Ralph Michael Stein

[Donald Isler]

Just remembered our old friend would be 75 today.

[Holden Fourth]

I remember him fondly as one of the leading lights of this forum.

[John F]

You're telling me that Ralph was years younger than I am? Amazing. We had lunch once in an eatery near Lincoln Center, nothing earth-shaking but very enjoyable.

[jbuck919]

You're telling me that Ralph was years younger than I am? Amazing. We had lunch once in an eatery near Lincoln Center, nothing earth-shaking but very enjoyable.

John everybody is years younger than you are.

[John F]

More and more of them every day.

[Belle]

This sounds rather like a comment from my late father-in-law..."a lot of people have died today who haven't died before".

My son and daughter-in-law arrived in LA 12 hours ago and say the direct flight was 'survivable' (in Premium Economy on the A380). 14 hours. Same as Dubai to Sydney. Do-able. So we might head to North America next year. If I happen to meet up with anyone from CMG I can't promise anything 'earth shaking'.

[RebLem]

This sounds rather like a comment from my late father-in-law..."a lot of people have died today who haven't died before".

My son and daughter-in-law arrived in LA 12 hours ago and say the direct flight was 'survivable' (in Premium Economy on the A380). 14 hours. Same as Dubai to Sydney. Do-able. So we might head to North America next year. If I happen to meet up with anyone from CMG I can't promise anything 'earth shaking'.

Sounds like something Yogi Berra would have said. My two favorite quotes from him:
1) "Its hard to make predictions, especially about the future."
2) "Nobody goes there anymore; its too crowded."
This last requires some explanation. While in St. Louis, he was once asked what his favorite restaurant there was. He named one, a relatively new place only he and a few others had discovered. But his mention made it famous and lots of people started going there. So when he was asked about the place a couple years later, he came up with the gem above. What he meant to say, of course, was that adventurous types like himself who were always trying to discover new, good restaurants, had moved on from that discovery, but it didn't quite come through that way.

[Belle]

Woody Allen had another..."the food is terrible - and it's in such small portions!!".

[lennygoran]

Sounds like something Yogi Berra would have said. My two favorite

Growing up in Brooklyn Berra was still my favorite-I was always a Yankee fan-even today when I no longer follow sports. Regards, Len

[lennygoran]

Woody Allen had another..."the food is terrible - and it's in such small portions!!".

Another favorite of mine--that is his movies! Regards, Len

[living_stradivarius]

Those were the Golden Days of CMG

[jbuck919]

Those were the Golden Days of CMG

Henry--Strad--it's great to hear from you after so long, but you have to remember that those were also the days when mother hen Corlyss nurtured under her wings a bevy of ultra-conservative people who thought, for instance, that misbehaving children should be denied an education because there is no written constitutional right to such. You yourself were a point of contention by denying the validity of Social Security. Ralph actually gave up on CMG some time before he died. I'm not certain about his reasons, but it probably had something to do with the loss of his good friend Larry Rinkel.

[lennygoran]

Those were the Golden Days of CMG

Henry--Strad--it's great to hear from you after so long, but you have to remember that those were also the days when mother hen Corlyss nurtured under her wings a bevy of ultra-conservative people who thought, for instance, that misbehaving children should be denied an education because there is no written constitutional right to such. You yourself were a point of contention by denying the validity of Social Security. Ralph actually gave up on CMG some time before he died. I'm not certain about his reasons, but it probably had something to do with the loss of his good friend Larry Rinkel.

John I sat next to Larry at the July CMG lunch-it was a pleasure talking to him and listening to him and John F swapping opera experiences-wish Larry would join us on Aug 11-maybe you can reach out to him on FB? Len

[living_stradivarius]

Those were the Golden Days of CMG

Henry--Strad--it's great to hear from you after so long, but you have to remember that those were also the days when mother hen Corlyss nurtured under her wings a bevy of ultra-conservative people who thought, for instance, that misbehaving children should be denied an education because there is no written constitutional right to such. You yourself were a point of contention by denying the validity of Social Security. Ralph actually gave up on CMG some time before he died. I'm not certain about his reasons, but it probably had something to do with the loss of his good friend Larry Rinkel.

That's why it was so fun, and Ralph was pretty good about engaging everyone in debate. I was amused he was so anti-Geohot despite being quite avidly pro-First Amendment.

I was more pro-"not robbing the young to pay for the old" than anti-the stated intent of Social Security per se, but close enough. Because in practice, it's still an age-based pyramid scheme where Millennials pay for the Boomers.

[jbuck919]

That was always easy for you to say. Now consider whether, like one of my great aunts, you would prefer to take your senile parent into the house to sit in his own filth instead of having his old age properly cared for by taxation. Since you have been regularly posting, I have lost my own mother who spent seven months (about the average) in a nursing home after years of being looked after by me. I went to Hell and back getting the Medicaid arrangements for her care, for she had no personal wealth. So unless you have no older persons in your family who are not independently wealthy, don't you talk to me, mister, about the young paying for the old.

[living_stradivarius]

That was always easy for you to say. Now consider whether, like one of my great aunts, you would prefer to take your senile parent into the house to sit in his own filth instead of having his old age properly cared for by taxation. Since you have been regularly posting, I have lost my own mother who spent seven months (about the average) in a nursing home after years of being looked after by me. I went to Hell and back getting the Medicaid arrangements for her care, for she had no personal wealth. So unless you have no older persons in your family who are not independently wealthy, don't you talk to me, mister, about the young paying for the old.

Nobody born after 1990 will even see a dime of said 'taxation', which is the problematic expectation to begin with, and those kinds of expectations will make it even worse for people that generation and younger as they age. The hell you went through? Imagine that twenty-fold.

[living_stradivarius]

So unless you have no older persons in your family who are not independently wealthy, don't you talk to me, mister, about the young paying for the old.

C'mon, John, you know better than to pull that kind of argument. I can dish out a slew of anecdotal arguments, but these days I don't think that's a good use of time. Also, since this thread is about Ralph, Imma just end it here.