devarim

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When Harry Met Sally... is on Bravo. Twice in a row.

Julian is great.

I may be crazy...but I love the weather. Tomorrow? Not going to be above 15 degrees Celsius (55-ish Fahrenheit)--and I couldn't be happier. I realize that most of my friends don't share this sentiment. My husband most certainly doesn't. (This year's Battle of the Open/Shut Windows has been raging for at least a week already.) Still, I am so happy to be wearing a sweater under my suit tomorrow, and maybe even bringing a light coat, too.

I just cancelled my membership to most of the online boards I've been participating in recently. I feel cleansed. I didn't like the way my life went when I was checking them obsessively, and I didn't like the person I was when I was posting.

If you're from one of those places and you miss me for whatever reason, email or IM is fine. I do want to stay in touch with some of you, but you know how lazy I am.

The chaggim are over. Even though I love holidays, three sets of three-day yom tovim in the space of four weeks is enough to drive anyone nuts. A few interesting things happened in this latest set. Our friend Josh decided at the last minute (that is, Tuesday evening) to come and spend the holiday and weekend with us. Yay! Well, had to call our various meal hosts and get him squeezed in, and I think he and Julian were rather time-pressed getting to Cambridge Wednesday night, but yay!

On Simchat Torah night (Thursday), we davened (and danced) at a minyan at a private home. It was beautiful--a small crowd and only one sefer Torah (we traded back and forth between the men and the women for each hakafa), but probably more ruach per person than anywhere else I've been. Well, more ruach per person who was actually participating, since a few people were snacking more than dancing. Generally beautiful, though. And loud, apparently, since as we were leaving (before 11 PM) we saw...police officers. With a paddywagon. Oops. We brought about half a dozen people back to our apartment for a late but very enjoyable dinner.

And this past Shabbat...the highlight of this holiday season for me. When the Torah is returned to the aron after laining at our shul, it is usually carried on a very short route through just a small portion of the men's section. Aside from the fact that it comes nowhere near the women that way (there is a large women's balcony and a smaller section in the back on the grouund floor, where I sit), this also creates a considerable mob of people (er, men and young children) all trying to get to the same tiny path so they can kiss the Torah as it is carried. Even my father complained about the traffic jam, as it were, when he was here last. I had a discussion with the rabbi about it a while ago, suggesting that the Torah be carried on a longer route around the back so it would pass near more people. I assume other people have mentioned this as well, since yesterday, that's exactly what happened. Unless there is a considerable outcry against it, this will be the permanent arrangement (or so I've been told).

Wow. Now you can be certain that the fifth season of The West Wing was pretty bad. Bravo is airing a marathon of fifth-season episodes all afternoon and evening today, and instead I am choosing between The Drew Carey Show and Law and Order for my laundry-folding accompaniment.

The sixth season premieres in nine days. I hope it's better than this drivel.

I'd buy me a closet. I just came across this article. It appeared in the Boston Globe's Sunday magazine about a month ago. Apparently an outdated two-bedroom ranch in our town recently sold for a million dollars. That isn't really a shock to me anymore; we've been poking around in open houses (apartments only), mainly out of curiosity. I know that half a million around here buys you next to nothing. Still, this article is really making it all hit home...I wonder if we'll ever be able to buy a larger place in this neighborhood. I'm not ready to move out to the suburbs yet. I don't know if I'll ever be.

Josh (who has been our houseguest since Wednesday evening) bought us a present today: Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are...in Hebrew! Yay!

I realize that by saying this, I will almost certainly attract a multitude of bad thoughts (to put it kindly) from my local readers. Still...

So, about half an inning ago, I told Julian that I was just going to shut the game off and go to bed. I mean, 8-0 Yanks, what's to talk about? Aside from the appearance that the Sox completely forgot how to play baseball. Anyway, seventh inning? This is starting to scare me. Five runs? Ouch.

I have faith in The Curse.

Now it gets interesting. Or, as Julian put it: Why do they always have to have men on first and third with two outs?

Well, the seventh and eighth innings were fun to watch. We all knew how it was going to end, and by the ninth I just wanted the Yankees to get it over with quickly. And they did. Thanks, guys, for not keeping me up too late last night.

Really, people. Quit your bitching. He started it. Besides, I have little tolerance for sports fans who complain about respect and then go on to shout "Yankees suck!" at a football game.

An article in today's New York Times (free registration required) describes a subcutaneous information chip that would hold an identification number, allowing emergency medical personnel to look up a patient's vital health information (blood type, allergies, etc.). I think I'm in the camp of people who find that a little too Big-Brother-ish for my tastes, but that's not my question. My question is: Is it halachicly acceptable to have such a chip implanted?

The main issues I see are mutilation of the body, and violation of Shabbat. These issues have been considered, I'm sure, with regard to pacemakers and the like. However, as I understand it, a pacemaker's use is a direct issue of pikuach nefesh (saving a life, for which one may violate almost any commandment), whereas this is more of a slight-potential pikuach nefesh situation. A more closely related situation would probably be that of carrying a vial of nitroglycerine outside of an eruv, but even then the object of the violation has a stronger impact on survival. I assume (I mean, I hope) that emergency medical personnel take the "better safe than sorry" approach when administering medications to patients whose medical history is unknown. Perhaps these chips would make ERs run more efficiently (for example, saving O-negative blood for those patients who truly need it), but that is a contribution to the greater good, and is probably too nebulous to be pikuach nefesh. (cf. organ donor banks)

Would the doctors, medical students, rabbis, smicha candidates, and/or generally learned people among my readers be so kind as to shed soome light on this issue. I know you're out there...I have records.

