Latin lesson

Let me just say at the outset that I am not a lawyer, have never studied law, and therefore cannot in any way claim that what I am about to write here has any veracity.

We have been hearing endlessly about an alleged “quid pro quo.” On the assumption that much of the American public is not able to absorb the meanings of Latin phrases, let alone recognize that they are long established concepts in our legal system, the media and politicians have come to focusing on bribery and extortion, which I suppose they assume people can better understand.

The way quid pro quo is being used currently is based on the definition of this term as referring to a favor or advantage granted or expected in return for something. But in that case, is quid pro quo the right phrase to use to describe the actions of which the President is being accused? I am not quite sure how this came to be the misdeed of which Mr. Trump is accused, although it may well have been his own insistence that there was “no quid pro quo here.”

The main reason given by the House of Representatives for moving toward impeachment comes from a well-documented conversation between President Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, the Prime Minister of Ukraine. In response to Mr. Zelensky’s request to President Trump to release the aid package previously promised to Ukraine, the President said “I would like you to do us a favor though.” The particular favor for which the President was seeking Ukraine’s assistance was providing negative information on the former Vice President of the United States and current candidate for President, Joe Biden, and his son Hunter.

So how does all of this relate to impeachment? Impeachable offenses fall into the following categories:

• Bribery: the offering, giving, soliciting, or receiving of any item of value as a means of influencing the actions of an individual holding a public or legal duty

• Treason: the crime of betraying one's country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government

and

• Other high crimes and misdemeanors: allegations of misconduct by officials. Offenses by officials also include ordinary crimes, but perhaps with different standards of proof and punishment than for non-officials, on the grounds that more is expected of officials by their oaths of office. Indeed, the offense may not even be a breach of criminal statute.

The first category would seem to be most relevant in this case. It will ultimately be in the hands of the American people and our elected officials to determine whether any of the President’s actions meet this definition. 

But simply the fact that we are having this discussion, although perhaps an interesting civics lesson, is an incredibly sobering thought. Having spent perhaps too much of the past two weeks absorbed in watching the hearings, I can only say that the return on Friday of “The Price is Right” on daytime television was a most welcome relief!

Love,

Rebecca

A very busy week

Over four days last weekend, basketball teams from Jewish high schools all over the country travelled to Los Angeles for the 5^th annual Steve Glouberman^Z”L (an avid basketball player and fan who unfortunately died four years ago at the age of 46, leaving a wife and three children) Basketball Tournament.

Last week, Joshua travelled with the Maimonides High School basketball team to play in the 5^th annual Glouberman Tournament. The M-Cats, as the team is known, had an impressive showing, winning 3 of their 4 games.

2019 Glouberman Tournament Scores

Date	Day	Time	Location	Game	Score
11/6/2019	Wednesday	6:00 PM	JCC	Maimonides vs Hebrew Academy	63-47
11/7/2019	Thursday	5:00 PM	Shalhevet	Maimonides vs YULA	66-60
11/8/2019	Friday	12:00 PM	JCC	Maimonides vs Hebrew Academy	58-60
11/9/2019	Saturday	8:30 PM	Pressman	Maimonides vs YULA	59-52

The games at JCC and Shalhevet were made available through a video link, and we managed to watch them. Joshua continues to be the youngest member of the team but he played more this year than last, so it was quite a thrill to see him on TV! With the three-hour time difference, the Friday game, which had been neck and neck the entire time, ended just minutes before the start of Shabbat on the east coast.  

We still had a lovely Shabbat. Simmie and family came to our apartment for dinner, and we had Shabbat lunch with Dina and family (minus Joshua, of course). On Sunday we had brunch with one of our “old” friends and former Sharon neighbor. Hilary’s first husband, Barry ^Z”L, died four years ago, and she recently married a fellow who had also been widowed. It was really wonderful to meet Bob and get to spend some time with both of them.

Barry barbequed for all twelve of us when Joshua returned on Sunday evening. We headed back to New York on Monday morning.

I had a couple of relatively quiet days, and then spent the better part of Wednesday at MSKCC, where I had a scan which looked good (yeah!), saw Dr. Iyer, and received my pembrolizumab treatment. Pretty much every room in the unit had the TV tuned in to the impeachment hearings. I would rather have been watching “The Price is Right”!

Have a great weekend.

Love,

Rebecca

Where's My Roy Cohn?

“Where’s My Roy Cohn?” is reportedly what President Trump said to federal investigators who were looking into interference in the 2016 presidential election. Roy Cohn was Mr. Trump’s one-time personal attorney who was known for his ruthlessness and apparent lack of concern with ethics.  

