Saturday, February 21, 2026

And Many More

Saturday, February 14, 2026
No, I never met Jeffrey Epstein. I never went to his Manhattan townhouse, his Caribbean island, his New Mexico ranch or, as far as I know, to any gathering where he was also present. However,  I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more than three degrees of separation between us, that is that I know somebody who knows somebody who knew Jeffrey Epstein. Had I, in fact, met him at a wedding, a funeral, a fundraiser, a birthday party, what might I have learned about him in the course of an evening?

It’s unlikely that he would have offered his rap sheet in lieu of a business card. Would someone have followed him around warning of his toxicity? I am not excusing anyone who appeared in his orbit. I am just asking when should the finger pointing begin? 

During the Watergate scandal, Republican Senator Howard Baker repeatedly asked witnesses about President Richard Nixon, What did he know and When did he know it? For Donald Trump vis-à-vis Jeffrey Epstein, the answers seem to be Everything, Forever.
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We saw an early evening showing of a movie that I highly recommend, Shttl. It’s about a Jewish village on the Ukraine-Poland border on the last day before the Germans invaded in 1941. The missing e in the title represents the massive loss that ensued. The dialogue is almost entirely in Yiddish, which I enjoyed hearing, and the movie is shot in one take, no cuts, no fade-outs, a very demanding technique. 

It is not sloppily sentimental and there are no mock heroics. Seek it out. It’s likely to appear in your artier venues or local Jewish film festivals. It may be coming to Apple TV as well.

Sunday, February 15, 2026
“About 250,000 people demonstrated [in Munich] on Saturday against Iran's government.”

Meanwhile, on the Columbia University campus,  the hunger strike against the planned Mel Brooks film festival reached its fourth day.
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I found an intriguing phrase in an interview with  Anand Giridharadas, a sociologist, about Jeffrey Epstein’s circle of friends. There was a “paucity of bravery.” He extends this view to “people in academia, in law firms, in corporations” who have contempt for Donald 
Trump, but lack the courage to express it out loud.

Monday, February 16, 2026
Sky Pavilion, 325 West 42nd Street, a good Chinese restaurant, hides in plain sight. It sits across from the Port Authority Bus Terminal, rarely a destination for foodies. Tom Terrific was unaware of it even though he lives one block away. Its 15 tables range from two-tops to a ten-person round table. We occupied the sixth table when we met for lunch as the city continues to defrost after its recent Arctic spell.

The menu was much more daring than I expected, with animals and their parts not normally offered for consumption, such as Sliced Pork Ears w. Garlic Chili Sauce ($16.95); Spicy Sichuan Flavored Duck Tongue ($20.95); Braised Pig Brain w. Gourmet Pork ($29.95).

Feeling our age, we took a conservative path, sticking mostly to what was labeled “American Chinese Food,” found on the last five pages of the 59-page menu. We shared chicken soup dumplings ($9.95 for five pieces); Dan Dan noodles with a spicy kick ($9.95); Singapore mei fun, a large portion with shrimp, pork, egg, chicken, bamboo shoots, onion, green peppers, red peppers, not enough of the characteristic curry spice ($16.95); crispy jumbo shrimp, six pieces in a sweet sauce which took away the crispiness ($22.95).

Tuesday, February 17, 2026
I don’t know how Michael Jordan, retired basketball superstar, and Adam Fox, active New York Rangers star, feel about having our birthday coincide with the start of the Year of the Horse. Neither of them joined us to celebrate at lunch at Le Bernardin, 155 West 51st Street, thereby missing a great meal. Of course, the occasion was thoughtfully arranged and sponsored by my young wife.

We had the three-course prix fixe lunch, the only option in the main dining room at $130. Go for it at least once in a lifetime. It might be the best meal that you’ve ever had. 

It started with three amuse-bouches, so delicious that I failed to pay attention to the waiter’s detailed descriptions. My taste buds recall that one was a sliver of cod in a fruity sauce and one was a lobster bisque. First course was “Layers of Thinly Pounded Yellowfin Tuna, Foie Gras, Toasted Baguette, Chives.” The last duck had left the house by the time that I ordered my second course. Instead, I was served “Pan Roasted Filet Mignon; Celeriac ‘Bone Marrow’; Red Wine-Shallot Sauce” without the $25 supplement charge.

