NOFX VS ‘Nolf’

NOFX

NOFX is a punk band of considerable renown that features two Jewish members and has a set titled “Two Heebs and “ something, and on that flimsy basis I watched part of their recent podcast video as part of my Yom Kippur 5781 practice. Did I mention that is 3 x 41 x 47? 

Most of the day I read from Philip Roth “American Pastoral” and I also discussed it with Swede Cohen, who was not familiar with the work but is half-Swedish and half-Jewish (ex-Brooklynder even, or his father was). 

Beth Am also had a way to practice Judaism and honor Yom Kippur using an Apple MacBook. I logged off, however, before they got to the part about dipping the keyboard in honey.

There was something about Virginia Woolf and her husband, who was Jewish.

There was something about works by Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock’s Jewish wife, Lee Krassner, and Barnett Newman. 

I broke cover by writing to Ben Goldberg about a potential event or performance or etude or “plague diary” entry based on Steve Lacy and Mark Rothko (Weiss, 2006, p. 62 — Jason Weiss).

I flipped through the booklet of a Benny Green cd from Terry’s collection — 1994 — Terry and I met in 2009 if you are following along at home.

I am psyched on 5781 because it factors nicely: 3 times 1927. Babe Ruth, not a Jew, despite the biblical name. 

Oh, yes, or “oh no” I also broke practice with the sun still in the sky to post something about Dan Bern being interviewed by Cleveland Jewish Radio and he said something about reclaiming the swastika and it being comprised literally of four 7’s  

7     7    7   7  

and that reminds him of 28 which is half of Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak.

Whereas I was a couple days ago working on a piece about Chief Meyers who caught Christy Mathewson obviously not a Jew —yet MOT —who went to Dartmouth, and Brad Ausmus who is indeed Jewish and Ben Rice ’22 who was star of the summer league up there in Worcester. 

I am only so-so at Zoom — I remember “zoom galley galley galley, zoom galley galley”. (I even remember ad libbing “mercury morris goes zoom galley galley galley – he was a quick running back for the Miami Dolphins this was 1972 or 5760 or so. )

So I asked via the chat feature how big the Lee Krassner piece was and she replied — her name was Alexandra or Alex Lyon — the leader of the talk — that as it says on the card the piece was about 2 feet by 3 feet (later, although they appeared the same more of less on my computer screen, the Barnett Newman was 17 feet across). I had the zoom set so that I could see the leader slightly larger – and a gallery of faces of the 50 or so other “zoomers” but I didn’t notice the card, which also had a chart of Hebrew characters, aleph bet et al — .

Later a man asked the name of the Rothko piece. It is in the collection of the SFMOMA, as compared or I compared it to the one they had just sold off for $50M – I wonder how many zuzim that is? (A goat was “two zuzim” back in the day so at least a million zuzim I would think, but I am only kidding. 

The work the Lyon was sharing was called “1960 No. 14” but I dryly and mysteriously posted:

Nolf

Post Script:  I also know a Noel Kidd, so I could have called this “Nolf or Noel an only Kidd”

Or I could claim to Noel that if he calls himself “Nolf” people will think he is jewish, its a Mark Rothko reference. 

That’s my next step after going to the bank, reading the Wall Street Journal or parts of it, four tear sheets from last Friday, and having some coffee and merging with the great wireless universe.

I was meaning to addendumize with the topics of the WSJ that I have not read, but I had already imagined a Pow Wow between Paul Gigot of the Journal who is Dartmouth ’77 and Jim Newton formerly of the LA Times who is an ’85. I met Kamala Harris thru Jim, once. It was a book party. I am curious how they know each other. Do tell. 

“Harris Rakes in Hollywood Donations” by Emily Glazer and Chad Day: Mindy Kaling, Reese Witherspoon, Shonda Rhimes — two -thirds of whom went to Dartmouth.

“Sen. Feinstein’s Husband Likely Used Clout in UC Admissions, Auditor Says” which to me is a non-issue written by Douglas Belkin yet interestingly it references that the story was  broke by the Mercury. Richard Blum is the dude. It says that four campuses admitted 64 students over a five year period based on intervention from billionaires and the very powerful. So that’s about ten thousand students admitted therefore because of their grades, I like them odds. 

“City Sues Dozens of Alleged Drug Dealers”, 28 of them and it prevents them from entering a 50-block area in the Tenderloin, they would face arrest on a misdemeanor, $6,000 fine and the seizure of drugs and money. Contrast this with the Lytton Plaza saga of Palo Alto in 2008. The move comes, they write, after a 70 percent increase in overdose to 441, more than half of them from fentanyl. 

“Greatness Revisited: Gods at Play by Tom Callahan reviewed by David Shribman who they identify as a former Journal reporter who teaches at Max Bell McGill but I think of as a former Dartmouth trustee, and alum. But I doubt the Tom Callahan is our fellow alumnus. He wrote for Time magazine and the Washington Post whereas Dartmouth’s Tom Callahan was president of the IFC fraternity council and was a competitive diver. 

An “episodic memoir”. I too have fits of remembrance, insane in the membrane, yo.

“Steering Through Scandal” by John Anderson. Jeff Daniels stars as former FBI director James Comes in this gripping drama. (which in the Phi Delta spank room means what?) I would have rather seen Tom Callahan ’84 as Comey. And maybe Rich Durante who we called “Bullethead” as Trump. Ok, I never called Rich Durante “bullethead” but I know that was his pledge name at old Phi Delta Alta or whatever. (By the way I also cold-called or emailed Gordon Dyal another Dartmouth guy of that era and someone who still ranks among Gunn High’s best sprint relayists. he is not on Wall Street he is on West 57th please note. I wonder who is on 7777 W. 56th if they like Joe DiMaggio. Also, I’m certain that none of the group of Tom Callahan, Gordon Dyal or Rich Durante ever visited the Phi Delt spank room nor would they recall there being such thing. And even queerer, just as I typed this a mistral is that the word blew my stack of WSJ tear sheets a few tables away up Ramona street and I only retrieved four of the five, one of them is under an AIRSTREAM mobile home converted to be a dry bar by Greg St. Clair of NoLa. Talk about divine intervention. I’m here all week try the jerked chicken. 

Excuse the segue if you are Gordon Dyal or his reader but there is a show called “Kajillionaire” now playing in theaters by Miranda July. 

Twelve oh six is the number of rushing yards last year by Lamar Jackson a quarterback of the Ravens featured in an article by andrew Beaton on page A12, tho I noted that he only got 90 or so last night and lost to Mahomes and the Chiefs who is old fashioned and threw for four.

“Palantir Shares Expected to Shine In Debut: Lack of profit, unusual governance structure aside, valuation could reach nearly $22 billion” (Farrell, Driebusch et al) backed with “Revered book of numbers has odd ones: Sleuth finds flaws in ‘A Million Random Digits”.

Thank you Paul Gigot.

And I’m the guy sitting in a cafe with a Mercedes 44 cap and an OBFUG shirt. The dweeby heebie, if you will. 

Jesus Christ am I still here? If so I want my last words to be something about WSJ mentioned above that Palantir goes public tomorrow and will be valued at $22 Billion dollars although they lost abut 500 million dollars last year. A million dollars is like a billion dollars the way a pubic hair is like your penis. I spend regular dollars, I carry in a leathery pocket satchel I bought at a place called Shinola that is no longer hair. 

I