RIP Arnie

An acquaintance of mine, Arnold Waldstein just passed.  I found out from my wife, who read another friend’s Facebook post.  I didn’t know he was ill.

Frankly, we commiserated a lot after meeting at AVC.  Private texts, emails, and the like.  There was some personal stuff but it was mostly business.  We tried to help each other.  He was a Yankees fan, I was a Cubs fan so we were cool.  We understood the value of having totally different networks and that might be able to help one another.

I never pried into Arnie’s background or his family.  I don’t even know if he had sisters or brothers.  I know he had a girlfriend, a son and Sam the Cat.  I do know when his mom passed away it affected him deeply.  She was in her late 90s.  His dad passed away a while ago.

He liked it when I was up in MN.  He told me about his experiences in upstate NY back in the 60s and how it sometimes reminded him of that.

Our relationship deteriorated over politics which I suspect has happened to a lot of people.  Arnie ended it.  He hated Trump and could never understand why anyone let alone me might support him. I never reached out after he did.  It was not worth the effort and I knew that if he were of value to something I was doing I would not have hesitated to reach out.  I generally don’t choose friends over politics unless they are abusive or try to inflict harm in some way.

That has happened to me too and I ended the relationship.

Arnie had never spent time in flyover country, and during his life and career he never really interacted with blue-collar people.  So, it was hard for him to understand it.  It’s more than Hillbilly Elegy, which is an extreme.

I valued Arnie because he sent me to some great places in NYC.  He introduced me to Racine’s and Russ and Daughters.  We met for lunch in the smallest little places which was fun for a guy from Chicago.  Chicago has great places, but they are larger footprints.  I bought the last time we saw each other physically and when I die, I hope he has a table waiting for me with some steaming matzoh ball soup and pastrami.

I am off Twitter until the company changes.  Their policies and implementation of them are evil, and so is their management. I am on Parler.

So, instead of tweeting a little message to Arnie’s descendants and friends, I thought I’d just post here.  If they find it, they will know that Arnie touched a lot of people and had a lot of loose friends that are out there that have them in their thoughts today.  I don’t know what Arnie wants for burial, but if you spread his ashes in Tulum and then have a picnic by the sea with a glass of natural wine, he will be happy.

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