators are up, but few predict a dramatic surge in central city commercial occupancy, here or elsewhere.  An increasing trend benefits landlords and tenants, ordinarily as difficult as cooking up a tasty broth from oil and water, converting commercial space to residential use.  https://www.rentcafe.com/blog/apartmentliving/adaptive-reuse-apartments-2021/

 

Many of us may have already practiced sleeping at our desk.

. . .

Today, Canada celebrates Persons Day, the anniversary of Edwards v. Canada, 1929, which decided that women were eligible to sit in the Senate of Canada.  It overturned a lower court decision that women were not "qualified persons" and thus ineligible to sit in the Senate.

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Small world?  Alexis Lafrenière was the #1 pick in the National Hockey League last year and now plays for the New York Rangers.  Isabella LaFreniere is a member of New York City Ballet’s corps de ballet. 

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

This is a very unhappy headline.  "Police officers and unions put up a fight against vaccine mandates for public workers."  https://www.npr.org/2021/10/19/1047140849/police-officers-unions-vaccine-mandates-covid-19

"To Serve and Protect" is a phrase made famous by the Los Angeles Police De­partment and adopted, in various forms, by law enforcement agencies across the United States.  https://www.policemag.com/338692/to-serve-and-protect  It's likely that it will be replaced by "To Serve and Infect."

. . .

I had lunch at Bareburger, 2233 Broadway, one of two dozen local outlets in this chain.  There are six or so unsheltered tables outdoors, and a mix of booths and two-tops indoors.  About 2/3 of the seats were occupied at 12:30 PM and the sole server was being run ragged.  The menu is not as Spartan as the name.  It offers a variety of hamburger and chicken sandwiches, with a large group of add-ons.  The emphasis is on organic, but I ate there anyway. 

I had the "Dilly Chick," buttermilk-fried, all-natural chicken, organic green leaf, organic tomatoes, dill pickles, organic garlic aioli on a brioche bun ($12).  The aioli was well hidden, though, leaving the sandwich a bit dry and flat.  The French fries were notable, however, very crisp, probably twice-fried ($5).  

Thursday, October 21, 2021

A medical appointment took the Upper West Side's Power Couple to the North Central Bronx.  Mission accomplished, as lunchtime approached, we headed to the Bronx's Little Italy, very convenient to the Bronx Zoo and the Botanical Gardens, two treasures that we sometimes overlook.  

As always, the neighborhood was very crowded and even all the illegal parking spaces were taken.  Frustrated, I turned towards home when buona fortuna intervened and an honest, legal parking space opened up.  We only had to walk a little more than one block to Zero Otto Nova, 2357 Arthur Avenue, the casual partner to Roberto's Restaurant, 603 Crescent Avenue, a favorite, owned and operated by congenial chef Roberto Paciullo.

The interior of Zero seemed to reach as far as Yonkers, but we sat at one of the dozen outdoor tables, as you would expect from my epidemiological companion.  The menu is an abbreviated Greatest Hits of Italian American Restaurants.  I chose pizza and was rewarded with one of the very best pizzas in the world, even though the tomato-less, sausage, broccoli rabe and mozzarella combination (La San Mateo) did not match my pizza template ($16.95).  It was also large, a full 12" diameter.  I almost didn't finish it. 

Go to the Zoo, go to the Gardens, then go to Zero for lunch or Roberto's for dinner and I will humbly accept your thanks.

Oops

Monday, October 11, 2021

Last week, I threw out in passing the slogan of the Houthis, a major force in the Yemeni war, a conflict that I otherwise know nothing about.  "Allah is Greater, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam."  It's worth another look, especially for the benefit of my few remaining Gentile friends.   One might understand the antagonism towards Israel on geopolitical grounds or merely ethnic solidarity with Palestinians.  But, isn't the seamless segue from an anti-Zionist position to an anti-Semitic one exactly what we Jews often suspect as the mindset of so many of Israel's opponents?

. . . 

 

Every week there seems to be a report of a change in the real estate market.  We just read that "Signs Point to Better News for Buyers in the Home Market."  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/07/realestate/signs-point-to-better-news-for-buyers-in-the-home-market.html 

 

The has to be read very selectively, however.  Since 2019, listings are down substantially, while prices are correspondingly up.  What’s the “Better News”?  It could be worse.

. . . 

 

Another letter to the editor, unpublished. 

 

Maybe it's just generational, but I was disappointed to read Kassandra Frederique, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, state that "Twitter is where I get my news."  I believe that today's important issues, including her professional area of concern, often deserve more than 280 characters to examine.

 . . . 

