For two days I suffered from NCSD (No Computer Stress Disorder).  Fortunately it was just a mild case since it involved only my desktop computer which was being repaired.  I still had a functioning iPhone, iPad and netbook otherwise I don’t know how I could have gotten through 48 hours without email.  It made me realize just how critical electronic devices have become to my daily life.  I have a few friends who refuse to use a computer, have no email, no smart phone, do not participate in social media and one, incredibly, has no answering machine.    I sometimes envy them for their electronic isolation but I cannot imagine myself returning to the days of typewriters, letters requiring stamped envelopes and telephones wired to the wall.

But I feel I am in a technological wasteland.  I am stuck somewhere between the analogue and the digital, embracing a bit of each, comfortable with the former and trying to fully understand and participate in the latter.  Yes, I confess I use facebook, (mainly to keep track of my grandchildren’s sometimes appalling behavior and it’s also relatively easy).  I have no idea how to use twitter, linkedin, flickr, chrome, cloud, pinterest, google+ and all the other things I am constantly being invited to join by giving them my email address, sex, birth date, marital status and establishing yet another password.

However, all this has made me realize the future is rushing by me and I can’t seem to catch up with it.  My two-year-old granddaughter, like all two-year-olds, is learning how to say words.  Among her first pronouncement were:  “mommy,” “daddy,” “more,” “all done,” “no” and “iPad.”  She is quite capable of turning on the device, touching the icons for Elmo, Cookie Monster, The Wheels on the Bus and her other favorite videos.  She’s takes pictures on her mother’s iPhone and once called me on mine by accident.

Kids today find it incomprehensible that we older people feel that so-called “intuitive” apps are confusing and intimidating.  When visiting my ten-year-old grandson, he amuses himself by watching my ineptitude at playing the video games he tries to teach me.  Once we downloaded a game he wanted to try on my iPad and within five minutes he knew exactly how to do it.  After we both played it several times he pointed out that his highest recorded score was 11,508 and mine was six.  I must also confess my 16-year-old granddaughter taught me how to text.

There could be a perfectly good reason why my grandchildren catch on to these e-things and I don’t. Perhaps Richard Dawkins, noted British evolutionary biologist (and famous atheist) was on to something when he coined the word “meme” in his book The Selfish Gene.  A meme is like a gene in that it passes ideas and cultural phenomena from one generation to the next.  The most useful intellectual traits evolve by natural selection much like biological evolution.  

Obviously, I do not have the video game meme and quite possibly my grandson, who has certainly got it, will pass it on to his offspring who will be even better at wielding the X-Box, playing Wii’s and understanding the latest iPhone apps.

According to some meme theory proponents, memes that are no longer useful will become extinct.  It is conceivable then,  that Google’s current successful experiments will lead to the day somewhere in the distant future when no one will know how to drive a car.   But, without doubt,  future generations will be unbelievably good at playing video games.

If you are over five years old and live in America you have heard of the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare).  Even if you have absolutely no idea what it is, you most certainly have an opinion about it.  Republicans have convinced you it is the worst thing that has happened in the history of the world, or Democrats assured you it is a wonderful opportunity for millions of uninsured Americans to acquire health insurance.

            The Republicans have been brilliant in lambasting the ACA without exactly explaining why it is so bad (and also not proposing an alternative) and the Democrats have been singularly inept at explaining and launching it.  So the result is that just about everybody doesn’t understand anything.

            But let’s limit this discussion to one issue.  The Republicans have, in pursuing their attack against the ACA (they voted to repeal it over 40 times), tried to convince perfectly healthy young people—dubbed the “young invincibles”—that they are being ripped off by the government and forced to buy health insurance they don’t need. 

As an “old vincible” I can guarantee those healthy young people they are going to need health insurance if they live long enough.  (Of course, if they intend to die in the near future the Republicans may have a point.)

Actually, the “government” already requires citizens to purchase insurance and punish them if they do not.  If you drive a car, most states require you to purchase accident/liability insurance otherwise you can’t register your car and drive it.  So state governments require you to get insurance or they penalize you by not permitting you to drive.

There is another insurance the private sector forces you to buy--home owners insurance.  All banks require you to purchase home owners insurance otherwise they won’t give you a mortgage.

But let’s get back to the Republican argument that the “young invincibles” are being forced to pay for the health care of the sick old fogies (which eventually they will become but they don’t know that yet). 

I have been a home owner for over 30 years and during all that time I have paid county taxes.  A portion of those taxes goes to pay for the school system to educate the children in the county.  For all of those 30 years I have never had a child in the school system so why should I be required to pay taxes to educate the children of the “young invincibles”?  Because, the local government requires me to do so although I get no benefit from those taxes.

