Re: Ratner's

[Kame'a Media <media...>]

Eliott Kahn wrote:

> >
> >Of course, American Jewry is just another segment of the greater
> >celebrity-driven consumer culture.  Successful entertainment figures
> >are routinely claimed as "one of us"; a famous pop star validates and
> >enhances the audience's own cultural identity, however transparent
> >that identity  may have become.  (And in America, this identity  has become
> >for many, --through generations in the 'melting pot',-- transparent enough
> >as to be able to read the NY Times through it).
> >
> >Go figure:  At Ratner's Delicatessen in NYC, there are door-sized posters
> >of those exemplary Jewish role models and embodiments of Jewish values,
> >organized crime figures Meyer Lansky and Ben 'Bugsy' Seigel.  What would a
> >Jewish parent tell their kid if asked who these men are?
> >How would he/she explain what their larger-than-life images are doing up on a
> >wall
> >in a kosher restaurant?
> >
> >Wolf, for the record, the posters of Jewish mobsters are at Ratner's
> >because Meyer Lansky used to hold court in the back room.

Yes, I know.  I know you say this to explain the connection, not to justify
their images being in a public eating establishment.
It is just so bizarre.
MY point was to underscore the weirdness of fame and adulation.
I reiterate: What would you tell a child about these men and their images being
on the wall?

> Much of (all
> >of?) the restaurant will be removed after the newly remodelled and
> >expanded Lansky Lounge reopens. It's something of a chic watering hole
> >among the affluent set now gentrifying the Lower East Side.

It's actually called the Lansky Lounge?
Another small step in the decline of Western civilization.
What next?  The Richard Speck Spot?
The John Wayne Gacy Grill?

Lest anyone is tempted to write about Lansky kicking American Silver Shirt 
(Nazi)
butt --
I know, thanks.

> RE: your other remarks: As usual, there's a good amount of truth to them.
> But are you bitching as a Jew or a Canadian?

A Jewish Canadian;
a Canadian being more or less  an American with a decent
health plan;  but without a gun in the house.

Wolf



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