 

I had lunch at Joe's Steam Rice Roll, 422 Amsterdam Avenue.  It's a very small place, one narrow storefront wide, third in a small chain that started in Flushing's Chinatown.  One wall is whitewashed brick, the other flat white paint above four feet of subway tile. There are five two-tops inside and three outside in a schmutzig shed.  The joint was busy, but almost all the business was takeout. 

 

Rice rolls are steamed squares of thin rice noodles rolled around stuff, effectively Chinese blintzes.  I had the Joe's Special, three 5" long rice noodles, filled with beef, sausage, egg ($9), the fanciest thing on the menu.  It was good, but not worth a special trip. 

 

Tuesday, October 12, 2021

I don't deny being ethnocentric, so I was pleased to learn that Macdonald's and Chick-fil-A have stopped selling bagels.  https://forward.com/culture/476413/imcdonalds-bagel-mcbagel-jewish-foods-discontinued-dunkin-donuts/?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_3001830  

 

Others see "bagels being a cosmopolitan mirror of multi-culturalism anchored in the Jewish identity."  https://journals.openedition.org/transtexts/249 

 

Still, you don't have to be Jewish to be repulsed by Everything Bagel-flavored ice cream.   https://www.eater.com/2021/1/25/22248809/everything-bagel-seasoning-ice-cream-jenis-cream-cheese-flavor 

. . . 

 

Dealing with the misuse of social media is a challenging subject within our constitutional framework which elevates individual rights over collective values.  Even if we could arrive at a legislative consensus, assuming we want one, reasonable implementation of controls may be impossible.   

 

I had a simple illustration of this in my e-mail inbox this morning.  Last week's blog was rejected by one of my young relative's firewall.  Given his devotion to Israel, Zionism and Judaism, I am sure that the motto of the Yemenite Houthis, also repeated above, was the trigger for the artificial intelligence mechanism controlling his messages.  Unless he is a collector of insults, I understand his desire to restrict such material. Of course, in this instance, I think that my opposition to this bile is evident, although too nuanced for AI.  

 

This reminded me of an occasion when I still worked for the New York State court system and learned that America's Favorite Epidemiologist had just published another important scholarly paper on perinatal HIV transmission.  The mothers were usually infected by their intravenous drug-using partners.  Well, this was too much sex and drugs for the court system's firewall and my attempt to fetch the article was barred. 

 

Will artificial intelligence ever be intelligent enough to separate the desirable wheat from the malicious chaff?  Human intervention seems impossible given the worldwide scope of social media.  Even if you were to trust someone to be your censor, too many millions of people and billions of dollars would be needed to monitor traffic.  

 

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

The weekly food section of the New York Times today is devoted to "the 50 most vibrant and delicious restaurants in 2021."  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/dining/favorite-restaurant-list-america.html 

 

The group is broadly national, only 5 are found in the Holy Land.  One of these is particularly interesting, Dhamaka, 119 Delancey Street, inside the Essex Street Market.  It is an Indian restaurant described as having "the unabashedly forceful cooking of the villages."  However, I admit to retreating from being unabashedly forceful when confronted with "clay pots filled with goat kidneys and testicles."   I am sure that it tastes good, as might almost any carefully prepared dish.  But, it would taste much better if I didn't know what's in it.

 

Food is about eating, not reading.  Suggested dining room motto: Don't ask, don't tell. 

. . . 

 

I never saw "Seinfeld" when it ran originally; I've only seen episodes in syndication, reruns.  Now, however, Netflix is streaming all 180 or so episodes and I have been watching them in order, usually 2 or 3 at a time.   It took me a month to watch all 86 episodes of "The Sopranos" several years ago, which were more than twice as long.  Generally, I find the Jersey boys more interesting than the  Upper West Side crew, certainly more decisive, a characteristic that I respect. 

 

In any case, my obsessiveness does not match Douglas Wolk's, who claims to have read 27,000 Marvel comic books over a five-year period and now has written All of the Marvels: A Journey to the Ends of the Biggest Story Ever Told.   https://forward.com/culture/476510/marvel-comics-all-the-marvels-douglas-woulk-shang-chi-ms-marvel-eternals/?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_3013538 

 

I do not have any desire to challenge Wolk's feat.  I was once an avid comic book reader and collector until an unflattering seventh-grade report card produced an apocalyptic reaction in our household leadership.  Overnight -- all gone, including a rare Batman 3-D just acquired.  That certainly taught me a lesson; hide your comic books better next time. 

. . . 

 

About a month after the observance of the Hebraic High Holy Days, the Boyz Club had their own celebration at Wo Hop, 17 Mott Street, the culinary Vatican of Chinatown.  We ate well in a shed outside, everything served with or on disposable ware.  The seven of us shared spare ribs, Singapore chow fun, chicken chow fun, eggplant with garlic sauce, chicken in orange sauce, beef with scallions and pork fried rice, leaving nothing behind.  Paying only $15 each added to the sanctity of the occasion. 

