HeadStart Foundation

HeadStart Foundation = Not-for-profit network of technology entrepreneurs
http://headstart.in

I found the start-up survey in India via LiveMint interesting. Check out the links http://www.livemint.com/2009/03/23214643/Startup-survey-raises-questio.html?h=B
http://www.livemint.com/2009/03/23214643/5060930E-1385-4E93-ADDA-48910B18075EArtVPF.pdf

Aleksander Gliwiñski

Meet Aleksander Gliwiñski + his approach to amber jewelry design/life.
www.aleksandergliwinski.pl

Pearl Commission Viewpoint

The CIBJO Pearl Commission has unanimously voted against the use of the term 'cultured' to describe synthetic diamonds. Check out the link www.cibjo.org

The Differentiated Workforce

The Differentiated Workforce: Transforming Talent into Strategic Impact by Brian E. Becker, Mark A. Huselid, Richard W. Beatty is an interesting book on the idea of human capital + its impact + how to plan for/use talent effectively. A must read.

Useful link:

www.thedifferentiatedworkforce.com

Synthetic Art

The Medium Is the Message
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123784613601418261.html

Useful link:
www.whitney.org

Great review. To me synthetic art = synthetic materials.

Sweatshops

Why Sweatshops Flourish
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6126.html

A big chunk of marketing is around the issue of how we consume to express our identity. Diamonds have no intrinsic value, but they have such great symbolic and cultural value that demand has created environmental destruction and wars.
- Neeru Paharia

I completely agree. A very timely and informative study.

Kuniyoshi Project

Utagawa Kuniyoshi at the Royal Academy: Manga master of the 19th century
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2009/mar/23/art-exhibition?picture=344945122

Useful links:
www.kuniyoshiproject.com
www.royalacademy.org.uk

Random Thoughts

It's a beautiful example of a sustainable style. I think saris are also subject to trends — very subtle trends, probably. But it's beautiful because it's so authentic and it's very much part of the country. We would hate for a country like India, with its emerging economy, to all of a sudden switch to jeans, T-shirts and high heels — God forbid!

- Viktor Horsting + Rolf Snoeren
www.viktor-rolf.com
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/23/style/fdelhi.php

Spot on.

The Essence Of The Entrepreneur 2009

The Essence of the Entrepreneur 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/template/2.0-0/element/pictureGalleryPopup.jsp?id=5617394&&offset=0&&sectionName=BusinessEntrepreneur

Useful link:
www.essenceoftheentrepreneur.co.uk

Inspiring.

The Ralph Esmerian Story

Diamonds are a banker's worst friend
http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/18/magazines/fortune/kapner_jewelry.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009031812

Merrill Lynch didn't understand what they were getting into. But I didn't understand what I was getting into either. In my business, if you're late making a payment it's no big deal.
- Ralph Esmerian

Useful link:
www.fredleighton.com

Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing. It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently (Warren Buffett).

Diamond Beauty

Let There Be Light: A Consumer Guide To The New Diamond Beauty
http://www.modernjeweler.com/print/Modern-Jeweler/Let-There-Be-Light--A-CONSUMER-GUIDE-TO-THE-NEW-DIAMOND-BEAUTY-/1$9

Useful links:
www.modernjeweler.com
www.heartsandarrows.com
www.americangemsociety.org
www.acagemlab.com

Thank you Dave for your brilliantly written 'Let There Be Light' to the Modern Jeweler. It was educational and insightful.

Random Thoughts

If one will but analyze the fundamental causes of speculative failure, he will discover that the chief blame lies not in the character of the stock market, not in the fact that the game is loaded against the average specu­lator, but in weaknesses inherent in human nature. It is not the stock market which beats speculators. It is their own unreason­ing instincts and inborn tendencies which they cannot master, and which given free rein lead on to ruin.

- R.W. McNeel
Beating the Stock Market (Chapter 25, Reason vs Instinct)
http://books.google.co.th/books?id=ed6Tw3TCG4AC&dq=R.W.+McNeel&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=S2SbO2kH1a&sig=mYe7I1csaZ5YdBSRYRFDnD6XMyE&hl=en&ei=HdrGSfGtMpCw6wPzscnIBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA2,M1

Spot on.

Art Market Update

Sticky fingers
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13351372

Useful links:
www.sothebys.com
www.artloss.com
www.versace.com

This is indeed an interesting story.

Market Music

In my view, Philip Glass's 'Metamorphosis IV' is the perfect market music because of its unique tone, intensity, color and clarity. Check out the links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il4VDf-ugPI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwwKFBeZr5Q&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e44WWY6gm1Q&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgjby9F_Zjk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWLvNULJDpo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf2YGbTjAGc&feature=related

Useful link:
www.philipglass.com

Open Source Cinema

Film fans urged to 'remix' movie
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7952905.stm
http://www3.nfb.ca/webextension/rip-a-remix-manifesto

Useful links:
www.opensourcecinema.org
www.etherworks.ca

I loved it. It's creative and a new form of art, really.

Barcode Art

Meet Scott Blake + view his barcode-inspired creations
www.barcodeart.com

The Funded

The Funded Serial Entrepreneur/ Research/ Reviews
www.thefunded.com
www.adeoressi.com
http://thenextweb.com/2008/05/22/video-adeo-ressi-thefundedcom-at-the-next-web-conference-2008
http://2009.thenextweb.com

Priceless advice, really.

Random Thoughts

There is no security on this earth, only opportunity.

- Douglas MacArthur
www.macarthurmemorial.org

Spot on. Inspiring.

The Game

The Game by Ken Dryden is an insightful book about hockey + life. A very special book, indeed.

Useful link:

http://kendryden.liberal.ca

Project Entropia

Online game gets banking licence
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7954629.stm

We will be in a position to offer real bank services to the inhabitants of our virtual universe.
- Jan Welter Timkrans

Useful links:
www.entropiauniverse.com
www.fi.se
www.mindark.com

Great idea. I liked it.

Brit Insurance Design Award 2009

Obama named 2009's best design
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7952567.stm

Useful links:
www.designsoftheyear.com
http://obeygiant.com

Great review.

Cope2

Cope2 = Graffiti artist
www.cope2kingsdestroy.com
http://www.time.com/time/archive/collections/0,21428,c_graffiti,00.shtml#

Bill Cunningham Viewpoint

On the Street A Show of Legs in Paris
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/20/fashion/20090322-street-feature/index.html#

Highly educated sense of style. Absolutely dazzling.

