March 15, 2021 Dear Editor, My family and I went on a skiing trip to Camelback Mountain in the Poconos on the weekend of March 6-7. We were lucky we could go skiing, despite the virus, but the opportunity to go skiing brightened us up. There were still some do’s and don’ts. That meant no going to the bathroom at the ski mountain, no eating at the restaurants, no, no, no…But fortunately, skiing wasn’t a no-no. The car ride there was hard and clumsy and panic-about moment-full because of some chaotic turns and bumps, but at last, after what felt like a million hours, we arrived at the place. Its nice coziness made us comfortable right away, so we knew we could trust the place. The unexpected added things, like the piano, bunk beds, and barn-like bathrooms, made us know that this would be a nice and fun visit. And since the next day we’d be skiing, just before bed we took a 6-minute ride in the minivan-like car to the Loft, which is the real name (though funny) of the ski/snowboard rental place. After that, we drove home, our skis, poles, and boots smooshed against each other in the trunk. That night, we (especially I) couldn’t fall asleep from excitement. The next morning, when they took a long time, I felt like telling and practically dressing my family to go out, though instead I sat neatly at the table. Unfortunately, what I did not know is that we had to wear masks. I was still super-excited. I rushed my family to go onto the slopes. We ate bagels, sausages, and some fruit for breakfast, then slooowly made our ways into our snowsuits and clothing. I was the first one done by, like, twenty minutes. By then I was getting hot, and started sweating. Slowly, the rest of my family hobbled out the front door, carefully avoided getting hurt on the one tall step, then slowly tap-danced in our snow boots onto the road. Making our way to our minivan-like car, we hobbled into our skis, went down the hard hill, then went down an easy green slope called Sun Bowl, then managed to keep going past the bottom of the Sun Bowl chairlift to a more complicated, high-speed chairlift called the Stevenson Express. The line was long, but we managed to go onto the chair. You use a restraint bar, and then the chairlift takes you to the top of the mountain, where you lift the restraint bar, then ski or snowboard down the mountain. Stevenson Express is really fast-speed, although it slows down a bit for you to get on and off, so we got to the top in less than five minutes (despite the long line, that took us twenty million centuries or so) and skied down one of our favorite slopes called the Nile Mile, which we adore. Then we went down some other greens and blues, then got cold, tired, thirsty and hungry and made our way home. When we finally arrived at the house, I was as exhausted as the sore arms of a dog with no back legs. Eating pizza sure did cheer me up, so everything did work out ok. Then, I ate a corn muffin and boy, was it good. Though I love skiing, I turned down my chance to go skiing for the afternoon since I wanted some quiet and some rest. After doing that, my grandmother, Sonia, and I heaved ourselves to the loft bedroom (no door, just stairs) and while she left for a minute, I organized their room. Then I pleaded with Sonia to let me write some emails on her computer, which took about five minutes. I wrote a couple emails, and then took a bit of a rest. Then coming back to the computer, I saw an email from Andrea Sachs, the Editor of this newsletter and my great-aunt, had sent me, and started to open this Microsoft Word document, and wrote this. I know that if you like the article or essay I’m writing, you’ll like the rest of the newsletter my great-aunt worked so hard to put together! Warm wishes, Sienna Beck/New York City, NY (Age 8)

One film journalist’s stream-of-consciousness cinematic journey through the pandemic, Part 30 By Laurence Lerman For my 30th column, I decided to adhere to general convention with a tribute to one of my favorite actors, the great Gene Hackman, who’s happily alive and well and retired at 91. This arrives after nearly a year of purply pontifications on all manner of films big and small—everything from Hollywood classics and foreign greats to period exploitation movies, samurai flicks, biker films, Italian giallo and poliziotteschi, a smattering of TV and even the occasional adult offering. As the great media historian Ed Grant might say, “Everything from “high art to low trash and back again.” Starting out as a theater actor in the late Fifties before moving to the New York stage at the dawn of the Sixties, Gene Hackman quickly picked up bit parts on network TV shows and then bigger ones on dozens more over the next few years. Hackman appeared on everything from Naked City and The Defenders to Iron Horse and I Spy prior to his cinematic breakthrough as Buck Barrow in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde. Prestige pictures followed shortly after (highlighted by the 1969 double whammy of Marooned and Downhill Racer), leading to his Oscar-winning turn as rough-hewn New York City police detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection. Vicious, sensational, fast-moving and realistic, William Friedkin’s landmark 1971 policier changed the game as far as cop thrillers were concerned—and elevated Hackman to the A-list of Hollywood leading men, where he would remain for the next 40+ years. Since Hackman has appeared in nearly 80 films, running down 30 outstanding performances for the occasion of my 30th column appeared to be a sound, relatively easy proposition. But a glance at Hackman’s resume inspired me to revise my thinking and focus on a period where he appeared to be at his most artistically prolific. Clearly, Hackman’s diverse decade in the trenches as a TV day player and big screen supporting star honed his talents, which may have come into play when his post-Oscar possibilities offered him the opportunity to tackle a wider, more varied swath of starring roles. I refer to Hackman’s busy years of 1974 and 1975, when he appeared in no less than seven new releases, six of them in a leading capacity. Some of the films were quite fine, a couple were not; some were memorable, while others were forgotten. But there was nary a bad performance in the mixed bunch, and that’s probably the greatest thing you can say about an actor doing his job in a not-so-great film. Hackman’s work was adept, plentiful and game during those years, and more than confirmed the authority he brought to his craft. To wir: The Conversation (Released April 7, 1974) Following his portrayal of an ex-con opposite Al Pacino in Jerry Schatzberg’s critically lauded 1973 drifter drama Scarecrow, Hackman starred as an obsessive surveillance expert in crisis in Francis Ford Coppola’s mystery-drama. A small project sandwiched between Coppola’s two Godfather sagas, the film quickly became a cult favorite before being hailed, decades later, as a