not to mention ...

honestly, you go away for a day to find a new place to live and all these things happen. i see that jerry falwell has died.

there is a very old joke that my father told me: moishe comes home from school and says to his mother, "am i going to hell?" "what do you mean?" she asks. "kevin says that when i die i'm going to hell!" "o," says his mother, " yes, you are." "what?!" exclaims the boy, "what do you mean?!" "you'll be there," says his mother, "and so will i. your father will be there too, and your sister, and all your grandparents, and your cousins, and the cantor, and the rabbi, and sandy koufax, etc." "o," says moishe, "that's ok then!"

presumably falwell is in his heaven now. i never met him, but i almost picketed his house once. when i was in virginia, a couple of hours from his home in lynchberg, he made a fuss about the purple teletubby being a gay symbol:

"On 10th. February, 1999 the National Liberty Journal in the USA published an article entitled "Parents Alert: Tinky Winky Comes out of the Closet" by the right-wing Christian evangelist Jerry Falwell. He wrote, "The character, whose voice is obviously that of a boy, has been found carrying a red purse, and has become a favourite character among gay groups world wide. Further evidence that the creators of the series intend for Tinky Winky to be a gay role model have surfaced. He is purple - the gay-pride colour - and his antenna is shaped like a triangle - the gay-pride symbol.""

many folks did go down to picket. i wanted to, but it was during the temple's celebration of the festival of purim. what i did instead, was dress up as 'rabbi teletubby', and inform the congregation that she was subbing for the regular rabbi, who was, in fact, picketing with the others.