The Greatest Guests

Over the years at Casa SerandEz (I, II, III, and now IV!) we have been fortunate enough to have hosted hundreds upon hundreds of guests, many of them having stayed over - from the couches in our one-bedroom apartment to the beds in the girls' room or couches in our two-bedroom; to their own room or the basement in our New York "house" to having their own floor (and bathroom!) in our house in Cleveland.

In just the 8 weeks* since we've arrived in Cleveland, we've had over a dozen sleepover guests (including a few family members and a lot of visiting friends), and while our friends are always awesome guests, I think I have noticed it a lot more here because they have their own floor that we theoretically have to prepare and clean up after... and it's theoretically, because we've basically done nothing at all.

While talking to one of those guests recently after they had gone home we discussed what makes guests great, and really, it's about not being a guest at all - the greatest guests are the ones whom you never need to actually host. They come, and they feel right at home (within reason), not making the hosts constantly feel like they need to cater to their needs or feel horrible afterward upon realizing that they forgot to give them some essential items.

With that, here are some basic tips for being a great guest - and if someone could tell us how to better hosts, we'd really appreciate it!

• Be a friend. If you're coming over to someone's house, odds are they are your friends (or family). And they want to treat you like friends, not like guests - they want to feel like they're having a great time with you, not worry about you. So just be what you are: Friends! Even if you are just staying at a random person's house, be friendly, not a hideaway they're wondering about.
• A great example of this was a couple that we're close with who stayed here the Shabbos we moved in (for an aufruf). Some people were surprised we'd host that soon, but we didn't have to do anything. When we were up we schmoozed; when we wanted to sleep we did. We didn't have to "host" them. 
• Ask if you need something. No host deliberately didn't give you towels or doesn't want you to have toilet paper. If something is out, ask where you can get from. They won't be embarrassed (for more than a second, anyway) - they'll be appreciative. Better to get someone a roll of toilet paper now than to realize after they left that the bathroom was bare.
• If you're crashing somewhere for an extended time, chip in and be somewhat scarce. Every family needs some private time, and when you're all at work doesn't count, so stay out a bit some evenings. And if you see something you can do to help out, go for it.
• We had a friend who unfortunately had to crash by us for a long period of time... and yet somehow we didn't hate her afterward. She did a great job of not being in the way, and often offered to do things like make dinner (even if we decided to go with simpler fare usually) and she babysat a couple times when we had to go out. I don't think it's ever perfect when someone stays over for a long time, but our impression is that it's often a disaster - and this was not.
• Don't arrive or stay out too late, unless you've already worked it out with them. Nobody wants to be the person whose house is locked even though they're *sure* they checked to make sure it wasn't. And nobody wants to worry about a guest being stuck out in the cold. If you're saying somewhere, show up at a reasonable hour unless the specific plans were to come in late. 
• Don't be afraid to ask for help, but don't over ask. Asking for a ride to a nearby bus on the way to work or when someone's available is generally reasonable; asking for a 45-minute airport run when they have other errands, far less so. Again, they are your friends, not your hosts; but that means you ask them to do stuff you'd ask a friend to do, not a hotel worker.
• Especially when I worked in Manhattan, I'd often offer rides back to Stern to guests who slept over. They were usually really good about not assuming that I could give them a ride, and were generally very thankful when I did. I believe I once made a girl take the subway when I thought she was asking a bit much - I'm mean like that. 
• A friend once mentioned that by doing favors many wouldn't do, we set a standard for hosting that was a) too hard to live up to and b) caused some guests to become spoiled or expectant of them to the point that they ask other friends for favors they really shouldn't be. Perhaps this is true, though we tried to never do too much simply because a) that would be too much, as defined, and b) we didn't ever want to regret hosting. Also, we'd hope that people realize what is and isn't fair to ask of someone. (To our guests' credit, we generally offered and they rarely asked, and when they did they were generally clear that they knew it was a big favor to ask.)
• Help out. It doesn't - and shouldn't! - be over the top, but try to help out in some way. It's like being a friend - you'd help your friend if you saw you could, so help your hosts. Our guests have been incredible with this over the years, which is probably another reason we love having them.
• Be honest. If your hosts ask you if you were comfortable, tell them if you weren't (nicely). They actually want to know, so they can host better. They might not realize the room gets freezing cold and needs more blankets, or that an old mattress is... well, really old and not worth sleeping on, because they don't sleep in the guest room. 
• This is one people are so hesitant on, but we felt horrible to find out after months that the pull out bed we had for guests was really, really bad. (After all, we had never lied down on it.) My mother came and we found her sleeping on the other couch and she told us. We still sometimes had to put people on it, but at least we could warn them (and fixed some springs underneath so it wouldn't be too bad). 

