Slim Novel 12 - http://adventuresofkimi.blogspot.com - See Homepage
41. Ali Becomes a Temp
41. Ali Becomes a Temp
Ali gets a call from Eddie's mother. He's broken his ankle and must stay at home. He's told Mom about Ali and and she asks "Could you come and tutor Eddie?" Also the parents are planning a Miami Beach vacation so the mom asks Ali to act as a temporary mom? Ali says Yes.
Next week, Monday 6 PM , Ali is walking on her left side of East 210th Street. The Street comes to an end at edge of an oval-shaped park that was a city reservoir and is now Reservoir Oval Park. Just at the end corner, on Ali's left, she sees the new apartment building Eddie lives in. Its outer court entrance between two gray-white concrete posts that have bronze plaques - she estimates 18 inches in the vertical and at eye level - with letters that spell out "The Lenru", and Ali later discovers, are gotten from the landlord's children Leonard & Ruth. The building shows an outside half-timbered Tudor style, like ramparts of castle. She notes its front overlooks the park, which keeps the neighborhood green and airy and is one reason the Lenru is preferred by the higher income tenant.
From street corner, doing a left almost U turn, she walks into The Lenru's inner court. Its entrance continues into the circular court that at center has 2 cherry trees, which, she guesses, blossom beautifully each April. Inside, walking clockwise, she notes doors to sections A, B, C, D, E, F and at the end of the circle G. At section G, she makes a left, walks up 5 stone steps and into a fancy outer entrance door, notes the 2 first-floor flats are G11 and G12, and presses outer lobby ringer. An answering buzz opens door to inner lobby. She notes the G12 immediately on her right, it opens, and Eddie with plaster cast from mid left foot to a little below knee stands before her.
“Hi Eddie!”
From street corner, doing a left almost U turn, she walks into The Lenru's inner court. Its entrance continues into the circular court that at center has 2 cherry trees, which, she guesses, blossom beautifully each April. Inside, walking clockwise, she notes doors to sections A, B, C, D, E, F and at the end of the circle G. At section G, she makes a left, walks up 5 stone steps and into a fancy outer entrance door, notes the 2 first-floor flats are G11 and G12, and presses outer lobby ringer. An answering buzz opens door to inner lobby. She notes the G12 immediately on her right, it opens, and Eddie with plaster cast from mid left foot to a little below knee stands before her.
“Hi Eddie!”
He is too shy to reply. She follows as he hops on his good foot into a foyer and goes left through a glassed French door into a living room with a side-wall sofa to her right. The room's far wall, facing the park, east, has two windows. Between the windows is a radio-phonograph console. A single-seat high-back couch is in far corner on left. A red Persian rug covers the floor.
She sits next to Eddie on the sofa.
She sits next to Eddie on the sofa.
“Well, here I am, kid. Shall we dance?” She laughs, recalling the Astaire-Rogers movie. “Oh, I'm just joking. It's called allusion." She faces him more directly. “So tell me a few things about yourself. What's your favorite hobby?”
“Stamp collecting.”
“Stamp collecting.”
“What is the last thing you just read?”
“Planet Stories.”
“Oh, you like science fiction! So do I.”
She stands. “Are you hungry? It's suppertime.”
“Yes, Miss,” he replies shyly.
She stands. “Are you hungry? It's suppertime.”
“Yes, Miss,” he replies shyly.
“Call me Ali. No more Miss. Just Ali. Now, let's go to the kitchen and we'll cook up a supper.”
The kitchen is next off the entrance-foyer; it also faces the park and has two windows overlooking. Walking in, Ali sees the gas range/stove and sink/dishwasher on her right and, on left a head & shoulder-high cupboard and a white refrigerator – latest model. Partly dividing the kitchen's length at midpoint are two shoulder-high cupboards that come out from the side walls, and the one on her left has a portable radio on top. Towards the windows is a kitchen table that seats four
The kitchen is next off the entrance-foyer; it also faces the park and has two windows overlooking. Walking in, Ali sees the gas range/stove and sink/dishwasher on her right and, on left a head & shoulder-high cupboard and a white refrigerator – latest model. Partly dividing the kitchen's length at midpoint are two shoulder-high cupboards that come out from the side walls, and the one on her left has a portable radio on top. Towards the windows is a kitchen table that seats four
Ali puts on a pink apron that covers the front of her short-sleeve green dress.
“Your mom told me you are crazy for spaghetti. Reminds me of me. How about we cook it and fry eggplant?”
Eddie losing his shyness with her closeness, says “Boy, Ali, I like having you here. What about the sauce?”
“A little bird tells me you like Campbells Tomato for sauce. Then I have a suggestion that I bought and brought. Instead of bread and butter, let’s have Jewish matzo with gefilte fish and white horseradish on it.”
“Yeah! Yeah! But I thought you aren't Jewish?”
“Your mom told me you are crazy for spaghetti. Reminds me of me. How about we cook it and fry eggplant?”