classic of paranoid Seventies cinema alongside The Parallax View, Marathon Man and Three Days of the Condor. Zandy’s Bride (Released May 19, 1974) An interesting arthouse choice for Hackman, the western drama Zandy’s Bride, Swedish filmmaker Jan Troell’s first film in a brief Hollywood sojourn following his Oscar-nominated immigrant epics The Emigrants (1971) and The New Land (1972), features plantation owner Hackman and mail-order bride Liv Ullmann trying to make things work in the none-too-comfortable wilds of turn-of-the-century Northern California. It all looks gorgeous and the leading players are fine, but nothing too memorable happens here, save for the couple’s uncomfortable first night together as husband and wife. Young Frankenstein (Released December 14, 1974) Hackman lets loose his comedy chops in a single uproarious scene in Mel Brooks’ beloved send-up of the Universal monster movies of the Thirties. As a poor blind hermit living in the Transylvanian woods, Hackman scalds Peter Boyle’s zipper-necked monster’s crotch with hot soup, shatters his cup of mead, lights his thumb on fire and then pleads with him not to leave before the Espresso. Funny stuff. French Connection II (Released May 21, 1975) Though not as strong as its predecessor, there’s still a lot going on in this inevitable sequel, directed by the no-nonsense John Frankenheimer, who had worked with Hackman previously in the 1969 barnstorming action-drama The Gypsy Moths. An extended central sequence where Hackman’s Popeye is forcibly addicted to heroin by a bunch of baddies and then plunged into the hell of withdrawal is particularly harrowing. Night Moves (Released June 11, 1975) Hired by a client to track down her runaway teenage daughter, addled Los Angeles private eye Hackman stumbles into a mystery far more sinister than he could have imagined. The ensuing scenario is not a wholly credible one, but Hackman’s central performance and those of costars Susan Clark and a young Melanie Griffith keep it together. Underappreciated at the time of its release, this Arthur Penn-directed detective yarn is now considered to be one of the era’s seminal modern noirs. Bite the Bullet (Released June 25, 1975) Richard Brooks’ lively, adventurous entertainment plays like a sort of Cannonball Run horse race across the Wild West, with Hackman and partner James Coburn vying for a winner-take-all prize of $2,000 against Ben Johnson, Candice Bergen, Jan-Michael Vincent and Ian Bannen. This was Hackman’s third western in a five year stretch with a handful more still to come, including the picture that garnered him his second Oscar, Clint Eastwood’s elegiac Unforgiven (1992). Lucky Lady (Released December 25, 1975) Stanley Donen directed Hackman, Liza Minelli and Burt Reynolds as a trio of rumrunners in Prohibition-era San Diego who engage in some after-hours hanky-panky in this big-budget, high-profile commercial disaster. An uneasy mix of comedy, adventure, violence and a little music (including a pair of Kander and Ebb songs!), the superstar trio looks like they’re having some strained fun, but not much else. Hackman’s agent at the time, Sue Mengers, reportedly proclaimed that with the amount of money her client was being offered, “it was almost obscene for him not to do the film.” A little bit of this, a little bit of that, right? Hackman didn’t pop on the big screen in ’76—perhaps he was chilling after the calendar-cramped release schedule of the two previous years—but he returned in ’77 with leading turns in the assassination thriller The Domino Principle and the French Foreign Legion adventure March or Die, and a role in the ensemble WWII epic A Bridge Too Far. Nothing all that grand for audiences or critics here, but the future looked bright in the guise of the delightfully evil Lex Luthor in 1978’s Superman. Still the quintessential comic-book movie in tone, scale and presentation, Richard Donner’s first entry in the franchise not only smashed box office records and became a beloved modern classic around the world, but it also introduced a whole new generation to an outstanding performer who would continue to reign until his dignified retirement in 2004. There’s a lot to choose from, so consider cherry-picking a lesser-known Hackman film or two and dig in. You might bite into one that’s a little sour or stale or maybe even bland, but I promise you there’s still something tasty inside. Laurence Lerman is a film journalist, former editor of Video Business--Variety's DVD trade publication--and husband to The Insider's own Gwen Cooper. Over the course of his career he has conducted one-on-one interviews with just about every major director working today, including Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Kathryn Bigelow, Ridley Scott, Walter Hill, Spike Lee, and Werner Herzog, among numerous others. Once James Cameron specifically requested an interview with Laurence by name, which his wife still likes to brag about. Most recently, he is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the online review site DiscDish.com.

By Andy Borowitz March 15, 2021 WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Calling the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan “a fever dream of the cancel-culture crew,” Senator Ted Cruz accused Democrats of a “politically correct plot to cancel poverty.” “Poverty has been a part of American life since this country was founded, in 1776, but that apparently means nothing to the Democrat Cancel Culture Gang,” Cruz said. “In their intolerant view, poverty is somehow no longer appropriate.” He warned that, far from being Democrats’ ultimate goal, “cancelling poverty is just the beginning.” “If you read the fine print, they also want to cancel hunger and homelessness,” he said. “And, if you’re used to living without health insurance, sorry—that’s yet another American tradition they want to cancel.” “We should have seen this coming,” he added. “First they came for Mr. Potato Head.” Andy Borowitz is a Times best-selling author and a comedian who has written for The New Yorker since 1998. He writes The Borowitz Report, a satirical column on the news.

FRED PLOTKIN is one of America’s foremost experts on opera and has distinguished himself in many fields as a writer, speaker, consultant and as a compelling teacher. He is an expert on everything Italian, the person other so-called Italy experts turn to for definitive information.  Fred discovered the concept of "The Renaissance Man" as a small child and has devoted himself to pursuing that ideal as the central role of his life. In a “Public Lives” profile in The New York Times on August 30, 2002, Plotkin was described as "one of those New York word-of-mouth legends, known by the cognoscenti for his renaissance mastery of two seemingly separate disciplines: music and the food of Italy." In the same publication, on May 11, 2006, it was written that "Fred is a New Yorker, but has the soul of an Italian."

