devarim

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Two interesting articles from today's New York Times Science section. First, we apparently are studying a language in its infancy: a sign language developed by an isolated Beduoin clan. The members of the clan are all descendants of one couple (about sesventy years back, if I'm reading this correctly) who had five children, two of whom were deaf. Intermarriage and cultural cross-pollination will probably spell destruction for this language, but its fascinating nonetheless.

The other article that caught my eye was headlined: Cough Syrup Receives Kosher Seal of Approval. The following quoates are from that article:

All eight varieties of the liquid decongestant for children now bear the Orthodox Union's trademark label - the initial U inside an O - making Triaminic the first over-the-counter medicine to be certified as kosher.

Oh, so my Lactaid, which is also certified by the OU, doesn't count? And before you make the distinction between an OTC medicine and a "supplement," allow me to point at that Maalox (liquid antacid) is discussed at another point in the article, and the contextual implication there is that it is also an OTC medicine. If someone can explain the medicine/supplement distinction there, I would greatly appreciate it.

...an array of kosher-certified supplements has been on the market for several years through Freeda Vitamins, a kosher purveyor based in New York, and the national VitaminShoppe chain, which has a large vegetarian clientele. But an over-the-counter medicine that is kosher certified is entirely new, Rabbi Safran and others said.

Hmph. Maybe the reporter should have done slightly better research...or am I to believe that those Kof-K Solgar vitamins sitting in my bathroom are treif? I thought journalistic integrity required some measure of due diligence in background research. See also discussion regarding Lactaid, supra (pointing out that Lactaid, which is either an OTC medicine or a supplement available from a source other than Freeda or VitaminShoppe, is currently certified as kosher).

The flavorings used to make liquid medicine more pleasant tasting also complicate matters because, in the eyes of Orthodox rabbis, they make medicinal products more like food. So kosher law applies, and any ingredient bearing animal derivatives renders a product unacceptable.

Back to the Lactaid...it's dairy. OU-D. It and many, many other supplemetns and medications contain lactose derivatives. Lactose comes from milk. Milk comes from cows. I expect that the vegans and dairy-allergic among us who choose to rely on kosher certification in their quest to avoid milk derivatives are well-educated enough to know this. Still, that is no excuse for promulgating misinformation about what kashrut is in the first place!

I would write a letter to the editor (it appears that I almost already have), but I don't have the energy to edit this down appropriately.

It is happening again. Different brand of pantyhose this time, same story. Actually, no...different story. These are Donna Karan hose, and this particular pair has lasted me for well over a year. As of when I left home this morning, they were fine. As of five minutes ago, there is a gaping hole on the back of my left thigh. (Well, the left thigh of my pantyhose. The gaping hole in me is on my right knee, and healing nicely.) It had better stay up in the thigh region, because I do not feel like dashing out to CVS to buy an overpriced pair of L'eggs halfway through the day.

update: They lasted through the day without running at all. Cool.

Ah, Superbowl Sunday. Best commercial of the night by far: FedEx-Kinko's ten-point checklist. It is the one by which all others are to be judged (literally). In fact, we all sat around ticking off things like "attractive female" and "cute animal" during the other commercials. Whoever dreamed up that FE-K spot, and particularly whoever placed it near the start of the game: you are a genius.

This morning I learned that negative reactions caused the NFL/Fox to pull the second airing of the GoDaddy.com commercial. I would have pulled it, too, but not for the same reasons; the cleaned-up version that aired once was terrible compared to the raunchier original. By "terrible" I mean that the shorter version made no sense and destroyed the build-up to pretty much all of the jokes.

You can see a general repository of last night's commercials here and here.

In other news: Go Pats!! (Eat that, Stella!)

About five minutes after I got home this evening, I developed a raging headache. Then my stomach developed new and creative forms of protest. (No, not of the vomiting variety.) Since I refuse to be sick, I can only blame the large (for me) dose of caffeine that I consumed after work. The responsibility for that lies with Shmuel.

Oh, come on, don't cry. The conversation was worth it!

The good news is...it wasn't the caffeine.

