or, There and Back Again Without Leaving (BECAUSE OF WORDPRESS, I’M REPUBLISHING this 2002 piece — it works better as a “post” than as a “page” — and although my kippa-wearing has become a bit less pronounced of late it…
“Judaism As Art”
Tag: arm’s length
Because the word “community” is over-used.
The Two Hardest Words To Say
“HELP ME.”
High Weirdness By Mail: A Hobby In Four Acts
YOU WILL FIRST NEED A healthy interest in the way people interpret the inexplicable — their beliefs, theories, conspiracies, religions, philosophies, ideologies and desperate explanations of What’s Behind It All. (N.B. This works better if you’re a non-dogmatic critical thinker…
Dorothy Parker Nailed It
(From the should-be-better-known blog Letters of Note, here’s a desperate telegram dispatched by a wall-stuck author to her (apparently, or at least in Ms. Parker’s mind) neck-breathing editor. Between this and the previous post my own writer’s block should be…
Despite The Profanity, He Makes A Good Point
IT’S SO TEMPTING TO SAY “I wish I’d written this” when you find something which crystallizes inchoate feelings into verbal fistpump and hellyeah. I fully recognize the irony in blogging about a piece which calls blogs into question. But reading…
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.
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.”
Knubel Borscht: Adapting Memory
TUCKED INTO MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER’S BIBLE is a yellowed sheet of paper containing the flavor of living tradition. In short, it’s my mom’s recipe for knubel borscht (pronounced “k’nubble”): beef simmered in beet soup and garlic. That’s it: three ingredients, plus…
Yuri’s Night Out
A REMEMBRANCE OF FEATS PAST is a great excuse for a party — that’s the idea behind “Yuri’s Night,” which celebrates the cracking of the final frontier. “Human Spaceflight became a reality 50 years ago with the launch of a…
April is National Words Month
(PASS IT ON.) AND USE yours with care — they’re a non-renewable resource.
Unplug: Can You Do It?
LAST NIGHT I DREAMED I was drunk, belligerent and enjoying myself — not a good combination, nor one which I experience (or wish to experience) in real life. The subject of my tirade seems to have been the apologetic and…
Compassionings
IT IS PRECISELY AT THAT moment when compassion seems most remote that it is most greatly needed. This principle is easier spoken than implemented — what isn’t? — but holds true not only for the individual, who is buffeted by…