The craziest thing happened last night: I started rooting for the Red Sox. Not just rooting for them, but actually praying. (Actual text of prayer: God, please make the Sox win just this game. And maybe tomorrow's. Not Game Six, though, because the West Wing season premiere is on Wednesday. Also, because I still love the Yankees. Thanks.) Don't get me wrong; I'm still a hard-nosed New Yorker are heart. Still...that was just a damn good game. Having the Sox lose after they tied it up like that would have been just plain wrong. Also, I felt bad for all those people with tickets to the original Game Three (Friday night) who would have been stuck going to no game at all if the Yanks swept the series.

Saturday night's game, on the other hand--that was just absurd. It kind of resembled a Saturday Night Live parody of a Yankees game, with the score rising so fast that the announcer could barely keep up. (Has there ever actually been such a parody? I think I made that up. Sounds good, though.)

Also, this is hilarious. Poor, misguided Red Sox fans...at least they're creative.

Late yesterday afternoon, Julian and I were arguing about whether and where to go for dinner before driving back home from New York. We finally decided to pull over to discuss this (OK, OK...he insisted that I pull over). Turns out the people I stopped behind had a dead battery in their car and needed a jump. Luckily for them, we have jumper cables in our car. Ten minutes later, their engine was going and I was still smiling over the funny way things in this world seem to line up.

Still on last night...as we parked the car before dinner (yes, we went out to dinner), we saw a squirrel trapped in a shoe store. The poor little guy (girl?) was dashing frantically among the boots, scratching at the glass in the front window and sniffing at the crack near the door. I wrote a note to the store employees and slipped it through said door crack, alerting them to the squirrel's presence, imploring them to make sure he gets out, and cautioning them not to be too surprised if they find him curled up in a boot.

On the way back to our car after dinner (it was delicious), we saw another couple of people sliding a similar note into the store. I wonder how many pieces of paper were scattered on the floor by the time the store openned up this morning.

It's 4-4 in the bottom of the eighth, two outs. Please, someone win before the end of the ninth. Please. I can't do this again.

(Yes, I realize it's only 8:45. Still.)

Baseball has nine innings. Nine!

This ridiculously long game is my fault. God is punishing me for my heresy of last night.

Did you really think that God wasn't a Yankees fan?

And it damn well took them long enough too. Now, let's get this straight. Yanks, you win tomorrow night...in nine innings. No more playing nice, got it?

God is a Yankees fan. You see, I had this little dilemma about tonight. Of course I wanted to watch the game...but our synagogue is starting its "semester" of classes, and I wanted to try out the beginner's Talmud class, which meets Tuesday evenings (starting today). Well, the wife of the guy who is teaching the class just had a baby, so we're not starting tonight. Thanks, God.

Of course, now I have another dilemma. I have good reason to want the series to end tonight. However, a good friend just told me that he and his wife (also a very good friend, who may choose to reveal herself here) have tickets to Game Seven. How could I possibly root for the Yankees ending the series tonight? That would take away a wonderful chance from my friends: the chance to see, in person, their team get crushed. (Alas, I do have friends who are poor, misguided Red Sox fans. There's only so much I can do.)

Could someone verify that in addition to all the other records broken, the Sox and the Yankees have now broken the record for most records broken in an ALCS?

Also, R&E, I'm expecting a basket of fruit. Enjoy tonight's game.

There must be an explanation for this. Possibilities:

• God is no longer a Yankees fan;
  
• God is still a Yankees fan, but is showing us some tough love; or, more specifically...
  
• God is still a Yankees fan, but realized that Yankees fans have finally become more obnoxious than Red Sox fans (have we? I don't recall tipping over any cars after a football game while shouting "Red Sucks!") and therefore is trying to teach us a little lesson in playing nice;
  
• God is still a Yankees fan, but is a little pissed off about the avodah zara implications of a "curse" and therefore wants to teach us all a little lesson in monotheism;
  
• God hates me (unlikely, because I'm cute);
  
• God hates Derek Jeter (less cute, but still unlikely);
  
• God doesn't hate me, but S/He loves Rachel and Ernest more than S/He loves me (possible, they are also cute);
  
• Someone (maybe God, maybe not) moved the piano
  

(unless it's Harvard)

Remember me to Tee Fee Crane
Tell all the pikers on the Hill
That I'll be back again
Tell them just how I busted
Lappin' up the high hi-ball
We'll all have drinks at Theodore Zinck's
when I get back next fall!

(...or, y'know, tonight)

Yankees fans need to grow up. You're giving the rest of us a bad name.

Year The Curse took effect: 1918*
Years since The Curse took effect: 86
Last year the Red Sox were in the World Series: 1986
Years since the Red Sox were in the World Series: 18

Coincidence?

*OK, arguably The Curse didn't take effect until 1920, but 1918 is the last time the Red Sox won a World Series. I'm going with that, and just claiming that the Power of the Curse was so pure that it actually went into effect before Il Bambino was traded, just for the purpose of this particular number conglomeration we are experiencing today.

The New York City subway system turns 100 today. At 2:35 P.M. precisely, as a matter of fact. I would send a cake, but that's a whole hell of a lot of candles to light up in the tunnels.

Mashiach showed up last night and put out a request for contractor bids on the Third Temple.

(Congrats, guys. I hope Kenmore Square is still standing. Your fans haven't quite figured out the difference between "celebration" and "mayhem.")

I love making schedules and checklists...but I love it even more when I bother to consult them and it actually helps me to get work done! Of course, posting on my blog is not on the list, so I'd better stop before I fall iinto another pit of procrastination.

Also, I am officially no longer watching The West Wing. It just sucks too much now. I may catch glimpses here and there, and I will almost certainly keep up with the TWoP recaps, but that's only because they are hilarious no matter what.