An Insider Interview with Dr. Barry Lubetkin Usually when the words “poetry” and “therapy” are linked together, it’s to describe how gifted but troubled poets have struggled with their sanity. A prime example was Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Lowell, famous in the mid-20th century for his brilliant, groundbreaking confessional poetry. Lowell was also famous in the literary world for his stays at McLean Psychiatric Hospital near Boston. In one of his most famous poems, “Waking in the Blue,” Lowell wryly described himself and his fellow patients at McLean as “thoroughbred mental cases.” But Dr. Barry Lubetkin, the co-founder and co-director of the Institute for Behavior Therapy in New York City, has succeeded in melding psychology and poetry together during the pandemic. The author of two popular self-help books, Bailing Out and Why Do I Need You to Love Me in Order to Like Myself?, Dr. Lubetkin has written poetry regularly for The Insider during the past year, marked by its wit and honesty. This week, The Insider spoke with Dr. Lubetkin about his experience during the pandemic treating patients and honing his verse. The Insider: How early did the pandemic begin to affect your practice? Dr. Lubetkin: ‘My last day at work was around March 7, a couple of days before Tom Hanks reported he had gotten the virus and the word was out that there was going to be a lockdown.” The Insider: Did you immediately shift to remote sessions? Dr. Lubetkin: “Yes. I immediately took a taxi home, called my remaining patients and told them we would have to work remotely.” The Insider: Had you ever done remote sessions before that? Dr. Lubetkin: “Never before as far as I can recollect. If I was ill, I would simply cancel or postpone the patient.” The Insider: Did all your patients agree to switch over, or was there initially some resistance? Dr. Lubetkin: “There was no resistance at all. I think people understood almost immediately what the dangers were. The only problem was with my technological ignorance in setting things up.” The Insider: Have you found remote therapy satisfactory? Dr. Lubetkin: “Very, very satisfying in many ways. I do not believe that for most cases it has interfered with the effectiveness of the therapy. There have been a few, though, where in-person would have been more effective.” The Insider: Did you start writing poetry during the pandemic? Dr. Lubetkin: “The first poem I ever wrote was for my parents when I was five years old. I printed out a weekly newspaper called The Lubetkin Times, which cost each parent one penny. Then in college, I wrote some poetry but nothing was ever published because I never submitted anything. These poems during the pandemic have been the first real exposure of my work to the public.” My Year In Poems The Insider: What about the pandemic brought out the impulse to write poetry? Dr. Lubetkin: “At first, it was the deep fear and anxiety I felt for myself, my family and of course for the nation. I could not express my fear very much to my already frightened patients, so I decided that another true expression of deep feelings was through articles and poetry.” The Insider: So have you also written journalistic articles during this period? Dr. Lubetkin: “Yes, I submitted several to Psychology Today magazine under the heading ‘The Wise Therapist.’ They were a way of expressing myself as a therapist to the readers of the magazine’s blog.” Coronavirus Crisis: The Unexpected Gift to Narcissists | Psychology Today The Curious Case of the Disappearing Patient | Psychology Today How to Disrupt the Dream-Disruptor, COVID-19 | Psychology Today The Insider: How have your patients, on the whole, responded to the pandemic? Has it set people back in their lives, or have some people found silver linings? Dr. Lubetkin: “That is complex. In the beginning, fear, anxiety and worry about their own risk. Once our office closed, people began to feel a deeper sense of loss. I would say that loss is the single most powerful emotion that individuals have felt: a loss of freedom, loss of friendships and relationships, and loss of money as the pandemic deepened. A few people may have felt exuberance during the pandemic, in as much as they did not have to go into work, could roll out of bed and make money online. But that was the deep minority.” The Insider: For readers of The Insider who are experiencing pandemic fatigue now, and are just sick of being distant from the world, what advice would you give them? Dr. Lubetkin: “I would tell them that even though they may feel distant from the world, this has been an extraordinary opportunity for them to become much more intimate with themselves, to understand their own ability to deal with loss, their own sense of resilience in the face of trouble, their own ability to find purpose in life without work and without close friendships.” The Insider: You often write about politics in your poetry. It seems that a lot of people feel psychologically better without Trump in the White House, in that it was a very turbulent presidency. Has that been your experience therapeutically? Dr. Lubetkin: “Absolutely! The vast majority of my patients, including some conservatives, were regularly troubled by what the past administration did. The main complaints were about the slowness of the vaccine production, the lack of empathy of the President and his allies to the economic and the psychological pain that the nation was experiencing.” The Insider: Are people reporting that they feel significant better psychologically after having had their vaccines? Dr. Lubetkin: “Most are reporting feeling psychologically improved. However, many are also feeling anger and rage about the year lost, about the disruption of their daily lives, with worry about whether they can reclaim those lives. When I got my own vaccines, I traveled home feeling like Superman, but slowly the deeper sense of loss of a whole year, as a senior citizen with so many plans having to be put off. Many of my patients have shared that same anger and sadness, even after getting two shots, so it has not been overall exuberance at all.” “I should add that some of that pain has softened with Biden’s administration. A sense of empathy, caring, sensitivity to the downtrodden is becoming more and more pervasive but it is still mixed. Trump did a great deal of damage that Biden will have to repair carefully and slowly.” “Perhaps the people who have had the most relief after the vaccines are of the children of elderly parents, the kids who felt guilty and helpless about finding appointment for their parents. They feel just as relieved as the elderly parents.” The Insider: It’s so interesting that you’re a psychologist who writes poetry! Many famous poets have needed therapy themselves, have been institutionalized, or have committed suicide. Any thoughts about why many poets have been so troubled? Dr. Lubetkin: Just as many comedians have grown up with dysfunction in their homes and periods of deep depression and find expression on stage making people laugh, so do poets who have deeper perspectives on life and meaning than many of us do. Those perspectives have developed from early problems in childhood and adolescence, or from disturbed parenting or from various traumatic incidents in their lives which have forced them to dig deep to understand their underlying feelings and then to find their only expression through poetry. The disturbance precedes the poetic ability. Often the poems are simply a mirror or microscope into their troubled deeper lives. Read Dr. Lubetkin's latest poem: Love Song for an Everyday Joe

