On The Other Hand

Saturday, May 25, 2024

It’s our 21st wedding anniversary today.

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The highlight of today’s synagogue service was the celebration of Mel Scult’s 90th birthday. He has devoted himself to the organization and study of the ideas of Mordecai Kaplan, the greatest Jewish philosopher of modern times for many of us. As a result, Mel has taught us so much about living as Jews today.

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On the other hand, I just read an essay by a rabbi whose weltanschaung is obviously more contemporary than mine. In fact, “on the other hand” seems to be the basis of her world view. When she encounters evil (although the word evil does not rise to her lips as readily as it does to mine), she hastens to find the countervailing evil rather than pausing to make any sense of the evil in front of her, historically, psychologically, ethically, politically. 

The image that came to mind was of a person with a shovel, first taking a scoop of dirt out of the ground then putting it back to fill the hole. That leaves no pile to trip over and no hole to stumble into. No harm, no foul — as too often heard during a basketball game broadcast.

Sunday, May 26, 2024

They did it again. Winner in overtime.

Monday, May 27, 2024

Even if there were no other reason to support Joe Biden for president, Elon Musk’s opposition would be sufficient.

Tuesday, May 28, 2024

The Bronx has an estimated population of 1,297,660, making it only the sixth largest county in New York State, but would place it in the ten largest cities in the country on its own. 

https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities

Yet, today, its second remaining movie theater is closing, leaving it with one for the entire population. 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/one-of-the--only-movie-theaters-is-closing-heres-why-the-concourse-plaza-multiplex-is-shutting-down/ar-BB1n9RTm

It does have 13 screens, however, which is far more coverage in quantitative terms than was ever available in the good old days. Our Brooklyn neighborhood had three theaters, one screen each, within walking distance in the 1950s. The city of Ithaca had four movie theaters in the 1960s. Meanwhile, there is a 13-screen plex six minutes walk away from Palazzo di Gotthelf. Are we better off now? 

Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Yesterday evening, I offered my brother a deal. If the Rangers won that night, I would treat him to lunch at Seasons 52, 217 Lafayette Avenue, Edison, New Jersey, a restaurant that I have come to enjoy on previous visits. If they lost, he would treat me to lunch. What's clear is that I was anticipating a meal at Seasons 52 and I would be delighted treating him. Well, the good news is that I got a free meal; the bad news is that the Rangers lost, tying the series at two games apiece.

Not only was my meal free, it was good. I ordered something that never appeared at a Sabbath meal on Pitkin Avenue, Wood-Grilled Shrimp and Grits, cooked with chorizo and diced tomatoes.

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I did some shopping when I got home and caught up with the local Tillamook Dairy ice cream situation. Since the initial venture with peach and strawberry, we tried chocolate peanut butter. Today, Fairway Market, 2131 Broadway, also had chocolate, mint chip, chocolate chip cookie dough and Oregon dark cherry ice cream, my actual purchase.  The price remains $6.99 for a 1-1/2 quart tub of very creamy ice cream.

Thursday, May 30, 2024

Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty

Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty

Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty

Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty

Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty

Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty

.  .  .

The New York Rangers did not do as well as Alvin Bragg.

Friday, May 31, 2024

H Mart, a Korean-American supermarket chain, had a colorful opening today at 210 Amsterdam Avenue, just beyond the welcome mat at Palazzo di Gotthelf. 

 

Its merchandise is predominantly Asian, leaving lots of room for exploration. One welcome feature is not yet operative, a counter offering food from bb.q Chicken, my favorite chicken joint in Koreatown. Maybe this is a compassionate gesture by Providence to compensate for my decreasing mobility.

 

Hot Diggity Dog

Saturday, May 18, 2024

This is an interesting collection of reputedly the world’s best sandwiches. 

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/worlds-best-sandwiches?cid=ios_app

I've had some of them and they seem worthy of the distinction. However, where is bagel and lox and a BEC, bacon, egg and cheese on a roll? Also, there is the existential question, is a hot dog a sandwich?

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At the other end of the culinary world, we have the news that Tokyo has more Michelin-starred restaurants than any other city in the world, including Paris. In fact, four of the dozen restaurants awarded three stars feature French cuisine, one is Chinese, the others Japanese. I looked carefully at Sazenka, 4-7-5 Minamiazabu, Minado-ku, the Chinese restaurant, figuring I’d find common ground. It has four set menus, none readily available on Mott Street, ranging from ¥46,200 to ¥104,500. That amounts to $273 to $617 in real money. But that includes tax.

