My Apology to Goldenstein Wherever You May Be

Yesterday as my correction notes, as I occasionally do, I confused a name and wrote out one in place of the other. It’s something that happens. I’d prefer that it not but it does  especially when my editors are tired.

It reminds me of the time when I was cross-examining a witness in an arson case. He was presenting an alibi for the defendant suggesting that he remembered something because the day before he drove to Saratoga to watch the horse races. The Saratogo Race Track is in Saratoga Springs, NY.

Not being much of a horse racing fan I never heard of Saratoga. What I thought he said was he went to Sarasota. I knew Sarasota was in Florida. So I jumped into my examination asking “are you telling the jury you drove to Sarasota just to go to the track?” He’d say “Saratoga.” I heard Sarasota. I repeated the question adding emphasis to it while looking at the jury to show my utter disbelief in his statement. He’d say “Saratoga.” I’d hear Sarasota. This went back and forth for a bit. I’m not sure what the jury thought of my performance but I’m sure it wasn’t impressed.

Yesterday I wrote about the Comey firing. I talked about the memo Rosenstein sent. Twice I took quotes from other sources that had the name Rosenstein in them. When I was writing I use the name Goldenstein. Both I assume are considered to be Jewish names. I mixed them up. It wasn’t that I wrote the name Goldenstein and the memo was written by a guy named Richardson or O’Malley. It wasn’t because I was trying to emphasize the Jewishness of the memo writer because I don’t believe the name Rosenstein is more or less Jewish than Goldenstein.

The fact is that when I was writing the post the idea of Rosenstein being Jewish did not have anything to do with the facts.  Even now with the issue being raised I can’t see writing anything differently than I would have done if his name was Canata, Gendrolis, or Polska. So why am I even writing about this?

A guy who identified himself as Jonathan Starr with a harvard.edu address wrote this in a comment to me. “Are you deliberately confusing the names Goldenstein and Rosenstein in your post? Conspicuous in your constant maligning of the Jews in your posts, you are desperately looking for more Jews to blame or to ridicule.”

I wrote back to him: “Wow. The anti-Jew card. I’ve been posting over 5 years. Show me any post maligning the Jews  What’s with you?  If I erroneously wrote Goldenstein rather than Rosenstein how is that anti-Jewish. How am I looking for more Jews to blame?  Do you think I am suggesting two people wrote the memo? For your information and perhaps to your dismay the idea of Jewishness did not even occur to me for the simple reason it is not relevant to the matter. You apparently think that it is. I don’t know you or your background but let me suggest it is people like you that make false allegations like you did who do damage to Jews when you take a comment having nothing to do with Jewishness and suggesting that it does. You must live in a very narrow world.”

I don’t have any idea who the person who calls himself Jonathan Starr is. He could be Crazy Red who used to go through the trash barrels in our neighborhood. I know I should ignore his comment.

I would but I did write the name Goldenstein instead of Rosenstein. I corrected that but I fear somewhere there might be a person named Goldenstein who may be bothered that I threw the name into the stew surrounding Trump. For that I apologize to him or her.

As for Crazy Red I’ve said all I need to say. Perhaps I should have ignored his empty comment. But there is an old adage that silence is consent. And I found his allegations offensive so I had to respond.

That left me with one question. How did I come up with the name Goldenstein? I don’t recall knowing anyone by that name. Then it occurred to me. Recently I read 1984. In that there was a character named Goldstein. I combined both names (Rosen and Gold) and came up with Goldenstein.

Which leads me to another question: “why does what is going on now with Trump remind me of 1984?”