Churchill, Indian Food, and The Black Cat.

You can have interesting experiences living in New York, even on a prosaic summer evening. Take last night, for instance, when my wife and I decided to visit the Churchill exhibit (through September 23) at the Morgan Library and Museum, located on Madison Avenue at 36th St.

The Churchill exhibit is essentially a reading show, in which original documents and papers relevant to the great statesman's life were exhibited under glass cases. With patience and a lot of close reading, this documentation was a revelation of materials written by Churchill or actual documents that he reviewed, primarily concerning WWII and his critical relationship with President Franklin Roosevelt.

The greatest discovery for me was visiting a small theatre area inside the exhibition, in which recordings of his famous speeches were played together with accompanying photos. His words were simultaneously displayed onscreen in "verses", as if they were free-verse poetry. Everyone knows of Churchill's eloquence, but I thought this manner of presentation was rather affected and uncalled for. Imagine my surprise when I saw the original drafts in the glass cases and discovered that this was actually the way he wrote his addresses!

That was not the only revelation in the show. Did you know that Churchill's mother, Jennie Jerome, was an American born and raised in Brooklyn? Or that Churchill was not the author of the phrase, the "Iron Curtain", although he appropriated and made it memorable? Many of his broadcast words-- "Give us the tools, and we will finish the job"-- are always inspiring and worth hearing.

After the show, we went to dinner. One of the many benefits of the City are the vast array of available cuisines. We chose Indian food, one of our favorites, and in a few minutes of walking came to dozens of Indian restaurants clustered along Lexington Avenue in the 20's, where we enjoyed authentic dishes inexpensively alongside many locals of Indian descent. Following a walk down to Greenwich Village, we went home.

The excitement unexpectedly continued. The neighborhood black cat I blogged about recently managed to get inside our house through an open window. In the pre-dawn hours, I encountered something black and alive next to me on the bed. My heart stopped momentarily until I realized what had happened and carried the silent intruder back outside.

Never a dull moment in New York.