Saturday, June 29, 2019

POW!!!

Monday, June 24, 2019
If you want the dope on local residential property, this website is quite handy.  

For instance, it will show you units for rent or sale in a particular building.  Or, it can narrow your search for a house or apartment by various factors.  Of course, this is all Holy Land-specific.
. . .

"Today, 38 percent of New Yorkers have immigrated here from other countries. Together, they make up 46% of the City’s workforce, and 83,000 own their own businesses."  https://www.tenement.org/nycimmigrants/
. . .

A new study deals with the somewhat elusive subject of Jews of color.  https://jewsofcolorfieldbuilding.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Counting-Inconsistencies-052119.pdf

As has happened with Irish and Italians, and now with Asians, Jews have moved into or along side the mainstream of white America, leaving minority status to Latin Americans and African Americans.  But, what if a Jewish American looks more like a "minority" than the majority?  Conventionally, this issue is pushed aside as highly unlikely.  This study claims that Jews of color have been significantly undercounted and their numbers are growing. 

However, true to our 5,000-year tradition of hair-splitting, we can get tripped up over our basic definitions -- Who is a Jew of color?  Notably, the Mizrahi Jews of the Middle East, originating in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, are dark-haired, dark-complected, hard to distinguish from the Arabs they grew up amongst.  In fact, there has been a pattern of discrimination against them and their descendants in Israel from its founding by the paler, fairer (in appearance only) European Jews and their descendants.

For a personal perspective on being a Jew of color, read:
https://forward.com/opinion/392099/stop-calling-me-a-black-jew/

Tuesday, June 25, 2019
I had breakfast with Donna J., one of the finest persons that I know.  We met at Kirsh Bakery & Kitchen, 551 Amsterdam Avenue, once the site of the Popover Cafe for 32 years, next to Barney Greengrass.  The somewhat awkward physical layout remains the same, a narrow line of tables abutting the front window leading to a large space occupied by booths and tables.  You enter into the bakery part of the establishment, with some very attractive items on display, getting the juices to flow even before you sit down.

The breakfast menu has a few interesting specials, including shakshuka (poached eggs in a hearty tomato pepper sauce) and the bacon, Swiss cheese and egg French toast ($18) that I ordered.  Two eggs sunny side up sat atop crumbled bacon in melted Swiss cheese covering a thick slice of lightly toasted bread.  It was delicious and my arteries met the challenge.  However, in a fit of self control, I skipped the pain au chocolat.
. . .

Madam and I had dinner with another couple at Kefi, 222 West 79th Street, a reliable Greek restaurant that gets crowded very quickly.  Even though all of us enjoyed our dinner, no one hesitated when I suggested that we go around the corner to Amorino -- Gelato Al Naturale, 414 Amsterdam Avenue, one of four stores in Manhattan, also found in Europe and Asia.  Typically, about 20 flavors of gelati and sorbetti are available, with some rotation of special flavors.  I had a large cup ($7.35), three scoops of gelato, coconut, tiramisu and chocolate.  So ended my Happy Mouth Day. 
  
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
If you would to celebrate one or more Happy Mouth Days, you might refer to the list of the reputed 50 best restaurants in the world. 

You'll need a passport; the top 10 alone will take you to France, Denmark, Spain, Thailand and Peru, with some doubling back.  And serious money.  For instance, Arpège, 84 rue de Varenne, 75007 Paris, sitting at #8, is strictly vegetarian, no rare or exotic cuts of meat, yet the current Michelin guide estimates a meal there ranging from €175 to €327.  That's a lot of cabbage for asparagus. 
. . .

Writing published in The New Yorker is almost always crystal clear, unlike many of its cartoons.  This week, however, I was puzzled by this description of a businessman: "At fifty-three, he is broad-necked and dimple-chinned, with salted hair at nineteen-eighties length."  What?  There was a signature hair length for men in the 1980s?  I was a businessman in my forties in the eighties, my hair going gray, unaware that I was either setting or following a trend.

Google came up with something when asked about men's hairstyles in the 1980s.  http://coolmenshair.com/popular-80s-hairstyles-for-men/  The article claims that "[o]ne of the most memorable things about the 80s is that it was the decade of big hair [for men]," illustrated by Jon Bon Jovi.  Was that what The New Yorker had in mind?  Or was it the "formal wet look" accompanied by a picture of Jimmy Stewart, who entered his 80s in the eighties?  I remain confused. 

Thursday, June 27, 2019
Watching the first Democratic candidate debate last night, my lasting impression was that Beto was a delivery boy who wandered onto the stage by mistake.
. . .

When I lived on the East Side, near the United Nations, for 23 years, I regularly patronized Mee's Noodle Shop, then at the corner of Second Avenue and 49th Street.  Today, I returned to the 'hood at lunchtime and went to Mee's, which had moved up the block to 930 Second Avenue.  This location is far larger, holding 3 dozen two- tops, and the prices have expanded as well, or do I need reminding that I moved away 16 years ago.  There is a reasonable selection of lunch specials, 30 dishes plus soup or egg roll, choice of rice and pot of tea, all but two at $8.75.  I had shrimp with lobster sauce (5 largish shrimps), an egg roll and egg fried rice.  Note that the mustard they serve on request will clear your sinuses, bring tears to your eyes and take the shine off your shoes.  Joy.
. . .

If you don't have the money to chase the 50 best restaurants in the world, but you have a lot of time, the San Francisco Chronicle offers a list of the 100 top restaurants in its area.  https://projects.sfchronicle.com/top-100-restaurants/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=announcement&utm_campaign=sfc_top100_2019 

Of course, housing in the Bay Area is so expensive, it might be cheaper to flit around Spain and Peru and Thailand than trying to settle down in Northern California.
. . .

