neither philosophy nor reams of resolutions.
in the words of e.t., and my teacher, rabbi dr. a. stanley dreyfus:
BE GOOD!
wishing you all a healthy and fulfilling 2007
shalom
- the ravaj.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
goodbyes in 2006
who of us will remember these women?
Marie Tharp, oceanographer.
Anna Politkovskaya, journalist.
Martha Holmes, photographer.
Ernestine Bayer, oarswoman.
Patty Berg, golfer.
Susan Butcher, iditarod champion.
Marion Mingins, priest.
Denice Denton, professor of electrical engineering
Anna Lee Aldred, professional jockey
Louise Smith, race car driver
or these women we thought we knew a little better?
Wendy Wasserstein
Betty Friedan
June Allyson
Jeanne Kirkpatrick
Betty Comden
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Jay Presson Allen
Moira Shearer
Octavia Butler
Shelley Winters
Katherine Dunham
Muriel Spark
may all those we have loved rest in peace, and may we be blessed by our memories of them
Marie Tharp, oceanographer.
Anna Politkovskaya, journalist.
Martha Holmes, photographer.
Ernestine Bayer, oarswoman.
Patty Berg, golfer.
Susan Butcher, iditarod champion.
Marion Mingins, priest.
Denice Denton, professor of electrical engineering
Anna Lee Aldred, professional jockey
Louise Smith, race car driver
or these women we thought we knew a little better?
Wendy Wasserstein
Betty Friedan
June Allyson
Jeanne Kirkpatrick
Betty Comden
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Jay Presson Allen
Moira Shearer
Octavia Butler
Shelley Winters
Katherine Dunham
Muriel Spark
may all those we have loved rest in peace, and may we be blessed by our memories of them
Friday, December 29, 2006
the 'sky torah'
can't believe i missed it - the party at jfk to welcome the first ever torah that will travel the sky. unfortunately, i was just finishing a therapy session and was far too vulnerable and too far away. here is one version of the pr release:
" Israir Airlines Introduces the 'Sky-Torah'
First Ever Torah Scroll to Fly the Skies - Grand Welcome Parade and Celebration at JFK
VALLEY STREAM, N.Y., Dec. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Israir Airlines will soon become the first airline to maintain an authentic Torah Scroll on board its aircraft. The "Sky-Torah," handwritten according to Jewish custom by a professional Jewish Scribe especially for the airline, is the first of its kind. The Torah will enhance the prayers of those who are in the skies, praying in the closest place to God in the world. Keeping a traditional Torah Scroll*, on an aircraft is the idea of Rabbi Shlomo Elharar, Chief Rabbi of Colombia, South America. After years of hard work towards this dream, the Torah is finally ready to be installed permanently on board one of Israir's aircrafts.
The Torah will be completed December 27 in Aventura, Florida, and will be escorted to JFK Airport in New York for a welcome celebration, and then to Israel. The Torah will be welcomed on its way to Israel with a grand celebration in JFK Airport, Terminal 4, December 28, 12:00 pm. The Torah will be carried under a traditional "chuppah," with singing, dancing, live music, children and important Rabbis and dignitaries in attendance. The Torah is dedicated to the Chief Rabbi of Colombia and to the fallen soldiers of Israel, and those still in captivity."
why have a scroll on a plane? yahoo says:
"The Torah will be housed in a compartment on the plane and will be accessible through a flight attendant."
do you think people are going to read from it? i'd be interested to see hakkafah, hagba and glilah at 35,000 feet :-)
" Israir Airlines Introduces the 'Sky-Torah'
First Ever Torah Scroll to Fly the Skies - Grand Welcome Parade and Celebration at JFK
VALLEY STREAM, N.Y., Dec. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Israir Airlines will soon become the first airline to maintain an authentic Torah Scroll on board its aircraft. The "Sky-Torah," handwritten according to Jewish custom by a professional Jewish Scribe especially for the airline, is the first of its kind. The Torah will enhance the prayers of those who are in the skies, praying in the closest place to God in the world. Keeping a traditional Torah Scroll*, on an aircraft is the idea of Rabbi Shlomo Elharar, Chief Rabbi of Colombia, South America. After years of hard work towards this dream, the Torah is finally ready to be installed permanently on board one of Israir's aircrafts.
