International Kissing Day

The blogosphere is all abuzz with Amber's attempt to institute International Kissing day. As I said before,July 6th is coming up soon. I say let's do this thing.

Cooking habits

Heidi Bond got me thinking today about my cooking habits. She is absolutely right that company is the best spice. (Always insightful, that girl.) I find that not only do I cook more when I have company, but that whatever I'm cooking turns out better when I'm making it for other people. Also, for these purposes roommates do not count as other people. I'm just not willing to put in too much energy for myself. (While on the topic of Heidi Bond this post made me fall in love with her all over again. That boyfriend is a lucky guy.)

Aaron Fucking Boone

Good things always get taken away from us, often just when it most seems that they are permanent. This is an indisputable fact. I call these moments, the gut wrenching moments when you feel that the world is collapsing around you, Aaron Boone moments, after the asshole who hit a home run to end the Red Sox's World Series hopes in 2003. Now, these moments are inevitable part of any life that has anything good in it. To continue the Red Sox metaphor for a moment, people talk about "The Curse of the Bambino." It's bullshit, of course. Bill Simmons, of ESPN.com's Page 2, wrote a column on the subject. He was writing specifically about an HBO documentary on the Red Sox. He couldn't understand why they only focused on the negative, when there is so much that is positive in Red Sox history. The money quote:

"For the most part, Sox fans have been pretty fortunate. Including me. Over the past three decades, I watched an inordinate amount of winning teams (more than any other franchise in baseball), as well as stars like Lynn, Fisk, Tiant, Rice, Yaz, Eckersley, Evans, Mo, Nomar and Manny. I was blessed with the chance to see Clemens and Pedro in their primes -- two of the best pitchers of the past 50 years. Dave Henderson's homer against the Angels remains one of the great sports moments of my life. Same with Pedro coming out of the bullpen and blanking Cleveland in the '99 playoffs (conspicuously missing from the documentary, of course). And for all its faults, Fenway (in the right seats) is still the best place in the country to watch baseball."

This is how we should live our lives. It hurts so much when the good things are taken away, because they're so damn good. But it's much better to focus on the good parts, then the painful end. So that's what I try to do. The problem is that the Aaron Boone moments still hurt like hell. ::sigh::

The Sandlot and the integration of Major League Baseball

If you're anything like me then you believe that The Sandlot is James Earl Jones' finest performence. However, I'm troubled by something I noticed on my last viewing, a glaring problem that never hit me, for some reason. James Earl Jones is black, but he was supposed to have played in the Majors at the same time as Babe Ruth. Ruth retired well before Major League baseball was integrated. What gives?

Ron Paul, putting Bartlett back in business

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tx.) wants to bring back privateers. I say, more power to him.

UPDATE: I thought I'd be all clever in the title, referring to Stan Rogers' song "Barrett's Privateers". All the more fool I, I thought it was called "Bartlett's Privateers." I'm keeping the mistaken title, as a reminder that I should double check things.

Study lishmah

Will Baude brings a quote from a gentleman/woman named Housman, which I don't recognize, though it seems like I'm expected to. Honestly, I'm not sure whether it's meant to be taken seriously at all, or if it's an entertaining bit of nonesense. I suspect the latter. The end of the quote is what interests me. "Useful knowledge is good, too, but it’s for the faint-hearted, an elaboration of the real thing, which is only to shine some light, it doesn’t matter where on what, it’s the light itself, against the darkness, it’s what’s left of God’s purpose when you take away God." Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that this is a very profound statement, at least when applied to Torah study. The first part is certainly true, and is evidenced by the preference for studying non-practical tractates of Talmud. Real gemara, as my current Chevrusa likes to say, is always impractical. Why is this? Well, the Temple was destroyed, God has been "taken away." He no longer "dwells among us," in the language of the Pasuk. So we study the laws which would apply if He did, or when He will again, because this is what remains of his purpose.

Clerks

I just caught the end of Clerks for the first time in a while. It seems so much more contrived than it used to. I know that it's supposed to seem that way, the artificiality is part of it's charm, but for some reason I find it, and all the View Askew movies, much more difficult to watch than I did a few years ago. I'm not sure if it's because the dick and fart jokes don't amuse me as much as they did then, or because maybe it was the novelty of the movies I found so appealing. They all seem so fake now. I used to love Chasing Amy. But now, I can barely watch it. A manage-a-trois as a cathartic means of resolving differences between people? Who thinks of things like that? Getting back to Clerks, I understand that the self-concious, self-referential nature of the movie, of all of Kevin Smith's movies, serves a purpose. I wrote a paper on it once. But that doesn't make them any easier for me to watch, though certain moments still shine through. "Salsa Shark" never fails to make me chuckle. And Silent Bob's line at the end is still golden. "There are lots of good looking chicks in the world, but not many of them will bring you lasagne." Mmmmmm.... lasagne.

