When I was a kid and my dad was working in Albany, New York we used to go to Joe’s which in those days was the most authentic New York style delicatessen in the city. You could get your smorgasbord “to go” or “eat in” for indeed many of the New York legislators and their pals would occupy the banquettes and tables and hunch over the pasta Alfredo or the unbelievable roast beef sandwiches. They used to offer a sandwich they called “The Londoner” which was the rarest roast beef piled high on first rate Jewish rye with horseradish and Russian dressing, tomatoes, and by god I’ve searched all my days ever since for a sandwich that could match it and I’ve never found it–not at the Carnegie Deli or the Stage Deli in New York,not at Katzinger’s Deli in Columbus, Ohio (a famous German town), not in London or Poughkeepsie. And so I say let others bemoan the fall from grace of esteemed poets of yore, let others chatter about the good old days when men were men and women were glad of it, or encourage your neighbors to admit they miss Richard Nixon–I don’t give a tinker’s damn for these sentimental preoccupations for my personal regret is that America no longer produces the sandwiches of bygone days and perhaps, just perhaps this is why we no longer have bi-partisanship in the legislative body politic. I’m just sayin’.
S.K.
Planet of the Blind 
Have you tried Zingerman’s deli in Ann Arbor, MI?
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