IN THE PRESENT, EVERYONE CAN be famous for 15 seconds — which is just long enough to click on the next temporary celebrity.
365 Names: “G-d”
G-D is a bit of linguistic trickery. Because traditional Judaism teaches that the name of G?d (see what I did there?) is not to be erased, “G-d” is a way to write that Name without really writing it: on a Hebrew school blackboard, say, or a Xeroxed handout, or a computer screen, or any transient or otherwise ephemeral medium. Of course, as Rabbi Larry Kushner points out, “‘God’ is not God’s name” — thus, erasing “God” should pose no theological problem. Some habits, though, are hard to break. (So what’s with the question mark? See here, o seeker after Divine nomenclature.)
How to Dress a Salad
THIS IS A DEVICE OF my own invention, based on a semi-traditional vinaigrette formula, with additives. It will keep unrefrigerated for a couple of weeks (perhaps longer, but at a salad or two a week I haven’t had a chance to test that theory yet).
Into a shakeable container (a Mason or jam jar, say), put:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning blend
1/4 tsp sugar
Salt (to taste, if needed)
“Let’s Go See!”
TO THE SMALL CATALOGUE OF meaningful three-word human phrases (“I love you,” “let me help,” “take your time,” “hold my beer”) should be added one pertaining to perhaps that oldest of motivations: “Let’s go see!”
Mind you, this drive isn’t limited to spacetime exploration (planets, moons, continents, seas, cells, et al). It can also, with some judiciousness, be applied to the arts: “Let’s go see if we can … write a novel without using the letter ‘e'” “… paint without brushes” “… string together found sounds / texts / images” “… fly.” All of these and more result from a desire and need to experiment, tinker and otherwise satisfy our primate curiosity.
Words to Bring Back: Declaim
– Definition: v. Utter or deliver words or a speech in a rhetorical or impassioned way, as if to an audience.
– Used in a sentence: Less defaming, more declaiming.
– Why: What with the rise of social media, the audience is a given. Might as well own it.
On the “OK Boomer!” Contretemps
SERIOUSLY ASK YOURSELF THIS QUESTION: “Who (and what) profits from pitting one generation of progressives so viciously and stereotypingly against another?”
The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness.”
— Andre Malraux