Ezzie's Blog Roundup, 10/31: Content

A number of interesting reads out there today, so straight to the point... (I'm trying a new format tool; to see excerpts hit the expand button.)

Today's good reads that I enjoyed include R' Yakov Horowitz - Silence of the Voices,

...the reluctance to express one’s personal opinion is quite upsetting. Why should an individual be uncomfortable or afraid to express his views in a rational and reasonable manner? ...

When people approach me and comment that they are pleased that I am writing columns which express sentiments they have been feeling for a long time, I sometimes ask them with a deadpan expression if I can quote them by name in my next article as having supported my opinions. It is difficult to describe the horror in their eyes and the ‘deer-in-the-headlights’ look I get whenever mention that to someone. I always walk away from these conversations saddened and worried – especially they occur with people who occupy high-profile positions in our kehilos.

R' Gil Student on the idea of depression being a sin,

Additionally, and this is crucial, everyone at various points in life feel depressed. I am concerned about increasing this negative feeling by declaring it sinful. To the opposite, we should be telling people that it is normal and will pass. Why make people feel sinful about something that is perfectly normal? (Note that extreme depression to the point of being disruptive to an individual's social functioning and/or activities of daily living is a disorder that can and should be treated clinically.)

See here about why the saying "מצוה גדולה להיות בשמחה תמיד It is a great mitzvah to be constantly happy" is entirely wrong if taken at face value: link.

Gil again quoting R' Aviner on the ridiculous idea that Olmert "deserves" cancer,

C. People who make comments like this think that they will help the Nation of Israel to repent. "You see, he did this and look what happened to him." This is repentance out of fear.

Ez: I think it's similar to what was touched on in this post about Judaism & Anxiety.

and Chaim continues discussing copying music that a person once owned - a very interesting discussion.

I maintain that there is a loss when a person copies it if he lost or damaged an old CD. There is a loss that up until recently he had to buy it again. This is the process with any other type of product you purchase and break or lose. I think that by using his logic your devaluing the original disc itself. Which gives way for people who think that no one loses if I copy my friends disc because there was no "PHYSICAL" item being stolen.

Elsewhere... Comments from the Peanuts Gallery joins the J-blogosphere with two very good posts; Parshablog (Josh Waxman) [via JBM] discusses R' Moshe's teshuva on stockings, which to my understanding makes them sound like a chumra; and this latest TEDTalk on electroshock therapy and depression was fascinating, particularly as the speaker is talking a lot about his own experiences.

Sleep & School

Orthomom notes an absolutely fascinating study about how much of an effect sleep has on kids' functioning in school. Read the whole thing.

I think this is particularly interesting, as I've always been the "guy who doesn't sleep"... unless you ask my mother or Serach, who argue that I make up for it in the morning. Which, of course, is partially true. When I was in 7th grade, I likely went to sleep far later than most of my peers. Not only was I up late, I simply couldn't fall asleep for hours and hours. On the other hand, I was also the kid who would show up for minyan around Borchu at the earliest, but more often I'd go daven in the Beis Medrash downstairs in the HAC and get to breakfast a couple minutes after everybody else. In WITS, I led the school in detention (given out for coming late to curfew), piling up well over 100 hours' worth as I'd generally be awake until 2-3am... but I'd also consistently be nearing a suspension for minyan points as I'd come late for davening in the morning. This pattern has pretty much repeated itself for two decades. I go to sleep about three hours later than most people... and get up one hour later. Less sleep, but to a later point.

And yet, I was always among the sharpest in the class. In fact, I'd venture that the people I know who both stay up late but also sleep late the most are more often than not the brightest I know. They never seem groggy and rarely seem tired; they're sharp from the moment they get up (even if that is at noon or 2pm) to the moment they go to bed (4-7am). Maybe it's psychological; they feel more rested because they're getting up "late". Maybe they fall asleep faster, because they're going to sleep when their body says so, not at a proscribed time. But in light of some of the examples given in the article, I wonder if the effect is so much the amount of sleep people get as when they get that sleep. [emphasis mine]

Convinced by the mountain of studies, a handful of school districts around the nation are starting school later in the morning. The best known of these is in Edina, Minnesota, an affluent suburb of Minneapolis, where the high school start time was changed from 7:25 a.m. to 8:30. The results were startling. In the year preceding the time change, math and verbal SAT scores for the top 10 percent of Edina’s students averaged 1288. A year later, the top 10 percent averaged 1500, an increase that couldn’t be attributed to any other variable. “Truly flabbergasting,” said Brian O’Reilly, the College Board’s executive director for SAT Program Relations, on hearing the results.

Another trailblazing school district is Lexington, Kentucky’s, which also moved its start time an hour later. After the time change, teenage car accidents in Lexington were down 16 percent. The rest of the state showed a 9 percent rise.

Whenever I used to get up "early", say to borrow my friend Toast or iPay's brother's notes to study for tests at 5am, I would feel extremely groggy if I'd gone to sleep early to do so. Even though I'd gotten the same or more sleep as I normally would, I would still feel a bit less sharp. [Interestingly, if I'd stayed up late, taken a quick nap, and done this, I would still feel sharp.] And I'd feel less sharp all day - from classes in the morning to classes in the afternoon to general lethargy while playing football. But if I slept an extra half-hour to an hour in the morning, even if I'd stayed up incredibly late the night before, I'd feel sharp throughout.

Also interestingly... I never once fell asleep in class until 12th grade. (And as far as I can recall, that was the only time.) Friends would fall asleep all the time; I never understood it.

While the study is clearly referring to the difference in sleep, period, and shows that the difference starts at when kids go to sleep... I wonder if the effect is much greater in how late people sleep in the morning and not when they go to sleep at night. After all, people who go to bed earlier may lie awake for a while; but a person sleeping in the morning who gets up with an alarm will be getting definite sleep in that extra hour, at the least until their own body wakes them up. It's also extra time in the deeper and more fulfilling stages of sleep.

Anyway, it's an interesting study, with far-reaching effects. I think it's time more people learned to sleep in. :)

The Little Things

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

To understand reality is not the same as to know about outward events. It is to perceive the essential nature of things. The best-informed man is not necessarily the wisest. Indeed there is a danger that precisely in the multiplicity of his knowledge he will lose sight of what is essential. But on the other hand, knowledge of an apparently trivial detail quite often makes it possible to see into the depth of things. And so the wise man will seek to acquire the best possible knowledge about events, but always without becoming dependent upon this knowledge. To recognize the significant in the factual is wisdom.

There are at least 5-6 important points in that quote that I can see... anyone see more?

Ezzie's Favorite Video

This is still my favorite video: Sir Ken Robinson at the TED convention in Monterrey, California a couple of years ago discussing parenting, education, childhood, and creativity. After the comments on the post below, I decided it was worth reposting. It's absolutely brilliant.

Some Good Reads...

• Jameel & JBM discuss Tzohar's trying to give their own hechsher on heter mechira where the Rabbanut won't. Interesting.

The rest all via Freakonomics, which is sometimes really interesting, though it's on and off:

• On teaching kids things at a very early age, and whether it helps them later on (basically "no"). Excerpt:

  They found that the children were very much a product of what they were exposed to by their parents: between 86 and 98 percent of the words in their vocabularies were also words their parents used. Across four years, the average child from a professional family would have heard nearly 45 million words spoken to them, the average child from a working class family, 26 million, and the average child from a family on welfare, 13 million. That means that compared with the affluent child, the poor child would be starting school with an astonishing deficit of 32 million words of language experience. How can that child's entire educational career not, on some level, become a demoralizing case of catchup? As long as parents are exposing their children to a nurturing, vibrant environment, reading to them regularly, and speaking with them intelligently, they should feel free to put the flash cards away.

• This one is about race and happiness, but I thought a separate line was interesting:

  Are you happy? Well don't try to be happier; you might become less happy. That is the gist of a multi-cultural study published recently in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

  It's an interesting argument, depending on what that means...
• Finally, Levitt is proud of his kid figuring out how to cheat. Nice.
  

I found it all interesting, anyway. What do you think on the happiness and education pieces?

The Bumbling Path

I particularly enjoyed this piece by Azriela Jaffe at BeyondBT from this morning. Excerpt:

Along the journey of the past ten years there have been thousands of moments when I have felt just plain stupid. When I didn’t know the words to pray, or that I should be standing up when I prayed them. When I sewed up all the slits on my long skirts in an inspired, momentary, desire to dress frum enough for my black-hat, wigged, shul, only to realize after the fact that those slits are put into these skirts for a reason! When I’ve asked a question of my Rav, only to reveal how little I really knew about the subject at hand, as he asked probing questions. Oh, the list goes on and on. But no list of embarrassing moments reads as long as the itemization of each and every time that my ineptitude in Hebrew made it impossible for me to assist my children in school, or the way I want to slink down into my seat when I attend “meet the teacher night” and I can’t really understand what the Hebrew teacher is giving over.

Visiting the Tomb of the Patriarchs

This is a great post and video by Psychotoddler's son Larry from the Me'aras Ha'machpela (Tomb of the Patriarchs), with appearances by Treppenwitz and a great job of guide of the day by Jameel. I also used to sit next to Safranit's husband in shiur in WITS. Check it out.

Clubhouse Cafe

via Michael, this is interesting, and right around the corner from my office:

If you've ever wanted to go out for drinks with friends of colleagues but felt uncomfortable (or hungry) going to a treif lounge or bar, the owners of Le Marais have created the perfect solution: Clubhouse Café.

Set to open across the street from Le Marais on West 46th Street (and under the hashgacha of the OU), the Café will be a modern/hip bar scene for Jewish professionals. The kosher bar will serve wings, mini burgers (sliders) and a kosher tapas and offer a raw bar assortment. Clubhouse Café will have seating for 90 with continental fare like steaks, burgers, chicken, guacamole and chili, deli and wraps.

Sounds good - and smart. I'm sure that people will quickly be taking dates there.

Annoying Day at Work

The internet has been down here for most of the day, which has been annoying and made it difficult to do most of the stuff we need to do here. Of course, that doesn't compare with this compilation (some of which I've seen before), via Jacob Da Jew:

Awesome. Anyway, important PSA for everyone: David Linn of BeyondBT and Temunot is helping again to run the Achdus auction which services two schools in our area; he has some details here. He's going to be posting about a couple of the prizes, and I thought this one was awesome - naming a flavor at Max 'n Mina's after you. I've been joking around with my friends at the pretzel place that they should name my strawberry-pineapple smoothie the SerandEz, to no avail. Maybe this is my shot! :) It's a great cause - please contact David about it.

Ezzie's Blog Roundup, 10/29: All Around

A number of interesting posts out there worth reading:

• 7) Ezer has a list of the 10 Plagues of Cleveland Sports.
  
• 6) R' Ally wonders about the forgotten favors people do, and how we recognize those. A great point and message.
  
• 5-4) WestBankMama asks about people's stories with NCSY; Chana follows up and asks what people did, what they thought, etc.
  
• 3) Sephardi Lady notes and comments on a great letter about debt in the Yated.
  
• 2) R' Gil discusses whether college newspapers are a waste of time, then segues into an interesting discussion about how YU helps students respect other viewpoints.
  
• 1) JoeSettler has a fascinating analysis of how murders by Palestinians terrorists directly correlate to how much money the PA received in the year prior (I think it's actually a few months, but okay). Oy.
  

Check it out.

Haveil Havalim #138 is UP!

At Soccer Dad.

The topics are:

Blogging
Antisemitism
Culture
History
Israel
The Rabin Assassination
Judaism
Politics
Torah
Kiruv

Next week's hostess is Mother in Israel.

To submit a post for next week, click here. Deadline for submissions is Friday.

Holy Trinity

This is freaking incredible. I've never seen anything like it.

Division III's Trinity laterals 14 times in one play with 2 seconds left in the game to beat Millsaps. Wow.

Best Line from Shabbos

"You two complete each other...s' neuroses." - Comments from the Peanut Gallery

Statistics on Jewish Sexual Abuse

The Jewish Week has an interesting article on sexual abuse within the Jewish community and how the numbers compare to the world at large; it also calculates the differences between the Modern Orthodox and "fervently Orthodox" communities.

Despite the widespread impression in the Orthodox world that sexual abuse doesn’t happen within its precincts, or happens less than in the “outside world,” a report in the November issue of the journal of the American Psychiatric Association says that Orthodox Jewish women suffer as much of it as other American women do.

Twenty-six percent of respondents in a study about the sexual lives and attitudes of married Orthodox Jewish women — 55 percent identifying as Modern Orthodox and about 45 percent as fervently Orthodox — indicated that they had at some point suffered sexual abuse.

That figure is on par with the 25 percent to 27 percent of American women in general, without regard to their marital status or religion, who have reported
in numerous studies that they had been sexually abused.

The new article also says that fervently Orthodox women are more likely than Modern Orthodox women to have experienced sexual abuse, to have experienced it multiple times and to have experienced it the first time before age 13.

It's an interesting piece. I'd like to know more about the questions, methodology, and statistics, but obviously abuse is as large of a problem in the Orthodox world as anywhere else.

Elsewhere, R' Horowitz compares the actions of kannoim to bullies.

Ezzie's Blog Roundup: A Little Bit Different

Olah Chadasha has a fantastic post after the anniversary of Rabin's death, and finishes by noting that while many blame Rabin for so much that has happened since Oslo, the real blame lies with Yigal Amir. It's very well argued and thorough.

