Tag Archives: 47th street

A Jew Canoe

October 11, 2024 – 3:35 pm

In the 50s crackers from the South christened a Cadillac with New York plates passing through Dixie as the ‘Jew Canoe’. That decade and the 1960s marked the zenith of the glory for Detroit cars. Americans abandoned their boats during the 1973 Oil Embargo for more fuel-efficient foreign cars and the Mercedes-Benz sedans surfaced as […]

By Peter | Posted in Bet On Crazy, cars, semi-fiction | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

SUKKOT / BET ON CRAZY

September 23, 2024 – 12:34 pm

Ten years ago the Hassidim were hurrying home from the Diamond District. The High Holidays had come early this year with Sukkor coinciding with the ancient pagan festival of Mabon, which commemorates the autumnal equinox. Sukkor is not only a bridge across the Indus, but the festival honoring the 40 years during which the Hebrews […]

By Peter | Posted in Bet On Crazy, Diamonds, NEW YORK, semi-fiction, War | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

BET ON CRAZY 1 by Peter Nolan Smith

April 23, 2024 – 1:06 am

In the 1970s I knew very little about diamonds as a child other than Superman could squeeze coal with his steel-hard hands to create diamonds and my father had bought a diamond ring for my mother. It was a hundredth of the size of the diamonds Superman never gave to Lois Lane, but my mother […]

By Peter | Posted in 90s, Bet On Crazy, NEW YORK, semi-fiction | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

THE GUILT OF MOTHERS by Peter Nolan Smith

March 31, 2024 – 3:17 am

Back in the 1990s I deserted New York to spend the Easter holiday with my family on the South Shore of Boston. Despite my abandonment of God as a child my mother persisted in requesting my attendance at morning Mass. It was a small sacrifice to make for the woman who brought me into this […]

By Peter | Posted in Bet On Crazy, family, sell-out | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Happy Purim

March 24, 2024 – 9:18 am

Five years ago I wandered through West 47th Street looking for a job. No one was interested in hiring a goy on Purim and my Hassidic friends cajoled me into having a drink with them. “Whiskey is kosher.” They poured a good measure of Scotch into a glass. “Shalom.” I clinked glass with the religious […]

By Peter | Posted in Bet On Crazy, holiday, semi-fiction | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)