The bad news is...I know it wasn't the caffeine because I developed a fever in the middle of the night. Of course, I felt well enough in the morning to go to work, but now that I'm here I'm starting to wish I'd stayed in bed.

Update: I have strep throat. Yay penicillin!

Just to keep everyone posted...

Monday evening: headache and nausea, mild sore throat
Late Monday night: fever developed (didn't take temperature)
Tuesday morning: felt mostly better after 4:00 AM Tylenol dosage; went to work one hour late
Tuesday: progressively more miserable during the day, including muscle cramps and returning low-grade fever; popped Tylenol like candy
Tuesday evening: stupidly went out with some colleagues and judges; on the ride home (I left early) I pretty much resembled a junkie (shaking, muttering to myself, making weird faces because of the pain); crawled into bed around 6:45 PM; alternated sipping water and throwing up for much of the evening, when I wasn't asleep
Tuesday night: fever peaked around 102.5; Julian made me eat some white rice, which I consumed at the rate of about five grains per minute; felt considerably better after managing to get some down, along with more Tylenol; called supervisor's voicemail to say I was taking a sick day Wednesday
Wednesday: woke up feeling better again, but stayed home this time; all symptoms went away besides headache and sore throat, which got progressively worse; noticed swollen glands; subsisted on rice, orange juice, and a banana
Wednesday evening: mild squash-based "chili" for dinner; told my father I didn't need to go to the doctor's office; Liba, my doctor's appointment-person (who I happen to converse with socially as well), told me I needed to go get a throat culture, and she was going to tell on me if I didn't; made appointment, called my father back, listened to strict instructions regarding tea with lemon alternating with praise for my "smart friend"
Wednesday night: stayed up too late cooking (of course...isn't that what you do when you're sick?)
Thursday: raging sore throat and swollen glands are back with a vengeance...thank you, Liba

Lindsay, you are a smart woman and I should follow your lead more often. That is all.

You may have noticed that this site was down for much of the day yesterday, and that my referrers list is pretty much empty at the moment. This is all because the Great and Wonderful Sysadmin (read: Julian) moved us over to a new server. Or redid the server. Or something involving a server. Don't ask me, I'm just the lawyer.

There's an interesting discussion starting up in the comments to this post on RenReb's blog. And, no, I'm not just pointing you there because I've had a lot to say so far. I promise.

There's an interview in today's Metro (Boston edition) with Muslim comedian Shazia Mirza. She is asked, "What is the biggest thing you think non-Muslim women don't understand about being a Muslim woman?" From her response:

That actually Islam gives women lots of freedom....you know, we have a lot of rights. But I think that our religion gives us that, and I think that our culture takes it away.

I don't know the full story, but I trust OOSJ enough to take his word for it (and that of the J Post) on this disgusting development in the battle to lower (or eliminate) the number of agunot in Israel.

I've been quiet recently, and when I've blogged I haven't said much of merit. I apologize to you, my readers. A lot of my spare time in these past few weeks has been taken up by the project, which is set to launch next week. If you're a relatively new reader, feel free to dig through the archives (and comment on old posts, because comments are always open). I promise I'll be back soon enough.

I'm going to see The Gates, by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, only because I'm going to happen to be in New York at the right time, so I figure it's worth taking a quick look. Who knew, though, that a work of art of superior quality and insight exists practically in my backyard? I give you The Somerville Gates.

It's here. (The Project, that is.)

I know you're out there. This blog gets over eighty visits per day and about six hundred unique visitors per month. Now, I like to think of myself as friendly and popular, but I know I don't have six hundred old college buddies reading up on me. Sure, some people check the blog from more than one place, some people come here once and never return, but I still can't name more than a couple dozen people who I know read devarim.com, and even most of them I can't be sure about. There are some IP addresses and hostnames that I've been seeing in my stats for the better part of a year now, and I still don't know who's at the other end. So, if it worked for RenReb, maybe it will work for me.

Who are you? Speak up! No comment too small. Introduce yourself here. Post something witty in an older entry that is currently comment-less. Go find a discussion that died down and bring it back to life. Email me, if you must. Do whatever you want, but say something. (And don't make me start posting those IP addresses, because, so help me Kate, if I get desperate enough, I will.)