Fitted out my nephew Josale
with his first pair of shoes, how
cute he is.
home & movies
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Matt’s Notes
Interestingly, this is the first time Papa has written a cheerful entry about his nephew, Josale, because it’s the first time circumstances have allowed him to. As you’ll recall, Papa’s sister, Nettie, gave birth to Josale a little over six months ago and just a day before Papa learned of his own father’s death. Papa and his other sister, Clara, decided to keep the bad news from Nettie while she convalesced, though Nettie became suspicious when the family insisted on naming the baby after Papa’s father, Joseph. (Jews normally don’t name their children after the living.) Papa then entered a long period of self-reflective mourning and only wrote about Josale to describe his chronic, worrisome cough, so it’s a relief to see Papa at last write something as unexceptional about him as “how cute he is.” I suppose it was a relief for Papa, too.
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Josele’s birth and Papa’s father’s death were so closely tied that I often wonder if Papa found it hard to be around Josele without really knowing why. Is this happy entry about Josele a sign that Papa has gotten over his grief a bit more?
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Papa’s been going to the movies a lot lately, but he hasn’t said which ones he’s seen. According to the New York Times, there are a couple of new choices in town since he last went a couple of days ago:
- Married Flirts, a light shipboard comedy based on the novel Mrs. Paramor
- The Midnight Express, a thriller shown with Charlie Chaplin’s The Pilgrim