{"id":10691,"date":"2012-08-15T08:00:14","date_gmt":"2012-08-15T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/?p=10691"},"modified":"2012-08-15T09:50:24","modified_gmt":"2012-08-15T13:50:24","slug":"working-the-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/2012\/08\/15\/working-the-room\/","title":{"rendered":"WORKING THE ROOM"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

My friend<\/strong><\/span> Brad eats out a lot and knows many ma\u00eetres d\u2019 and chefs.<\/p>\n

Brad is finicky around food. \u00a0If his fries aren\u2019t crispy enough, he sends them back. If there is the wrong kind of cheese on the tagliatelle (ribbon pasta), Brad sends the dish back. Brad doesn\u2019t do sharp cheese. \u00a0If there\u2019s a \u201cshort pour\u201d on the glass of wine, watch out.<\/p>\n

Brad works the room whenever we go out. We mostly go to places where his buddies are. When we were at Club Isabella, Brad pointed out the doctors and dentists in the room. \u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s the guy who does the dental implants. \u00a0He runs the full-page ad in the Plain Dealer<\/em>,\u201d Brad said.<\/p>\n

I said,<\/strong><\/span> \u201cYou\u2019ve got to do better than that when I visit you in California [where Brad spends part of the year]. You’ve got to do better than docs who do dental implants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brad said he would take me to L.A. restaurants where I would have a greater than 50-50 chance of spotting celebrities. I said, \u201cI want to see Dean Martin and Don Rickles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDean Martin is dead, and we\u2019ll have to wheel out Don Rickles,\u201d Brad said.<\/p>\n

Brad likes<\/strong><\/span> loud rooms. \u00a0That\u2019s best for schmoozing. He likes to nearly scream \u201cgoyim,\u201d just to see if he\u2019ll get a rise out of nearby diners. (Nobody hears him.\u00a0 Nobody cares. \u00a0He gets away with it.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I wanted to eat on the patio at Club Isabella.\u00a0 It was quiet out there, but Brad said it was too hot for dining al fresco, so we ate in the echo-chamber dining room.\u00a0 Nearly every Jew in Cleveland was there. \u00a0 Brad worked the room . . .\u00a0 \u201cHow was Aspen, Sandy? . . .\u00a0\u201cHow\u2019s your tennis elbow, Jeff?\u201d That kind of thing.<\/p>\n

I need a quieter restaurant next time. \u00a0Indian and Chinese restaurants are the best — the quietest. \u00a0I don\u2019t want to suck cough drops and sip tea for weeks after my night out with Brad.
\n—<\/em>
\n\u201cBrad\u201d is a pseudonym.<\/em><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

SIDE B<\/big><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

MADE IN HOLLAND<\/big><\/big><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My old<\/strong><\/span> Norelco razor tore my face off. But I kept using the razor just to see if it would stop<\/em> tearing my face off.<\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Finally, I bought a new Norelco. The new razor said \u201cMade in Holland,\u201d just like my 1984 model.<\/p>\n

The day<\/strong><\/span> I bought my new Norelco, I met a boy named Anno. Anno is a Dutch name. I had a Dutch day — which isn’t easy in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

I wonder what Norelco means. Northern Electric Company?<\/p>\n

Google it <\/em>. . . No<\/em>rth American Philips El<\/em>ectric Co<\/em>mpany. In the 1940s, Philco\u00a0 stopped Philips from using the name \u201cPhilips\u201d in the U.S.; Philco and Philips sounded too similar. Philips chose the name Norelco for America.<\/p>\n

Buzz.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The recharger on my new Norelco doesn\u2019t work. The package is marked down and stamped \u201cDiscontinued.\u201d Maybe that\u2019s why.<\/p>\n

\u201cMade in Holland,\u201d you don\u2019t see that every day.<\/p>\n

I’ll keep it.<\/p>\n

I wonder<\/strong><\/span> if my electric toothbrush — a Philips Sonicare — is made in Holland.<\/p>\n

. . . No, it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

In Cleveland, it is customary to have at least one Dutch-made product in your house. I follow that custom.<\/p>\n

What’s your Dutch product?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My friend Brad eats out a lot and knows many ma\u00eetres d\u2019 and chefs. Brad is finicky around food. \u00a0If his fries aren\u2019t crispy enough, he sends them back. If there is the wrong kind of cheese on the tagliatelle (ribbon pasta), Brad sends the dish back. Brad doesn\u2019t do sharp cheese. \u00a0If there\u2019s a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10691"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10715,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10691\/revisions\/10715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}