Whipped Cream Difficulties

Bel Kaufman has passed away at the age of 103.

For those of you who need an introduction, Ms. Kaufman wrote the hugely successful 1965 novel Up the Down Staircase, based on her experiences teaching in New York city schools.

Over the years, Ms. Kaufman was often asked whether the memorandums in “Up the Down Staircase” were real. Though they were inane enough to look real, she explained, in fact, she had invented most of them. (Ms. Kaufman did include a few actual New York City Board of Education memos, but had to tone them down to make them credible.)