A Poem by Dr. Barry Lubetkin When I was a kid, I hungered for heroes. They would slay the bullies, Waiting outside, never in class, Stealing my lunch, my change. Where was Superman? Saving Gotham, dispatching Lex Luthor. Where was Batman? Wrecking a deranged Joker. Where was that muscled guy At the back of every comic book? He promised that for a mere quarter No beach bum would ever kick sand in my face. Where was Tony, the security cop? Who was always at lunch, and Blind to the crimes on his beat. I turned older. Bullies didn’t matter. I turned even older. Romance and work and family grounded me. I sent fear packing. Yet five years ago, an escalator carried a bully back into my life, who tore the nation apart. But mirable dictu! Three months ago, my bromance with an Everyday Joe made my soul sing. And I swear I hear the souls of millions singing songs of relief and joy and hope. So I love you, Joe. I love you, Joe — as I put my Ambien away and sleep soundly to your reassuring voice on the late night news. I love you, Joe— as I sense the anxiety lessen in all whom I counsel. I love you, Joe—as my unemployed friends pay down their strangling debt with the checks you fought for. I love you, Joe—as her sisters swell with pride watching Kamala sturdy at your side. I love you, Joe—as my foreign friends stop asking “What happened to America?” I love you, Joe—as you gently ask us to be patient, to wear masks, and to ready our arms for the liquid of life. I love you, Joe—for repairing families at the border and stretching Lady Liberty’s arms wider than ever. I love you Joe—for sharing your personal anguish and loss with us and making us feel that you really know us. I no longer need fantasy heroes or lazy guards to care for me. I have my Everyday Joe and I love him and I just know that Joe loves me. This week, read The Insider's interview with Dr. Barry Lubetkin: Healing Pandemic Hurt with Therapy and Poetry Barry Lubetkin, Ph.D. is the co-director and co-founder of the Institute for Behavior Therapy in New York City. The Institute for Behavior Therapy is the oldest private cognitive behavior center in the United States.

By Andy Borowitz March 7, 2021 WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—The House Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy, blasted President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus-relief package on Sunday, alleging that the measure “utterly fails” to address the nation’s dire Dr. Seuss crisis. “This bill is full of left-wing pet projects, like helping people pay for food, clothing, and shelter,” McCarthy said, in an appearance on Fox News. “It does nothing to address the No. 1 problem in America today: the threat to our nation’s supply of Dr. Seuss books.” McCarthy added, “If you talk to any average American, they’ll tell you their biggest concern is that their family will lose access to ‘Hop on Pop’ or ‘Horton Hears a Who!’ Instead of facing that emergency head on, the Democrats have stuffed this bill with a progressive wish list of things like medicine and rent.” “This legislation is cancel culture at its worst,” he said. The Republican lawmaker predicted that, if the relief package becomes law, the Democrats will pay a steep political price. “The American people can live without food,” he said. “They cannot live without ‘Green Eggs and Ham.’ ” Andy Borowitz is a Times best-selling author and a comedian who has written for The New Yorker since 1998. He writes The Borowitz Report, a satirical column on the news.

By Bonnie Fishman Part I: How I Ended Up Living In California in an Off-the-Grid Barn It was December 2019, and my husband Bob and I were going through our annual ritual of driving out to California for the winter.  This was our seventh drive across the country (Route 66) to get out of the cold Michigan weather and to be with family. Both of my older sisters live in a small city filled with horse ranchers, vintners, farm workers. Our kids live in Los Angeles. Usually, Bob and I have rented a 1940s beach bungalow in Ventura. Sounds glamorous, not so much. It’s nice having the beach down the street, but not so nice having chronic plumbing problems, drafty windows, saggy couches, and an ill-equipped, minimal kitchen.  We loved it anyway. Gorgeous Mediterranean weather, fresh fish right out of the ocean, strawberry farms, avocado ranches, orange groves around every turn. A cook’s dream for fresh raw materials. That winter, we had chosen to settle in the San Francisco Bay area, where my sisters Nancy and Marcia now live. We moved in with Nancy (the oldest) and her husband Ronnie for what was supposed to be three months while we watched our new “snowbird” home being built out of a barn next door. The best laid plans. You know where this is going. The Bay area was the first part of the country to lock down due to the pandemic. Life as we knew it stopped, including our construction. The three months grew into “we’re never going back to Michigan.” We lived together for a year. Marcia, who was also building a cottage next door, had no place to live either. Hence, we were three sisters and two husbands hunkering down under one roof. Many people would call this a nightmare scenario. We Fishman girls do not fall in that category.  We get along famously. On our mother’s deathbed, when we were still teenagers, she told us to stick together and look out for one another. We sisters took that to the nth degree. Nothing has EVER come between us. EVER. Being a chef, I was drooling with the prospect of communal dinners. My sister’s kitchen is large and well-stocked. My only gripe was her electric stovetop, which I never got used to. Most mornings, we’d have a discussion about what was for dinner, who was making it, what could anyone contribute. We ate really well.  Being around the kitchen table every night is what we looked forward to during the doldrums of the day. It was the glue that kept the group together.  Over dinner, we’d rehash the news of the outside world, since so little was happening within our compound.  One of the best things about cooking for others is the conviviality of the meal. And if one is lucky enough to cook alongside someone else, even better.  