For dessert, I chose the sticky toffee cake with coffee ice cream. But, more followed. Since someone squealed, I was presented with a decadent chocolate cupcake with candle on the side. Then, both of us got petit twos (far too small to be petit fours), chocolate and coffee and maple flavored. A handshake to the woman at the next table with the same birthday and home for a nice nap.

Wednesday, February 18, 2026
As I was drinking a liter of sparkling water at lunch yesterday, I was thinking Is it seltzer or Is it club soda? Well, it might be either. Seltzer and club soda are types of sparkling water. 
“Sparkling water (or soda water) is naturally carbonated and often contains natural minerals, while club soda has added minerals, and seltzer has none.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/foodnews/what-s-the-difference-between-seltzer-club-soda-and-sparkling-water/ar-AA1UmUON

Problem solved.
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A serious and seemingly intractable problem is Arab-Israeli relations. “A violent and criminal effort is underway to ethnically cleanse territories in the West Bank.” Spoken by some rabid antisemite? No, Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister.  
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This headline popped up on-line this evening. “U.S. Military Moves Into Place for Possible Strikes in Iran”

This is crazy. The oppressive Iranian regime is near collapse. “Iran is experiencing its deepest and longest economic crisis in modern history.”
This produced large public protests which the government violently repressed, “leading to a death toll estimated at between 3,117 (per Iranian government)to upwards of 36,500.” Foreign intervention will only distort, if not deter, the process of regime change. Hands off!

Thursday, February 19, 2026
It may be good to be the King, but in Great Britain it’s not good enough to be a Prince.

Friday, February 20, 2026
This morning’s United States Supreme Court ruling on the president’s power to impose tariffs again demonstrates why Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito are begging to be retired. On every matter where Donald Trump has pushed against the established norms of governance and politics, they have unfailingly supported him, often turning recognized standards of jurisprudence and logic on their head. They are obviously crying for help, asking relief from the tedious task of pretending to examine the issues and reaching an independent conclusion. Let them go.
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We ended this historic week by hosting the Supper Club. In fact, madam did the work with contributions by Eva and Susan. I merely attended. A good time was had by all.

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Saturday, February 14, 2026

Cold Front

Saturday, February 7, 2026
True to our rugged pioneer stock, we went out in the cold twice today. In the morning, we ran an errand in the Bronx. We drove and I sat in the warm car most of the time. In the evening, when the wind-chill reached negative double digits, we were lucky to get a taxicab right away to see the short-term revival of High Spirits, a musical version of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit. The score was very good, the performances uneven. 

Again, a taxicab was immediately available to get us home quickly. This seems unremarkable to the normal human being, but notable for me. Until not too long ago, I would have stood out on the sidewalk waiting for a bus in the frigid air, not necessarily because I am cheap, but because I was raised in a taxicab-free environment for three reasons. My father always had a car that he needed for work; taxicabs never entered our Brooklyn neighborhood; we could not afford the luxury. 

I can’t recall riding in a taxicab before I went to college when I found myself in a strange neighborhood late at night after an unsuccessful date trying to get home. Now, with the combination of the ravages of age and the realization that I can’t take it with me, I finally have grown comfortable hailing a taxicab. By the way, my lovely young bride never encouraged or approved my stubborn resistance to convenience.

Sunday, February 8, 2026
We braved the cold, single-digit Fahrenheit temperature to go to ShopRite, 40 Nathaniel Place, Englewood for some serious grocery shopping. On the way, we stopped for lunch at the Brownstone Pancake Factory, 717 East Palisades Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, a diner on steroids. The place was packed and there were birthday parties all around us. Unfortunately, the result was very poor service, not usually our past experience.

I skipped the Fried Oreo Cheesecake Pancakes and the Salted Caramel Pretzel Pancakes and ordered the Downtown Pancake Wrap, scrambled eggs, cheddar cheese and sour cream wrapped in an oversized buttermilk pancake ($19). I left half of it over. It was dry and dull. I later realized that the sour cream was missing, an element that might have made it messy and more interesting.

