Page 512 - WhyAsInY

Why (as in yaverbaum)
ing with my parents in Somers. My mother has prepared dinner, to be served on the glass dining room table that is situated on a very light beige carpet. The candidate assists by carrying a baked-bean casserole to the table but doesn’t quite make it that far. She then assists by attempt- ing to remove the casserole from the rug, somewhat successfully. I love this woman.
My mother, having been informed of this woman’s religious back- ground, is stymied. She likes her a lot and is happy that her son is happy and safe, but she can’t refer to her as a “Jewnitarian,” and “Jewish Scien- tist” doesn’t quite do it; she develops a partial paralysis of her left cheek.
Weeks later, we’re driving on Northern Boulevard with David and Daniel, and I teach them how to give the finger to other drivers who engage in unsatisfactory moves. I advise them to do it without displaying their middle finger vertically, as was the custom in Great Neck. Instead, I advise, turn the hand to a palm-down position and then extend the finger in their direction horizontally. I christen the maneuver “the direc- tional.” They practice this to perfection and spend a good portion of the balance of the trip by jointly and loudly singing out, “Marry her!”
In another few weeks, we are dining in one of my favorite restau- rants, Peter Luger’s, where Dwight Gooden, a phenomenal pitcher, and a number of other Mets are a table or two away. She is wearing a blue and white St. John knit and looks absolutely beautiful. I ask her to marry me.
She accepts!
I move into 7 Longview soon thereafter. (See Chapter Twenty- Eight for details.) We, two lawyers, do an analysis of the tax consequences of marrying in December or in January. January saves us money, but love prevails.
On December 3, 1989, a day almost as cold as January 4 had been, eleven months after she emerged from the elevator, we are married by Rabbi Emily Korzenik (Debby’s mother) in the rabbi’s home on Car- thage Road in Scarsdale, New York, probably three hundred yards or so from 31 Farragut Road. My parents, her parents, her sons, Daniel and David, and Danny, Peter, and Rachel are in attendance. The four boys are elected to hold the four poles that hold the chuppah, one corner of
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