Many nights, I would make the entrée and my brother-in-law, Ronnie, would do the sides, or vice versa. In December, 2020, we finally moved into our dream barn, with a large communal great room for cooking, eating, visiting. We had officially joined the Fishman Family Compound, three homes designed by my brother-in-law. One casita, one swimming pool with cabana, one office cabin and beautiful grounds surrounded by foothills. We have been quarantined as one pod here for almost a year, cooking together and for each other, making bread, cheese, jams, growing herbs. We’re in a semirural area with chickens and quail out my kitchen window, a small sheep ranch five houses away, and goats around the corner, not to mention the occasional horse hanging out. It’s not THAT rural, though--I can walk to a Starbucks! Part II: An Unconventional Career Path You don’t know me well yet, but it’s all about cooking. My road to having a food business was unorthodox, weaving from camp kitchens to ultimately opening a fine French pastry shop at the mere age of 27. I was fortunate that my job choices, though not deliberate, resulted in a wide variety of culinary and business experiences. I was in the food business from age 14 to 56. I’d call that a good run. In the early years, I was a cook’s helper at Camp Michigama, my father’s summer camp in West Branch, Mich. At the ripe old age of 19, I ran the kitchen at Innisfree on Lake Michigan, near Sleeping Bear Dunes, a hippie do-what-you-want-to-do camp—planning the meals, buying the food, teaching teenagers how to cook said meals--for 100 people, three meals a day. Where did this knowledge come from? I believe it was innate. My mom was a wonderful cook and I was glued to her leg. Mom was ahead of her time, culinarily speaking. She entertained with such grace. Her dinner parties were a full-on assault of delicious and beautifully presented food. Hey, she was making chocolate leaves back in the 50s. Her favorite store was Kitchen Glamour in Detroit. I remember tagging along to go shopping. Great kitchenware shops are still among my favorite places to go. I visit them wherever I travel. My camp kitchen days were followed by making soup for an Ann Arbor deli while attending the University of Michigan and getting a degree in cultural anthropology. By the way, there is a huge connection between my major and cooking. Ah, but that’s for another column. By 23 years old, after being a kitchen manager for Win Schuler’s, a renowned family-owned Michigan restaurant group, and attending the Cordon Bleu Cookery School in London, I landed a plum job as the general manager of The Money Tree, a downtown Detroit fine dining restaurant. At first, I was way in over my head. I kept that secret from everyone, including me! But I managed to turn the business around from in-the-red to black over a three-year period. I left it thriving. What followed was a side gig in the San Francisco Bay area as a pastry chef and caterer. Upon returning to suburban Detroit , I opened Bonnie’s Patisserie. My shop was in the black from day one, there was such a demand for “from scratch” quality baked goods and food. I stayed in this location for 25 years, subsequently moving to a much larger, swankier space to create Bonnie’s Kitchen & Catering. I owned and ran that for almost five years until I had a career-ending accident. Ah, but that’s for another column too. Part III: Let's Get Organized, Pandemic Cooks! So here we are, a year into lockdown, something none of us thought would happen. We didn’t even know to consider this could happen. But for those of us who cook, it has been a joyous time for recipe development, cookbook and internet surfing, consultation, recipe-sharing, and experimentation. Many people have taken a serious interest in cooking and baking during the pandemic. This is partly out of necessity, because we aren’t eating out, but also because we never had time to explore the wonderful world of combining ingredients to nourish ourselves. What a creative outlet, right? Regularly on Facebook, I see friends’ and family members’ beautiful meals, breads, desserts that they would have never had time or the inclination to make. So proud! One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned during my 40-plus years in the food business is how to organize and run a kitchen, no different than what you can do in your own home. My Prepared Pantry was important before the lockdown, because it makes practical sense. Who wants to run out to the store for a tablespoon of soy sauce because you haven't stocked it in your cupboard? Also, if you are a creative cook, you have more raw materials at your fingertips And personally, I find it very satisfying to work with what I have on hand. Because of the pandemic, now planning ahead is essential. Many of us have limited our trips to the grocery store to twice a month or not at all, getting deliveries. But the latter has inherent problems, because with deliveries, you can’t spontaneously buy things as you do when roaming the aisles. Hence, this is an even better reason to be organized with lists. Every household that plans to cook at home should be prepared. My daughter-in-law always remarks how I whip stuff up without having to run up to the corner to buy ingredients. Hey, I’m so prepared that I could probably feed 75-100 people or so out of what exists in my pantry at any given time! I will admit that I take preparedness to the nth degree. So let’s pare it down for Insiders who are cooking for their own households. Here’s my advice for your home: Bonnie’s Prepared Pandemic Pantry Part IV: Bonnie's Prepared Pandemic Pantry Something to remember when consulting the following list: it is a guideline. You may not cook with the same ingredients as the next guy. You may prefer a specific ethnic-food group. Adapt this to your needs. Another thing to note, and this is important: I’m a “winger.” I’m at the point in my life where I instinctually know how to put ingredients together to make a tasty dish. I recognize that not everyone is like this and that many people adhere to recipes. If this applies to you, when creating your pantry, you’ll have to take an extra step. Map out some meals you plan to cook in the near future, and be sure to include those particular ingredients in your shopping list. You can learn how to adapt, though, if you don’t have just the right vegetable or nuts or cheese. Lots of substitutions can be made without compromising the outcome. When offering recipes in future columns, I will suggest some alternatives, say, if you HAVE to have sour cream but you only have yogurt! I invite you all to follow my column for new doable, flexible recipes. I encourage questions and input about what our readers are cooking at home. Sharing food is one of the most comforting, nourishing activities we can do for each other, particularly during a pandemic. Won’t you join me in this journey? THERE ARE 3 PANTRY AREAS IN EACH KITCHEN: DRY GOODS, FREEZER, REFRIGERATION. Dry Goods: This is probably the most important area to be properly stocked because it is not perishable. Included in this group are Baking Products: flours, sugars, honey, leavening agents, spices, assorted nuts, dried fruits, cooking oils, chocolates and yeast. Next (and this will be your largest group),is Legumes, Rice, Pasta. I always have a large selection of dried legumes, such as split peas, lentils, white beans and barley. I stock several types of rice, such as basmati, brown, wild and arborio. I enjoy having