justice kennedy and sam alito bring food from home and sometimes i see sam's fare and i think maybe i should eat dinner with him more often. [ laughter ] as with justice kennedy, because both their spouses are wonderful cooks. some justices like justice stevens ate a cheese sandwich on white bread with the crusts cut off virtually every day that i sat with him for a year. and i understand -- and ruth can tell me this because i didn't have the privilege of knowing his wife well -- she was a wonderful cook. >> she was a dietitian so she was a very healthy food provider but there was a time when he was on a diet and he had grapefruits cut in half, he ate both halves. >> that was before my time. >> i'd like to get back to martin ginsburg just a little bit. justice ginsburg, you were talking about the wife's teas in the late 19th century and the role supreme court wives were expected to play but your husband played an extremely important role internally at the court by being such a joyful participant in the spouse luncheons. spouse luncheons are held -- is it four times a year? and they're

i mentioned sam alito. but her also merrick garland who learned his law in this city and he is the guy on the hot seat right now. so it's very much a new york story. and what's going to decide? what's going to decide the election is which -- who fills that slot on the supreme court, what's going to decide it is which man hot night becomes president of the united states, whether it's donald j. trump or basically hillary clinton. so it's very much a new york story and the supreme court is very much on the ballot. and when you have judges, for example, who decide -- who oust a president of the united states in effect, richard nixon, or pick a president of the united states, george w. bush, or basically tell us who can vote and who can't with id laws and all the rest, the court is influencing in important ways in close elections who is going to win and who is not. and so these things interact. very interesting interaction between the presidency and the court. so that was my first big thing. my others are shorte