I'm sure there are more; these are just a few that came to mind in the middle of the night. And to all our friends, thank you! The reason we have always had so many of you so easily is because you made it easy. Y'all are the greatest 'guests'.



* It's amazing that it has been so short; it feels as if we've been here and known all our new friends here for so much longer. Also, really flattering that so many friends have already come to visit...!

How I Met Serach, Part XVI: It's Shidduch Time!

This is Part XVI of a series about how I proposed to Serach. To see the series, you could simply use the guide link under the header of the blog or this link right here titled "How I Met Serach".

Ezzie's note:  In Part XIII, I explained the difficulty in writing this series. Some details may be a bit off; it's been a decade... 

Where we last left off, Serach and I were really getting pretty serious. One night when I was discussing it all with my "sister" B, she noted that of course, she had to meet Serach. And lo and behold, she was coming into New York soon to check out a college, and would probably be in town around Chanukah. We made up to go together to a concert (I believe it was Blue Fringe, Lanzbom & Solomon, and maybe the Solomon Brothers?) over Chanukah that Serach and I were going to, another friend ("Y") would be meeting us there, and B'd bring along her friend - let's call her B2.

For this story, we have to rewind even further back, to April 2002. I had recently switched dorm rooms at OJ, moving from the room of one good friend to another. The friend whose room I moved into was standing in the room one night, late at night, and I was on the phone with B. Suddenly, it clicked in my head: "B, I know who you're going to marry." 'Huh? Who?' "Don't worry, I know who. One day, I'll introduce you." After I got off the phone I told my roommate: "JB, I know who you're going to marry." He looked at me like I was crazy, shrugged, and that was that.

On this cold night in December 2003, I planned on sleeping at JB's dorm in YU, since it was a lot closer to where Serach would be staying in the Lander women's dorm on the Upper West Side. As it was getting close to time to go, I said to JB "Hey, why don't you come along? We can drive there (JB had a car), and you can hang out with us." 'Who will I talk to? You'll be talking to Serach the whole time.' "Yeah, but we'll still talk to you, and Y (who he knew) is coming, and there will be other people there. You'll have a great time." After a few minutes of back and forth, JB relented, and we drove to the concert.

At the concert (which as I recall was a bit of a snoozer), Y ended up running into another friend, and to my not surprise, JB hit it off with B and B2. At one point during the night, B comes over to me as Serach is schmoozing with JB and B2, smiled, and said "Ezzie, she's a keeper." For some reason, while before then I had already made up my mind, this put my mind completely at ease. I subconsciously needed B's approval, and now I had it. By the end of the night, they were fast friends; I, meanwhile, was just... calm. Happy.

At about midnight, we walked outside B.B. King's and were talking for a bit in the freezing cold when B said they'd be taking a subway back to Brooklyn to B2's relatives. I insisted that this was not safe, and that instead, JB should drive them. After a couple of minutes trying to convince them it wasn't safe for two beautiful young ladies who are not from NYC to be on the subway to Brooklyn alone at 1 o'clock in the morning, they relented, and JB drove them home. Meanwhile, I dropped Serach back at the LCW dorms and headed up to YU.

Right after I got back to YU, B called me. "Hello?" 'OMG Ezzie should I have given him my number!?!!?!' "...{sigh}...did you like him? [Note: Neither one knew this was who I thought they'd marry.]" 'Yes! He's so nice! I can't believe he drove us all the way home. Should I have given him my number so he can call me??' "...yeeesss..." 'AAAHHH!!! He's SO nice. I hope I didn't just blow my chance. I have to go.' Click. A few minutes later, JB walks back in, exhausted. He apparently had called Serach on the way home and told her "I really liked her, she's really cute." 'Which one, B2?' "No, B!" As soon as he came into his dorm room he says to me, "Should I have given her my number?" 'ARRGH! You BOTH stink!' I then explained that she'd just asked me the same question. I gave him her number, he called her right that minute to ask her out the next night, and they dated I think almost every night she was in town for the next week. A few months later, I reminded B about how I'd told her two or so years prior that I knew who she'd marry; "Oh yeah! Who was that?!" 'JB.' "WHAT?! Really!? That's crazy!" (The next year she wrote a piece in her college paper about it.)

