Jewish Delis: Chit Chat #18
2024-12-02
What’s the deal with Jewish delis in the Twin Cities? Some good ones, but nothing great. At least nothing I’ve found so far. Help!?!?
I agree Josh, there are some decent ones here in our hometown, but nothing in the top 100 nationally, which is weird because we have such a large vibrant Jewish community. I yearn to shout at a grizzled counterman in a crowded deli, “I Want the Don Rickles, Toast the Rye, Extra Cole Slaw,” while someone’s grandpa mumbles into an intercom with a loudspeaker, “Barbara Streisand’s chauffeur: your order is ready at that cashier”.
Jews and Communism - by Arnold Kling
2024-12-02
In the collective memory of American Jewry, the entanglement of Jews and Communists merits hardly a footnote.
—Jerry Z. Muller, Capitalism and the Jews, p. 161
For paid subscribers, Jerry and I will be talking about this topic on Zoom on Monday evening, February 26, at 8 PM New York time. I’ll send out a reminder with a link closer to the date.
In my own memory as an American Jew, the entanglement of Jews and Communists has more significance.
Jews and Hollywood - Jewdicious
2024-12-02
By Ross Kagan Marks At the 2010 Academy Awards, co-host Steve Martin began a joke about Jews in Hollywood like this:
“In Inglorious Bastards, Christoph Waltz played a Nazi obsessed with finding Jews. Well, Christoph…”
Martin paused, then he spread his arms wide open in reference to the fully seated audience in the Kodak Theatre. He waited for the first big laugh to finish, then parlayed it into another by exclaiming “the motherlode!
Jhonny Severino - by WTM
2024-12-02
Position: IF
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 185 lbs
Bats/Throws: R/R
Born: 11/08/2004
Country: Dominican Republic
How Acquired: Trade (with Brewers for Carlos Santana)
Bonus: $1,230,000
40-man Roster: No
Rule 5 Eligible: 2026
Minor League Free Agency: 2028
Options Left: 3
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The Brewers signed Severino to a seven-figure bonus as a switch-hitting infielder with power potential. He’s since dropped the switch-hitting and bats right-handed. It’s open to question whether he’ll stay at short, but he has a strong arm and could play third.
Jim Carroll Band - People Who Died
2024-12-02
To those who received this piece via email, I apologize for the old message at the top about this being a repeat of an old essay. It’s not! It’s brand new, I just forgot to delete the old header!
“It’s a lot to learn to sit with things you can’t change.”
Dr. BJ Miller, author of A Beginner’s Guide to the End, and former Executive Director of San Francisco Zen Hospice
Jim Grant on Interest Rates
2024-12-02
The most important price in the world is the price of money: namely, interest rates. And interest rates are suddenly on everyone’s minds, as rates shoot upward for the first time in decades. The effects or this rise will be felt in the markets, the economy at large, in households, and at the election booth. Which is why I went to Jim Grant: the investor, historian, and editor of the Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, which has been required reading on Wall Street for many years.
Happy August, Caftan readers! I hope you’re all having a good summer, or as good a summer as possible. I was so (I hate this cliché, but…) #blessed to spend three weeks in Greece, both in Athens (a truly cool, vibrant and laid-back city that I will not linger in again in summer—it’s so hot!) and on some incredibly beautiful islands. And through it all, I was delighted to see Caftan readership skyrocket as my last interview with porn legend Tom Chase garnered more than 12,000 reads.
Jimmy Buffett: Its Five Oclock Somewhere
2024-12-02
We are already missing Jimmy Buffett, 76, who died tragically of cancer, September 1. As the stories of his life pour into the media, I wanted to add my admiration for the songwriter, performer, and business entrepreneur who touched many of our lives in the past few decades. My brother, Robert, this is for you!
As the mayor of Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffet created a whole multi-generation of “Parrotheads.” I think his thoughtful lyrics especially to “Margaritaville” touched me the most.
Comedians have historically been the truth-tellers. That’s why Shakespeare employed them liberally throughout his plays: to tell the truth to the audience and often to other characters. The Fool in King Lear doesn’t pull any punches. He fearlessly speaks his truth, insulting Lear and ridiculing his actions, yet the King spares his life over and over, treating him less like a servant and more like a friend.
It makes sense. King Lear would have summarily executed any sane person exhibiting the same insubordination.