2014 May
Jewish American Heritage Month
1. National Day of Reason.
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4. Jackson Heights Greenmarket. Ethical Humanist Society of Queens (* * *). Meal thereafter at Jax Inn* with Tom, Pratip and Nuka. I pretended to stumble into the shopping cart.
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6. Looked for Dr. Guha’s office in Princeton Court but could not find it because it’s not there (and asked about him in medical office that is there).
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8. Salami reference at K & L Delicatessen*.
9. Went downtown*. City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism Shabbat and cultural program (* * *). Author speaking about Lower East Side Jews. OtD meetup at Bar Thalia*.
10. OtD at Bar Thalia, part two. Unnecessarily long subway ride home.
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11. Mothers Day. Jackson Heights Greenmarket*. Ethical Humanist Society of Queens (* * *). Reverse day: John L. was extremely careful about not spilling his coffee, and Pratip fell asleep. The whole discussion was Tom’s hitchhiking anecdotes but I made sure to photograph his New Yorker hand gestures. Cinco de Mayo event at the public school across 79th Street. New York Bear Den (* * *). Matt T. had made good avocado salad.
12. Young man inadvertently stole a nickel from me at Stop & Shop*. Nearly every plate I picked up at Grand Buffet* was dirty, most with cake and frosting. After I had served myself and had a male busboy/water bearer the whole time, a female worker brought me the check, called me her friend, tried to look cute trying on my sunglasses, and then got annoyed when I left only a dollar tip. Large party of adolescents nearby. Saw Aramis as I was leaving Global Supermarket and we talked outside for quite a while considering I had melting ice cream. He wanted to know about Humanistic Judaism.
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15. Manny Garriga died (* * *). Apna Bazar* to buy coconut oil for the first time and saw new cashier aisles.
16. Went to the rabbi’s apartment to see Richard S. and give him some papers and met his daughters. Queens Pride House men’s group (* * *). Are we one community? One participant compared the movement’s “rebellious” past to it’s “domesticated” present. Another participant suggested the change is appropriate because we supposedly no longer face housing and employment discrimination. Rainstorm afterwards.
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18. Lag ba‐ʻOmer. Jackson Heights Greenmarket*. Ethical Humanist Society of Queens (* * *) all alone until Rashid arrived around 13:00 as I was about to leave. Ran into Marcus W. and Jesse.
19. Visited dentist* office and got an earful from Tamara Shvartsman (תּמרה שװאַרצמאַן) about insurance.
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22. Self-checkout at Foodtown* in full operation. Long conversation there with Rafa.
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25. Nepalese(?) event on 37th Road*. Went downtown*. Passport to Taiwan festival at Union Square Park*. Met Chap and Ethan for Clint’s half-birthday bar crawl. Stonewall Inn*. G Lounge*. Hill Country Chicken*. Apna Bazar* with Chap to buy snacks for Scott. Scott M.’s apartment* for The Normal Heart.
26. Went downtown*. OMG WTF Bible recording at Beauty Bar (* * *).
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30. Original American Chicken*. Nearly all the multitude of chicken figurines were gone and the staff was completely different. All of Anwar’s toys and stuff were still in the tree garden out front. Pork sandwiches on the menu mean they’re no longer ḥalal.
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