With the exception of the latest post titled October 7, 2023, these are essays were written in my former blog, Swimming to China, which I began in 2014. Originally conceived as a record of my first swimming competition, it morphed into a general blog about family, friendship, travel, New York City and other topics. The latest entry is a short story with characters from my novel.
October 7, 2023
This is a short piece with some of the characters in the novel Swimming to Jerusalem five years later. In that context it is best understood by those that have read the book.
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An Immigrant Tale
The ‘Ur-Bornstein’ Nathan was the first and the original Bornstein in the New World. With the exception of a few sepia photos and an old postcard there are few artifacts from his past. All I have are some stories and whatever I’ve conjured up based on them. I have often wondered what went through the…
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And We Are Still Here
Mrs. Parker’s Greeting I once read that when Dorothy Parker picked up the telephone or opened the front door her greeting was “What fresh hell is this?” That goes through my mind each morning when I open up the door and pick up the New York Times (I am still old school and like to…
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Swimming to Slovenia
When I started this blog in 2014 I focused on my first swim trip to China. Since then it has meandered into other topics. This entry is back its original roots – my recent journey to Lake Bled, Slovenia for the International Winter Swimming Championships. The Swedish-American Winter Swimming League My 2015 trip to China…
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The Little Bagel Boy
In the little shetl I grew up in on the south shore of Long Island, diversity meant there were Jewish families from Flatbush, Jewish families from Midwood, Jewish families from Brighton Beach and for a touch of exotica, a sprinkling of Jewish families from the Bronx (which most Brooklyn Jews considered ‘upstate’). Needless to say…
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O Nebraska!
Village Babies Kerry and Madeline were born in 1990. We were living at 18 Grove Street in Greenwich Village. I had had lived there over a decade, moving in shortly after graduating from college. The studio was on the top floor of an ivy-covered townhouse at the corner of Bedford Street down the block from…
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Pygocentrus nattereri
The Pygocentrus nattereri, also known as red-bellied piranha, is native to the Amazon River. These fish are aggressive and will eat each other in certain situations. They don’t swim in the rivers surrounding New York City, though looking back at the last few months of the Amazon debacle, it’s possible a few of them swam…
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Last Weekend in the Hamptons
The other Long Island Even though I grew up sixty miles east, I had never been to the Hamptons until I was in college. My Long Island was certainly different than the charming and now over-glitzed preserve of villages comprising the east end of that 120 mile stretch. The small neighborhood in Wantagh (not to…
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Once Around the Sun
I am not observant and Dave was not Jewish. But as May approached I could not help but think that this would be the first yahrzeit – the anniversary of one’s death. In traditional Jewish custom one lights a candle and says prayers in memory of the deceased. I don’t do either. The best I…
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At the Cafe Mabillon
We are sitting under the awning of the Café Mabillon. It is raining in Paris. Not the gauzy rains depicted in the sofa-sized painting that hung in the French-Provincial style living room of my youth, but a torrential rain. With the awning fully extended, Diane and I are dry and snug as we sipped our…
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My Penn Station
In 1964, there were two main ways to travel from New York to Florida; by airplane or train. Airplane was of course the preferred mode. But if one traveled by train – there were two options: Seaboard and Atlantic Coast Lines (these were the days before Amtrak and the last gasp of private train companies).…
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Weekend in Latvia
It sounds like the title of a 1940’s movie, doesn’t it? But I did recently spent a few days in Latvia participating in the 1st Stage of the 2016-17 International Winter Swimming Association World Cup in Jelgava. The world of winter swimming is highly organized and there are events (in cold climes of course) from…
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Summering in 19th Century Russia
Not much swimming There is only one reference to swimming to Tolstoy’s War & Peace. It is when Prince Andrei returns to Bald Hills, his family estate, after battle. The French, under Napoleon, have devastated the countryside and the fields and houses have been plundered. The men in Prince Andrei’s outfit are exhausted and take…
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My Problem With Donald
In February I was invited to dinner by some high school friends. I wasn’t able to attend because I was going to be in Sweden for the Scandinavian Winter Swim Championships. I had planned this six months prior when I saw an ad for a $400 round trip flight to Stockholm. So I rounded up…
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Liberte! Égalité! et Fraternité! in Boynton Beach
My father called a few weeks back to tell me that the French government was going to give him an award for his World War II service. As I wanted to visit him – he had just moved into a new apartment – I figured the timing was right. I’m a somewhat responsible son though…
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Last Month
I did plan to post something to this blog last month – in April. And now here we are at the end of May. I was thinking of originally titling it “Last Sunday” and write about the last Sunday of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club winter season which ended on April 26. But like…
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Vermont – More than just a place where they make Cheddar Cheese
When most people go for a sporting weekend in Vermont in the middle of winter they pack skis, sleds, and snowshoes – all taking up a lot of space. But my sports equipment took up a small nylon bag consisting of a swimsuit, goggles, a cap and earplugs. That’s all that was needed to participate…
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The Excellent Adventure…
Welcome to Beijing As we were going to China to swim outdoors in the middle of winter it was appropriate that we were delayed one hour at Newark Airport by the first snow of the season as the plane was de-iced. After the 13 hour flight we were met at the airport by Regina, a…
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The Journey Begins…
There is a Russian tradition about leaving one’s home prior to a long journey. When all the bags are packed, the lights are off and your coat is on you take a seat with everyone in the house, close your eyes and spend a few moments relaxing. Diane and I will do this today. This…
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Let’s Have Chinese
As someone who grew up in the 1960’s China didn’t loom large in my world – with one exception – Chinese food. As the largest country in the world under Communism, China wasn’t on the radar. No one we knew traveled there, we didn’t have any products made there (everything was from Japan), and whenever…
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Wet and Cold!
Okay, so I can swim – but in the winter? What’s up with that? I wonder about that too. What weird compulsion do I have to jump into very cold water and attempt to swim? I don’t have a coherent answer – other that it gives me a real high. And, I guess there is…
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Getting Wet
I always loved the water – pools, oceans, lakes not so much but I learned to enjoy them during my 30+ plus summers at Beaver Lake. My early swimming could best be described as “frantic dog paddle.” And going into water over my head? Not a chance. Over time I became frustrated at this…
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My Athletic Career
Whenever I wallow in a little self pity over my lack of athletic accomplishments Diane reminds me to knock it off – and she is right (as she usually is!). I guess because I was born with cerebral palsy and wore leg braces until I was six the thought of me doing any sports activity…
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HUH?
Huh? “You’re going where?” “To do what?” “When?” Yeah, China…to swim…in January Then their eyes get narrow and they look at me quizzically no doubt wondering if I am joking. When I say I am not joking and there really is an International Festival of Winter Swimming in Shandong, China and that I am going…
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Swimming to China
So I was selected to go to China to represent the Coney Island Polar Bear Club at the ‘ International Festival of Winter Swimming’ in Shangdong, China. HUH? Seth in a sporting activity? Swimming? In the winter? In China? What kind of joke is this? Well it is happening. And I figured I commence this…
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Swimming to Jerusalem 