Monday, February 9, 2026
Over 40,000 U.S. home-purchase agreements were canceled in December, a record high even as mortgage interest rates fell during the month. 

This squares with a decline in consumer confidence in December. 

Are Americans ignoring the cheery economic news coming from the White House? “About three-in-ten U.S. adults (28%) rate economic conditions in the country as excellent or good, while roughly seven-in-ten (72%) rate them as only fair or poor.” 

Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Stony Brook Steve and I had lunch at Tacombi, 377 Amsterdam Avenue, a large Mexican restaurant. It was almost empty today in contrast to the full house the last time that we tried to get in. 

We both had the LunchTime Taco Plato, two tacos, rice & beans, $13.99. For a moment it helped us put winter aside. Steve had Crispy Chicken Tinga Taco and Black Bean & Sweet Potato Taco; I had Crispy Chicken Tinga Taco and Baja Crispy Fish Taco. Each taco was based on two soft 5" tortillas, liftable without accident. This was plenty to eat. I drank Agua de Sandia, watermelon agua fresca ($5), very refreshing. 

Thursday, February 12, 2026
Who says elections don’t make a difference?
“President Trump on Thursday announced he was erasing the scientific finding that climate change endangers human health and the environment, ending the federal government’s legal authority to control the pollution that is dangerously heating the planet.”

Friday, February 13, 2026
I was in Midtown East for a doctor’s appointment at lunchtime. So, I looked at a map to see what’s around. I lived in the neighborhood for 23 years, but it is almost 23 years since I moved away. The changes have been substantial. The atrium at Citigroup Center, 601 Lexington Avenue, used to have a few cafes and random seating. Now, it is a full scale food court called The Hugh, a "Culinary Collective." Named for the building's architect Hugh Stubbins, it has a diverse variety of 15 vendors. 
 
I went to Jumieka NYC, featuring the flavors of Jamaica. Accordingly, I ordered jerk chicken accompanied by rice & peas ($16). It was very tasty, just spicy enough. In total, there was enough food, although I wish the abundance of rice had ceded some more space to the chicken.
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New to the neighborhood, as I remembered it, is the NYC Anxiety Control at 220 East 54th Street, something certainly needed. I imagined that it was an enormous enterprise considering the dimensions of New York City anxiety. However, it was merely contained within the confines of Suite 1 at that address. If only our trepidations could be that easily contained.
 
 
 


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Saturday, February 7, 2026

Away and Home

Saturday, January 31, 2026
It’s good to be the Queen. Melania’s “Mar-a-Lago closet (where she has a drawer just for sunglasses).”
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One of the challenges for a legal system is the wrong without a remedy. A set of circumstances, reeking of injustice, that evades legal resolution. A crime identified beyond the statute of limitations is one example. Another might be conduct by an immune party. While there is the maxim “Equity Will Not Suffer A Wrong To Be Without A Remedy,” often the remedy was a fine or cash payment as ineffective to restoring harmony as giving flowers to an aggrieved spouse.


Affirmative action is an attempt to correct the injustices (crimes) of centuries. Lyndon Johnson said, “You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, ‘you are free to compete with all the others,’ and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.” 

A broad variety of endeavors followed this understanding. Where there had been legal, social and economic barriers to full citizenship for Black Americans, government, industry, educational institutions and other organizations began to provide opportunities to opportunity.

These days, we have a surge of ahistoric freedom fighters who seem to have just awakened to injustice.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/us/politics/affirmative-action-ruling-dei-lawsuits.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

They seek remedies without recognizing the wrongs. They tout color-blind policies without understanding or acknowledging the corrosive effect of color on American society over 400 years. Chief Justice John Roberts may be the most notorious example in public life. In the PICS case, 551 U.S. 701 (2007), he wrote “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” The discrimination on the basis of race that concerned him was the preference given to non-white students over white students in high schools selection under certain conditions in a school system not previously legally segregated. It was sufficient for Roberts to wake up that morning to a legal landscape free of segregation. His tautology easily followed. He placed us in a legal, moral, economic, social and psychological Garden of Eden.

