HOW dONALD tRUMP GOT THE COVID

I was born on the lower east side of Manhattan but at a very early age my parents moved to Queens. My father was one of eight children and, while we and one of his sisters (my father was the youngest of the 8) trekked to Queens, the rest of the family remained in the Al Smith housing projects. It was a very “close knit” family and we spent almost every Sunday at my grandparents’ small apartment with my aunts and uncles and my countless cousins who were coming in and out all day. It was never dull.

 

There was a gypsy lineage on my paternal grandfather’s side. My mom informed me of this when I was quite young. She told me about the rituals she was required to go through before she married my dad. Several of my aunts and uncles and their kids had a dark exotic look to them.  I had a few beautiful cousins. I thought it was cool to have a gypsy connection and the coolest thing about it was watching my aunts and uncles put curses on each other.

 

Sundays were pretty much spent watching my aunts and uncles going through their checklist of curses. There would be negotiations and apologies. Several curses were lifted only to be replaced as some grievance, often from their childhood, re-emerged. There would be screeching, shouting and pulling of hair.  Once in a while a fight would break out. Then the curse would come. They remembered them all.

 

Even my older cousins would get into the act. If their parent cursed a sibling they would throw curses on their cousins.

 

It was fantastic. I would sit there sucking on sugar cubes that I was dipping in strong caffeinated coffee.  I would drink it out of a memorial (yahrzeit) glass. Sometimes I would add matzo farfel.  I was flying and enjoying the show.

 

I guess because we lived in Queens I never connected with my father’s family and they sort of ignored me so for me this was anthropology. I have no idea if these curses ever worked but watching my family cursing each other, and taking it as seriously as they did, has stayed with me my entire life. Which brings me to donald trump and his stooges contracting COVID.

 

It appears that this may have started during the ceremony to announce Amy Coney Barrett as the replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the supreme court. Now I don’t know if RBG shared my jewish/gypsy bloodline but I would like to believe that after she told her granddaughter….

 

My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed

 

…I like to think that Ruth’s face darkened and she pulled her grandchild near her and said…

 

or there will be hell to pay

 

That’s what I’d like to think.