You don't have to be a Supreme Court Justice and

eat Chinese food to know that Nassau OTB can't express its religious preference in closing on Roman Catholic Easter Sunday in preference to Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday. Ditto for Palm Sunday.

High Court Justice Kagan Reminded of Holiday Quip

When Justice Elena Kagan was introduced last week at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in Washington to light the menorah, she was reminded of a line that ensures her a place in U.S. Supreme Court history.
At her 2010 confirmation hearing, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) had asked where she was the previous Christmas, the day of an unsuccessful airplane-bombing attempt.
"Like all Jews, I was probably at a Chinese restaurant," Justice Kagan responded.
That is likely the one remark "in my entire life that will be quoted most," Justice Kagan recalled Thursday. "At least to Jewish audiences."
She was on hand to deliver the Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Lecture. The event actually was a conversation with literary critic Leon Wieseltier that touched on her judicial models, her favorite opinion and her impressions of the Israeli Supreme Court, which she visited last summer.
Yet true to her prediction, Justice Kagan couldn't live down her Christmas quip.
"Some people asked me, 'Was that prepared?' " Justice Kagan said. "Really, you think the White House would have let me say something like that?"
"There was a Chinese restaurant at about 72nd and Broadway, very close to where I grew up, and they had put up in the window a big sign that said, 'We love you, too, Elena Kagan,' " she recalled. "Pretty much everybody in New York sent me a picture of that sign."
"And when I was confirmed, the same Chinese restaurant put up a big sign that said, 'Mazel tov!' "
Her appointment reverberated beyond the Jewish community, Mr. Wieseltier said. "You have not created expectations in the hearts of Washington's Jews, so much as in the hearts of Washington's Chinese restaurants."
—Jess Bravin


I-

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Home > LI Confidential > Stop scratching on holidays

Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012

Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.