 Friday, June 28, 2019
"The Republican Party leans much farther right than most traditional conservative parties in Western Europe and Canada, according to an analysis of their election manifestos.  It is more extreme than Britain’s Independence Party and France’s National Rally (formerly the National Front), which some consider far-right populist parties."  This claim is given graphic support rather convincingly in the New York Times on-line.   https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/26/opinion/sunday/republican-platform-far-right.html
 
So, the threat to our nation goes well beyond one man.
. . .

 When I was a kid growing up, I had to make some life-defining choices, probably as you had to as well.  Chocolate vs. Vanilla; Coke vs. Pepsi; Dodgers vs. Yankees; Superman vs. Batman.  While there was less passion in choosing the Caped Crusader over the Man of Steel than displayed at some other critical junctures, I found it much easier to relate to the resident of Gotham City than the product of Smallville, USA. 

Batman's 80th anniversary is being celebrated at the Society of Illustrators, 128 West 63rd Street, a delightful place to visit, its walls covered with drawings of every nature.  The current exhibit is "Illustrating Batman: Eighty Years of Comics and Pop Culture," running through mid-October.  Admission for adults is $15, $10 for seniors and students.  Unfortunately, I was unable to make a material contribution to the exhibit, because my world-class comic book collection, including the brand new Batman and Superman in 3-D, was irretrievably destroyed by my parents when they saw my junior high school report card.  
https://ifanboy.com/articles/dc-histories-batman-and-superman-in-3-d/ 
I have since forgiven them.
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Saturday, June 22, 2019

Lost and Found

Monday, June 17, 2019
There are so many reasons to celebrate America's Favorite Epidemiologist, even if today were not her birthday.  But, it is and we do.
. . .

John Galliano's clothing, Chick-fil-A sandwiches, Woody Allen movies -- it seems that we face more moral dilemmas today than in the past in making our choices.  It may be the glut of information that is now available about behavior or opinions, sometimes private sometimes public.  In any case, we seem to be asking Do we? or Don't we? in so many areas of daily activity. 

How about the family that owns Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Peet’s Coffee, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Pret A Manger, and Keurig among other familiar brands?  Nazis.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/14/business/reimann-jab-nazi-keurig-krispy-kreme.html 
. . .
It was my first trip to London, April 1985.  I had taken a day trip to Oxford and returned to Paddington Station, home of the bear whom I have yet to encounter.  In those days, and for years to come, when electronics had not taken over our lives, I traveled with 2 or 3 paperback books for long plane rides or train rides.  As this was my second overseas trip ever, and the first unaccompanied, I underestimated the amount of reading that I would do.  So, I needed a book.  

WH Smith operates large book and stationary stores throughout Great Britain and prominently in airports and train stations.  Its shelves at Paddington Station were arranged by genre, making it easier for me to focus on mysteries/thrillers, my favorite diversion not requiring a knife and fork.  I picked a book by an author taking a lot of space, although unknown to me.  Thus began my devotion to Anthony Price, whose death was reported today.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/14/books/anthony-price-dead.html

I can't recall which of his 19 books, all featuring David Audley of the British Secret Service, I started with.  It was somewhere in the middle of the series, but I eventually read every one, usually acquired on subsequent trips to London, because Price never caught on here, unfortunately.  When a decade or more went by without the appearance of a new work by Price, I offered the 18 that I held (the last or next-to-last had been a library copy) to Otto Penzler, owner of The Mysterious Bookshop, 58 Warren Street, probably the finest of its kind, who showed no interest. 

If you enjoy spy novels, I strongly recommend Anthony Price.  His novels are more plot-driven than John le Carré's character-driven works and far more thoughtful than Ian Fleming's post-adolescent fantasies.  While Amazon has Kindle versions of almost all the books, Libby, the otherwise excellent electronic platform for the New York Public Library, has none.  And, the Library's physical copies appear to be kept in the reference section only, not in circulation.  Nevertheless, if sophisticated Cold War skullduggery appeals to you, take the trouble to track down Price's work.
. . .

However, I await public soul-searching by some of the same commentators when and if they ever choose to examine the events in Phoenix, where "Police Draw Guns on Family Over Report of Stolen Doll," as part of the headline read.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/16/us/phoenix-police-brutality-lawsuit.html 

Guess which side of the color line we were on this time?

Tuesday, June 18, 2019
To celebrate my young bride's birthday appropriately, we joined her two brothers, one wife and one companion for a big steak dinner at etc. steakhouse (sic), 1408 Palisade Avenue, Teaneck, New Jersey, last night.  It offers proximity for one couple, respect for dietary rules for three of us and a bring-your-own-bottle policy that benefits all six of us. 

The value to the customer of a BYOB policy is evident in these comments from an industry publication.  "Restaurants generally mark up a bottle of wine from 200 to 300 percent over its retail sales price.  You can therefore reasonably price a bottle that retails around $20 at $60 and $80. . . . It is standard practice to mark up the most popular wines on a list closer to 300 percent, while marking up less impressive sellers closer to 200 percent."  https://www.musthavemenus.com/guide/restaurant-management/restaurant-pricing-and-profits/wine-list-pricing.html
. . .

While some of the moral dilemmas cited above are resolved by people willing to forgive and forget, that isn't the attitude of Harvard University.  It revoked the offer of admissions to an 18-year old applicant who was certifiably an asinine jerk when he was 16.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/17/us/parkland-kyle-kashuv-harvard.html
  
I think Harvard is making a mistake.  Let's see if, unlike the White House, it can be shamed into doing the right thing.  But, this is about Stuyvesant High School and the attempts to effect a better ethnic balance in its student body.  Once we stray from cold, hard numbers in determining admissions, we introduce so many opportunities to discriminate for other bad reasons.  Imagine how some of us would have fared if we were measured for obnoxiousness at every turn, not just on blind dates?  Confer the pickle experienced at Boston Latin, their Stuyvesant, using grades along with a test.  https://www.wgbh.org/news/2017/09/05/local-news/boston-public-school-students-may-be-disadvantage-getting-boston-latin
. . .

