We awoke to snow falling on Shabbat morning. We were unable
to make it as far as synagogue, but managed to make it to our friends Judy and
Lanny, who live just a block away and had invited us for lunch. I had
contributed a batch of “birds nest cookies,” which these days seem to be called
“thumbprint cookies.” I had not thought about
these cookies for years until Simmie made a batch of them a few weeks ago. They
are beautiful and delicious but extremely time consuming to prepare!
By the time we came home from Shabbat lunch just a few hours
later, Barry had a hard time pushing the wheelchair through the rapidly
accumulating snow. Fortunately, by Sunday morning the streets were fairly
clear, so we were able to keep our Sunday plans.
On Sunday afternoon we saw “Darkest Hour.” The film spans a
few weeks during the spring of 1940, when Winston Churchill took over as
British prime minister. His predecessor, Neville Chamberlain, had tried to
appease Hitler, who was moving closer every day to taking over the United
Kingdom. Hitler’s forces had invaded Belgium and France and pushed the British
army to Dunkirk in France. History tells us how the story ends, but the movie
takes us through the agonizing decisions Churchill was forced to make.
I would be surprised if Gary Oldman, the actor who played
Churchill, is not nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor. To be honest, the
name sounded faintly familiar but I had to look him up this morning to figure
out what other work he had done. It seems that he has played a wide variety of
dramatic roles, captured in a Variety piece entitled “Gary Oldman on His Path from
Sid Vicious to Winston Churchill.” Mr. Oldman’s earlier role was a reference to
a 1986 film, “Sid and Nancy,” which received an 87% approval rating on Rotten
Tomatoes. I do not think we had seen any of his earlier films.
After the movie we met our friends Ava and Jason for dinner.
They had some great suggestions for things to do with Maya on her upcoming
visit, and even offered to take her ice skating (she is now taking lessons), a
quintessential New York winter activity but something we are obviously not able
to do. Ava and Jason are so charming and so much fun I am only concerned that, if
she meets them, Maya will just want to spend the week with them rather than her
old grandparents!
After dinner Barry and I headed over to the 92nd
Street Y to see “Paul Krugman in conversation with Chris Hayes.” The discussion
was primarily about proposed revisions to the US tax plan. I should have been
taking notes because there were a lot of fascinating observations but I cannot
accurately quote anything. What is clear is that often the things we think make
perfect sense with respect to predicting the outcomes of various approaches to
taxation simply do not turn out as anticipated. One example he gave was tax
deductions for charitable contributions. Other countries have removed such
deductions amid gloom and doom predictions that donations would plummet, and in
fact that does not seem to occur. Interesting.
Lastly, I just saw some pictures on Facebook that make me want
to ask: which of these guys would you rather have carving your family’s
Thanksgiving turkey? Let’s just say that I prefer the first one unless he tries
to sing while he’s carving, and then I’d go with the second!
Love,
Rebecca
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