Today's Recipe: one part book, one part memories.

Part I

I just finished reading Philip Roth's frightening novel, "The Plot Against America." I enjoyed (I'm not sure that's the right word) the book thoroughly, although the ending seemed too easy. Roth went to such lengths to make the book interesting with different twists and turns that I think he could've done the same with the conclusion. What makes this historical fiction so alarming is how plausible the storyline is. Because we returned from Israel just last night, my senses are heightened when it comes to being a Jew in the modern world.

I never fully understood how tragic our entire history has been until this trip. You're familiar with the joke about Jewish holidays. That is, every celebration boils down to this: somebody tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat. It's funny and it's true. But it's also very sad. Because the Jewish calendar touches on the major points of our history -- fleeing Egypt, destruction of the temple, Holocaust -- we forget the years that connect those dots. I've got news people: they weren't all that much better to us.

Which brings me to the book. In a very weird way, there is something to be said about living in a ghetto. At least you know where you stand with people. There is no doubting whether or not somebody hates you -- they do! De facto anti-Semitism might be more dangerous because the coming of the next Holocaust might not be so obvious. Is it imminent or even impending? Maybe not. But I am increasingly aware that there are people in this world who dislike me simply because of who I am. I grew up thinking that "those" people no longer existed or if they did, were in some far off place. I no longer carry that optimistic (or naive, perhaps) view.

On a positive note, however, the book shed light on one figure from American history who had Jewish blood in him and was a friend of the Jews, countering the argument that man on the bus was making (from a previous post). That figure was none other than Fiorello La Guardia.

Part II

Mike Smith just left to head back to Seattle. He was in town this weekend visiting a friend from Germany so he stayed at our apartment while we were gone. He extended his trip by one day so that we could hang out. It turns out that he caught a cold while he was here and it's literally freezing in New York so we stayed in, ordered Chinese food and watched a few episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Mike and I have this ability to have a great time together even if we're sitting and doing nothing. We catch up on old times, talk about sports, books, friends, etc. We lived together during our senior year of college and then during the two years I was in grad school. Because I'm in more contact with him than my other college roommates I tend to focus on that last year of college and neglect the first three.

However, recently I was in Florida for work and had a chance to hang out with Marc Shuster, whom I lived with officially for years two and three in college, but for all intents and purposes lived with for the first three years. It was really great to reminisce about things I hadn't thought of for, quite literally, years. Marc and Lillian (his wife who also went to college with us) have a daughter, Rita, who is absolutely adorable. They asked me to sing for her because they pretty much were groupies during my Troubadour days. After I sang they commented how I'm better than half the contestants on American Idol. It's not actually true (I'm not just being modest here for the record), but it was nice to hear and also nice to recall some great college memories.

I've always been terrible at taking pictures and my memory isn't what it once was either (my brain only has so much room) so I need other people to remind me somtimes. Luckily, moving forward, I should have an abundance of pictures to look back upon one day because Mrs. E is just the opposite of me. She documents everything -- a scrapbooker extraordinaire.