...and that completes the story of How JB Met B, and finishes up Serach and Ezzie's dating, circa 2003. So we're still less than a decade removed...

Next time on How I Met Serach: Meet the Parents.

And Then There Were Three

Welcome to the world, Ariella Shalvah Goldish! Born 8 pounds, 12 ounces (3,970 grams it said, not that anyone knows what that means) at Mt. Sinai hospital yesterday afternoon.

Elianna and Kayla are incredibly excited to be big sisters! Serach and Ariella are doing great, bH.

Life, Like History, Repeats Itself

One of the nice aspects of having had a blog for a number of years is the ability to look back and recall what was going on, what happened, and how we felt about everything through various periods. I was curious to read what I'd written in prior years around Yom Kippur, if anything, as I am aware of the near preachy tone that can come across in such posts. At the same time, there can often be much meaning, particularly to myself, knowing what was meant then and especially now looking back, being able to view it from the present.

When I glanced back, I was struck by how apropos is the (ironically titled) post Apropos & Thank You from just before Yom Kippur in 2008. Admittedly, this year was probably a bit more difficult than that one, for a variety of reasons beyond anyone's control or knowledge - and similarly, there was only so much anyone could have done for us even if they were aware of it all. But that does not take away from what was written then, which is just as applicable today:

On behalf of Serach and myself, we'd like to wish everyone a g'mar chasima tova and a wonderful year. We'd like to thank all those who made this past year as good as it was; it had the potential to be a very difficult year for us in many ways, yet every time that was the case something would happen, someone would help us out, in ways that we will never truly be able to express our gratitude for. Often, we hear and see an understandable and important emphasis and focus on the big issues, the large gestures, and the need to focus on one's own self first - and those certainly do usually come first. But those who can and have done the little things, who have taken care of small but important details, and perhaps without even realizing it have tremendously impacted people by their simple care and friendship, thank you. It was without a doubt the little things that have gotten us through these hard times.

Some of you know who you are. Some of you think you know but your humility won't let you admit it to yourselves. There are some who don't even realize what they do, as they take it as a given - or can't fathom how they have helped despite being so far away or having done "so little". And then there are those who think they may have helped in the past but that something has changed. We thank all of you the same from us, and knowing what kind of people you are, many others owe you similar thanks. We hope to be as good to all of you as you have been to us.

As an aside, a person who can take a step back and look at a bigger picture cannot help but see more behind what goes on in day-to-day life, from the positives to the negatives, from the human side to the spiritual side.

May we all be blessed with a year of health, happiness, and hatzlacha.

Amen.

Yes, It Looks Different

It appears the time has come to finally update to the new style of templates, and with G6 talking about it I started perusing the options. I'll still fix it up quite a bit, but meanwhile this is to start out. I believe you can choose your own view from the options on the top left, so enjoy.

One reason I'm switching it up is because this will probably become SerandEz v.4.0 or so, as I mentioned to a friend recently - more consistent, more essay/editorial in style, and more discussion inducing (or not, that's up to the readers). I hope everyone enjoys; if you're still reading after all these years, most likely you will, and thanks for continuing to come back. :)

UPDATE: Reverting for now, since apparently I can't insert any of my sidebar or header items at the moment. I'll switch once they've worked those issues out and/or started to allow widget functionality.

~ Ezzie

Honesty and the Jewish Community IV: Seeing is Believing (and Ignorance is Bliss)

(continued from here - whole series is here)

Friends of ours once made a comment literally in passing, as we stopped to say hi to one another walking down the street, that has always stuck out. It was shortly after the Jewish Economics Survey was started the first time around, and was quite honest. Our friends commented that they had seen the survey, but they decided after starting it that they didn't really want to take it. When we asked why not, they responded that "We know that right now and for the foreseeable future, we are living way beyond our means. We'd rather not know exactly how bad it is or think about it too much, and just enjoy life and worry about it later when we can do something about it." To be fair, these friends are not blinding themselves - one is now a doctor, the spouse a professional as well - nor living fancily, and they simply wouldn't have had the ability to do too much about their finances for a while. But the attitude is a real one, albeit differing in scope from person to person.

