Erachet & Jughead's Hat

Erachet Hat? I guess that'll be a slightly strange name.

Anyway, now that Jughead wrote about it, MAZEL TOV! to our really good friends Erachet and Jughead on their engagement! To give credit where it's due, Special Ed - you're the man, even if you had to dress like me to pull it off.

Meanwhile, the best reactions besides the consistent "it's about time!!"s* from pretty much everyone:

Serach (to Elianna): Are you so excited that Erachet and Jughead are getting married?!
Elianna (4-1/2): Yesss!!
Kayla (2-1/2): Me too!
Elianna: ...But I thought Erachet was going to marry someone else because Jughead is her friend.

* Interestingly, this is remarkably similar to the reaction of anyone who knew both when they started dating in the first place.

Kollel Guy Says Over a Vort...

...made you look - catchy title, no?

So once upon a time, a long time ago, on a blog not so far far away a certain blog "administrator" commented to certain blog "contributor" words to the following effect: Wouldn't it be great if one of us was actually learned enough to be able to throw around sources to back stuff up and/or to prove other stuff as being wrong?

Well hold on to your keyboards but after a career change into the wide wonderful world of Kollel about a year and a half ago I am here to tell you that (now brace yourselves)...that day has still not arrived.

HOWEVAH(!), due to a couple of recent posts below I thought that maybe it would be beneficial to post translations of a few sources that deal with the topic of Torah and Science/Nature. I figure at least that much I can confidently contribute.

This is in no way meant to be offensive or defensive in nature - simply something I thought might be of value to the overall topic.

Stay tuned...

Google as the Apocalypse

From Matzav.com, the best comment ever is comment 39

Being that the internet problem is so huge, perhaps it has been foretold by one of the prophets? And if so, could we glean any advice? Perhaps we can say that Gog, prince of Magog (Ezekiel 38&39), is none other than Google (stock symbol GOOG), prince of internet search?! ‘MaGog’ can translate to ‘WHAT are the results, GOOG?’ (‘ma’ meaning ‘what’ in English). Gog’s land is Magog, which means it thrives in googled cyberspace. As is known, this war of Gog is already well in progress and with tremendous casualties, may G-d save us.

Now, Google of course is not the only search engine, so ‘Gog’ is a general term (as in the term ‘googling’), but Google is (currently) the premier search engine, and is itself no angel, doing nothing really to prevent the problem, and in fact makes billions of dollars from ads on the dark side.
Gog is told: “Thus said the Lord Hashem/Elokim: It shall be on that day that ideas will arise in your heart, and you will conceive a wicked design. You will say, ‘I will advance against a land of open towns, I will come up against the tranquil people who dwell securely, all of them living without a [protective] wall; they have neither bars nor doors – to seize booty and take spoils…’” (Ezekiel 38:10-12, Stone edition). The ‘wicked design’ is the search engine. The ‘tranquil people’ are those without proper internet protection, and those that think they have it — but actually don’t. So the advice of the prophet is to get proper protection, not turn a blind eye.

As an aside, what about the destruction of Gog? When Mashiach comes, there will be lots of empty disk space and servers — apparently enough supply to satisfy demand for seven years: “Then the inhabitants of the cities of Israel will go out and kindle fires and fuel them with their weaponry… for seven years.” (ibid 39:9).

Hat tip to BD

Yeshiva Guy Says Over A Vort

I was not planning on posting this brilliant video by Krum as a Bagel, only because I hate putting up so many in a row, but I think just about everyone is linking to it on Facebook, so here it is in case you haven't seen it yet:



You know it's great when friends ask you on Shabbos if you've seen it yet and repeating all the lines from it.

Best lines:

(Friend's vote) "Did the Avos wear Crocs on Tisha B'Av?" "No - R' Elyashiv says Crocs are too comfortable. He wore Con-verse."

(My vote) "Did Yaakov [write a sefer Torah]?" "Of course." "So why didn't he just take his Sefer Torah and read it to find out that his son Yosef was alive and avoid all that heartache?"

Krum as 3-Month Old Herring

Hat tip: Krum as a Bagel, who made this. It's just really well done.

Quantitative Easing Explained (Hilarious)

Hat tip: Dad

This is great, and right on the money (no pun intended). Once you get through 20 seconds you'll love it.

Porcelain Unicorn

Hat tip: Aunt Anne/Serach.

Ridley Scott announced Porcelain Unicorn from American director Keegan Wilcox as the winning short film in Philips’ Tell It Your Way film-making contest.

The contest, which received over 600 entries from around the world, invited aspiring filmmakers to create an original short film using the same six-line dialogue as the Cannes Lions award-winning Parallel Lines short films directed by RSA talents Carl Erik Rinsch, Greg Fay, Johnny Hardstaff, Jake Scott and Hi-Sim.

Commenting on his choice of winner, Sir Ridley Scott said: “I chose Porcelain Unicorn to be the winning film as it had a very strong narrative; a very complete story that was well told and executed.”

Quitness

Atomic Tom Live on NYC Subway

This is pretty cool (despite my overall meh attitude toward Apple).

Camp Simcha for Children with Cancer - "Waving Flags" Official Music Video

Wavin' Flag

This was a great editorial by Estie Neff from the YU Observer which I felt like sharing.

Lipa sang a number of popular songs and reached "Abi Meleibt" (It will be okay), one of his signature tunes. He sang the chorus, and the yeshiva boys simultaneously added their own noise as expected, breaking out in Camp Simcha's "Wavin' Flag." Some people in the audience chuckled, some people groaned, but Lipa - surrounded by loud instruments and intense percussion - did not hear them.