Gold Jewelry Market Analysis

Credit crunch impact bodes ill for ‘09 industrialised world jewellery consumption
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page33?oid=80570&sn=Detail

Useful links:
www.gfms.co.uk
www.gold.org

Interesting perspective. So when will this down-market end? What will turn it around? How much lower can we go? Hard to tell.

The World's Largest Atlas

The world's largest atlas has been published by Millennium House in English. Check out the link www.millenniumhouse.com.au

Jimmy Choo

Sandals = Gemstones Shoes inspired by jewelry
www.jimmychoo.com/pws/ProductDetails.ice?ProductID=80048&fromPage=collection

Useful link:
www.jimmychoo.com

Matching/stunning, but are the shoes functional?

Proper Cloth

Proper Cloth = Allows customers mix/match colors/fabrics + computer-generated tailoring for the right fit + uses social media tools (Twitter/Facebook/Blog) for marketing purposes. I liked the concept.

Useful link:
www.propercloth.com

Stirring It Up

Gary Hirshberg: Green—Not Greed—Is Good
http://www.cnbc.com/id/29790656
http://www.stonyfield.com/Aboutus/OurMainMoovers.cfm

Useful link:
www.stonyfield.com

Great advice.

Handel’s Work

Georgian splendour
http://www.economist.com/books/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13315607

Useful links:
www.bbc.co.uk/composers/handel
www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk
www.handelhouse.org
www.handel.cswebsites.org
www.haendelfestspiele.halle.de
www.haendel-festspiele.de

A great modest composer, really.

Art Market Update

The Maastricht fine art fair ends on a glorious buying binge
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/20/arts/melik21.php

Maastricht could have been on another planet where no one had heard of the subprime crisis.
- Souren Melikian

Useful link:
www.tefaf.com

Spot on.

Ambermoda

Baltic Amber + Artistic Jewelry Designing = Ambermoda
www.ambermoda.com

It is stunningly beautiful, really.

Chaim Even-Zohar Viewpoint

Gangster Viciously Implicates Antwerp Diamond Dealers
http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp

Useful links:
www.diamondintelligence.com
www.mine2mistress.com

Spot on. An old story/scam + a possible movie in the making.

Film Workshop

The New Wave, Still Rolling
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123743224562381071.html

Useful links:
www.filmworkshop.net
www.hkiff.org.hk
www.asianfilmawards.org

Make good movies.

Solar Fashion

Solar Fashion
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/mar/13/solar-power-fashion?picture=344668192

Useful links:
www.konarka.com
www.indarradtx.com
www.zegna.com
www.voltaicsystems.com
http://noonsolar.com
www.rewarestore.com
http://andrewjs.com
www.elenacorchero.com

Great ideas. Technology meets tradition.

The Orchid King

In the Concrete Jungle The Orchid King
http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/in-the-concrete-jungle-the-orchid-king

Useful links:
www.raymondjungles.com
www.nybg.org
www.burlemarx.com.br

Don't miss the Orchid show. It's open until April 12, 2009.

Grant Morrison

Grant Morrison Talks Brainy Comics, Sexy Apocalypse
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2009/03/mid-life-crisis.html

Useful links:
www.grant-morrison.com
www.comic-con.org

Great interview.

Max’s

Andy Warhol was born in Philadelphia in 1928 and came to New York in the fifties. He became famous in the next decade as an artist, film-maker and promoter of all manner of new and provocative things. In those days he frequented Max’s Kansas City, a restaurant and bar and second-home for many of the era’s famous and infamous.

In September we started going regularly to a two-story bar/restaurant on Park Avenue South off Union Square that Mickey Ruskin had opened in late ’65. It was called Max’s Kansas City and it became the ultimate hangout. Max’s was the farthest uptown of any of the restaurants Mickey had ever operated. He’d had a place on East 7th Street called Deux Mégots that later became the Paradox, and then he’d had the Ninth Circle, a Village bar with a format similar to what Max’s would have, and then an Avenue B bar called the Annex. Mickey had always been attracted to the downtown art atmosphere—at Deux Mégots, he’d held poetry readings—and now painters and poets were starting to drift into Max’s. The art heavies would group around the bar and the kids would be in the back room, basically.

Max’s Kansas City was the exact place where Pop Art and pop life came together in New York in the sixties—teeny boppers and sculptors, rock stars and poets from St. Mark’s Place, Hollywood actors checking out what the underground actors were all about, boutique owners and models, modern dancers and go-go dancers—everybody went to Max’s and everything got homogenized there.

Larry Rivers once said to me, ‘I’ve often asked myself,’ ‘What is a bar?’ It’s a space that has liquor that’s usually fairly dark, where you go for a certain kind of social interaction. It’s not a dinner party. It’s not a dance. It’s not an opening. You move in a certain way through this space, over a period of time, and you begin to recognize faces that begin to recognize you. And you may have had experiences with some of these people before which you kind of pick up on in another way in this space.’

I started going to Max’s, lit by Dan Flavin’s red light piece, was where everybody wound up every night. After all the parties were over and all the bars and all the discotheques closed up, you’d go on to Max’s and meet up with everybody—and it was like going home, only better.

Max’s became the showcase for all the fashion changes that had been taking place at the art openings and shows: now people weren’t going to art openings to show off their new looks—they just skipped all the preliminaries and went straight to Max’s. Fashion wasn’t what you wore someplace anymore; it was the whole reason for going. The event itself was optional—the way Max’s functioned as a fashion gallery proved that. Kids would crowd around the security mirror over the night deposit slot in the bank next door (‘Last mirror before Max’s) to check themselves out for the long walk from the front door, pass the bar, past all the fringe tables in the middle, and finally into the club room in the back.

Max’s is where I started meeting the really young kids who had dropped out of school and been running around the streets for a couple of years—hard-looking, beautiful little girls with perfect makeup and fabulous clothes, and you’d find out later they were fifteen and already had a baby. These kids really knew how to dress, they had just the right fashion instincts, somehow. They were a type of kid I hadn’t been around much before. Although they weren’t educated like the Boston crowd or the San Remo crowd, they were very sharp in a comical sort of way—I mean, they certainly knew how to put each other down, standing on chairs and screaming insults. Like, if Gerard walked in with his fashion look really together and had that very serious Roman god-like expression on his face that people get when they think they’re looking good, one of the little girls at Max’s (the Twin-Twats, they were called) would jump up on the table and swoon, ‘Oh my God, it’s Apollo! Oh, Apollo, will you sit with us tonight?’

I couldn’t decide if these kids were intelligent but crazy, or just plain pea-brained with a flair for comedy and clothes. It was impossible to tell whether their problem was lack of intelligence or lack of sanity.

