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Another letter to the editor, unpublished.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.

 

 

 

 

Do the Right Thing

Monday, September 6, 2021

This article says that "[w]ith the quick escalation of home prices during the pandemic, it’s become increasingly difficult to qualify for a typical mortgage."   https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/realestate/can-you-still-afford-a-mortgage.html 

 

The contrast between locations is dramatic.  To qualify for a mortgage on a median-priced home in San Jose, California requires an annual income of $286,703, while $38,275 is sufficient in Pittsburgh.  In fact, it's more than dramatic, it's extraordinary.  Yet, we get a different picture when we put it in terms that I can best appreciate.  A center ice ticket, 19 rows back from the ice, at an upcoming San Jose Sharks game in October is $183; the same seat at a Pittsburgh Penguins game is $219.  Of course, the Sharks have never won a Stanley Cup and the Penguins have three this century already. 

 

Now, I'll turn it over to a mathematician to determine how many hockey games it will take to even up the income differential between San Jose and Pittsburgh.

. . . 

 

Now, to move from the profane to the sacred or is it the other way around, I want to look at religious philosophy.  An essay suggests that "We Should All Be a Little More Like Dorothy Day."  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/05/opinion/dorothy-day-christian-labor.html?smid=url-share

 

Dorothy Day converted to Catholicism after leading a bohemian existence in Greenwich Village in the early part of the 20th century.  While adhering to the formal rituals of the Church, she lived her life to the challenging demands of the Sermon on the Mount:

• feed the hungry
• give water to the thirsty
• clothe the naked
• shelter the homeless
• visit the sick
  

She founded the Catholic Worker Movement which established Houses of Hospitality around the country putting these "works of mercy" into practice.    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_of_mercy#Corporal_works_of_mercy 

 

For those of us who only take holy water internally, this may still be familiar. "Gemilut Hasadim is the most comprehensive and fundamental of all Jewish social virtues, which encompasses the whole range of the duties of sympathetic consideration toward one's fellow man."  https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/gemilut-hasadim  

 

"A few examples of gemilut hasadim are clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, burying the dead, and visiting the sick."  https://www.123helpme.com/essay/Gemilut-Hasadim-Analysis-PJHLMLYQBG  

 

Tuesday, September 7, 2021

Today is the first full day of 5782, our new year.  When I first looked back to the year past, I lamented our failure in Afghanistan, having been raised on the myth of American omnipotence.  Then, I tallied our record with a more critical eye.  In the last half century, we have lost the War on Poverty,the War on Drugs, the Vietnam War, the War on Cancer and the Afghanistan War.  Maybe we should try pacifism. 

 

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

I had excellent professors of constitutional law in law school, but last night I learned an important lesson in the subject from Rachel Maddow.  Massachusetts had a law permitting churches to veto applications for liquor licenses in nearby establishments.  In 1982, the United State Supreme Court ruled that law unconstitutional in Larkin v. Grendel's Den, Inc., 459 U.S. 116 (1982), because it delegated state power to a religious institution in violation of the First Amendment.  The decision was 8-1. 

 

This decision may well serve as a precedent in attacking the new Texas anti-abortion law, which delegates enforcement to private citizens, just about any and all private citizens.  On the other hand, we have seen that the Coney Island Court is firmly exercising the political role designed by Mitch McConnell, so predicting reliance on Larkin may be wishful thinking.  

 

Thursday, September 9, 2021

I happened to be thinking about some great disc jockeys of the past, such as William B. Williams, Al "Jazzbo" Collins and Allison Steele, when I heard of the death of Phil Schaap.  With his encyclopedic knowledge of jazz and his relatively uninflected vocal delivery, he seemed to be an eternal presence on FM radio, WKCR, King's Crown Radio at Columbia University, yet he was only 70 when he died. 