No sooner than the pixels dried on the screen that I saw this article.  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/17/upshot/nyc-schools-shsat-504.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share 

In a nutshell, 504 is a federal designation "meant to give students with mental and physical disabilities — whether attention deficit disorder or a broken arm — a fair shot in public education."  And sure enough, "White students in New York City are 10 times as likely as Asian students to have a 504 designation that allows extra time on the specialized high school entrance exams.  White students are also twice as likely as their black and Hispanic peers to have the designation.  Students in poverty are much less likely to have a 504 for extra time."  According to the New York Times, "students who have this extra-time provision are about twice as likely to receive offers from specialized high schools." 

Another bite out of the meritocratic dream.
. . .

Here is another little bit of bad news: "Hillary and Clinton," starring Laurie Metcalf and John Lithgow, is closing after only 77 performances on Broadway.  We saw it Saturday night on short notice and were thrilled and delighted by this gimmick-free exploration of marital and political issues.  I was about to tell you to go see it, but it is set to close this weekend, even as you sit back with your pipe and slippers and dip into my prose.

Wednesday, June 19, 2019
Chicago-based Toby McMullen is here to do some stand-up comedy gigs.  Since he has only spent a few weeks in the Holy Land in his nearly-30 years, I had to pull out all stops in the short time I would have with him.  So, we had lunch at Wo Hop, 17 Mott Street, and mission accomplished.  We shared beef chow fun ($8.25), crispy honey chicken ($12.50) and brown rice ($1.75).  If this seems like a modest amount of food for two big eaters, please note that Wo Hop not only delivers it good, it delivers it big, leaving us more that satisfied.

To arrange for the evening's entertainment including my young bride, we visited the TKTS booth across the street from Lincoln Center (David Rubinstein Atrium, 61 West 62nd Street), a hidden treasure right under our nose, yet ignored by most of us.  While it had a large selection of shows available at healthy discounts, the Upper West Side's Power Couple had seen almost all that we considered worth seeing.  We settled on "Oklahoma," called by the New York Times a "wide-awake, jolting and altogether wonderful production," and a classic that might give Toby perspective on the American musical theater.
Mission Unaccomplished.  All three of us, with very disparate cultural and generational perspectives, simply didn't like the show. We variously recognized the innovative staging (more often feeling like a barn than a theater), the wonderful score and the daring casting of Ali Stroker in a wheelchair leading to a Tony award.  While the New York Times review saw this production as "a mirror for our age of doubt and anxiety," we were merely anxious for the show to end.

Thursday, June 20, 2019
Lunch was with the City College cabal, seeking a Democratic presidential candidate for 2020 who might keep the incumbent's share of the vote nationally to 36.5%, just as he got in 2016 in New York State, where we knew him best.  
. . .

I met Tom Terrific for an early dinner at Tim Ho Wan, 610 Ninth Avenue, the superb purveyor of dim sum.  He had hot and sour wonton soup ($5.80), then we shared two plates of baked BBQ pork buns ($6 for 3 pieces, the best item on the menu), pan fried noodles ($5.80), deep fried eggplant with shrimp ($5.80 for 3 pieces), and steamed rice roll stuffed with minced beef ($5.80 for 3 pieces).  I did not even suggest looking for ice cream afterwards.

Although, even if we had room for dessert, we had to rush off to attend a staged reading of a new play by Kim Sykes, Tom's gloriously multi-talented wife.  

Friday, June 21, 2019
The United States Supreme Court just ruled that a cross erected on public property in Maryland in 1925 to commemorate soldiers who died in WWI did not violate the First Amendment ban on the establishment of religion.  Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, said that over time "the Christian symbol . . . took on an added secular meaning" and, in any case, where older monuments are at issue, it can be hard to identify "their original purpose."  
Thank you, thoughtful conservative legal scholars.  We can and should discern the original intent of the framers of the Constitution all over the place, but don't ask us to identify the original purpose of those Marylanders way back in 1925.
. . .
There is an intriguing new study of "civic honesty," measured by what happened to 17,303 supposedly lost wallets, with or without local currency, turned over to banks, police stations, hotels and the like in 355 cities in 40 countries.  The researchers found that, with rare exceptions, wallets containing relatively larger amounts of money were returned to their "owners" more frequently than skinnier wallets. 
"Both non-experts and professional economists were unable to predict this result."  Which I guess is a good result all the way around.
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Saturday, June 15, 2019

Bus Pass?

Monday, June 10, 2019

When I was noodling around the Internet, I came across the Wallet Hub web site loaded with data, lists galore.  How about "2018’s Best & Worst States to Have a Baby" or "2018’s Best & Worst Entry-Level Jobs"?  https://wallethub.com/edu/statistics/

I found this treasure trove when I went looking for "Best Places to Be a Real Estate Agent" (https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-cities-to-be-a-real-estate-agent/18713/).  By the way, New York City is tied for first in the highest median wage for real estate agents, while tied for worst in properties staying on the market longest.  Together, I think this has to yield the highest attendance in psychotherapy.
. . .

I thought that I would be surprising Norm and Jane when we went to dinner tonight in Chinatown, accompanied by my young bride.  However, when we descended underground into Wo Hop, 17 Mott Street, Norm said that his brother had gone here for 50 years, always ordering the same thing — what he could not remember.

Our ordering took some care; Jane gluten-free, America’s Favorite Epidemiologist eschewing meat.  On the whole, we managed quite well, pleasing some of the people all of the of the time.  We had cold sesame noodles, beef with scallions, eggplant in garlic sauce, steamed sea bass and mushroom fried rice.  $20 each included rental of the table for a longer-than-average length of time.

Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Paul Hecht, our rampant thespian, directed me to another source of vital data, a living wage calculator produced by MIT.  http://livingwage.mit.edu/

It estimates the cost of living in a locale based on typical expenses.  For instance, one adult, working full-time, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, with one child, should earn $24.12 hourly to meet expenses, in a state where the minimum wage is $7.50.  The situation in Philadelphia seems potentially worse; the working adult with one child needs to make $25.36 hourly, where the minimum wage is $7.25.  For the Holy Land, the numbers are $31.99 and $10.40. 

All of this was very interesting, but my inquiring mind led me on, looking at significant cost components.  Our little Las Cruces family should spend $7,664 annually on transportation, according to MIT; in Philadelphia, $7,094, and the same amount here, in the greatest city in the world (according to the lyrics of Hamilton), not a big difference.  While I have never had the pleasure of visiting Las Cruces, America's Favorite Epidemiologist has and she recalls a lot of open space, befitting its western location.  


I am unable to measure how much of the population is served by the Las Cruces bus system, but it is a bargain for its users: adults, $1 per ride, students and seniors, $.50.  But, I digress.  I am afraid MIT has let us down.  Back to New York City and State.  Transportation costs for all 5 New York City Counties are professedly the same $7,094 in spite of significant differences in population density, automobile ownership, rail coverage, bridge and tunnel tolls.  However, MIT disregards any differences between the verdant plains of Staten Plains and the towering canyons of Manhattan. 

Have you ever heard of Cattaraugus County in New York, below Buffalo, bordering Pennsylvania?  Google says that its 2017 population was 77,348, down from 80,317 in the 2010 census.  No transportation authority/department is listed on the county's organization chart.  Searches for public transportation in Cattaraugus County yield information only on Greyhound and school buses; no subways, no local buses, no trams, no trolleys.  Yet, miraculously, the adult and child household there spends exactly the same $7,094 annually on transportation as we city dwellers.  In fact, MIT claims $7,094 is the transportation expense for every location in New York State.

Listen MIT!  This is CCNY talking!  You got it wrong.
. . .

Here's a very interesting legal case.  An Ohio jury found that Oberlin College libeled a bakery and awarded it millions of dollars after students accused the shop of being racist, when a white employee wrestled with a black customer, who later admitted to theft.   https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/10/us/oberlin-bakery-lawsuit.html

"The bakery accused the college of supporting demonstrations outside the shop in which protesters distributed a flier printed on a copier on campus."  That sounds like a reach.  The alleged chain of causality is far too attenuated to be upheld on appeal, in my humble opinion.  After all, do we want to hold the president responsible for the consequences of his words? 

Friday, June 14, 2019
One advertisement that has persistently interrupted my on-line card games has featured a woman's lightweight down parka in a vivid array of colors.  Since a woman's lightweight down parka was one item removed from my luggage as it barreled its way from Casablanca to Paris to Punta Cana to New York, I suggested to madam that we have found a suitable replacement.  Even though the missing garment was black, very New York black, we ordered the new one in champagne beige.

It took several weeks for the parka to be delivered, a bit unusual in these days of super-fast Amazon turnarounds, but Amazon was not the vendor this time.  When it finally arrived last week, madam found that it was ill-suited to her statuesque frame.  So, I sent an e-mail message, asking how to exchange or return the item.  One week ago, the vendor Hyper Owl replied that it could refund, not exchange and included its web page for return processing.  However, one factoid was missing -- its address.  I was told how to pack and ship the parka: Destination Unknown.  Daily telephone calls to Hyper Owl's 800 number by both of us and my e-mail messages went unanswered.

To my surprise, our credit card company immediately canceled the charge to us when we explained Hyper Owl's failure to communicate and told us to keep the merchandise if we chose, which was just as well.  This afternoon, sitting at lunch with Tom Terrific, I opened an e-mail message from Hyper Owl finally providing me with its return address exactly as follows: 
Address: 430000 China hu bei sheng wu han shi han yang qu yong feng jie jie dao da luo jia zui 360hao
City: Wuhan
Province: Hubei
Country: China
Zip Postal: 430000
So, Dear Female Relative, enjoy the champagne beige lightweight down parka.  It was destined to be yours. 
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Saturday, June 8, 2019

Is That A Vermont Accent?

Monday, June 3, 2019
Leon Redbone died late last week.  He was a delightful performer, described by Variety as "specializ[ing] in old-school vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley-style music."  I enjoyed him most in small clubs, where it felt that your weird and wonderful friend had stopped by your home to entertain you.  
Herein is a tale of 2 headlines.  When I first saw an op-ed by Bernie Sanders on the New York Times website, it was entitled "I Know Where I Came From.  Does President Trump?"  I read the piece carefully and then I read it again.  Sanders mentions his father, an immigrant, he references Brooklyn and he extols the legacy of the New Deal. 

Up to that point, I might have been the author, but I would not, could not, avoid a central factor "where I came from."  I was raised in a Jewish family in a Jewish neighborhood.  So was Sanders, although he never admits it here or, apparently, whenever he recalls where he came from.  For almost everyone that I know, those childhood influences are not easily forgotten or overcome.

After a harumph or two, I addressed a letter to the newspaper asking whether Sanders was ashamed or fearful of acknowledging where he really came from.  The issue was defused, for the moment at least, when the print edition came out bearing the headline "Helping Americans Make Ends Meet."  The text was otherwise the same; his father was still an immigrant, he still came from Brooklyn, FDR still helped extricate many Americans from economic hardship.  The headline change, however, blurred Sanders's rear view mirror sufficiently to blunt my indignation, but not enough to bury his past.
. . .

