My observations from Purim Services this evening:
The synagogue was packed–both services. There were so many little kids running around as well! I’ve not seen so many kids in synagogue in who knows how long.
Very cute of the Clergy to dress up at “The Incredibles”. The Senior Rabbi and Cantor were both Mr. Incredible, the Rabbi’s wife was Elastigirl (a.k.a. Mrs. Incredible), the Associate Rabbi was Syndrome, and the Education director was Edna.
–I saw more than enough short white Jewish kids pretending to be LeBron James.
–What was the deal with the hamentashen? By the time my service let out, all that was left were prune and poppyseed hamentashen! Not fair! I want my apricot!
–The father read the first chapter of the Megilla this evening. He did an okay job, if you excuse his tone-deafness
–I really didn’t see any costumes this year that really stood out, which dissapointed me. Usually there’s one or two costumes a year that just are totally great. Oh well.
–Back to that hamentashen thing–if you ever want to kill a Purim party easily–serve only prune and poppy hamentashen. Just trust me on that one.
–Tomorrow I’ll likely be packaging and delivering my family’s Mishloach Manot (explanation here) Shouldn’t be too difficult (or so I hope). I did the shopping for ‘em today.
–I miss being a little kid and dressing up like King Achashverosh, the King of Persia. Oh, being a little kid, those were the days. I know somewhere here at home we’ve got pictures of it (but I’m not going to scan them and upload ‘em–sorry folks).
From the Plain Dealer: Technophiles, wired on coffee, do a whiz tour of wireless cafés
It was a one day cross-Cleveland trip undertaken by the crew of Brewed Fresh Daily (which is a blog I wish I’d known about earlier!)
Two more Purim thoughts:
First off, here’s an interesting tidbit from the Book of Esther which some people may like:
When Haman and the other Jew haters tried to kill the Jews of hte city of Shushan:
“And the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they would unto them that hated them.–Esther 9:4
Moral of the story: Don’t mess with the Joooooooos
Second, traditionally around Purim time, we like to decide on modern day “Hamans”–you know evil leaders who threaten the Jews. But this year we’ve got a bit of a dilema–two of the most popular villians are off the stage: Saddam Hussein and Yassir Arafat.
I mean we still have: Assad, Nasrallah, the PLO/PIJ/Hamas freakazoids, Kim Jong-Il, the mad mullahs of Iran, Bin Laden et. al….but there’s still a void without Arafat and Saddam.
Any suggestions for candidates to replace the two who have falled off the list?
The Jewish holiday of Purim begins this evening (yay!) so I’ll be taking the Brother to synagogue to hear the reading of the Megillah (we read the Book of Esther).
The brother is dressing up in costume as LeBron James. As for myself, I’m too lazy to dress up. Perhaps if I go in a pair of pajajmas I can just tell people I”m a blogger?
After Megilla reading, wee’ll have some Hamentashen! Yay!
We’ll also boo the name of Haman…
Now for some more interesting musings on my education about the holiday:
when I was growing up, in day school we were always taught that King Achashverosh got rid of Queen vashti since she wouldn’t show up at a party. And we learned that Queen Esther won a beauty contest.
It wasn’t till I got older that I found out that it wasn’t that Vashti didn’t want to show up to a party….it was a little more illicit. Same with the “beauty contest” Esther won…it involved more than a swimsuit competition to put it mildly…you do know that all of the other “losers” wound up in the King’s herom.
I wonder, would the Book of Esther be rated R or NC-17 for it’s content?
In light of the Terri Schiavo story, this is a local case that’s rather sad story…
Grandmother To Get Custody Of Brain-Damaged Baby
Note: Due to a connection that I have to someone whose been involved in the case, I mumst refrain from expressing an opinion on it.
The Globe and Mail: Sleep apnea linked to night deaths
As an individual who used to suffer from OSA, I urge you if you exhibit the symptoms of the disorder to visit a doctor and get help.
On Jim Petro’s selection of Phil Heimlich as his runningmate for the Ohio Gubernatorial race:
“This Heimlich maneuver will not stop Jim Petro’s last-place candidacy from choking.”–Mark Weaver, spokesman for Betty Montgomery, one of Petro’s challengers in the GOP Primary
Okay, I did enjoy lunch with the Mother this afternoon (see earlier post) but when we finally came home, The Brother had returned from school and things rapidly went downhill from there.
