Home - Lester Jacobson

Econ 101

December 12, 2014

The reason economics is such an inexact science is that it’s so dismal at understanding the vagaries of human nature. Take pricing, about which people are

Tim Kazurinsky: Hardest-Working Funny Guy in Town

December 7, 2014

Evanston RoundTable, Dec. 4, 2014 Sometimes the life of a comedian is anything but funny. Take the schedule of Evanston resident Tim Kazurinsky, comedian, actor,

Mexbeth

November 20, 2014

Tamale and tamale and tamale

Creep through my innards like plaster dust

Greasy fajitas and quesadillas

To the last rutted inch of my shrieking guts;

It surges forward – where? – unto eternity I swear.

Thus forsweareth I from ever eating

More chips and salsa

Mole enchilada

I keep repeating:

It is a menu I know so well – Taqueria Diarrhea

Received Wisdom: Daisy McGee (1934-2013)

November 11, 2014

Daisy was the grandmother of my African American mentee. Aside from 11 children of her own, she raised him – plus his two sisters and three cousins – for ten years, from the time he was 9. She was fiercely protective of their safety and devoted to their well-being. She was a lovely person and a beautiful human being. She said:

When I was young I’d say I’ll have time to do this or do that. I’ll have plenty of time. But you don’t have plenty of time. When you’re old you can’t do it anymore. Now I tell my grandkids, there’s no tomorrow. Get your education and enjoy life. Because life is short.”

Daisy: I was born October 30, 1934, in Memphis, Tennessee. Daisy Bryant was my maiden name. I was the oldest of nine children. I came here [to Evanston, Illinois] to live with my father and my aunt when I was 13. I’ve been here ever since. I’m 77 now.

Me: Why did you move?

Not The Johnsons

October 29, 2014

Bennie knocked on Pattie’s door.

No answer.

“Hey, Pattie, you there?”

No answer.

“Come on, I know you’re in there. Your mom said so.”

Silence. He knocked again, louder, three bangs, a little brave and brazen, he knew, but he was a boy on a mission. The door rattled on its hinges.

“Pattie! Talk to me!”

“Yeah, what?”

“I want in. Can I come in? I’ve got the study notes,” he said, patting two folded-up pages stuck in his pocket.

No answer.

“Pattie come on. You know I’ll be nice.”

Colossi

October 24, 2014

Bach and Beethoven are twin towering peaks, and which is the taller depends, on any given day, only on how our emotional clouds are blowing.

My Story

September 23, 2014

By Lonia Kirshenbaum Mosak

As told to Lester Jacobson

This book is dedicated to my family, who have made this long journey worthwhile, so they should know what it was like.

It’s impossible to explain, and impossible to describe, what happened there. There’s not enough ink and paper in this world to describe it. It was hell on earth.”

Introduction

My name is Lonia Kirshenbaum Mosak. I was born in 1922 in the small eastern Polish town of Nowy Dwor. A year later, my family moved to Ciechanow, a medieval Polish city 65 kilometers north.

“It’s impossible to explain, and impossible to describe, what happened there. There’s not enough ink and paper in this world to describe it. It was hell on earth.”