America n-Je"ih com mu nit). The rano ofJews to non-Jews dnnllld.L pc It Do J 11'11l h •nroudcd h. rh ,£ 11. ht of l . e. 1m to . \ "' -'c ra1 _ · promis in American society \\ ill hrin k dramaticall)'·Intermarriage will be d1 em Iba.e an ..__ . .1i_ , ·et k no". rampant. The old Jewish esublish mem w;ll fossilize, a nd fewer w . ,.... I )ol-c Snow Orthodox jew will be affiliated or :ictile in Jewish life. American Jewry llld and the En ntllll and r mg, Briush. Like Bcntwiu•. ·don and the Lale Oi I love the English 1 pub and the Fnglish countryside. I )ol-e rhe will still be far more vibrant tha n Eu rope's. But look.i ng across the ocean at their European and British cousi ns,America n Jews will be able to see ...... , t c tea ritu I eS· --ui,.theHcbr' a a nd DC\·on's clotted cream. Jam Ill hills of I Hnd the Scot111h High la nds and thesoft greeo what the twenty-fi rst centu ry holds, and it is noca pretty sight. So should my great-grandfather disembark? If he doesn't, my per- •re the deeP . of English . ·, I am 1dent1!)· on y
9 HE CRJLL STATION is hell. You stand or it for five minutes and you think: So chis is what Dante had in mind. It is in a dark, hot corner-hotter chan any ocher spot in the kitchen; honer than v.here e in your life. Recently air-conditioning was installed in the lcnchen, bur there is none over the grill dunng service:how else can it rna1nta1n ns consistent hot tempcnrurel The light is bad, for no smsi· ble reason ncept that there 1.Sn't enough of it, reinforcing a feeling of a pl.cc where no one wants to be-100 greasy, too u npleasanL What light thtre is seems ro oome from the Barnes themselves: they arelit about an hour before the service starts and remain burni ng for the next eight hours. I hadn't thought through the implimions of learning the station. I never projected myself into this corner. doing its tasks.Mario said go there;I went and crossed the wall of heat I'd once erected in my mind, feeling the sudden rise in perature os a crack li ng sensation my skin. Close up, Mark Barrett, who had been t0ld to reach me the job, ttminded me of a person from another era.I!is hands had a «ntury griminess. His fingernails v.cre crescent moons of black cake. Has foreanns were hairless and ribbed ,.,,h pu rple bums. His eyes were magnified-he blinked distortedly bth1nd glasses-and his n.snll bandaged from being broken, was streaked wuh sooty stttams of grease. He could have been a nearsighted chim ney sweep.He smelled olswear. Mark described the station. There were rwo cooking devices besides the grill. An oven was to your right to 6nish the cooking of large items, like 3 three-inch-thick steak (first on the grill, then in the oven), and a flattop Wai to the left for preparing rhe co11
The Lea rning Curve A TEAR A PTER MY GRADUATION from the School of the Art lnsdrute of Chicago, a terrible mistake was made and I was offered a position teaching a writing workshop. I had gone to gradua te school, and although several of my stories had been Xeroxed and stapled, none of them had ever been published in the traditional sense of the word. Like branding sreers or embalming rhe dead, teaching was a profession I had ne\u seriously condcred. I was dearly unqualified, ycr I accepted the job wirhout hesitation, as It would allow me co wear a tie and goby the name of Mr. Sedaris. My father went by the same name, and though he li"ed a thousand miles away, I liked to imagine someone ting the rwo of us confused. "Wait a minu te," this someone might say, "ai·e you talking abou t Mr.Sedaris the retired man 83