As Lipa neared the chorus of "Abi Meleibt" the second time, he turned the microphone to the crowd. The band quieted down in anticipation of our cooperation. Instead, a resounding recital of "Wavin' Flag" filled the cavernous room from the yeshiva boys in the back, who overpowered us.
Lipa did not miss a beat. "Oh! That's nice! Sing it again!" he said, encouraging the yeshiva boys. They sang again, exuberantly, and this time Lipa sang with them. Next, the band chimed in with their thunderous instruments. Finally, the entire audience was singing the chorus of "Wavin' Flag" together with the yeshiva boys, the band and Lipa.

Sitting in the concert hall, it struck me that two concepts were harmonizing together, in the form of music, at this spontaneous moment. Camp Simcha's song about the lives and struggles of youth with cancer, and Lipa's song about relinquishing control to life's twists and turns, became one.

The haphazard melding of these musical messages was surprisingly appropriate. As mere human beings, we cannot control many things in life, like a person's health - or a person's livelihood, or when a person finds their bashert. But given a situation, we can react in the proper way by realizing that "it will be okay" - everything is God's will and what He decrees is ultimately for the best.

[..]

Like a "wavin' flag," whose every move is determined by the one who brandishes it, the minutia of daily life is determined by the will of our Creator; therefore, we can say "abi meleibt!"

And here's the video

Radio Flyer

This is awesome...! Hat tip: Aunt Anne

 

Fresh

Starting over is often taking one step back to take two forward.

Or, perhaps more accurately, it's pulling off to the side of the road to get your bearings, and even though you might discover just how far off the path you've ended up thanks to some roadblocks that were placed in your way, at least you can figure out how to get where you want to go.

Either way, it's a great feeling.

Gentiles & Mezuzahs

Interesting piece in the New York Times about mezuzos and the Gentiles who keep them up.

PSA: RSA $25,000 Raffle Tonight!

TONIGHT
Someone Will Win $25,000!!!

It could be you!

Heh

From here.

Echoes of a Shofar

Update: R' Gil already posted about this with a nice Palestine Post (JPost's predecessor) from way back when...

(Hat tip: Mom) Via Cleveland Local Jewish News:

Under a British law in Palestine passed in 1930, Jews were forbidden to blow the shofar at the Kotel, pray loudly there, or bring Torah scrolls, so as not to offend the Arab population. Despite this restriction, for the next seventeen years, the shofar was sounded at the Kotel every Yom Kippur. Shofars were smuggled in to the Kotel where brave teenagers defiantly blew them at the conclusion of the fast. Some managed to get away – others were captured and sent to jail for up to six months.

Two weeks ago, these six men returned to the scene of their “crime”. Armed with shofars, they recounted their individual stories and blew shofar again at the Kotel. This is their powerful and inspiring story.

Giants Stadium Transformed

Kinda cool...

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/09/13/sports/football/1248069023670/home-field-advantage-overnight.html

Passwords

This xkcd comic is so true, except I'm sure that Google does have a plan. (Not that I mind, of course, O Google Masters...)

8.4 Million New Yorkers Suddenly Realize New York City A Horrible Place To Live

Hat tip: A lot of people who e-mailed with various versions of "this made me think of you" and "I thought you'd appreciate this". Thanks, everyone - I'm flattered that people understand me so well!

What's awesome about this Onion piece on the entire NYC deserting it for greener pastures is how true everything in it really is:  (warning: really bad language; after all, it does quote lots of New Yorkers)

NEW YORK—At 4:32 p.m. Tuesday, every single resident of New York City decided to evacuate the famed metropolis, having realized it was nothing more than a massive, trash-ridden hellhole that slowly sucks the life out of every one of its inhabitants.

With audible murmurs of "This is no way to live," "What the hell am I doing here—I hate it here," and "F*** this place. F*** this horrible place," all 8.4 million citizens in each of the five boroughs packed up their belongings and told reporters they would rather blow their brains out with a shotgun than spend another waking moment in this festering cesspool of filth and scum and sadness.

According to residents, the mass exodus was triggered by a number of normal, everyday New York City events. For Erin Caldwell of Manhattan, an endlessly honking car horn sent her over the edge, causing her to go into a blind rage and scream "shut up!" at the vehicle as loud as she could until her voice went hoarse; for Danny Tremba of Queens it was being cursed at for walking too slow; and for Paul Ogden, also of Queens, it was his overreaction to somebody walking too slow.

Other incidents that prompted citizens to pick up and leave included the sight of garbage bags stacked 5 feet high on the sidewalk; the realization that being alone among millions of anonymous people is actually quite horrifying; a blaring siren that droned on and f***ing on; muddy, refuse-filled puddles that have inexplicably not dried in three years; the thought of growing into a person whose meanness and cynicism is cloaked in a kind of holier-than-thou brand of sarcasm that the rest of the world finds nauseating; and all the goddamn people.

Read the whole thing, it's brilliant. What scared me is that I agree with every single logical reasoning in the piece, and yet... I'm still stuck here. {shudder} It's a bit unbelievable... so much so, that this is a great way to announce the following: Moshe, you won.

For those unaware, about five years ago Moshe and I made a bet; the loser of the bet would take the winner to the restaurant of his choice in New York City for a nice, expensive dinner out (with Mike's Bistro being the likely choice). The bet: Would I still be in New York City in September 2010? I was *sure* there was no chance we would still be living here; Moshe was convinced that I was "just talk". This is the saddest bet I've ever lost in my life, but also possibly the funniest (and certainly the longest).

Moshe, congratulations! We'll go out when things are a bit better, be'H soon! :)