Getting the Brother to do his homework is harder than….um….(*insert good analogy here*)
Then later Brother needed taken to play practice, so I did that, and ran errands for 90 minutes. Visited one of the local Kosher Bakeries/markets which I’d not been in for quite some time (and I remembered why), then I went to the big-box store of all evil….Wal Mart (*dum dum dum!*)
All in all an interesting afternoon/evening.
A few stories to share:
The Plain Dealer has published online a list of Ohioans (in certain counties) who’ve received Concealed Carry Weapons licenses.
(Sen.) Voinovich-led group vows to fight casinos–yep, the casino issue is going to be back on the ballot here in Ohio
Dolphins invade Israeli waters? In Haifa harbor no less!
The case for Tort reform? Rapid-fire suits: right to justice vs. legal lottery
Yay! I’m going out to lunch with mom at one of the coolest and in my opinion best restaurants around: Tommy’s
This is probably ultimately going to wind up in the historical category of bad political ideas:
Beer manufacturers and grocers oppose proposed tax hike
Ohio’s beer manufacturers, wholesalers and grocers are up in arms over Gov. Bob Taft’s proposed increase of beer and commercial-activity taxes in his proposed biennial budget.
“I wonder if this reeks of a social agenda,” said Frank LaRose, an owner and head of government affairs for the House of LaRose beer distributor, of the $1-a-case beer tax proposed by Taft.
I wonder if as a protest there will be an Ohio Beer Party (think Boston Tea Party)?
This is also further evidence of why Gov. Taft (R) sucks, and recently received an F from CATO in its annual Fiscal Policy Report Card
Related:
Beer tax increase in Ohio protested
Mexican men march to call for better rights
MEXICO : A group of Mexican men marched in the capital city on Sunday to launch an initiative to make March 20 the International Day of Men.
The group said their objective was to counter a feminist movement which has placed the blame of all evil things on men.
Now how would this day be celebrated? A special spring football game? Discounts on beer?
The family is having Lebanese food for dinner tonight.
It’s some damn good food.
Therefore, I must again call for a Free Lebanon!
(and not just for their food)
About to attempt to get the brother to do his homework
This is not an easy task…
Update: Yeah, it’s far from easy. (proceeding to bang head against table)
The Justice is back out, meaning it’s time to roll up my sleeves, and deliver my “highly intellectual” thoughts about what’s going on at my alma matter.
Let’s see:
(more…)
From today’s Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Oops! County shorted schools
Treasurer’s error left $33 million off districts’ checks
What does the Treasurer blame the error on?
Officials in the treasurer’s office discovered the blunder last Thursday, when The Plain Dealer reported that the South Euclid-Lyndhurst district blamed delinquent tax collections for its planned school closings.
Chief Deputy Treasurer Robin Thomas said Monday that her spreadsheet computations failed to include a column covering utility gas lines, electrical substations and poles.
“I neglected to add one column,” she said.
You just can’t make stuff like this up…
The word of the day is “Fubar”
At least that’s the word of the afternoon…as things got rather FUBAR around these parts today. Argh….
The first half of the day was perfectly fine though. Go figure.
From today’s Cleveland Plain Dealer:
The Cuyahoga County Democratic Party’s annual dinner next month honors three elected officials: Engineer Robert Klaiber, Coroner Elizabeth Balraj and Treasurer Jim Rokakis. The treasurer calls it: The bridge to death and taxes.
This brings to mind Ben Franklin’s famous quote:
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
An aside: I still fail to understand why offices like County Engineer and Coroner have to have political party affiliations attached to them. I mean does a Democrat coroner perform autopsies differently than a Republican one?
Arafat Killed By High Tech Laser Attack – Envoy
(Malaysian News Agency)–Attallah Quiba, the Palestinian ambassador in Sri Lanka, believes Arafat was killed by unnamed Israelis using advanced technology, the Island newspaper said.
In Colombo on Friday, Quiba claimed that two Israelis who met Arafat on the day he was taken sick “used a laser device to attack Arafat.”
Samples of Arafat’s blood were tested in 16 countries and it was revealed that he had been poisoned by high technology, he said.
Asked about reports that Arafat’s meals had been poisoned, Quiba said it was not possible since Arafat always shared the food served to him and was the last to partake of it.
No word yet if black Israeli helicopters were circling the mutaqa at the time of this laser attack.
An article that ran in the Cleveland Plain Dealer about one suburb’s City Council that has been eating pre-meeting meals on the tax-payers dime
Council members eating up job perk
Last year they spent over $6,000 on their meals alone…and that’s before desert