Also, it must be remembered that Rabin wasn't the lone person responsible for Oslo. The government voted to approve the deal. That's how democracy works. And, in a democracy, the people speak. Rabin was assassinated in '95. Elections were going to be in November of '96. Rabin would have LOST. Bibi would have won, and he would have stopped Oslo. Instead, Rabin became a martyr, and Oslo becomes his last charge that Israel was duty bound to carry out. So, in my mind, I disagree with those that say that Rabin has the blood of thousands on his hands b/c of Oslo. If we lived in a dictatorship or tyranny, I may agree with you, but we live in a democracy. The government voted on the Agreement, and they didn't have to. If Rabin hadn't been killed, Oslo would have ended for good in '96. Instead, it was forced to continue on a devastating path and didn't officially die until Barak's Taba and Camp David deals were killed by Arafat, and the Intifada. That's more than 5 years worth of terror and bloodshed that didn't have to happen, and it's because of Amir's actions. So, the minute Rabin was assassinated, I hold Yigal Amir personally responsible for every Jew and Israeli that was killed. It is Amir, NOT Rabin, that has the death of thousands on his hands.

Neil Harris has a great lesson from this week's parsha about kiruv, family, and life.

Israel Pulls Support for Foreign Yeshiva Students

(via DAG) This is interesting, but let me explain why.

During a party meeting it was explained that the government has decided to execute the following:

1. To stop funding payments for students from abroad studying at yeshivas in Israel. As such it was decided to cut NIS 18 million ($4.5 million) from the foundation of the 2008 budget from the area of support for Torah-based learning institutions.

In case you're wondering why it's so much money being pulled just for that, I remember an interesting detail a Rebbe in one of the yeshivos I attended in Israel telling. He was an American living in Israel, and he noted that while he learns in Israel, he is not an Israeli citizen. He was willing to refuse the perks of making aliyah, which surely would have saved him a lot of money, to avoid the responsibilities that come with it (as is his right). But as I understand it, he still was able to receive some perks as a foreign yeshiva student learning in the Holy Land.

From a logical and economic standpoint, this cut makes a lot of sense. Why allow people who won't become citizens to take government money for providing the State with nothing? Of course, a person doesn't need to become a citizen, but it doesn't help the State to encourage it. This move could put a lot of Americans who live in Israel without citizenship into an interesting dilemma.

Orthomom Wins Lawsuit!

Mazel Tov, Orthomom! (The link is to her post on her victory.)

Back in February*, Google was sued by Lawrence Public School board member Pamela Greenbaum to release the identity of Orthomom over supposed defamation on her blog, which was widely dismissed by anyone who reads Orthomom's blog as a bunch of garbage.

Today, the court agreed. And it did so with some punch:

• In fact, none of Orthomom’s own statements uses the words bigot or anti-semite to characterize Greenbaum’s position.
• the court further finds that Orthomom’s statements are not reasonably susceptible of a defamatory connotation.
• Greenbaum’s defamation claim against Orthomom reduces to the insupportable assertion that Orthomom implied that Greenbaum is an anti-Semite merely because Orthomom disagreed with Greenbaum’s position on the use of public funding for a program that could have affected the Orthodox Jewish community.
  

Nice. Congratulations to Orthomom, and a nice protection of free speech and bloggers by the Court.

* Here's the history: Story breaks; Orthomom intervenes in suit; story is written about in local media; this blogger's later take on the subject; Orthomom places 'memo to quash'; and the actual hearing.

Jewish Continuity

After reading the comments to this post, and being encouraged by Ezzie to actually read the full text of Psycho Toddler's post about NCSY, I was troubled by the thought of public school students being written off as gone from the Jewish map.

Despite his apologies for thinking this way, in Psycho Toddler's post, he mentions having written off the girl "as another casualty of the American Jewish Holocaust," due to the fact that she attended public school. And that he was SO impressed, because she is now attending Stern College for Women.

I understand that a LOT of Jews are intermarrying, and that an intermarriage does lead the path for the loss of Jewish identity, especially when it comes to raising children and the difficulties that exist in a dual-religion home, especially given the dominant religion in this country not being Judaism. But I don't feel like the only path to secure a Jewish identity for future generations is a frum one.

Growing up, I was one of a very small handful of Jews in my public schools. Through my four years of high school, there was one other Jewish student one year. And yet, I had a very strong Jewish identity even then, and so do my brothers, who are not now frum.

I have quite a few non-frum friends who are very active in their Jewish communities and are quite affiliated, despite not being the targets of kiruv organizations. Several of these friends have chosen careers in the Jewish communal services field, dedicating their lives towards furthering the Jewish people. I have friends who don't go that far, but absolutely know that they are Jewish and will not even considering dating someone who isn't, because it is such a large part of their identity.

I think the key in Jewish continuity is not necessarily an observance level and adherence to halacha. I think it is being proud of your Jewish heritage, and making it an important part of your life. And that is something that can be done without necessarily keeping strictly kosher and not driving in a car on Shabbos. I think we need to be working on imbuing all Jews with pride for who they are and an appreciation for their Jewish heritage.

Pilots, Commandos, and GPS

I enjoyed this story at SoccerDad and this commercial at LOR. Heh.

There's a fascinating story about a daring Israeli commando raid 35 years ago in the Jerusalem Post.

The Sabena plane had been hijacked by Black September, a PLO splinter group, after leaving Vienna, where it had stopped on a flight from Brussels to Tel Aviv.

Levy was ordered to fly the plane to Tel Aviv, where the gunmen offered to free the passengers in exchange for 100 Arab prisoners held by Israel.

At the airport, commandos deflated the aircraft's tires, and then, posing as maintenance staff, they burst onto the plane and rescued the hostages after a brief gun fight.

Two male hijackers were killed and their two female companions were captured.

At the end of the ordeal, the pilot, Levy, placed his cap on the head of one of the commandos who stormed the plane but didn't remember which one. When he returned without his cap, Sabena made him pay for a new one!

Closed Communities, NCSY, & Jewish Publishing

Three excellent posts from today that are worth reading... (all quotes are excerpts; emphasis mine)

Cross-Currents' Jonathan Rosenblum on What the Neighbors Say,

This past week I finally found someone who has been studying all these issues and collecting hard data in order to create effective early intervention programs. In the course of our long conversation, he observed that the “drop-out” rates in so-called mixed communities, like Petach Tikva, Rechovot, and Haifa, are dramatically lower than in all chareidi communities, like Kiryat Sefer, Beitar, Elad, and Bnei Brak.

The biggest difference between mixed and homogenous communities is that the former force children to define themselves; their identity is not taken for granted. A close friend who raised half of his children in Tel Aviv and half in Bnei Brak once told me that he felt that the children raised in Tel Aviv had a much deeper sense of themselves as Torah Jews because that identity was reinforced everyday in juxtaposition to the surrounding environment.

BeyondBT's Ron Coleman on Judaica Dreams,

Unfortunately, however, Judaica publishers seem to take their market for granted, for sincerity and even knowledge are not the same as quality... Stuff should not come out in book form until it’s worked over “but good.” It appears, however, that desktop publishing is taken quite seriously in the frum world...

I was doubly disappointed when that same publisher sent out preview pamphlets of a new “learn this at your Shabbos table book” that promised to solve an old problem — finding that broadly age-appropriate devar Torah for the Shabbos seudos. It was beautifully produced, and the promised bound version looked — as all these sets do now — just like an Artscroll Gemora, fake brown pleather and everything. My first hit was not unexpected, but the insult to my intelligence was still a disappointment: I noticed that all the drawn illustrations depicted only men. Men mopping floors; men buying groceries; men baking challos. I don’t know whose chumra this is, but I would say if you can’t make realistic pictures of Shabbos activities undertaken by the people who actually do them, skip the pictures.

and PsychoToddler on NCSY Works.

I was sitting next to the parents of a girl that Fudge had met during her brief involvement in NCSY (the National Conference of Synagogue Youth), and whom she had kept contact with for a short time afterwards. I hadn't heard anything about the girl, who went to Public School, for a few years, and had (to my discredit) already mentally written her off as another casualty of the American Jewish Holocaust.

But somehow, she had managed to stay connected to NCSY, and through this thin thread had found herself in Israel for a year, and now was in Stern College along with my daughter! I was totally floored. I didn't know what to say. ...

We are losing this War of Attrition. The majority of American Jews are marrying outside of the faith, and this means that within a generation or two their descendants will no longer identify themselves as Jews. Our numbers are dwindling. We need kiruv. We need good kiruv, to be sure, honest kiruv, but we need effective kiruv more than anything else. We need to keep the flame burning in these kids. And we need it not only for the non-frum kids in Public School, but for our own kids, who are born ostensibly "frum from birth." We can no longer take for granted that these kids will blindly follow in our footsteps. We need to give them their own reasons for following the path.

We need to show them why we love being Jews.

Amen.

Israeli Supreme Court Overturns Rabbinate

As ADDeRabbi said: This is huge.

The court ruled that that it was illegal for the Chief Rabbinate to allow Yechiel Ya'acobovitz, Chief Rabbi of Herzliya, to deny kosher certificates to restaurants, hotels and other food-serving venues that sell vegetables that were grown in Jewish-owned soil inside the borders of the Land of Israel during the shmita year. Instead, Ya'acobovitz, a haredi rabbi who adopted a stringent interpretation of Jewish laws governing shmita, must either provide kosher certificates himself or allow more lenient rabbis to do so.

There are other important details in the article, so please read that as well.

This has incredibly far-reaching consequences, from a secular court determining an issue that is wholly that of the religious courts, to chumrot [good or bad] being forced upon people or not, to how policy is made... this is going to be messy and crazy.

Arguments can be made for mistakes on all parties here. Heter mechira was and is done for purposes that are both noble and important. Whether some of those reasons are less applicable now is a question worthy of debate (are squatters truly going to get away with taking land today?), but to try and force it on people seems both unwise and unfair. Clearly, many rabbonim have felt and do feel that this heter is valid, so why should those who hold by it be punished?

Forget heter mechira for a moment, and apply this mode of thinking to any subject. Should a Rabbinical Council of any sort be permitted to force chumrot on the rest of the public? It's hard to disagree with the Court's reasoning on this:

But the High Court rejected the chief rabbinate's policy of encouraging more stringent kosher supervision methods arguing that it was an unjustified infringement on non-haredi individuals' rights.

Of course, the Rabbinate could have avoided this whole issue by not using such methods to carry out their wishes. Understandably, they wished that people would not rely on a heter that many do not think is valid, and were, according to the article, simply trying to encourage people not to rely on the heter. [Which is also an interesting debate.] However, they likely should have just forced an addition to the kashrus certificate noting that they're relying on heter mechira, which would allow consumers to decide whether they wished to rely on the heter or not, rather than forcing it on the store owners.

On the other hand, it seems strange for the Court to be wading into an area where they seemingly should not be. Having the secular court intervene in a religious matter does not seem like a good precedent for the future. In this case, the reach is limited to stating that charedim cannot force an overreaching charedi viewpoint on the rest of the community. But what does this allow? Can someone who is not religious complain that their own individual rights are violated by some religious standards?

This is terrible precedent... and in this case, it is the charedim who have brought it upon us, not the secular. The secular Court simply took advantage of a huge blunder by the charedi community.

Again, this is huge... and not good.

Gotta Love the USA

At least on the Democratic side:

Stephen Colbert is starting to show up in the presidential polls.

Not high in the polls, but Colbert, who announced last week that he is running for president, is the choice of two percent of the Democrats nationally, according to reports.

And that - we kid you not - is good enough for fifth place in the Democratic primaries right now.

The late-night political humorist ranks behind Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards - but ahead of Gov. Bill Richardson, Rep. Dennis Kucinich and former Sen. Mike Gravel.

He is in a statistical dead heat with Sen. Joe Biden - 2.7 percent for Biden versus 2.3 percent for Colbert , a virtual tie in a poll with a five percent margin of error.

Among Republicans, however, he is dead last - behind not only the front runners like Rudy Giuliani and former Gov. Mitt Romney, but also marginal candidates like Reps. Tom Tancredo and Ron Paul.

I think he should start pressing for time on debates and the like. I'm sure it wouldn't take long to get the signatures necessary to run; he should really run. It will make the next year that much more entertaining. Think about it: Wouldn't the look on Hillary's face, on Obama's face, on Edwards' hair, all be great whenever they need to respond to something Colbert has said? Do you treat everything as a joke and run the risk of saying something truly dumb or missing a chance to say something you want? Do you try and take it seriously and come off looking like a tense fool? Colbert wouldn't even need to film a whole show anymore - just show clips from debates. Wouldn't faceoffs between Dennis Kucinich and Colbert be riotous? Plus, Comedy Central would have to give shows to Clinton, Obama, and of course, Kucinich to satisfy the equal time rules, right?

The potential here is amazing. Anyone else have good ideas?

Something G Would Write

That was the first thought that came to mind after reading this hilarious conversation the 2007 Kenny Lofton would have with the 1995 Kenny. (via the Daily Fix)

Also, a huge mazel tov to our friend and rare commenter STF on her engagement! Now we know why you passed on coming here this Shabbos. :P

United Apologizes to Orthodox Family

This is an interesting story, via JBM:

United Airlines says a flight attendant and pilot acted inappropriately when they complained about a Columbus family's kosher meal.

Robert Blum and his family, Orthodox Jews, say a flight attendant told them to throw away their fish dinner after other passengers complained about the smell during a flight from Denver to Columbus.

