{"id":30254,"date":"2022-12-14T08:00:19","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T13:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/?p=30254"},"modified":"2023-01-05T16:44:34","modified_gmt":"2023-01-05T21:44:34","slug":"meaningful-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/2022\/12\/14\/meaningful-work\/","title":{"rendered":"MEANINGFUL WORK"},"content":{"rendered":"

 
\n“Meaningful work\u201d<\/strong><\/span> was a popular phrase when I graduated college in 1973. I first heard it from Lawrence Kasdan, the Big Chill<\/em> director. (I didn\u2019t know Kasdan. I read an interview with him.) I tried being a bricklayer. A \u201cbrickie.\u201d I got a joiner, mortar and mason\u2019s trowel. I knew another Jewish bricklayer, who talked up the profession. My father said, \u201cYou want to work with your hands?\u201d<\/p>\n

Just a thought, Dad. A passing thought.  I learned a bit about roofs, radiators and hot water tanks. Whenever my father had tools in his hand — which was rare — he was often loud and profane. I know a couple Jewish car mechanics and Jewish fix-it guys. It\u2019s all about how you were raised. My dad gave me arithmetic workbooks in elementary school. For fun I plotted graphs. In high school I got fast on the abacus.<\/p>\n

If you want a number, see me. Here are a couple: the rent on apt. 7 at 1407 Marlowe Avenue was $60 in 1965. In 2009 the rent was $470.  In 2022 it’s $670. [Rent is going up slightly faster than inflation in Cleveland (Lakewood). Sixty dollars in 1965 equals $568 in today’s dollars.]<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

I had an essay<\/a> in City Journal<\/em> last week. “Adventures in Tenant Vetting.” It’s amusing.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  “Meaningful work\u201d was a popular phrase when I graduated college in 1973. I first heard it from Lawrence Kasdan, the Big Chill director. (I didn\u2019t know Kasdan. I read an interview with him.) I tried being a bricklayer. A \u201cbrickie.\u201d I got a joiner, mortar and mason\u2019s trowel. I knew another Jewish bricklayer, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coming-of-age"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30254","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=30254"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30330,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30254\/revisions\/30330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}