The Fifth Column by Andrew Gross

I have been reading far too many non-fiction books lately.  Books about World War II battles in Europe and the Pacific, books about baseball (which I gladly add to my collection, Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask by Jon Pessah, being my latest addition) and history.

So, as I read of a famous someone's reading habits - he read fiction every night - I decided to give it a try.

As luck would  have it, my local bookstore had The Fifth Column by Andrew Gross.  It's a tale of German saboteurs in New York City in the days leading up to America's entry into World War II centered on NYC's upper east side area of Yorkville.  

There were several NYC neighborhoods that were hotbeds of pro-Germany sympathy in the 1930s including Yorkville and one in Glendale, Queens.  In fact, my father who grew up in next-door Middle Village admitted to me that they were afraid of the strength of the German Bundists who lived down the street.

Newark, New Jersey also had a pro-Nazi community but the citizens there had them differently.  The Jews and Italians of Newark formed a group called the Minutemen who went after pro-Nazi marchers with baseball bats.  Kind of put the kibosh on future marches in Newark.

Now, as to book's title, The Fifth Column, per the Britannica website definition:

Fifth column, clandestine group or faction of subversive agents who attempt to undermine a nation’s solidarity by any means at their disposal. The term is conventionally credited to Emilio Mola Vidal, a Nationalist general during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). As four of his army columns moved on Madrid, the general referred to his militant supporters within the capital as his “fifth column,” intent on undermining the loyalist government from within.

A cardinal technique of the fifth column is the infiltration of sympathizers into the entire fabric of the nation under attack and, particularly, into positions of policy decision and national defense. From such key posts, fifth-column activists exploit the fears of a people by spreading rumours and misinformation, as well as by employing the more standard techniques of espionage and sabotage.

So, Trudi and Willie Bauer, the arch-villains of the story, are fifth columnists.

Now, I am not going to tell you more about the story, but I did notice some interesting goofs by the author and his editor(s).

I've written a small book, A Father's Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terrorism, and I have to say that the editorial process was hell.  Every fact was checked and double checked.  So, I was a bit surprised when I found a, to me, glaring factual error in The Fifth Column.

Our hero is going to make a call to someone at the US State Department in Washington, DC.  He dials the number beginning with area code "202."  Uh, there was no such thing as an area code before the 1960s. No, we had telephone exchanges, such as Davenport, Elmwood, Redwood, Twining, Butterfield (as in Butterfield 8.)  Area code 202 had not yet been invented at the time of the story!

On top of that, the editors missed another glaring boo-boo.  At one point our hero is told there will be a white Pontiac waiting for him outside the bad guy's hangout.  But  when we get to the hang out, it's a Buick!

Happy reading.

Well, that's what I have to say. 

Stephen M. Flatow

Pie in the Sky - British television scores a hit

"Pie in the Sky" - a great television show!

What a great TV show I stumbled upon while browsing through the lineup on Acorn TV.  Originally shown on the BBC1 network between March 1994 and August 1997, Pie in the Sky features Richard Griffith, a much acclaimed actor better known to Americans and Harry Potter fans around the world as Uncle Vernon Dursley.

Detective Inspector Henry Crabbe, thinking he was going to take an early retirement from the police force, and his wife Margaret sell  their home and buy a restaurant where Henry can live out his passion for cooking.  Early retirement is put on the back burner due to the machinations of his superior officer, Associate Assistant Constable Freddy Fisher, and Crabbe alternate time as chef and detective.

Pie in the Sky takes place in the fictional English county of Westershire, said to be located in South West England. This includes the also fictitious town of Middleton.

A large man, we are introduced to Henry as the consummate policeman and amateur cum-professional chef.  His wife, Margaret, is an accountant, who, as supportive as she is of Henry in his efforts, sometimes has to bring him back down to earth.

If you were puzzled by Uncle Vernon, you are going to love Henry Crabbe as he solves crimes and makes magic with his steak and kidney pies.

 I recommend Pie in the Sky.

Well, that's what I have to say. 

Stephen M. Flatow

What the heck is going on in California? Ethnic studies run amok?