 

Thursday, October 14, 2021

33 Across - Run for fun, perhaps 

 

Friday, October 15, 2021

Don't accept my help, for your own sake.  A dear friend was in the hospital for a few days and told us that she was being released in the early afternoon today.  I insisted that I pick her up and spare her having to deal with some car service.  I drove across town and parked near the acreage consuming hospital complex to await her call. 

 

While the doctors were finished with her at noon, the paperwork took another hour-and-a-half.  I sat in my car, regretting that I didn't listen to my young bride's suggestion that I have lunch first before leaving.  When my friend called to say that she was finally on her way down, I pulled up in front of the hospital's main entrance eager to be reunited with her and with the bagel that I left thawing on the kitchen counter. 

I parked illegally, but strategically to be able see my friend and whisk her away quickly.  For several minutes, I watched people emerging, most seemed pleased to have received high quality medical attention.  However, there was no familiar face among them. 

There followed a series of telephone calls back and forth.  "Where are you?"  "I'm right in front of the door."  The caller and the called reversed with each call.  My notorious impatience soon took over.  "I'm standing next to my car, the silver sedan!  Look around!!  It says it right there, Weill-Cornell New York Presbyterian Hospital!!!"  Her terse response, "I'm at NYU."

. . . 

Answer = TYPO

We're Not #1!

Monday, October 4, 2021 

Yesterday, the New York Times commemorated the 70th anniversary of The Shot Heard 'Round the World, an event probably unknown to most living Americans.  https://nyti.ms/2Y5iqHa   

 

We still lived on Pitkin Avenue in Brooklyn, almost directly opposite P.S. 159, a fraction of a city block in between.  The fatal blow occurred just about 4:00 PM, so I was home by then.  My father, brother and I watched the game on our Dumont 13" television set, black and white, what else?  When Bobby Thompson hit the infamous home run, I remember bouncing up and down on our worn sofa in anger and frustration.  That's all that I remember.  

 

I was in the fourth grade, in the class of Mrs. MacIntyre, a tall, blond woman with an elegant, but warm demeanor.  Good friends Michael DiGiovanni and Sheldon Solomon were my classmates, among others, and they were most certainly Brooklyn Dodger fans also.  But, as vividly as I remember bouncing up and down on the living room sofa, I have no memory of replaying the events with my friends the day after.  October 4, 1951 joins November 23, 1963 and September 12, 2001 as dates lost in the shadows. 

 . . . 

 

Barney Frank, retired congressman from Massachusetts, described today's pseudo-conservatives precisely as believing that "life begins at conception and ends at birth."  The state of Mississippi exemplifies this perfectly.  It is currently before the United States Supreme Court facing a challenge to its abortion law (Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health), which directly defies Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the precedents on abortion.  

 

On the other hand, a new study identifies Mississippi as the worst place in America to give birth to a child, based on "health care costs, accessibility to care, and baby- and family-friendliness."   https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/30/realestate/best-places-to-have-babies.html 

 

Does Mississippi believe that what it lacks in quality it can make up in volume?

. . . 

 

Jay Stanley, the ACLU's leading expert on personal privacy, was able to meet me for lunch today.  We sat down at Sam Won Garden, 37 West 32nd Street, without a strip search to prove that I wasn't wearing a wire.  This large Korean restaurant has 10 plain tables outdoors, where we sat, and many more with full BBQ rigging indoors.  While the menu features Korean BBQ more than a dozen different ways, it also has a wide choice of other dishes.  The restaurant sits at the epicenter of an area densely-populated with Korean restaurants and retail businesses.  

 

We shared an order of "Fried Samwon Mandoo," six tasty sauteed dumplings ($12.95).  I then had a generous portion of bulgogi, thinly-sliced marinated beef ($19.95); Jay, "Yukgaejang Galbi Tang," a spicy beef soup with vegetables and glass noodles ($18.95).  Each dish came with a bowl of white rice and small portions of kim chi, dried anchovies and potato salad on the plate, in addition to larger quantities of the same items plus two halves of a marinated hard-boiled egg on the table to share.  We had plenty to eat and enjoy. 

. . . 

 

Heading home, I discovered a new outlet of Ess-A-Bagel, 108 West 32nd Street, where I once made my "office" on Third Avenue, when I was, to put it politely, on the margins of the American economy.  This new spot is just down the block from Penn Station and should do a huge volume of takeout breakfast business.  In fact, as I passed by in mid-afternoon, it was empty and, satisfactorily fed, I had no reason to try it out.  I can only assume that it continues to serve good, big, fat bagels and long may it prosper. 