Eddie losing his shyness with her closeness, says “Boy, Ali, I like having you here. What about the sauce?”
“A little bird tells me you like Campbells Tomato for sauce. Then I have a suggestion that I bought and brought. Instead of bread and butter, let’s have Jewish matzo with gefilte fish and white horseradish on it.”
“Yeah! Yeah! But I thought you aren't Jewish?”
“Right. I'm a shiksa. Can't you see that?” She flounces about putting a hand up to emphasize. “But a Rabbi's student did a Passover at my place and taught me to love matzo. It's very healthy too.” She pauses and looks at him. “One thing I insist on: Fresh vegetables and fruits. I am a health momma. Does your mom listen to Gayelord Hauser on that radio?”
“Yeah. I listen too.”
“Yeah. I listen too.”
“OK, Hauser is pushing fruits for vitamin C.”
Ali's first plan is teaching Eddie to cook for himself.
“Come here with me,” she pulls a stool to the counter next to the gas range, “and we'll split the cooking." She reaches into the brown shopping bag. “This Pyrex glass pot is for boiling the spaghetti.
“Ain't that a coffee pot?”
After supper, she gives 30 minutes for relaxation; she in living room and he in his room, which is in the southeast part of the apartment, down the hall from the foyer. She acts as timekeeper using her Swiss wrist alarm. As she explains, "I do everything by numbers".
At 30 minutes, Eddie comes in and sits across from her. She starts. "I shall teach you memory. And to impress you, please, right now, write a 20-digit number."
She hands him pencil and paper. "And don't let me see you write it." He does it.
"Now. just flash it to me." He shows it for a few seconds. She is quiet for a moment and then with the pencil writes: "20468373248097169423."
"Gee! How'd you do that?"
"In a minute, kid. First allow me to explain about memory and recall. Now we use numbers as a paradigm to analyze the process of memory and recall." Seeing his puzzlement she stops. "Paradigm means a good example. A good word for you because none of your friends will know it, and it will mark you as a Brain." She continues. "What I call working memory is simply rapid recall of what we see or hear or even feel or experience from other senses like sounds, images or smells. Science still don't know much about the brain's workings but up at Harvard my old Uncle brought me up as a teenager and I sat in on chalk talks, as they called the seminars. And in particular on Memory. So what I got from them explains the secrets of my remarkable recall and also gives useful points to improve memory. The secret of remembering like a mental marvel is to make the thing you need to memorize more easily memorable by making it picturable or storyable so your brain has an easier time paying attention to it and keeping a mental eye on it for recall.
Now let me demonstrate." She takes the cardboard and a black marker from the sofa table between them and, out of his view, writes "613613421270113".
"OK. I just wrote down this number." she flashes it in front of him. Then she says in measured voice "Joe Dimaggio hit a home run at Yankee Stadium".
He looks at her, puzzled.
"Now Eddie. Can you give me back the 15-digit number I just showed you?" He shakes head No.
"Can you give me back the words I just told you about your favorite baseball guy?"
"Sure, Ali, how can I forget. Joe Dimaggio hit a home run at Yankee. Stadium I see him do it there almost every Sunday when the Yankees are in town. So what does that prove?"
My recall converts the digit numbers 1 to 9 and the zero, each to a basic sound. And once you know the sound for each digit or the zero, which is easy to learn; then with a little practice you can change any number in seconds to a set of words that you can't help but recall immediately - like you did because Mr Dimaggio is your home run hero and you live here in the Bronx not far from the Yankee Stadium."
"But it sounds complicated, Ali? I mean I gotta see the system. And how about memorizing things that ain't numbers?"
"First it should be aren't not ain't, OK? I am going to give you a book you can get all that stuff from. But the point I want to make now is that your brain remembers and recalls concrete meaning words and the word pictures and stories much, much, much easier and quicker than it does an abstract idea like a many-digit number. This may not mean much to you now but as you think about it over the next days, and read the book on memory, and actually do it yourself - as I say, 'hands-on' -, you will understand what a step-up this knowledge will give you over almost everyone else you know. Imagine yourself just glancing at a 20-digit number and recalling it instantly! And, as you'll see, it's not just memorizing and spouting numbers, it's converting the abstract into the concrete. So, even outside of numbers, you read a paragraph and convert it into a single idea. Instead of 200 words, you recall it all by the idea.
"When I am finished with you, kid, you will be able to give me the Declaration of Independence after one quick reading, maybe not word for word but in its order of ideas. It will give you a big benefit on tests. Immediately your IQ is going to soar very high up because IQ is, after all, the number of questions you get right on the test."
Eddie looks dazed but excited. A door has opened for him, a door none of his friends have access to. A future looms and zooms.
For next, click 12.42 D'Annunzio & Mussolini
“Ain't that a coffee pot?”
“Not 'ain't'; 'Isn't'! Then she adds, “My first lesson in cooking is: Don't use metal pots if you can help it.”
