A Toast to Robert Burns

January 25, 2010 marked the 251^st anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, the great Scottish poet. I became more familiar with Burns’ poetry thanks to a friend of mine who until recently lived in Brooklyn. My friend Roger Paz, a Peruvian Jew with no Scottish ancestry that I know of, threw a party on the Saturday closest to Burns Night every year.

He would travel to New Jersey to a special butcher shop that could provide him with an American approximation of a traditional haggis. People would show up with food, books of Robert Burns' poems, and copious amounts of alcohol. At any time during the party, someone could shout, “Poem!” and the music would be paused and everyone would gather around as they read a Burns poem. Roger had someone read ‘Address to a Haggis’ as he ceremoniously cut the haggis after it was done cooking. It was delicious, and those were some of the best parties I’ve ever attended.

Several years ago, months after attended one of the Burns Night parties, I found myself in Milwaukee on a work assignment. After work I visited several pubs not far from the Lake Michigan waterfront. Seeking the comforts of the great Scottish bard, I ambled away from one pub with pint of fine ale and sought refuge at the foot of a statue of Robert Burns. There I was inspired and with a pen and paper I wrote what was most likely incoherent and scrawling poetry.

My friend Roger left Brooklyn for the urban frontier of Detroit, where he had lived for some time before coming to New York. But his love of Burns’ poetry is as strong as ever, and he has kept the spirit of his Burns Night alive through many Internet postings.

Recently, it was reported that authentic Scottish haggis, which is still not available in the United States, may soon be allowed here. Hopefully, by this time next year, I will find a Burns Night feast to attend and dine on some authentic Scottish haggis. See you there.

Congratulations New Orleans

I don’t follow sports much, and if I watch a football game at all it will be a Georgia Bulldogs game. Football was invented to give people an excuse to sit on their ass, eat, drink and socialize with their friends.

Nonetheless, people should pick a favorite team based on where they are from or where they have some roots and should stick with those allegiances (unless that team sells them out and leaves the city). I am a New York Jets fan because I am from New York my parents were Jets fans. The Jets also remained in New York City longer, though eventually joined the Giants in playing in New Jersey (the Buffalo Bills are the only NFL team that plays in New York State).

Earlier today, the New York Jets lost to the hated Indianapolis Colts. That Colts quarterback Payton Manning played for Tennessee makes him completely loathsome to a Georgia Bulldogs fan. I’m afraid I may have jinxed them, since I watched the game and I don’t normally watch NFL games or football games at all. However, I thought it would be OK since the last time I tuned in to an NFL game, the Jets snapped the Colts’ big winning streak. But I did not serve as a good luck charm today.

I tuned in to television hoping to see The Simpsons a few short hours ago, only to end up watching the New Orleans Saints vs. Minnesota Vikings game. The game was good as far as football games go, and it ended with an overtime victory for the New Orleans Saints.

This is the Saints’ first trip to the Super Bowl, and I hope they win. I don’t want the Colts to win, especially since they’ve won recently and they defeated my New York Jets. I have a lot more friends in New Orleans and have made several visits there and had a great time. Saints fans, being from New Orleans, are certainly going to be a better breed than anyone who can be happy about the Colts.

New Orleans is a wonderful place that is still suffering from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, high crime and corrupt and incompetent political leadership. The city is turning things around slowly, and will soon have a new mayor, but every little bit helps. So until next season, when it will be time to root for the Jets again, I’m going to support the New Orleans Saints (this doesn’t mean I’m going to watch the Super Bowl, though it is a good excuse to sit on my couch and eat snacks). So…

Geaux Saints!

Why The Simpsons is (Still) the Best

The Simpsons celebrated its 20^th anniversary on the air tonight, and I still maintain it’s the best cartoon show on television and probably in the history of the world. No other cartoon has been as funny as long, and it will take an animated show truly amazing and historical to knock the Simpsons from their perch as the lords of the animated world.

I’ve been a big Simpsons fan for years. My favorite episode is probably the one where Springfield legalizes gambling and Marge becomes addicted to the slot machines. My favorite character is Krusty the Clown, he embodies all the cynicism and greed that encapsulates our age. And the shows that focus on him have been among the best.

I had even considered getting a Stonecutters tattoo years ago. I was amazed to see that there’s a woman in Argentina with this very tattoo who was shown on the 20^th Anniversary special. The tattoo looks pretty hot on her, not sure it would have worked for me.

I hate to say it, but many of my friends defected to the Family Guy camp years ago. While I am a fan of Family Guy, it can’t top The Simpsons. Family Guy does not have the depth or wit that The Simpsons has. It also suffers from what I call ‘Saturday Night Live’ syndrome, where the same jokes are stretched out for time and repeated overly recycled. The Family Guy is good, but it is the Three Stooges to The Simpsons’ Marx Brothers—and no, the Three Stooges are nowhere near as good as the Marx Brothers. I rank Family Guy in third place (South Park is second).

So fellow Simpsons fans who have stayed loyal to the greatest show ever, stay strong and celebrate. Happy 20^th anniversary Simpsons!

More Trouble in Stuy Town

The firms that bought Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village will miss a $16 million debt payment due today.

Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village were built in the 1940s to house World War II veterans and their families. For decades it allowed middle and working class New Yorkers to live and work in Manhattan.

My mother grew up in Stuyvesant Town, and when I was growing up in Yonkers, N.Y., we would travel to the city to visit my grandmother in the apartment my mother grew up in. It was a spacious one bedroom and if they had known then what we know now about the city’s real estate market, my parents would have urged her to stay there and buy the place rather than move to Yonkers. It was where I watched the first space shuttle launch on television and went on the first Easter egg hunt that I can remember.

Even before it was bought by the real estate speculators in 2006, these complexes had gone back on their pledge to keep rents affordable, but the big buyout at the height of the real estate bubble was an exercise in the worst aspects of both real estate speculation and private equity excess. The only way the buyers could make back their money would be to turn these former middle class enclaves into luxury apartments. It was an exercise in financial hubris.

Despite these problems, Manhattan tenants are still going to lose out in the end. The creditors who may get some or all of the properties if the owners have to declare bankruptcy will certainly want to recoup as much money as possible, and that isn’t made renting to good-hearted working folks like you and me. Rents may not go up as much as previously thought across the city, but they’re not going down anywhere; that’s one thing that doesn’t change.