Category Archives: Bet On Crazy

MAKE NICE / Bet On Crazy by Peter Nolan Smith

November 14, 2024 – 5:07 am

Published on: Nov 4, 2011 The Diamond District on West 47th Street was a closed community. Family histories have been intertwined by marriages and business deals. The smiling faces on the surface hid the turbid conflict behind the scenes. My boss, Manny, and his son, Richie Boy, followed the Corleone tradition of never laundering family […]

By Peter | Also posted in 2010s, Diamonds, NEW YORK, semi-fiction | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

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 […]

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G’MAR CHATIMA TOVA ET OI VEY by Peter Nolan Smith

October 11, 2024 – 4:17 am

Several years ago I rode my bike down Kent Street to Williamsburg. Scores of Hassidim were flocking out of the Brooklyn shtel. They congregated by the East River to atone for their sins and the Expulsion from Eden. Men and women were separated by a fence and I thought about taking a photo, but realized […]

By Peter | Also posted in holiday, NEW YORK, semi-fiction | 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 | Also posted in Diamonds, NEW YORK, semi-fiction, War | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Montauk # 24

September 22, 2024 – 7:27 am

Staring at the sky Seagulls glide on easterly wind Gray clouds follow suit I stand Watching Earthbound___ I’m out in Montauk Thursday thru Sunday staying with my friends, selling jewelry at their store. 771 Montauk Highway. Good to be out of the city. They have a beach shack on Ditch Plains Road. At night I […]

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