various pastas of all shapes so I can make a linguine with clam sauce, a baked ziti or mac & cheese. Next, Condiments. This category is the most personalized selection because it has so many variations. Take vinegars, for example. You can stock balsamic, white wine, red wine, sherry, tarragon, fruit flavors--you get the picture. This section has mustards, catsup, soy sauce, Worcestershire, salsas and Asian sauces. A variety of dried herbs and spices, salts and pepper is a must. Lastly, Canned Goods: You should not skimp on this section. Canned tomatoes, sauces, pasta are imperative; canned beans, artichokes, Asian veggies, broths, coconut milk--whatever you like. Freezer: Look to your freezer to store most of your proteins. Have a good variety of what you eat in different forms. For example, chicken - buy whole, pieces, skinless/boneless and so on. Don’t forget ground meats, too. Keep frozen vegetables, bread, tortillas, raw doughs such as phyllo and puff pastry. You want to be ready for anything. Lastly, I store extra butter and cheeses in the freezer for a backup supply. Refrigeration: I have friends come over and they are in awe of the varieties of produce I have at any given time. Not just one type of berry, but three; not just one type of lettuce but four. Produce is essential. Also, an abundance of eggs, cheeses, milk products, yogurts, butter. The other day my sister asked if I had some feta for her beet salad. “Do you want a chunk or crumbled?”, I answered. Be ready. I don’t usually stock deli meats because of their perishability, but if you stick with cured meats, you’ll be fine. As you can imagine, I almost NEVER run out of ANYTHING! SHOPPING LISTS To make your life easier, I have divided my shopping lists in “should haves” and “could haves." I vote for getting both “haves” during pandemic times. Condiments Should haves: • Mustard--Dijon, yellow • Catsup • Mayonnaise • Hot Sauce • Olive oil--regular or extra virgin • Vegetable oil--soy or canola • Vinegars--balsamic, white wine • Soy sauce • Wine, dry - white, red Could haves: • Vinegars --red wine, sherry, rice wine • Chinese sauce--hoisin or oyster • Coconut milk • Chili paste with garlic • Salsa • Prepared horseradish • Pickle relish • Sesame oil Canned Goods Should haves: • Tomato paste • Crushed tomatoes in puree • Diced tomatoes • Stock--chicken, beef, vegetable • Beans--white, kidney, garbanzo, black • Tuna • Peanut butter • Jam, jelly Could haves: • Chinese vegetables--bamboo shoots, baby corn, water chestnuts • Artichoke hearts • Sun-dried tomatoes • Olives • Capers • Anchovies • Tahini Pasta, Rice, Grains Should haves: • Rice--converted, basmati • Beans--white, kidney • Couscous--regular, Israeli • Rolled oats • Pasta--long noodles, short sturdy noodles • Flour--white, whole wheat • Sugar--granulated, light brown sugar, honey • Leavening--baking powder, baking soda Could haves: • Arborio rice • Barley • Cornmeal, grits • Lentils--green, red • Quinoa • Split peas--green, yellow • Pasta--orzo, lasagna Spices Should haves: • Black pepper mill • Salt--table, coarse • Mediterranean herbs--basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, crushed red pepper flakes • Ground spices - cinnamon, cumin, chili powder, paprika, dry mustard Could haves: • Indian spices--curry, coriander, turmeric, garam masala • ground pepper--black, white Produce, Dried Fruit & Nuts Should haves: • Nuts--almonds, walnuts, pecans, pine nuts • Raisins, dried cherries • Citrus--lemons, oranges, limes • Onions, garlic • Carrots • Celery • Tomatoes • Cucumbers • Mushrooms--fresh or dried • Green veggies--broccoli, green beans • Frozen peas, corn • Potatoes • Lettuce--Romaine, spinach • Bananas • Fleshy fruit--melon, stone fruits • Berries--strawberries, blueberries • Apples, pears Could haves: • Dried cranberries, figs, dates • Leeks, scallions • Asparagus, zucchini • Winter squash • Cabbage, kale, arugula Breads Should haves: • Sliced whole grain bread • Rolls • Flour tortillas • Crackers - whole grain, graham Could haves: • Pita, naan • Crusty loaf--baguette, sour dough • Bread sticks Dairy Products Should haves: • Eggs • Milk • Butter/margarine • Plain yogurt/fruit yogurt • Parmesan, grated • Shredded cheese--cheddar, Swiss • Dough--phyllo, puff pastry Could haves: • Cottage cheese • Sour cream • Buttermilk • Mozzarella • Soft cheeses - goat, feta, bleu • Egg whites Meats Should haves: • Ground meat--beef, turkey, veal, pork • Boneless chicken breasts • Chicken pieces • Pork--bacon, sausage, ham • Steak • Shrimp • Fish--salmon, cod, tilapia, tuna Could haves: • Turkey breast • Roasting chicken • Beef roast • Chops--lamb, pork, veal • Salami, pepperoni

By Jessie Seigel / Washington, D.C. On Tuesday, March 2nd, Republican governors Greg Abbott of Texas and Tate Reeves of Mississippi combatively announced that their states would drop their respective mask mandates. The two governors also removed COVID-related restrictions on businesses, allowing them to open to full capacity. The governors insisted these decisions were based on the increasing number of vaccinations, and declining number of COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. The next day, an exasperated President Biden called the governors’ actions a big mistake. He said that despite his Administration’s progress with vaccine distribution, “the last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that, in the meantime, everything’s fine, take off your mask and forget it.” Biden stressed that over 511,000 Americans have died thus far, and that before Americans are completely safe, thousands of additional lives may be lost: With evident frustration, Biden declared: “Getting a shot in someone’s arm and getting the second shot [is] going to take time, and it’s critical, critical, critical, critical that they follow the science. Wash your hands, hot water. Do it frequently, wear a mask and stay socially distanced. I know you all know that. I wish the heck some of our elected officials knew it.” In response to Biden’s legitimate concern, the two Republican governors predictably played the same tired old GOP songs of distract, distort, and lie. Texas Governor Abbott priggishly told CNBC that Biden’s comment was “not the type of word that a president should be using.” Mississippi Governor Reeves said, ““Today I feel the same way as I did the day that Hillary Clinton called all of us in Middle America ‘deplorables.’ When President Biden said that we were all Neanderthals, it struck me as someone who needs to get outside of Washington, D.C. and actually travel to Middle America.” Given Abbott’s virtual silence on the verbal attacks perpetrated for the last four years by Donald Trump, his suggestion that the word “Neanderthal” is inappropriate in the mouth of a president is laughable. And Reeves should check his geography. Mississippi is in the south, not in the middle of America. Reeves should also check his own understanding of plain language, since Biden did not call any American citizens Neanderthals. He did not even call Abbott and Reeves Neanderthals. He only described the shortsightedness of their thinking concerning COVID. And rightly so. Abbott based his decision on growing vaccination rates, but according to the Dallas Morning News, with 29 million Texans, fewer than 2 million have completed their vaccinations. Furthermore, according to CNBC, although Texas experienced a large drop in its average number of cases between January and March, the state still is fifth-highest in daily deaths and ninth in daily reported cases per capita. Mississippi also ranks among the top 10 states for per capita daily deaths. Of the four medical advisers on Abbott’s Strike Force to Open Texas, Abbott consulted only one before making his announcement—evidently, the one who would support Abbott’s own position on reopening. Since the others would say only that they had not been consulted, we do not know what their advice would have been. Nor did Reeves sufficiently adhere to the concerns expressed by his own state’s experts. Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs has warned that a return to pre-pandemic behavior could spell disaster for the state’s efforts to control the virus. “You can catch COVID,” he cautioned. “And we can mess this up.” In defending their wholesale reopening of businesses and removal of mask mandates, Abbott and Reeves have fallen back on a combination of Libertarian “personal responsibility” arguments and a callous preference for saving the economy over saving life—which will result in saving neither. Demonstrating that his main concern is really the effect of COVID on the economy, Abbott announced, “Effective … Wednesday, all businesses of any type are allowed to open 100 percent.” Abbott’s Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick added that reopening businesses without restrictions would help “restore the livelihoods of millions of Texans even faster.” Of course, Patrick is the same man who a year ago was blasted for saying that the old—the most at risk—should volunteer to die to save the economy. (“Those of us who are 70-plus, we’ll take care of ourselves, but don’t sacrifice the country.”) As a rationale for his decision, Abbott stated that the COVID infections in Texas were at a four-month low and its hospitals were ready to treat an inundation of patients if that should occur. Mississippi’s Reeves concurred, tweeting about his state, “Our hospitalizations and case numbers have plummeted, and the vaccine is being rapidly distributed.” But opening up all businesses of any type, 100 percent, as Abbott has now done—even with COVID numbers lessening—is akin to stopping a 10-day course of penicillin after a few days because you feel a little better. If you don’t take the full course of your medicine, the infection will come back twice as strong. Based on the U.S. experience over this past year, easing up on restrictions before everyone is vaccinated is likely to result in yet another tragic wave of infection and deaths, and the inevitable reimposition of limitations on businesses. As for “personal responsibility,” Abbott claims that Texans already know that “the safe standard, among other things, is to wear a mask.” He told CNBC, “Do they really need the state to tell them what they already know for their own personal behavior?” Reeves likewise shirked his gubernatorial duty: “The governor’s office is getting out of the business of telling people what they can and cannot do.” Reeves added , “Mississippians don’t need handlers. As numbers drop, they can assess their choices and listen to experts. I guess I just think we should trust Americans, not insult them.” These arguments are absurd. Abbott and Reeves might as well maintain we don’t need traffic laws. After all, every American knows they should drive on the right side of the road, stop at stop signs and at red lights. Why insult them with traffic laws? Following the axiom that the best defense is an offense and, when you have nothing else, lie and distort, Abbott also tried to blame spread of the coronavirus on immigrants crossing the southern border. He claimed the Biden administration refuses to test immigrants for the virus, instead letting them overrun the country. Abbott argued that the federal government has the responsibility to test, screen and quarantine illegal immigrants who may have COVID, and that "Instead of doing their job, the Biden Administration suggested it did not have the sufficient resources and, remarkably, asked Texas to assist them in aiding their illegal immigration program. Texas refused." But as Press Secretary Jen Psaki has explained, when migrants are placed in alternatives to detention, they are first tested for COVID-19, and steps for isolation, quarantine and medical care are taken if needed. The federal government works in concert with state and local governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to get this done. Psaki highlighted the role of NGOs, saying, "If quarantining or self-isolation is needed, [the NGOs] have even reserved hotel blocks." Moreover, the Department of Homeland Security has already set plans in motion to use FEMA funds to support community efforts to test, isolate and quarantine migrants released from Border Patrol custody. But the grant money needs to be approved by the state before it can be distributed to border communities, and Abbott’s intransigence is hampering the Biden administration’s efforts to provide federal funds. It is difficult to treat the actions and statements of Abbott and Reeves as separate from the many other post-election Republican manipulations. There is the GOP’s continuing perpetuation of the Big Lie that Biden was not legitimately elected. Forty-three Republican-controlled states are attempting to pass legislation limiting who can vote. Republicans like Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson have used every tactic available to delay passage of the COVID relief bill in the Senate. And Representative Majorie Taylor Greene is doing her best to obstruct work in the House with daily motions to adjourn. These maneuvers appear geared towards making the COVID recovery ineffectual so that such failure, along with voter suppression, can be used against the Democrats in the 2022 midterm election, only two years away. It is hard to believe that political calculation isn’t the real reason for the actions of the Texas and Mississippi governors’ decision to prematurely reopen their states, rather than mere shortsightedness. If that is the case, “Neanderthal” would be a far too gentle name for them and their harmful thinking. Jessie Seigel is a fiction writer, an associate editor at the Potomac Review, a reviewer for The Washington Independent Review of Books, and a dabbler in political cartoons at Daily Kos. She has twice received an Artist’s Fellowship from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities for her work. But, Seigel also had a long career as a government attorney, in which she honed her analytic skills. Of this double career, Seigel would say, “I guess my right and left brains are well balanced.” More on and from Seigel can be found at The Adventurous Writer, https://www.jessieseigel.com.

