In Praise of Public Service

Campaigning and caring - Kudos and a shout-out for candidate Erik Bottcher who is out campaigning in a hotly contested City Council race for the open seat in District 3 which includes Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, the West Village and parts of Midtown. Seems Bottcher’s one of those candidates who can, as they say, chew gum and walk at the same time. While he’s hitting the streets and probably Zooming, he has his staff of volunteers reaching out to city residents to assist them in scheduling vaccination appointments for first and second doses. And not only to voters in his district. In response to an e-blast, people were encouraged to contact a Bottcher volunteer who worked the link and, voila, vaccination appointments were set up. If past is prologue, public service is Bottcher’s calling.

Dining dilemmas - Who knows if and when restaurants will become the pulse of NY as they’ve always been? Whoever thought we’d be talking about dining inside or outside mid-winter? Or whether seating capacity should be at 35% and socially distanced? Crazy crazy scary scary. But NY’ers are resilient. And some restaurants and bars are returning. Others are opening. The return of Ryan’s Daughter on East 85th, west of First, makes me especially happy. They’re officially open for business. And thanks to Four Freedoms Dem Club District Leader Kim Moscaritolo, who founded Yorkville Buy Local, for posting on her Facebook about the re-opening of Ryan’s Daughter’s and showing their menu of $8 Specialty Drinks: Irish Coffee with Jameson Whiskey, coffee, brown sugar, cream; Hot Whiskey with Tullamore Dew Whiskey, hot water, honey, lemon, cloves; “Mulled Wine” with 7 Deadly Sins Cabernet, Rock and Rye Whiskey; and what sounds like a to-die-for Hot Spiked Coco with hot chocolate, gin and Kahlua. A response post by Brian Mangan said it all - “Nature is healing.” Let’s drink to that.

Print in hand - I’m back opining the revelry of reading while holding - a newspaper, a book, a magazine. And with the pandemic you’d think that readers would be happy to leave home, go to the local convenience store or bodega or newsstand (they still exist, most selling candy and other unrelated news products), and buy a newspaper or magazine. Books, well, that’s generally ends up as an online purchase, or the online library. But then there’s home delivery to your door of print publications like the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and I’m sure others. Recently, as I recall, New York magazine made a pitch for delivery to your door. That’s okay, but hitting the street and shopping local doesn’t add to subscriptions, but it gets one to the mailbox and maybe beyond. Things I ponder in pandemania.