Tuesday, November 25, 2025
1957 President Dwight Eisenhower suffered a mild stroke, impairing his speech
2023 VA ER, IC flare; first day of one year without coffee, carbonated & alcoholic drinks
2024 Donald Trump vowed massive taxes on goods from Mexico, Canada and China on Day 1
In bed at 9:30, onto LZB around 3:30, back to bed at 4:30, up at 6ish, bad night of my annual holiday blues. 45°, high 51°, drizzle, cloudy day ahead.
Meds, etc. Morning meds at 10 a.m.
Text exchange with CBG & DEG
Charles Clausen:
Before the hustle and bustle on Thursday, I want to let you know how very thankful I am for your friendship over so many years. Each of you has a warm place in my heart. For various reasons, the holiday season is generally a sad time for me, but it is brightened by thoughts of you two. Caren, our many, many lunches, Dan, the lunch I’ll never forget when you shared with me your experiences camping with Peter, all our quarterly dinners with the Lowes, and more. So many memories, so much to give thanks for. So, thank you. And have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family.❤️❤️
Caren Goldberg:
Aw thanks, Chuck. Your friendship over the past going on 40 years has been so special and meaningful to me and one I treasure. I love our talks, our laughs and even the sadness the comes with the pain of the past and the passage of time. I cherish our time together. Wishing you and Geri and your family a Happy Thanksgiving filled with happiness, hope and lots of love. ❤️
After I sent my notes to CBG, DEG, DPL, and PPL, I read Jeffrey Goldberg's short piece on Facebook this morning. It's about the upcoming year of issues devoted to the American Revolution. First, it made me think of how grateful I am for The Atlantic, but then it made me think of how grateful I am for Jews, especially of course the Jews in my life. I start with my first boss, Wally Halperin, who owned and managed the food and liquor store where I worked as a stockboy during high school. I've written of his kindness to me the summer before I headed off to college in Milwaukee in 1959. I think too of what I wrote after the Tree of Life murders in 2018.
"I read that the Squirrel Hill terrorist wanted to "kill all Jews," even as he was wheeled into the ER at the hospital where the doctor and nurse who treated him were Jews. In BadDreamLand, I had a vision of the murderer's wish being granted. Suddenly, his treating physician and attending nurse disappeared. Then all the Jewish doctors and nurses who treat and have treated my family and me throughout our lives disappeared. Poof. Then I recalled Itzhak Perlman on the Steven Colbert Show playing "Someone to Watch Over Me," and Itzhak disappeared as did the song's composer, Jacob Gershvin a/k/a George Gershwin, and the beautiful song itself, along with Rhapsody in Blue and everything else that Jacob/George created to share with the world. Poof. Then I thought of Israel Beilin, a/k/a Irving Berlin, vanishing along with his gifts to the world God Bless America, White Christmas, and hundreds of others. Gone. Then I hallucinated Robert Allen Zimmerman a/k/a Bob Dylan disappearing with Blowin' in the Wind, The Times They Are A-Changin', and so much more. Then Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, Sound of Silence, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Billy Joel, Piano Man, My Life, Uptown Girl, Carole Joan Klein a/k/a Carole King, So Far Away, It's Too Late, Tapestry, Neil Diamond, Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show, Sweet Caroline, Barbra Streisand, People, The Way We Were. All gone, the disappeared Felix Mendelssohn, Gustav Mahler. Aaron Copeland, Leonard Bernstein, Benny Goodman, Ziggy Elman, Herbie Mann, so many musicians, so much soul-expanding music - gone. And all those humorists who brought so much joy and laughter to my life - Gilda Radner, Gene Wilder, the Marx brothers, Mel Brooks, Madeline Kahn, Larry David, Billy Crystal, Jerry Seinfeld, Jack Benny, Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce, George Burns, and Al Franklin - so many humorists, so many smiles, chuckles, and belly laughs, taken away - poof. And all those great scientists, like Abram Saperstein, a/k/a Albert Sabin who gave us the oral polio vaccine, Jonas Salk and his polio vaccine, Paul Ehlich who developed the first cure for the worldwide scourge of syphilis and helped cure diphtheria, Albert Einstein who showed us E=mc², relativity, and black holes. Then my frightening dream became even more nightmarish when I saw disappearing all the many Jews who have personally enriched my life with their friendship, those I worked with and those who share and have shared their homes and their hearts with me and my family, who have lovingly shared their wise counsel with me when I most needed it, who have shared their marriages, funerals, britot, b'nai and b'not mitzah, Shabbat services and seders and who have accepted me despite my faults and failings, my spiritual and emotional mishpuchah. As my nightmare took all of them away from me, I couldn't take it anymore and woke up trembling and repeating Don't go, don't go. And though I'm not a pray-er, I found myself saying Please God - no, never."— thinking about life."
Email to DPL and PPL
I’m sending this message a little early to avoid the distractions on Thursday. I want to let both of you know how thankful I am for your friendship over so many years. I know Geri feels the same way. David, you and I have shared differing relationships over decades, and I am so thankful that they culminated in a near-lifetime of shared friendship. One of the things I’m most thankful to you for is bringing Pip into our lives. Pip, each time we share a hug on seeing or leaving each other, I can feel the sincere affection in your heart, and it has meant more and more to me as the years have flown by. Each of you has been a blessing in my life, and I thank you. Happy Thanksgiving.❤️❤️
David Lowe: I am sending this a little late because your message deserves a thoughtful response. As I look back at the time we have spent together over the years I can plot all of the significant milestones of my adult life, most of these being joyous, comical and heartwarming, and a few darker spots in which our companionship was a source of invaluable support. And even when we are not together I hear your voice and wisdom frequently when considering choices or thinking about what’s worth worrying about. You and Geri will always have a special place in our hearts. I don’t express gratitude enough and Thanksgiving certainly provides the opportunity to do so. We will be thinking of you and Geri at our table tomorrow.
Me: You are MUCH too kind, but thank you. One of the big blessings we have both shared in our lives was Bob Friebert. This morning I put a photo of my former basement painting workspace in my journal/blog with a blurb beneath it. “Vat vas, vas.” The basement was flooded on the weekend of our Big Rain here, August 9-10, and has been unusable since. The blurb was a memory of one of Bob’s great ‘Jew jokes’, the one about the old immigrant Jews setting the rules about what could and could not be discussed during their gatherings, no politics, too upsetting, and no talk of sex: “Vat vas, vas.’ Do you remember it? It was in that family of jokes that included “fuck the bees. It’s only a ‘obby’ and others. I wish I could remember all of them. Thanks again for the kind words.
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