What happens when you compare "rents, apartment sizes and median incomes in the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States, with Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens added to the mix as individual markets"?  You find that "in only 14 markets could median earners afford an average or larger-than-average apartment without being rent burdened [spending more than 30% of your income on rent]."  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/realestate/can-you-actually-afford-your-rent.html
 
The article informs us that if you wake up in Gilbert, Arizona (a suburb of Phoenix) or Plano, Texas, your rental digs will have a generous amount of space.  If, on the other hand, you choose to perch in Brooklyn or Boston, you best read up on the Japanese approach to letting go of possessions. 
. . .

Tight space of another kind is an abiding New York obsession, the population of our specialized high schools, Stuyvesant High School (my school) as the leading bad example.  Of the 895 students entering Stuyvesant in the Fall, 7 are black, a few more Hispanic.  They will be attending a school that is currently 74% Asian-American.
 
The New York Times does an almost thorough job of exploring the issue, providing excellent data.  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/03/nyregion/nyc-public-schools-black-hispanic-students.html
 
What is missing is any attempt to quantify the impact of aggressive recruiting by private schools, local and boarding, attempting to diversify their student body by culling the best and brightest black and brown students.  Also, a factor may be the increasing suburbanization of middle-class minority families, seeking better educational opportunities for their children through all grades.  Doors in Scarsdale and Great Neck and Westport and Short Hills may not be entirely flung wide open to one and all, but neither are they being slammed shut.
 
Even adjusting for these oversights, however, we still face an unjust situation.  Recognize, though, that Stuyvesant is a symptom, not the cause.  Fixing the elementary and middle schools will fix the specialized high schools, not the other way around.  That is certainly a more daunting task.  Let's not pretend that "curing" the 8 admission-by-test high schools will engender success in the other 1,700 public schools in New York City.

Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Mae West said "Enough is never enough."  Guided by that principle, I returned to Pastrami Queen, 1125 Lexington Avenue, for lunch with Stony Brook Steve and Michael Ratner soon after enjoying dinner there with 2 lovely ladies who now wish to make their consumption less conspicuous.  Instead of teasing you with details of our very good lunch, I will tell you that I found the pastrami and corned beef at Pastrami Queen superior to the roast beef.  Act accordingly.
. . .

Today is the last day to register for the July Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), the target for most graduating seniors aiming for law school.  What's notable is the huge increase in applicants over last year, about 66%. 
https://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/july-lsat-update/
   
Not just the volume of test takers is special, the character of the LSAT will change after this round.  Future tests will be administered digitally; paper and pencil will be out and this may have prodded larger than normal numbers to sit for the test this time.  Probably more influential is the "one time offer to allow July takers to take the test, see their score, and if they choose, to cancel and retake for free anytime until April 2020."  What more can a slacker ask for?

Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Residents of Hong Kong are commemorating the 30th anniversary of the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, brutally repressed by the government.  Other Chinese citizens are doing so only at their peril, resorting to subtle or indirect references.   

Exactly 30 years ago, I was on a two-week vacation in the Netherlands, traveling solo from city to city, not knowing anyone.  I stayed in centrally-located, older properties, canal houses and the like, dealing with their steep stairs and tight quarters.  There were no television sets.  As I walked up and down city streets, I saw bold headlines on local newspapers.  In Dutch.  I really felt like a stranger in a strange land.  What was going on?  
 
Eventually, I caught up with the terrible truth, but for a couple of days I was an innocent, suspended in an information vacuum.
. . .

I finally saw an episode of "The Amazing Mrs. Maisel" and I have to quibble.  By the way, if the director and the writers paid more attention, I, and possibly countless others, would not be quibbling.  I don't park myself in front of the television set/movie screen/theater stage to quibble.  I'm there to enjoy myself, but lax craftsmanship just gets in my way.
 
1) Set on New York's Upper West Side in 1958, Mr. Maisel is a successful businessman, aspiring to be a comedian.  He comes home from work, while Mrs. Maisel is watching the Ed Sullivan show, formally "Toast of the Town," which ran on Sunday nights, 8-9 PM.  In case you imagine that Mr. Maisel worked Sundays, I have to point out that the couple agreed to go downtown the next night, Saturday night, so that Mr. Maisel could do a standup gig in Greenwich Village.  Saturday minus one is Friday, not Sunday.
  
2) Mrs. Maisel is excited because the rabbi is finally coming to her home to break the fast after Yom Kippur.  While the denominational affiliation of the rabbi and the Maisels is not spelled out, I could not believe that Mrs. Maisel would go to a non-Kosher butcher for her anticipated main course.  (Another customer is purchasing pork chops.)  Unlike today, Kosher butchers were commonplace in Jewish neighborhoods throughout New York and, in 1958, a non-Kosher rabbi would have been an extreme rarity. 
 
Also, not a quibble, but a personal observation: Breaking the fast after Yom Kippur is best done with milchigs, not fleischigs.  If you have to ask, it doesn't matter.
 
Thursday, June 6, 2019
The Boyz Club had a lively lunch at Jing Fong, 20 Elizabeth Street.  As usual, I lost count of the many plates of dim sum that landed on our table, around two dozen.  The six of us were very pleased and five of us were even more pleased when Gentleman Jerry announced that he was picking up the tab, because tomorrow he retires after 40 years working as an engineer after graduating from CCNY.
 
Friday, June 7, 2019
A sad coda to the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, is the prosecution of a deputy sheriff for dereliction of duty, charged with doing “absolutely nothing to mitigate” the mass shooting.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/06/us/scot-peterson-parkland-shooting.html

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has an answer.  She wants to arm our teachers to protect our children.  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/22/us/politics/betsy-devos-guns.html

She's obviously confident that many of our educators have been honing their skills on the Grand Theft Auto series of video games, which will better prepare them than the officer who proved ineffective even after more than 30 years on the job. 