Often in life, we tend to unconsciously (if not consciously) convince ourselves that things are better than they really are. Sometimes, this is a good trait: It allows us to be more optimistic about life, stay sane when times are rough, continue to function well on a daily basis until things really do get better, or maybe even just allow us to continue enjoying watching sports (last one may apply only to people from Cleveland). But it can also get us into trouble, by not letting us recognize problems quickly enough and allowing them to fester and grow until it's too late. People (usually) innately understand this to be true, which is why so much of life seems to be full of advice columns and tips and tricks which essentially are supposed to 'trick' us into thinking about things properly and doing what we're supposed to be doing.

The easiest way to avoid issues in life is to not see them - and the way to solve them, while difficult, is to open one's eyes and honestly assess what is happening. It's why Mint.com, the free personal finance site and (as many friends and readers know) a personal favorite, sold itself to Intuit for $170 million within a few years of its creation - its visual appeal made its popularity take off and they picked up millions of users in almost no time. One of its PR liaisons once explained the site was delaying putting out a Blackberry application due to its lack of visual appeal on the Blackberries out at that time, and how important the visual representations of spending were to the impact the site had on its users. A favorite story are couples who have stopped fighting about their expenses once they could see it all in front of them clearly, and started working to fix their budget. Without that "in front of your face" simple-to-understand representation, all the data in the world couldn't impact a user the same way.

We have so many issues in the Orthodox community, and yet we turn a blind eye so often to the wrongs the occur within it - from white collar criminals to shady business practices, from excusing horrible behavior and commentary to racism and the like, to the way people are treated as ba'alei teshuva/geirim or in the shidduchim process, to the (finally being discussed somewhat) cases of abuse, we let so much slide. Worse yet, we justify so much of it in the name of "the community" or as "necessary evils" to be put up with. As a simple example, this past week a suit needed to get dry-cleaned prior to an event, and Serach brought it to a nearby dry cleaner we have never used before that said they could get it done that day for a reasonable price. When I went to pick up the suit and pay via debit card, they said they couldn't take it for under $25 - and that since they don't advertise that they accept credit cards, they can refuse to take it. I pointed out that this was false, as per their cardmember agreement, and they said to report them but they will not give me the suit, and literally grabbed it away and took it to the back. (Ezzie: I actually did report them, but apparently in NY you can't report a dry cleaner - they have a specific exemption for dry cleaners that they won't take complaints. Odd.) What disgusted me the most was their argument: The owner said to me,

"I don't care what the rule is, I know I'm not supposed to, but (waving his arm motioning to the other stores nearby) every other store here does it, go ask them. They all won't take cards for under whatever, and I won't either accept credit cards for under $25."

Sadly, the thought that goes through the head of listeners to stories like this not automatically that this is a dishonest store not to be visited, but all too often instead that "I have to remember to bring cash when I go to that dry cleaner."

Until we as a community show that we will absolutely not accept dishonesty at any level, we are simply feeding its continuance and growth. Blissful ignorance may sometimes work for one's self, but it translates into and contributes to countless people being hurt, seeing their lives damaged if not destroyed, and placing many of them into truly dangerous situations. These are not merely the people we pass by on the street but don't really know, so we can pretend that it's "not so bad", but these are our colleagues and people in our shul, our neighbors and friends - people like us.

Or us, too.

(to be continued)

EZ Reads 3/23/11

It has been a busy week at Casa SerandEz, as we hosted a potluck Purim with about 30+ awesome friends and friends of friends at our house, then took Kayla for a second round of tubes this morning. I'm hoping her recovery is quicker than some of the people from Sunday...

A few interesting reads out there (wish I could remember the people who I found these from), and a really interesting clip from Pakistani TV:

• The New York Times says it's a must to believe in free will.
• BeyondBT with a great essay on The Pursuit of Truth. I loved this short summation of mussar:

  What does mussar teach us? Rav Dessler, an influential Rabbi regarded for his contributions to Jewish thought, defines mussar very succinctly. He says that people need to question their ability to reach valid conclusions and decisions. We’re not necessarily in a position to exercise good judgement because we are, unfortunately, likely to be swayed from truth. Our wants bias our judgement. What we want shapes the way we view any given situation and the way we think through decisions. Our character flaws and self interest shape our wants and help to distort our perspective. To reach truth we need to refine our character traits (our middos) and develop an intense desire for truth. This is mussar.

