My blogging history:
2012: diagnosed with and underwent treatment for Primary CNS lymphoma in my brain.
2012-2013: blogged on Caring Bridge.
2013: moved to Blogger.
2017: diagnosed with bladder cancer and blogged through 14 chemotherapy treatments and 37 sessions of radiation therapy, each with its own t-shirt and musical selection.
2018 to February 2020: Treated every 3 weeks with pembrolizumab for spread of bladder cancer to lymph nodes. As of June 2020, continue to be cancer free.
Nothing profound here
today, just want to share an especially nice weekend.
We spent a wonderful Shabbat
day with Dina and family, including some of the older children’s friends. On
Sunday, Eliana was invited to a Bat Mitzvah party at Dave and Busters, an
entertainment arcade at the South Shore Plaza Mall in Braintree. To be honest,
I was happy to wait in the car while Barry escorted Eliana into this place and
later went in to retrieve her!
After Eliana was
settled we went with Maya to Build-a-Bear, where she picked out a stuffed dog
and some accoutrements.
We then visited the real dogs at the pet store next
door, and stopped in at the Lego store as well, where we bought a project for
Maya’s week in New York this summer. Before
we knew it, it was time to pick up Eliana.
While we were with
the girls, their folks had a nice day including lunch at a vegetarian
restaurant called Pure Cold Press and a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts in
Boston. Our little apple did not fall too far from the tree, did she?
Back in Sharon, we
all gathered for dinner at Dina and Aaron’s house, one of those rare
opportunities to at least try to get all six grandchildren into one picture.
It looks like the
warm weather is finally on its way – I even called this morning to arrange for
our annual air conditioning check-up. Enjoy!
Our surname has been much
in the news in recent days, as it is shared with a fellow who was recently
confirmed as the Deputy Attorney General for the United States Department of
Justice, Rod J. Rosenstein. As you know, our family pronounces the name as if
it were spelled RosenstEEn.
Apparently, this fellow’s family uses the other pronunciation, RosenstINE. At 33:32 in the attached
video, you can see Mr. Rosenstein stating his name for the Senate Committee
considering his nomination. Given his current headaches, I am quite happy that we
are not, to the best of our knowledge, related to this Rosenstein!
With all the different
versions of the same set of events in Washington, DC floating around over the
last few days, I could not help but be reminded of the famous story of the
capital city’s namesake, George Washington, and his father’s cherry tree. We
all grew up listening to that story as a shining example of the value of
honesty. It turns out that the story is simply not true: young George never chopped
down that tree. But that does not change the moral of the story, and right now
a little straightforward honesty would be quite welcome.
This Sunday was the annual New York City Five Boro Bike
Tour, so about the last thing we wanted to do was drive anywhere in those five
boroughs! Barry spent the morning and early afternoon working on upcoming
lectures, and when he finished we headed to a small theater in White Plains to
see “Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer.”
Norman Oppenheimer, played by Richard Gere, is a New Yorker
who dreams up financial schemes and maneuvers himself into the lives of the
rich and famous, an example of networking run amok. Along the way, he meets Micha
Eshel (Lior Ashkenazi), a charismatic Israeli politician to whom he gives an
expensive pair of shoes that ensure Eshel’s lifelong devotion to him. Three
years later, Eshel is elected Prime Minister of Israel. Oppenheimer’s attempt
to use his friend’s name to enhance his own deals does not go quite as planned,
so the intricate web of connections and lies begins to unravel around him.
Definitely worth
seeing if you have a chance.
A bit of levity (thanks to my friend Orah for posting this on Facebook) seems appropriate as good has prevailed over evil in France:
After careful planning, a thief in Paris entered the Louvre, got past security, stole some paintings, and made it safely to his van.
However, he was captured only two blocks away when his van ran out of gas.
When asked how he could mastermind such a crime and then make such an obvious error, he replied, 'Monsieur, that is the reason I stole the paintings.' 'I had no Monet to buy Degasto make the Van Gogh.'
Do you have De Gaulle to send this on to someone else? I posted it here because I figured I hadnothing Toulouse.
Finally, I try very hard to stay away from politics on this blog, but over the past few days I have been repeatedly reminded of two things our beloved Rabbi Avi Weiss often says:
1.There are only two categories of
people, the sick, and the not yet sick
2.The best measure of a society is how it
treats its weakest members (variations on this have been penned by politicians,
clergy, and others)
It has been a busy
week and a half, with routine medical appointments and still trying to catch up
from having been sick for a while. But we have managed to squeeze in some fun.