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Friday, May 31, 2019

Judaism, Yum

Monday, May 27, 2019
The New York Times reported this weekend that the average American wedding last year cost $33,931.  Wow!  I read this just as we celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary and, I must confess, we did not spend $25,470 (the 2003 equivalent of $33,931).  In fact, 17 people attended our wedding, including the rabbi and us, and spending almost $1,500 per person would have been a level of vulgar excess more characteristic of a Trump or a Kardashian than even the incipient Upper West Side Power Couple. 
. . .

I learned the factoid above in reading what-I-alone-might-still-call the society pages, a regular stop on my weekend information-gathering rounds.  Therein, I also came across a bride who "works . . . as a senior experience designer at . . . a digital transformation company."  Will someone venture an explanation of that in English?
. . .

In order to pay for that big wedding, you presumably need a job; someone needs a job; your in-laws need a job.  To get that job, a counter-intuitive trend may have to be followed.  "Superstar cities, the nation’s economic powerhouses, hotbeds of opportunity at the cutting edge of technological progress, are losing people to other parts of the country."  To be clear, this trend is stratified.  The onrush of college graduates to New York, San Francisco, Seattle is forcing non-college graduates out, unable to meet the rising cost of living.  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/05/21/business/economy/migration-big-cities.html

The article is loaded with a wonderful collection of facts and figures, such as a janitor is better off (financially) staying in the Deep South than moving to Silicon Valley today, while a lawyer is much better off making the move.
And, New York's total population shrank in 2018 for the second year in a row, except in the subway.
. . .

Another reason why it was hard to find time to leave the house this weekend was this article: "The College Dropout Crisis."  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/05/23/opinion/sunday/college-graduation-rates-ranking.html 

This provides comparisons of actual versus projected graduation rates among 368 colleges.  An interesting fact is that the University of Nevada, Las Vegas seemed to have the worst dropout rate, while Clark County, Nevada, home of Las Vegas, had the highest rate of population growth in the survey of cities above.  Go figure.
. . .

After all that good stuff in the weekend's paper, I was ready to rest today, but it was not to be.  The Metropolitan Diary is a Monday feature in the New York Times, containing anecdotes about big city life, often taking place on the the subways or sidewalks of the Holy Land.  My big mouth fell open when I read this entry: "In fall 1999, I was single and I decided to have a party where single men and women could meet.  The caveat was that everyone I invited had to bring an equally unattached friend, presumably someone they were not romantically interested in."   
 
I did exactly that almost 2 decades earlier in 1981.  I informally labelled the event, They Were Expendable, borrowing the title from the 1945 movie about the exploits of a PT Boat squadron in the Pacific, which included Lieutenant Junior Grade John F. Kennedy at one time.
I was living in Turtle Bay, a neighborhood that I shared with Katherine Hepburn and Stephen Sondheim, in the same building with Barry Beck, then captain of the New York Rangers, and Ed Kranepol, longtime first baseman for the New York Mets.  That did not save the evening from being a disaster.  While I invited many eligible single people, male and female (that's all you worried about back then), only Steve, a bright young colleague whose last name I have forgotten, Linda, an acquaintance whose last name I will charitably omit, and a young man whom Linda brought, faithfully, but fruitlessly, respecting the purpose of the evening, showed up.  To underline my gross miscalculation and add to my mortification, there was prompt delivery of the 50 BBQ chicken wings that I ordered from Best Wingers, still in business at 711 Second Avenue.  I cannot recall, however, to which collection of widows and orphans I forwarded the almost entirely undisturbed food package.

The author of the squib in the newspaper, fortunately, had much better luck and reported that she hosted a successful event, drat.

Thursday, May 30, 2019
[Clue] 65 Across - 1% of the body?
. . .

After a meeting last night, I sent this message to a fellow-attendee: "I am sorry for making a stupid, unfair and ill-informed remark."  I received this generous reply: "No apologies necessary.  I am not sure what you are referring to; I took no offense at anything said last night (or otherwise), my friend."  So, next time, I will speak louder.
. . .

Jeanne Friedman graduated CCNY in 1963 and headed west for graduate school and eventually a career and a family.  After decades apart, we have caught up with each other several times on both coasts.  Tonight, we had dinner together at Pastrami Queen, 1125 Lexington Avenue, the best Kosher delicatessen operating in the Holy Land at present.  Maybe someone should design an outfit for an occasion such as this, when someone gets a chance to reconnect with her historical and spiritual roots.  Sort of like the Society of Creative Anachronism dressed up in medieval costumes, jousting in Central Park.  

The three of us, my young bride included of course,  approached the meal strategically; I had warned the two women that the sandwiches were particularly large.  They shared a pastrami on rye ($18), while I had a corned beef/chopped liver combo on rye ($23), giving 1/6 of it to each of them.  Various flavors of Dr. Brown's washed down the excellent sandwiches and the shared large portion of well-done French fries ($7.75). 

Jews don't proselytize, which I consider a mistake.  We sometimes give the impression of smugly sitting back, waiting for you to come to us.  In any case, were I in charge, I would serve Pastrami Queen's corned beef and pastrami at the rear of synagogues, requiring you to traverse the allegedly sacred space to get to the good stuff, just as supermarkets put the milk in the farthest corner from the front door. 
. . .

A combination of bad news and good news has produced what may be taken as good news.  The federal government's portion of the safety net has frayed (bad news), while state and local governments have introduced or improved paid parental leave and increased minimum wages (good news).  This has produced a notable increase in the employment rate of single mothers.  https://nyti.ms/2KbIUhk

By the way, the venues where you find these progressive social and economic policies are typically governed by Democrats, because Republicans are too busy listening for fetal heartbeats. 

