Monday, January 28, 2019

The L Train and The Jews

A Rising Tide Floods All Houses: Abq Jew loves The New Yorker. Always has. Since he was a kid, just looking at the cartoons in his psychiatrists' offices.

Yes, every now and then David Remnick & Co turn out (what Abq Jew considers) a dud issue. But - 'way more often than not - there's a few articles (yes! they publish articles!) and several cartoons that brighten and/or inform Abq Jew's week.

So let's take a closer look at the issue of January 21, 2019.

"Big City" by Pascal Campion

The first thing you're gonna notice, probably, is the $8.99 cover price. For 50 issues, that's $449.50 per year. But nobody - least of all, Abq Jew's medical team - pays that much. Why?


We all subscribe!
Abq Jew's subscription is now renewable.
Please contact Abq Jew if you would like to be his friend or family member.

Abq Jew loves New York. Always has. Since he was a kid, just "growing up" in California - but realizing that real life took place in The Big Apple. So about this glorious cover, Françoise Mouly writes:
This week’s cover is by Pascal Campion, a French-American illustrator making his début in the magazine. Campion, who lives in California, has worked in the animation industry for more than fifteen years, and he recently sat down with us to talk about his art, his influences, and how he was inspired by New York. 
What impressions did you bring back from your first trip to N.Y.C., a couple of years ago? 
“Impressions” is a good word—I still have images imprinted in my brain from that trip. 
It started out fairly mellow, in White Plains, as I was there for business. I took the train into the city and felt like a kid on his first date. As we got closer and closer, my heart kept beating faster and faster. I remember seeing the first buildings on the outskirts, and being surprised that they looked so much like what I had pictured, though maybe a little bigger. And there were so many people! 
I got off at Grand Central Station, and then it was just one huge moment after another: the size of the buildings, the avenues, the parks, the lights in between buildings. I walked up and down Manhattan that day, walked until the sun came down. The city at night was even better. I was so impressed by it that I made a series of images right when I got home.
Illustration by Luci Gutiérrez

About halfway into this issue, there's Shouts & Murmurs - Humor, Satire, and Funny Observations. This week's, Idioms Updated for Climate Change, is by Ginny Hogan. Which includes:
  • When it rains, it acid-rains.
  • A bird in the hand is worth more than it used to be because they’re going extinct.
  • One man’s trash is everybody’s trash because it all goes in the same enormous landfill.
  • She vanished into oddly thick air!
  • It happens only once in a blue moon, and that’s pretty frequently because now the moon is all sorts of weird colors.
  • Curiosity killed the cat—oh, wait, no, we killed it for food.
  • You catch more flies with honey—here, let me show you how to catch flies. That’s dinner right there.
  • Don’t eat a dead horse. Not until we’ve eaten this cat, at least.
  • It’s not rocket science. You know, rocket science? The only type of science that matters anymore because we need to find a new planet to live on?
  • A rising tide floods all houses.
Good for a chuckle, at least? Great, 'cause now we're gonna talk about Hell and Death and Eternal Damnation. The Bad Place. All of which appear in an article, How The Idea of Hell Has Shaped the Way We Think, by Vinson Cunningham.

Hell is an old room in the house of the human imagination, and the ancients loved to offer the tour.
Illustration by Cleon Peterson

Who claims:
For centuries, we’ve given lavish attention to the specifics of punishment, and left Heaven woefully under-sketched.
Not true! Abq Jew explored The Good Place eight years ago (!) in Torah and Talmud and Zombies and The Final Tisch; No Zombies. And (almost) two years ago in Walking to Jerusalem.

And which he doesn't want to go into again, 
because Abq Jew would much rather talk about


Talk of the Town and the category Long, Strange Trip. In particular, Zach Helfand's magnificently-researched and gloriously-written exploration of the New York Underground, Andrew Cuomo and the Unwinnable L-Train Game.

First, some background. Especially for non-New Yorkers. The one thing you have to remember is:

The New York City subway is actually
quite simple once you get the hang of it.


Except if you live in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn (as many people do) and need to get to and/or from your office in Manhattan. Without the really, really direct L Train and the L Train ("Canarsie") Tunnel.