Sunday, February 1, 2026
I have an inconsistent history with rabbis. Those few that I liked I knew well. Maybe I had to know them well in order to like them. At a distance, I was inherently skeptical. These days, two rabbinic couples have my admiration. One I’ll spare the embarrassment of being associated with me, but I want to cite the other.

Rabbi Raysh Weiss is the co-spiritual leader of Temple Israel Natick, a healthy Conservative congregation in the Boston suburbs. Her husband Rabbi Jonah Rank is the rosh yeshiva (Capo dei capi) and President of the Hebrew Seminary -- a Rabbinical School for the Deaf and Hearing in Chicago. This morning, it is Jonah’s father that I sought.

Rabbi Perry Raphael Rank, retired as a pulpit rabbi for over 40 years, just published Two Minute Torah, Ancient Wisdom and Modern Thought For Every Day and Every Night. The book is structured to follow the Jewish calendar and offers two passages of Torah with some commentary for every day, one for the morning and one for the evening. Each section takes only two minutes, a radical contrast to the amount of time that it usually takes a rabbi to express her/himself. At best, the two-minute episode will echo much longer.
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Son, daughter-in-law, #2 grandson and one-and-only granddaughter joined us for dinner at Bosse Enoteca, 310 Speen Street, Natick, in the Natick Mall, a major shopping center just across the road from our hotel. Until 2022, the site was a 94,000 square feet Neiman Marcus department store, closed by bankruptcy. The space now is jointly occupied by the restaurant and pickle ball courts. 

We ate well, on the whole, sharing arancini, three cheese-stuffed rice balls ($17); tuna tartare ($23); cheesy garlic bread ($9). I then had pappardelle, very al dente broad noodles with duck ragu ($24), while a couple of large portions of eggplant parmigiana were divided up ($22). 

Monday, February 2, 2026
Our return home was totally uneventful, clean windshield, no police.

Wednesday, February 4, 2026
From hole in the ground to hole in the wall to about 20 locations in the Northeast, most in the Holy Land, Xi’an Famous Foods is a remarkable success story. Starting in a kiosk in the basement of a shopping mall in Flushing, Queens, it moved to a tiny space under the Manhattan Bridge on the Lower East Side, just big enough for one customer at a time. 

Today, I had lunch at 328 East 78th Street, a newer spot. It has 20 low fixed stools against three stainless steel counters. The menus seem to be universal. I had a spicy cumin lamb burger ($7.65) and Coke Zero ($2.30).

Be advised that XFF is not like other Chinese restaurants. There is no eggroll, no rice, no fried stuff in sweet, sticky sauce. Spicy, everything is spicy. Bright red Szechuan pepper oil coats everything, including your hands by the time you finish eating.

Thursday, February 5, 2026
Paul Hecht, Thespian Emeritus, informs me that the British government announced on February 5, 1953 that rationing and price control on chocolate and sweets had officially come to an end across the United Kingdom. They had been in effect for more than 10 years. Had I been in Bristol rather than Brooklyn during those years, my baby fat might have been shed more quickly. 

More significantly, this illustrates the level of hardship and deprivation the UK experienced during and after WWII, unknown to most of us then and now.
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Today’s headline:
“Are ski jumpers enhancing their penises to fly further?”

Friday, February 6, 2026
Fortunately, Tina’s Cuban Cuisine, 940 Third Avenue, is right around the corner from the retina specialist who dilated my pupils and gave me a shot in the eye. Had I stumbled further I might have wound up a speed bump on a crosstown street. 

It was a good choice on its own terms. The front of the joint is occupied almost entirely by a steam table holding many items, mains and sides. Down a narrow corridor is room to sit with a dozen two-tops. I asked for a steak sandwich, bistec a la plancha, strips of broiled steak, lettuce, tomatoes and mayonnaise on a grilled sandwich roll ($12.95). It was good, slightly messy. Or maybe not, my sight so unfocused that I couldn’t really see where things belonged.
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The Spars hosted a lovely Shabbos dinner tonight, serving Tuscan bean soup and Chicken Marsala made by their collective efforts. Which reminds me that when a peasant eats a chicken, one of them is sick. The wonderful meal ended with chocolate chip biscotti f/k/a as Mandelbrot from the delicate hands of America's Favorite Epidemiologist.
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