Blum says the flight attendant and pilot threatened to throw his family off the flight if they didn't get rid of the meal. Blum calls the incident a case of discrimination and says his family felt humiliated.

United Airlines said Friday that they are apologizing to the family.

That must be absolutely humiliating - imagine being asked to get off of a flight in front of everybody! (Of course, how do you throw someone off in the middle of a flight, anyway!?)

I will note one caveat, however: Nowhere is it clear that this was the meal given to them by the airline, in which case the actions are completely outrageous. Rather, it is possible that they brought fish onto the plane to eat because they weren't going to be getting any Kosher food on the plane. Obviously, this is perfectly within their rights, and perhaps they didn't realize that the smell would be so bad; however, people should use common sense about what kinds of foods they bring onto a plane to eat, and think about how others might react. I felt bad opening one of those tuna packages on a plane recently, though nobody seemed to notice; I think sandwiches generally make the most sense.

Either way, the threats of the attendant and pilot seem completely unreasonable.

Physical Activity

I don't know if there's anything like good, strenuous, physical activity to help a person feel better. Or as Morgan Freeman (playing God) in Bruce Almighty said,

"People underestimate the benefits of good old manual labor.

Just think a minute.

Some of the happiest people in the world, go home smelling to high heaven at the end of the day."

Amen.

Funny Shirts

While we're doing public service announcements, please feel free to check out my dear wife Serach's website, SerachScarves.com. And if you're looking for a funny shirt to go with that new tichel after you've slimmed down, check out DAG's site - I really like a lot of these.

NOTE: While obviously Serach making sales is important to me, I'm just posting about the other sites as favors for friends and family. I'm not being paid to advertise for them. For ads I'm being paid for, feel free to check out the WebAds box above this for good ads. :)

No More Couch Potatoes

Calling all women! If anyone is interested in hiring a personal trainer my sister in law is great! Certified by ACE, she has had a great success rate with her clients and she is a lot of fun, too! She is available in all 5 boroughs and Long Island for in house sessions (although the Queens area would have the most availablilty for scheduling).
Feel free to visit her website for contact information and more!

http://metamorfitpersonaltraining.com/

Have a great day!!

R' Yakov Horowitz on Charedi Violence in Israel

From his site, excerpts:

What happened:

Once again, charedi Jews worldwide were shamed and disgraced yesterday, by association, due to the actions of a few violent criminals dressed like charedi Jews.

This time, it was in Beit Shemesh, where according to reports in Israeli papers, a group of five chareidi young men assaulted a woman for refusing to move to the back of a ‘charedi’ bus where the front seats were ‘reserved’ exclusively for men. A male soldier seated next to the woman was reportedly also assaulted – “murderously” beaten, according to the soldier. When police arrived to arrest the individuals, dozens of other ‘chareidi’ men attacked the police officers and punctured the tires of a police car, according to the newspaper reports.

What should be done:

I believe that the vast, overwhelming majority of charedi Jews worldwide feel as I do; disgraced and shamed when these events occur. We also feel frustrated; as there is little that we can do to remove this collective stain from our shirts. We do not seem to have a voice in this process at all.

Do you know what I would like to see happen? I would like the Rabbonim of Eretz Yisroel to use the platform of the charedi press to:

1) Clearly and unequivocally condemn the violence in the strongest language.

2) Issue halachic rulings that:

• Violence is forbidden by our Torah under any circumstances
• Those who commit violence constitute a real and present danger to the safety of the public and one is halachicly obligated to report them to the police, and
• If one finds himself in the presence of a violent act perpetrated by criminals, he is halachicly obligated to defend the victim as the Torah says, “Lo sa’amod al dam re’echa”

We all hope that someone will follow the suggestions laid out in this piece; sadly, we've hit the point where nobody is going to be holding their breath in waiting.

Everyone Needs a Good Laugh

...especially today.

Here's how I grew up:


...and this was a nice lift for today. Caliendo is a genius; this is just one of many hilarious clips.

Da'as Torah

One of the more interesting discussions that often take place in the Jewish community is regarding the issue of da'as Torah. This term, which literally translates to mean "knowledge of Torah", is commonly used to describe the idea that people should search out and follow the opinions of Torah leaders on various subjects. R' Yakov Horowitz has a fantastic article on this which has been mentioned in the past.

A friend once told me something a Rebbe of ours told him which was very poignant: “Whatever you do, when looking for a Rav or Rebbe, make sure he’s a ba’al mussar. If he isn’t, he can’t properly answer your questions.” In other words, unless the Rav or Rebbe is more concerned with what’s best for you, he can’t properly answer your question.

On a similar note, R' Natan Slifkin has a letter of responses in this week's Jewish Press (via DAG), and I thought it was very interesting to read, particularly this excerpt:

Switching to the topic of the age and development of the universe, Dr. Stern notes that Rav Moshe Feinstein was of the view that the Torah’s account of creation was to be interpreted literally. Indeed he was – but he was also of the view that one is not obligated to follow the opinion of a different posek, even if he is the gadol hador. In Iggros Moshe (Yoreh De’ah 3:88), he tells someone moving to Bnei Brak that he is fully entitled to dispute the positions of the Chazon Ish, although he must do so with respect.

And the Chazon Ish himself wrote (Yoreh De’ah 150) that one need not follow the majority of rabbinic opinion, past or present, in determining a ruling; only with the Sanhedrin was the ruling determined by majority vote. One need only follow one’s own rabbinic authority (if one is not competent to form an opinion oneself).

All of the above is stated with regard to halachic rulings; it is all the more true with regard to matters of hashkafa that are not related to halacha, since, as Rambam states (commentary to Sanhedrin 10:3), such matters are not subject to psak. One might perhaps make an exception for beliefs that relate to the fundamentals of faith, but the nature of creation (as opposed to the fact of creation) cannot be said to fall into that category – it does not relate to any of Rambam’s thirteen principles of faith. An opinion on these matters may be right or wrong, but it is not subject to being “paskened” that one may not believe it to be true.

Interesting. I wonder how much people are aware of this.

Haveil havalim #137 is UP!

Esser Agaroth has posted a very fine Haveil Havlaim #137!

It’s about Israel, slices of life, media bias and Ann Coulter (again) and much, much more.

How I Met Serach Part IX: Dr. Seuss & Sushi

This is Part IX of a series about how I proposed to Serach. Part I is here, Part II is here, Part III is here, and Part IV is here, Part V is here, Part VI is here, Part VII is here, Part VIII is here. Or, you could simply use the dropdown menu on the left side of the blog titled "How I Met Serach". I'm currently giving the background of the story...

Ez: Wow. I didn't realize that it's been 7-1/2 months since I left off, but the truth is, I didn't know where to take it from there. I'd finished recapping the first date, and I don't think that the mundane portions of our dating are all that interesting to read about, though I guess one never knows. In addition, I'm obviously not going to put a lot of portions up on this blog; those are for us.* Soooo... the next few parts are going to be a little more choosy, picking out various parts and stories that I think are worth telling over. Enjoy!

The day after our first date was Thanksgiving Day 2003. I was headed to my friend and chavrusa Jon's house for my first ever Thanksgiving "feast"; and quite a feast it was. Meanwhile, Serach was headed to Los Angeles to celebrate the birth of her newest nephew. Sometime over the next couple of days, Jon - whom you may recall we met through - called up his good friend Serach and said,

"You know... I think maybe you should date Ezzie."

Serach responded, "Umm, I think we already are."

That got a nice big WHAT!?!??!, but that led to an amusing conversation over the phone between Serach and myself, as we contemplated our next steps. Serach mentioned that it seemed that with a few people she'd dated, she'd never really been 'asked' on a date; it seemed to just 'happen'. Now, here we were, and the same thing had happened. Of course, sap that I am was, I immediately asked,

"Fine. Serach, will you go out on a date with me?"

Awwww. So romantic!

We had a number of deep and fascinating conversations about a myriad of subjects over the next week or so, as it would be a while until we'd have a chance to actually have that date. Without a car on my part, and a license on her part, we could only try and meet up in Manhattan when we both had enough time to do so. We'd just have to stick to the phones for a while.

In one of those conversations, I expressed - or rather, had trouble expressing a lot of what I may have wanted to... but not because I didn't know how, but because I wouldn't let myself. I was afraid: Afraid to sound dumb, afraid to embarrass myself... just afraid in general. It was at this point that Serach picked up on my thoughts and immediately said a line that I've liked forever since, and which may seem awfully familiar:

Be yourself; because the people who care don't matter, and the people who matter don't care.

While for some this may come easy, this was something I'd long struggled with, though 7 years in a dorm, particularly my experiences in my two years in Israel, had gotten me much better at this. Now, I doubt that most of my friends who've known me only since after high school would believe I was ever like that. Those are the same people who don't believe I was ever shy, either. :) But the applicability of the line is endless. Some people have trouble being themselves in day-to-day life; some people when confronted with certain situations; some people have trouble when they go against the grain; and others seem to rebel without managing to be themselves. I think most people would be happier if they allowed themselves to be themselves.

As you can probably see, this was obviously a very important line for me. Less important but slightly more troubling was another comment she made:

"What!? You've never had sushi!? Oh, we're definitely going to be getting sushi on our date, then!"

Uh-oh. Next time: Sushi, Drunks, & Meeting Friends.

Ezzie: I'm writing the story as I remember it, and unfortunately that sometimes results in skipping some details. When I remember them, I'll try to fill them in; possibly in the comments, possibly in the posts if it won't make it too disjointed. If anything is unclear or you have any questions, feel free to ask! Serach won't admit it, but she's been reading the story [and lately, other posts, too!] - maybe she'll fill in some of the details and her perspective at some point. I'm still hoping. :)

* ...and to varying degrees: Our parents; our siblings; certain close friends; my roommates - who had the opportunity to hear waaay too many [err, loud] arguments between various people that were on speaker and I found out later could be heard not just in my own room, but in the living room/kitchen and other rooms as well; and various other random people from relatives to people we'll likely never see again, but will always have intense gratitude for.

Israel Admits to Bombing Syrian Nuclear Facility

Well, it's official:

Israeli officials believed that a target their forces bombed inside Syria last month was a nuclear facility, because they had detailed photographs taken by a possible spy inside the complex, ABC News has learned.

A senior U.S. official told ABC News the Israelis first discovered a suspected Syrian nuclear facility early in the summer, and the Mossad — Israel's intelligence agency — managed to either co-opt one of the facility's workers or to insert a spy posing as an employee.

As a result, the Israelis obtained many detailed pictures of the facility from the ground.

Good.

The Famous Layah's Salad

After many requests for this, here it is:

Layah's Salad

Note: All amounts here are very loose and can be adjusted at will according to personal taste. The dressing is also really good for cold cut and similar salads.

Ingredients:

• Lettuce
• Scallions
• Croutons (preferably onion-garlic; we like the teeny tiny ones)
• Craisins

Dressing: [should be a thin-looking, lightish yellow at the end]

• 3 tbsp mayonnaise
  
• 2 tbsp mustard
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 clove of garlic OR some garlic powder
  
• dash of lemon juice
• a bit of olive oil to make it liquidy, though it's not really liquidy. It just thins it out a bit.
  

We use this dressing for another salad, though we keep it a drop thicker for this one:

Salami/Grilled Chicken Salad

• Lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Mandarin Oranges
• Chunks of either Salami or Grilled Chicken or both
• I feel like I'm forgetting something.
  

Enjoy! Have a wonderful Shabbos!

Ezzie's Blog Roundup: Thoughts

A bunch more really good posts for this morning (um, afternoon, since I am just finally posting it now), from all over the place:

• 6) Aidel Maidel starts off with a great, great truth. :) Now if only someone would give us some...! (What?! Stop looking at me like that!)
  
• 5) SoccerDad has a good post on underestimating President Bush... and quotes possibly the best editorial ever written. :D (What?!!!)
• 4) Kefirot has an interesting d'var Torah and lesson. Excerpt:

  So Noah went spiritually downwards, while Moshe went upwards. Why? The Rabbi explained that it was because of how they went about trying to perfect themselves. Noah went for isolation. The world was a bad place, and the best way for him to stay right with God was to keep to himself; to work on himself, and his family. Moshe, on the other hand, was always outwardly focused. He focused on helping everyone else, and by so doing, was raised up himself in the process.
  
  Now I found that fascinating, and immediately related it to a conversation I had, about a year ago, with a young man from a very charedi family. He told me about an article he had read, in Israel, about a group of secular Jews trying to start a Rabbanut Chiloni - a secular rabbinate. He thought it was funny, in an ironic sort of way. What does it mean to have a rabbinate if you're secular?

• 3) I connected way too closely with this post from Fudge.
  
• 2) Freakonomics notes that they did an analysis of IQs among babies, and found almost no difference between races at the age of 1, but that it divided sharply on the way to two years old. It's a fascinating study, and here's what I commented; let me know what you think:

  Very interesting, and to some extent, a cause for optimism. If the difference starts to expand between ages 1 and 2, would that not then mean that perhaps there is a difference in how children are raised and taught while they are just toddlers - how much attention is given to their learning, how people interact with those children, etc.? It would then just be a matter of showing parents techniques or ideas to help their own children.

  [Note: That and the following are both worded terribly. It's a lazy day. Don't over-read into it, please.] Interestingly, as other commenters there have mentioned, blacks from nations in Africa generally score better than African-Americans. I'd wonder if perhaps living under slavery or just being in worse economic shape damaged the black community in terms of parenting, and I think it logical to say that most people learn much of their parenting technique from their own parents.
  