"Why would you need to do that?" Abq Jew hears you ask. Because -
In 2012, the L Train Tunnel (AKA Canarsie Tunnel) – which is 1.5 miles long and runs under the East River – was filled with corrosive salt water due to Superstorm Sandy. As a result, the 100-year-old tunnel sustained critical damage, including the Circuit Breaker House, system and power cables, and the cement benchwall that holds and protects the cables. 
Crucial repair work was planned to begin in the spring of 2019, including the laborious and time-consuming process of removing – by hand – and replacing all 32,000 feet of benchwall, as well as installing 126,000 feet of power cable and 176,000 feet of communications cable inside the benchwall. 
This work would require a complete shutdown of L service through the tunnel for 15 months.
Once New York Governor Cuomo and the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) announced the impending shutdown, rental prices for apartments in Williamsburg shot through the ... floor


People started looking for new, Brooklyn-based jobs. Or telecommuting jobs. Or even jobs west of the Hudson River. You know - like in Jersey, or on The Coast.


Which cheerfully and adroitly brings Abq Jew to Hunter Fine and Gil Arevalo, two L-train commuters. Who, Zach Helfand tells us, 
created a board game called Escape from HelL—a Candyland-like game that, according to their online description, lets players experience “the hell of trying to get to Manhattan from Williamsburg.” 
In the game, players roll a die and race through Brooklyn using alternative modes of transportation—bus, ferry, bike—while hoping to avoid wild cards that can set them back: bad Uber drivers, empty Citi Bike stations, bus passengers with weirdly long fingernails. 
First one to Manhattan wins.

Does Hunter Fine sound familiar? Perhaps that's because
A part-time guerrilla artist, Fine is best known for creating a YouTube game show, Hikea, in which contestants try to assemble IKEA furniture after taking LSD or psychedelic mushrooms. In one episode, a wild-eyed man holds up an instruction manual and says, 
“This is a book of lies!”

But back to Escape from HelL. Zach Helfand continues:
A prototype of the game raised more than six thousand dollars on Kickstarter
As of last week, Fine and Arevalo were still planning to mass-produce it, having concluded that, even under Cuomo’s new plan—a shutdown-lite, with repairs on nights and weekends—getting to Manhattan will be a hellish experience. 
“This was always just meant as a social commentary,” Arevalo said. The commentary? 
“They’re fucking up our commutes,” Fine said. “That’s basically it.”

Wait! What was that middle part?

Anna Quinn reports on Patch.com:
The dreaded 15-month shutdown of the L train, scheduled to begin in just a few months, won't need to happen after all, Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a surprise announcement Thursday. 
Cuomo shocked residents — and seemingly some officials — when he said during a press conference that his team of experts that visited the Canarsie tunnel have come up with a new plan that will avoid a full shutdown of the subway line. 
"Long story short, with this design it would not be necessary to close the L train tunnel at all, which would be a phenomenal benefit to the people of New York City," Cuomo said, adding that only some weekend or nighttime closures of one of the two tracks will be necessary.
"How," Abq Jew hears you query, "could this possibly have happened?" Could the Governor - a politician! - change his mind?
Cuomo decided just two weeks ago that he would visit the tunnel and review the plans for a possible alternative. He said at the time that he wanted to ensure he could confidently tell New Yorkers that every option was explored. 
"I can't tell you how many people have approached me about the L train and the difficulties that the L train closure would trigger," Cuomo said Thursday. 
"The MTA has done a very good job, the city has done a very good job in trying to alleviate the problems with the L train closing...but the simple fact is you have roughly 250,000 people who would need another way to get to work. 
"15 months sounds like a relatively short amount of time — but it's not if you're doing it one day at a time trying to get to work," he said.

But back to Escape from HelL. Zach Helfand describes how Fine and Arevalo recruited two coffee-shop patrons for a test run of the game—Laura Craig and Wayne Patterson, Australians who moved to Williamsburg last year.
Everyone chose a token and started rolling. On the board, Craig ... avoided kombucha spills and overcrowded J-M-Z trains, and cruised past House of Yes (a night club) and McCarren Park, for an early lead. The other players stalled. 
More rolls. Arevalo had to move back two spaces when he hopped into a car share near the Williamsburg strip club Pumps only to find his ex in the back seat. Fine was blocked by a Bushwick graffiti tour. 
Ten minutes passed, then twenty. Time slowed to a crawl, as if measured by a subway countdown clock. The players began to feel loopy. “Whoa, I swear I just had déjà vu,” Craig said. 
“I think we can end it pretty soon,” Fine said. 
When the game was called, Arevalo was back in his apartment and Patterson and Fine were stopped near Peter Luger Steak House. Craig, the winner, had made it all the way to the Flyrite Tattoo parlor, near the Metropolitan Avenue station on the G train. 
No one had reached Manhattan. 
Fine admitted that the game is almost impossible to conquer: 
“That’s kind of the joke.”

