The Zeitgeist

        

Time for Spring cleaning in the garden. Tulips just like the ones in bloom in Manhattan but not on Long Island. Lovebirds and the late Elizabeth Taylor, Of Blessed Memory.

Sure Signs of Spring

Monday morning my gardener showed up for the first time since November. They came in force – practically a battalion of probable illegals (I am not checking for Green Cards in my pajamas) brandishing rakes, hoes, pikes and blowers in a determined effort to turn over the soil in my South 40 and prepare it for the floral cornucopia to come. Thanks to what seemed like 20 weeks of a polar ice cap on the lawn this winter, my grass is in particularly forlorn condition, so Ralph and his crew threw down a mealstrom of fertilizer, plant food and anti-crabgrass concoctions to jolt my grass back to life when and if we finally break 50 degrees again.

The last 10 days of unseasonably cold weather (thank God it’s April already!) have done a stunting job on my couple of hundred pink tulips. They’re partly up but have been going nowhere for more than a week. I am gravely concerned that all this late cold will literally nip the tulips in their buds and make for a poor blooming. I’ve already seen this with the daffodils on many an area lawn, which characteristically should have been in bloom by now.

Living and working in The Five Towns, I don’t get into Manhattan as much as I used to (I’m sure many a commuter would like to make that statement). On Sunday I met some friends in town for dinner on the Upper East Side and got to stroll down a bunch of the side streets. In Manhattan the tulips are already in bloom. This is I’m sure due to it’s being warmer in The City than the ‘burbs but also no doubt due to the profusion of four-legged fertilizer in the form of man’s best friends augmenting nature in the small flower beds surrounding city trees. There is also a high probability that Masters of the Universe in 10021-land would not stand for nature impeding the arrival of their Spring tulips while we mere mortals here on Long Island will just have to wear down our collective prayer rugs hoping for the survival of our flowers.

Another sure sign of Spring are the birds. Cardinals and Orioles, (no, I’m not talking about baseball – more about that later) and sparrows. There are two sparrow lovebirds who’ve been perched on my sunroom roof now for a couple of weeks, sitting and chirping side by side. I’m sure they’re planning where in my leaders and gutters they’d like to build a nest but for now the singing is delightful. Some of you may know that I’ve been divorced now for about a year so the lovebirds are bittersweet for me as I’d sure like to have someone to chirp with on the porch myself. Internet dating and set-ups have borne no fruit of any value these past 12 months, so if you know of a good match, Spring is always a good time for a man’s fancy to turn to love. 

Now, to baseball – by the time you read this the Yankees will have played their home opener in The Bronx’s new $7.5 billion (really $1.8 billion, but what’s a few billion here and there?) Yankee Stadium – home of the $11 beer and South Bronx vistas. The Mets started their season on the road. Some Little Leagues have already begun. The beginning of baseball augers sultry nights and languid Summer days at the ballpark which pleases me no end. Unlike most Americans, baseball, not football, is my favorite sport. I probably watch 80 or more games and also play in at least two softball games a week. New York Magazine has a great article this week called “Mets Moneyball” (get it on their website, NYMag.com) which concurs with my assessment of Carlos Beltran being the nexus of Met bad luck (see last week’s Zeitgeist column) and also lays out how the new Met management is going to turn things around – in time.

Lastly, for many Five Towns residents another sure harbinger of Spring is the arrival of Passover food sections at area supermarkets. Gourmet Glatt Emporium has added about 30 percent more space to their store which has enabled them to offer perhaps 90 different kinds of matza complimented by an equal variety of dried fruit with which to unclog the effects of the aforementioned matza. I’ve also never seen as large a selection of kosher for Passover frozen pizzas and ice cream – just what everyone needs to keep their waistline slim and trim. For sure Cedarhurst will see an uptick in parking meter and parking ticket revenues thanks to an expanded Gourmet Glatt.

Mom and Liz Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor passed away last week and my mother was none too happy about it. Not that my mom is some star-struck movie fan, quite the contrary. The key here for mom was that Taylor was just two years older than she is and even more to the point, in her youth, my mother looked a whole lot like Liz.

Mom in her 20s was the paradigm of the sophisticated “Sweet Smell of Success” 1959-look and had the same jet black hair and build as Liz. She also was (and still is for her age) very pretty and got a lot of attention (as did Liz) as a result. In the 60s my mom also had the Jackie-O look down cold. Mom identified with Liz even though she was a one-man woman in contrast to Liz’s eight husbands. Liz also cared mightily about Israel and used her influence and celebrity for Israel’s benefit. Although an eccentric (what Hollywood star isn’t?) Taylor was a charitable person who did a lot of good in her life while at the same time setting the screen ablaze with her talent and charisma. She’ll be missed by more than just mom.

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