| A Thought - 28 November 2020 |
| A couple of weeks ago I heard a story on NPR that impressed me as very insightful. It was an interview with a man named Yuval Levin, who has written a book called A Time to Build. Here’s a bit of it: “And I think a lot of them on both sides of our politics see their role as channeling the frustration of their voters, as speaking for those voters. And so where people might once have thought about running for Congress in terms of seeking a microphone in order to get power or t . . .(more) |
| Thanksgiving - 27 November 2020 |
| We had planned on a big family gathering in a rented house in Pennsylvania around half-way between Chicago and the East Coast, but then it seemed like a bad idea to get together in such a big group. Since we couldn’t do the big gathering, I invited Reva and her kids down from Milwaukee, and the four of us did the holiday together. Reva made cranberries, Yorkshire pudding, and roasted vegetables. Abe made two pies. I made a roast and a Mallorcan fava bean dish. . . .(more) |
| Sixty-six - 14 November 2020 |
| Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes and calls and gifts. Regular calls and and Zooming have never felt so important. It makes a big difference, and it’s only going to be more important as the long gray winter settles in. A lot of my life these days is reading. Last year Tamar got me a membership in a plan from a bookshop that sends a book every month or two. Last month’s book was a family history called “House of Glass” that follows the family of the author . . .(more) |
| From Summer to Fall - 5 October 2020 |
| A month ago Avi went to Macomb, Illinois to work for a week. She had worked there a couple of times before, and had already committed to going back again when she got her current job in Chicago. I was out of the country during her previous trips, but this time I came along. On the way there we passed by DeKalb, and on the spur of the moment decided to make a quick stop. For years I had been thinking of making a day trip there, but even though it's only an hour and a half away, I somehow just . . .(more) |
| Music and Words - 3 September 2020 |
| The picture has nothing to do with the rest of the post - it's just some produce from my garden, artfully arranged on my fancy countertop. I recently came across a very nice version of something called "The Hammond Song" by The Roches. It's a new arrangement with a hundred women singing, each from their own home, of course. Here it is . And here's the original . . .(more) |
| Family Time - 20 August 2020 |
| I have just returned from eight days away with my family. That's always a delight, but after spending so much time holed up here at home, it was a special joy. Family time began when Renana arrived here two weeks ago. She drove to Chicago from DC and spent several days visiting with friends and hanging out with me. We had Shabbat dinner out in the back yard together with Avi and my next-door neighbor, Rich Moline, whose wife Joni was in the hospital recovering from surgery. . . .(more) |
| August 2 Again - 2 August 2020 |
| It's hard to believe that it's August second again. The last part of the year passed very quickly for me in this strange situation. Grandfather and Eema (Bev) were both born on this date, Grandfather in 1917, and Eema in 1953. I think of them both constantly, and whatever I do I am still looking for their approval. |
| Books I've been reading recently - 19 July 2020 |
| I have just finished a book called HumanKind that I bought because I heard the author (Rutger Bregman) interviewed on NPR, and liked what he had to say. He hits a lot of points that I've heard in the last few years and puts them all together. Here are a handful of them: -The strategic bombing campaigns of WWII strengthened the victims, and did not destroy their morale. This has been generally the case. -We tend to imagine that we are generous but that ever . . .(more) |
| A Busy Week - 2 July 2020 |
| It's been a busy week in West Rogers Park. Last Friday I invited over Avi and her family for shabbat dinner. The day spent in the kitchen was rewarded by positive reviews. And then Rich knocked on the door to tell us about a fabulous double rainbow that practically filled the Eastern sky, and we all went out to gawk and say the appropriate blessing. On Sunday we went over to the Buchbinders and went for a walk with them through the Northwestern campus. We walked . . .(more) |
| Amphitrion - 31 May 2020 |
| Yesterday I started reading something about the next haftara, and I ended up with this: The Catalan word for host is amfitrió. The word comes from a play by Molière where there are a group of guests at the house of a man named Amphitrion. There are two identical men who claim to be the host, and the question is, which one is the real Amphitrion? The play was very popular, and in some languages the name Amphitrion came to be used for any host. The play is based o . . .(more) |
| Another Yahrzeit - 26 May 2020 |
| This evening is the beginning of the twenty-second yahrzeit of Arnold Fox. The picture to the right was taken in the backyard of his house in DeKalb, Illinois, with his beloved wife and his two children. In his younger years that last sentence would have come as a big surprise to him. He was a thorough New Yorker, was not eager to get married, and certainly did not want to have children. Yet there he sits, only a month before his death, with a lifetime of accomplishments behin . . .(more) |
| Old Books and Old Scholars - 14 May 2020 |
| One effect of the lockdown is that the University of Chicago Library is closed. This has resulted in a windfall for used bookstores, as I buy the books that I can't take out of the library. Sometimes when you buy an old book you find mementos of the previous owners that turn out to be as interesting as the books themselves. Some time ago I found the card of Kenneth A. R. Kennedy in a book I bought. He turns out to have been a paleo-anthropologist who taught at Cornell and spent . . .(more) |
| Still at Home - 5 May 2020 |
| Life at the ancestral home of the Foxes is not much different than at any other time in the last few years. I read, study, and write a little. The only difference is that I do it all at home, rather than largely at my circle of coffee houses. I'm still doing my language lessons. This evening a spent an hour on FaceTime with my Sinhala tutor, and Thursday morning I have my Catalan lesson. I'm still slowly reading through my first novel in Sinhala, and hope to finish it in a co . . .(more) |
| A Strange Passover - 13 April 2020 |
| The night before the first seder there was a bright full moon, and then the next day before the seder at Avi's house there was a sunshower followed by a beautiful rainbow. It was strange and sad to have the seders without my family here, though doing it with Zoom on the second night was surprisingly nice. It's amazing how well it works (most of the time), and when you were all having conversations "around the table" it felt as if you were physically here. But then when I turned . . .(more) |
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