Abq Jew sincerely hopes that this blog post has a) cheered you up a bit;  b) shown you what a quality rag The New Yorker truly is, with its world-class troupe of Jewish and goyish writers. And c) reminded you about the cartoons.

Please contact Abq Jew
if you would like to be his friend or family member.


Thursday, January 24, 2019

Anne Frank: A History of Today

For High School Students & the Public: As International Holocaust Remembrance Day (see We Remember Every Day) approaches, Abq Jew would like to bring the work of New Mexico Human Rights Projects to your attention. In particular -


Anne Frank: A History of Today
A Unique Peer Education Program for High School Students

New Mexico Human Rights Projects is proud to be a long-time partner organization of the Anne Frank House, Amsterdam. As an international partner, NMHRP is honored to be part of the worldwide tour of their exhibition: Anne Frank – A History for Today, shown in more than forty countries.

Anne Frank – A History for Today shows the impact of Nazi policy on the family of Anne Frank, the world-famous German-born diarist and WWII Holocaust victim. It shows photographs of Anne Frank’s childhood in Frankfurt and in Amsterdam, and portrays the rise of the Nazis, the persecution of the Jews, and, very importantly, the way the people responded against the background of the Holocaust and WWII.


Based on the concept of “peer education,” students in New Mexico high schools will be trained to be the exhibition guides. The guides explain the content to their fellow students and, by asking questions, challenge them to reflect on the historical events and to make relevant connections with issues in contemporary society.

Anne Frank House staff will train eight students from each participating school to become familiar with the content of the exhibit and with its educational goals and methods; they will be taught how to present the information in an appealing way and how to initiate a discussion with their peers and other visitors on issues regarding tolerance and discrimination.


Anne Frank: A History of Today
Bosque School Public Exhibit

The public is invited to visit the Anne Frank: A History of Today exhibit at Bosque School on Wednesday, January 30 from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm in the Ford Library. Trained student docents will lead you through the exhibit.

Bosque School is honored to be one of six NM schools to host the internationally acclaimed Anne Frank: A History for Today exhibit. Organized in NM by New Mexico Human Rights Projects, the exhibit has been shown in more than forty countries.


Tuesday, January 22, 2019

The Right Honorable

Taxi Driver's Son: Do you know who John Bercow is? If you had mentioned the name to Abq Jew even a few days ago, he wouldn't have known. So here's a photo of John Bercow at work.


OK ... we're getting closer. John Bercow looks so familiar, especially to those of us (like Abq Jew) who are news junkies. Or who (unlike Abq Jew) are British. Or who (no lo contendere) simply pay attention.

One last hint. Yes, John Bercow is all over YouTube. For example -


John Bercow - the Right Honorable John Bercow, that is - turns out to be the Speaker of the House. Of Commons. You know - in the United Kingdom. Has been for years. The British have been keeping him a secret.

Abq Jew would like to thank Ellen Barry of The New York Times for bringing John Bercow to his attention, during one of Abq Jew's recent, all-too-common (pun fully intended) insomniac all-nighters.
John Bercow, Shouting for ‘Order’ Amid Chaos, Is Brexit’s Surprise Star and Villain 
In the wretched purgatory that was Westminster last week, there was precisely one person who seemed to be having fun. 
From the silk-canopied speaker’s chair of the House of Commons, John Bercow looked out over Britain’s squabbling Parliament and brayed, “Order! Order!” in that undrownoutable voice, something like an air-raid siren with postnasal drip. 
He doled out his pompous, antiquarian insults, cheerfully rebuking one member for “chuntering from a sedentary position ineloquently and for no obvious purpose.” 
The outside world rarely takes much notice of the speaker of the House of Commons, a nonpartisan and typically low-profile figure who presides over parliamentary debates. 
But Britain’s last-minute paralysis over exiting the European Union, or Brexit, has made Mr. Bercow into a kind of celebrity.
Fascinating, eh what? But wait!

Ms Barry proceeds to tell us that the RH John Bercow is - SURPRISE! - a MOT.


No, not the Ministry of Transport, an annual test of vehicle safety, roadworthiness aspects and exhaust emissions required in the United Kingdom. Not that kind of MOT.


Our kind of MOT. A Member Of the Tribe.