“Why?”
“The metal ion – iron or aluminum – gets into the boiling water and food.”
“Why?”
“The metal ion – iron or aluminum – gets into the boiling water and food.”
“I know aluminum from my chemistry set. Can it make me sick?”
“You wouldn't notice anything once or twice but if you cook from metal for years you go crazy. So we use glass, which is silicon dioxide and it don't get into the boiling water.”
She hands him the pot. “Wash it out. Always wash your stuff before cooking.”
He does it and she says, “Ok, now put in ye amount of water.” She says ye like yay and shows him with her fingers-spread how much water. He puts in the water and she comments. “The tap water is OK for boiling but if you are going to drink it, you use purified. Oh, I must remember to bring some next time. Better, I'll bring charcoal and show you how to purify your tap water.”
She hands him the pot. “Wash it out. Always wash your stuff before cooking.”
He does it and she says, “Ok, now put in ye amount of water.” She says ye like yay and shows him with her fingers-spread how much water. He puts in the water and she comments. “The tap water is OK for boiling but if you are going to drink it, you use purified. Oh, I must remember to bring some next time. Better, I'll bring charcoal and show you how to purify your tap water.”
This gives an idea of Ali's tutoring. She directs Eddie's making the spaghetti himself because hands-on experience is learned best, And she makes sure to teach the reasons for.
After supper, she gives 30 minutes for relaxation; she in living room and he in his room, which is in the southeast part of the apartment, down the hall from the foyer. She acts as timekeeper using her Swiss wrist alarm. As she explains, "I do everything by numbers".
At 30 minutes, Eddie comes in and sits across from her. She starts. "I shall teach you memory. And to impress you, please, right now, write a 20-digit number."
She hands him pencil and paper. "And don't let me see you write it." He does it.
"Now. just flash it to me." He shows it for a few seconds. She is quiet for a moment and then with the pencil writes: "20468373248097169423."
"Gee! How'd you do that?"
"In a minute, kid. First allow me to explain about memory and recall. Now we use numbers as a paradigm to analyze the process of memory and recall." Seeing his puzzlement she stops. "Paradigm means a good example. A good word for you because none of your friends will know it, and it will mark you as a Brain." She continues. "What I call working memory is simply rapid recall of what we see or hear or even feel or experience from other senses like sounds, images or smells. Science still don't know much about the brain's workings but up at Harvard my old Uncle brought me up as a teenager and I sat in on chalk talks, as they called the seminars. And in particular on Memory. So what I got from them explains the secrets of my remarkable recall and also gives useful points to improve memory. The secret of remembering like a mental marvel is to make the thing you need to memorize more easily memorable by making it picturable or storyable so your brain has an easier time paying attention to it and keeping a mental eye on it for recall.
Now let me demonstrate." She takes the cardboard and a black marker from the sofa table between them and, out of his view, writes "613613421270113".
"OK. I just wrote down this number." she flashes it in front of him. Then she says in measured voice "Joe Dimaggio hit a home run at Yankee Stadium".
He looks at her, puzzled.
"Now Eddie. Can you give me back the 15-digit number I just showed you?" He shakes head No.
"Can you give me back the words I just told you about your favorite baseball guy?"
"Sure, Ali, how can I forget. Joe Dimaggio hit a home run at Yankee. Stadium I see him do it there almost every Sunday when the Yankees are in town. So what does that prove?"
My recall converts the digit numbers 1 to 9 and the zero, each to a basic sound. And once you know the sound for each digit or the zero, which is easy to learn; then with a little practice you can change any number in seconds to a set of words that you can't help but recall immediately - like you did because Mr Dimaggio is your home run hero and you live here in the Bronx not far from the Yankee Stadium."
"But it sounds complicated, Ali? I mean I gotta see the system. And how about memorizing things that ain't numbers?"
"First it should be aren't not ain't, OK? I am going to give you a book you can get all that stuff from. But the point I want to make now is that your brain remembers and recalls concrete meaning words and the word pictures and stories much, much, much easier and quicker than it does an abstract idea like a many-digit number. This may not mean much to you now but as you think about it over the next days, and read the book on memory, and actually do it yourself - as I say, 'hands-on' -, you will understand what a step-up this knowledge will give you over almost everyone else you know. Imagine yourself just glancing at a 20-digit number and recalling it instantly! And, as you'll see, it's not just memorizing and spouting numbers, it's converting the abstract into the concrete. So, even outside of numbers, you read a paragraph and convert it into a single idea. Instead of 200 words, you recall it all by the idea.
"When I am finished with you, kid, you will be able to give me the Declaration of Independence after one quick reading, maybe not word for word but in its order of ideas. It will give you a big benefit on tests. Immediately your IQ is going to soar very high up because IQ is, after all, the number of questions you get right on the test."
Eddie looks dazed but excited. A door has opened for him, a door none of his friends have access to. A future looms and zooms.
For next, click 12.42 D'Annunzio & Mussolini
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