The great "melting pot" that is, or should I say, was, American culture is taking a hit in California.

In Tablet, Emily Benedek writes that California is "cleansing Jews from history."

She comments on California's new Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum that was created with good intentions but seems to have gone off the rails.

She writes:

In the fall of 2016, California’s then Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a mandate to develop an ethnic studies program for high schools in California. California’s public schools have the most ethnically diverse student body in the nation, with three-quarters of students belonging to minorities and speaking over 90 languages. Luis Alejo, the Assembly member who shepherded the bill through the 15 years required for its adoption, hailed the law, the first in the nation, as an opportunity to “give all students the opportunity to prepare for a diverse global economy, diverse university campuses and diverse workplaces,” adding, “Ethnic studies are not just for students of color.”

Elina Kaplan, a former high-tech manager who had just stepped down as senior VP of one of California’s largest affordable housing nonprofits, remembers agreeing wholeheartedly with the idea at the time. “The objective was to build bridges of understanding between people,” said Kaplan, an immigrant herself, who moved to California from the former Soviet Union with her family when she was 11. “This was as welcome as mom and apple pie. It offered students the chance to learn about the accomplishments of ethnic minorities, as well as to address issues of inequality and bigotry.”

But three years later, when the first draft of the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) was released, Kaplan couldn’t believe what she was reading. In one sample lesson, she saw that a list of historic U.S. social movements—ones like Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, Criminal Justice Reform—also included the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement for Palestine (BDS), described as a “global social movement that currently aims to establish freedom for Palestinians living under apartheid conditions.” Kaplan wondered why a foreign movement, whose target was another country, would be mischaracterized as a domestic social movement, and she was shocked that in a curriculum that would be taught to millions of students, BDS’s primary goal—the elimination of Israel—was not mentioned. Kaplan also saw that the 1948 Israel War of Independence was only referred to as the “Nakba”—“catastrophe” in Arabic—and Arabic verses included in the sample lessons were insulting and provocative to Jews.

Kaplan began calling friends. “Have you read this?” she asked, urging them to plow through the 600-page document. The language was bewildering. “Ethnic Studies is about people whose cultures, hxrstories, and social positionalities are forever changing and evolving. Thus, Ethnic Studies also examines borders, borderlands, mixtures, hybridities, nepantlas, double consciousness, and reconfigured articulations. …” This was the telltale jargon of critical race theory, a radical doctrine that has swept through academic disciplines during the last few decades.

An this is just a taste.

If you're like me living in some sort of cocoon or cave, you had to look up "hybridities, nepantlas, double consciousness, and reconfigured articulations."  It does not bode well for the students who will be subjected to this crap labeled as education, nor will it bode well for America.

The full article can be found Tablet.

Well, that's what I have to say. 

Stephen M. Flatow

When you can't say something nice, sometimes you still have to say it

When you can't say something nice, sometimes you still have to say it. Case in point - newspaper delivery by PCF Corp.  It's a nightmare!

I live in an apartment building down the Jersey Shore.  As a result, we depend on our newspaper subscriptions being timely delivered to our apartment building.  This cannot be done by a kid on a bike, so our newspapers have given PCF Corp. the contract to make those deliveries.

Unfortunately, PCF does not live up to its claim that "we’ve built a reputation for getting it right or making it right every day – accurately, safely and on time."  Now, if that was true, I would have received delivery of my newspapers on Thursday and Saturday this week.

Like businesses everywhere, PCF has a contact page.  Here's what I said today:

I live in Monmouth County, NJ; XXXX to be precise.  Your company is the delivery service for our subscriptions to the Asbury Park Press, Star-Ledger, Wall Street Journal and Jewish Press.

I wish I could say something nice about your services, but I cannot.

This week alone, we missed delivery of one paper on Thursday, and nothing was delivered yesterday.

Please don't tell me about staffing problems; if your route drivers don't show up, then your management people should be on the road making their deliveries.

I am in a service business, and if I treated my customers the way you treat your customer's customers, I'd be out of business.

Shame on you.

Stephen M. Flatow

OK, I feel better now.

Happy new year!

Well, that's what I have to say. 

Stephen M. Flatow