Brilliant. I loved it. It reminded me of Mick Jagger's Golden Globe-winning song 'Old Habits Die Hard', an old favorite of mine.

I thought I shook myself free
You see I bounce back quicker than most
But I'm half delirious, is too mysterious
You walk through my walls like a ghost
And I take everyday at a time
I'm as proud as a Lion in his Lair
Now there's no denying it, a note to crying it
Your all tangled up in my head

Old habits die hard
Old soldiers just fade away
Old habits die hard
Harder than November rain
Old habits die hard
Old soldiers just fade away
Old habits die hard
Hard enough to feel the pain

We haven't spoken in months
You see I've been counting the days
I dream of such humanities, such insanities
I'm lost like a kid and I'm late
But I've never taken your coats
Haven't no block on my phone
I act like an addict, I just got to have it
I can never just leave it alone

Old habits die hard
Old soldiers just fade away
Old habits die hard
Harder than November rain
Old habits die hard
Old soldiers just fade away
Old habits die hard
Hard enough to feel the pain

And I can't give you up
Can't leave you alone
And its so hard, so hard
And hard enough to feel the pain

Old habits die hard
Old soldiers just fade away
Old habits die hard
Harder than November rain
Old habits die hard
Old soldiers just fade away
Old habits die hard
Hard enough to feel the pain

Burmese Gem Mines

Burma's gem mines face closure
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7947914.stm

As precious stones are Burma's third biggest export, the collapse in demand is having a serious effect on the economy. They are usually sold, often via the black market, to China and Thailand - where they are treated, polished and then sold. 'A viss (approximately 1.63kg) of jade stones, whether good or bad, usually fetched a little over £1000 ($1440). Now we are unable to sell them at a tenth of that,' one gem trader told the BBC.

The business is down, indeed. What will be the real impact from the slowdown? Hard to tell. Burma is full of surprises.

Jade Buddha

Jade Buddha for Universal Peace
http://www.jadebuddha.org.au/en/Jade_Buddha_Brochure_English.pdf
http://www.jademine.com/jade_blog/2008/04/polar-pride-boulder.html

Useful links:
www.jadebuddha.org.au
www.stupa.org.au

A unique piece of jade, indeed.

The Heartless Stone

The Heartless Stone: A Journey Through the World of Diamonds, Deceit, and Desire by Tom Zoellner is an insightful book about the good, bad and ugly world of diamonds. A must read.

Useful link:

www.theheartlessstone.com

Spectacular Opals

American Museum of Natural History displays spectacular Opals
http://www.amnh.org/science/papers/opals.php

The photo gallery of opals were stunningly beautiful.

Paul Graham Archive

Stories Found in the Streets
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123741363211177025.html

Useful links:
www.paulgrahamarchive.com
www.moma.org

Natural. Live. They are our stories, really.

Gold Update

Is Gold Really the Safest Investment?
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1885217,00.html

Useful links:
www.spdrgoldshares.com
www.gold.org

Spot on. Gold has value only because we believe it is valuable.

Pricing Clarity Enhanced Diamonds

Identifying and Pricing Clarity Enhanced Diamonds
http://www.gemguide.com/news/AGTAMar2009-2.htm

Useful link:
www.gemguide.com

First, full disclosure. Secondly, pricing becomes fairly easier.

Andy Warhol + Paris Exhibition

Hidden depths: Paris exhibition aims to paint Warhol as a modern master
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/mar/18/andy-warhol-grand-palais-paris

Useful links:
www.grandpalais.fr
www.warholfoundation.org
www.warhol.org

Rereading of Warhol art = Parable-retelling. Dont miss it.

BMW Art Cars

These Canvases Need Oil and a Good Driver
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/automobiles/collectibles/15artcars.html?_r=1

Useful links:
www.bmwdrives.com/bmw-artcars.php
www.louvre.fr
www.calder.org
www.guggenheim.org
www.olafureliasson.net
www.gerhard-richter.com
www.sfmoma.org

I think it was a brilliant idea. They should reimagine colors and designs for this century.

Shepard Fairey Update

Can a Rebel Stay a Rebel Without the Claws?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/arts/design/18fair.html?_r=1&8dpc

Useful links:
http://obeygiant.com
www.icaboston.org

Shepard Fairey is a unique artist. Most of his works, from the Andre the Giant stickers of last decade to the Obama Hope poster display phenomenal effects. Definitely a must visit.

Uranium

Uranium: War, Energy and the Rock That Shaped the World by Tom Zoellner is a brilliant book about the rock for a general audience. A must read.

Useful links:
www.world-nuclear.org
www.iaea.org

The Gem Vault

Jason Baskin + Sharon Curtiss = The Gem Vault
www.thegemvault.com

Chris Anderson's Free = Free

SXSWi: Chris Anderson's Free Will Be Free
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2009/03/anderson-kawasa.html

Converting users of a free version of a product to a paid version is the key to making money on a free product. The sweet spot is 5 percent.
- Chris Anderson

Useful links:
www.thelongtail.com
www.guykawasaki.com
http://sxsw.com/interactive

I agree with Chris. The word 'Free' has double meaning in English. Thank you for the insight.

Asian Film Awards 2009

Asian Film Awards 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123638486847658215.html#articleTabs_interactive%26articleTabs%3Dinteractive

Useful link:
www.asianfilmawards.org

Great review.

We Tell Stories

Win for UK story-telling website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7947729.stm

Useful links:
www.sixtostart.com
http://wetellstories.co.uk
www.sxsw.com
www.argn.com

Technology + Fantastic experiences = Alternate reality games (ARG). ARG is a great way of telling stories. Hats off to Dan/Adrian.

CIBJO Update

CIBJO has launched a dedicated website for the 2009 CIBJO Congress, which will be held in Istanbul, Turkey from May 3 - 5, 2009. Check out the link http://congress2009.cibjo.org

Diamond Definition

Responsible Jewellery Council amends Diamond Definition
http://www.responsiblejewellery.com/downloads/RJC_Amends_Diamond_Definition.pdf

Useful links:
www.responsiblejewellery.com
www.unglobalcompact.org

In The New York Statue Of Liberty

Melech Ravitch, born in Eastern Europe in 1893, emigrated to the New World at the beginning of the century. On his way to Ellis Island, where new immigrants disembarked, he passed the Statue of Liberty. Years later, he composed this poem about its meaning and promise.

In the New York Statue of Liberty

I am a man of blood, flesh and bone.
My soul is love, laughter and tears.
And you? Woman, hollow, steel giant
With the torch in your right hand high,
You are a golden woman, with a tinny skin
Taut over a steel skeleton.
Your tin lips have never kissed bread.
Your iron ribs have never cradled a man in bed.
And…..I love you with your young love, flaming and tender.
Thirty years of my youth, and manhood I yearned,
For your first glance pined.