It is an extraordinary moment for Mr. Bercow, the 56-year-old son of a cabdriver from North London. 
An outsider sometimes mocked for his short stature (he is 5 foot 6½), he propelled himself through the Oxbridge-educated upper reaches of British society by sheer determination and is viewed, variously, as a sharp-elbowed bully and a champion of the rights of Parliament. 
Those personal qualities have come into play at a pivotal moment as Britain hurtles toward its March 29 exit with a government in stalemate.

“He is a law unto himself,” said Bobby Friedman,
the author of a biography of Mr. Bercow.

And Wikipedia further explains -
His father was a taxi driver, of a British Jewish family in Edgware, Middlesex. His paternal grandparents were Jews who arrived in Britain from Romania a century ago. Having settled in the UK, the family Anglicized its surname from Berkowitz to Bercow.
John Bercow and his wife, Sally Kate [Illman] Bercow. She is 5 foot 11.

And The Times continues -
Even in the hyper-loquacious environment of British politics, Mr. Bercow stands out for his love of ornate language and withering insult. 
“He could never say, ‘It’s great to see you’ ”; instead he would say, ‘It gives me inestimable pleasure to meet you for the finest condiments created by Mrs. Twinings,’ ” a colleague told Mr. Friedman, his biographer. 
A sitting lawmaker told The New York Times in 2013, “It’s as if he goes to bed every night, reads a thesaurus, inwardly digests it and then spews it out the next day.” 
Occasionally, when a fellow politician was speaking, he would cry out, 
“Split infinitive!”

And then there's the controversies. John Bercow has been involved in a few. And then there's Sally Bercow, who posed for a Big Ben shoot a few years ago. There were calls to lock her up in the Tower of London.

You know - the British!


But, as everyone can see ... there's a Brit who is a Jew
who is 'ordering' around the House of Commons. 


It's true. We Jews do rule the world!

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Kudos and Bagpipes

But Let's Start With Kowtowing: It is always a surprise to Abq Jew when he appears to possess secret knowledge; when Abq Jew knows things he believes everyone knows, but everyone doesn't.

One of Abq Jew's literary heroes, a renowned Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times (since 2008!) whose bitter criticisms of the current regime (one can hardly call it an administration) are a rare source of cheer and fortitude in these troubled times, recently tweeted:


"Lindsey," of course, is US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). "[T]his man," of course, is that man whose Washington, DC regime it currently is.


But cowtowing?

It is clear (Abq Jew thinks; but he is no longer sure) that everyone knows what said sad Op-Ed columnist meant:


Kowtow
Kowtow, which is borrowed from kau tau in Cantonese (koutou in Mandarin Chinese), is the act of deep respect shown by prostration, that is, kneeling and bowing so low as to have one's head touching the ground.  
An alternative Chinese term is ketou; however, the meaning is somewhat altered: kou (叩) has the general meaning of knock, whereas ke (磕) has the general meaning of "touch upon (a surface)", tou (頭) meaning head. 
The date of this custom's origin is probably sometime between the Spring and Autumn Period, or the Warring States Period of China's history because it is already known to have been a custom by the time of the Qin Dynasty (221 BC – 206 BC). 
In East Asian culture, the kowtow is the highest sign of reverence. It was widely used to show reverence for one's elders, superiors, and especially the Emperor, as well as for religious and cultural objects of worship. 
In modern times, usage of the kowtow has become reduced.

And then there is one of Abq Jew's favorite mass nouns of all time

(from the Ancient Greek: κῦδος) is acclaim or praise for exceptional achievement. And therefore one should never say anything like
One kudo; two kudos.
It's sorta like one should never say anything like

One cattle, two cattle.

Jim Young / Reuters

And then there's the bagpipes.

As Abq Jew is writing this post, William Barr, the current regime's nominee for the extremely important (to say the least) post of US Attorney General, is being interviewed by Senate Republicans and interrogated by Senate Democrats.

This, in spite of the fact that Mr Barr is clearly unqualified - and should be immediately and dishonorably disqualified.

Why? Sam Stein reports in The Daily Beast:
STUNNING PIPES
Trump's AG Nominee Bill Barr Is a ‘Top-Grade’ Bagpiper 
In the financial-disclosure forms he sent to the Senate last week, Donald Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, William Barr, revealed a network of financial investment and ties to major energy companies and law firms common for a man atop of the political world. 
But there was one item tucked in the documents that seemed rather unique. 
From January 2017 to December 2018, Barr served as a board member of the U.S. Piping Foundation, an organization that supports competitions for bagpipers, of which Barr is one. 
Arthur McAra, President of the United States Piping Foundation, told The Daily Beast that Barr, in his role, was “available to advise” on the yearly competition that the group hosts at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware. Barr got the gig because he was known as a “top-grade” bagpiper back in the 80s. 
 