 

Sometimes, I got impatient with Schaap.  While he put together long sets of great music, he would follow with equally long discussions of what we just heard.  It wasn't just the information that was once found on liner notes.  (For those of you under 50-years old - Liner notes were writings on the back cover of 12" long playing vinyl records, discussing the music and performers.  Note also that liner notes are a clue in the PBS series "Guilt," ending this weekend.)  Schaap would not only identify the date, place and even time of a recording session, but also the musicians who failed to show up.  He was brilliant and irreplaceable. 

 

Friday, September 10, 2021

"God Has No Place in Supreme Court Opinions"  Read this.    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/09/opinion/abortion-supreme-court-religion.html

. . . 

 

I had the pleasure of eating lunch with Irwin Wall, University of California professor emeritus of modern European history.  We agreed to meet at Szechuan Gourmet,  242 West 56th Street, which changed its name to Rong Cheng House by the time that we got there.  It has no outdoor seating, but we felt comfortable with only a few tables occupied indoors during our visit.  

 

At lunch time, it offers over 40 dishes plus soup and rice in addition to its regular menu.  We shared a very good scallion pancake ($5.95) and six gummy soup dumplings ($8.95).  Irwin enjoyed pork with baby eggplant in a rich brown sauce ($11.95), while I had a generous portion of Singapore mei fun, angel hair pasta with chicken, egg, pork, green onion and bean sprouts flavored with curry powder ($11.95), both as lunch specials.  

 

We walked home, Irwin to 64th Street, me to 69th Street, more than compensating for the amount of food that we ate, or so we said. 

. . . 

 

Andy Borowitz informs us that "Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that he was 'actively considering' additional measures to prevent people from wanting to ever set foot in the state."

Good Question

Monday, August 29, 2021 

Yesterday was the 58th anniversary of the historic March on Washington. I've confessed before that I sat at a great distance from the podium, soaking my feet in a reflecting pool, while Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his famous speech. I still can't believe that I found the right bus to get back among the hundreds and hundreds parked all over the place. 

 

So, what has changed? The right to vote was a stated goal of the March. Now, there are notorious efforts to limit voting times, places and methods in many states. Hey, Texas, explain to your grandkids what part of democracy you don't like.

 . . . 

 

Memo to American nationalists: Of the 13 U.S. troops killed in the Kabul bombing last week, four had Hispanic surnames and one married woman had a Hispanic maiden name. 

. . . 

 

76 years after the end of WWII, there are still active disputes over the ownership of artworks owned by Jews before the rise of the Nazis. In one current case, in the Netherlands, Amsterdam's governing body, the College of Mayor and Alderpersons, called for a Kandinsky painting to be turned over to the heirs of the pre-war Jewish owners. https://nyti.ms/3mz2SpB 

 

“The suffering inflicted on Jewish citizens in particular during the Second World War is unprecedented and irreversible,” they wrote in February, adding that society had “a moral obligation” to redress that. Affirmative action, anyone? 

. . . 

 

Take a look at two studies. First, we have "The Best and Worst Cities to Live Without a Car." https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/realestate/the-best-and-worst-cities-to-live-without-a-car.html?smid=em-share 

 

I don't have all the data, but I am guessing that there is probably higher granola sales in San Francisco, Portland, Oregon and Washington, at the top of the list, rather than Shreveport, Louisiana, Montgomery, Alabama and Little Rock, Arkansas, at the bottom. Second is "Where Are Workers Making the Longest Commutes?" identified as "metropolitan areas [that] have the highest rates of workers whose commutes last 90 minutes or more in each direction.  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/26/realestate/supercommuter-longest-commutes.html

 

Long commutes don't seem to correspond to the convenience of a car. The only pattern that I can discern is the proximity to real estate "hot spots," the need to work in places too expensive to live in. 

. . . 

 

We had dinner with Barbara and Bernie, cousins of cousins, tonight and their residency on the East Side led us into unfamiliar territory. And, we were all happy that it did. We went to Chez Nick, 1737 York Avenue, a friendly place with extensive outdoor seating opposite Asphalt Green, a large public park that allowed us to see a lot of sky. 

