Reflections of Sorts

So, chesed and din are a pair.

Which others come as pairs?



P.S. I have a tag for religion; should I tag this one kefira

http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/al-lewis-wells-fargo-bank-sues/

Because everything we have seen until now is not enough.

I've been rewatching some old "Gilmore Girls" and "Veronica Mars" episodes lately. To my surprise, rather than finding them entertaining, I found them irritating. The characters were engaging, the dialogue witty, and the premises interesting, as always, but the interpersonal relations appalled me. I know that the nature of television dictates that one should always go for a clever exit line rather than stay and work something out, but I no longer find that amusing. I find it to be painful and immature. Not only do I not want to act like that, I don't want it in my life. I do not enjoy associating with people like that, and I do not find pleasure in watching others screw up their lives by acting stupid. So I guess this is it for me and television aimed at young women and teens.

Can anyone bring 2 pairs of latex or nitrile gloves to masteraleph and levana_b's wedding? Archival cloth gloves will also work. I want to make the עדים wear them when they sign the כתובה, just to make sure they don't smudge anything with their sweaty, sweaty hands. A pair for the מסדר קדושין would not go amiss, either.

Times like these, I really miss my job. Constant access to nitrile and archival gloves.

Oy vey.

I'll post more about the return later, but for now I need to whine.

First off, why doesn't any place near me stock coated paper? I was not about to bring it back with me via Madrid -- it would have gotten hopelessly damaged on the way. But seriously, this is hippie/indy/arty-person central here. Why no coated paper? And Pearl has stopped stocking pen cartridges, the unprintables!

Current beef of the evening: quick dry gilding size takes 1.5 hours to achieve tack? Really? I suppose that's faster than the 10-12 necessary for slow-dry, but seriously. Do they think I have nothing better to do than sit around and watch size dry? Oh, yeah . . .

On the up side, scratch knives really are a girl's best friend. I thought I was going to have to redo the whole thing for a moment there, but a quick trip to Utrecht fixed that.

Semi-random thought brought on while taking my aliya this Shabbat so I could bentsch gomel*: do sofrim have to hold their pens at a 90 degree angle to the horizontal? That must suck!

*Normally when I am in front of a scroll, I am concentrating on reading it, or on not reading it as it is rolled, so I can't make it pasul. Beyond noticing whether the letters are well-formed, I don't usually have the spare brainpower to think of the mechanics of sofrut while reading. Hence not noticing until now.

wotyfree and I have decided that Rabbi Roth's senior rabbinical school class on Halachic process ought to be called "Conservative Wangst LeMaaseh."

Rabbi Roth is awesome!!!!

[does the squirmy happy puppy dance]

(And male talit shoppers who wish to patronize egal-friendly businesses)

Mishkan HaT'chelet at 109 Rehov Rabbi Akiva has at least one very friendly and helpful clerk (can't speak for all of them). He showed me a bunch of talitot and when I was considering one for size, he suggested I try it on, just go on to the back of the store to avoid a commotion.

Patronize non-insane businesses!

"Wanna do some gratuitous gemara" after [we finish this mishna]?" -wotyfree

"Mishna is a gateway drug." -wotyfree

"I realize I'm sounding kinda Ziegler saying this, but you have to take the feelings of your congregants into account." -Me

Looking for a postal code for an address. One would think the post office website is the place to go, right? WRONG!

Try looking for Shalom Aleichem street here:
http://www.israelpost.co.il/zipcode.nsf/demozip?OpenForm

If you type it in, it claims you haven't properly filled out the "street" field.

So you go to the drop-down menu version:
http://www.israelpost.co.il/zipcode.nsf/getzip?OpenForm&locid=0&streetid=0

It lists Shalom Aleichem alright, but when you click on it, it resets.

I recently asked the director of CY if there is a word in Hebrew for efficiency. He told me that there is, but it seems that it is not well-known.

Oh look, someone made a classic frummie talit into a really unflattering dress.

My agony of shopping for a groomsmaid dress continues. When do I get to the ecstasy part?

This would be so much easier at home, where I could just make it myself.

The external HD is now working in Kubuntu. When I am sure that my iPod will work with it, I might very well ditch Windows entirely. It has been nothing but a pain lately.

AS: [Schottenstein] is sexy!
Me: I am genetically indisposed to find Artscroll sexy.

wotyfree: Artscroll is, but it has a terrible STD.
Me: I don't think Artscroll gets around that much.
wotyfree: YES IT DOES.

"Stop talking about sexy Artscroll and get to evil!" -SR, my Medieval Jewish Thought teacher, who had us studying Rambam on the concept of evil that day.

"You colored in a book without pictures!" -spin0za1

spin0za1: [singing "Pierre"] Now as the night began to fall
A hungry lion paid a call
He looked Pierre right in the eye
And asked him if he'd like to get out of giving a get."
Me: I don't remember that version.

giraffeluv3: I want to make the spoon suffer!
DF: giraffeluv3, that's ridiculous.
giraffeluv3: [incoherent whining]
DF: It's a growing experience.

"Come and get it folks, hot off the presses: frogs!"


"It's Frog Day in Midrash class."

spin0za1: Who is getting out of whose head now?
Me: I think we both need to go back to our own sides of the brain, hands to ourselves.
spin0za1: Moooooom, cynara_linnaea is poking my medulla oblongata!
Me: That came out far racier than you intended.

"The problem if you are playing rabbi-Pokemon . . ."

"What are you supposed to do? Wander around the grass in Israel and when you find one ask it a kashya; if it can't answer you get to keep it and if it can it goes free?"

About changing Ziegler from the inside out:
"I'm the Palpatine of the Conservative Movement . . . Will you be my Darth Vader?" -BR