In this week’s Tablet column, I talk out my butt about why so many elderly Jews seem to have a fetish for Asian decor.
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This one is by Harriet Ziefert, Taback’s frequent collaborator and the publisher of Blue Apple Books. Taback’s last work for Blue Apple, Dinosaurs, comes out next month. 
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I’m Facebook-friends with one of the St. Vincent’s paramedics who saved my life back in 1993. (The story is here.) He posted this video. It is awesome. The closure of this hospital is a huge loss to downtown and to all of New York City.
The head paramedic who saved me — who was delightful, and whose name I am sick to realize I do not remember — is on the far right at the 40-second mark. How can I have forgotten his name?
I used to bring the paramedics’ office cookies every Christmas. Then I moved to San Francisco for a while, then back to NYC, and I fell out of touch with the guys who’d saved me. The city and I are both very different now than in 1993. Sometimes when I get melodramatic about dopey things, I realize I should probably just chill the fuck out, because after all, I am not dead. I have a husband I love, two children I adore, a life. As Jane Kenyon pointed out, it might have been otherwise.
Thank you, St. Vincent’s.
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Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
All the thinky-thoughts Jews are currently talking about Jews and Booze, a book for grownups about, uh, Jews and booze. The NYTBR evaluation was dead-on: the title was the best thing about it. The writing was kinda leaden and repetitive and un-zingy. Karen Blumenthal’s book, on the other hand, which is for KIDS and about prohibition in general — not just about the Jews, though it talks a lot (obviously) about religion’s role in the struggle and also about some of the nutty Jews involved in both the bootlegging side and the crime-fighting side of things–is so lively and fun and thought-provoking, it noodged me to ponder, independently, many of the ideas the more academic-y book discusses so laboriously.
So is this gonna be a FUN READ for most kids? Well, no. Most kids do not go “WHEE LEMME READ A BOOK ABOUT OLD TIMEY TEMPERANCE MOVEMENTS THIS WEEKEND! CRANK UP THE VICTROLA!” But for those who DO (and I applaud you, youth), and for those who have to do a paper for school or something that might entice them to pick up this book: You are in for a treat. A treat much like a perfectly made pisco sour with pages. Which you are not old enough to drink, nyah nyah.
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from Ten Fairy Tales (published in Hebrew in 1923)
This week’s Tablet magazine column is about the Art Nouveau children’s book illustrator Tom Seidmann-Freud. Her work was spectacular — dark and dreamy. Be sure to watch the slideshow at Tablet. (FYI: Her family sells art prints of her work on their site.)
from The Book of Rabbit Stories (published in German in 1924)
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You are probably so sick of the Shit Whatevers Say meme. And you’ve probably already seen this video by Melville House co-publisher Dennis Johnson. But I hadn’t. I’m slow. (That’s why I review children’s books! Because I am DIMWITTED!) And on the off-chance you are too, enjoy. It’s LUUUUMINOUS! HAAAAUNTING!
I’ve watched this thing like 10 times now (I told you: slow) and cannot choose a favorite nugget. Because it is all FUCKING LUMINOUS. But hm, maybe “I’ve been reading these incredible stories by a North Korean fabulist — you probably haven’t heard of him. His stories are all smuggled out of the country, written in blood on potato skins.”
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Actually this is what I wear every day to write. In my bedroom. With my cat on me.
From Mary Katrantzou's Fall 2012 collection
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Why I’m shutting up about my kids: THE COLUMN. (Bonus perspective from Shalom Auslander, Ayelet Waldman, Etgar Keret, Judith Newman, Peggy Orenstein and Christopher Milne — yes, I know he’s dead.)
So’s anyways,I’ll be writing about a broader spectrum of topics for Tablet magazine.
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My latest Tablet magazine column is about how to choose age-appropriate, non-screw-up-your-children-for-life Holocaust books. And it’s about how our determination to shield our kids and maintain their innocence is sometimes more about our needs than theirs.
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In Tablet magazine these week I channel Clement Greenberg and talk about how we talk about art — in this case, our children’s art. I would like to make clear that I think this painting of Maxie’s is TOTALLY FABULOUS. [click to continue…]
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