I am a poet and a wanderer and a Jew.
The steps to my soul are trembling strophes of my verse.
And to yours—which is only one of millions of heads—
To your head and thought, hundreds of stairs of iron.
Empty is your soul: winter—cold, summer—hot, as in any edifice of tin.

And yet this is so enormous and so wonderful
In your soul, with hundreds of others on stairs to wander and tire
And sing in oneself a glowing, warmly human love song
To you! That in your veins of wire and of steel
Flow electric lights, instead of living blood
While you are golem only, monument of Liberty, symbol…
And while you are golem, symbol, Liberty’s monument.
I’m writing this song in love and youthful excitement. My hand trembles,
Sparkle the eyes, burns the blood.
Believe me, lady, when I pressed my lips to your tin walls
And to the walls of your proud neck and—hidden—secretly kissed them,
That no one should see and say maybe, a poet insane perhaps.
This was the love of purest spirit.
Like a love song—this pitifully sincere song;
While never did I so love,
Never, any woman so
As the Liberty that to you once and for all
Was granted the right the symbol to be.

Your torch is directed
To New York, but your light burns
To all the ends of the world.
One blesses and one curses you,
One honors and another hates,
One is earnest, another frivolous.
And I have purely love and faith
For curse and hatred are wind, sawdust.

Oh, is it true, you woman, you freedom, you’re today a fallen woman,
And perhaps—perhaps because of that is my love for you so tender and so deep.
In your tin belly, you tin symbol,
Are you pregnant with the new savior of the worlds.
They may laugh at you, they may curse you—
You, only you, will bear him in light and in faith.
On your hands will you him—your son—
Like the torch above, raise high over all mankind.

And laugh will he who now weeps.
And weep he who curses.
Now.
United.
Led by a child.
Liberty, beloved, yours, only yours, only your son
Will be the savior of the world.
A son of the spirit of all in love with you!

Oh, also shall the breath of this love song, in love to you conceived,
Be then a part of the spirit that impregnated you.

I loved this poem.

Sam Palka And David Vishkover

Isaac Bashevis Singer, born in Poland in 1904, emigrated to New York in 1935, when he began writing in Yiddish for the Jewish Daily Forward. He is the author of many novels and stories and winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize for literature. Translated by the author and Dorothea Straus.

6

Sam Palka winked and laughed. He puffed once on his extinguished cigar and threw it in the ashtray. He lit another and said, ‘You may call me a charlatan, but I have never been to tell her the truth. She loved David Vishkover, the poor man, the victim of a false wife, not Sam Palka, the landlord, the millionaire, the woman chaser, the gambler. Everything had to stay the same. I still visit on Blake Avenue. It has become almost completely black. It makes no difference to Channah Basha. ‘Here I have lived,’ she says, ‘and here I want to die.’ I come to her in the morning, spend the day with her—we take a walk and go to bed right after supper. I’m known there. The blacks and the Puerto Ricans say, ‘Hi Mr Vishkower.’ We still eat burned-flour grits, noodles with beans, kasha with milk, and we talk about the old country as though we had stepped off the ship just yesterday. It’s no longer a game. To her, Bessie is still alive, making me miserable. She thinks that I sustain myself on a small annuity from the insurance company and my Social Security. The buttons keep falling off the jacket and pants I wear, and Channah Basha continues to sew on others. She begs me to bring my shirts; she wants to wash them. She begs me bring her my shirts; she wants to wash them. She darns my socks. A pair of my pajamas that are twenty years old hang in her bathroom. Every time I come, I have to report about Bessie. Is she still so wicked? Haven’t the years softened her? I tell her that age doesn’t change character—once bad, always bad. Channah Basha asked me to buy a plot in the cemetery of the Wysoka landsleit so that when we die we can lie side by side. I did so, even though another plot awaits for me next to Bessie’s grave. I will have to die twice. When I die Channah Basha is going to be surprised by my legacy to her. I have made her the beneficiary of an insurance policy for fifty thousand dollars. The house on Blake Avenue will also be hers. But what will she do with it? There comes a day when money is useless. We are both on diets. She now cooks with vegetable oil instead of butter. I am afraid to eat a piece of babka—cholesterol.
One day I was sitting with Channah Basha and we were talking about olden days—how they used to bake matzo, send gifts on Purim, decorate the windowpanes for Shevuot—and suddenly she asked, ‘What is the matter with your wife? Will her end never come? I answered, ‘Weeds are hardy.’ Channah Basha said, ‘I would still like to be your wife before God and the people, even if only for one year.’
‘When I heard these words I was beside myself. I wanted to cry out,’ Channah Basha, my darling, no one stands in our way any more. Come with me to City Hall and we will get the license’. But this meant killing David Vishkower. Don’t laugh—he is a real person to me. I have lived with him so long that he is closer to me than Sam Palka. Who is Sam Palka? An old lecher who has made a fortune and doesn’t know what to do with it. David Vishkover is a man like my father, peace be with him. Well—and what would happen to Channah Basha if she should hear the truth? Instead of becoming Sam Palka’s wife, she would become David Vishkover’s widow.’

I love this story. This hilarious portrait of everyday Main Street characters rings as true today as it did when it was first published back then. The basics are the same and how little things change.

Michael Dyber

Gemstone Carvings by Michael Dyber
www.dyber.net

Michael's unique lapidary techniques are one-of-a-kind work of art. They are stunningly beautiful and a marvel to watch.

Fair Trade

A Fair Wind for Fair Trade
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/global_business.shtml

Useful links:
www.maxhavelaar.ch
www.fairtrade.org.uk
www.wto.org
www.tropicalwholefoods.co.uk
www.nasfam.org
www.cafedirect.co.uk
www.divinechocolate.com

Great program. I enjoyed it. Thank you Peter.

Lensless Microscope

The $10 Microscope
http://www.forbes.com/global/2009/0316/020_microscope.html

Useful link:
http://www.biophot.caltech.edu/people/yang.html

Can this stunningly simple design work in gemological applications?

Disznókó

The wines at Disznókó (largest single-estate Tokaj producer), Hungary
www.disznoko.hu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokaji

A must visit.

Objectified

SXSW: Objectified Teaches Us 'You Are What You Own'
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2009/03/sxsw-objectif-1.html

Useful links:
www.objectifiedfilm.com
www.helveticafilm.com

Great review. I enjoyed it.