The Torah will be completed December 27 in Aventura, Florida, and will be escorted to JFK Airport in New York for a welcome celebration, and then to Israel. The Torah will be welcomed on its way to Israel with a grand celebration in JFK Airport, Terminal 4, December 28, 12:00 pm. The Torah will be carried under a traditional "chuppah," with singing, dancing, live music, children and important Rabbis and dignitaries in attendance. The Torah is dedicated to the Chief Rabbi of Colombia and to the fallen soldiers of Israel, and those still in captivity."
why have a scroll on a plane? yahoo says:
"The Torah will be housed in a compartment on the plane and will be accessible through a flight attendant."
do you think people are going to read from it? i'd be interested to see hakkafah, hagba and glilah at 35,000 feet :-)
picky panda eating habits
i know it is a lot of detail, but i happen to find it fascinating. i never realised that pandas were such purists. mind you, when i fed the ones in london zoo (20 years ago) they enjoyed a bit of blackcurrant jam on their bamboo :-)
By DORIE TURNER, Associated Press Writer Thu Dec 28, 6:36 PM ET
FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. - If you think kids are picky, try feeding a giant panda.
It takes four full-time bamboo hunters at Zoo Atlanta to satisfy the palates of the zoo's panda pair, Lun Lun and Yang Yang. And they are not always successful. The animals' diet consists almost entirely of bamboo, but they will eat only about 20 of the 200 or so species that grow in Georgia. What type they like also varies by the time of year. Sometimes the pandas will eat nothing but one variety for a week, then refuse to eat it anymore. (Sound familiar, parents?) And the bamboo has to be fresh — the pandas turn up their noses at dry or wilted leaves and discolored stalks.
So the zoo relies on a bamboo hunting team to find and harvest local patches of the plant. The bamboo they collect cannot be grown with pesticides or near polluted waterways. And most important, it must be appetizing to the pandas.
Bamboo grows wild — and fast, like a weed — in many parts of the country. The Atlanta zoo could, of course, grow its own, but that would not be very practical, given the pandas' ever-changing tastes.
The finicky black-and-white animals are native to China's Sichuan Province. Lun Lun, the female, weighs around 250 pounds; Yang Yang, the male, is closer to 300 pounds. Each panda eats 20 to 30 pounds of bamboo a day. The leaves and stalks account for about 95 percent of their diet. (They also get soy biscuits and apples as treats.) That means that the bamboo hunters have to haul in about 400 pounds of bamboo each week to provide enough food for the pandas and a few other zoo animals, like the elephants and gorillas, that also eat the plants. The team works five days a week harvesting bamboo from the yards of homes and businesses on a list of about 1,500 approved donors within 100 miles of Atlanta. Their jobs will get tougher in nine months when the zoo's panda cub Mei Lan, born Sept. 6, moves from Lun Lun's milk to the stalk.
On a recent morning, Zoo Atlanta's bamboo hunters trooped through a wooded lot carrying a saw, a lopper and twine. They sawed, chopped and bundled the long, green stalks with ease and efficiency, filling the back of their truck in a couple of hours. They brave yellowjackets, wasps, snakes, fire ants, poison ivy and every kind of weather. They have even been chased by a wild boar. The plants must be free of chemicals, bird droppings or other animal feces, which can be toxic to the pandas. Bamboo grown near a busy road is no good because auto exhaust can contaminate the crop. And the bamboo team cannot use power tools because any oil or gas residue would poison the pandas. The hand-held saw and lopper are greased with cooking oil after being disinfected every day.
Other U.S. zoos with pandas get their bamboo in various ways. The Memphis Zoo has a team that harvests bamboo in the area. The zoo also grows the plant on its own seven-acre bamboo farm. The San Diego Zoo grows all the bamboo eaten by its three adult pandas. The Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington gets most of its bamboo from a private donor's property in Maryland, but it also is trying to grow some at the zoo.
Since pandas are picky, most zoos have found that growing only one species of bamboo won't cut it. Zoo Atlanta keeps files on what types of bamboo the pandas eat each day, but the animals often change their minds.
"You have to kind of play it by ear," Daujotas said. "It's a good thing we have elephants. What pandas don't like, elephants like."