Last Sunday we went
to Film Forum to catch “Le Doulos” (The Finger Man), a 1962 film screening as
part of a Jean-Pierre Melville retrospective. I am still struggling with
reading so keeping up with the subtitles was not easy. In addition, it was
often the case that both the screen and the lettering were white, which makes
it nearly impossible to see. Hence, to be honest, I barely knew what was going
on, so I will share this brief summary I later read about the movie, which
makes a lot more sense now that I’ve read this. You can find more detailed
descriptions on line if you are interested.
Maurice Faugel has just
been released from prison when he kills his friend Gilbert Varnove. Maurice
then attempts to commit a robbery. The police appear and he tries to run but
the police shoot at him and he is wounded. He loses consciousness and awakes in
his friend Jean's apartment. He believes that his friend Silien (played by
Jean-Pierre Belmondo, the only actor with whom I was familiar) told the police
about his plans because Silien is rumored to be a police informant. Silien is
questioned by the police about the murder of Gilbert and the robbery before the
police collect Maurice from a bar where he is reading a newspaper report about
his girlfriend, Therese's death. Therese has been found in her car at the
bottom of a quarry. Silien is released and goes to meet his ex-girlfriend
Fabienne. With Fabienne's help, Silien frames someone else for the murder and
robbery, leaving Maurice in the clear. Maurice is released from prison and
discovers that it was Therese who told the police about the robbery and Silien
and Jean who killed her. Maurice reveals that he killed Gilbert because Gilbert
killed his girlfriend Arlette four years ago to keep her quiet. Silien returns
home but once Silien has left, Maurice remembers that he hired a man to kill
Silien because he thought he had betrayed him and chases after him.
So basically, this
movie went from one murder to another, with the star, Jean-Pierre Belmondo,
dying in the final scene (he had shot his killer, who managed to fire that fatal
bullet at him before his final collapse). This really was quite a dark view of
the world, probably best not taken too seriously.
A couple of months
ago we had tickets for a New York Philharmonic concert in David Geffen (formerly
Avery Fisher) Hall at Lincoln Center that we were unable to attend, and were
able to exchange them for another concert this week. There were just two pieces on the program. The
first was a piece by Arnold Schoenberg, “A Survivor from Warsaw.” I am
including here the program notes as well as the text of the piece. The notes
tell of his conversion to Lutheranism in his early 20s and his return to
Judaism in his late 50s following the Nazis’ rise to power in 1932. While I
have to admit that Schoenberg’s music does not comfortably find a way into my
ears, this was a very compelling performance.
The second piece was Beethoven’s Symphony #9 in D minor. Most of us who grew up in the United States in the 1960s are familiar with the second movement of this piece, which was the “theme” for the NBC Nightly News with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. And then there is the very famous 4th movement, commonly known as “Ode to Joy.” I have attached recorded versions of both here, as well as the text of the 2nd and 4th movements.
There was a huge orchestra and chorus on the stage, and all in all it was quite an experience to see this performance. This composition was quite an accomplishment, especially when you remind yourself that Beethoven was deaf when he wrote it! If you ever happen to have a chance to see it performed, I would highly encourage you to do so.
We are expecting a lot of rain here in New York over the next few days. We have some friends coming to join us for lunch tomorrow who fortunately live near by.
This has been a
stubborn upper respiratory tract infection. I took ten days of antibiotics but
my strong suspicion is that it was viral, so I am still just waiting for it to
pass. The main consequence was a very quiet Passover holiday at home for Barry
and me.
But little by little
I am trying to get out. This past weekend we finally went back to Sharon. We
had dinner Friday evening with Dina and family and lunch on Sabbath day with
Simmie. Maya had her closest friend over for lunch and it was fun watching the girls
giggling all afternoon.
We had bought tickets
for “Sesame Street Live” on Sunday afternoon at a lovely classic theater, the
Providence Performing Arts Center (https://www.ppacri.org).
PPAC is a 3100-seat, world class venue located in the heart of
Providence’s arts and entertainment district; it is the second largest theatre
of its kind in the country. PPAC is listed on the National Register of
Historic Places; it has also been ranked by Pollstar as one of the Top Venues
in the world. The theatre became known as the “Jewel of Weybosset Street”
after its doors opened as Loew’s State Movie Palace in 1928.
The beauty of the Theatre combined with the excellence of the
productions makes every event at the Providence Performing Arts Center a work
of art!