The Pearl Carpet Of Baroda

Pearl Carpet worth US$20m
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090316/FOREIGN/796075951/1135
http://sothebys.com/app/paddleReg/paddlereg.do?dispatch=eventDetails&event_id=29507

Useful link:
www.sothebys.com

I think Qatar is the ideal place for the sale since the Basra pearls came from the waters of the Arabian Gulf. I am sure there will be intense bidding at the auction for the pearl carpet.

Sam Palka And David Vishkover

Isaac Bashevis Singer, born in Poland in 1904, emigrated to New York in 1935, when he began writing in Yiddish for the Jewish Daily Forward. He is the author of many novels and stories and winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize for literature. Translated by the author and Dorothea Straus.

5

‘Would you believe it? In all this time Channah Basha never visited Manhattan. The subway terrified her with its din and noise. There was a Yiddish theater on Hopkinson Avenue, and once in a while I took her there. Sometimes they showed a Yiddish movie. There were moments when I thought I ought to put an end to this false game I was playing. Why shouldn’t she enjoy my riches? In the summer I wanted to rent a cottage in the Catskill for her. I offered her a trip with me to California. But she wouldn’t hear of it. Air conditioning did not exist then, and I wanted to buy her a fan. She refused it. She had a deathly fear of machines. She wouldn’t allow me to install a telephone. The one thing she accepted was a radio; it took her a long time to learn how to turn on the Yiddish stations. This is Channah Basha—so will she be until her last day.
‘My dear friend, I promised to make it short and I will keep my word. Bessie died. She had a quarrel with her gigolo—the pimp—and she went alone to Hong Kong. What she was looking for there I will never know. One day she collapsed in a restaurant and died. It was 1937. In all the years I had been coming to Channah Basha, we promised ourselves that if something happened to Bessie we would get married. But somehow I postponed telling her. There could be no thought of living with Channah Basha in the ruins of Blake Avenue. It was just as impossible to take her to my ten-room apartment on Park Avenue. My neighbors were all snooty rich. I had a Negro maid and an Irish housekeeper. I went to parties and I gave parties. No one spoke a word of Yiddish in my crowd. How could I bring Channah Basha into this Gentile-like world? With whom would she be able to talk? Besides, to find out that I had been lying to her all these years might be a shock that would tear our love apart like a spider web. I began to plan to go with her to Palestine, maybe to settle somewhere in Jerusalem or at Rachel’s grave, but Hitler was already baring his teeth. At a time like that it was good to be in America, not wandering around in faraway countries.
‘I put things off from day to day, from month to month. Why deny it—I wasn’t completely faithful to her during all those years. As long as I didn’t have true love I spat on frivolous women, but now that I had a true love it suited me to play around with others too. When women know that a man is alone they offer themselves by the dozen. I became a real Don Juan. I frequented nightclubs and restaurants where you meet the big shots. My name was even mentioned in the gossip columns. But these phony loves were enjoyable only because in Brownsville on Blake Avenue a real love waited. Who said it? One ounce of truth has more weight than ten tons of lies. I figured one way, then another, and meanwhile the war broke out. There was no place for us to flee to any more—unless, perhaps, Mexico or South America. But what would we two do there?
‘My dear man, nothing has changed up today, except that I have become an old man and Channah Basha is in her fifties. But you should see her; her hair is still gold and her face is that of young girl. It is said that this comes from pure conscience. Now that there was a war and she heard how Jews were tortured in Europe, she began to cry; she went on crying for years. She fasted and recited prayers, like God-fearing matrons in my village. Some organization advertised that they mailed packages to Russia, and every cent that I gave her Channah Basha sent there. She was so upset that she forgot I was a poor insurance agent and she took large sums of money from me I was supposed to have been saving for my old age. If she hadn’t been Channah Basha she would have recognized that something was wrong. But suspicion was not in her nature. She hardly knew the value of money—especially when it was in checks. I knew that the shrewd people in charge of those packages swindled her right and left, but I also knew that if even one dollar out of hundred served its purpose the deed was good. Besides, if I had told Channah Basha that people with beards and sidelocks stole money from refugees, she could have suffered a heart attack. Finally, I gave her so much that I had to tell her I was connected with a relief organization and they provided me with funds. She questioned nothing. Later, when Palestine became a Jewish state and the troubles with the Arab began, she again tried to help. Believe it or not, I am still getting money from those non-existent committees.’
(continued)

I love this story. This hilarious portrait of everyday Main Street characters rings as true today as it did when it was first published back then. The basics are the same and how little things change.

Thomas Friedman Viewpoint

The Next Really Cool Thing
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/opinion/15friedman.html?_r=1&em

Useful links:
https://lasers.llnl.gov
www.llnl.gov

Great essay. I hope they can pull this off. It's clean renewal energy.

Short-Course Volumes

Current research on gemstone formation has been published via a series of short-course volumes by the Mineralogical Association of Canada. It is highly recommended.

Useful link:
www.mineralogicalassociation.ca/index.php?p=25

Artists Rooms

ARTIST ROOMS
www.nationalgalleries.org/artistrooms

Anthony d'Offay's greatest act of cultural philanthropy, in living memory, really.

Indebted Diamond Sector

Indebted diamond sector set for shakeout as demand collapses
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page37?oid=79840&sn=Detail

Some players may not be around. Some big players may not be as strong. The market will be smaller and debt will have to fall.
- Victor van der Kwast

Useful links:
www.abnamro.com
www.diamonds.net
www.rosyblue.com
www.bvgd.be
www.awdc.be

Sign of the times, really. Everyone is cautious about diamond business today. No one knows what will happen.

Opera's Greatest Moments

TIME Covers Opera
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1884118_1854652,00.html

Useful link:
www.metoperafamily.org/metopera

Brilliantly said!

Alice Rawsthorn Viewpoint

Tripping back to the world of psychedelia
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/13/arts/design16.php

Useful link:
www.alicerawsthorn.com
www.denverartmuseum.org

Great review. I loved it.

Art Market Update

Spring sprung
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13308450

If there is a crisis, it must be somewhere else.
- Conrad Bernheimer

Useful links:
www.suebond.co.uk
www.tefaf.com
www.colnaghi.co.uk

The European Fine Art Fair in the old Dutch city of Maastricht is the collectors universe. The lucky ones will find rare and beautiful art works and you will find yourself returning again.

Superman Comic

First Superman fetches $317,200
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7943376.stm

Useful links:
www.comicconnect.com
www.supermanhomepage.com

Great news.

