My most appreciative fans were a group of college-age boys. They plied me with coins.<\/p>\n
Afterward I said to them, \u201cHere\u2019s your money back. You were my best fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"bert](\"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/home\/yiddis6\/public_html\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/bert-on-the-streets-of-rome.-aug-2014.-lucy-in-foreground..jpg\")
<\/a>Lucy (Stratton) Kaegi with gelato.\u00a0 “Larry David” with clarinet, background.\u00a0 August 2014<\/p><\/div>\n
They insisted<\/strong><\/span> I keep the money. One kid said, \u201cDo you watch Curb Your Enthusiasm<\/em>? It\u2019s our favorite show.\u201d Another kid said I looked like Larry David.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen Curb<\/em>,” I said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat about Seinfeld<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAlso, good.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou guys Jewish?\u201d I said.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t sure; their English accents threw me off.<\/p>\n They said yes.<\/p>\n “Where you guys from?”<\/p>\n “Australia.”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never been to Australia,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n \u201cCome to Sydney. It\u2019s beautiful!\u201d<\/p>\n “I’d like to.”\u00a0 If I can clear at least $10 on the streets, I’m there.<\/p>\n — —<\/p>\n Here’s a<\/span> second busking story, from the archives: “Busking in Israel and Elsewhere,” <\/span><\/a>Times of Israel<\/em>,\u00a0 7\/12\/12.<\/span><\/p>\n —<\/span><\/p>\n It is odd to busk — play the streets — when you\u2019re middle aged. (Or\u00a0 old.)\u00a0 I played Rome last month. I played the Jewish quarter — the ghetto.\u00a0 My musician son, Jack, skedaddled.\u00a0 He would have nothing to do with me.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know any Italian Jewish music, but who does?\u00a0\u00a0 I played \u201cErev […]<\/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-21096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21096","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=21096"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21222,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21096\/revisions\/21222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFootnote:the photo is not from the Jewish quarter.\u00a0 But it’s Rome.\u00a0 I roamed.<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n<\/a>A new essay from City Journal:<\/em> “Bubbles, Booms, and Cash Flow.”<\/a>\u00a0 Not about busking.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"