If I had that kind of money, I’d be buying tickets to the National Hockey League’s semifinal playoff round at Madison Square Garden. A seat that I might normally occupy during the regular season supposedly costs $375 in this round, but it doesn’t. $1,668.95 is the current asking price for that ticket for Wednesday night’s game. I’ll be home if you need me.

Monday, May 20, 2024

An article in The New Yorker citing an article in Esquire provides us a serious adult spelling challenge. Not the sort of biomedical monstrosities that they hit gaunt 12-year olds with in spelling bees. Words spoken by human beings. Here is a selection.

Moccasin

Asinine

Rarefy

Liquefy

Impostor

Mayonnaise 

Impresario 

Inoculate

Sacrilegious

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

I get most of my news from a variety of media, print and electronic. The New York Times predominates, but that often presents a problem when an item that warrants forwarding to the world at large sits behind its paywall. The article below gives a fascinating look at gun violence in the USA and, if you can access it, I urge you to get it. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/05/14/us/gun-homicides-data.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Put in any address in the country and gun deaths within a quarter mile in the last four years are illustrated. The story claims that one in seven average Americans lives within the immediate vicinity of a gun homicide.

Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Speaking of whether a hot dog is a sandwich, a river separates Brooklyn from Manhattan, but they are connected by three bridges, one tunnel, a ferry service and 15 subway lines. Four of us existentialists crossed over today by subway to a landmark, Nathan's Famous, 1310 Surf Avenue, Coney Island. I ate three hot dogs ($5.49 each), Original Crinkle-Cut Fries ($4.89 large portion), Diet Coke ($4.09 large size). If you’re not with three good guys and you can’t stroll the boardwalk in beautiful weather, I'd say skip it unless you've never been here.

.  .  .

Not only did I save $1,668.95 by watching the Rangers playoff game on television at home tonight, but I was spared experiencing the agony of defeat in person.

Thursday, May 23, 2024

Barry Koch does important work fighting human trafficking and teaches about it at Cardozo Law School. We had lunch today at Ben’s Kosher Delicatessen Restaurant, 59 Old Country Road, Carle Place, now the flagship of this small chain since its Manhattan location traded taste for piety. Translation -- Ben's, an ordinary Kosher restaurant at 209 West 38th Street, was replaced by Mr. Broadway, a glatt Kosher restaurant. The main ingredient in glatt Kosher cuisine, supposedly adhering to a higher biblical standard, is salt.

With coleslaw and pickles appearing with the menu, we were off to a good start. I had a deli double, two half sandwiches on rye, corned beef and tongue ($24.99), French fries ($6.49) and a Dr. Brown‘a Diet Black Cherry ($2.79). This would probably be my last meal if the Big House were not located too far from civilization, except I would ask for Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray Soda, no longer produced in a diet version, but what would it matter at that point?

Friday, May 24, 2024

I am retired, but before I retired I was a lawyer and before I was a lawyer I was a management consultant. So, I bring a track record as a problem solver to the day’s events. Two headlines yesterday got my attention:

• “In House Hearing, Republicans Demand Discipline for Student Protesters”    
• “Anyone Want to Be a College President? There Are (Many) Openings”

Solution: Place those Republican legislators in the available positions where they can apply their acumen to the ongoing controversies among students, faculty, administrators, local police forces, rich alumni, parents of students, politicians, cafeteria workers, and surrounding neighbors, thereby removing them from meddling in issues that affect the rest of us.

.  .  .

There are Kim Sykes people (playwright, actor, artist) and there are Adam Fox  people (New York Rangers defense person). I happen to be both, which presented a challenge tonight. We had tickets to a performance of the limited run of "In a Roundabout Way," Kim's play about the relationship between the widowed Mary Todd Lincoln and her former seamstress, Elizabeth Keckley, while the second game of the semi-final round of the Stanley Cup playoffs was being played at Madison Square Garden.

Ars vincit omnia, so too the Rangers, 2-1.

Raleigh Rally

Saturday, May 11, 2024

Each week I send out this literary creation to several hundred people. The last one bounced back in three cases “due to spam content in the message.” Examining what I wrote, I can only guess that “bialy” conveys an erotic message outside my experience.

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There was plenty of stimulation on hand tonight, but it was hardly erotic. The Rangers were playing the fourth game of the second round of the National Hockey League playoffs, leading 3-0, needing one more victory. Needless to say, I parked in front of the television set for the evening. Actually, I wasn’t parked directly in front of the television all the time. I spent an hour on my exercise bicycle which will allow me to eat ice cream later. And we lost.

Sunday, May 12, 2024

This report tells you almost everything you might want to know about the US rental market. 

https://www.zillow.com/research/renters-consumer-housing-trends-report-2023-33317/

Percent of renters never married — 30% vs. 25% of US adults; percent of rental households with children under 18 — 33% vs. 36% of all households; percent of rental households with a cat — 32% vs. 22% of all households. 