Sam Palka And David Vishkover

Isaac Bashevis Singer, born in Poland in 1904, emigrated to New York in 1935, when he began writing in Yiddish for the Jewish Daily Forward. He is the author of many novels and stories and winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize for literature. Translated by the author and Dorothea Straus.

4

‘Why go on? There grew up a great love between us. I saw to it that the house remained untouched. I visited her each week, and some weeks I took the Canarsie line to Brownsville two or three times. Whenever I went there, I wore a shabby suit and an old hat. I brought her presents of the kind that a sewing-machine salesman might bring: a pound of farmer cheese, a basket of fruit, a box of tea. The neighbors knew me and they wanted to buy sewing machines on the installment plan. I soon realized that if I sold them such bargains all of Brownsville would run after me, and I told Channah Basha that I had changed to the insurance business. I have forgotten the main thing: I called myself by another name—David Vishkover. It wasn’t invented; I had a cousin of that name.
‘For some time I managed to avoid her father, the beadle. As for Channah Basha, she fell in love with me with such passion that no words can describe it. One day I was a stranger and four weeks later her whole life hung on me. She knitted sweaters for me and cooked for me every dish I like. Whenever I tried to give her a few dollars she gave the money back and I had to beg her to accept it. I was a virtual millionaire, but on Blake Avenue I became a poor insurance agent, starving schlemiel whose wife bled him of his last penny. I know what you want to ask; yes, Channah Basha and I became like husband and wife. She was a pure virgin. How a girl like that could be talked into an affair is a story in itself. I know a little Jewish law, I persuaded her that according to the Torah a man is permitted to have two wives. As far as she was concerned, since she was unmarried she was not committing adultery. If I had told her to stand on her head, she could have done that too.
‘As long as Channah Basha’s father did not learn what was going on, everything went smoothly. We lived like two pigeons. But how long can such an affair remain a secret? When he found out that a married man was visiting his daughter and she had accepted him like a bridegroom, all hell broke loose. I assured him that the moment my vixen of a wife divorced me I would stand under the wedding canopy with his daughter.
‘Just as Channah Basha was beautiful, her father was ugly, sick, a broken shard. He warned me that I would be excommunicated. As time went on he grew more violent; he even hinted that he might have me thrown into prison. I was frightened, all right. One shouldn’t say it, but luck was on my side. He became mortally sick. He had bad kidneys and God knows what else. I sent him to doctors, took him to the hospital, paid for nurses, and I pretended that he was getting all this care for nothing. He lingered a few months and then he died. I erected a tombstone for him that cost fifteen hundred dollars and I made his daughter believe that it came form the landsleit of Wysoka. One lie leads to another. How is it written in the Talmud?
‘One sin drags another after it,’ I said.
‘Right.
‘After her father’s death, Channah Basha became even more childish than before. She mourned him as I never saw a daughter mourn her father. She hired a man to recite the Kaddish for him. She lighted candles in the synagogue. Every second week she visited his grave. I told her that my business was going well and I tried to give her more money. But no matter how little it was, she insisted is was too much. All she needed, she said, was a loaf of bread, a few potatoes, and once in a while a pound of stripe. Years passed and she still wore her same shabby dresses from the old country. I wanted to giver her an apartment on Ocean Avenue and furnish it. She refused to move. She kept on dusting and polishing her old junk. She read the Yiddish papers, and once she found my picture there. I had become the president of an old-age home and it was written up. She said, ‘See here, that Sam Palka looks just like you. Is he a relative or something?’ I said, ‘I wish he was a relative. In my family were all paupers.’ If I had told her that I was Sam Palka, our love would have been finished. She needed a poor man to look after, not a rich one to pamper her. Every time I left her to go home she offered me a bag of food so that I wouldn’t starve on my wife’s rations. Funny, isn’t it?
‘The years passed and I scarcely knew where they went. One day I had dark hair and it seemed that I turned gray. Channah Basha too was no longer a spring chicken. But her thoughts stayed those of a child. The house on Blake Avenue became so ramshackle I worried that the walls might cave in. I had to bribe the inspectors not to condemn it. The storybooks that Channah Basha brought from Wysoka had finally fallen apart, and she now read the books of the Yiddish writers in America. There was no lack of that merchandise in my house! Every time I went to Brownsville I brought her a stack, and she admired them all no matter how bad they were. She loved everyone except my wife. On her she poured sulphur and fire. She never tired of hearing about the troubles Bessie made for me, and I had plenty to tell. She had gotten herself a gigolo, a faker, and she traveled all over Europe with him. My children gave me no joy either. My son didn’t even graduate from high school. I have three daughters and none of them married happily. Their mother planted hatred of me in them. I was good for only one thing—to write checks. Still I had a great happiness: Channah Basha. She was always the same. In all those years she learned only a few words of English. Most of the Jewish tenants had moved out of the house and Puerto Ricans had moved in. Only two old women—widows—stayed, and Channah Basha watched over them. One had cataracts and later became blind. The other one had dropsy. Channah Basha took care of them like the best nurse.
(continued)

I love this story. This hilarious portrait of everyday Main Street characters rings as true today as it did when it was first published back then. The basics are the same and how little things change.

Cross-Cultural Solutions

Love on the Fly: Volunteer Vacations
http://www.time.com/time/travel/article/0,31542,1885136,00.html

Useful links:
www.crossculturalsolutions.org
www.earthwatch.org
www.freethechildren.com

Great essay. The benefits = priceless immersive cultural experiences. Give it a try.

The Age Of Stupid

The Age of Stupid = Environmental docudrama (about climate change set in the future)

Useful links:
www.ageofstupid.net
www.spannerfilms.net

Tom Binns

Sandra’s Sources Tom Binns Megastore
http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/sandras-sources-tom-binns-megastore

Useful link:
www.tombinnsdesign.com

The Anti-Luxxx items were brilliant.

South By Southwest 2009

New trends in art + culture + media = South by Southwest
www.sxsw.com

A must-visit.

Coating That Self-Heal

Coatings that 'self-heal' in sun
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7939776.stm

Useful links:
www.usm.edu/polymer
www.sciencemag.org

I wonder if this technolgy could be applied in gemstone treatments/enhancements.

Sam Palka And David Vishkover

Isaac Bashevis Singer, born in Poland in 1904, emigrated to New York in 1935, when he began writing in Yiddish for the Jewish Daily Forward. He is the author of many novels and stories and winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize for literature. Translated by the author and Dorothea Straus.