There have been a number of plays and films about Mr. Cohn, including Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America,” which premiered in 1991. This current film is a documentary, and includes extensive interviews with some of Mr. Cohn’s accomplices as well as lawyers, journalists, lovers, and younger members of his extended family.

There are many famous cases covered in the film, including Mr. Cohn’s key role on the team prosecuting Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for espionage, during which he is now known to have made phone calls to the judge urging the execution of the couple that eventually took place on June 19^th of 1953.

There is no question that he was a brilliant man. He graduated from Columbia University Law School at the age of 20, and had to wait a year to take the bar exam because one must be 21 years old to do so. He was also amazingly clever, and although it is hard to be overly impressed by this, he had an uncanny ability to convincingly state clear falsehoods. He was a homosexual in the days before it became acceptable to openly admit this. Many people flocked around him, at least until it became known, despite his denials, that he was infected with the AIDS virus. It was quite stunning how quickly all those admirers abandoned him at that point.

The film is quite a fascinating documentary about a man who had so much potential to have done good in this world but unfortunately took a very different path.

Love,

Rebecca

Learning about our government through baseball

The seventh game of the annual championship series of Major League Baseball in North America, known as the World Series, will be played tonight, with the Washington Nationals playing against the Houston Astros. In the first six games, the Astros won the three played in Nationals Park in Washington, DC, while the Nationals won the three played at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. Tonight’s game is to be played in Houston, which perhaps does not bode well for the Astros.

Why am I writing about this? Because while hearing so much about the world series, something about which I had never given much thought is the status of the nation’s capital, Washington DC. Although the District of Columbia has a larger population than two states (Wyoming and Vermont), because it is not one of the fifty states, it has no senators and only one delegate with limited voting privileges in the House of Representatives. Delegates have a marginalized role in Congress and their constituents are not represented in Congress in the same manner as most citizens. 

  

There are currently six non-voting members of Congress: a delegate representing the federal district of Washington DC., a resident commissioner representing Puerto Rico, and one delegate for each of the other four permanently inhabited US territories: American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Islands.

The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1961, entitles the District of Columbia to three electoral votes, the same number as that of the least populous state, in the election of the President and Vice President.

Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat who has served since January of 1991 and is next up for reelection in 2020, is the Representative for the District of Columbia’s At-Large District. I have heard her name many times but never realized just what role she plays.

The District's lack of voting representation in Congress has been an issue since the capital's founding in July of 1790. Numerous proposals have been introduced to change this situation, including legislation and constitutional amendments, returning the District to the state of Maryland, and making the District into a new state. All such proposals have been met with political or constitutional challenges, and there is no indication that this will be remedied any time soon.

Whatever may be its ultimate identifier, we know that Washington, DC is here to stay because they have a major league baseball team! Who would have thought that an interest in baseball would lead to a lesson on our system of government?

Love,

Rebecca

A good breakup

We headed into the City first thing this morning for my MRI at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center building on East 55^th Street, followed by my appointment with Dr. Lisa DeAngelis at the Outpatient Pavilion on East 53^rd Street. My last MRI had been on February 6^th of 2018, nearly twenty-one months ago.

The news is good – I am still in the clear! So, after we chatted for a few minutes, it was not entirely surprising when Dr. DeAngelis said that there is no need for me to schedule any further routine follow-up appointments with her.

I first saw Dr. DeAngelis in the spring of 2012. The primary CNS lymphoma had been diagnosed at Mount Sinai Hospital, but because it is a relatively rare tumor, the doctors and staff there did not have much experience treating it, and much to their credit, those doctors encouraged us to head over to Dr. DeAngelis at MSKCC. The rest, as they say, is history.

As I was writing this, I entered “Lisa DeAngelis” into Google and lo and behold came across something I had somehow completely missed earlier last month:

Neuro-Oncologist Lisa M. DeAngelis Has Been Named Physician-in-Chief and Chief Medical Officer of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Lisa M. DeAngelis Has Been Named Physician-in-Chief and Chief Medical Officer of MSK

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

After an extensive nationwide search, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) announced today that Lisa M. DeAngelis has been named Physician-in-Chief and Chief Medical Officer. A leading expert in brain cancer, Dr. DeAngelis previously served as Chair of the Department of Neurology and was co-founder of MSK’s Brain Tumor Center during her 30-plus-year tenure at the institution.

“Lisa is an internationally renowned physician, collaborative colleague, and fierce advocate for both patients and faculty,” said Craig B. Thompson, MSK President and CEO. “Her expertise and unique understanding of MSK’s mission make her the ideal person to lead MSK’s clinical enterprise into the future.”

