yom kippur break fast (lyn)

The all-day fast is relatively easy, especially for Alexander who wakes around noon.  We spend a quiet day at home, and leave for Rye around 5.  We are going to Jill’s (Abbey’s sister) to break fast with everyone.

By the time we arrive, everyone is already there and eating appetizers.  I am starving and show zero restraint.  I eat the creamed herring, challah bread, chopped liver, vegetables and dip, and some of Jill’s outstanding egg salad.  I’m full before we even get to the table for the main course.

There is so much food, and I eat much of it.  A take a whole-wheat bagel and then scoop it out. I add to it a layer of cream cheese, a layer of halibut salad, a layer of nova (Jill bought 3.5 pounds for the 13 of us so there is no need to skimp), and a blueberry blintze topped with frosted flakes…so much better than it sounds. The food is great.  By the time dessert arrives, I feel gigantic, yet still manage to eat two pieces of 7-layer cake.

It’s a lively dinner.  I make a statement about Steve Jobs being one of the few (if any) creative and business geniuses ever, and then have to vigorously defend my position against all the other like geniuses in history (Ralph Lauren, Walt Disney, Steven Spielberg, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, and the unknown heroes of industries I know nothing about).  Later I find myself again in the defensive position.  This time  arguing that it’s the little guy ---the one who can least afford it---that is most hurt by the new fee structures that banks are adopting to compensate for decreased revenue from debit cards.  (In June, the Durbin Amendment passed.  This lowered debit card swipe fees that banks have been charging merchants from 44 cents to 24 cents per transaction.).  We all eat.  We all argue.  And then we all eat some more (Post dessert offerings include chocolate covered pretzels, cookies, and Swedish fish).  Food and drink are plentiful as we move from living room to dining room and back again.  And in-between, Adam keeps us all laughing.

We get home around 11.  Ben Stiller is hosting SNL and it’s been awhile since Alexander and I have watched it together.  “It’s on, “ I call out to him.  “I’ll be there in a sec.  I just need to grab something to eat.  What do we have?  I’m hungry.”

Good that Cornell requires so much walking.