• Post #2 on how to shop for Pesach on a budget.
• Most people know I'm generally optimistic-realistic (if a bit sarcastic on occasion), but here's a good post on how rational pessimism can save your day.

We should be back in the swing of things shortly. Enjoy!

Under Construction

If you come to the blog and it looks a bit funky, just ignore it for the time being. We're fiddling with the template and layout, in the hopes that we'll no longer have the issues some people have complained about (slow load times, difficulty reading) and also to make it a lot more functional and a lot less chaotic.

If you have any suggestions feel free to post a comment! (And if you like something different you're seeing say what it is so I know what people like.)

Catching Up

SerandEz & Friends would like to apologize to its readership for the dearth of posts lately, and again, we hope and believe it will pick up substantially as we get into November. Just to give people a brief update as to how some of us are doing:*

• Ezzie's new job is fantastic, and a large number of his friends believe it's the perfect job for him. He thinks it might be, too.
• Serach's really happy with her job, too, and is really looking forward to spending Sukkos in Cleveland and Los Angeles. So is Ezzie, but he's not loving the driving to and from Cleveland that he's going to be doing.
• Elianna loves school, and her friends, and just about everything and everyone, and Coke. Her Daddy is so proud. She also scored a 1600 on the BSATs. [/inside joke]
  
• Kayla is walking and talking and, much like her sister, slightly too clever for her own good. Their parents are already terrified of how they'll function as a team when they're older.
• POBODY'S NERFECT HAD A BABY BOY!!! (And better bring it to Cleveland for Yom Tov.)
  
• Shoshana got married and moved to the Midwest. {jealous}
• Special Ed got married and is totally whipped. {not jealous}
  
• Da Kirsch made aliyah. {jealous}
• iPayTooMuchForMyHair left the accounting world and followed her dream, went to makeup school, and just opened up her own business.
• Jameel had a baby boy, RaggedyMom had a baby girl, Moshe and FFD are on rotations, Holy Hyrax started to do amazing logo design work for public companies, SJ, Erachet, Chana, Fudge, and the Apple have all graduated and moved onto bigger and better things (or onto paths that will lead them there), G went back to learn in kollel for a bit, Bad4Shidduchim went to Israel on behalf of NbN, DGEsq bought a house, Prof. Justice started writing judge's opinions, we got to hang out with Stam and M^2 one fine rainy morning... it's been a little crazy and a lot of fun for everyone, and we hope that everyone's lives move in the right direction. (And yes, I know I left lots of people out - not sure who would want what included. :) )
  

On that note, we'd like to wish everyone a wonderful g'mar chasima tovah and may we all be inscribed in the book of good life, health, happiness, and peace. Have an easy and meaningful fast, and we hope to see all of you soon, whether out here in the J-blogosphere or at the "real-life" Casa SerandEz! :)

* There are also a few more potential bits of exciting news coming soon, so there may be an update to this in the near future, too. :)

Too Smart

Friday:

(Scene: Elianna is standing on the toilet using a makeup brush and a cup to "paint" in the bathroom in the morning.)

Serach: Elianna, please come down and start taking off your clothes so you can get ready for school!
Elianna: Noo!!!
Serach: Eliannaaa...
Elianna: Go on the computer for a few minutes, Mommy. [resumes painting]

(A few minutes later - Elianna has locked the door to the bathroom from the inside, with Kayla also inside)

Serach: Open the door this instant!
Elianna: Get a hanger, Mommy! {we can unlock the door from the outside with something like a hanger or Q-tip or bobbypin}

On Shabbos, Elianna also would interrupt a story being told and tell Serach to "tell the hanger story, too".

Friday night:

Guest to Elianna: Who made you so smart?!
Elianna: [pause, mischievous smile] Coke!

Nice. :)

Perks

One of the nice perks of working in a company that has a large amount of Jews: Hataras Nedarim goes really quickly. :)

Serach, the girls, and myself would like to wish all of SerandEz's readers a wonderful, sweet new year full of peace, health, happiness, and fulfillment. May we all be inscribed for good.

L'shana Tova tikasevu v'seichaseimu l'alter l'chaim l'tovim ul'shalom.