 

Tuesday, October 5, 2021 

This survey of the nation's monuments comes up with total numbers that I could never guess at, although I am not surprised to find Lincoln and Washington at the top.   https://monumentlab.com/audit 

 

I was pleased that Martin Luther King, Jr. placed fourth, right behind Christopher Columbus, but troubled that only St. Francis of Assisi separated him from Robert E. Lee.  Other Confederate traitors appear, as well as other pillars of the faith (not my faith exactly).  It's an interesting collection. 

. . . 

 

Since I am still awaiting my MacArthur Foundation grant to allow me to broaden and deepen my resources, occasionally vital material eludes my attenuated attention.  The following insight was provided by Tucker Carlson several months ago, but remains timely.  "If you're wondering why so many people are being robbed, raped and killed in American cities right now, George Soros is part of the reason."  https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-george-soros-george-gascon-los-angeles 

 

I chalk it up to mere coincidence that Carlson, whose own monument was recently crafted entirely in white bread and mayonnaise, cites a prominent INTERNATIONAL JEWISH BANKER as the source of our miseries.   

 

Now that we have caught up with Tucker Carlson, let's check in with the Houthis, a major faction in the war in Yemen.  Their snappy slogan is: "Allah is Greater, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slogan_of_the_Houthi_movement 

 

Wednesday, October 6, 2021 

Chicken may be my favorite vegetable, so I made my first visit today to Fields Good Chicken, 36 East 40th Street, when I headed to an appointment with my periodontist next door to continue contributing to his children's retirement accounts. Fields offers rotisserie chicken, much healthier, but less fun than Southern fried chicken.  I had half a smallish chicken with honey spiced carrots (grade D) and "Smashed Potatoes" (B+, but small portion) ($14.75).  There is no need to rate the chicken, because there seems to be a common denominator in rotisserie chicken.  To be clear, retired New York State Supreme Court Justice Marjory D. Fields, my benefactor, is not associated with this enterprise in any way.  Just as well. 

. . .

 

Thursday, October 7, 2021 

We're #16!  It's not just Mississippi that lags in providing for the health and welfare of small children, our country spends a pittance of public funds in this area.   https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/upshot/child-care-biden.html?smid=url-share

 

Where are our Family Values?

 

Friday, October 8, 2021

Stony Brook Steve accompanied me to Wau, 434 Amsterdam Avenue, a new Malaysian  restaurant.  We ate outside, at one of about 8 tables in their hut along Amsterdam Avenue, and that detracted from the experience.  The hut was almost airtight, with only one open door.  While the temperature was mild, in the mid 70s, the bright sun exaggerated the greenhouse effect, making us uncomfortable.  Maybe this was why our water glasses were being refilled often.

The food wasn't bad, overall, a bit pricey.  I started with roti canai, the Indian pancake with buttery curry sauce that I invariably try at Malaysian restaurants ($9.50).  This version lacked the small pieces of potato and chicken usually floating in the sauce.  I then had nasi lemak, considered Malaysia's national dish -- rice, curried chicken, dried anchovies, hard boiled egg, cucumber slivers, boiled shrimp, boiled peanuts, sambal (chili sauce) -- served on banana leaf ($22).  There wasn't anything missing, but nothing memorable.   

I'll probably return to try noodle dishes indoors or on a shady day to conclusively evaluate the Wau factor. 

Senator Sinema Vérité

Monday, September 27, 2021

The headline in the real estate section asks "Is the Seller’s Market Over?"  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/23/realestate/real-estate-sellers-market.html 

 

A report that examined "more than 350 metropolitan areas nationwide shows that in the four weeks ending Sept. 5, half of homes sold went for over the asking price — down from a July peak of 55 percent.  Homes aren’t moving as quickly, either: 47 percent sold during this period went into contract within two weeks, down from the March apex of 56 percent."  I find the decreases less impressive than the remaining results.  "[H]alf of the homes sold went for over the asking price."  That has to have produced a lot of annoyed people, losing deals they thought were within range.  

. . .

 

Another headline accompanied a very powerful piece.  "Why Reparations Are Needed to Close the Racial Wealth Gap."  I am not completely sold on reparations to African Americans, although my hesitancy is now founded mostly on the How not the Why.  This headline got it wrong though, focusing on economics, not justice.  

 

In law and practice, our society has denied and defeated the ordinary aspirations of a significant portion of our population.  Yes, my immigrant grandparents had it hard when they came to the United States and had no government financial support until the introduction of Social Security.  They often worked in miserable conditions for miserable pay, but they were not enslaved and they were not systematically denied educational, housing and business opportunities on ethnic grounds.  They were also not the consistent victims of violence by public and private forces.  We can name one Jew lynched in the US, Leo Frank.  Notoriously, Mickey Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, two New York Jewish guys, were murdered in Mississippi in 1964, along with James Cheney, a local Black man, while working on a voter registration drive.  It was what they were doing, not who they were, that led to their death.

