The Tao of Steve

I just found this charming for several reasons, not the least of which, because Mina is a friend of mine and her father is the iconic former LA city council member (and founding editor of “HaAm” the UCLA Jewish student newspaper) Zev Yaroslavsky.

Shiva – Mina Bressler

I also thought back to a couple of things. First of all Bubbie’s Shiva, where I learned later that it was apparently very important to her that there be a decent spread at her Shiva, and so she apparently left some money in her will to cover the cost. We ended up getting a ginormous plate of cold cuts from some deli.

And I remember being thrilled because it was so delicious.But after about the second or third night of Shiva, we were sort of looking at each other going. “Oh, god, not the cold cuts again!” 😆

Maybe without the cold cuts, but we repeated that notion this summer at my mom’s Shiva Minyanim at my sister’s house though I don’t think we had so much trouble disposing of the leftover food. Her community really balled out for us and sent us meals that took great care of us for the week of Shiva, and so we had plenty of food lying around.

Also, just the notion of going down to Colorado Boulevard to look at the Rose Parade floats reminded me of my one and only time that I went out in college to the Rose Parade and attempted to sleep out on Colorado Boulevard with an Iranian friend from college, Ali.

Sleep was mirage, because all night people were driving up and down Colorado Boulevard, honking horns and drinking to excess. The combination of exhaust fumes, loud noises and obnoxious partying made it impossible to even get a wink of sleep. And of course, it was freezing cold that night as well. And my sleeping bag that I had used many times to sleep out in front of Pauley pavilion, trying to get priority numbers for basketball games was not adequate to the task.

I had brought with me a giant foam pad to sleep on. And when we finally got into our bags at about four o’clock in the morning, my friend elbowed me awake about a half an hour later. And I’ll never forget him saying in his Persian accent, “Steve, there is a yellow river coming down towards you!” (Someone had decided to take a leak on the side of one of the buildings nearby and the product was rolling down the sidewalk toward my foam pad.) I think I got out of the way fast enough, but I’ll never forget that! 😵‍💫

We happened to be on the shady side of Colorado Boulevard that morning as the parade went by. And so it got even colder.

and I don’t think we thawed out until maybe the third quarter of the Rose Bowl Game itself, against Michigan, which UCLA managed to win (Boy, those are ancient memories, given the state of UCLA football today!)

https://www.si.com/college/ucla/football/1983-rose-bowl-the-night-the-bruins-beat-down-bo-01jhsczn7bs2#:~:text=UCLA%20followed%20up%20with%20a,another%20breaking%20news%20story%20again.

Never again, I swore at the time!

And so every year, I turn on whatever passes for television coverage of the Rose Parade in my living room DVR with my pajamas and slippers and hot chocolate.

We don’t get KTLA Channel 5 here,

and Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards (or even Merlin Olsen, “My Oh My” Dick Enberg and ‘Whoa Nellie’ Keith Jackson) are but distant and ancient memories as ABC or whoever is broadcasting this thing thinks I want to hear Hoda and Al Roker

yammering on as the floats roll down Colorado Boulevard on TV and you get five seconds of each marching band usually with some idiot talking right over them as they make the turn on Colorado Boulevard in front of the TV cameras.