user name:
password:



Don't have an account?
Register here to comment on this blog


rss feed

return to the main page...

An Amazing Coincidence!

I went to visit my mother yesterday and ran into Paula Gerard, whom I saw last week at the Francis Lewis High School 40th Class Reunion.

Ms. Gerard was standing in front of my mother's apartment building and had just visited another member of our graduating class, Gerry Popkin the Dentist, who it turns out lives in my mother's building! What an amazing coincidence!

Furthermore, I received a follow-up e-mail from Ms. Gerard and it turns out that Gerry Popkin DDS knows my mother! Where will this all end!

Actually, I need to see a dentist but have been too busy with my Brain Tumor to make an appointment. This is the problem when you have an extreme illness, you don't take care of all the little problems. For instance, I have not seen a chiropodist since I've been cultivating my brain tumor. My cousin Herschel Dressner is a great chiropodist, although I have to go all the way to Stamford to see him. Hershy, as we call him, was originally just a podiatrist but went back to school to get full Chiropodist credentials.

Many of you are probably wondering what Gerry Popkin is up to these days. According to the Francis Lewis Class of 1969 web site he is dentist and still single, although he has a companion.

Here is Gerry when he was fresh out of High School (the future dentist on the left). Some credit Gerry with coming up with the original idea for sake2me:



Flash forward forty years and here is Gerry with the exact same people pictured above, but all 40 years older:



It is great to see that Gerry has kept his impish smile.

My how time flies!

I'm curious about the genealogy of the family name Popkin. Was that really a name in the old country, whichever old country that happened to be, or is it an Ellis Island amelioration?

My Grandfather Joseph Meyer Dressner came to America as Joseph Meyer Cadwalader. The customs officials on Ellis Island found the name too Protestant and with too many syllables and immediately changed it to something that sounded potentially Jewish.

I'm happy being called Dressner, but I hear that my brother (the dog mystic and coach) is considering moving to Arizona and changing his name to Dr. Ari Cadwalader.


- Joe Dressner 6-13-2009 11:59am

hostess gifts

when my grandparents came to ellis island they brought hostess gifts as they were well versed in the customs of their new country.
posted by the sheriff 6-13-2009 1:03pm

more on hostess gifts

i think in most countries people bring hostess gifts. who has ever heard of a country where hostess gifts were not an accepted custom? i never have, that's for sure.
posted by the sheriff 6-13-2009 1:06pm

however...

i do know of one documented person who went to a dinner party and did not bring a hostess gift. needless to say he was thoroughly shamed.
posted by the sheriff 6-13-2009 1:08pm

Immigration

Ah, so if you're undocumented you don't need to bring a gift.
posted by TWG 6-14-2009 9:36pm

correct

we always recommend that the undocumented travel as light as possible.
posted by the sheriff 6-15-2009 7:53pm

i knew a cadwalader, he worked at garnet

he was a big guy with big shoes too
remember him??
posted by real wino 6-16-2009 6:36am
Receive email notifications for new comments in this thread

Return to the main page
**

Joe Dressner - Captain Tumor Man!


Hi, I'm Joe Dressner the famous wine importer and I have brain cancer!

I already have a wine blog and frankly wine is such a luxury business that I hate to mix my cancer problems with my wine observations. I think it would be a general downer for the lifestyle crowd out there.

Furthermore, we in the wine trade always claim there are tremendous health benefits to drinking wine. I've already had cardiovascular bypass surgery over eight years ago and now I got a tumor aggressively rattling in my brain. My colleagues in the glamorous wine industry want me to keep it quiet.

So, I've started this wonderful new blog to discuss wine, brain tumors, my life and to give you hot tips on handling the cancer stricken around you. There will also be practical wine/radiation pairings when I start radiation therapy and chemotherapy next week.

Having brain cancer means I might both physically and intellectually decline. So, I will be using this blog as a venue to pursue petty vendettas against relatives, acquaintances and people in the wine trade.

I might also lose touch with reality and say things that are not true or are only half true. The important thing is to have fun and enjoy this rare and precious time in my life.

One of my pet vendettas is my cousin Dr. Barbara Hirsch. Dr. Barbara Hirsch is a very important Great Neck Endocrinologist, who was raised and nurtured by my parents. Dr. Hirsch waited until my father was near death and my mother was suffering from a rare neuromuscular disorder, to write them a seven page letter denouncing them for being horrible to her for the entirety of her life! Despite my concerns, Dr. Hirsch still refuses to apologize.

Last night, I drank a beautiful bottle of Bourgueil Clos Sénéchal 2005 from Pierre Breton. It was sublime and reminded me that I used to be healthy. Not only that, the vineyard used to be there before I existed. It exists independently of my having cancer and will continue to exist. You ought to buy some.

August 2009 Postscript: Not only does it exist independently of my cancer, it also exists independently of Louis/Dressner Selections. After 18 years, they have dumped us for Kermit Lynch. Oh well. At least I'm alive!