Long Island Calling

If anyone out there other than family actually reads this blog, they would find that I refer to my wife in my postings as “wifey.”  Now I thought that I borrowed the term from hip hop, but recently I discovered that the term had be used by my late grandpa in a post card he had sent to my bubby and my mom for Rosh Hashana while he was in basic training in Fort Shelby.

Observe the evidence, circa 1943:

Though he spelled it “wifie,” the sentiment remains the same.   Proof that even after death, Grandpa will always inspire me, even when it is coincidental.
Rest in Peace Grandpa.

Earlier today, Thursday, June 5, my grandfather passed away at the age of 93.  He lived a long, wonderful life full of love, happiness and family who cared deeply about him.

Here is a picture of him with my bubby, Florence Ackerman, from around late 1942/early 1943 when he was in basic training for WWII.

Phillip Ackerman: 1915-2008

You will always be in my heart.

Love,
Scott

This past weekend, the wifey and I headed upstate to the Town of Kingston. When we first arrived to the jewel of Ulster County, when we drove down Broadway, it kind of had that run down, rustic, slightly depressing Upstate NY feel you get from towns like Elmira, Buffalo and Genesee. But then when got to another part of town with a long hill, we discovered the heart of a thriving art community, which was the reason we were there in the first place.

We came to The Arts Society of Kingston, for the opening night of great exhibit celebrating Israel’s 60th birthday and the Jewish experience in the US and Israel. Normally you can find something like this in the LES while noshing on Guss’ pickles, but this was different. Wifey and I went to this opening because of my sister-in-law. On this night, emerging photography artist Dina Hodara had her first art exhibit of her work. Great Success!

Here are some photos from ASK Center on Saturday Night.

The center itself.

Here is a shot of Dina’s photos, focusing on the U.S. Jewish experience celebrating the holiday Purim. These were mostly taken at festival in Williamsburg, where Dina was able to infiltrate the system and get some great, candid photos. Those krazy kidz! So cute, dressing up as sailors, rebbis and postal workers. At least they didn’t dress up like this guy…

The artist, Dina Hodara and one of her works of art.

The artist, Dina Hodara, leaving the building.

Reminder- Dina’ s work will be on display (and for sale) at ASK until April 26th. So go…NOW!

For another take on this event, you can visit the wifey’s blog here.

Okay, so my hiatus from blogging took a little longer than I expected, but with good reason…the wifey and I have moved!

Remember- the origin of this blog was to chronicle my transition from city life to the suburbs, but I left out a key detail when I started this thing back in December. Until about 3 weeks ago, the wifey and I were living in my in-laws’ house.

Now don’t get it twisted! My in-laws are fantastic, most likely better than yours and they were the most accommodating of hosts. We were newly married, the lease was up in the city and we had no place else to go. They let us stay there until we we got our act together and for that, I will be forever grateful.

So in that downtime, we were able to continue saving money and finally fulfill our true objective in moving to the burbs, which was to become homeowners. We were both sick of renting and for us to stay in the city and upgrade to a bigger place, it would have been lots of costs, but little return. We figured out that we had enough for a down payment to buy a place. Don’t get me wrong, I still miss the lifestyle accouterments of the city, but as much as I liked Luigi’s, it was time to move on.

So now, at long last, we are proud home owners, buying at the right time in this market and able to enjoy the benefits of living in Long Island - like um…a comfy train ride, mad food at Cheesecake Factory and driving.

As for where we livin’ now, see the picture below:

HOLLA!

For those of who read this blog regularly (lets see, I count one, two..), I won’t be blogging for about a week or so. Namely, big, exciting things are in the plan that are keeping me very busy lately so until I return, here is a little something to make you happy.

Part of the first dance wifey and I did at our wedding, courtesy of my brother-in-law’s cell phone.

Enjoy!

So after finally taking some years to get over that whole nonsense proclaiming Philadelphia as “the sixth borough,” recently my dad forwarded me this article from his friend Jim, who lives in the Kansas City area.  Essentially it is a list of reasons why this writer moved from Brooklyn to KC, which unfortunately did not include The Royals or BBQ sauce.

That’s nice and all, but when will current and/or former NYC area journalists with some connection to some random city in the US stop trying to proclaim their shingle as “the X borough.”  Thankfully,  this writer did not make that proclamation, but there must be something in the air lately about this KC/NY borough thing for Gawker to have made a stink about it.   I know that everyone wants to hang with the cool kids, but is this the identity you want your city to be associated with?

And don’t worry, you won’t ever hear this blogger proclaim Nassau county as the “7th borough” or some  nonsense like that.   This county will never be that cool.   My evidence?
Exhibit A:

I rest my case…

Courtesy of my Aunt Sherrie, who BTW used to live in Huntington many years ago, a comprehensive list of places on Long Island that used to be and what exists in its place today.

Though I’m not familiar with these places of old, it seems that most of these spots were eventually replaced by retail stores and/or chain outfits. In a lot of these cases it seems that many of them were malls that got replaced with newer retail stores, like Orbachs becoming The Source.

So ultimately, I moved from one colossus of suburban consumerism to another.

Joy.

WTF!!!

In case you haven’t heard, New Jersey’s state deficit is in the shitter again.

Jersey’s crazy, no seat belt wearin’ guvernor has a solution - raise the Turnpike and Parkway tolls the likes of which ye have never seen!

How high you ask? This article from the NYTimes breaks it down like this -

“Mr. Corzine wants to increase tolls by 50 percent every four years, beginning in 2010 and ending in 2022. Tolls would also rise up to an additional 3 percent per year for 75 years to account for inflation. What’s more, the initial toll increase in 2010 would include four years of inflation adjustments, backdated to 2006″

So what does that means to the good people at Long Island Calling? Alot.

My fam still lives in South Jersey (exit 4 to be exact) and the wifey and I try to visit them at least once a month. We usually take the Belt parkway, then the Verrazzano bridge, cut through Shaolin and then we hit the turnpike at Exit 13. To figure out the potential cost of this trek, I found this toll calculator on NJ.com.

Final proposed damage, not including the $8 for the bridge and money for gas:

 So by the time the Phillies win the World Series in 2022,  it will cost me $25.04 to go one way down the turnpike to Exit 4.  

And then people wonder why they make fun of my home state…

Not really.  According to this BBC article,  aliyah is down this year.   Frankly, I’m surprised that the article wasn’t angrier about the thought of more Jews staying in Europe, considering the way the BBC usually covers anything Israel related.  But don’t take my word on it, check out this post on Jewlicious from earlier this year about the BBC’s coverage of the 40th anniversary of the 6 Day War.

Also, I was shocked that Jewlicious had a fresh post up this morning.  I figured they would still be sleeping this morning after last night’s Heebonism events.  As for the wifey and I, we got our gentile on and went to a great Christmas party last night.  For us, being near a Chistmas tree was so fascinating, plus the tree itself was very impressive.   Big up to Lea and Jason for the good food and good times!

And a big up to Uncle Fred for sending me the link to the BBC article.