Blogger's spellchecker

Blogger's spellchecker doesn't have the word "blog" in it's dictionary. And when I spell checked that last sentence, I found that it doesn't have "spellchecker" either.

Suggested reading

I can't seem to get enough of this blog lately. I'm, not surprisingly, fascinated by the religion/history of ancient Israel and her neighbors, and simultaneously a complete ignoramus. Hopefully, PaleoJudiaca will help remedy the latter. Everybody should take a look.

The lies google tells

Well now, I'm hit 66 in a google search for mudwrestling. Somebody must have been disappointed.

A rechristening, of sorts

I can't really begin to wrap my head around this.



(Link via Pejmanesque)

Border Zones

I was in a few department stores today, and I noticed something peculiar. For some reason, the women's underwear is always adjacent to the men's clothing. So I could be looking at some very nice plaid shirts and suddenly find myself surrounded by panties. I think this is deliberate. Women love to watch how uncomfortable men are when they are in the women's underwear section. We always feel like we're been stared at, like the women think we're perverts for being there. Jeff Foxworthy used to have a bit about men in Victoria's Secret, and he got it spot on. We always think that the clerks have the sex offender catalog behind the counter and are trying to see which one has come into their store. Which is why women's underwear is always next to the men's clothing. So that the salesgirls can laugh at how uncomfortable we are when we accidentally stumble in.

They really are civilized.

I seem to have accidentally stumbled across the Israeli version of Blogger. Facinating....

Across the great divide

A few weeks ago, I asked a friend about how a mutual friend at another university is doing. He responded, "Not so well. She needs a boyfriend." He then made another point, which I thought was interesting. He said something along the lines of, "Her problem is that she knows all the Orthodox boys. Honestly, I don't know why people don't look to the Conservative community more often." He was, I assume, refering to the more right wing branch of the Conservative movement, the Shomer Shabbat group. These people are, superficially, very similar to the left wing of Orthodoxy. I got to thinking about his idea this past weekend, when I was at the local Conservative synagogue for my cousin's Bar Mitzvah. There was an Aufrauf as well. The couple who is getting married consists of a girl whom I know, and a Rabbinical student at JTS. I know the girl, and she is definitely towards the right of the Conservative movement. I saw their engagement announced on Only Simchas.com. When it came time for the Aufruaf aliyah, the two of them got up together and said the Brachot together. [And this is the reason that the Orthodox, at least those of us who take our religion seriously,] And this is the reason that the Orthodox, at least those who take Orthodoxy seriously, even on the left wing, cannot date Conservative Jews. The difference is just too big.


UPDATE: Apparantly, I was too vague about who takes what seriously. Thanks to Lana for pointing it out, and helping me clarify.


UPDATE 2: This girl explains the difference in somewhat starker terms than I do. But it is exactly this difference in outlook that divides us.

Catagory 2 men

Eugene Volokh points out an interesting distinction about social interactions. I, like him, fit into catagory two. My main question (and it's a self-serving one) is different from his. Do catagory two men and catagory three women in general have a more difficult time initiating romantic relationships? Intuitively, it makes sense that they would, because the line between somebody who is a potential mate and somebody who is a potential friend is much blurrier. I suppose the same would go for homosexual type one men and type four women. I guess that my real question is does it work out empirically as well as intuitively?

You might be from Boston...

The Fat Guy's post on Southerners reminded me of a sign that was hanging up in the Starbucks where I used to work. I tried to track it down online, and while I couldn't find it exactly, here a few examples of similar lists. I apologise for the overlap, but I felt that they all had something to add, and was too lazy to take them apart and make them my own.

