The Closing of Copeland's

If you are a New Yorker, especially an uptown Manhattan person, you've no doubt heard about, and probably even patronized, Copeland's -- the dream and product of hard work of Calvin Copeland. But times caught up with Mr. Copeland and Sunday was his final day in that famous space on West 145th Street. For $25 Sunday you could enjoy some wonderful live music and you could eat all you could. Believe me, some of the folks did just that.

People came from far and near. Some came because they'd seen or heard something in the news and wanted to represent. Some, including a celebrity baker, came as volunteers. Most, like myself, had once been regulars though the myriad choices now available in a booming Harlem made Copeland's less the must-go-there place. Star Jones Reynolds and her husband Al heard about the closing while vacationing in France and upon landing stateside Sunday made a bee-line for Copeland's where Star said she just had to have a final order of chicken wings from one of her favorite places. Rep. Charles Rangel, among the many politicians to attend or send representatives or issue proclamations, noted: "Calvin Copeland for over five decades has endured, through the riots of the 1960s, the crack epidemic of the 1980s, personal financial ruin and even fire, [and] found a way through his cooking to keep people like me, Muhammad Ali, Richard Pryor, Stevie Wonder, David Dinkins, Harry Belafonte, Dakota Staton, Natalie Cole, Bishop Tutu, Sammy Davis Jr. and Michael Jackson as frequent and enthusiastic customers...."

Malcolm X's daughter, Attilah Shabazz, stood on line with everybody else, some for more than an hour in the rain, trying to get in for that final meal. Mr. Copeland, 82, was the gracious host, chatting with everyone, posing for pictures.

There were parties of six and parties of twelve and parties of twenty -- and I couldn't help but think if all these folks had been more faithful, maybe Copeland's would still be around. But, on the other hand, Mr. Copeland did not keep up with the times and has said that he was caught off guard by this boomtown Harlem and its culinary tastebuds.

Amazon.com, I love you, but at the same time...

I greatly admire Amazon.com for its commitment to getting merchandise to customers at the time guaranteed. I live on an island for much of the year, and even here, books arrive at the appointed time. If not, then Amazon makes it up to customers.

My Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a prime example. The three copies I ordered did not arrive by July 21st, as promised. They did arrive on July 23d. So I get the books for no charge except the $5.97 shipping fee. That means three copies of Harry Potter for just under $2 (yes, two dollars!) per book. Not the $35 list price or the $18-$19 pre-release price of some of the big retailers.

But in dealing with customer service to straighten out a glitch in the initial order, I found myself talking to a customer service person in INDIA. Then when dealing with customer service to report that I had not received my books on the 21st, I found myself talking to a customer service person in THE PHILLIPINES.

On a personal side, I suppose I am benefitting from this outsourcing of jobs from the U.S. to countries with cheaper labor costs. But as an American I am angry that Amazon is paying foreigners to do jobs that Americans would be perfectly willing to do even for minimum wage, which just today went up to $5.85.