A basic principal of insurance is you pay for it in the hope you will never need it.  You pay for car accident/liability insurance but if you never have an accident you pay for the accidents of those who do.  You pay for home owners insurance but if your house never burns down you pay for those whose houses do.  You pay country taxes even if you have no children in order to educate the children of those who do.

But that principal of hoping you never need the insurance you pay for does not apply to health insurance because sooner or later you are going to get old and feeble and sick and get cancer or heart disease or diabetes or Alzheimer’s or something equally dreadful and you are most certainly going to need it.   So since you will absolutely need health insurance at some point in the future, what you pay now to treat the current old fogies, the young invincibles of the future are going to be paying for you. 

Look at it this way.  You can’t wait to buy life insurance until you die which you certainly will.

In his magnificent essay “Here is New York,” E.B. White said there are three New Yorks—one for the native born, another for the commuter who works there and leaves each night and the third for people who come from somewhere else in quest of something.  I’d like to add a fourth—the visitor who feels like a resident.  In 1955, my father became a commuter New Yorker when the family moved to Hartsdale and he worked in the Graybar building above Grand Central Station.  In 2000 my wife and I became one-week “residents” of New York when we bought a time share across the street from Carnegie Hall.  So each time I visit the Big Apple I feel both the excitement of the tourist enjoying all the wonderful things to do and see and the comfort and confidence of a resident who knows how to use the subway system.

New York is always exciting, occasionally scary and sometimes emotional.  My wife and I visited the city two weeks after 9/11.  We had already booked our trip and refused to cancel it.  We smelled the acrid smoke that still drifted over lower Manhattan and saw the layers of ash on the sidewalks and buildings blocks away from ground zero.  Last week we visited the 9/11 Memorial.  It is both beautiful and sad.  Having been there right after the destruction, the pristine memorial fountain-pool and the soaring new buildings had a special meaning for me.

 

New York is more than the theater and museums we enjoy each visit, it is also eating.  As a professional food photographer who dearly loves consuming my subjects, I consider eating one of NYC’s greatest attractions.  For me, NYC is an enormous food court.  On this trip, I revisited some favorite restaurants and discovered a couple new ones.

Encore restaurant performances this trip included Robert on the ninth floor of the Museum of Art and Design and P.J. Clarke’s.  Robert offers excellent food and a fabulous view of Columbus Circle. We always visit the museum first.  Exhibits change often so there is always something new.  This time the exhibits featured advanced technology in art and I finally found out what 3D printing really is.

 

 

 

 

If you like classical music, the New York Philharmonic holds open rehearsals on Thursday mornings at Lincoln Center (go to www.nyphil.org for information.)  You get to see an actual rehearsal of the current performance for $20.00 at 9:45 a.m.  Just across the street from Lincoln Center is P.J.Clarke’s which I believe makes the best Reuben sandwich in the world.  I had it again this time.

 

Now to this trip’s restaurant debuts.  My good friend Phil Dorian who was my college roommate and is now a New York theater critic (www.sceneonstage.com) introduced us to Iguana (240 West 54th St.) and Etcetera Etcetera (352 West 44th St.)

 

Iguana is upscale Mexican where they make a great avocado dip at the table and offers perhaps the best corn chowder I have ever eaten.   Etcetera Etcetera is upscale Italian where my wife had a beautifully done Cornish hen and I had a perfectly creamy risotto (only Italians can make good risotto).  Sorry, I forgot the camera that night which is a terrible admission for a photographer.

 

Two friends I have done Community Theater with down south, Craig Mark Wells and Camrus Johnson, are now in New York aiming at bigger theatrical horizons.  They introduced us to one of their favorite hangouts, Patzeria—Family and Friends (311 West 48th St.).  We all got together for breakfast one morning and I must say the owner and staff were really like, well, family and friends.

 

 

Sometime we just come upon a new restaurant by chance.  After visiting the 9/11 Memorial, we went looking for a restaurant on the Bowery that a magazine said had great raw clams--one of my favorite things.  Unfortunately, after walking a half hour in the rain we found it and it was closed for lunch.  So another 15 minutes in the rain and we found Gemma, (335 Bowery) that looked like a trendy Italian eatery. My wife had butternut squash ravioli and I had a grilled eggplant sandwich (Italians also know how to do eggplant and we confirmed the chef is from Sicily).

 

Our biggest breakfast find was the Cosmic Diner (888 8th Ave.)  We wanted a big breakfast on the Sunday of our departure that would hold us until we got home late in the day.  We found it.  Our Cosmic brunch included three eggs Benedict and potatoes, a Bloody Mary or Mimosa, orange juice and coffee all for $17!  What a deal!