1. You've slammed on your brakes to deter a tailgater

2. Your favorite adjective is "wicked"

3. You remember when the "Fleet Center" was "The Boston Garden" and refuse
to refer to it as anything BUT "the Gahden"

4. Know at least three Tony's, one Vinnie and a Frank(ie)

5. You go to the "packy" not the "liquor store"

6. Paranoia sets in if you can't see a Dunkin Donuts, ATM or CVS within
eyeshot at all times.

7. Know how to claim your space on the T. Know what the T is.

8. You keep an ice scraper and can of de-icer on the floor of your
car...year round.

9. You still try to order curly fries from Burger King.

10. You know how to pronounce Worcester, Peabody, and Cotuit.

11. You know where the Combat Zone used to be and still avoid that area.

12. You don't eat dinner; you eat "suppa"

13. Pepsi, Coke, Sprite, etc. are not called "soda", they are "tonic"

14. You order iced coffee in January.

15. You can curse in Italian... only you don't say "curse" you say "swear".

16. You don't understand the purpose of a crosswalk and therefore refuse to
use them, even outside of Boston.

17. You know what candlepin bowling is.

18. You know about Evacuation Day

19. You have tried to drive the measured mile in less than 45 seconds.

20. You drive 45 minutes to New Hampshire to save $5 in sales tax.

21. The whole 'Big Dig' mess drives you nuts unless you are spooning it from
Brigham's. You know what Brigham's is and it shows.

22. You've used the statement "not fa nuthin" in conversation.

23. You serve bread with every meal.

24. You feel compelled to hear at least one weather report a day.

25. You've pulled out of a side street and used your car to block oncoming
traffic so you can make a left.

26. You've bragged about the money you've saved at The Christmas Tree Shop.
******************************************

You Might be from Boston if...
You think of Philadelphia as the Midwest.
You think it's your God-given right to cut someone off in traffic.
You think there are only 25 letters in the alphabet (no R's).
You think three straight days of 90+ temperatures is a heat wave.
All your pets are named after Celtics or Bruins players.
You refer to 6 inches of snow as a "dusting."
Just hearing the words "New York" puts you in an angry mood.
You don't think you have an attitude.
You always 'bang a left' as soon as the light turns green, and oncoming traffic always expects it.
Everything in town is "a five minute walk."
When out of town, you think the natives of the area are all whacked.
You still can't bear to watch highlights from game 6 of the 1986 World Series.
You have no idea what the word compromise means.
You believe using your turn signal is a sign of weakness.
You don't realize that you walk and talk twice as fast as everyone else.
You're anal, neurotic, pessimistic & stubborn.
You think if someone is nice to you, they must want something, or are from out of town.
Your favorite adjective is "wicked."
You think 63 degree ocean water is warm.
You think the Kennedy's are misunderstood.
********************************************

How To Tell You Are From Massachusetts....
The person driving in front of you is going 70 mph and you are cursing him for going too slow.
The fact that Routes 128 and 95 are pretty much the same thing doesn't confuse you.
When ordering a tonic, you mean a coke... not water with bubbles.
You can navigate a rotary without a problem.
You almost feel insulted when someone doesn't flip you off when you cut them off, or steal their parking space, etc.
You know how to pronounce towns like Worcester, Haverhill and Cotuit
You have driven to New Hampshire on a Sunday in order to get beer
You know that there are two Bulger brothers (both are crooks.. but, you know there are two)
You have been to Fenway Park
You knew that there was no chance in Hell that the Patriots would move to Hartford (Ha! Ha!)
You laugh at all of the other states in New England
You know of at least 1 diner or food vendor to get something to eat after last call
You can actually find your way around Boston
You have spent at least 1 weekend at UMass
You refer to the New York Yankees as the Devil's Bitches or something worse
Colleges are used as landmarks for directions (i.e., Go past MIT until you hit Harvard. Take a right and go past Lesley. Keep going until you get to Tufts. (actual directions).
Doug Flutie is the greatest athlete ever
Evacuation Day is a recognized holiday
You know at least 1 guy either named Sean, Pat, White, Red, O.B. or Seamus
You think the rest of the country owes you for having things like Thanksgiving and independence.
As a kid you laughed at the kids down south who never got to have 'snow days'
You feel that the rest of the world needs to drive more like you
The Beanpot is a hockey tournament not a serving container
You take great pride in Cheers
You can recognize a Revere girl simply by looking at her hair
You know exactly where you were when Buckner missed the ball
You know that there is a bigger difference between Roxbury and West Roxbury than just a direction
Somebody calls you a Masshole and you take it as a compliment.
And, the final and most prominent way to know that you are from Massachusetts...


