July 28, 2019

Dear everyone,

The weather is hot!  And if you remember my previous letter at all, Andy won the sumo fantasy league, by 1 point, followed by Rob and Ezra, neither of whom I know.  I ended up 7^th out of 10. Both Andy and Rob got to choose first in setting up our leagues, and of course each of them took one on the two Yokunuza (the two top rated wrestlers), each of which had fantastic tournaments, one going 14-1, and the other 12-3.  Well, there is another one in September (we just missed seeing it live when Cindy and I took our trip to Japan last year), but maybe we will change the way the picks are made or points are totaled to make it more exciting to the very end.

Last weekend we were graced by a visit from Michael Bellacosa.  Michael, some of you may recall, was my freshman year roommate at Yale, and we have stayed in touch; he usually comes to one of our dinners on the NY Investment Committee trip.  Michael used to work for Bear Sterns, the ill-fated investment firm whose failure helped bring on the 2008 recession.  Michael was in risk management - - either he wasn’t doing a good job, or more likely, the upper echelons were ignoring RM’s advice.  After the crash he helped Goldman-Sachs pick up some of the pieces, got a library science degree, and now works in public libraries in Connecticut, primarily Wilton, where he resides with his artist wife Eileen Panepinto.

I picked up Michael at O’Hare Saturday morning.  It was so hot we didn’t really want to do anything! We went to Pete’s Fresh market, where he picked up some flowers and chocolate for Cindy.  I also bought a Japanese eggplant to show him how I grill it (1/4 to ½ inch diagonal biased slices, brush with olive oil, salt and spice, grill until each side has grill marks).  We also visited the Hinsdale library.  

Later in the afternoon we visited Roger in Highland Park, and then Michael took us all out to Roka Akor in Old Orchard, where we had their omakase menu. Lots of fish, some waygu beef, different ice creams.  It was all very good; I think Roger enjoyed himself, especially the double helping of sake.  Michael told us all about his recent trip to Italy - - he was there a couple of weeks before Roger’s trip, but he started at Bari, made some trips at heel of the boot, primarily a village where Eileen’s family was from, and another for the Bellacosa’s (a highlight of which was a logbook in the Bitetto village church with text and photographs of his father’s visit 20 years earlier [Michael's Dad, Joseph, was once the on the appellate court of NY, so it was big deal when he visited this little village]).  Another highpoint was visiting Matera, once a slum of unbelievable squalor, now a UN world heritage site. Then they went up the eastern side of Italy, visiting Ravenna, Padua, Verona, Venice, etc.

Sunday morning was cooler, but rainy.  After a late brunch at Juicy O’s (doughnut machine broken, unfortunately), Michael and I drove to Hyde Park where we visited the Oriental Institute.  I have never been there, but have always been a little interested, even though pre-Greek history is not one of my interests.  The museum takes donations, and is four small galleries around a central courtyard.  The Persian exhibit was under reconstructions, but we were able to see artifacts and text about the Assyrians, Egyptians, Nubians, Israelites, etc. The invention of writing is pretty awesome!

We came home afterwards, and Michael told us about an interesting Italian police procedural series about Inspector Montalbano, some of which I had already read.  The books are apparently second only to Dante in terms of works published in Italian, and the novels have been produced as a television series.  These are so popular that Italy shuts down the nights they are broadcasting; shades of the World Cup.  I ordered the first three movies from the library (we since saw the first one; it was enjoyable).

For dinner that evening we headed to Mod Pizza and had some custom pizzas made, and then took them to Imperial Oak where we ate them and drank beer.  Michael showed us some photos he and Eileen took on their vacation, as well as photos of Bosco, their Havanese. (I returned the favor by making him look at some of our Japan trip photos).

I was off Monday, so I was able to take him back to the airport.

Last night (Saturday) Cindy, Lucas (he’s home for a few days), and I joined Andy and Gail at Pettorinos, where we had an efficient and delicious meal, and then walked steps to the Goodman Theater where we saw a production of The Music Man (my favorite musical).  This was very enjoyable - - I thought the choreography was excellent, and the actors very good.  The orchestra seemed to be playing the songs a little faster than I thought they should be, and some of the transitions from one song to the next seemed abrupt.  Also, the size of the orchestra and electrification of the instruments led to a different quality of sound.  All the same, it was a lot of fun.

Love, H.