Friday, May 31, 2019
It's that time of year again.  The unstructured Jews of West End Synagogue head to the country for a weekend, taking the opportunity to quibble, nit pick and split hairs out of doors, for a change.  Yours truly is managing this event, as I have year after year, which is why this essay is being delivered early, the sooner to be forgotten.   

Answer - SENATOR 

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Saturday, May 25, 2019

Fly Mets, Fly

Monday May 20, 2019
In a confessional essay printed this weekend, one obsessive compulsive quoted another: "I'd rather be nauseous with you than not nauseous without you."
. . .

I found this restaurant review on-line which had to have been created by voice recognition: "That miss fear is absolutely fantastic."
. . .

Tonight, we had dinner with Bonnie & Gil, visiting from Florida.  Since I know Gil from Stuyvesant High School, CCNY and Cornell University, I forgive his abandonment, which only came in his eighth decade. 

We dined at 8 1/2, 9 West 57th Street, a joint that deserves to be called and honored as an adult restaurant.  You enter on a grand curving staircase, befitting Fred Astaire, descending from street level to the large dining room.  Tables were large and well-spaced; background music was low and soothing; service was attentive and respectful (no introductions by Scott, "I am your waiter"); the menu avoided momentary trends.  It was also expensive. 

Tuesday, May 21, 2019
Today is the 115th birthday of Fats Waller.  If you need a reminder of his great talent, listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZZRAU3DeOo
. . .

America's Favorite Epidemiologist, taking a moment from her normal research, provides this list of local ice creamers.

While there are no surprises in this group, it is convenient to have them referred to in one place.
. . .

Unless you live and work in a cave, this article has to echo concerns that you have had about over-rewarded under-performing people.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/20/science/social-class-confidence.html

I would edit the title, however, to read "Why Supposedly High-Class People Get Away With Incompetence" because gall can be mistaken for "income, family wealth, professional prestige and other [socioeconomic] factors." 
. . . 
 
Tonight, I went to a cocktail party with about 150 men and one woman, but I had nothing to do with the guest list so don't bother me.  However, Tom Terrific was present and he pointed out Lawrence Block, one of the most prolific mystery/crime/detective writers ever.  He has published about 225 books, according to this web site.  https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/lawrence-block/
 
I have read about 4 dozen of his works (the Matthew Scudder and Keller the hit man series are my favorites), but knew that I was only scratching the surface.  Tom, who has also written detective novels, knows Block and he encouraged me to go talk to him.  Shy no one ever called me, but I didn't move, firmly clutching my second glass of Lagavulin 16 Year Old Scotch Whisky.  What do you say to a guy like Block, "Good job.  Keep it up."  He obviously doesn't need any encouragement.  "I like your work."  Now, that's a  grabber.  So, I left him in peace, with familiar companions of his own choosing.

Wednesday, May 22, 2019
When you walk down your neighborhood streets in the Holy Land, there are two dramatically different visual experiences.  Brand new things appear overnight or you notice something for the first time in spite of its being in place for a long time.

Giacomo Fine Food, 269 West 72nd Street,  has been in business for over 25 years, but I only noticed it today for the first time.  It's small, but not tiny; a grocery store that prepares food exclusively for takeout.  Fortunately, two wooden benches sit right outside the door, so the takeout may only be 5 feet long on a nice day.  While I sat there, many customers came and went, obviously more observant than I had been.

Giacomo features a relatively large selection of food made in house.  I had a pulled BBQ chicken sandwich on a baguette ($7.65), the chicken fresh, the sauce more tomatoey than spicy.  Certainly, with nice weather, I'll probably return to the benches and try other items on the long menu, accompanied by Boylan diet root beer at a reasonable price.
. . . 
Tonight, in the company of Stony Brook Steve, I attended my first Mets game of the season on a very lovely evening.  The first seven innings were a pitching duel between two of the very best pitchers in baseball.  Our guy gave up only 2 hits, but one was a home run.  Their guy gave up גאָרנישט, gornisht.  After seven innings, relief pitchers came in for both teams and we pounced.  Final score Mets 6-1 over the Nationals.
  
“Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird,
That cannot fly.”
― Langston Hughes

Friday, May 24, 2019
Happy Birthday, Oakland Heartthrob.
. . .
Speaking of hope, all you parents should be encouraging your kiddies to go to CEO school.  The headline reads, "It's Never Been Easier to Be a C.E.O., and the Pay Keeps Rising."  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/24/business/highest-paid-ceos-2018.html
The article links to the latest list of executive compensation.  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/business/highest-paid-ceos-2018.html  Plowing through the numbers, you can see examples of very good performance, warranting high rewards, sometimes extravagantly high rewards, but also many examples of the inverse relationship between competence and reward referred to several inches above.  
By the way, where else have you ever seen in print "4,575,310%"?
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Saturday, May 18, 2019

Not A Product-Forward Blog

Monday, May 13, 2019
You wouldn't believe that we only reached a high temperature of 48˚ today, would you?
. . .

I practiced law for almost 14 years, entirely within the New York State court system, never in the employ of a private party.  Thus, I avoided any ethical/moral dilemma associated with representing an unpopular or unpleasant client.  Lawyers are expected to zealously represent their clients; it's what you would expect from your own attorney.  In civil matters, lawyers may try to stick to one side of disputes -- tenants in rent cases, employers in wrongful dismissal cases, husbands in matrimonial cases.  In criminal law, one side is always the People prosecuting an accused lawbreaker, so criminal lawyers are aligned with the "bad guys."  Sometimes, this association has implications outside the courtroom.  
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/11/us/ronald-sullivan-harvard.html

Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. has been the faculty dean of one of Harvard’s undergraduate residential houses since 2009, in conjunction with his wife, also a member of the law school faculty.  When Sullivan joined the team defending Harvey Weinstein against sexual assault charges in New York County, students objected by various means, graffiti, a sit-in and a law suit.  The students believe that, as the New York Times put it, "his decision to represent a person accused of abusing women disqualified Mr. Sullivan from serving in a role of support and mentorship to students." 