• 1) This post by Noyam was excellent, even if I disagree with small portions. Excerpt:

  When the education they’ve received seems illogical to them, it all gets lumped together. In the same way, when they find comfort in ideas that are deemed kefira, they will instead of rejecting such a label, and continuing to practice Judaism in the way they were brought up, they will reject it all. Instead of accepting that Judaism as a practice can be separated from many of the theories, they reject the whole.

Check it out!

Mazel Tov to A^2

All of us here at SerandEz are thrilled to pronounce a huge mazel tov to the wonderfully smart, entertaining, and oh so hilarious A^2 on her engagement!! It happened at the wee hours of the morning in one of the strangest proposals I've ever heard of, somehow involving GChat statii, a whiteboard, and a camera phone. As she said to me just minutes later,

"I got engaged in pajamas"

Nawyce. MAZEL TOV! :)

The Indians & Har Sinai

I love my friend Shraga, whom I grew up with in Cleveland. He currently lives in Israel and is studying forensic psychology. From a conversation we're having:

Shraga: a well known chakira: what/who is the team. Nafka mina: why should I root for the indians. its just lucky that one of the only names I recognize rejoined them this summer
the answer to my question: the team is an entity which not merely the sum of its parts.That's what it means that we were all at Har Sinai
Ez: (i like the answer, but tie in Har Sinai)
Shraga: useful mashal: the cells in your body have been replaced many times since you were born yet no one would say that the twenty year old you is not the five year old you
Ez: (what's the nimshal?)
Shraga: we are all cells in the body called am yisrael who stood at Har sinai. therefore we were there as well. QED
Ez: interesting.so you should root for the indians, too.
Shraga: exactly! and I do.

Awesome.

Ezzie's Blog Roundup, 10/18: Jewish Community Issues

There are a number of good posts out there, particularly by some of my favorite blogs, so here goes:

• Sephardi Lady comments on the letters to the editor regarding debt in the Jewish community. This has been a very important series of posts (and see the comments) at Orthonomics, so please check it out.
  
• R' Gil writes on Hirhurim that according to R' H. Schachter, prospective doctors must find a way to keep Shabbos while doing their residencies.
• MoChassid's new CD is out. UPDATE: LoR has one of the songs if you want to hear a bit.
  
• Orthomom questions whether a recent case doesn't properly accommodate a Messianic Jew who doesn't wish to work on the Sabbath.
• Wolf asks if we really want to force our kids to keep the mitzvos, discussing yet another excellent piece by R' Horowitz.
• Speaking of R' Horowitz, BeyondBT reposted an excellent article originally on his site about Adults at Risk.
  
• Shira recaps the Karduner concert that Matisyahu joined him onstage at.
• My mother sent me this hilarious piece from Andy Jordan at the WSJ, in which he checks out the new chat features that allow people to try and shmooze it up on planes. Maybe this is a great way to solve the "shidduch crisis"!
• Finally, Jason Whitlock - one of the best sportswriters in the country - notes

  "African-American football players caught up in the rebellion and buffoonery of hip hop culture have given NFL owners and coaches a justifiable reason to whiten their rosters. That will be the legacy left by Chad, Larry and Tank Johnson, Pacman Jones, Terrell Owens, Michael Vick and all the other football bojanglers."

  He goes on to discuss how the best teams have the "whitest" rosters, and basically rips into black athletes for acting improperly, rebelling against coaches, and the like. It's a very interesting piece.
  

Check it out.

Swastikas on YI of Hillcrest, Hatzoloh Ambulance

Oy:

The rabbi of a Queens synagogue found a symbol of hate painted on his synagogue Thursday morning, police said.

A swastika was painted on the door of The Young Israel Synagogue, located at 169-07 Jewel Ave.

While police were investigating this incident, they said they found another swastika painted on a Hatzolah ambulance parked nearby.

Police are also investigating symbols of hate found at a school in Lower Manhattan.

Twenty-two swastikas were found scrawled in green chalk at the Murry Bergtraum High School, police said. A librarian and a school secretary found the swastikas and called 911. The words "Hitler Is Back" were also found nearby, authorities said.

The high school is located next door to One Police Plaza.

Police are investigating each as bias incidents.

That's the YI of Hillcrest, which has a Hatzoloh zone right next door to it.

The Stupidity of Sports

...scheduling, that is. (What, did you really think I'd write about the stupidity of sports?!) I couldn't agree more with this article, which details how baseball has really blown up its own fan base in the quest for the almighty dollar - a way of doing business that has come back to hurt them, or will, when FOX et al are no longer willing to pay outrageous prices to show games.

Along the way, the game lost a generation who couldn't stay up at night. In the chase for the almighty dollar, baseball gave up its youngest fans.

No need to look any further than the second game of the NL championship series for proof. The game didn't begin until after 10 p.m. ET and by the time it mercifully ended nearly five hours later, people not only had fallen asleep at the game but some early risers had awakened to it.

It's only logical that the later a game goes, the fewer the people watching. And the longer a game takes to be played, the more people will get bored watching it. It's a pretty simple equation: Late and long is killing the postseason.

You would think someday baseball folks would figure it out.

It's pathetic. One person just told me that they couldn't help but enjoy watching their daughter be so elated when Damon hit that HR in Game 3 of the ALDS... only to have her go to sleep soon after. And she certainly couldn't watch Game 4.

As a note, basketball is the worst offender, dragging the postseason out for months on end. One of the reasons the NCAA tournament is so popular is that it happens awfully fast - 3 weekend to turn 65 teams into 1 champion. The NBA can't finish a single series in that time period. The NFL has it the best, where their games are already a week apart; as it is, they get criticized for the week extra between the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl, though I don't think those are all that bad.

Syria Denies Denying Nuclear Facilities

This is classic. I wonder what will happen to their ambassador now. From Best of the Web:

In Denial
"Syria's ambassador to the United Nations confirmed on Tuesday that Israel's air strike on September 6 in northern Syria did indeed target a nuclear site, marking the first time the country has acknowledged its nuclear efforts," reports Israel Insider.

Oh, wait.

"Syria denied Wednesday its representatives to the United Nations had confirmed that an Israel Air Force strike last month targeted nuclear facility, and added that such facilities do not exist in Syria, state-run news agency said," Ha'aretz reports.

There's no word yet on whether Syria's representative to the United Nations confirms or denies Syria's denial of his confirmation. But stay tuned.

In case you want the details, FOX has them:

"Israel was the fourth-largest exporter of weapons of mass destruction and a violator of other nations' airspace, and it had taken action against nuclear facilities, including the 6 July attack in Syria," Syrian representative Bassam Darwish is quoted in the document as saying.

One U.S. delegate told colleagues he could not believe his ears when the Syrian diplomat made his statement and that the resulting document was close to verbatim, and another source told FOX News the document reinforces what people heard [the Syrian representative] say in the actual debate.

Syria already has disowned the remarks, adding "such facilities do not exist in Syria."

Shiva Minyan in Queens

I was asked to post this:

Hi all,

I am trying to arrange shiva minyanim for my father in his house in Whitestone, Queens - 166-31 9th Ave. Apt. 3D. We will be having Shacharis daily at 7am on Wed, Fri; 6:55 on Thurs and 8:30 am on Sun. We will be having maariv at 7:30pm Tues, Wed, Thurs. Please email me if you can assist.

Tzidku L'mitzvos
Jeff Greenberg jsgreenb@gmail.com

Dinners with TV & Why Midwesterners are Bigger

This is an interesting study that falls in line with a lot of what I think in general about food, family, and health. (And yes, I do think about health when it comes to food, contrary to popular belief!)

As an aside, I've often noted to people that people are simply bigger in the Midwest - taller, not as scrawny, etc. - while in NYC and to an extent LA, people are much shorter and smaller. I've posited that perhaps this is due to a greater obsession with looks and fashion, and therefore, an overemphasis by many to not eat to avoid being fat, but this article threw in other factors which may play a role, too:

The biggest effect was seen among the kids who didn’t eat regular family meals at all. Girls who dined alone ate fewer fruits, vegetables and calcium-rich foods and more soft drinks and snack foods than girls who ate with their parents. And girls who ate with their parents ate more calories — up to 14 percent more, suggesting that dining alone puts girls at higher risk for eating disorders. Boys who didn’t eat with their parents had fewer vegetables and calcium-rich foods than family diners.

The lesson for parents, say the study authors, is that being together at dinner is what counts. Having the TV on during the meal, while not desirable, can also serve a purpose if it helps bring sullen teenagers and families to the table.

Why a family meal can make such a difference isn’t entirely clear. It may be that parents simply put better food on the table when everyone gets together. People dining alone tend to eat pizza, for instance, while families who order pizza together tend to put vegetables or a salad on the table, Ms. Feldman noted.

It may also be that dining together allows parents to set a better eating example for their kids. And mealtime is often the only chance parents have to actually look over their busy teenagers, catch up on their lives and visually assess behavioral or physical changes that might signal problems.

This makes me think that perhaps it's the overly busy lifestyles of people in places such as NYC and LA that causes people to not spend as much time together... and therefore, based on this research, eat less. Eating less means growing less, which in turn translates into me being on the short end of my elementary class at 6 feet tall, but one of the tallest people while I was in college or now at work. Interesting.

Yet another reason to move, right? ;)

All Over the Place

As can be imagined, I'm a bit all over the place today. Life is both very exciting and very nerve-wracking at the moment. So... here are a few tidbits I found interesting in a wide array of topics, along with some of my own thoughts. (Occasionally, I do post my own thoughts, too, ya know...)

• The controversy over the telecommunication industry's helping out the government with eavesdropping on terrorists. I understand why Congress wants to know what was done before giving immunity for past cases, but this is not just or even primarily a terror issue; only about 10% of the instances were requested by the White House (et al). Most had to do with mafia or other crime issues, from what I can tell from the statistics. [I saw them yesterday in an article, but cannot find it now.]
• Imagine if Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity had made an outrageous claim like this - would he not be looking for a new job by now? Making up stories that the "right-wing hate machine" mugged an Air America host to "silence" her - when her own lawyer says she fell while walking her dog?! Gotta love this apology:

  Host Jon Elliott issued a written retraction of his remarkable on-air charge, saying: "I shouldn't have speculated based on hearsay that Randi Rhodes had been mugged and that it may have been an attack from a right wing hate machine. [Ez: Ya think?] I apologize for jumping to conclusions based on an emotional reaction."

  What does it say about the left that their "emotional reactions" make them jump to such insane conclusions against the right so quickly? Yes, all talk-show hosts jump to extreme interpretations of events - it's what gets them ratings - but this is way beyond the pale.
  
• I'm sure James Taranto will write about this far better than I later on, but I'm not sure what to think about this media shield law. There are a nice amount of common-sense exceptions, which is a good thing, but wouldn't it behoove this country to force reporters and media outlets to use a little more common sense and care in their reporting in the first place?! The largest problems that caused reporters to be jailed stemmed from completely false reports, such as Joe Wilson's infamous and false editorial that the NY Times printed that set off the firestorm about Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame. Moreover, this is an important note, too:

  The Justice Department, in questioning the need for the legislation, said it had approved the issuances of subpoenas to reporters seeking confidential source information in only 19 cases between 1992 and 2006.

  It sounds like this will shield law will simply encourage people with political agendas to constantly leak information without worry of it coming back to bite them. This will only hurt the country in the long run, because administrations will be incredibly secretive about everything they do to avoid leaks.
• Obama & Cheney are distant cousins. It's just funny.
• An Israeli Bedouin Arab who has 67 (!!!) kids from 8 wives is looking for wife #9.
• This was fascinating and very smart:

  Two key RBI singles in the inning came from second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera and first baseman Victor Martinez, each switch-hitters, both of whom were notably batting right-handed against the right-handed Wakefield. As Cabrera explained, Wakefield's knuckler more often that not breaks in on right-handed hitters and away from lefties. So the more effective way to attack it, if you have the choice that a switch-hitter does, is to go right-handed.

  Nice. Note that the left-handed hitting Travis Hafner struck out three times against Wakefield; Sizemore was 0/2 with a walk to lead off the game; and Lofton grounded out twice, for a combined 0/8 with a walk. Righties were 0/5 with a BB and 4K's the first time around, 3/5 with a 2B, HR, and HBP the second time around, and 2/2 the third time around.
• Finally, I don't get why everyone was this down on Westbrook and Byrd. Yes, they're not amazing pitchers, but they are both very consistent - Byrd throws strikes [fewest BB/9 in baseball], Westbrook keeps the ball down and gets ground balls and double plays. That has been their modus operandi for a few years, which is why they pick up 15 wins a year. Westbrook hasn't given up more than 4 runs in his last 15 starts; he only gave up 4 twice. Last year, when he was healthy all year, he led the league in ground-ball DPs.

Go Tribe!

Inspiring Stories

As seems to constantly be true, I'm a bit busy today; however, I couldn't help but smile at these posts at PsychoToddler and MOChassid.

• Go Pack! and
• Bitterness Tempered
  

If you're looking for a laugh, enjoy this post, also on PT.

Disco Rabbi: A Light in the Darkness of War

A non-religious but somewhat affiliated Jewish co-worker sent me a PDF of this piece this morning; I looked for it online and found that LindaSoG of Something... and Half of Something had posted it Sunday, so I've copied it from her. Through her post, I found this JPost article and picture.