Related data show another reason for me to stay out of Texas. Dallas, Austin and San Antonio offer the highest percentage of dog-friendly rentals among all major cities.

https://zillow.mediaroom.com/bark-and-zillow-announce-most-dog-obsessed-cities

It’s not that I don’t like dogs, I just don’t like them enough to live with them.

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Mother‘s Day dinner at an Indian restaurant was our housemother’s preference. aRoqa, 206 Ninth Avenue, has always been a good choice. And the best things that it has to offer are “Taste Plates,” medium-sized, higher priced and not typical of an Indian menu.

We had Corn Paddu, corn and rice fritters with coconut kaffir lime chutney ($17); Vegetable Sweet Potato Cutlets, minced vegetables with sweet potato in a panko crust ($18); Prawn Cutlets, chopped prawns fried in a panko crust ($21); Lamb Seekh Kebab, two skewers of coarsely ground lamb ($23). Everything was very good, as expected. Reservations needed except at odd hours.

Monday, May 13, 2024

I have kept quiet for a few weeks about an exciting discovery in the critical field of ice cream. Fairway Market, 2424 Broadway, has started carrying ice cream from Tillamook Dairy, an Oregon outfit. Actually, it appeared for a week then disappeared for a week which made me think it had been a failed test. Now, it’s back and I hope to stay.

It’s sold in 1-1/2 quart tubs, with the website listing 30 flavors, although Fairway carries only a few. So far, we have had the peach and strawberry flavors, both excellent examples. It claims to be made with extra cream compared to others and that seems to be true to the taste. Significant factoid, $6.99 for the equivalent of three pints.

.  .  .

Here are two ranked lists. If I didn’t know what they are, I wouldn’t know what they are. Any guesses?

1.    Izael / Kaeli

2.    Chosen / Alitzel

3.    Eiden / Emryn

4.    Cassian / Adhara

5.    Kyren / Azari

 

Hint – Boys on the left, girls on the right.

(Come back later.)

Tuesday, May 14, 2024 Terrific Tom and I went to a panel discussion on "Mario Cuomo -- The Life, Legacy, and Presidential Run That Never Happened." Participants were Cuomo's former press secretary, his Director of State Operations and two journalists. Tom and I were both particularly interested in the never-was presidential run. While the group offered a consensus that Cuomo was so concerned about state fiscal affairs that he was unwilling to enter the presidential race, we remained unconvinced. Two of the panelists gave some relevant information that was new to us. Cuomo, they said, believed himself to be poorly prepared in issues of foreign policy and international affairs, and his ego would not allow him to be potentially embarrassed in the matters. Our skepticism diminished somewhat, but not entirely.

Wednesday, May 15, 2024  This headline had almost a miraculous effect on me, taking decades off my life, restoring me to my graduate school days.  "17% of Voters Blame Biden for the End of Roe"   I wrote a paper on American voting behavior, based on the most authoritative public opinion survey at the time. The findings were on a deck of 2,000 punch cards, held by my professor, that I sorted by machine every which way. I learned that 27% of the American voting public knew absolutely nothing about our politics in response to a series of questions in the survey. The good news seems to be that the number is now down to 17%.   Thursday, May 16, 2024 The eyes of Western Civilization turn to Raleigh, North Carolina, tonight where Game 6, Round 2 of the National Hockey League playoffs between the New York Rangers and the Carolina Hurricanes will be played. Let thy will be done. .  .  .   "Court papers show Sen. Bob Menendez may testify his wife kept him in the dark, unaware of any crimes" Who said chivalry is dead? Friday, May 17, 2024 If you are a hockey fan, you don't need me to tell you what happened last night. If you are not a hockey fan, you are probably unable to understand what happened last night. .  .  . You know about Liam and Olivia and Noah and Emma, the most popular baby names of 2023 according to the Social Security Administration. The group above, however, are the names moving fastest up the list from the year before, believe it or not. https://www.ssa.gov/news/press/releases/2024/#5-2024-4

Ice Capades

Why I don’t trust the student protesters.

In the United States, news of the Hamas attack on Israel arrived in the afternoon of October 7th or later. Generally, the current crop of student protesters were silent or, in a few cases, elated. Calls for ceasefire only began once Israel responded, even before the disproportionate scale of its response became apparent. Gazans were the third victims chronologically of this tragedy after Israelis dead and Israelis kidnapped, but most protesters were only aroused by their plight. Cf. https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1654384

 

Saturday, May 4, 2024

If you spend any time on the Internet, you are besieged by unwanted ads. Sometimes they assume an authoritative guise, but when did the television show “Shark Tank” become the clearinghouse for medical breakthroughs?