By DORIE TURNER, Associated Press Writer Thu Dec 28, 6:36 PM ET
FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. - If you think kids are picky, try feeding a giant panda.
It takes four full-time bamboo hunters at Zoo Atlanta to satisfy the palates of the zoo's panda pair, Lun Lun and Yang Yang. And they are not always successful. The animals' diet consists almost entirely of bamboo, but they will eat only about 20 of the 200 or so species that grow in Georgia. What type they like also varies by the time of year. Sometimes the pandas will eat nothing but one variety for a week, then refuse to eat it anymore. (Sound familiar, parents?) And the bamboo has to be fresh — the pandas turn up their noses at dry or wilted leaves and discolored stalks.
So the zoo relies on a bamboo hunting team to find and harvest local patches of the plant. The bamboo they collect cannot be grown with pesticides or near polluted waterways. And most important, it must be appetizing to the pandas.
Bamboo grows wild — and fast, like a weed — in many parts of the country. The Atlanta zoo could, of course, grow its own, but that would not be very practical, given the pandas' ever-changing tastes.
The finicky black-and-white animals are native to China's Sichuan Province. Lun Lun, the female, weighs around 250 pounds; Yang Yang, the male, is closer to 300 pounds. Each panda eats 20 to 30 pounds of bamboo a day. The leaves and stalks account for about 95 percent of their diet. (They also get soy biscuits and apples as treats.) That means that the bamboo hunters have to haul in about 400 pounds of bamboo each week to provide enough food for the pandas and a few other zoo animals, like the elephants and gorillas, that also eat the plants. The team works five days a week harvesting bamboo from the yards of homes and businesses on a list of about 1,500 approved donors within 100 miles of Atlanta. Their jobs will get tougher in nine months when the zoo's panda cub Mei Lan, born Sept. 6, moves from Lun Lun's milk to the stalk.
On a recent morning, Zoo Atlanta's bamboo hunters trooped through a wooded lot carrying a saw, a lopper and twine. They sawed, chopped and bundled the long, green stalks with ease and efficiency, filling the back of their truck in a couple of hours. They brave yellowjackets, wasps, snakes, fire ants, poison ivy and every kind of weather. They have even been chased by a wild boar. The plants must be free of chemicals, bird droppings or other animal feces, which can be toxic to the pandas. Bamboo grown near a busy road is no good because auto exhaust can contaminate the crop. And the bamboo team cannot use power tools because any oil or gas residue would poison the pandas. The hand-held saw and lopper are greased with cooking oil after being disinfected every day.
Other U.S. zoos with pandas get their bamboo in various ways. The Memphis Zoo has a team that harvests bamboo in the area. The zoo also grows the plant on its own seven-acre bamboo farm. The San Diego Zoo grows all the bamboo eaten by its three adult pandas. The Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington gets most of its bamboo from a private donor's property in Maryland, but it also is trying to grow some at the zoo.
Since pandas are picky, most zoos have found that growing only one species of bamboo won't cut it. Zoo Atlanta keeps files on what types of bamboo the pandas eat each day, but the animals often change their minds.
"You have to kind of play it by ear," Daujotas said. "It's a good thing we have elephants. What pandas don't like, elephants like."
Thursday, December 28, 2006
thursday thirteen meme v
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Favourite ... 1. Film Little Miss Sunshine i haven't laughed so much in a long time. 2. Book The End by Lemony Snicket finally a little bit of resolution and anyway there is no more room on my bookshelf. 3. Blog Ken Levine he wrote 'frasier' and i get to read him every day. nuff said. 4. Cartoonist Alison Bechdel just beats out doonesbury in a breakout year. 5. Football Team Queens Park Rangers to paraphrase queen mary 1 of england - when i am dead and opened, you shall find qpr lying in my heart. 6. Football Goal Ronaldinho vs Villareal just beat out the one against werder bremen. 7. Baseball Player Bernie Williams of the New York Yankees am still hoping against hope that the yankees are smart enough to keep him on the roster for the coming year. 8. Memory Meeting O for the first time nothing like becoming an aunt :-) 9. Album St Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley at last i like something that isn't by cole porter and ella fitzgerald. 10. Song Dear Mr. President by Pink 11. Eye Candy Angelina Jolie 12. Acquisition my new i-mac. it brought me very close to breaking a commandment (#3) 13. Team to Abhor the one that plays at stamford bridge Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!) |
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
brum 2 - 1 qpr
well birmingham are at the top and we really are not and it was away and well lee cook scored a screamer so if anyone is planning to buy him next month hopefully that will make him worth a bit more and, well,
O NO WE LOST AGAIN
:-(
O NO WE LOST AGAIN
:-(
Saturday, December 23, 2006
qpr 1 - 0 barnsley
at last i am able to mention qpr again for today not only did they manage to score their first goal for who knows how long but also they actually won an actual professional game of football. gigantic sigh of relief.