A Light in the Darkness of War
by Shula Weissfer

A year has passed but First Lieutenant M. has not forgotten about the activities of Migdal Ohr which had been discreetly accomplished. With minor changes, we publish here for the first time in English, Lieutenant M's written recording of his experience.

"I remember the two weeks of near face-to-face combat, the confused orders and insufficient combat gear, the intense hunger, physical and emotional exhaustion and toughest of all, the self-imposed silence and disassociation with our surroundings."Now is not the right time to complain, but when it is over," we thought to ourselves, "when the air raid sirens stop and we are out of these fatigues, we can talk and the truth will be known."

When the news came that we were receiving a day off, our hearts soared. We suffered so much stress and hardship. Where would we go? How should we take full advantage of this gift? Rumors begin to circulate that we were going to some school in Migdal Ha'Emek. "This must be a joke! Who ordered ten buses to bring us to some yeshiva with some Rabbi who is just going to try and brainwash us?"

Then, a few of the guys remembered. "Rabbi Grossman, that's the Disco Rabbi right? The guys all give him great respect." But what do they know? He is still some rabbi. Tired and emotionally drained, we got off the buses and stood face to face with an old-world looking Jew, complete with a white beard, side locks and long jacket.

"So here it comes," I thought, "the push to put on tefillin or to say prayers together. Some day off." "Boys," the rabbi's words thundered, "I suggest that first thing you do is take a dip in the pool and freshen up. In the meantime, we will make you something to eat."

In amazing simplicity, Rabbi Grossman heard in passing that the brigade was looking for a home for a day, and he immediately volunteered his campus. "What's the problem? 600 soldiers? They should all come, of course we have room!"

With the echoes of war from the battlefield still in our ears, it seemed like a mirage or hallucination. Soft music came from everywhere and flowing water and greenery surrounded us. Within minutes, the tables were set with cold refreshing watermelon, cakes, and beverages, followed by cheeses, fresh vegetables, and soft rolls.

Then we heard, "Out of the pool, get dressed and eat something."We saw piles of new undergarments. 600 new undershirts and underwear appeared as if out of nowhere, laid out on tables for our choosing.

Rabbi Grossman sat with us and laughed, "Have a good time boys! Have a great time! This evening, I will put on the most spectacular performance you have ever seen."

I am not a religious person by any means, but I can't help but envision the first Jew, Avraham, standing and personally serving his guests perfectly naturally and without the slightest hint of condescension. He respected each individual and cared for all their needs. Like Avraham, Rabbi Grossman saw in this an obvious act of kindness, a mission of a Mitzvah that had fallen into his hands.

As the evening continued, we learned quickly that this was the essence of who Rabbi Grossman is and what he is all about. He loves everyone and accepts everyone as they are with all his heart and soul. "Tell me friends," Rabbi Grossman said, "I heard you are lacking different pieces of equipment. Do me a favor. Here is a pencil and paper, just write down everything you are missing and leave the paper on the table."

That night, we enjoyed the entertainment and afterwards, slept in soft beds and air-conditioned rooms. Like in a fairytale, we awoke in the morning and could not believe our eyes. Mounds of gear which we so desperately needed had arrived at Migdal Ohr. Attached, was a small note from Rabbi Grossman, "To my dear soldiers, from all my heart!"

Rabbi Grossman personally and immediately raised over $60,000 worth of equipment from friends literally overnight! The essential equipment included ceramic bulletproof vests, helmets, canteens, knee pads, backpack water canteens, night vision goggles, toothbrushes, socks and more.

Interestingly, a few months before the war broke out, a special friend of Rabbi Grossman from France was interested in donating a new Torah scroll to the main Migdal Ohr Beit Midrash (studyhall).

For some reason, Rabbi Grossman requested to postpone the event until an unspecified later date."Now is the right time!" Rabbi Grossman realized. He immediately made arrangements and in an early evening ceremony, we participated in the completion of writing the Torah.

While the scroll was carefully laid on the table next to a special pen and ink, Rabbi Grossman addressed the soldiers. "My holy ones! I am going to bestow upon you the merit of a holy mitzvah, which can be considered a once in a life time opportunity. Each one of you will complete a letter in the Torah scroll. While you are executing this holy task, each one of you should pray the prayer of his heart and request from G-d that the merit of the letter he has completed will protect him in battle. Holy sparks will emanate from these sacred letters and disperse around you, creating a protective shield which will keep you safe and bring you home safely.

"Those moments were the most exciting and emotional ones in my life. Shaking from the intensity of the immeasurable experience,still not believing, we held the edges of the Torah scroll while our hearts beat rapidly. There was complete silence all around. One after the other, we dipped the quill in the ink and completed a letter in the Torah scroll.

A bystander would have seen a breathtaking scene of incredible elation and spiritual exuberance. The world seemed as if shrouded in silence. The strings of our heart felt strummed and the tears flowed freely down our cheeks.

"Mother!" cried one of the soldiers into his cell phone, "you wont believe what I have done! I have written a letter in a Torah scroll! Mother, are you there? Can you hear?! Me, a Shmutznik (a member of a non- religious Kibbutz), who can't differentiate between Shabbat and the rest of the week, who has not seen tzizit (ritual garment) in my life. Me, I wrote a letter in a Torah scroll! I can't believe it. I can't believe it. "

After the completion of the Torah, the ceremony continued. Leading the procession was a decorated car with multi-colored lights strung all over it and with a crown of lights spinning around on its roof. Following the car, bearers of a decorated canopy marched while people danced around it. Under the canopy, others held the Torah scroll, which was clothed in white and crimson with a silver crown at its top. 600 soldiers and thousands of the town residents marched and danced in the procession, a loud speaker accompanying them, playing traditional Jewish music.

As the ceremony came to a close, Rabbi Grossman approached every soldier and kissed him while placing a half-shekel coin in his hand and said "shliach mitzvah aino nezok," messengers of a mitzvah are not harmed. Rabbi Grossman concluded, "When you return, G-d willing, healthy and unharmed, you will fulfill this mission I am placing upon you, and you will donate this money to charity.

"The night came. Twelve buses made their way atop the Galilee Mountains. Heavy darkness engulfed us, yet behind, in the growing distance, a bright flame pierced the night sky. In the midst of war and violence, we found love and unending human compassion at Migdal Ohr, the educational center established in Migdal Ha'Emek by Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman. Rabbi Grossman speaks "This was an immense "Kiddush Hashem."

For a long period of time, I cried and was very emotional." Thus Rabbi Grossman recalled the moment when he first read the words above written by First Lieutenant M.Rabbi Grossman has what to add to the end of this exciting memoir. "A moment before they returned to Lebanon, I told the soldiers, 'in the merit that you said "shema" and put on tefillin, wrote a letter in the torah, and are messengers of a mitzvah, I promise you, that you will all return safe and sound. None of you will be wounded or killed.'"

"Wasn't the Rabbi scared to commit to 600 soldiers that they would return home safe and sound?" asked Shula Weissfer, a journalist. "That is what came out of my mouth word for word," he replied. "This was a moment of exuberance."

"I continued and told them," Rabbi Grossman relates, "if this does actually happen that you come back safely, the first place you must come back to - before you go home - is Migdal Ohr. We will thank G-d together and from there we will say goodbye." I told them, "think of this as an emergency call-up. Do you accept?" The commanding officer replied in the affirmative.

Two weeks later, around midnight, Rabbi Grossman received a phone call. "Rabbi, your blessing has come true!" exclaimed the commander over the phone. "Everyone is safe and we are on our way to you. We will be there by two 'o clock in the morning"

Rabbi Grossman immediately contacted the kitchen staff and asked them to prepare a meal while he worked to organize a band. People asked him 'You need a band at 2 a.m.? Is Moshiach here?'

"At 2:30 a.m. the soldiers disembarked from the buses, each one carrying 60 kilo of equipment on his back. The band started playing music and the soldiers approached Rabbi Grossman, each one lovingly received with a hug and a kiss. This continued for two hours.

"I felt as I had never felt before," recalls Rabbi Grossman. "Each one told me his personal miracle. "One soldier, a kibbutznik and a lawyer in civilian life, relayed an incredible miracle. A group of soldiers were gathered in an empty house in a Lebanese village when one of them forgetfully lit a cigarette. Hezbollah terrorists immediately noticed the light and fired an anti-tank missile at the house. Coincidentally, two horses from the village ran in front of the house and were hit and killed. The missile, deflected by the horses, veered away from the house, landing elsewhere. Incredibly, the horses miraculously saved the soldiers inside the house.

After the warm reception, the soldiers recited "birkat hagomel,"and together with Rabbi Grossman, sang and danced until daybreak.

"To this day," says Rabbi Grossman, "we maintain contact with each soldier and have thus become one family."

Rabbi Grossman is a recipient of the "Award of Recognition for his Actions on Behalf of Soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces and the Second Lebanon War"

Thoughts from a Sports Guy Reader

This was an e-mail I sent in to Bill Simmons (the very funny and actually intelligent sportswriter known as the "Sports Guy") at 3:45am after reading his latest column... I decided it was good enough to post.

I'm an Indians fan currently living in NYC (yes, the ALDS rocked), and I thought you'd enjoy a few tidbits from the Indians' announcers and an Indians fan in light of your latest article.

• 1) Tom Hamilton announced as Blood Pressure Borowski came in that "Indians fans might be shocked to learn that he had more 1-2-3 innings this year than Mariano Rivera." My brother called me up to tell me this and say "Yep, I was shocked."
• 2) Every ex-Clevelander I know has come up to me this postseason and said "You know, this year feels different. I'm not waiting for something horrible to happen that ends it all... I feel like they actually might win!" I'm sure that until 2004, you could appreciate that one.
• 3) Then again, as I listened online to Game 2, when Youkilis hit that liner on the 11th pitch in the bottom of the 9th, I almost had a heart attack. (I'm 24.) Within 60 seconds of that moment, I'd spoken to my brother in NY, my sister in Baltimore, and my father in Cleveland. And amazingly, we'd all survived.
• 3a) Indians' announcer Hamilton about 2 seconds after pausing after that catch said "Cleveland, you can breathe again."
• 3b) I hadn't been breathing.
• 4) You haven't seen enough Browns games. That's the only way you can think that Indians' fans won't stay loud in the freezing cold. I've been to subzero Browns games at the end of the year when they're WAY out of it, and you'd think they were still in the playoff hunt. 40 degrees?! That's like a sauna to Cleveland fans.
• 4a) The Indians' announcers in Game 2 noted in about the 4th or 5th inning that the Sox fans didn't seem as loud as the Indians or Yankees fans had been in the first series. It could be because it's a smaller park, but Hegan thought that they seemed like they were waiting for the World Series to get really into it.
• 4b) As a total throw-in, Bill Belichik is an *******. He completely sucked when he coached the Browns, and while he's not at Jordan/Elway/Modell/Jose Mesa/Steelers level of hatred in Cleveland, that's only because everyone thought he was too boring to listen to to even hate.
• 4b2) I think the only reason Romeo Crennel didn't get fired as the Browns' head coach after Week 1 is because people are afraid he'll be the next Belichik: Supposed defensive genius, clueless-looking head coach, sounds like he's going through the motions in press conferences, never looks like he cares about anything, spends a couple of years squandering great offensive talents (Kosar/Metcalf; Winslow/Edwards), brings in semi-washed up but decent LBs from his old team (Pepper Johnson;Willie McGinest)... it would be typical Browns to let him go and then watch as he somehow turns up in 7 years in his 2nd Super Bowl, citing what he "learned" in those "hard times" as a Browns head coach.
• 5) Whenever Joe Borowski enters a game, I have terrible Jose Mesa flashbacks, thinking "NO! Leave in Mike Jackson!!" (Betancourt)
• 6) You know that if the Indians keep winning these games, there's a strong possibility there will be no good ALCS MVP choice. If Borowski has 4 scoreless innings and 3 saves, would it not be the funniest thing ever if he's standing up there, receiving the award? Wouldn't you (in between tears and yelling) crack up at your TV screen? This could really happen.

Affirmative Action Harms Black Lawyers

Interesting study:

Does affirmative action work? An explosive study that suggests it does not is pitting the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights against the State Bar of California in a battle over admissions data that could determine once and for all if racial preferences help or hurt minority students.

"Currently only about one in three African-Americans who goes to an American law school passes the bar on the first attempt and a majority never become lawyers at all," says UCLA law professor Richard Sander.

In an article published in the Stanford Law Review, Sander and his research team concluded several thousand would-be black lawyers either dropped out of law school or failed to pass the bar because of affirmative action.

Known as the ‘mismatch’ effect, Sander claims students who are unprepared and whose academic credentials are below the median are admitted to law schools they are unqualified to attend. If those same students instead were to go to less elite or competitive schools, more would graduate, pass the bar and become lawyers.

As the article notes, it's imperative that the California Bar turn over their statistics to show if the findings are as correct as claimed. While it may be "controversial", hard data would make it less, not more controversial. That some people might not like the results of such data is too bad - bad statistics lead to worse policies which hurt the people they are trying to help the most. Putting people in positions where they are unable to succeed does not help them, even if (especially if?) it is an Ivy League school. It simply means that they'll fail out and be in far worse shape than they had been otherwise.

