How Do You Jew
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Times when I don’t feel like being a grown-up
Having to make a personal family budget, and dealing with rising costs and expenses on the one hand and stagnant income on the other, is not fun. I know I am more fortunate and well-off than a mind-numbing portion of the planet’s population, but that’s not my fault; that’s an accident of birth. Trying to…
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On giving back, giving thanks, and not giving up
We got up bright and early this morning to walk 5K in downtown San Diego to raise money for Jewish Family Service and the San Diego Food Bank. Felt good. Ran into many people we know, and saw the power of grassroots passionate politics in action: two Ron Paul supporters I saw walked the entire…
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It feels like Friday
Which means that since it got dark a few hours ago, I’ve felt like it’s Shabbat and I shouldn’t blog until after… but it’s not Shabbat, it’s Erev Thanksgiving, and there’s nothing to prevent me from writing, using the computer, etc. Jenn spent much of the day cooking and baking for Thanksgiving, which we’ll be…
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Yay! Another easy way to reduce waste
Catalog Choice is an awesome site where you can sign up to opt out of getting all those junk catalogs you don’t need in your snail mail. This is very much on my mind, as we just got TWO copies of the Uno Alla Volta catalog the other day, and even one of them is…
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Two things that could change the world
1. I’m on Rabbi David Wolpe‘s weekly d’var Torah email list. He can say more with fewer words than almost anyone I’ve ever met. Anyway, a few days ago I received a special message from him: Below is a mitzvah of worldwide significance. This program, which involves all faiths and nations, is an attempt to…
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Playing around online
My buddy Avraham has provided a lot of great intellectual (kosher) meat for me to chew on ever since we met in grad school way back around the turn of the 21st century (can you believe it’s been that long, dude?). He challenged me again recently by asking how I keep up with news of…
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Blast from the past: Denis Leary riffing on the Mel Gibson DUI
Thank you to Phyllis & Joel for reminding me of this gem: Back in July of 2006, Mel Gibson was famously arrested for drunk driving, and exercised his constitutionally protected right to free speech by unleashing a tirade blaming Jews for, among other things, being responsible for all the wars in the world. You can…
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Movie review: Say Anything…
What a fabulous festival of 80s wonderfulness: people driving cars without seatbelts, airplanes with “no smoking” signs that actually meant something, boxy cars from Detroit, and John Cusack early in his career. Cameron Crowe is a great writer and director with a long list of excellent movies to his credit. Say Anything…, like several of…
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Messing around with themes
I’ll be poking around and trying to find a new theme (design) for the site over the next few days (weeks?), so if you visit and it suddenly looks unfamiliar, fear not. The content will be as engrossing and fascinating as always; it’s simply the container that will change its appearance. This one is called…
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Surprise! You’re the guest of honor/keynote speaker tonight!
When we walked in to the UCSD Faculty Club tonight for the San Diego Blood Bank‘s Stem Cell/Bone Marrow Donor Appreciation Dinner, we were excited to be back at this moving event, this time without our daughter, who was with us last year at the tender age of 6 weeks. Little did I know that…
Got any book recommendations?