Weekend Update: A Birthday, a Wedding, Travel Fantasies and More Coming Today

I'm writing this Sunday morning at 6 AM - I've been up for a few hours after having fallen asleep at 9:30 last night. I've got a hot yoga class at 7:30, followed by an acting class at the Rockaway Theatre Company at 10, followed by me recording the performance of the Wizard of Oz by the kids at the theater at 2 PM. After that I can get back to my normal couch potato routine.

Let me tall you about my day Friday and Saturday. My wife's birthday was on Friday and it's her call as to what she wants to do. As part of our attempt to see the major Academy Award nominated films, we went into the city to see Melissa McCarthy's "Can You Ever Forgive Me," which was wonderful.

[Wednesday afternoon we drove out to Lynbrook to see Bohemian Rhapsody -- my wife loves Queen --- and the performance by Rami Malek will probably win him an Academy Award. (I wrote the other day about his twin brother Sami who is an LA teacher.)]

Just as wonderful was that we could walk from our apartment to the multiplex in Kips Bay and back to rest for an hour before taking the subway one stop to the Gramercy Tavern on East 20th St - and how much fun was it to pass by the old UFT building at 260 Park Ave South which now has a nail salon where the front entrance used to be. So appropriate.

Well, we had a fabulous meal with great drinks and we staggered out to take the subway back -- last year were sober enough to walk.

Saturday - NY Times Travel Show and Mindy's Wedding reception

My friend Gloria had told me she was going to this much advertised show at the Javits Center, which I hadn't been paying attention to and she gave me a code for a Groupon. I saw Pauline Frommer was giving a talk at 11 - I was a disciple of her dad Arthur Frommers' Europe on $5 a day which was my bible on my first trip to Europe in the summer of 1969 - when the UFT by the way offered hundreds of cheap charter flights to Europe for a few years. Besides, Mindy's wedding reception was a short walk away at 3PM so this day was a win-win.

Hangin' With the Frommers

Her talk was very useful for tips on traveling, but the bonus was meeting her dad who is approaching 90 at the book signing - I bought 3 - River cruises, Iceland and Portugal. His Europe on $5 a day was my bible on my first trip to Europe in the summer of 1969 - on a UFT charter flight by the way -- they offered hundreds of flights in the late 60s/early 70s - quite an achievement for our union then.

After meeting Arthur and getting the books signed, I was floating around when my wife, who had gone back to Rockaway, called that her favorite TV personality, Phil Rosenthal, was giving a talk with chef Joan Nathan at The Taste of the World exhibit, which took me some time to find. She loves Phil because on his travels (on Netflix) he does foody stuff with great humor. And she was right -- he is very funny and meshed well with Julie Nathan who was cooking some tomato dish.


Phil was selling tee-shirts for charity and Joan as selling her new book on Jewish cooking, so I bought a book and Joan signed it and a tee for Carol and Phil signed it and took a photo with me - and wasn't Carol sorry she didn't go with me.

After that I had some time before heading over to Mindy's wedding reception, so I checked out all we can see in NY State -- quite a lot - and I want to do more local traveling. But we also want to go to Scotland and when I saw a guy in a kilt, I knew I had the right booth. Our great friends, the late Loretta and Gene Prisco's granddaughter is going to school in Scotland in the fall and here is an excuse to go visit.

On my way to Mindy's

Mindy and Corey's wedding reception
Well, by this time I was so loaded up with stuff, I could barely lift it all and I had to walk almost a mile to Mindy's party on West 26 St.
Mindy has become such a major figure in certain circles she has the status of using only her first name -- but now her last name is Rosier-Rayburn.

I'm not going to get into all the details of what makes Mindy so special that she attracted an enormous variety of people to this event - from the UFT, her school, her Democratic party political work - How nice to see the great lawyer Arthur Schwartz say that there was an event for Bernie being planned for that date but because Mindy is so important to so many people, they changed the date. Mindy was a Bernie delegate in 2016 and one of the first people to jump on board his campaign among UFTers -- except Mindy actually does something about things instead of just talking about it.

Arthur Schwartz pays tribute to Mindy and Corey

Mindy and a few of her pals

Well, it was so wonderful to see all the tributes floating Mindy and Corey's way. There were Dem party political operatives who just adore her for her work. I heard even Mulgrew and wife sent something.

In a follow-up I will talk about Mindy's abandoning MORE and running with Unity in this election and speculate why MORE has lost so many progressives to Unity.

Well, it's off to hot yoga and another exiting day in NormScottland.