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One morning, in the middle of a slice, I was informed that a 94-year-old woman from Denver was on the phone and wanted to speak to me. They have been talking to people to chronicle how each of the interviewees was affected by COVID-19. The New York Times interview, however, was looking for more than a story of an old lox slicer returning to work. One of the comments I made was that it was very important for older people to stay in the mix.Īpparently, the phrase “Stay in the mix” was recognized as good advice in order to live a better life in one’s latter years it seems to have caught on out there. By the time the interview started, this tall, good-looking, friendly, master interviewer had me just where he wanted me - relaxed, comfortable in the interview setting, ready and more than willing to answer his questions. We talked a bit before the interview, while the crew was setting things up. I was interviewed by Anthony Mason on the street outside of Zabar’s. Another CBS crew filmed my arrival at the garage and my short walk across Broadway to Zabar’s. CBS was the best of the interviews, I thought, particularly since it was my fourth interview and I had become sufficiently relaxed.ĬBS actually sent a staff interviewer and photographer to my house and shot video of our morning departure.

SLICE IT FORWARD SERIES

Then, there was a series of video interviews: Fox News, The New York Times, NewYorkNico, the Instagrammer and CBS all wanted their turn with “The Lox Whisperer,” one of my many new names. I thanked him for the offer, which I politely declined and suggested that perhaps he could find a family member for whom the knife would have some meaning.Īnd then, I received an email from a prominent New Yorker, who has written five books, three of which made The New York Times best-seller list, asking whether it would be OK for him and his cousin to visit me at Zabar’s. He felt that if he didn’t give the knife to someone like me it would wind up in the garbage heap after he died. It included an offer to give me the very knife his grandfather used to slice lox back then. On June 4, I received an email from a man whose grandfather owned an appetizing store in New York in the early 1900s. Being somewhat suspicious by nature, I felt a bit uncomfortable with putting my signature on the article, so I just wrote “Best, Len.” “I want my son to understand how wonderful it is to be able to enjoy what one does each day - whether you are young or an elder,” the letter’s author said, further referencing my love and dedication to my craft and how that is a great learning experience for his son.Ī few days later, I received an envelope in the mail containing a copy of the Post article, a stamped, self-addressed envelope, and a request that I autograph the article and return it.

I received a letter from the president of a San Francisco law firm, who had read about me and enclosed a copy of his son’s seven-page bar mitzvah speech, which made several references to Moses and lox. Things started happening to me that had never happened before. Apparently, there appears to be some interest out there in the story of a 91 year old returning to work. It dealt with my return to work after a yearlong furlough from Zabar’s, during the COVID-19 lockdown. This whole new phase of me in the world started with an article called “Lox of Love,” which appeared in the April 24 edition of The New York Post. One viewer said that I was sharper than the knife I used to slice lox, but the comment that I loved the most, which flew off the page of the phone into my mind’s eye, was the one by “ Stevebe2” who said, “He’s my dad!” The names they were calling me: “a legend,” “a national treasure,” “inspirational.” “The GOAT of lox” (whatever that means). There were more than 50,000 hits and comments galore.

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