 

Nick’s menu is fairly simple, three or four salads, three or four pastas, five or six main courses. We shared two excellent salads, the Heirloom Tomatoes with grilled peaches, herbed goat cheese, and black pepper vinaigrette ($16), and the Little Gem Lettuces with shallot vinaigrette, marinated marble size potatoes, baby beets, gremolata (a green sauce made of chopped parsley, lemon zest, and garlic), and manchego cheese ($15). 

 

We then went off into separate directions, “Amish Chicken” for Bernie (no, it did not arrive at the table in a horse-drawn buggy) ($25), Baja shrimp for Barbara ($19), chicken liver mousse, with shallot marmalade, whole grain mustard and cornichons, for me ($14) and roasted Branzino for my young bride ($29). Everyone liked everything, a recipe for world peace that eludes us. 

 

Tuesday, August 31, 2021 

Fortunately, the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain canceled the seminar “Auschwitz/Gaza: A Testing Ground for Comparative Literature.” https://forward.com/fast-forward/474687/spanish-university-cancels-auschwitz-gaza-seminar-comparing-holocaust-to/?utm_source=Email%20Article&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%20Article 

 

What might have been the basis for comparison? The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has been tracking deaths in and around the occupied territories, Gaza and the West Bank, since 2008 and its data show that 5,600 Palestinians died up to 2020 while 115,000 were injured. According to Wikipedia, "Of the 1.3 million people sent to Auschwitz [1940-1945], 1.1 million died. The death toll includes 960,000 Jews (865,000 of whom were gassed on arrival), 74,000 ethnic Poles, 21,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and up to 15,000 other Europeans." 

 

I am not naive enough to think that the seminar was organized to dispel the overheated rhetoric that Israel's opponents resort to in trying to eliminate it from the family of nations. Putting Auschwitz and Gaza together was simply an attempt to tar Israel with the murderous brush once lavishly applied to Jews. 

. . . 

 

Last week, we had the Chief Rabbi of Israel trying to keep a Jewish cemetery pure, now we have news that the good citizens of Oberlin, Louisiana, when they could still keep their heads above water, sought to preserve the racial integrity of their local cemetery. https://www.klfy.com/louisiana/allen-parish-family-denied-burial-because-of-skin-color-people-need-to-know-its-just-not-right/ 

 

In the immortal words of Roseanne Roseannadanna, "It's always something." 

. . . 

 

As long as I did not read the newspapers, today was a good day. I walked around midtown Manhattan, stopping for lunch at Joe's Home of Soup Dumplings, 7 East 48 Street, a very big, open space appearing even airier by having predominantly blonde furniture. It contained a dozen tables spaced far apart inside and four more outside. One long wall enclosed four cooks at work behind a glass partition. A counter with 12 stools widely spaced apart faced the partition. 

 

Joe has a very big menu, but, true to its name, soup dumplings are the main attraction. In fact, very few other dumplings or buns are offered. But, these were really great soup dumplings, crab meat and pork stuffed in thin wrappers, six pieces for $11.95. It wasn't just the real estate that justified the high price; the conventionally-sized dumplings were filled with far more meat than found elsewhere. While the cold sesame noodles were just average ($7.95), the soup dumplings will not be forgotten. 

 

Wednesday, September1, 2021 

Quote of the day comes from Terry Trieller, dental hygienist from Lake Placid, N.Y. "If you’re not booing, you’re not a Mets fan." 

. . . 

 

What is this? A free lunch for the first correct answer.

 

Thursday, September 2, 2021 

Michael Ratner and I planned to go to the Mets game tonight, expecting to issue sounds of delight or dismay in response to what we were witnessing. However, the opportunity was denied us by the flotsam and jetsam left by Hurricane Ida, the fifth largest in U.S. history. In our absence, the Mets won. 

 

Friday, September 3, 2021

My brother informed me of the death of Mal Z. Lawrence, a classic Borscht Belt comedian. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/arts/mal-z-lawrence-dead.html

 

He will always be remembered for telling of the waiter who went over to the table of alte kockers (senior citizens) and asked, "Is anything OK?"