My old college and law school friend Tom Morawetz is visiting for a few days. He teaches (and has for over 40 years) at the UConn Law School in Hartford. Most of yesterday was spent in conversation. We covered much of the 62+ years we have known each other.

But there were some highlights involving more than conversation. Tom, Edie and I had dinner last night at I’m Eddie Cano, our neighborhood Italian restaurant and one of our standard carry-out places. The food was great, as usual. Their house red wine was smooth and, as they say, fruity with a hint of chocolate. The perfect after-dinner double espresso was probably a mistake, though, as I spent much of last night staring at the ceiling. (That’s an exaggeration – it was too dark to see the ceiling, but I knew where it was.)

That one block, just two blocks up Connecticut Avenue, now has how many restaurants? Let’s count: I’m Eddie Cano, Rosemary, Italian Bar, Politics and Prose’s cafe, Call Your Mother, Comet Pizza, Muchas Gracias, and Buck’s Camping and Fishing. I count 8. Oh, yeah, and there’s the ice cream place.

After we got home, we watched the extraordinary show “Remember This”, the one man rendition of the life of Jan Karski, the Polish diplomat who visited the Warsaw Ghetto and Auschwitz in 1942, and reported what he saw to Felix Frankfurter (“I don’t believe you.”) and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (“Poland was an agricultural country before the war, right? ……. Do you need more horses?”). Performed by David Strathairn, it premiered last year (I think) at Georgetown University, where Karski taught in the Foreign Service School for about 40 years. It was on MPT, Channel 22 (522 on DC Fios), PBS Masterpiece Theater. You can probably access it somewhere, and should.

By the way, Rabbi Lauren Tuchman’s textual presentation on Jews with Disabilities is now up on the Haberman website (www.habermaninstitute.org) under Program Recordings. I recommend it highly.

Glossary:

1. I’m Eddie Cano. Pronounce it quickly and it should sound like an Italian saying Americano.
2. David Strathairn. Veteran actor who is always cast in biopics (or their equivalent) playing tall, skinny guys. I wish he had a different name. Even looking at it, I can’t remember it. You probably can.

Finally: Today is Pi Day. Does the Pi Pizza place still exist downtown? It closed in Bethesda pre-pandemic, but I have no idea about the original DC location. Of course, the original original Pi Pizza was located not here, but in St. Louis. Why? Pi. Pizza Pie. Area code 314.

That is all for today, thank you.