How Rude (Ouch)

From Moshe:

SerandEz.blogspot.com

R.I.P.

Let me just say...
Life is thank God great, and this blog is not even close to dead yet. Plenty of great stuff coming over the next month, and full revival is expected after the Yomim Tovim.

Five

Feeling Old

I'm sure anyone older than me will rip me for this, but here we go anyway. :)

• June 10th: My parents will celebrate their 36th anniversary.
• June 22nd: My sister and brother-in-law will celebrate their 10th anniversary.
• June 30th: Serach and I will celebrate our 5th (!) anniversary.
• July 3rd: My grandparents will celebrate their 66th anniversary.
• November 3rd: My brother and sister-in-law will celebrate their 10th anniversary.
  

My oldest niece, Perfect, will soon be 9 years old. Elianna is 3 years old. Kayla will be 1 year old this week. Heck, even this blog turned 4 years old yesterday. Serach and I are about to turn 26 - which is substantially closer to 30 than 20.

Whether ourselves or our friends, we've seen people come, seen people go. We've watched as people have experienced the ultimate highs and the hardest of lows. We've had friends get married. We've had friends pass away. We've watched people lose jobs, find jobs, have babies, move from one stage of life to another... it's been crazy, looking back to how we viewed life just a few short years ago and comparing it to now.

I'm feeling old.

Erev Pesach in Cleveland Collage

A Goldish Touch

As is pretty clear from the header above, the name of this blog is SerandEz. In case you have not figured out why this is, my name is Ezzie; my wife's name is Serach. (This is important, as you will see shortly.) In a sudden burst of inspiration when creating this blog, I decided to combine the two and see what would happen. EznSer was a bit harder to pronounce; Serachezzie was a bit long, and that "ch" sound is a little rough for some people; and Not Quite Gold* was cute, but ultimately discarded. SerandEz it was, after many seconds of deliberation into the wee hours of the morning.

Readers may be aware that Serach rarely comments on this blog and has written less than a handful of posts to it. She's not even listed as a contributor to the blog. But, she does put up with the blog and everything that comes with it, and that's worth something. In exchange, she asks for a rare favor such as this post.

Serach joined the unholy social networking site which I despise (but have an account on), Facebook. In about two weeks, she has grown to having 440 "friends", which frankly I find to be more than a little crazy. More important than the number of friends, however, is the group she created. About a week before she joined Facebook, she decided to start making women's headbands. She had lots of accessories around the house to get started with, used her creativity to come up with others (like buttons, ties, an old pair of earrings that were never worn...), and went to stores to buy a few more supplies. Then she sat down, took her time, and created a number of beautiful headbands - all different styles and types, and all really pretty. (So say numerous members of the opposite sex.) She kept one for herself - the only one she'd made two of - and is making a business of selling them, utilizing Ye Olde Facebook to do so. She created a group, on which is posted pictures of most of the ones she's made already, and in addition to what she has already, she can custom-make pretty much any headband if a person so desires.

And what does she call this venture? The very creative A Goldish Touch*. This is on top of her other women's head accessory venture, Serach's Scarves, which is receiving a large amount of new tichels (head scarves) in the coming week, including a new style. She sold out of a number of them at a recent boutique, but once the new shipment arrives she will have everything listed on the website except for the tye-dye, plus the new style (paisely designs in all different colors, with gold threads throughout), which is not yet on the site.

Please peruse both SerachScarves and A Goldish Touch, and of course feel free to e-mail Serach with any questions or to make an order at serachnezzie at gmail.com. And for those dedicated souls, remember that all you do helps support SerandEz! Enjoy!

* For all those who don't already know this, Goldish also happens to be our last name, one which has been passed down from generation to generation for at least five generations. It's like a recipe, but less work.

It's Been A Hard Day's Night

It's been a long week, hasn't it? It's hard to believe Chanukah was over just a week and a half ago...

At Casa SerandEz, we've been weathering a mild case of strep for Serach that knocked her out of commission for a couple of days, helping plan and make calls for the Lander Alumni Shabbaton for next month, following the news, and otherwise surviving. Now we're preparing for a nice reunion weekend with some good friends, while wondering how to defeat the Empire of G and why people never tell us their thoughts on our rare serious piece of writing. Ah well.