The lighting was dim
so pictures were difficult but here are a couple we managed to take. Julia was
totally engrossed in the show! Ella had gone to a friend’s birthday party but
Eliana was thrilled when we asked her to join us, and she was a big help with
Julia.
When we returned to Sharon, with our two little ladies soundly asleep in the back seat, we took off with Ella, Joshua, and Aaron to buy Ella a new bicycle. She is tall enough now to justify buying her a somewhat better bicycle which should last a few years. We headed over to Landry’s Bicycles, a wonderful shop near Sharon, where we are rather certain that we had bought Simmie and Dina their first “real” bicycles back in the late 1980s. The current location is quite a bit larger than it was back then, and they still have a great selection of bicycles and helpful staff. After trying a number of bicycles Ella settled on this one:
The Sunday during Passover was a beautiful day and we headed for a while to the Botanical Gardens, where a new exhibit of works by artist Dale Chihuly was about to open. There are programs planned around the exhibit throughout the coming months and we hope to return to it when our grandchildren visit this summer. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of the artwork on display.
We had bought tickets for the Mets’ opening day game on April 3rd but I was not up to going. Fortunately, we were able to sell them quite quickly. Unfortunately, after a very good start to the season, the Mets have not been doing very well. But we are still hopeful, and the weather is supposed to be good on Thursday so we now have tickets for the afternoon game they are playing at Citi Field. Let’s hope the weather holds out.
As I end these words, I heard an interesting piece on NPR’s “Fresh Air” about a new book by Kory Stamper, Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries. One of the topics Terry Gross discussed with the author was the appropriateness of ending a sentence with a preposition. Apparently, the thinking on this topic has changed, so I guess it is no longer something of which I need to be afraid. But clearly, I still am.
This Passover was
already going to mark a major difference for us: for the first time since they
were married in 2000, Dina and Aaron planned to spend the first part of the
week-long holiday in Baltimore. But we were happy to be planning to spend the
first days in Sharon with Simmie and Ronen and the girls.
The first days of
this holiday are the major part, the time when families gather for the at-home
service known as a Seder (say-dare). It is full of song and ritual
foods and can be quite an enjoyable evening if you are not under the weather or
not too exhausted from the extensive preparations.
As they say, people
plan and Gd laughs….and, unfortunately, I have had a rather stubborn respiratory
infection that forced us to rethink those plans and opt for a very quiet
holiday here in New York. We had prepared our house because we had planned all
along to come back here for the second half of the holiday. But it was a bit
lower key than we would have liked. Simmie and Ronen had, fortunately, invited
other company so they were still able to have a more joyous couple of days.
Of course, even this disappointment
is much better than the level of “excitement” we had five years ago or forty
years ago. But it was the right decision to make, because I am still not completely
back up to speed.
Hopefully things will
look brighter a week from now. We do plan to be in Sharon because we have
tickets to take Julia and Ella to “Sesame Street Live” up in Providence on the
23rd.
April the 4th of 1977 was a Monday, the second
day of Passover. I was 28 weeks into what had been a mostly uneventful
pregnancy. About two weeks earlier I felt what I’ve always called, using parlance
stolen from a popular movie released later that year, a “tremor in the Force.”
I called my obstetrician who suggested I come in, and by then my blood pressure,
which had been normal, was quite elevated. Within one week I was admitted to
the hospital with epigastric pain, a rather dire symptom of severe pre-eclampsia.
In these cases, the outlook is not great for either the baby or the mother, but
after a few days with increasingly severe symptoms a decision was made to
deliver the baby. This little girl came into the world weighing just 1090
grams, 2 lbs. 7 oz.
We were fortunate to be at an excellent medical facility,
The University of Rochester Strong Memorial Hospital. Those early weeks were
quite a roller coaster ride but little Simmie was a fighter. And here we are, a
mere forty years later, still celebrating our little miracle.
In Simmie’s honor, we sponsored a surprise Kiddush (refreshments after Shabbat services) and I am proud of the
girls for keeping the secret. Here is a picture of the sheet cake we served.
And here is a picture of a tee shirt I could not resist buying for our birthday girl. Leave it to Simmie to point out that, technically, she was “made” in 1976, not 1977! I just love that wry sense of humor.
In the Jewish tradition, Moses was said to have died at the ripe old age of 120, at which “his eye had not dimmed, and his vigor had not diminished.” For this reason, Jews commonly wish one another that they should live until 120. Simmie, you’re 1/3 of the way there!