 

Meanwhile the Equal Justice Initiative "has documented 4084 racial terror lynchings in twelve Southern states between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and 1950 . . . EJI has also documented more than 300 racial terror lynchings in other states during this time period."   https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/report/

 

Additionally, a new study found that the "mortality rate due to police violence in non-Hispanic Black people from 1980 to 2019 . . . was 3·5 times higher than the rate for non-Hispanic White people." 

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01609-3/fulltext 

 

With the likely exception of Native Americans, no other group in our country has been treated so badly so long.  However we may quantify it, there is a huge debt to be settled.  

  . . . 

 

Tonight, we had a fine dinner with Barbara and Bernie, cousins of cousins.  We ate at Bistro Vendôme, 405 East 58th Street, a townhouse converted into a multilevel restaurant with a comfortable backyard patio where we perched.  And, the bistro was a bistro, with a menu that could have been drafted in the Sixth Arrondissement, including steak tartare, mussels, duck confit and French gefilte fish a/k/a quenelles.

 

We shared two orders of a delicious beet salad, topped with a 2-1/2" disc of breaded, baked goat cheese ($16).  At this point, I veered off into an inexplicably conventional direction, a hamburger.  Admittedly, it was covered with bleu cheese and accompanied by pomme frites, the polite name for fries.  It also cost $26, which elevated it from the ordinary.  Cooked exactly as ordered, weighing in at over a half pound of meat and served in one of the most comfortable and romantic local settings helped justify the price. 

 

Wednesday, September 29, 2021

I was lucky enough to have breakfast with Donna J., just one of the nicest persons that you will ever meet.  I hired her for a rookie consulting position in 1985, when she applied for a job that I had posted for a client.  "Nah, work for me, not for them," I said, breaking an unstated rule of dispassionate professionalism.  

 

Through marriages, one for each of us, a divorce for her, two children also hers, we have stayed friendly and mutually supportive.  I had proposed eating lunch at Good Enough to Eat, 520 Columbus Avenue, hoping to sneak in a piece of the excellent layer cakes they offer.  Fate intervened and we had to settle for breakfast.  Better luck next time, Grandpa Alan.  

 

Thursday, September 30, 2021

60 Across - It's often included in a good deal

. . . 

 

Tom P., my stockbroker, invited me to lunch today.  He is definitely in my Top 10 Protestants list, although I don't know if I can come up with many more.  I am almost two decades beyond my buy-in-the-morning-sell-in-the-afternoon days, which eventually left me with almost nothing left to buy with.  My holdings now are appropriately conservative for an alte kocker. 

 

We met at Le Grand Boucherie, 145 West 53rd Street, a magnificent space.  It occupies the entire arcade between West 54th Street and West 53rd Street, halfway between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue.  It is one of six passageways between office towers, more or less lined up from West 57th Street to West 51st Street.  The others either appear to be the extension of sterile building lobbies or waystations for garbage removal.  You can see how lovely the Bouch is by contrast.

  

 

There Is a balcony as well, resulting in possibly the largest dining space in the Holy Land now that Jing Fong in Chinatown, with 800 seats, has closed.  All in all, a beautiful setting to start something or end something.  It has a very extensive and expensive menu of bistro standards plus prime steaks and chops, but, and I rarely say this, the food is secondary. 

 

Friday, October 1, 2021

How fortunate for Senator Joe Manchin that his rugged West Virginia constituents need little, if any, government assistance.  After all, 29% of them are college educated and they have a median income of $26,354.  https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/west-virginia

 

We effete New Yorkers, by contrast, have a college education rate of 46.6% and a median income of $36,165.  https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/new-york  

. . .

 

Answer = ACE

Food With Friends

Monday, September 20, 2021

The weekend's real estate section had two interesting items.  First, "The Best (and Worst) Metro Areas for Electric Cars."  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/16/realestate/best-places-electric-cars.html 

 

Availability of public charging stations was an important factor in the ratings and the Left Coast has a big lead in that.  I don't know which came first -- acceptance or infrastructure -- but the prevalence of Teslas was apparent on our June trips to Northern California.  Here, the debate is only beginning on who should bear the cost of installing charging stations in residential complexes, especially since electric vehicles are still the exception. 

 

Secondly, describing the hunt for attractive housing in the Holy Land, the newspaper reported the following: "With a budget of up to $500,000 . . . the couple couldn't quite afford what they wanted in the neighborhoods they knew and liked, Harlem and Bed-Stuy."  This is provocative news; "bad neighborhoods" have become highly desirable destinations.  On the other hand, those folks who once had little choice of location, now face dramatic, possibly unbearable, increases in their housing costs as the stigma of their surroundings has disappeared.   