3

‘When I was about forty-two or forty-three I was really rich. Once the money starts to flow, you can’t stop it. I bought houses and lots and made huge profits. I bought stocks and they rose overnight. Taxes were nothing in those days. I owned a limousine and wrote checks for all kinds of charities. Now women swarmed around me like bees around honey. I got more love in a week than I could make use of in a year. But I am not a man who fools himself. I knew what they wanted was my money, not me. As they kissed me and tried to make me believe I was the great lover, they talked about what they would get out of it: trips to Florida, to Europe; mink coats; diamonds. It was all bluff. You lie in bed with them and they don’t let you forget that what you really are is a sugar daddy. I wished I could meet a woman who did not know about my money or an heiress so rich that in comparison I would seem poor. But where and when? I began to think that true love was not for me. How do they say in Poland? Sausage is not for dogs.
‘Suddenly a miracle happened. I acquired an old house on Blake Avenue in Brownsville. Today Brownsville is full of Negroes and Puerto Ricans; then it was the land of Israel. You couldn’t find a Gentile to save your life. I wanted to put up a new building, but first I had to get rid of the tenants. Often these things went easily, but this time some them balked. I didn’t believe in going to court; I preferred to settle with them myself. I had a free Sunday and decided to go and see what could be done. My car happened to be in the garage, so I took the subway. After all, I wasn’t born a Rockefeller.
‘At the house I knocked on a door, but in Brownsville they didn’t know the meaning of that. I pushed the latch, the door opened, and I saw a room that looked exactly like one in the old country. If I hadn’t known that I was in Brownsville, I would have thought that I was in a Konskowola: whitewashed walls, a board floor, a broken-down sofa with the stuffing sticking out. Even the smells were from Konskowola—fried onions, chicory, moldy bread. On the sofa sat a girl as beautiful as Queen Esther. One difference. Esther was supposed to be greenish and this girl was white, with blue eyes and golden hair—a beauty. She was dressed like a greenhorn who had just arrived: a long skirt and shoes with buttons. And what was she doing? Reading a story book: Sheindele with Blue Lips. I had read it years before on the other side. I thought I was dreaming and I pinched myself, but it was no dream.
‘I wanted to tell her that I was the landlord and had come to make move out. But some power stopped me. I began to play a role as if I were an actor in the theater. She asked me who I was and I said I was a salesman of sewing machines. I could get one for her cheap. She said, ‘What do I need a sewing machine for? When I want to sew something, I use my own ten fingers.’ She spoke a familiar Yiddish.
‘I could sit with you until tomorrow and not tell half of it, but I will make it short. She had been in this country only two years. Her father had been a Talmud teacher in Poland. He was brought to this land of gold by an uncle. Three days after the father and daughter left Ellis Island, the uncle died. Her father became a beadle for some little rabbi here. I asked her how old she was and she said twenty-six. ‘How does it happen,’ I asked her, ‘that such a beautiful girl is unmarried?’ She answered, ‘They offered me many matches but I refused to marry through a matchmaker. I have to be in love.’ What she said was not silly; she was like a child and her talk was also like that of a little girl. She was not retarted—just naïve. She had lived for twenty-four years in a tiny village in the hinterland—Wysoka. Her mother died when she was still young. Each word she uttered was the pure truth. She could as much lie as I could be the wife of a rabbi. I asked her name and she said, ‘Channah Basha.’ Why drag it out? I fell in love with her—head over heels. I couldn’t tear myself from her. I was afraid she would make me go, but she asked, ‘Aren’t you hungry? ‘Yes, I am hungry,’ I said and I thought, For you! She said, ‘I cooked burned-flour grits and I have full pot of it.’ I hadn’t heard the words ‘burned-flour grits’ for goodness knows how long and, believe me, no aria sung by an opera singer could have sounded sweeter.
‘Soon we were seated at a broken-down table, eating the burned-flour grits like an old couple. I told her that I too read storybooks. I could see that she had a whole pile of them, all brought over from the old country: The Story of the Three Brothers, The Tale of Two Butchers, The Adventures of the Pious Reb Zadock and the Twelve Robbers. She asked me, ‘Do you earn living by selling sewing machines?’ I said, ‘I manage to scratch together a few dollars.’ She asked, ‘Do you have a wife and children?’ I told her about my wife and poured out my bitter heart to her. Channah Basha listened and she grew pale. ‘Why do you hold on to such a shrew?’ I said, ‘Here in America when you divorce a wife you have to pay alimony. If not you go to jail. The alimony amounts to more than a man earns. This is the justice in the land of Columbus.’ She said, ‘God waits long but He punishes severely. She will soon come to a bad end.’ She cursed my wife. She said, ‘How do you live if she takes away your last bite?’ I said, ‘I still have enough for a piece of bread.’ She said, ‘Come to me. I often cook more than I need for my father and myself. I am always alone because my father comes home late, and with you it will be cozy.’ It was the first time that someone showed compassion for me and wanted to give instead of take. We ate the grits with fresh bread from the bakery and we washed it down with watery tea while we babbled about the Three Brothers of whom the first took upon himself the good deed of ransoming innocent prisoners, the second of helping poor orphans to marry, and third of honoring the Sabbath. Then I told here a story about a young man who found a golden hair and traveled all over the world in search of the woman from whose head it had fallen. He found her on the island of Madagascar and she was the queen herself. Channah Basha listened eagerly to every word.
(continued)

I love this story. This hilarious portrait of everyday Main Street characters rings as true today as it did when it was first published back then. The basics are the same and how little things change.

Jon Stewart Vs Jim Cramer

Cramer Grilled on Jon Stewart
http://seekingalpha.com/article/125804-cramer-grilled-on-jon-stewart
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/15/usa-tv-jon-stewart-economy

Useful links:
www.thedailyshow.com
www.cnbc.com/id/15838459

It's a must-see. It took Jon Stewart to explain to investors how things really work on Wall Street. Jon was brilliant.

European Fine Art Fair 2009

The European Fine Art Fair kicks off in a blaze of discoveries
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/13/arts/melik14.php

Useful link:
www.tefaf.com

It's amazing the fair pulls in an attendance that grows every year, crisis or no crisis. Thank you Souren for the latest update.

Camila Batmanghelidjh

Charity founder portrait unveiled
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/7941839.stm

Useful links:
www.kidsco.org.uk
www.npg.org.uk
www.schwabfound.org

As a psychotherapist/social entrepreneur + founder/director of Kids Company, she has been an inspiration for children marginalised by society. Hats off to Camila!

Plácido Domingo Forever

45 Roles, 628 Performances. Why Stop?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/arts/music/13domi.html?_r=1

Useful links:
www.metoperafamily.org
www.placidodomingo.com

I think Domingo is in good shape and should continue his performance forever. I am a huge fan.

