Living

Game of Life: Rules

THE UNIVERSE IS FULL OF “Learn Here” stickers, each with a different adhesive strength. Collect enough and you win.

PS to my friend, Lillian, who says, “Define ‘enough'” — if you’re still collecting, you haven’t won yet.

Living

Ol’ Thinkypants Fesses Up

“HELL, BOY, THE ONLY DIFFERENCE between us is that I know I’m asleep. Now if you want to see a real miracle, hand me that wrench.”

Etc

Paleostyle Question

I UNDERSTAND WHY CARTOON DEPICTIONS of “cavemen” show them dressed in fur. But why does the fur usually drape over one shoulder?

Living, Torah

I Am a Religious Man Unthreatened By Science, Secularity And Reason

I Am a Religious Man Unthreatened By Science, Secularity And Reason • 2011.06.09 • 400 words

(IN FACT, THE WHOLE “REASON” I “am” “religious” in the first place is only due to a direct perception [some might say delusion] that the Universe is, in some essential and indescribable sense, alive and conscious. I can’t help seeing that, feeling a part of it, and celebrating it.)

(Also, as much as I love science [and I do!], I’m even more fascinated by rituals and customs, folkways, folklore, manners, stories, legends, and myths.

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Living

Brian “Farwell” Eaton, A”H (RIP)

Brian Farwell A"H

MY FRIEND BRIAN FARWELL DIED May 25, and as his face was more familiar than his name to the folks in our little Anatevka-among-the-vines I volunteered to post his photo here. (This photo was taken in January 2010, at Congregation Shir Shalom‘s Tu B’Shevat seder; Brian was seated, as usual, next to then-Rabbi Jack Gabriel.) Like many of my friends, Brian faced some difficult challenges but he was a big man with a big heart and an unquenchable thirst for both knowledge and laughter. His funeral will be in Burlingame Hall at 11 a.m., Monday, June 20. May Brian be remembered among those aspiring to righteousness in Israel and the world.

Torah

Reb Nachum to SF: Keep Your Laws Off My People’s Body

THERE’S A PLACE — CHELM IS its name — where all the inhabitants are so open-minded that they tolerate any behavior whatsoever from anyone they deem open-minded as themselves. It’s a nice place to visit, but I hope never to have to live there.

From the post title, you can guess where I stand on San Francisco’s proposed anti-circumcision measure, which would criminalize the act if performed on anyone under 18 and disallow religious exemptions. But considering that Matthew Hess, the fellow behind it, is the same fellow behind the eye-washingly anti-Semitic “Monster Mohel” comic book, I feel I know as much about his motivations — and defenders — as I need to.

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