 

But, of course, New York does not exist by food alone.  It does have a great theater menu.   We saw five shows:  “After Midnight”—starring Fantasia.  Terrific music from the Duke Ellington, Cotton Club era and blow-your-mind dancing.  “Pippin,” an extravaganza where Cirque de Soleil meets Broadway musical, magic show and then some.  “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” an entertaining combination of Downton Abbey, British farce and Gilbert and Sullivan with an amazing performance by Jefferson Mays playing the part of seven murder victims. “Outside Mullingar,” from the playwright who wrote the gripping drama “Doubt.”  Very disappointing, boring, with an outcome you can predict in the first ten minutes and you don’t care how the characters get there.   “Machinal” a play written by Sophie Treadwell in 1928 but surprisingly contemporary.  Rebecca Hall gives an incredible performance of a troubled woman who murders her husband to set herself free from an oppressive hum-drum life. 

And finally the museums.  Two museums we always visit are the previously mentioned Museum of Art and Design on Columbus Circle and the International Center of Photography (1133 Avenue of the Americas).  The exhibits change often and this time the ICP featured Lewis Hine who pioneered documentary photography, covering early immigration on Ellis Island, child labor and the construction of the Empire State Building.  He did the famous shot of the workers having lunch on a girder high above the city. (Strangely, that shot is not in the show.)

Once you’ve seen all the dioramas at the New York Museum of Natural History you’ve seen them all because they don’t change.  A dinosaur is pretty much the same from year to year.  But the museum does special exhibits like the one we saw called “Poisons.”  Everything you ever wanted to know about poisons from Socrates to Snow White, snakes and spiders.  After a couple hours studying toxic substances (which included alcohol) we went back to our time share for cocktails. It was a great week.

 

As we enter the New Year, two states, Washington and Colorado have legalized the sale and use of marijuana.  Since this is America, where we can’t seem to agree on anything, this has raised a large controversy ranging from outrage on one extreme to “oh, get a life” on the other.  What to do with marijuana in our society has been debated for years and now that some states are decriminalizing it (which is contrary to Federal law) my personal opinion is that we are doing it entirely the wrong way.  Over 30 years ago when I was a marketing executive we had a client that is a large tobacco company.  At one of those legendary three-martini lunches we discussed the “weed.”  The client told us very matter-of-factly that his company would like to see marijuana legalized and that it would not only be good for his industry but also good for the country.  The tobacco industry was—and still is—in the perfect position to take on the manufacture of “marijuana cigarettes.”  Our client pointed out all the advantages.  His industry would make lots of money.  On the other hand, total manufacture and sale nationwide would be carefully controlled and the quality and strength of the commercialized product would be standardized.  (Rumor has it that the Washington and Colorado joints will be considerably more powerful than the pothead stuff of the 60s.)  And finally, the state and Federal governments would get a huge amount of tax revenue.  Consider, it costs about 20 cents to manufacture a pack of cigarettes.  The last time I was in New York City, I saw a sign “Marlboros $13.00 a pack.” That’s a lot of tax for the packs.  You have heard all the emotional arguments:  Kids starting on marijuana will become crack addicts.  We are putting people in jail for long periods just for possessing marijuana overcrowding our jails.   For some reason, the legalization of pot is considered by many a moral issue which did not hold up in the case of alcohol.  Remember prohibition? People were going to drink whether the moralists liked it or not so it spawned all sorts of crime and mayhem. Then the mobs made money on booze, now the governments do.  It always amazes me how stupid our policies can be and how we fail to adopt the most rational, workable solutions (see health care which is another issue).  In the case of marijuana, go for the free market solution that conservatives so dearly love.  Turn over manufacture and distribution of marijuana cigarettes to the tobacco industry and let the government regulate it and reap the tax benefits.  How’s that for a compromise?--the conservatives get the privatization of marijuana and the liberals get regulation and more taxes.  Maybe I should become a political advisor.

Today we celebrate the arrival of a new year.  We also acknowledge the ending of an old one.  Every media outlet, whether print or electronic, likes to review the past year and make predictions about the next.  One of the reviews most media make of the year past is the names and stories of prominent people who expired.  I am always pleased when I am not on that list.  Although it would be nice to be a prominent person I am pleased to not qualify under the second requirement--I did not expire.  Considering the cancerous events I have experienced in the last few years missing the expired list one more time is no small accomplishment.  Going into the New Year I am optimistic at least about my longevity.  According to statistical studies, the life expectancy for an American male is 78.7 years and I have not yet used up my allotment.  So, I am looking forward to another year.  Unlike the media, I am not going to make any predictions because I want to start the new year on a positive note. No matter how rotten the past year was, we always like to think the next year will be better. So I will start my new year on an optimistic note until, of course, the U.S. Congress reconvenes.  Oh well optimism will be fun while it lasts and hope springs eternal.  Happy (but don’t count on it) New Year.