Sunday, May 5, 2024

My sympathy is with the parents of teenagers. "The so-called Ivy-Plus schools — the eight members of the Ivy League plus M.I.T., Duke, Chicago and Stanford — collectively received about 175,000 applications in 2002. In 2022, the most recent year for which totals are available, they got more than 590,000, with only a few thousand more available spots."   https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/opinion/college-admissions-applications.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=highlightShare

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The telephone rang just before 9 o’clock last night. The screen said No Caller ID, so I cut the call off. When the telephone rang again a minute later, a familiar name appeared. It was Billy Spiro, another of my hockey ticket benefactors, a must answer. “Two extra tickets to the playoff game on Sunday. Interested?”

 

Sam Fuchs, Stuyvesant High School graduate and US Navy veteran, met me in front of Macy’s before the game at Madison Square Garden. In spite of the generations separating us, our enthusiasm was about equal. We were rewarded by a 4-3 victory in an electrically charged atmosphere. We also got a pretty good T-shirt.

 

After the game, we walked down the street to Rowdy Rooster, 130 West 32nd Street, advertising Indian fried chicken. It occupies a small space, holding four tiny, round two-tops, four stools and a bench against the wall. I ordered the Signature Fried Chicken Rice Bowl, very crispy chicken strips, basmati rice, peas, carrots, onion, broccoli, cucumbers and tomatoes, moderately spiced ($16), a tasty end to a happy evening.

 

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

It seems that I wasn’t the only one who wanted to get home in time for the start of the Rangers playoff game. Sala Thai, 307 Amsterdam Avenue, was full at 6 o’clock. I had ample time to eat chicken satay, four thin slabs of grilled white meat chicken, a bit dry, but accompanied by a delicious peanut sauce ($14). Then, I dug into Yum Ped, described as crispy duck salad although the duck was roasted not fried ($18). Additionally, the salad had pineapple, cashews, cherry tomatoes, red onion and greens in a sweet and tangy dressing. We were home by seven for a game that ended at 11:15. Rangers won, of course.

 

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

“RFK Jr. says worm ‘got into my brain and ate a portion of it’”  https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/08/politics/rfk-jr-mercury-poisoning-brain-parasite?cid=ios_app

 

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene says that she has nothing to worry about.

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The Boyz Club gathered at 456 Shanghai Cuisine, 69 Mott Street, on a very warm day. This is a successor to a restaurant on Chatham Square a couple of decades ago. Almost empty when we walked in at 12:20, people were waiting on the sidewalk to get in one hour later. The six of us ate beef wrapped in scallion pancakes, “Wontons in spicy flavor,” beef with scallions, spicy orange chicken and shrimp fried rice. The $18 cost per person belied the high quality of the food. Nothing disappointed, everything pleased.

 

Thursday, May 9, 2024

Kossar’s Bagels & Bialys, 367 Grand Street, started in 1936, properly known as Kossar’s Bialystoker Kuchen Bakery for Bialystok, Poland where bialys were born. Everyone knows what a bialy is, right? Okay.

Well, Kossar’s opened its third branch at 250 West 72nd Street today and Jeffrey Heller and I were among the first customers, customers for lunch, that is, because it opens its doors at 6 AM if you really want hot stuff. Jeffrey, as you should know, is a devoted advocate for immigrants, vocationally and avocationally. He has just paused his latest long distance bike ride for human rights for needed bicycle repairs.

 

By the way, immigrant Bialystokers formed a congregation on the Lower East Side in 1865, later established formally as a synagogue. A pogrom in Bialystok added to its membership and it purchased a former church in 1905, located on what is now 7-13 Bialystoker Place, where it still operates.  http://www.bialystoker.org/

 

Also, when we moved to Queens in the 1950s, there was a commercial bakery, now long gone, on Jamaica Avenue around 102nd Street that sold bialys and pizza dough, essentially the same thing.

 

About a dozen people were in line ahead of us to get in and they kept coming after us. In fact, the crowd attracted Congressman Jerry Nadler out for a stroll, giving Jeffrey the opportunity to buttonhole him on a couple of issues.

One bialy costs $1.75 and one bagel $1.90. For no good reason, you can get bagels in a baker’s dozen, but bialys only by the dozen. I ate whitefish salad on an onion bialy (garlic also available) with tomato ($15.75). The whitefish salad was very good, not extended with celery or onions, but too much mayonnaise. It was not better than the version at Zucker’s Bagels & Smoked Fish, 273 Columbus Avenue, which is a couple of bucks cheaper. Along with my lunch, I bought two beautiful poppyseed bagels to take home.