Real Music & Real Estate . . .

Yiddishe Cup’s bandleader, Bert Stratton, is Klezmer Guy.
 

He knows about the band biz and – check this out – the real estate biz, too.
 

You may not care about the real estate biz. Hey, you may not care about the band biz. (See you.)
 

This is a blog with a gamy twist. It features tenants with snakes and skunks, and musicians with smoked fish in their pockets.
 

Stratton has written op-eds for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post.


 
 

ARE THERE ANY BOUNDARIES
TO HUMAN STUPIDITY?

Steve, the building manager said, “I got a call last night at 3:51 a.m.  I was thinking it’s a tenant with a ceiling that fell on his head, but no, the guy wanted to rent an apartment. Man, did I light him up. That fool — 3:51 a.m!”

“Was he drunk?” I said.

“No, he wasn’t drunk! He said he had a dilemma. He said,  ‘I’m in a dilemma.’  I said, ‘You think so?  You also think this is standard business hours, too, or are you trying to get a jump on the market, you idiot!’”

Next subject: “Hey, did Billy give you the rent?” I said.

“Yes, I got the rent from your pal Billy,” Steve said.  “Billy?  That’s his legal name. What kind of person names his kid Billy.” Billy had flicked cigarette butts out his window onto parked cars below. One night he and his buddies flicked 30 butts. I wrote Billy a letter to straighten up and he did. Don’t knock Billy.

“That guy — calling at 3:51 am,” Steve said.  “No, I don’t think so!  Are there any boundaries to human stupidity?”

“Billy” is a pseudonym.

I wrote this piece, “How Much Money Can I Make Off Trump’s Convention?”, for  yesterday’s New York Times online.

blindfold test

shareEmail this to someoneShare on FacebookTweet about this on Twitter

4 comments

1 Ken G. { 07.20.16 at 10:52 am }

No, there appears to be no limit to stupidity….
On a different note, officially naming a son Jack seems unusual. However, about the same time your Jack was born another couple we knew also officially named their son Jack.
Must have been a casual air in the wind that year.

2 don friedman { 07.21.16 at 8:25 am }

Great NYT piece, Bert. Wow, you are the most famous writer I know. When I tell people I have a friend who writes for the NYT I have to explain, “No, he’s not the treasurer’!

3 Ken G. { 07.21.16 at 8:47 am }

As a great aunt said to my father when his brilliant brother died at 43, it really says someone thing when one’s obituary gets into the NYT.

4 Dave Rowe { 07.21.16 at 7:01 pm }

All this Trump hubub – glad to hear you’re making the best of it.

Leave a Comment