Saturday, December 27, 2025

Holy Moley

Saturday, December 20, 2025
I failed to mention last week that the fabulous evening hosted by Aunt Judi was to honor the memory of our in-laws, the parents of her husband and my wife.
.  .  .

Mel Scult, distinguished Judaic scholar, spoke at synagogue services today about Death. On the whole, he was against it.
.  .  .

We went to the theater tonight to see a revival of Bug, by Tracy Letts, winner of a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for other plays. Our consensus is that there should be no prizes for this sorry play, dealing with an increasingly paranoid man’s relationship with a despairing woman. 

Entering the theater, everyone had to hand over a mobile phone to be sealed in a locked pouch, opened upon exiting. The reason became evident. It wasn’t just the comfort of the audience being protected from jarring jangling. The leads performed nude in several scenes. 

Sunday, December 21, 2025
Happy Birthday, Irit, dedicated mother, talented lawyer, caring human being.
.  .  .

This New York story has broad implications. 
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced the appointment of Catherine Almonte Da Costa as director of appointments, responsible for staffing City Hall, on Wednesday. But on Thursday, several posts on X where, as a teenager, she peddled age-old antisemitic stereotypes were published. Now, 33-years old, she was out of a job by Friday. 

Here’s the twist. Her husband is Jewish. “As the mother of Jewish children, I feel a profound sense of sadness and remorse at the harm these words have caused.”

In other words, you can run, but you can't hide.

Monday, December 22, 2025
This woman comes up with a good idea, software for college applicants and their family to submit the detailed paperwork for student loans. The market seems large and she claims widespread usage. So, JP Morgan Chase buys her company for $175 million. Unfortunately, reality and her financial statements went off in different directions. She was prosecuted for fraud and sentenced to 85 months in jail. Her deal with JPMC had an important sweetener, coverage of legal fees. Now, she is asking the bank for $73 million to pay the 173 people who posted time to her case and their expenses. My favorite entry -- $529 for gummy bears.  
I know that my readers are very attentive to details and were disturbed by my account of the aborted trip planned for this past June. Madam and I were flying to London for several days where we expected to spend time with Lord and Lady Kennington and Barbara and Bernie, cousins of cousins, Americans who would also be visiting. Then, on to Israel, joining the East Coast and West Coast branches of our family for a bang up birthday celebration for the Matriarch.

However, Iran and Israel started slinging rockets at each other, causing Israel to close its airspace partially and then entirely for a time. Our travel booker quickly refunded the airfare for the London-Tel Aviv leg of our trip and blithely advised us that we could still enjoy our flights to London from New York and from Tel Aviv to New York and they were keeping 80% of our money. They were unconcerned that the triangle was missing an angle.

Letters and phone calls to the travel booker and the airlines, and letters to the New York Times and WNBC’s consumer reporter evoked a bit of sympathy, but nothing more for six months. Until now! Two large credits just popped up on our credit card statements. Mirabile dictu. We have been made whole.

Thursday, December 25, 2025
Maybe Jews have to go only to a Chinese restaurant on Christmas. Trying to beat the stereotype, we went to Baazi, 2588 Broadway, an Indian restaurant we’ve been to before. We started with Benarasi Aloo Tikki, “potato galette topped with grape chutney, layered on sweetened yogurt,” a very tasty appetizer ($14). I ordered Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani, Indian chicken potpie, my go-to dish ($22). Madam chose Kofta Paratwala, “layered vegetable dumpling, served on a sweet corn curry” ($20). Rice and naan, too.

Then, the wait to be served began. Often, an Indian restaurant has one harried waiter for a handful of tables. Tonight, there were three harried waiters for a handful of tables, but three seemed to be a multiplier of time needed rather than a divisor. The Kofta sounded appealing; the taste was not when it finally arrived. The manager replaced it with saag paneer, not charging for either.

Lesson learned. Next year in Chinatown.
 
Friday, December 26, 2025
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth: "Today we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. May His light bring peace, hope, and joy to you and your families.” Similar statements came from other federal government agencies. 

If I were a Christian, I might be concerned with the conflict of my professed faith with some of my policies, such as killing people in small boats on open water, cutting off health care from millions of Americans, recklessly picking up people off the streets and deporting them to unwelcome destinations. Blessed are the meek; stepping on their necks allows us to stand tall.
 
 
 




Posted by at 1 comment:

Saturday, December 20, 2025

Thank You, Aunt Judi

Saturday, December 13, 2025
Happy Birthday to my big brother who is approaching old age.
.  .  .