You do not recognize the letter "R" as a part of speech

The merits of comic books

I just finished rereading the first volume of Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series, and it got me to thinking about comic books. "Sandman" is an excellent comic book. "Archie", for the most part, is not. What, exactly is the difference? In a sense, the question is an easy one. The characters in "Sandman" are much more interesting and developed. (I've often wondered why, after 40 or so years of fighting over Arche, how Betty and Veronica have both remained friends and not killed him. There is nothing remotely realistic about that love triangle.) The illustrations in "Sandman" are beautiful. The stories are epic and interesting. This is not just a rehash of the old popular vs. high art question, because Gaiman straddles the line. I think the real answer to my question, though, lies in the fact that Neil Gaiman makes better use of the medium. The strength of the comic book, in my opinion, is it's ability to invent a world. Even the weaker ones do it, to an extent. In the "Archie" comics we have an entire little universe in the town (I forget the name) where Archie lives. The world of the "Sandman" comics is just much, much realer, despite it's fantastic nature. Why is this the strength of comic books? I can't say I'm 100% sure, but I have a theory. The comic book has an ability that no other literary form has. A comic book artist has the ability to take a completely irrelevant character and make him real. How? By drawing him. A novelist, a short story writer or a playwriter do not have the luxury. Irrelevancies really do detract from these forms. But, because the comic book is also a visual art, it gives the artist the ability to create detailed irrelevance. And that is what lets him build worlds.

Ah, the joys of living at home again

As I was cleaning the kitchen for Shabbos this afternoon, I noticed something peculiar. There were tampons everywhere. I found four of them, scattered in various parts of the room. The strange thing is, none of my sisters have any clue how they got there. One of them was even opened, but still in the plastic wrapping. I just don't understand.

A reminder of what we face, even in the west

Asparagirl has an impassioned cry for reason against idiocy (personified by her commentator Kevin) over on the Protocols of the Yuppies of Zion. She isn't saying anything new, but she says it very well. Clearly, some people need to be reminded.

Addiction

I have a compulsive need to check my web traffic. This is sad, because it doesn't change much from one hour to the next. I average about 8 hits per day. But this addiction is causing me to doubt my motives for blogging. Do I do it because I like having a forum for my thoughts, or because I'm an attention whore, desperately looking for people to notice me? Meh, probably some combination of the two.

RIP

Ray Charles just died. Listen to Georgia on my Mind and weep.

Muddling through

When I was in middle school I had a teacher (he later taught at my high school too)who was a young, frum, liberal guy. He was hysterically funny and smart. I thought he had all of life figured out. But as time went on, it became clear that he really had no direction. He was teaching, beacause it was what he was qualified to do, and what he enjoyed doing, but it seemed like it was supposed to be a stop on a road to, well, a road to somewhere ill defined. In theory, he was working on a masters, but he didn't seem to do much work on it. And he was happy. Is happy. Still teaching and so far as I know he has made no progress on his masters degreee. He just got married on Lag B'omer. My point is that he helped me realize that it's OK to have no clue what the fuck you're doing. And everything can still be fine.

Who knew?

Virgina Postrel makes a point in her entry on Reagan's death that I think often gets missed. The money quote: "Whatever impressions nostalgic TV shows may leave with those too young to remember the real decade, the late 1960s and 1970s were a scary time to grow up. The world just kept getting worse and worse, and nobody seemed to know why." This is definitely not the impresson of the 60's and 70's that I, a child of the 80's and 90's, get at all. But it's a true one, I think. Read the whole post.

Those cute little allusions.....

A song I can't stop listening to right now is Dierks Bentley's "What was I thinking?" Now, a disclaimer, it isn't a particularly good song. I have a weakness for feel good country songs, so I like this one. But what really grabs my attention is the line, "Hood slidin' like Bo Duke." I love it. There should be more appreciation of the Dukes of Hazzard in pop culture.

Got a feeling inside.....

I think I'm in love with Heidi Bond from Crescat Sententia and Letters of Marque. Why? Its very simple, though it may take a little bit of work on your part to see in her what I do. Her personal blogroll on Crescat is too wonderful for words.

On Ronald Reagan's death

As you all know, Ronald Reagan died this weekend. At first, I wasn't planning on mentioning it here. There are dozens of excellent discussions of President Reagan and his legacy to be found. Just go through my blogroll. (I personally recommend Mark Steyn's) But then I got to thinking a little bit, and I decided that, rather than try to assess the President's political legacy, which I am hopelessly unqualified to do, I would tell you some of how he, or at least a mythical version of him, affected my life.
First, some background for those of you who don't know me. I grew up in the liberal Jewish Community of liberal Massachusetts. I was my high school class' token conservative. As an example of what that meant to my friends, three of us had a kind of fake band, Radioactive Toupee. We played one song, the Gospel tune "This Little Light of Mine." One of played guitar and sang the line "This little light of mine." The second guy would then sing, in his best Barry White impression, "I'm gonna let it shine." This would go on until we got bored. My job was to ramble on about the Reagan Presidency in the background the whole time. That is how, to a degree, I was looked at in high school.
I was 5 years old when Reagan left office, so I don't have any meaningful memories of him when he was President. But my father idealized him. I grew up hearing about how great he was, how he single handedly defeated the communists, how he, unlike other presidents we've had since, had integrity. And this, I think, is one of his greatest legacies. He left us with a symbol of what politics can be, and of what politicians are capable of. He affected the American people so positively. Even his great opponents, those who hated him and still do, should be able to recognize this. Historians will debate how Reagan and his policies changed America and the world, whether they were for good or ill. But I hope that the positive stamp that Reagan's way of conducting politics left on us never goes away.

