Elmore Leonard and Sam Sifton

Mark Rubin

Elmore Leonard was a great writer, with an extraordinary way with dialogue. Sam Sifton writes pretty well, too. Presently, he’s the Food Editor for the New York Times, where he has worked for almost 20 years. (Mr. Sifton’s grandfather was Reinhold Neibuhr, who wrote the Serenity Prayer. It comes to mind often, but only after I have failed to appreciate the difference between what I can and cannot change.)

Every week Mr. Sifton sends What to Cook … emails. They bring me great pleasure, always, but I really enjoyed Cook Anyway, which I received on April 27. Mr. Sifton starts out thusly:

Good morning. One of the greatest first lines of a novel,

More Thoughts from the Self-Isolation Front

Mark Rubin

I’m here! Apologies – as always – for not blogging often enough.

Candidly, spare time involves more activities than “stuck” might suggest, and I’m spending writing time working on my personal memoir. I expect to be around for a long time, but I’d be a G.D. Fool if I didn’t note my age (62), my four pneumonias, and the absence of a solid, functioning health care system. Those who deliver health services deserve every bit of love we can offer them, but if we don’t take away from this crisis a recognition that we don’t have a functioning public health system, We. Are. Blind.

The memoir enlivens my time. I’m blessed, and

Numbers Illiteracy

Mark Rubin

John Allen Paulos teaches math at Temple University. He writes books, too. Good books. Books for lay people about math. One of which he titled Innumeracy … which is why this post got titled Numbers Illiteracy, as opposed to … Innumeracy.

Stupid numbers drive me nutso. They abound now, in an era when stupid, vapid creatures rule.

I hear lots of people talking about how the United States has the largest number of COVID-19 cases in the world. These comments come, mostly, from those whose fury focuses first on our Fearless Leader.

Well, duh! More people live in the United States than in any other country, save China and India. Among large nations we have, by

Random Thoughts About the Corona Virus Crisis

Mark Rubin

It’s week — (who knows) in the annals of the Corona Virus Crisis. Some random thoughts are on offer here.

Bad Math

I love my Wingnut friends. They’re mostly in their 60s, 70s and 80s, but they still drink Kool-Aid every day. Flavor? Trump-Aid. Have you read or heard from one of them, comparing the 20K deaths per year from influenza with the double-digit deaths in the United States of America in the first few weeks of the pandemic? (Think: Week 5 v. Week 50. One might be bigger than the other, and it’s an irrefutable fact that death after Week 5 will be no less than death after Week