also we got the best parking space ever outside whole foods ... my family (visiting from london) must not be permitted to return to their own homes :-)
also we got the best parking space ever outside whole foods ... my family (visiting from london) must not be permitted to return to their own homes :-)
Friday, December 22, 2006
Amilcar Hasenfratz Again
and the answer to wednesday's question is:
frederic auguste bartholdi
aren't you glad you know that now?
(he was the father of the green lady you can see at the end of the planet of the apes movie when charlton heston bangs his fist on the ground and screams 'damn you humanity!')
frederic auguste bartholdi
aren't you glad you know that now?
(he was the father of the green lady you can see at the end of the planet of the apes movie when charlton heston bangs his fist on the ground and screams 'damn you humanity!')
Thursday, December 21, 2006
thursday thirteen meme iv
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1. Rene Magritte 2. Fernand Leger 3. Frida Kahlo 4. Georgia O'Keefe 5. Vincent Van Gogh 6. Oskar Kokoschka 7. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 8. R. B. Kitaj 9. Pablo Picasso 10. Emil Nolde 11. Edvard Munch 12. Giorgio Di Chirico 13. Edgar Degas wish there were more women in this list ... Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!) |
Amilcar Hasenfratz
interesting things that i learned today:
who is/was Amilcar Hasenfratz and for what reason is/was s/he world famous?
before you use google, have a guess. i don't expect you'd put it in the comments section, but feel free to if you'd like to.
who is/was Amilcar Hasenfratz and for what reason is/was s/he world famous?
before you use google, have a guess. i don't expect you'd put it in the comments section, but feel free to if you'd like to.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
whale vomit
i know, not the most salubrious title for a post, but i wanted to note an article in today's ny times about ambergris. i do like learning about new stuff, y'know :-)
nu - a woman in montauk, long island, just received a seasonal gift from her sister in iowa, which could be a giant hunk of whale vomit worth about $18,000. there are a couple of problems with this - first of all there's been no luck yet in finding anyone who knows enough about it to establish what the lump actually is. secondly, endangered species legislation means that it's illegal to buy or sell ambergris (the proper way to describe whale puke).
the article by corey kilgannon goes on to say:
"Ambergris has been a valued commodity for centuries, used in perfume because of its strangely alluring aroma as well as its ability to retain other fine-fragrance ingredients and “fix” a scent so it does not evaporate quickly. Its name is derived from the French “ambre gris,” or gray amber. During the Renaissance, ambergris was molded, dried, decorated and worn as jewelry. It has been an aphrodisiac, a restorative balm, and a spice for food and wine. Arabs used it as heart and brain medicine. The Chinese called it lung sien hiang, or “dragon’s spittle fragrance.” It has been the object of high-seas treachery and caused countries to enact maritime possession laws and laws banning whale hunting. Madame du Barry supposedly washed herself with it to make herself irresistible to Louis XV.
In “Paradise Regained,” Milton describes Satan tempting Christ with meat pastries steamed in ambergris. In “Moby-Dick,” Melville called it the “essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale.” Old newspapers show clippings every few years describing some whaling crew coming upon a hunk, or some vacationing family finding it on the beach and either cashing in — or discovering it was just ocean detritus."
nu - a woman in montauk, long island, just received a seasonal gift from her sister in iowa, which could be a giant hunk of whale vomit worth about $18,000. there are a couple of problems with this - first of all there's been no luck yet in finding anyone who knows enough about it to establish what the lump actually is. secondly, endangered species legislation means that it's illegal to buy or sell ambergris (the proper way to describe whale puke).
the article by corey kilgannon goes on to say:
"Ambergris has been a valued commodity for centuries, used in perfume because of its strangely alluring aroma as well as its ability to retain other fine-fragrance ingredients and “fix” a scent so it does not evaporate quickly. Its name is derived from the French “ambre gris,” or gray amber. During the Renaissance, ambergris was molded, dried, decorated and worn as jewelry. It has been an aphrodisiac, a restorative balm, and a spice for food and wine. Arabs used it as heart and brain medicine. The Chinese called it lung sien hiang, or “dragon’s spittle fragrance.” It has been the object of high-seas treachery and caused countries to enact maritime possession laws and laws banning whale hunting. Madame du Barry supposedly washed herself with it to make herself irresistible to Louis XV.