There's just too much happening to round things up or express coherent thoughts, so some random musings on different subjects:

• Just as a reminder, first: Jameel & Aussie Dave are live-blogging everything from Israel (with some assistance from friends to keep it going 24 hours a day). Jack is rounding up posts and articles from all over consistently (usually twice a day). The IDF Spokesperson puts out official summaries and videos here and there. And it's worthwhile to plug an amazing blog: An Israeli Soldier's Mother.
  

• There are countless pieces all over the internet about what is going on in Israel; the objective of my piece was to actually go through the options available to Israel, which is something I haven't really seen.
• Pictures you won't be seeing anytime soon on the major news media: Israeli soldiers helping out Palestinian civilians (can't find the blog now, anyone know?) and Hamas terrorists who had just been shooting at them who they captured. (Pictures you won't be seeing anywhere, ever: Hamas helping Israeli civilians or soldiers. Pictures you'll rarely see, either: These.)

Other good stuff, thoughts:

• If you're a Browns (or Bengals) fan - ouch.
• Not sure what to think of Mangini... posted my thoughts in short here.
• Napping works better than caffeine.
• Elder of Ziyon (who has been awesome - check out the rockets calendars especially) rips the Guardian for letting Hamas' Meshaal write a propaganda op-ed.
• Great piece on Dan at BeyondBT. Ironically, as a kid, I always wanted to be from Shevet Dan. Lots of lessons well put in the post...
  
• The WSJ has really good pieces [all very different aspects] by Natan Sharansky, Bibi Netanyahu, and its own Brett Stephens.
• WestBankMama thinks Hamas is losing both short-term and long-term.
• Treppenwitz thinks the SkyNews studio he was interviewed in demonstrates well how others see the Middle East.
• Hard to know what to make of this: The New York Post goes after a former SEC mid-level employee who was named by Markopolis as having worked on (and let go) Madoff. While I'm sure she did the best she could and that it wasn't the easiest thing to catch, Markopolis had laid out pretty well why it had to be bogus; the real story is that the SEC is probably full of hard-working, well-meaning people just not cut out for the task: "...branch chief in New York, actually investigated [Markopolos' claims] but with no result that I am aware of. In my conversations with her, I did not believe that she had the derivatives or mathematical background to understand the violation." Ouch. Yet another problem with the ideas of regulation - people end up relying on them, and guess what! Government often can't do things as well.
• Loved this one, which a number of people have pointed to - Jeffrey Goldberg in the Atlantic (!) rips the world: The World's Pornographic Interest in Jewish Moral Failure.

Best Lines From A Short Shabbos

Ezzie: It's boiling in here!
Erachet: No, it's fine.
Ezzie: When it's fine for everyone else...
Erachet: ...it's boiling for you.
Ezzie: {opens shade}
Erachet: Hmm, that actually does feel better.
Ezzie: [Pauses, stares at Erachet] ...I didn't even open the window yet.
Erachet: [Horrified] But...! It really feels cooler! ...!

Elianna to Erachet: You're so cute!
Erachet to Elianna: No, you're so cute!
(this continues for a bit)
Elianna to Erachet (who is anything but): You're so chubby!!

Ezzie: Life is just one big snack.

Serach, CK, BK to Erachet: I love your shoes!!
Serach: ...I'm going to cut them up!

Best Lines From Shabbos Kallah

After a really nice - and shockingly calm! - Shabbos Kallah weekend for Pobody's Nerfect, keyed by an 18-course lunch at the Raggedies, it is only fitting that the best lines from the weekend be posted here:

Pobody's Nerfect: [telling story] ...it was... What holiday is in June?
Endless Talker: July 4th.

Ezzie: Wow... fourteen years ago I was 11.
Erachet: No you weren't.
Ezzie: I'm 25. Yes I was.
Erachet: No, 11+14 = 26.
Ezzie, others: {staring}

Conversation that has not happened... yet:

Random guy Erachet doesn't really like: So, think we should get married?
Erachet: [NO!] Umm... okay?

Last week's bonus (the clean one)...

Spiritual Girl to Elianna, eating rice: Ha'im hakitniyot taim!?
Elianna: {confused look}
Serach: Did you just ask that?
SG: What? Isn't that what it's called?

I Can't Believe...

...but it's starting to sink in, that we're helping to host a Shabbos Kallah for Pobody's Nerfect this weekend, along with the Raggedies and another friend.

{inserts earplugs}