. . . 

 

Tonight is the first night of Sukkot, a seven-day Jewish holiday celebrating the fruit harvest and commemorating the exile in Sinai.  Accordingly, Jews erect and occupy temporary shelters (Sukkahs) for the week, akin to the makeshift quarters inhabited during the long desert trek.  Right now, it is hard to distinguish some Jewish neighborhoods from popular restaurant areas covered with the rough accommodations erected in response to Covid-19 protocols. 

 

Significantly, it was the first time in two years that I had the pleasure of enjoying and reporting on Aunt Judi's cuisine.  We missed two Passovers and last year's Sukkot, occasions when she usually demonstrates the latest and greatest in Kosher cooking.  So, we were delighted to accept the invitation to spend an evening in the Sukkah proudly constructed by Uncle Stu and eat portobello mushrooms covered by veal ragù, rolled and stuffed chicken breast, barbecued beef ribs, roasted cauliflower, carrot muffins and cole slaw.  Dessert followed, chocolate chocolate chip cookies and lemon meringue pudding.  As always, a fine assortment of wine came from Stu's collection -- all Kosher, food and beverages.  This certainly helps keep me on board. 

 

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

I have the advantage of having America's Favorite Epidemiologist under my roof, studying and analyzing the course of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Lacking that, other sources are available to you, including the pop star Nicki Minaj, who offered this insight on the worldwide vaccination efforts.  "My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent.  His testicles became swollen.  His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding."  Proceed accordingly.

. . . 

 

At Terrific Tom's suggestion, the Boyz Club emerged from Chinatown and found its way to Ariana Afghan Kebab, 787 Ninth Avenue.  It is owned by Mr. Wali, who left Afghanistan in 1992, worked in odd jobs until landing at Ariana, which he was eventually able to buy, becoming a U.S. citizen along the way.  However, he was only able to get the rest of his family here last month. The seven of us ate outside in what we regarded as an Afghan Sukkah.  We shared spinach and chicken samosas and each had his own main course.  I had 4 baby lamb chops, marinated, spiced, served with basmati rice and salad.  Good food, good bargain ($23).  

 

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

We were back in a real Sukkah for lunch, guests of Butch and Toby in Englewood,  New Jersey.  We were joined by several people, including Jill and Steve, with whom we last traveled together to India in January 2020, a very long time ago.  The main courses were roasted salmon and roasted tilapia, served on platters of potatoes, peppers and onions cooked with them.  The highlights of the meal were the beginning and the end, mushroom caps stuffed with faux sausage and cheese (Kosher all the way) and chocolate-covered blueberries, homemade by another guest. 

 

Thursday, September 23, 2021

I drove up to the Northampton-Amherst area today for a mini reunion.  While I have seen Dean Alfange, retired from UMass, twice this year already, it was only the third time in over 50 years that we had the company of Lyell Henry from Iowa and Wayne Shannon from Ohio.  These three were of the "senior class" of Cornell University's Government Department's graduate students.  All went on to long teaching careers, while I, true to my Hebraic heritage, wandered the employment desert for almost 40 years. 

 

To prepare myself, I stopped for lunch on the way at Nardelli's Grinder Shoppe, 540 Plank Road, Waterbury, Connecticut, one of several in the state.  I have to deny the ugly rumor that I took this trip just to have a roast beef sandwich with all the fixings, a bag of pickle-flavored potato chips and Nardelli's private label diet root beer.  It's just not true -- entirely.  In fact, there were no pickle-flavored potato chips, so I had Old Bay® Seasoned potato chips instead. 

. . .

 

The reminiscences came hot and heavy among the four of us, although given the level of "maturity" that we have achieved, never did all chime in "I remember that."  Barbara Alfange joined the four of us for dinner, pizza, which to accommodate the variety of personalities at the table, seemed to have a different topping every square inch.  The evening ended with Wayne, who plays piano professionally, entertaining us with songs written no later than 1940, almost too progressive for Dean's taste.

Friday, September 24, 2021

We four old men met for breakfast at the Whately Diner, 372 State Road, Whately, Massachusetts.  It served its breakfast items in such large portions that I was satisfied with just one blueberry pancake.

. . .

I learned that Lyell, a student of the underexplored corners of American history, is working on a book about Pedestrianism, the sport of long distance walking, popular from the Civil War to the start of WWI.  While it gave rise to race walking, Pedestrianism was notable for the sheer distance covered rather than the time taken, which is how the American version eventually overshadowed its British origins.  https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210723-the-strange-19th-century-sport-that-was-cooler-than-football  

 

According to Lyell, New York to San Francisco was a typical course, although the popularity of Pedestrianism led to indoor contests at Madison Square Garden.  One of the superstars of the sport was Frank Hart, a Black man, esteemed and abused for his accomplishments.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/frank-hart-pedestrianism

. . .

