The American Spectator : Perchance to Dream

The American Spectator : Perchance to Dream

Monday
On American Flight 144 to Dulles. I have many errands in D.C. and the area. I'll tell you about them soon.

The man next to me in row 6 was a middle-aged fellow with thick glasses. He reminded me of a younger version of Dr. Eldon Tyrell, inventor of the replicants and their brains in Blade Runner. Not quite normal, and a bit off base in his comments to me. Like many annoying people, he started off his interaction with me by saying, "I know I've seen you before but I can't think where."

"TV," I said. "I am on all of the time."

"I don't watch TV," said this man, like many another annoying people before him.

He told me his story. His father was a Czech Jewish man who was an ardent Zionist and emigrated to "Palestine" before World War II. He lived on a commune, a kibbutz, but the kibbutz foundered when its engine -- a single cow -- died.

So, my neighbor's father joined an Israeli rebel brigade similar to the Irgun. Then, after Independence and fighting in all of Israel's wars, the dad came to New York and lived in a Hasidic, ultra-orthodox neighborhood in Brooklyn. My neighbor went to an ultra-orthodox Jewish day school, then went off to college to study to be an engineer. He said he was the first in his school to go to college. The others went into their parents' business or else started their own businesses. "They made more money than I did until I became a partner at Blank, a huge consulting firm."

I wondered how he knew how much money they made but I just said, "I am about my father's business."

"Really?" he asked me. "What was your father's business?"

"Just a line from the New Testament," I said. "My father was not in business."

I went to sleep for a very long time. My neighbor does not eat airplane food because he is strictly Kosher and for other reasons he did not divulge. He offered me his meal. I declined but thanked him. The meal was not worth eating. A pitifully dry, tasteless chicken.

When I awoke, we were nearing Dulles. The man asked me, "Are you Jewish?"

"Of course," I answered. "Don't I look Jewish?"

 "You quoted the New Testament," he said.

"I don't know what to say. There is a lot of wisdom in it."

He man smiled cleverly and said, "I looked you up when you were sleeping. You're quite a controversial guy."