Padre Pistolas

This article, which I read in yesterday's globe, I think illustrates the potential that religious people and institutions have for making a difference in people's lives. Read the article, I think it's worthwhile.

News from Afghanistan

We don't see very much in the news about what's going on in Afghanistan. So I find Oxblog's Afghanistan corrrespondent very helpful when trying to think about the progess we've made there. Granted, his evidence is only anecdotal, but I still think it can be useful.

New title

I opted for a new title to the blog, I never really liked the old one. I think this one is rather apt. Let me know what you think.

Hear hear

I couldn't agree more with Amber's sentiments on kissing, and vote Sunday, June 5th National Kissing Day. Girls, you know where to find me.

(Hat tip to Will Baude)

UPDATE:
Amber points out that the Brits do it on July 6th and asks why we don't just celebrate on the same day. Well, we're more than halfway through June 5th, and nobody's jumped my bones yet, so I'm all for postponing it and making it an international kissing day. Maybe that will change my luck.

UPDATE 2:
The Guardian link was wrong. It's fixed now.

Something

Entry number two in my series on The Beatles.

Frank Sinatra, notorious for his hatred of Rock'n'Roll called Something "the best love song in the past 50 years." I'm going to go even farther and call it the best pop love song ever written. Certainly the best I know. Lyrically, of course, the song is simple. The fact that he can't pin down why he loves her is true to life, I think. Do we ever really know why we're interested in another person? Most of the time I can only walk around it. There's just "Something in the way she moves..." Musically there's alot going on. It's a very dense song, there isn't much space, but its deceptive because it feels very straighforward. What always grabs me is the drumming. Its very tight and precise. For that reason, I always thought that Paul drummed on the track. I couldn't beleive that Ringo had that much discipline. But it is Ringo. There are several layers, the drums and vocals on top, the guitar next, then the bass and strings. The bass in particular is very subtle and very beautiful. This song is peak of George Harrison's creative genious.

Love, lust and God

The Shaigetz has an interesting post and comment thread on dating and the Shiddach system. Now, I don't live in the same world that he does, and even my friends who date through Shadchanim (and I can count them on my fingers), date in a more relaxed way, so far as I can tell. That being said, I still don't think that the dichotomy between being "set up" and "marrying for love" is a real one. The Shaigetz himself seems to get this, but some of his commenators miss the point entirely, so I thought I'd mention it. Another point that his commentators miss, I think, is that if kids want to fool around, then they will. If they are being set up and chaperoned, then they will just fool around with kids who they aren't being set up with, when they aren't chaperoned. And if they don't want to, or are able to resist the temptation, then they don't really require the chaperoning. I suppose for the middle group, who given easy opportunities would, but won't go out of their way, the system is actually useful. Is that a large percentage? I don't know. Any thoughts?

Interview with a real freedom fighter

This interview with the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, Marek Edelman, is a fascinating read. A few points I'd like to highlight. First, this bit here, about the Spanish withdrawal from Iraq:
"Please don't tell me what the Spanish did. So what? Do you seriously think that it will save them from further attacks? No. The weak just get punched in the head. Pacifism lost a long time ago."
I think it's interesting that Bin Ladin's "weak horse/strong horse" rhetoric has been adopted by his most vehement opposition. Of couse, he was probably right, but that doesn't make the fact any less interesting. Of course, I have to point out the French sodomy reference as well:
"France used to be a great power, culturally and intellectually. And what happened to them? They didn't want to fight for their own democracy, they thought it wasn't really their war [in 1939]. And they lost everything, because when you bend over and take it - even once - then you're finished. And what's that whole talk about the difference between American politics and European politics? There is no other politics but international democratic politics. If we withdraw from Iraq now, what do we have left? Cosying up to Iran and Saudi Arabia? ..."
Read the whole thing, it's worth it. He really does have tremendous insight, even where I disagree with him.

(Link via Pejmanesque)