 

One the way home, I met up with Marge C., retired plastic surgeon, active wonderful person.  We skipped lunch and went directly to Holy Cow Ice Cream Shop, 51 Church Hill Road, Newtown, Connecticut.  Holy Cow makes its own ice cream.  I had one scoop of Caramel Apple Nut, apple ice cream with peanuts and caramel swirl, and one scoop of Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip, chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips and a peanut butter swirl.  What's not to like?

 

Note that we were very close to the site of the Sandy Hook Massacre, where 26 people, including 20 children between six and seven years old, were murdered by one person with an assault rifle.  Thoughts and prayers were profuse nationally after this tragedy.  Connecticut, New York and Maryland enacted some gun control measures as a result; ten other states loosened gun control measures.  https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2013/04/post-newtown-states-loosen-gun-restrictions.html

 

The federal government did nothing.

 

 

 

Wait 'Til Next Year

Monday, September 13, 2021

As a partial antidote to the stories about September 11, 2001 on Saturday morning, I looked at the New York Times, first in print and then online, for a story about the Mets-Yankees Subway Series baseball game Friday night.  As a Mets fan, I was delighted by the 10-3 outcome. 

 

However, my enthusiasm was not shared by my favorite newspaper's sports section.  In the print edition, most space was devoted to the US Open tennis tournament and 9/11-related stories.  Online had far more stories - pro football, college football, US Open, high school basketball summer camp, 9/11, horse racing, pro soccer, disciplining a major league baseball player, auto racing, conviction of an Olympics big shot, pro surfing, Olympic diving, high school field hockey, tactics of baseball managers, dragon boat racing, Derek Jeter, obituaries, World Cup soccer, Mohammed Ali documentary and crimes by NFL players, alleged and convicted.  Not one word about the baseball game: nada, rien, gor nisht, niente, méiyǒu, tipota, nihil, zippo.   

 

Come on, fellas.  This is Noo Yawk we're tawkin' about.

. . . 

 

"Josh Mandel, Jewish Ohio Senate candidate, compares Biden’s vaccine mandate to the Gestapo."  Guess which political party he belongs to?

. . . 

 

Two years after I left Morton Street in Greenwich Village another legend arrived.  Kenny Shopsin took over a grocery store on the corner, applying his formidable culinary skills and idiosyncratic personality traits to make it into a landmark.  Calvin Trillin provided a good account of the man and his business in The New Yorker.   https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/04/15/dont-mention-it 

 

Shopsin's has moved twice and the owner has died by the time I actually caught up with it yesterday in its location inside the Essex Market a/k/a Essex Street Market, 88 Essex Street.  By the way, the Essex Market, created by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in 1940 to bring pushcart peddlers indoors for health and safety reasons, has moved across Delancey Street (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094921/) into a large, three-story building housing vendors notably removed ethnically, socially and economically from the original occupants.  

 

Shopsin's serves breakfast and lunch from an enormous menu to a handful of tables and a small counter facing the hectic kitchen.  The many dishes offer familiar ingredients in often unthought of combinations, for instance, "Chubby 2 Slutty Stuffed Pancakes - Mac’n Cheddar / Veggie Saus., Egg, Cheese" ($17) and "Gidget - Tuna, Avocado, Bacon, Tomato Pesto Bread" (I don't know if one or more commas is missing) ($17).  I had "Blisters on My Sisters - Broil Chedda over Sunnies, Peppers, Beans, Collards, Onions, Tomato, Rice, on Corn Tortillas" with diced chorizo extra ($19).  

 

It was excellent and, in ordering it, I broke one of the rules that Kenny used to punitively enforce: You cannot copy a neighbor's order.  Sitting at the counter, I could not avoid the lure of the Blisters being eaten by a young man nearby, although I almost stopped on my immediate right at "Bubba - Crispy Fried Shrimp, Grits, Eggs, Corn Bread" ($21) in front of his girlfriend.   The quality of the food was very high, the prices slightly high.  Note that currently Shopsin's is open only Wednesday-Sunday, 10 AM to 4 PM.  Do not wait as long as I did to eat here.  And, the young man at the counter taking orders showed none of the founder's fabled belligerence. 

. . . 

 

One thing that particularly annoys me about Republican politicians is how they give hypocrisy such a bad name.  Top of the list right now is their reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has already killed almost 700,000 Americans, presumably including some Republicans.  Republican governors, especially in states with high infection rates, insist on preventing proven public health measures, notably vaccinations and mask mandates, at least while a Democrat is in the White House.  Yet, such programs are everyday functions of their own state governments.   https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/12/us/politics/vaccine-mandates-republicans.html

 

Promoting the general welfare is not a new idea in American governance.  