As Physician-in-Chief, Dr. DeAngelis will direct the entire clinical care enterprise and continuum of care at MSK, leading a staff of cancer experts that includes more than 1,200 hospital attendings and almost 4,000 registered nurses. She will be responsible for the management of all patient care services across the MSK system, including a 500-bed inpatient hospital, 13 outpatient facilities in New York City, and seven regional care sites throughout New York and New Jersey. She will also focus on clinical strategic planning and will oversee MSK’s robust clinical and translational research programs.

“Over the course of her career, Lisa has been a leader of strength and integrity and is widely recognized for her vast knowledge of MSK, her extensive experience in treating cancer, and her extraordinary skill as a physician. She is also a gifted communicator, and there is no one better suited for this trailblazing role,” said Scott M. Stuart, Chairman of the Boards of Overseers and Managers of MSK.

Dr. DeAngelis joined MSK as a neuro-oncology fellow in 1985, working with Jerome Posner, who was MSK’s founding Chair of Neurology. She became a critical member of MSK’s leadership team in 1997, when she was appointed Chair of the Department of Neurology, a position she held until assuming the Acting Physician-in-Chief role in September 2018. She co-founded MSK’s Brain Tumor Center, where experts from across MSK work to bring new discoveries from the lab to patients as quickly as possible. Her research has focused on primary brain tumors and the neurological complications of cancer and its treatment, such as cognitive impairment and strokes. She helped develop the current regimen to treat primary central nervous system lymphoma and has led numerous national clinical trials that investigate new brain tumor therapies.

Dr. DeAngelis is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and the American Neurological Association. She also served previously on the board of directors for the Society for Neuro-Oncology.

“I am privileged to be taking on the role of Physician-in-Chief at this amazing organization. Our exceptional team of doctors, nurses, researchers, and staff is dedicated to providing the best, most advanced, and compassionate care to our patients. It is an honor to lead and work alongside them,” said Dr. DeAngelis.  

MSK is one of 50 institutions in the United States that has been designated a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute, affirming our leadership in research, patient care, and education. MSK is an American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet^®–designated institution, based on nursing excellence. In 2018, more than 24,000 patients were admitted to Memorial Hospital, and more than 173,000 patients were seen at our Manhattan and regional facilities.

From where I sit, MSKCC would have been hard pressed to make a better selection!

Love,

Rebecca

Sunshine

Here is something guaranteed to brighten any cold and rainy day like the one we are having here in New York.

Love,

Rebecca

Trying to get back on

I am somewhat nervously returning to my blogging, hoping that the “problems” I was having have resolved. Meanwhile, with the continued possibility that I will in fact need to privatize this endeavor, I would still encourage you to follow my previous instructions on logging in, which are included in an e-mail message you should have received from Blogger on October 18^th. I will resend that message if needed.

Last week’s “Mini” crossword puzzle in the New York Times had an especially relevant item:

Clue: On line diary, of sorts (four letters)

Answer: BLOG

Our family spent most of the past two weeks celebrating the holiday of Sukkot.

Sukkot is a weeklong Jewish holiday that comes five days after Yom Kippur. Sukkot celebrates the gathering of the harvest and commemorates the miraculous protection G‑d provided for the children of Israel when they left Egypt. We celebrate Sukkot by dwelling in a foliage-covered booth (known as a sukkah) and by taking the “Four Kinds” (arba minim), four special species of vegetation.

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4784/jewish/What-Is-Sukkot.htm

Like all Jewish holidays, it involves quite a lot of eating, and we have had lots of wonderful food with our daughters and their families.

I share a picture of Eliana and Maya with us in the Sukkah here, as well as a lovely greeting sent out by the Jewish Day School in Sharon. You probably recognize that adorable little girl on the left!

After ten wonderful days in Sharon, we returned to New York on Sunday. We were looking forward to an enjoyable last two days of the fall holiday season but unfortunately Barry had a toothache which sidelined us a bit. He was finally able to see the dentist today after my 28^th pembrolizumab infusion, so is hopefully on the mend now.

They say that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks, and perhaps they are right. Our friend, composer and jazz pianist Leslie Pintchik, has just released a new album called, "Same Day Delivery." With Barry's help, I went onto iTunes to purchase this terrific collection, and when Barry saw what I was typing, he said "why do you have to ask it for same day delivery? It should just download immediately!" I had to remind him that the name of her new CD is.....

Have a good week!

Love,

Rebecca