Jewish Economics: Live Long & Prosper

Longtime readers of this blog know that one of my favorite subjects is economics, particularly within the frum community. One of the most important portions of that subject is the issue of debt - how to control it, how to stop accruing it, and how to bring it down. Orthonomics has two important posts on that very subject over this weekend, including this one with 5 tips of hers on how to control it before it spirals out of control; and this one which is a heartfelt letter to the Yated regarding how it affects people, some discussion of debt, and SL's comments within. Excerpt:

“Debts?” I asked. “What debts?”
My friend then proceeded to relate that he owed what to me was an astronomic sum to credit card companies. “I have no yishuv hadaas and I get depressed simply thinking about how I will ever repay my debts and leave behind this spiraling black hole of debt,” he said. “The second I awake, I think about my balances and how impossible it will be for me to earn enough to pay them off. It is terribly depressing to wake up with such heavy, unsolvable issues weighing on one’s heart, every morning. And you wonder why I have no emotional energy left to think about Rosh Hashana, Yom Hadin, Yemei harachamim v’haratzon and teshuva?!” [Many young people are told not to worry about money, Hashem helps, and when things get too tough, and switching gears is extremely difficult. I have heard plenty of Rabbonim talk about the challenge of wealth, yet little is said about the challenges of debt including the spiritual erosion that can happen when a family is overextended. In addition, I've attended shiurim on giving tzedakah, yet I have never seen a shiur advertised that addresses the halachic question and practical questions about who/what gets paid first when the cash just isn't there].

Please, read the whole thing. It's so incredibly important, particularly for young couples, who pick up debt which can affect them for years, if not their whole lives.

One side note... To the left, some may have noticed a link to something called Prosper. For those who have a small amount of debt, Prosper may be a good way of eliminating or consolidating that debt at a lower rate. A friend who reads this blog originally showed it to me a couple of months ago, I did my own research on it [do your own please!], and found it to be fascinating. It's basically individuals lending to individuals; you can become a borrower or - if you'd like to make money and/or help people - a lender on Prosper.

Ask your local rav what the halachos are regarding lending money with interest. My friend is a lender and politely asks the people looking to borrow if they are Jewish, but find out on your own what you should do. Feel free to e-mail me if you have questions regarding my own experience with Prosper; I joined fairly recently, and perhaps if my friend is willing, you'll be able to ask him questions as well. The best advice, as always, is to avoid accruing debt in the first place; my friend (and possibly another friend or two soon) is using Prosper to make money on lending other people money, so he is earning interest instead of paying it.

Haveil Havalim #136 is UP!

Haveil Havalim #136 is UP!

It’s about a

NEW grandson

NEW blogger

NEW season

NEW word

NEW job

And much much more.

Quote of the Night

"Cleveland, you can breathe now."

WTAM's Tom Hamilton, after Grady Sizemore made a diving catch of Kevin Youkilis' line drive on the 11th pitch of his bottom of the 9th, 2 out, runner on second at bat against Rafael Betancourt.

As a note, I wasn't breathing at the time. I also spoke to: My sister (in Baltimore), my father (in Cleveland), and my brother (in New York), all within 60 seconds of that happening.

Geez.

UPDATE

Holy. Freaking. Crap. This is the strangest and most amazing game I've listened to in a LONG, long time.

Current thoughts:

• 13-6 in the 11th!?
• I think even Joe Borowski can hold a 7-run lead. I think.
• I agree with TheApple - too bad baseball doesn't go by sudden death! On the other hand, scoring 7 is SO much more fun... and really kills the Sox bullpen.
• Eric Wedge has incredible guts.
• Trot Nixon must be the happiest man in Boston.
• I wonder if Manny knows they lost... Manny Ramirez is one of the best players to ever play the game. He waited until the last possible moment to swing at that Perez pitch... and took it DEEP out of the park to the opposite field. That's insane.
  
• CC Sabathia, Fausto Carmona, and Rafael Perez ALL got rocked... and the Indians still split in Boston. If I'm a Sox fan, I'm shaking so hard right now. As an Indians fan, I'm beyond thrilled.
• As a Clevelander, all these good things happening is just strange. I'm not even worried about using the Browns as my survivor pick tomorrow. Is that crazy?!
• Geez. YES! I don't even know what to say. This is craziness. It's only 1-1!! AAAH!!! I just hope I don't have a heart attack over the next 3 weeks.
• GO TRIBE!!
  

Hedge Funds, Abortions, and Bad Math

I hate dumb studies.

One in five pregnancies worldwide and one in three pregnancies in Europe ends in abortion, according to a new study published in a special female-focused issue of the Lancet.

The study also found that, on average, 90 percent of women worldwide will have an abortion before the age of 45, based on 2003 data. However, many women will have had multiple abortions and many none at all to come to this average.

Although the statistics may seem startling, worldwide rates of induced abortion actually fell 17 percent from 46 million to 42 million between 1995 and 2003.

The bold part is idiocy. You can't "average" women with multiple abortions with women with no abortions and come to a percentage of women who have had abortions!! Using that mathematical model, if 1 out of every 10 people eats 12 pieces of cheese a day, then 120% of people eat a piece of cheese every day.

If 30% of women in the US and Europe have abortions, and on average have three in a lifetime, that means 30% of women have abortions. Not 90%.

How can people who are this bad at math do statistical studies?! I hate dumb people.

Elsewhere, this is an excellent article regarding the pricing of investments that aren't traded on the open market, and how difficult it can be to do so. The variance in how investment companies, brokers, and funds price these securities can have huge impacts on the market. The problems the market is having isn't just from "subprime" mortgages, but how investors in those mortgages priced them.

Note: One of the responsibilities I'll have this coming year is pricing these things. Fascinating, fun, and freaking impossible.

The Mom Song

This was awesome. Hat tip: My sister Vervel, via my Mom. Of course. (Lyrics underneath the video - hit expand.)


"The Mom Song"

Get up now
Get up now
Get up out of bed
Wash your face
Brush your teeth
Comb your sleepyhead
Here's your clothes and your shoes
Hear the words I said
Get up now! Get up and make your bed
Are you hot? Are you cold?
Are you wearing that?
Where's your books and your lunch and your homework at?
Grab your coat and gloves and your scarf and hat
Don't forget! You gotta feed the cat
Eat your breakfast, the experts tell us it's the most important meal of all
Take your vitamins so you will grow up one day to be big and tall
Please remember the orthodontist will be seeing you at 3 today
Don't forget your piano lesson is this afternoon so you must play
Don't shovel
Chew slowly
But hurry
The bus is here
Be careful
Come back here
Did you wash behind your ears?
Play outside, don't play rough, will you just play fair?
Be polite, make a friend, don't forget to share
Work it out, wait your turn, never take a dare
Get along! Don't make me come down there
Clean your room, fold your clothes, put your stuff away
Make your bed, do it now, do we have all day?
Were you born in a barn? Would you like some hay?
Can you even hear a word I say?
Answer the phone! Get off the phone!
Don't sit so close, turn it down, no texting at the table
No more computer time tonight!
Your iPod's my iPod if you don't listen up
Where are you going and with whom and what time do you think you're coming home?
Saying thank you, please, excuse me makes you welcome everywhere you roam
You'll appreciate my wisdom someday when you're older and you're grown
Can't wait till you have a couple little children of your own
You'll thank me for the counsel I gave you so willingly
But right now I thank you not to roll your eyes at me
Close your mouth when you chew, would appreciate
Take a bite maybe two of the stuff you hate
Use your fork, do not burp or I'll set you straight
Eat the food I put upon your plate
Get an A, get the door, don't get smart with me
Get a grip, get in here, I'll count to three
Get a job, get a life, get a PHD
Get a dose of,
"I don't care who started it!
You're grounded until you're 36"
Get your story straight and tell the truth for once, for heaven's sake
And if all your friends jumped off a cliff would you jump, too?
If I've said it once, I've said at least a thousand times before
That you're too old to act this way
It must be your father's DNA
Look at me when I am talking
Stand up straighter when you walk
A place for everything and everything must be in place
Stop crying or I'll give you something real to cry about
Oh!
Brush your teeth, wash your face, put your PJs on
Get in bed, get up here, say a prayer with mom
Don't forget, I love you
And tomorrow we will do this all again because a mom's work never ends
You don't need the reason why
Because, because, because, because
I said so, I said so, I said so, I said so
I'm the mom, the mom, the mom, the mom, the mom!!
Ta da!!!

A Little Bit of Everything

Whenever people ask me what SerandEz is about, my most common answer is either that it's really about anything, or that it's a little bit of everything. So here's a little bit of everything, from Sukkos to Cleveland to Pobody's Nerfect to G to Las Vegas to LA to Holy Hyrax; from Red Sox-Tribe to Milk 'n Honey to Google to LeBron:

SerandEz Sukkos

• Traveling by plane all over the country with an 18-month old who suffers from motion sickness: Not fun.
  
• Traveling holding a lulav in your hand: Not normal.
  
• Traveling for 11 days, 6 of which are Shabbos or Yom Tov, and realizing when you arrive at destination one that you left your garment bag (holding all of your suits) on your bed in New York: Not good.
• Not being stuck in the middle of two hours of traffic in Delaware with less than an hour and 60 miles to go to Baltimore: Actually... not as fun.
  

So, while the lulav held up fine, and Elianna made it through the flight okay, my suits were living it up in NYC. Next, Elianna threw up during the 45-minute car ride from Akron to my parents' house in Cleveland. Luckily, Macy's had a nice pair of dress pants for $15 that I wore all of the first days; and thankfully, my sister- and brother-in-law were able to bring the suits when they came to LA.

Cleveland: The weather was surprisingly gorgeous (and didn't suddenly switch from gorgeous to snowing like it did on Pesach); SIL and OD and the -ens were there; and all in all, it was nice, calm, and the Indians were the talk of the town. At least they were when people weren't talking about the Browns beating up on the Ravens. Elianna enjoyed playing with her "big" cousins Ben & Hen, and of course started saying a whole bunch of new words: "OW" (right before she tries to hit at someone - learned from accidentally hitting Serach who said it); "NO!" (from Hen, who didn't want her to steal the car from her); "Dai!" [enough], which she seems to have simply picked up; and "Yesth!", which we taught her to offset 'No'.

We were kept entertained on Yom Tov itself by Pobody's Nerfect and her brother S[-]oner, who visited and even hosted us at their sukkah (minus Elianna) for a meal. On motzei Shabbos, we joined them and their family and a friend at laser tag, a bit of 'Dance Revolution', air hockey, etc. Note: Serach is not just tone-deaf, but lacks any sense of musical rhythm whatsoever. We also got to see G, whose conversation with my Dad bears repeating. My brother OD, who is 5 inches shorter and 100 pounds lighter than me, was not around. {note that that used to be a 50-pound difference...}

Dad: Hey G, you look good... you lose weight?
G: Yeah, I did.
Dad: I think I gained what you lost.
G: No, I think that Ezzie did. [pause] Actually, I think Ezzie ate OD.

Throughout the chag, we had some delicious Shannon Road Ice Cream that Dan (the Ice Cream Man) had dropped off at my parents' home - more on that another time. It was so good that Pobody's family bought some after she tasted a drop by our house.

On Sunday, we had a really nice time, heading out with OD & family and my parents to one of the coolest places I've seen in a long time - the LakeFarm Metroparks. They had this amazing place that had trains that hobbyists had made... mini-trains that people can ride on, that are as real as any train in make, from blowing steam to burning coal to smoke. They've built 3 miles of track over 14 acres with dozens of switch-tracks, about a dozen trains... it's amazing. After about a 40-minute wait in the long line of kids and parents, we got on... and I'm not sure who enjoyed it the most. Elianna LOVED it (despite the constant cloud of smoke that was puffing from the front of the train), crying "Maw! Maw!" when it finally slowed to a stop.

After that, we headed to LakeFarm Park and enjoyed the Corn Maze (Elianna loved this, too) and then seeing all the animals, where Elianna quickly learned what sound each animal made. She wanted to pet them all, but only a few got close enough for her to have a shot; she had an amazing time petting the sheep inside one of the buildings. The next day, after visiting Great-Grandma, she had even more fun at the zoo, seeing all the elephants, monkeys, fish, and of course, a ton of Jews.

Los Angeles: After that, it was off to LA. On the drive from the zoo to the airport, Elianna threw up, resulting in a quick cleanup in the trunk as I checked our bags in. Thankfully, there was enough room on the first leg to Vegas for her carseat, so we didn't have to hold her... but she threw up right as we landed, and we had about 15 minutes until our next flight to LA. We were so rushed I didn't even have a chance to gamble in the airport - nebach. She was fine on the flight to Burbank, and we had a nice relaxing night in the guest wing of Serach's sister's in-laws. (Gotta love LA.)

Yom tov in the Valley was really nice - pretty much spent the whole time with family and family friends, just rushing into the city one evening to meet a friend, until motzei Shabbos. On that night, we drove to meet another good friend whom Serach had never met - the one, the only, the famous: Holy Hyrax! We had some great Chinese, and ended up sitting there shmoozing with the Hyraxes until about 2:30 in the morning while Elianna slept in the (really cute) kids' room. Unsurprisingly, Mrs. Hyrax is much more fun than Holy, and got along almost too well with Serach, particularly in their opinions on subjects such as blogging. She's also going to closely monitor anything he says on the blog from now on. Hehe.

On our last day in the City of Angels, I'd been hoping to meet up with Jack (of the infamous Shack), but when he was available we got a bit bogged down with packing and the like and it didn't end up happening. I also missed a friend's engagement party and we couldn't go out with Ser's aunt and uncle, either - not the best ending to our trip, but okay. At least Elianna slept the whole way to New York - two flights holding her in our arms, though at least the first showed Evan Almighty which was somewhat funny.