Opinion by Jeffrey D. Sachs | CNN.com March 4, 2021 Editor's Note: Jeffrey Sachs is a professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and president of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. His most recent book is "The Ages of Globalization" (Columbia University Press, 2020). The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author; view more opinion on CNN (CNN) - Americans believe by hefty majorities that we can solve our national problems and that the federal government should play a major role in areas including infrastructure, health care, environment, poverty reduction and economy. This broad support provides a foundation for Joe Biden to become the most transformative president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Biden has the chance to lead a green and digital recovery that would create millions of good jobs supported by advanced 21st century technologies. Yet to succeed, Biden will have to come up with a program to pay for an expanded federal government. The US needs more federal spending to modernize and upgrade infrastructure -- power, digital, roads, rail, coastlines, waterways -- in order to create good jobs, protect the environment and avoid more natural disasters. The federal government also needs to reinvigorate our K-12 education, as America has fallen behind a number of other countries in math and science. The federal government needs to invest in new technologies such as advanced batteries for electric vehicles, 5G for digital services and cutting-edge photovoltaics for clean energy. And let us not forget, the federal government needs to support tens of millions of hard-working families squeezed by unaffordable health care, child care and tuition costs. Our country has put off those public investments for decades, ever since President Ronald Reagan ushered in an era of tax cuts. We can't postpone those investments any longer. These extra needs will cost around $1 trillion per year in budget outlays -- that amounts to 5% of the entire US economy (or GDP) each year. Fortunately, there are some offsetting budget cuts. The US can safely cut the military budget by $200 billion, or around 1% of GDP, by closing hundreds of outmoded overseas military bases and by avoiding a new arms race in nuclear weapons. Incredibly, as a legacy of World War II, which ended 76 years ago, the US still has an enormous number of military bases around the world. In 2015, it was estimated to have 800 military bases in more than 70 countries. The government can also save at least $200 billion a year in health care outlays. It's absolutely ridiculous that Washington fails to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies and hospital prices with health care providers. In every other high-income country, the costs of health care are set or at least negotiated by government. In the US, they are set by monopolists, protected by patents or by large market shares in health care markets. With those cuts in military and health spending, the remaining cost of expanding government amounts to $600 billion, or 3% of GDP a year. That's a completely manageable sum. Yet to some observers, such an expansion in government spending might seem out of the question. The last time it happened during peacetime was in the era of the New Deal and its aftermath, which stretched from 1933 (the start of FDR's presidency) to 1968 (the end of Lyndon Johnson's presidency). During that period, the public strongly supported the expanded role of the federal government and the Democratic Party that led it. Democrats held the White House for 27 of 35 years. The New Deal epoch didn't end because the public opposed the federal spending. It ended when millions of working-class White voters abandoned the Democratic Party because of the party's pro-civil rights stance in the 1960s. Yet those White working-class voters paid a fearsome price for the chronic underinvestment in federal programs under Republican presidents and congressional leaders. The earnings of workers without professional or doctoral degrees has been stagnant for 20 years! With federal support for improved education, job training, digital infrastructure and other advanced technologies, job productivity, international competitiveness and living standards can be raised. While the anti-civil rights mood still animates the Trump wing of the Republican Party, it doesn't command anything like majority support in the US. There is a broad recognition in the country that we need new federal spending to modernize and upgrade the economy, according to polling by Pew Research Center. Here then is America's opportunity. We should expand the role of the federal government and find the extra tax revenues to support that increase. A bit more arithmetic can help us to set a target for tax increases. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the budget deficit in future years is expected to be around 4% of GDP. If we could trim that by one quarter, reducing it to 3% of GDP, we could prevent the debt from rocketing higher compared to size of the overall economy. Keeping the debt stable and also paying for that $600 billion in new spending will require higher taxes, amounting to 4% of GDP -- 1% to cut the deficit and 3% to fund the new spending. Such an increase in taxes should not be very hard to achieve in view of the massive profits of corporations and the megawealth of America's richest individuals. Over the past 50 years, corporate taxes have been cut dramatically -- from nearly 4% of GDP to little more than 1% today. By reversing part of those corporate cuts, we could (and should) raise an additional $400 billion. For the other 2% of GDP, we should turn mainly to the richest Americans. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are rightly calling for a tax on ultra-wealth, starting at $50 million and above. It would raise an estimated $3 trillion over the next 10 years. The tax would hit only the wealthiest 0.1 % of households (the top 100,000 households out of America's 121 million). There are many other good tax options to raise the remaining funds. These include a new tax on CO2 pollution to be paid by an income tax surcharge on Big Oil; a rise in the top wage limit on payroll contributions to Social Security; a rise in the top personal income tax bracket for the highest earners; and a financial transaction tax on stock market purchases and sales. President Biden is right to signal that he will follow his rescue package with a jobs and infrastructure package. The federal government will expand, as it did in the New Deal era, to create a society that is more prosperous, fair and sustainable. https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/04/opinions/joe-bidens-big-chance-sachs/index.html

FRED PLOTKIN is one of America’s foremost experts on opera and has distinguished himself in many fields as a writer, speaker, consultant and as a compelling teacher. He is an expert on everything Italian, the person other so-called Italy experts turn to for definitive information.  Fred discovered the concept of "The Renaissance Man" as a small child and has devoted himself to pursuing that ideal as the central role of his life. In a “Public Lives” profile in The New York Times on August 30, 2002, Plotkin was described as "one of those New York word-of-mouth legends, known by the cognoscenti for his renaissance mastery of two seemingly separate disciplines: music and the food of Italy." In the same publication, on May 11, 2006, it was written that "Fred is a New Yorker, but has the soul of an Italian."