Everyone needs a wife – this has been my motto for a long time since for many many many years I have been a wife and I could see how you would benefit from having one in your life. Today, T was my wife, having shopped and prepared the meal to break my fast – Afghanistan lamb with noodles and Turkish green beans – can I get a big AMEN.
Ideal Cities Ideal cities are cities where the neighbors play soul music all night long & don’t care who they bother because who doesn’t like Holy Ghost or Loose Booty? Ideal cities have at least one drunk lady outside the liquor store mornings, who asks you to hold her cigarette so she can lean in to touch your baby. In ideal cities, the pharmacist knows your prescriptions by heart. In ideal cities your neighbor sells…
Tin is cutting both of his canine teeth so he went to bed in a whimper and woke up with a cry and has been unable to be consoled. We see those two big old teeth coming down and didn’t need the drool and tears to tell us what was up. So I started my fast day worried about him and then came up to my office to begin in earnest. But actually my morning…
There is an article in the New York Times about a new modern version of the High Holy Day prayer book for Conservative Jews. In this new version, they are attempting to be all inclusive, not a traditional Jewish way of going about things. In this new version, in the Yizkor service (for the deceased) they have a prayer for a deceased partner, and they also have a prayer for parents who were hurtful –…
Even though it is probably odd to say Yom Tov (good day) to someone on Yom Kippur, a somber occasion, in the United States, a lot of people say Good Yom Tov, even more weird. But even weirder still, a friend was listening to the shofar link that I posted and said while she was listening, Pete Seeger began singing Good Night Irene in the background on her iTunes and she said, “it actually worked,”…
I got this off of Wikipedia: Yom Kippur, also known as the Day of Atonement, is one of the holiest days of the year for Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue services. Yom Kippur completes the annual period known in Judaism as the High Holy Days (or sometimes “the Days of Awe”)… According to Jewish tradition, God inscribes each…
A friend called and said her widowed father is getting married – what the hell, he has such a short time left on this earth – go for it. It’s been months since his wife died. Similarly, another friend is lamenting that after two years her father wants to remarry, she said her mother is not even cold yet (two years?). Another friend tells me her husband will have a date for her funeral. I…
A few weeks ago I was lamenting that I had not been out dancing in a long time, so last night at Mimi’s with Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue playing, I cut a rug. Mostly I danced by myself but T actually got up and danced two slow dances with me and then Dancing Man and I danced a few songs as well. As I said earlier, Gal’s on her way to California…
I learned that Gal Holiday is moving to California – big bummer for us who were used to getting to see the band plenty. Like T said, “They always make feel good.” We’re going to see them tonight at Mimi’s, because very soon, we won’t have the luxury of just picking a day and going out dancing. I told her that California will be good for her, will make coming home (she will) that much…
We just finished the fourth season of the Wire and like the seasons before this one, there are indelible images now fixed in my mind about local and state politics. I think through four seasons of the Wire I’ve learned that life in the projects is bleaker than I imagined, inner city children need a strong parent to survive in the most challenging conditions, the school system run by the government, any government, is FUBR…