There's definitely something nice about traveling through Cleveland to New York and seeing how everyone just seemed to calmly feel that there was no way the Indians were blowing the series. It's quite a change from what Clevelanders are used to. Sweet.

Indians vs. Red Sox

What a series this is going to be. Of course, the first two games will be on Shabbos, meaning we will miss what might be two of the best pitching duels in an LCS game in years. What's interesting is that the Indians are really given a boost by the 2-3-2 format due to the makeup of their team: The Indians, led by CC & Carmona in Games 1 & 2, have a legitimate shot in both games in Boston. They can come back to Cleveland 1-1... maybe even UP 2-0. Even 1-1 puts a ton of pressure on the Sox, who would need to win at least one in Cleveland, and even then could easily be in a 3-2 hole by the time they head home with Carmona pitching Game 6. I do think that the Sox are an amazing team - all-around, probably slightly better than the Indians - but the Indians' pitching may actually put them at an advantage in a series like this. Whatever happens, I think this will be an amazing series to remember. Indians in 6.

I don't know why people were pushing the D-backs to pitch Brandon Webb three times against the Rockies. He's given up 4+ runs to them four times this season, with his ONLY good start against them their only loss in the last 3 weeks. And, unsurprisingly, he got hit again today and gave up four runs. People would have been wiser to suggest Livan Hernandez, who had a number of really good starts against the Rockies this year. Rockies in 7.

Milk 'n Honey

I was eating at Milk 'n Honey in Manhattan today, and their pizza is actually very good. When I started working a little over a year ago, it cost $2.25/slice - expensive, but not crazy by NYC standards. A short time later it was at $2.50; soon after, it hit $2.95. Somewhat outrageous, but hey, what can ya do, right? Today I bought 2 slices and a can of soda ($1.25) and was surprised to see the bill was $8.94 including tax. I asked the cashier how much a slice was, and she responded immediately:

"Three-fifty"

WHAT!? $3.50 for a SLICE OF PIZZA!? Is that not insane?! I know the price of milk [and therefore cheese] is up, but has it gone up 56% in one year like the price of this pizza? I know that rent in Manhattan is high, but this is absolutely crazy. Am I wrong for thinking so? Please tell me if there's justification for price hikes like this - I just don't see how it's possible.

Google

Google scares me. I've said this for a while, but now it's starting to become a lot more obvious. People forget that Google is a for-profit corporation run by people who have their own beliefs and agendas; it's not some purely automated search engine with no human touch. Google's GoogleNews has often been accused of severe left-wing bias, taking information from far-left sources but ignoring mainstream right-wing ones. They allowed the Chinese government to censor all information coming through Google in China. They're not concerned with "truth", they're concerned with money and what they believe... and they have every right to do so. The problem is that people have become too reliant on Google: This blog, for example, is on Blogger, a service owned by Google, and they could theoretically delete it at any time. I use Picasa for my pictures... and that's owned by Google, too. I upload videos on YouTube, owned by... you got it. Google. Now, they're banning ads that attack MoveOn.org, the far-left group infamous recently for their "General Betray Us" ad scandal involving the New York Times.

The flow of information is likely the single most important factor that affects the future of this country. When one group that is not checked in any way, that has this much money and power, that has absolutely nothing that stops them from doing what they want, and can control that flow of information at will in very subtle ways [by simply not showing the information which they don't like, for example], it can be a very dangerous power. [Note: While Google leans strongly left, this would be true of ANY similar company or organization on either side of the spectrum.]

LeBron

I don't get the big deal over LeBron rooting for the Yankees, though flaunting it at the Jake may have been pushing it a bit. He's a Yankee fan - he should have to change as a player for Cleveland in a different sport? Give the guy a break - he was honest, not playing dumb games and making false claims. It's more troubling that he was a huge front-runner: I mean come on... Bulls, Cowboys, Yankees? I used to hate guys like that. Bill Simmons has a good piece on ESPN basically saying the same things.

PostScript

I think that the only thing this post is missing is a roundup. Chana tagged me with a meme that asks the writer to link to five posts that show the evolution of their blog. I'm not sure I can do that - this blog has definitely changed a lot in many ways since it began, but overall, it really has stuck to the About This Site blurb in the sidebar, which is that it's about just about everything. SerandEz is really centered around the 'community', so to speak, and not just me and my opinions; a lot of were or have become good friends of ours, both on the blog and off. I'll consider doing the meme for real later, but in all honesty, I think that this post symbolizes a lot of what this blog is all about and always has been.

Three Cheers for Honest Shoppers

As I've been slowly catching up on my favorite blogs, I couldn't help but LOVE this post by Treppenwitz. If you haven't seen it yet, this is a must-read. Excerpt:

When I finished picking out the goods I walked up to the 'Express Checkout' line and noticed that it was fairly long. However, I wasn't overly concerned since the sign clearly stated '10 items or less'... so things should move along quickly.

Yeah right.

Directly in front of me in line I noticed two women with a shopping cart that was 2/3 full. I politely pointed out that they were in the express line and that they had too many items. But instead of begging my forgiveness and going to another line, one of the women gave me a mirthless grin and said, "We're together... we each have ten items". The two of them stood with arms folded across ample bosoms, daring me to challenge their clever ploy.

I took another look at their shopping cart and my blood pressure started to climb as I noticed that just the items on top approached the stated number... there must have been two or three times that number of things buried underneath.

This is the moment of truth that most immigrants are intimately familiar with. Do you marshal your limited Hebrew and make a fuss... risking having unhelpful idiots around you jump in with "What's the big deal... just let them go... it isn't worth all the yelling"? Or do you sit quietly and feel like the biggest frayer in the world because somebody is flouting the rules and wasting your valuable time in the process?

This time I decided to make a fuss.

Muslims, Christians Making Peace?

This is fascinating; while at first glance this seems like a very good thing in general, I'm wary of the impact such a combination would have on Jews and others. Excerpt:

The "survival of the world" is at stake if Muslims and Christians do not make peace with each other, leaders of the Muslim world will warn the Pope and other Christian leaders today.

In an unprecedented open letter signed by 138 leading scholars from every sect of Islam, the Muslims plead with Christian leaders "to come together with us on the common essentials of our two religions" and spell out the similarities between passages of the Bible and the Koran.

The scholars state: "As Muslims, we say to Christians that we are not against them and that Islam is not against them - so long as they do not wage war against Muslims on account of their religion, oppress them and drive them out of their homes."

The phrasing has echoes of the New Testament passage: "He that is not with me is against me" - a passage used by President George Bush when addressing a joint session of Congress nine days after 9/11.

The Muslims call instead for the emphasis to be on the shared characteristics of world's two largest faiths.

Regardless, it is certainly fascinating and surprising, and can have far, far-reaching impact.

Wake Up!! by Gila Kanal

I received this via e-mail through a couple of friends a few days ago, and thought it was excellent and asked for and received permission to post it. The young woman who wrote this had another excellent and passionate letter a number of months ago which was also posted here. As with last time, sorry for the lack of translations; if you would like to know any word please ask in the comments. Thank you.
Note: Edited slightly for formatting, etc.

Wake Up!
by Gila Kanal

On the night of September 9th, 2003, a 20-year old bride anxiously awaited the coming morning. It was the night before her wedding and she counted down the minutes until she would stand under her chupah and become the wife of a man she loved with all her neshama. Her father had just returned from New York on a medical conference and the two of them decided to go out for a heart-to-heart talk on this incredible night. They made their way to Cafe Hillel on Emek Refaim. As she entered the restaurant, her father sensed that something wasn't right. He noticed a man entering the Cafe right after his daughter did, and then the panic set in. He ran in to get his daughter out, but it was too late. The blast went off and Dr. Applebaum was killed instantly. The bride remained in critical condition. I remember when the call came in from my best friend. "Naavah is in a coma. Her father is dead. Tomorrow is her wedding and she doesn't even know her father is dead."

Naavah Applebaum died that same night. Her wedding day became her funeral.

This experience left me in a state of shock. I remember a few nights after Naavah's funeral I called my Abba in a fit of hysterics. I cried, "Abba, I know what my tafkid is in Olam HaZeh." My father calmly answered, "Yes shefile'? What is that?" "I want to die Al Kidush HaShem" I sobbed. My father is a man of never ending patience, wisdom, and compassion. He took a deep breath and said, "Gila, I think I have something even harder for you." "What do you mean?" I asked. "What could possibly be harder then that?" "Try living Al Kidush HaShem", my father replied.

As many of you know, I am fighting. I am fighting with all my heart and soul to live in Israel. I have chosen a profession that I have heard is good in Israel, I have applied to schools that are only in Israel, and I do not date men who do not see a future in Israel. Recently people have been asking me, "Why. Why Israel?" Why have I chosen to plant my seeds and my roots so firmly in this country? There are the obvious reasons: Israel is my Home. It is a Mitzvah to live here. G-d promised us this land. And on and on... But that is not why I am writing this letter. Over the past few months dozens upon dozens of people have asked me, "Gila, why are you making Aliyah"?

It was then that it hit me. The fact that we are asking that question is a perfect illustration of where our generation stands today. No one asks, "Gila, why are you dating? Why are you so desperately searching for your soul mate?" It is understood that I am half a person and I am looking for my other half to complete me. There was a time, not too long ago, when Israel too was a Given. There was a time not too long ago, when people breathed, ate, and slept with the word "Tzion" on their lips. There was a time when the world held its breath as the votes were counted, 33 for, 13 against, and 10 abstentions, and on November 29th, 1947, the UN voted for a Jewish State. There was a time when we, as a nation, understood that the State of Israel was an absolute necessity, and we would never survive another Holocaust without her.

Those times are over. Am Yisrael has entered a new era. It has suddenly occurred to me that the battle we are fighting is harder then any other battle that has been fought in the history of the Jewish people. I am part of the first generation to be born into a world where the State of Israel is now officially taken for granted. I cannot think of anything harder. How do you teach someone to appreciate something they have always had? How often do we look down at our legs and think, "Wow! Thank G-d I have these things!!! Moving would be pretty hard without them!" How often do you feel your pulse and shiver with excitement that you are living and your heart is beating? If we can manage to forget the most essential parts of our bodies how can we be expected to remember the less essential parts of our lives? Israel is a necessity that we have waited 2000 years for. Close your eyes and imagine the world without her. Do we even remember what that means anymore? We are so lost. We have entered the generation where we actually ask the question, "Why are you making Aliyah?"

'Im Eshkachech Yerushalayim'

We have truly forgotten. 60 years ago on a cold November day, she became Ours. 60 years ago. Do you realize how recently that is? 40 years ago we got back the old city of Jerusalem. These things happened in our parents' lifetimes!!! We are talking about the year 1967! This is recent history. Since as far back as we can remember, the world has been dying for Israel. Since the establishments of the Aliyot to Israel, the settlers have been sweating, working, and fighting for her. Since the second the State was established and the Arabs attacked when Israel was a mere SECONDS old, we have lost thousands of neshamot bleeding, battling, and dying for this land.

Yet, through all this, we have forgotten. We have forgotten what it feels like to live in a world without a home. We have forgotten what it feels like to be a nation without a land. We have forgotten what it feels like to long for something we are missing. We have come to take it all for granted. Now suddenly, all the bleeding has stopped. The weapons have been put down. We no longer feel like Israel is fighting for her very existence. We have stopped dying. But, in my opinion, the Real Fight has just begun. Am Yisrael, listen very carefully. We are the first generation dedicated with the task of LIVING for Israel. We are the very first generation granted the luxury of going to a disco for Israel, sitting in a cafe for Am Yisrael, and having children for Midinat Yisrael. We are the first generation to have the ability to forget and take her existence for granted. I cannot think of a harder battle. We have forgotten a world without Israel. We have forgotten what it feels like to scream, "If I forget Yershalayim... let my right hand be cut off" with a passion and intensity that can only be felt by those who DON'T HAVE YERUSHALAYIM! We have forgotten what it means to say, "L'Shana HaBah B'Yerushalayim" and truly wonder if we will ever get to see her golden stones in our lifetime.

That, my friends, is why I have decided to make Aliyah. Because, for whatever reason, I do not want to forget. I am deeply aware that this Land, Country, Soil, and Earth, were fought for in order for ME to continue that fight by living here, and I never want to forget that. Every time I walk through Sha'ar Tzion and see the stones riddled with bullet holes, a lump forms in my throat as I realize how many soldiers have died so I can walk through the streets. We live in a very scary time. We live in a world where what we have actually gotten what we have been praying for for 2000 years and yet we cannot see it. We live in a world where our Dream has truly come true, yet we continue to sleep. Someone recently told me that a person can be so caught up in his/her life, that their absolute perfect b'sheret can stand right in front of them and they will never see him/her. Imagine the frustration and pain when someone realizes that they were too blind to see that their soul mate stood 2 inches from their face and they lost him forever. Imagine if your deepest fantasy came true, yet you were too busy dreaming about it to even notice it had become a reality.