“He was discussed among the other members of the foundation’s board and one of the members, who is also an attorney, said he would ask Bill if he'd be good enough to join our board and the answer was yeah,” McAra recalled. 
McAra didn’t know if Barr still played the pipes. With age, he said, it’s not as easy. 
But he recalled that the once and possibly future AG was a “very, very good bagpiper” in his day, always as a band member (Barr played alongside McAra’s son) and not as a soloist. 
—Sam Stein

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

We Remember Every Day

The 1919 Lag B'Omer Pogrom: The photograph immediately catches the eye ... and then the soul. Abq Jew saw it on the Facebook page of the Jewish Genealogy Portal, and was compelled to tell the story.


The couple pictured - she standing, he sitting - are not, as far as he knows, members of Abq Jew's family. A member of the Jewish Genealogy group posted the photograph, with the not unusual request for help in translating the handwritten captions.
Dear Friends
Happy New Year
Could some kind soul please translate the words
Thank you
And before Abq Jew had even seen the photo and request, others - many others (how does this happen?) - had already responded. One wrote:
On the right: Murdered Lag B'Omer 5679 (1919) in Ukraine.
On the left: Passed away Tamuz 27, 5682 (1922).
The Tamuz is slightly unclear but I think it is the best match from the 12 Hebrew months.
And another confirmed:
Dates of death of the man and woman in the picture.
He was murdered on 18 Iyar 5679 or 18 May 1919.
She died on 27 Tamuz 5682 or 23 July 1922. 
And then someone asked:


Is the family from Pogrebishche, Ukraine?
On Lag Ba'Omer 5679 (May 18, 1919) a pogrom
was carried out in the town by the Red Army.

Abq Jew, of course, wanted to know more - about the town, about its Jews, and about what happened to them. Wikipedia (English) tells us:
Pohrebyshche (Ukrainian: Погребище) is a small city in Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Pohrebyshche Raion (district) in western Ukraine. Pohrebyshche is situated near the sources of the Ros River. Population: 9,765 (2015 est.) 
The town is very old and origin of its name is not clear. Pohreb means a big cellar in Ukrainian. On another hand Pohrebaty can be interpreted as to perform a burial. 
According to a legend, put down by Ukrainian ethnographer Pokhilevich, before Mongol invasion of Rus, during the times of Kyiv the town was called Rokitnya. Mongols level the town leaving only the cellars. 
The town had a substantial Jewish population before the Communists took over. There were periodic pogroms before then and raids by the Bolsheviks before Lenin's definitive consolidation of power. In 1928, the large Synagogue was converted into a Workmans Club.
The remaining Jews were murdered during the Second World War by the Nazis and local fascists.
But Wikipedia (Hebrew; with Google Translate) tells us even more about the Jews of Pohrebyshche:
In 1897 there were 2,494 Jews in the town. 
During the Russian Civil War , in 1919, two deadly pogroms took place in the town. 
On May 18 [Lag B'Omer], Red Army soldiers killed about 400 Jews in the town, and between August 18 and 21, Ukrainians murdered about 350 other Jews, injuring about 100. During the Soviet period there was a Jewish state council and a Yiddish school in the town. 
On July 21, 1941, during Operation Barbarossa, the town was occupied by the Germans, and in a few days they executed a few dozen Jews, aided by Ukrainian policemen. On October 18, 1941, about 1,300 Jews from the town were rounded up by Ukrainian and German police and murdered in pits in a nearby forest. In the days that followed, another 400 Jews were hidden in the town and surrounding villages. 
About 200 Jews from the vicinity of the town, and Jews who managed to escape from the Aktion , were concentrated in a small ghetto established in the town, where they were forced laborers and suffered from hunger and cold. In June 1942 all the inhabitants of this ghetto were murdered. 
From the Pohrebishche community, 16 to 18 Jews survived the Holocaust.

As International Holocaust Remembrance Day approaches (Sunday January 27), Abq Jew looks at that photograph as if that couple were members of his own family. And Abq Jew is forced to remind himself that -

Jew-hatred did not begin with the Holocaust.
Jew-hatred did not end with the Holocaust, either.


A fact of Jewish life of which we are all too, too aware.


