On this sad day, some pictures of our family in Paris, by special request.

On the Eiffel Tower.

Looks like the Champs-Élysées, also 1989.

2008. Mickey wearing beret.

And a very sad one. The majority of the deaths were around the route of the Canal St. Martin through the 10th and 11th Arrondissements, near where Elizabeth and I lived for a month (in the 4th) during September 2008, We took a tour of the canal, and this was among the photos I shot. On the block you see crossing the canal in the center is the Restaurant Carillon, a neighborhood restaurant at which at least 14 people were killed.

Naomi and the Boys (Boston, MA, January, 2012)

(Photo by Elizabeth Fisher)

Marcos and me (Key Biscayne, FL, March, 2011)

I'm spending all my time at the Sony Ericsson open in Key Biscayne these days. Here I am, swiped off TV, helping the ever-popular Marcos Baghdatis with my sage advice (he lost anyway). That's my pretty awesome reserved seat!

Ari rides the Miami Metromover (Miami, FL, Feb 2011)

Ari's biggest interests seem to be trains and construction. I had been building up a ride on the Metromover, and was afraid it would disappoint, but it was great.

The Metromover is Miami treasure, not well-understood nor used by most residents. It is a small, driverless train, on rubber wheels, that goes all through Miami's central city area, usually about 30 feet up in the air. It is free, and cars--the size of typical airport interterminal train cars--come every few minutes. Unless you really study it (as I did, since I often took the train to school at MDC) the route is unfathomable, and you often see people wandering around befuddled.

Henry came with us, and we went through every stop except the school board stop (which was the one stop beyond where we got on), even the stop that's inside a building.

Henry's photo.

This is one of the old-style cars, where you could actually sit in
the front window.   (Henry's photo)

Henry's photo

Elizabeth's photo

Henry's photo

And On The Bongos... (Miami Beach, FL, Dec 2010)

(Allison took the photo.)

Fishers and Cohens (almost certainly Bronx, NY, about 1950)

This is my favorite of all the family pictures, having all four of my grandparents, and almost all their children, in one photo. I don't know where this was--Betty and I noodled over it, and eliminated all the likely places, but I'm sure it was someone in our family's apartment. I don't know the event either, but given how everyone is dressed, it could well have been a Passover celebration. In any case, in this photo are:
[Back row] Annie, Sam
[3rd row] Jerry, Betty, Mollie, Isaac, Sue
[2nd row] Rae, Paul, Rose, Sol
[Front row] Josh, Willa

Missing are Bud and Harry Cohen, plus my father (who undoubtedly took the picture). As always, click on the picture for a much larger version.

Dave Gets That Degree (Boston, MA, May 2010)

Dave's graduation! Good video tomorrow.

Lefty (The Bronx and Fayetteville, NY, about 1949 and 1963)

I am a lefty, in the sense that I prefer my left hand for almost everything--though I am pretty ambidextrous. I socially identify with lefties, a lightly oppressed minority (maybe 10% of the population is left-handed). But my parents always told me that I am natural righty, trained left. That's because because my teenage father was a high-school baseball player, and he wanted me to have the advantage lefties have in most sports. He was Whitey Ford's relief pitcher at Aviation High, which, as he pointed out, meant he didn't pitch much. And he played second base. I think I have a team picture I'll post some day.

I confirmed that I was a natural righty with my father 3-4 years ago. Elizabeth is a little skeptical of this story, but besides what my parents told me, I have some supporting evidence: I am really very ambidextrous, but lefties tend to be; I kick right-footed, but evidently about 1/3 of lefty males do so. But my best evidence is this picture:


So why am I golfing right-handed in the picture below? For one thing, it's not such a big deal in sports with a two-hand grip (like batting in baseball) to change hands. But the real reason is this. Early in my golfing career, I finished a round at Lyndon Golf Course, a cheap public course across the street from the famous and exclusive Onondaga Country Club, where I sometimes caddied. The "pro", who I didn't know, came up to me and said, "you should try playing right-handed". I was a pretty know-it-all teenager, and was used to unimaginative people who couldn't get their minds around people doing things with their left hands (this was still medieval times). So I came back with a snotty, "Oh yeah, why?". He answered, "Because I just saw you play left-handed." Whoops. (Sure enough, I tried it, practiced for a few minutes, and immediately shot a way better round than I ever had left-handed. Never golfed lefty again, even though I had to get a new set of clubs.)


I'm really glad I play tennis left-handed. Besides being a big advantage if you want to run for US President (Obama, McCain, Kerry, Gore, Clinton, Bush I, Perot: all lefties), it is a big advantage in tennis in particular. (That's why Rafael Nadel's uncle trained him to be left-handed. He's the only other natural righty trained left I've ever heard of--the other way around is of course common.) I've written up the reasons it is so advantageous in tennis here.

The Snow Kick Continues (Syracuse and Fayetteville, NY, about 1954 and 1964)

Before we had our house (when we lived in the Vincent Apartments), snow just meant fun, not shoveling. Here I am with the three kids I hung out with all the time.

And here's a picture I missed from my post last week: The finished product!

Thanksgiving in Vermont (Burlington, VT, probably Nov 1985)

From the same visit as the snow scenes in yesterday's post. Once again, Paul using his surgical skills to carve the turkey.

There's that stupid pineapple turkey thing again. I'm sure that was my fault.

Obviously, it smelled really good.

Robert, the cocker spaniel.

The boys work with the help of some beer. The one on the right seems to have made a great discovery of some kind.

Uncle Sam and Me (Probably Bronx, NY, about 1949)

The background looks like this was one of those Van Cortland Park Sundays I wrote about before, where the Turks and Greeks got together (not that Sam was any of those, but the two-family thing again).

Sam was a perfect uncle for a little kid. He took me lots of places, and I have many good memories of being with him. After he and Sue got married, they represented a far more sophisticated, educated and modern world than anyone else in my family, and it was good for me to be exposed to all that.

The Manger (Bethlehem, West Bank, Nov 1999)

In 1999, Elizabeth and I went to Israel, where I had a conference. We toured a lot, especially in West Bank, where most of the historically interesting spots were. Here we're in the Church of the Nativity, in the traditional exact spot of the manger where Jesus was born.

Christmas at Jessica and Gordon's (NY, NY, Dec 1979)

We visited Jessica and Gordon in their apartment in Murray Hill.


My parents came with us.



Note the little upright piano (it was a Baldwin Spinet), before Gordon and Jessica gave it to us.





I guess this is when I scored the blue bathrobe I'm seen in elsewhere in this blog.

Christmas 1982 - Part 3 of 3 (Darien, CT, Dec 1982)

(Elizabeth said, "These Christmases don't seem a little the same to you?" I replied, "If these don't bore everybody, I don't know what would bore them.")







Two stockings now.

Christmas 1982 - Part 1 of 3 (Darien, CT, Dec 1982)

Our last Christmas in the house in Darien.

What's that peeking out from behind the presents??


It's "Dorrie's" first Christmas. Notice that the tree has moved back to being on top of the toy chest. Another baby to knock it over!


We had to move the tree in any case because the piano is there. Gordon and Jessica closed up the apartment in NY, and kindly gave us that piano.