Israel's existence is not set in stone. A few miles away there is a man who lives to destroy us. He has missiles pointed at the heart of this country and will stop at nothing to wipe her off the map. We live among nations whose goal is to push us into the sea. We thrive on the back of a world that resents our mere presence. Yet through all this, we are Here. We are Alive. We are Home. Open your Eyes! Am Yisrael WAKE UP!! We have a HOME! We are BACK!! Where are you!? Israel is at war, only this time the enemy no longer comes from without. It comes from within. We truly are our greatest enemy. The doors to our salvation have been thrown open, yet no one seems to be running. I am deeply confident that if we choose this moment to finally stand together and live for Am Yisarel, Torat Yisrael, and Midinat Yisrael there would be nothing that could stop us. We are no longer fighting against guns and cannons. We are now fighting the world of materialism, comfort, and ease. We are fighting Ourselves.

Let me make this very clear. I am NOT writing this letter to tell the world to make Aliyah. Everyone has their own lives and I have NO RIGHT to EVER tell anyone that their life is here. I understand that Israel is NOT for everyone. I am writing this letter to beg you to not forget. I am writing this letter to plead with you to continue to appreciate, support, protect, and defend Israel. I am writing this letter to wake up the world to the reality that our Dream has come true, but we will all miss it if we continue to sleep! I am writing this letter to remind the world of a time without Israel and how easy it is to go back to that reality if we do not Live for her now. I am writing this letter because people asked me 'Why?' and I thought I should answer.

'Im Eshkachech Yerushalayim'

I shiver because I realize we may already have... 4 years ago, on a warm night in September, a young bride was torn to pieces. Her body was left a bloody mangled mess on the streets of Baka. She died so we can Live. Please do not make her death be in vain. As I type this, there are countless soldiers putting their lives on the line so we can have the freedom to live for this country. There is truly only one way to repay them. Live for Israel. After all those who have died Al Kidush HaShem it is time we started Living. I am begging each and every one of you to remember the world without a Home. For 2000 years we cried for her. Am Yisrael, WE HAVE HER. SHE IS OURS. FIGHT FOR HER! LIVE FOR HER! We cannot lose her again! After all those years of praying, yearning, hoping, and dreaming, the prayers have been answered and the dreams have come true! WAKE UP!! Stop Dreaming!!! She is OURS!! We don't need to dream anymore. This is Reality. This is Life. It is time we started Living.

B'Zchut Aliyat Neshamot of all the people who have died fighting, living, and yearning for Am Israel, Torat Yisrael, and Midinat Yisrael,

Am Yisrael please Wake Up...

Starter Marriages

Still pretty busy, but I thought this pair of posts by Ariella & Sephardi Lady on frum starter marriages was interesting. As I commented on SL's post, I agreed with G's comment that much of it may be traced to the pressures on people to get married very young (similar to the seemingly very common broken engagements), but not just because people are rushing into relationships without thinking. I think much of it may simply be the 'fact of the matter' - as couples who marry young, often with little to no financial or other worries, slowly (or quickly) run into different situations, financial or otherwise, their lives change may dramatically. After a few years, one or the other (or both) may think 'You know, this really isn't the life I wanted' and decide they want out.

No Tip?

I was hoping to start writing about a number of things, but I'm a bit bogged down at work (again). Coming soon:

• An amazing essay/letter I and many others received that we've gotten permission to post;
• Sukkos recap, including everything from the incredible Shannon Road Ice Cream, to Pobody's Nerfect vs. Serach on a dance machine, to visiting with the Hyraxes in sunny LA;
• Our kitchen is quickly coming into being, thank God;
• and a few more serious posts.
• Also, see this post by Chaim. I agree with him completely: It's nice that the Jewish Press has a blog, but this type of post is disgusting. I don't get the slamming of Chassidim, I don't get the gross claims about how Jews view things, etc. This is where I got riled up:

  Why shouldn't they exaggerate? Because doing so is false!
  
  This point is obvious of course. But not apparently to this ostensibly religious Jew. To him, the question wasn't why someone should depart from the truth, but why one would ever tell the truth in the first place.

Meanwhile, I was dismayed by something I saw last night that I can't come up with a good way of being dan l'kaf z'chus for: Because our oven wasn't hooked up, I went to a local Chinese place that we really like to pick up dinner. The restaurant was decently full, but it's a small place and the waitress was doing a fine job of serving everyone there. I had to wait a while for my food, and was standing near the register the whole time to do so.

There was a group of three yeshiva boys sitting at one table, talking quietly and eating, and when they were done, they came up to the register with the waitress as they were splitting the bill. The first one's bill was about $16-17, so he gave a $20 - I figured he'd give the change as tip. But he didn't. I thought to myself, "Well, I guess $3+ would be a bit high on such a bill, so he'll probably leave $2 on the table or something." The next guy also gave cash and kept the change. The third guy paid by credit card, and didn't add in a tip, either. That's all fine - maybe they're pooling together and leaving a tip on the table, right? I looked back at the table - perhaps they'd left a tip on the table? But I didn't see anything. The waitress went to the table to clean it off... and didn't pick up anything.

I don't understand. Isn't it basic manners to leave a tip when receiving service? [Note: I've eaten at this place numerous times and the service - including from this waitress, who is usually the only one there, is always excellent.] If you're splitting a bill, that doesn't mean you don't leave a tip - it means you split the tip, too. I don't understand how a group of yeshiva bochurim can go into a restaurant and not leave a tip. I hesitate to call it a chillul Hashem only because most of the clientèle in this restaurant is Jewish, and generally tip just fine; I doubt the waitress will think "Oh, those Jews don't tip" from this incident. But it's still wrong, it still might make her think that yeshiva boys don't tip, that some aren't being taught proper manners... I don't get it.

Why the Yankees Lost

The most important and obvious reason: The Indians simply beat them.

In Moneyball, Billy Beane was quoted as saying that all a team can really do is get to the playoffs; everything after that is basically luck, with perhaps having a couple of great starting pitchers making a difference. I think that's basically true. (Nephtuli? NoyG? G?) Managing actually plays a small role in the playoffs - when to make moves, whom to start, etc. - and in that aspect, I think Wedge had a clear edge, helped a lot by Torre's terrible decisions, such as starting Wang.

The Indians hit about .500 with RISP in the series. That's astounding, and pretty lucky. The Yankees hit .100. That's unlucky. But the number of chances each team had to hit with RISP (27[!] to 10 with two outs) is a lot of the difference, and that comes back to simple things like walks and OBP. The Indians had a .417 OBP; the Yankees were at .300. The Indians walked 20 times, the Yankees 14. The Indians constantly had runners on base and IN scoring position, helped by 10 doubles; the Yankees didn't (just 3 doubles), and perhaps pitching out of the stretch affected things as well. Certainly the worry about wild pitches was justified after Chamberlin's.

While there's no real "clutch" in baseball, there is "choke". I don't think the Yankees really choked, though Joba might have when the bugs were flying around his head; Carmona had the same problem in the 9th yet never stepped off the mound.

Torre starting Wang was idiotic. "Let's throw out a guy who got shelled against the same team on short rest, even though guys on short rest are 12-30 since 1999 and Mussina is perfectly fine." If he were truly concerned about Mussina, he should have started him but had Wang available to come in as a reliever. I don't get why he wouldn't put (LH) Giambi up against Byrd. Wedge starting Nixon against Clemens was good. The only two players who really didn't play well in the series are two starters who are hard to replace at their positions - 3B Casey Blake and 2B Asdrubal Cabrera - and both play the field well. Wedge using his bullpen properly was great, though putting in Borowski was the only time I was nervous last night. As I discussed with the friends I was watching with last night, having Borowski as the closer who only really pitches in save situations is brilliant from a different standpoint: It means that the Indians' best relievers can be put in when you really need them, such as with runners on or to get past a rough part of the lineup, etc. Betancourt and Perez faced 70 inherited runners this year; just 9 scored. Using them and Jensen Lewis just to place more pressure on the Yankees by having them chew up those 6th-8th innings is great.

I have to admit to rooting against the Indians for one AB - hoping ARod would HR off Perez. It just stuck it more to Yankees fans who whine about ARod not being 'clutch'. I also couldn't help but enjoy the constant camera panning to ARod, as if he were at fault for Jeter grounding into double plays or Posada whiffing. Anyone else notice how ARod seems to be the only player on the Yankees (maybe Matsui, Giambi do it sometimes) who goes back to the dugout and advises his teammates what to look for, who listens to coaches telling him little things before the AB, etc.? Meanwhile, if you watch Indians' games, you see just about the whole team doing it (especially Casey Blake, Victor Martinez, and Hafner)?

There's plenty more, but that's good enough for the post. Whomever is interested is welcome to join in in the comments. :)

GO TRIBE!

Oh - Indians in 7, because I have to. Can CC/Carmona pitch 1-2, 4-5, and both be available in 7? Or at least CC in Game 7?

WAHOO!!!!

THE INDIANS WIN! THE INDIANS WIN!!!!!!

And it was by really beating the Yankees. I don't think anything but a World Series victory could be better at this point.

Ahhhhh....

SerandEz Return to Chaos

After a wonderful Yom Tov in Cleveland and Los Angeles, we've come back to an apartment that - rather than be nice and homey with a brand-new kitchen floor, instead has half of the kitchen in the living room, large pieces of wood spread across things, and an old kitchen floor on half the floor and NO floor on the other half of the kitchen. And no working oven, dishwasher, washer, dryer... etc. Wonderful. And of course, nowhere for Elianna to move or play. Argh.

Haveil Havalim #135 is UP!

Haveil Havalim - the carnival of Judaism and Israel - #135 is UP at Soccer Dad!

If you'd like to check out individual topics they are:

Pru U'revu
Yom Tov
Ahmadinejad in NY
Jewish Practice
Culture
History
Humor
Israel
Politics
Antisemitism

Or if you want to see the whole thing, go check it out!

Indians in Five

...in case you were wondering. I actually think they can do it in less [see below], but five is a safer bet.

I'm actually a bit surprised: I thought the Red Sox would choose the Thursday start to keep the Angels from starting Lackey and Escobar twice and to stick it to the Yankees; a Wednesday start would have been great for the Tribe. Even so, I don't think Yankees fans appreciate just how good CC and Sabathia are - I expect a dominating Game 1 from CC, and as long as Carmona stays calm, a very good Game 2 out of him. He'd also be available in

The Yankees haven't seen CC since 2004; he's a power lefty with amazing control. That's pretty much all the Yanks' biggest problems in one... and it's on the road. Then comes Carmona, who has improved drastically on his own control, and who throws that amazing power sinker. He shut them down in his first start until Borowski blew his 6-2 lead, and that was in Yankee stadium.

I don't see any Yankees pitcher having a great start. Okay, maybe even good - but not enough to win a game if the Yankees aren't hitting. People get caught up in the Yankees' lineup and their 6-0 record against the Tribe that they forget who they actually beat and that the Indians are one of the best hitting teams in baseball, too - and they've only gotten better with guys like Asdrubal Cabrera, Franklin Gutierrez, etc. The Indians also have the best and deepest bench in the playoffs.

Hafner is finally hitting, which will be huge - he was a real hole in the middle of the lineup until the past couple of weeks.

People think the Yankees are the hottest team in baseball... even though the Indians have been hotter. Since August 13th: 31-13 vs. 28-17.

I can't say I love Westbrook or Byrd in Games 3 & 4, though Westbrook always keeps the ball down and has been very good lately, while Byrd at least doesn't walk anybody. I still think the Indians should throw a wrench at the Yankees if they're up 2-0, start Aaron Laffey in Game 3, have him pitch 4-5 innings (once or twice through the order), get a small lead, then have Westbrook come in for 2 innings. It would completely throw off the Yankees, who - like the Indians - have trouble with pitchers they haven't seen before. Then they could finish them off with Perez, Betancourt... and maybe even Joe Borowski (gulp). But doing so could seriously cause clubhouse rifts, which does play a role in October baseball.

So... elsewhere: Rockies in four, unless Hamels can pitch every other day. Diamondbacks in four, with Micah Owings hitting a HR to win Game Two for himself. Red Sox-Angels will be fascinating - I wonder if the Angels can surprise everyone, beat Beckett in Game One, and take out the Sox in four or even in a sweep. But if it goes back to Boston for Game Five, you have to give it to Boston.

And of course, Indians in five. GO TRIBE!!

Chag Sameach to all!

Fun & Sun & Lemon Curry

SerandEz are currently in Los Angeles, enjoying the beautiful (though a bit too warm if you're picky) weather. To whet your appetites, here's one of the recipes I promised to post at some point; don't be afraid to fool around with it, it may not be quite right. Thank Pobody's Nerfect for requesting it today so I have it on my mind...

Lemon Curry Chicken

The following is for one whole chicken cut into pieces; I actually think it's better on cutlets, but adjust the measurements and oven times accordingly. Or just do what we do and make it up. :)

Take the chicken, dip into eggs or margarine, roll in bread crumbs. Put in oven at 400. (For cutlets I often use 350-375.) While it's there for about a half hour (15-20 for cutlets), mix together the following:

1 cup sugar (or less - Imma) (or more! - Ez)
1 tsp curry (no more - might be even less, like 1/2 tsp)
1 tsp paprika
2 tbsp lemon juice
dash of pepper (woohoo, a dash! more than pinch...)

Take out the chicken, place half the mixture on one side of each piece, the other half on the other side. (Ez: Or be lazy and put most of it on one side, if it's cutlets.) Put it back in the oven. Check it once in a while. When it looks just about done, take it out. When it looks really done, you probably left it in too long. When it turns black, you have serious issues. Good way to gauge - if the mixture not on pieces in the pan looks pretty dry, take it out.

Enjoy!