Harvard responded by terminating Sullivan's and his wife's position in the residential unit at the end of this semester.  Their faculty status remains unchanged.  Before I step back to allow rancorous debate to begin, note that Sullivan and his wife are African-Americans, the first ever appointed by Harvard as faculty deans.
. . .

Here is another dispute, far less prickly.  "A diner who spent more than six hours eating in a restaurant and then refused to pay the bill has been jailed for 34 weeks."  This took place in Cambridge, England late last year.  The bill amounted to $68.29, at the present rate of exchange. 
https://www.itv.com/news/2019-05-13/restaurant-diner-who-refused-to-pay-for-six-hour-meal-is-jailed/

I find two things remarkable about this event; 1) the perp sat in a restaurant for over six hours while only spending $68.29; 2) the restaurant's name is Frankie & Benny's, New York Italian Restaurant & Bar.  Somehow, I believe that if, in fact, this had occurred in an actual New York Italian restaurant and bar, somebody would have been hospitalized. 
. . .

I came across something called Gear Patrol, which I had never heard of, self-described as a publication for “young affluent men seeking inspiration for a life well lived . . . [containing] immersive stories, deals, buying advice, product-forward editorial, and reports from far-flung places."  Of those words, only "deals" spoke to me.  Skimlinks, a publishing industry web site that I also had never heard of, said that Gear Patrol's "mission was to focus on telling captivating stories while still writing about products and earning, whenever possible, commissions from the sales they drive."  How much do you get for inspiration?

Tuesday, May 14, 2019
Thanks to notorious thespian Paul Hecht for this contribution.  https://www.zumper.com/blog/2019/04/mapping-nyc-neighborhood-rents-spring-2019/

This article graphically presents the apartment rental picture in the Holy Land, showing that DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) is the second most expensive neighborhood to Tribeca (Triangle Below Canal), measured by the median rent of a one-bedroom apartment.  It also illustrates how much faith realtors place in snappy acronyms. 
. . .

Opinionated About Dining publishes surveys about restaurants around the world, gathered from "people who demonstrate knowledge and expertise on the subject of fine dining."  Obviously, I qualify.  Here is the latest list of cheap eats in North America.  
. . .

Far removed from cheap eats is the latest list of the richest people in the United Kingdom.  

What's most interesting about this group is how un-British they seem to be.  The last names of only 8 of them are likely to be found in the first British telephone directory, published in 1896.  Names such as Hinduja, Blavatnik, Agarwal and Usmanov evoke exotic locations far from Britain's "green and pleasant land" and people more likely to have studied English as a second language than Shakespeare at Oxford.

If Brexit results in walling off the United Kingdom from the rest of the world, who actually will be ruling Britannia?
Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Today is National Chocolate Chip Day, so pronounced by the National Day Calendar, "the authoritative source for fun, unusual and unique National Days." 

It could easily be one of my favorite holidays, without the undertone of sadness in so many Jewish holidays and the constant standing up and sitting down that characterize our services. 

I am concerned, however, with the presence of National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, observed annually on August 4th.  It's like someone at my birthday party in February reminding me that he has a birthday in September. 

Thursday, May 16, 2019
When I learned that one of my periodontist's children planned on taking a post-doc at the Sorbonne, I hastened to make an appointment with the good doctor to help out.  Conveniently, this brought me to Midtown at lunchtime, where I ventured into Urban Space Vanderbilt, 230 Park Avenue, the food court with more than 20 food vendors representing almost as many cuisines and countless customers 1/3 my age crowded at picnic tables.  I stopped at the booth combining two merchants, The Kati Roll Company and C.C. Saha & Granddaughter. 

There are 3 other Kati Rolls around Midtown, featuring paratha (Indian bread) or roti (Indian pancake) wrapped around some combination of meat, vegetables and spices.  I previously ate at one on East 53rd Street (November 28, 2018).  Today, I had a Kosha Mangsho Roll ($7.85), nothing to do with the name.  The roti cylinder contained "Hand-pulled tender goat meat, marinated and slow braised."  Quite delicious. 

Neither C.C. nor his granddaughter were personally serving the "Indo-Burmese Fine Foods" advertised, including the Momos at the center of the menu, described as "Tibetan Nepali Dumplings," thereby encompassing four countries and much of a very large continent, all at 6 for $5.99.  My tasty pan fried Momos were filled with ground chicken with soy sesame dipping sauce. 

On the way out, I stopped at one of the bakery stands, admired their Brooklyn Blackout Cake and informed the patient young woman at the counter about its origins at Ebinger's on Flatbush Avenue. 
https://www.6sqft.com/the-history-of-brooklyn-blackout-cake-german-bakeries-and-wwii-drills/
 
Friday, May 17, 2019
Here is a piece of good news for just about every resident of Manhattan Island and neighbors nearby.  Local commercial real estate rents are dropping sharply.  https://wolfstreet.com/2019/05/16/brick-mortar-meltdown-manhattan-style-asking-rents-plunge/
I imagine that they are still far from a bargain, but the movement is in the right direction.  Maybe someday we will see the return of independent clothing and shoe stores, tailors and seamstresses, owner-operated cafés, bars and bistros, toy and book stores that gave our streets such color and life.  
The only ones unhappy with this news are commercial landlords, not the most lovable characters, such as you-know-who.  They are people who, apparently, never saw a bank branch or a chain drugstore that they didn't like.   


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