In Character

From an article at foxnews.com, edited by yours truly: UCLA suspended an professor who has been teaching accounting 39 years after he declined a student’s request to delay a final exam in light of Floyd’s death. At least 20,000 people signed a petition calling for the man’s removal after a student who wasn’t in the class posted the email exchange on the matter on social media. The professor wrote: “Do you have any idea if any students are from Minneapolis? I assume that they probably are especially devastated as well. I am thinking that a white student from there might possibly be even more devastated by this, especially because some might think that they’re racist even if they are not.” And: “… Remember that MLK famously said that people should not be evaluated based on the color of their skin. Do you think that your request would run afoul of MLK’s admonition?” He also asked how he would be able to identify the black students given that the class is online.

Even more ludicrous, although I’m not a fan of the movie, is this in a headline at foxnews.com: “HBO Max pulls Gone With the Wind from library amid racial tensions.” Will it be pulling any films that have pejoratives used by hip hop artists?

I was hanging out, without setting out wares, at my regular book nook from noon to one. Three of my patrons stopped to chat. All are characters in the novella on which I’m working. Andy, whom I affectionately refer to as “F-Bomb” because of his constant use of America’s favorite cussword, is a Polish immigrant and recently retired electrician NYC frequently called upon in emergencies. True to form, while speaking on his cell phone about a computer, he let fly a stream of expletives… Ira has been on a run of bad luck since he retired from his beloved tailoring profession about 15 years ago. He bought his co-op at age 60 and got battered by the economic crash that occurred during the Bush II years. His mortgage went underwater and he will probably never get out from under the burden. His mom died on March 29th, and her landlord charged him for April’s rent. The only good thing about it was that it was a rent-controlled apartment, “only” $500+ monthly. He had to recover his collectibles from garbage bags in the basement — at least those that weren’t stolen. They are now piled in his apartment… Mike, who’s 80+, is thrilled that horse-racing, his passion, has resumed. He had a joke for me:
Three men are sitting side by side on a plane, two big guys in cowboy hats flanking a little one.
“Whatta you do?” said the one to the left.
“I own a ranch, 200 acres and ten thousand heads of cattle,” says the one to the right. “How ‘bout you?”
To which the one to the left replies: “My spread’s 400 acres and I have twenty thousand heads of cattle. How ‘bout you, partner?”
And the middle man says shyly, in a Jewish accent: “I have a spread too.”
“Where?” the other two say simultaneously.
“Downtown Dallas.”

If any snowflake finds this objectionable, too bad. Mike is a proud Jew.

If the first 50 pages of the novella are any indication, I will be ordering a proof copy by the end of the week.

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