Engagement Ring Story

The Lure of the Engagement Ring
http://www.yourtango.com/print/3183

Useful links:
www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14234.html
www.debeers.com
www.unusualweddingrings.com

Great essay. I loved it.

Pippa Small

A Fashionable Jeweler With a Conscience
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/fashion/08DIARY.html?_r=1

Useful link:
www.pippasmall.com

Inspiring story.

Diamond Windows

Diamonds: A fighter pilot's best friend?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29677221

Useful links:
www.wpafb.af.mil
www.apollodiamond.com
www.gemesis.com

It takes about 10 years for new materials or technology to make it into commercial or military devices. That's what I have been told before by the experts. What's intriguing to me is diamond's optical and thermal properties + its physical strength, and its wider application. It's really amazing.

The Crash

Federico Garcia Lorca, in his lecture on Poet in New York, described Wall Street in the aftermath of the Great Crash of 1929.

The Crash

The terrible, cold, cruel part is Wall Street. Rivers of gold flow there from all over the earth, and death comes with it. There as nowhere else you feel a total absence of the spirit: herds of men who cannot count past three, herds more who cannot get past six, scorn for pure science, and demoniacal respect for the present. And the terrible thing is that the crowd who fills the street believes that the world will always be the same, and that it is their duty to move the huge machine day and night forever. The perfect result of a Protestant morality that I, as a (thank God) typical Spaniard, found unnerving. I was lucky enough to see with my own eyes the recent crash, where they lost various billions of dollars, a rabble of dead money that slid off into the sea, and never as then, amid suicides, hysteria, and groups of fainters, have I felt the sensation of real death, death without hope, death that is nothing but rottenness, for the spectacle was terrifying but devoid of greatness. And I, who come from a country where, as the great poet Unamuno said, ‘at night the earth climbs to the sky,’ I felt something like a divine urge to bombard that whole shadowy defile where ambulances collected suicides whose hands were full of rings.

That is why I included this dance of death. The typical African mask, death which is truly dead, without angels or ‘resurrexit’; death as far removed from the spirit, as barbarous and primitive as the United States, which has never fought, and never will fight for heaven.

Spot on.

Sam Palka And David Vishkover

Isaac Bashevis Singer, born in Poland in 1904, emigrated to New York in 1935, when he began writing in Yiddish for the Jewish Daily Forward. He is the author of many novels and stories and winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize for literature. Translated by the author and Dorothea Straus.

2

‘Where should I begin? I was born in a pious home. My parents were old-fashioned Jews, but even when I was still a cheder boy I heard about love. Does one have to look far for it? It’s right in the Torah. Jacob loved Rachel, and when Laban, the cheat, substituted Leah in the dark night Jacob labored another seven years. Well, and what about King David and King Solomon with the Queen of Sheba and all that stuff? Book peddlers used to come to our village and they brought story books—two pennies to buy a book, one penny to borrow it. I was a poor boy, but whenever I could get hold of a penny I spent it on reading. When I came to America and I earned three dollars a week, I spent my last cent on books or on tickets for the Yiddish theater. In those times actors were still actors and not sticks of wood. When they appeared on stage, the boards burned under their feet. I saw all of them! Adler, Mme. Liptzin, Schildkraut, Kessler, Tomashevsky—every one of them. Well, and the playwrights of those times—Goldfaden, Jacob Gordin, Lateiner! Each word had to do with love, and you could have kissed each one. When you read my book you will see that I had no luck in my marriage. I fell for a rotten woman—a bitter piece, a bitch. How she ruined my days and how she set my children against me is all there. As long as I was young and poor I worked in a sweatshop, and then I took to peddling. I had no time for love. I lived in a dark alcove and I couldn’t afford to buy clothes. We worked then fourteen hours a day, and when it was busy even eighteen. When it became slack we had barely a crust to eat. If your stomach is empty you forget above love.

‘I built my first bungalow quite a number of years after I married, and I soon became so successful it was as though Elijah had blessed me. One day I had nothing and the next money poured in from all sides. But I still worked hard, perhaps even harder than ever. No matter how successful a man is, he can slip in no time from the top of the heap to the very bottom. You have to be on the watch every minute. As long as I had a job or carried a pack on my shoulders and peddled, at least I rested on the Sabbath. With prosperity, my Sabbaths too were gone. My wife got wind that I had spare dollar and began to tear pieces off me. We moved from the Lower East Side and took an apartment uptown. The children came one after the other and there were doctors, private schools, and the devil knows what else. My wife—Bessie was her name—bedecked herself with so much jewelry you could hardly see her. She came from petty and mean people, and when these get the smell of money they lose their heads. I was in my later thirties, and I still had not tasted real love. If I had ever loved my wife it was only from Monday to Tuesday. We quarreled constantly, and she threatened me with jail and judges. She kept reminding me that in America a lady is something so special you have to bow to her as though she were an idol. She carried on until I couldn’t look at her any more. When I heard her voice I felt like vomiting. She indulged in all sorts of trickery, but she still expected me to be a husband to her. Impossible! We no longer shared a bedroom. By this time I had an office, and secretly I got a little apartment in one of my buildings. I’m sorry to admit it, but if you hate a wife you’re bound to care less for the children. After Bessie, that fishwife, realized we would never be close again, she began to look for others. She did it so crudely men were afraid to start anything with her. She snatched at their sleeves like Potiphar’s wife. I know what you want to ask me—why didn’t I get a divorce. First of all, in those times to get a divorce you had to jump through hoops, knocking on the doors of the courts and so on. Today you fly to Reno and in six weeks you are as free as a bird. Secondly, she would have set a bunch of shysters on me and they would have fleeced me of my last penny. Besides, one gets a divorce when one is in love with someone else. If no one is waiting for you, why look for more headaches? I had partners in the business, and even though they had good wives they kept company with loose women. Today these women have become fancy call girls, but a whore is a whore. They all did it—the manufacturers, the jobbers, anyone who could pay. For them it was a game. But if these prostitutes were all you had, you realized your misfortune. It happened more than once that I just looked at one of these sluts and lost my appetite. I would give her a few dollars and run away like a yeshiva boy. I would go to a movie and for hours watch the gangsters shooting one another. So the years passed, and I thought that I would never learn what love was. Do you want to hear more?
‘Yes, of course.’
‘This alone would make a book. When you write it, you will know how to embellish it.’
‘Why embellish? As you tell it is good enough.’
‘Well, writers like to embellish.’
(continued)

I love this story. This hilarious portrait of everyday Main Street characters rings as true today as it did when it was first published back then. The basics are the same and how little things change.