This year, the World Jewish Congress  is promoting the Global Campaign for International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The WJC points out:
In 2019, with rising hatred all around the world, it’s more important than ever that YOU be a part of this movement. Please watch, join, and share. It’s critical. 
#WeRemember
@WeRememberEveryDay


Imagine seeing your neighbors torn from their homes and businesses by the police. No crime has been committed. They have been deemed unfit and marked for death. Helping them would be a crime. Would you have the courage to intervene?

The Ten Boom family did. 

In 1944, their choice to rescue persecuted Jews meant risking their own lives and sharing the the collective fate of the Jewish people in Nazi concentration camps.

Corrie Remembers, Susie Sandager's solo drama, tells the true story of the Righteous Gentile and 20th Century Heroine, Corrie Ten Boom.


Through Susie’s excellent performance, you will feel as though you are a personal guest in Corrie Ten Boom’s home as she recounts memories of her harrowing and yet uplifting story that reaches with living hope from the pages of history to touch your heart in a troubled world today.
Although many of you have been longtime supporters of the show, I believe the times in which we are living give new meaning and importance to Miss Ten Boom's message.  
I am always humbled by personal reflections expressed after each performance. Having been performing out of the country and elsewhere for a while, I am excited to be sharing Miss Ten Boom's legacy in Albuquerque once again.  
I'm certain that if you join us and bring friends, you will be glad you did. Thanks again for your kind support, 
Susie Sandager

Click here for Aux Dog tickets.         Click here for more information.

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Making Our Dreams Come True

Norman Gimbel, Happy Days: Yes, on January 1, 2019, Abq Jew must tell you that Norman Gimbel has passed away at the age of 91.

 A somber way to begin the New Year?
No ... a samba way! 


Norman Gimbel wrote some great, inspiring lyrics to wonderful songs we all know. And therefore - remembering him is a beautifully meaningful way to start 2019.

The Post's obituary starts out
Norman Gimbel, Oscar-winning lyricist of ‘Happy Days’ theme and ‘Girl From Ipanema,’ dies at 91 
For a few weeks in 1964, the upper reaches of the Billboard record charts were occupied not only by the Beatles, Beach Boys, Four Seasons and Rolling Stones, but by a seductive bossa nova number written for a musical comedy about an alien who visits South America. 
The musical, “Blimp,” never took off, although its would-be signature song became an international sensation — by some accounts the second-most-recorded song in history, after the Beatles’ “Yesterday.” 
Written by composer Antônio Carlos Jobim and poet Vinicius de Moraes, it neatly filled a major plot hole: What might cause an extraterrestrial guest to linger in Brazil? 
The answer, rendered into English by lyricist Norman Gimbel, was a beautiful woman from southern Rio de Janeiro: 
Tall and tan and young and lovely
The girl from Ipanema goes walking
And when she passes, each one she passes goes “ah!”


Abq Jew has always (see The Girl from Ipanema) marveled at this song's exquisite combination of lyrics and melody.
But each day as she walks to the sea
She looks straight ahead not at he.
Heloísa Pinheiro, the Girl from Ipanema

This is Abq Jew's favorite phrase in the entire song. Why?  Because it's bad English! And it works!

Mr Gimbel could easily have substituted the (correct) objective form "him" for the (incorrect) subjective form "he". We must all be thankful that he did not.
But each day as she goes for a swim
She looks straight ahead not at him.
But Abq Jew (big surprise!) digresses. The obituary continues
With help from Mr. Gimbel, “The Girl From Ipanema” went on to drive the bossa nova craze in the United States and beyond, introducing millions of listeners to Brazil’s “new wave” fusion of samba and jazz.   

The Post's obituary doesn't tell us much about  Norman Gimbel's early life - only that he was born in Brooklyn; studied at Baruch College and Columbia University; and, perhaps more importantly, studied under Frank Loesser, the celebrated composer of “Guys and Dolls."

So ... turning to Wikipedia -
Norman Gimbel (November 16, 1927 – December 19, 2018) was an American lyricist of popular songs, television and movie themes. 
Gimbel was born in Brooklyn, son of Lottie (Nass) and businessman Morris Gimbel. His parents were Austrian Jewish immigrants.

Actually, there's a lot more. "Killing Me Softly With His Song". "Summer Samba". "Meditation". "Sway". "I Got A Name". "A Whale of a Tale". "Canadian Sunset". "I Will Wait for You". "It Goes Like It Goes".

But - here are his two most famous songs. That is, if you ever watched good ol' network TV back in the day.


May the New Year 2019 of the Common Era
be filled with nothing but Happy Days!


And may we all be healthy and prosperous
while Making Our Dreams Come True!