S.J. Perelman, one of the greatest humorists of the last century, declared, “I don’t know much about medicine, but I know what I like.” Interestingly enough, he said this long before people who don't know much about medicine were put in charge of our national health system. However, what they like is already doing harm.

Sunday, December 14, 2025
When I got up this morning, I saw a steady snowfall, the first of the year for us. Then, I looked at my phone expecting an update on the shootings at Brown University, killing two people and leaving others seriously injured. The lead story was worse, however. 11 people at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia were shot to death by at least two gunmen. I contrasted this immediately with the thought of my own Hanukkah gathering later in the day, two to three dozen people, not all Jewish, celebrating peacefully. 
.  .  .

Scroll down to this heading "How a Broken Benchmark Quietly Broke America" in this website https://www.yesigiveafig.com/p/part-1-my-life-is-a-lie for an interesting discussion about an uninteresting sounding topic, the poverty line. What's income inequality without a poverty line?

 
Monday, December 15, 2025
The news of the murder of Rob Reiner and his wife possibly by a family member added to the glumness arising from Brown University and Sydney, Australia. As if it couldn't be worse, the president, aiming to solidify his credentials for vile narcissism, responded to the terrible crime by putting himself in the center of the story. "President Trump blamed the late Rob Reiner's death Monday on the director's political views, saying he died from a 'mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.'" https://www.axios.com/2025/12/15/trump-rob-reiner-death-tds-charlie-kirk?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
.  .  .

Olde City, 201 Amsterdam Avenue, opened a couple of months ago. Well, opened a bit, because until a few days ago it was closed for lunch. A sandwich shop closed for lunch, not a brilliant marketing strategy. It is a tiny joint, occupying a space that previously held one unsuccessful Chinese dumpling place after another. It has no seating, only two short ledges to stand at, which deters a leisurely lunch.

Today, I finally got in, but only put it to a modest test. It specializes in cheesesteaks and the decor is strictly Philadelphia. I was in a hurry and on the way to physical therapy, so I passed on onions, peppers, sharp cheese, mushrooms and had merely a seven-inch toasted baguette with a generous portion of shaved beef and a dab of provolone ($17). It leaned to the bland side, which was my goal under the circumstances. Next time, full indigestion.
.  .  .

Another reason for a conservative lunch was my date with Gentleman Jerry and Gary Fix-It for the Ranger game tonight at Madison Square, preceded by free food and eats at the Chase Lounge, free that is after buying some expensive tickets for the game. Still, only a couple of hundred people out of the 18,000 attending get this perk. We had tacos, empanadas and skewered fruit. I am sorry that I failed to record more details, almost as much a failure as the Rangers on ice later.

Tuesday, December 16, 2025
I hope you are able to access this fascinating story from the New York Times describing how Jeffrey Epstein, a high school math teacher without a college degree, got into a world of wealth and influence.
.  .  .

After all these years, I learned that, in Hebrew, Hanukkah means dedication. If you think about it though, just about every religious holiday evokes dedication.

Thursday, December 18, 2025
"[D]rug overdose is the leading cause of death for Americans between 18 and 45 years old." https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/us/rob-reiner-family-murder-addiction.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
.  .  .

A couple of weeks ago, four of us went to The Corner, 698 Ninth Avenue, for a nice Chinese lunch, except we arrived well before the chef. Today, a different four tried again, successfully this time. As I've said before, The Corner has the disadvantage of being clean and at street level, unlike some of my Chinatown favorites. However, we persevered. It is tastefully decorated with distinctive Chinese touches including an array of fans pasted on one wall. There is a full bar, but we never got beyond Diet Cokes.

We shared sesame cold noodles ($8.24, credit card price); filet mignon egg rolls (2 @ $6.18); orange peel chicken ($19.57); beef chow fun ($16.48); Tuxedo Bomb, a chocolate cake base layered with milk chocolate & white chocolate mousse and covered in chocolate ganache ($10.30). We will return, hopefully the chef does too.
 
Friday, December 19, 2025
Aunt Judi, the Queen of the Kosher Kitchen hosted us this evening. There were 18 people, from me the oldest through her two great granddaughters. I can't speak for them, but I had a great meal: parsnip soup, health salad, string bean salad, corned beef, roast turkey (I got the drum stick), potato latkes, applesauce, vegetable kugel, frozen chocolate mousse, Coke Zero. My only regret is that leftovers are too far away.
Posted by at 3 comments:
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)