. . . 

 

I had lunch today with Jeffrey Heller, licensed attorney, registered nurse, human rights crusader.  The pandemic has forced Jeffrey to suspend temporarily his crosscountry bicycle rides to raise awareness and funds for the just treatment of refugees.  

 

We went to Pho Shop, 141 West 72nd Street, a reliable Vietnamese restaurant with six rickety tables outside.  We each had a banh mi, the classic Vietnamese sandwich on baguette, his crispy fillet of sole, mine beef bulgogi (both $12).  Not only did I enjoy the sandwich and the company, but Jeffrey gave me this button advocating universal human rights.  

 

The sentiment is important, but note that FDR spoke it exactly 80 years before our failed Fascist putsch.  

 

Tuesday, September 14, 2021

My sandwich yesterday was Vietnamese, but the beef was cooked Korean-style.  Today, after a doctor's appointment in Tribeca, I sought a whole Korean restaurant, Gunbae, 67 Murray Street.  It's a deep, relatively narrow joint, with about 15 sturdy tables anchored to the floor.  Each has an embedded grill, with a sexy, chrome exhaust mechanism directly above resembling a submarine's periscope.  

 

I did not order BBQ, the house specialty in a dozen varieties, more appropriate for a dinner.  Instead, I had a large portion of japchae, rice noodles with thinly-sliced rib-eye, shredded carrots, yellow onions, chives, mushrooms, zucchini slivers and sesame seeds ($17).  It seemed too bland; the "oyster soy sauce" that it was cooked in lacked punch.  Or, maybe the hot, spicy, peppery taste of four of the six salads that accompany every meal threw my normally resilient taste buds off.  

 

Wednesday, September 15, 2021

I learned that 163 countries and territories prescribe motor vehicle traffic driving on the right side of the road, while 76 keep to the left.  That's an interesting, but useless fact. 

 

By contrast, an interesting and valuable fact is that California spent $276 million on yesterday's recall election, all in behalf of a Republican masturbatory fantasy.  Apparently rehearsing for every November to come in the future, they were crying Foul even before the first vote was counted.  Were they looking in the mirror, that would be an apt reaction. 

. . . 

 

Tonight begins Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.  A major myth wrapped around the Jewish High Holy Days is that the Great Decider opens the Book of Life for the coming year on Rosh HaShanah and seals it on Yom Kippur, having made the fitting inscriptions.  When Mother Ruth Gotthelf died a few hours before the (sundown) start of Yom Kippur in 2012, I allowed myself to believe that she had earned almost every minute of the year ending.  Today, fellow members of West End Synagogue may be experiencing similar feelings upon the news of the death this morning of Jane Weprin Menzi, a founder, builder and continuing supporter of our community.  R.I.P. 

 

Friday, September 17, 2021

Having just completed observing the High Holy Days, looking to both atone for past transgressions and setting forth on a more responsible path, I have to reach out to my Republican brethren.  I am sorry for my harsh words, my uncritical opposition, my narrow perspective.  Now, in 5782, I will try to act as a good Jew as long as you don't act like a horse's ass.

. . .

 

Two weeks ago, I presented a photograph of several pinpoints of light, far less than President George H. W. Bush's "thousand points of light."  Your response to me was hardly more enthusiastic than the country's to him.  The few guesses came nowhere close.   

 

The scene was my (really our) desk in a darkened room.  It shows that, rivaling natural moonlight or starlight, we have abolished darkness.  There were at least seven sources of light clustered together - computer, printer, router, mouse.  There were also a few more scattered around the room, beyond the camera's eye.   While I am only a modestly "green" person, I realized how much fuel is wasted by providing an unnecessary soft glow in millions of empty rooms. 

. . .

 

I anticipate having to apologize to Republicans again next year at this time on the brink of 5783.  However, today, I added another group that evoked atonement-worthy behavior.  At midday, I went out shopping and found more than a dozen Lubavitcher Hasidim congregating near the intersection of 72nd Street and Broadway.  Not one was wearing a mask, not around the chin, not around the elbow, not a mask in sight.  

 

Motivated by the Jewish obligation to "repair the world" (tikkun olam), I told each and every one of them that they were killing Jews by not wearing a mask.  I wasn't able to repair much of the world, however, because none of them seemed to speak English.  They had not been merely imported from 770 Eastern Parkway, Crown Heights, Brooklyn, they came from downtown Israel, where the CDC reports "Very High Level of COVID-19 in Israel."  https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/covid-4/coronavirus-israel

 

What a New Year's present.