In “Paradise Regained,” Milton describes Satan tempting Christ with meat pastries steamed in ambergris. In “Moby-Dick,” Melville called it the “essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale.” Old newspapers show clippings every few years describing some whaling crew coming upon a hunk, or some vacationing family finding it on the beach and either cashing in — or discovering it was just ocean detritus."
r.i.p. joe barbera
i was brought up to be a warner brothers baby, having been sat down in front of bugs bunny with a piece of cheese when my mother needed to get something done.
nevertheless, i loved to watch tom & jerry, top cat (called 'boss cat') in england for some strange reason), the flintstones and especially the jetsons when i was a kid.
mr. barbera died today at his home with his wife at his side. he was 95 years old and died of natural causes.
just wanted to say thank you.
nevertheless, i loved to watch tom & jerry, top cat (called 'boss cat') in england for some strange reason), the flintstones and especially the jetsons when i was a kid.
mr. barbera died today at his home with his wife at his side. he was 95 years old and died of natural causes.
just wanted to say thank you.
Monday, December 18, 2006
arrest in case of ipswich murders
i don't know if you have been following the debate for the past few days with regard to the dangers that prostitutes face in britain? as far as i can tell, it has focussed mostly on the reasons why women go astray, e.g., supporting a drug habit, and how to protect them from the physical violence that such a profession attracts. also, there is the ongoing question of whether or not to legalise prostitution. why, i wonder, has nobody had much to say about the punters who create the demand in the first place, i.e., (mostly) men prepared to pay for sex?
it is thus that i say today 'hooray for harriet harman', having read the following on the bbc website:
"Target prostitute users - Harman
Ms Harman proposes criminalising men who pay for sex. Ministers should look at prosecuting men who pay for sex, constitutional affairs ministers Harriet Harman says. While kerb crawling and procuring a prostitute for sex are illegal, paying for sex is not currently an offence. Ms Harman, Labour MP for Camberwell and Peckham, said the murders of five prostitutes in Ipswich showed more should be done to end vice in the UK. It would be better to target the men who paid for sex rather than criminalising women, she said. "I think we should be saying we don't want this sort of organised crime in this country, " she said.
She suggested the UK look at the case of Sweden, "where they support young women who have drug problems and who are vulnerable for other reasons, but they actually have a criminal offence of buying sex - they make prostitution illegal, by taking on the issue of the punters rather than the young women.""
it is thus that i say today 'hooray for harriet harman', having read the following on the bbc website:
"Target prostitute users - Harman
Ms Harman proposes criminalising men who pay for sex. Ministers should look at prosecuting men who pay for sex, constitutional affairs ministers Harriet Harman says. While kerb crawling and procuring a prostitute for sex are illegal, paying for sex is not currently an offence. Ms Harman, Labour MP for Camberwell and Peckham, said the murders of five prostitutes in Ipswich showed more should be done to end vice in the UK. It would be better to target the men who paid for sex rather than criminalising women, she said. "I think we should be saying we don't want this sort of organised crime in this country, " she said.
She suggested the UK look at the case of Sweden, "where they support young women who have drug problems and who are vulnerable for other reasons, but they actually have a criminal offence of buying sex - they make prostitution illegal, by taking on the issue of the punters rather than the young women.""
aussies win
the answer to yesterday's question is:
no.
here you see shane warne beginning what will no doubt be a long and national celebration of the poms going down down under.
can't talk about qpr at the moment cos they haven't won in weeks or scored a goal or even drawn. the scum are catching man ure, and the yankees are talking about trading my man melky.
what kind of monday morning is it when the best news is that the suffolk police have arrested a man in connection with the murders of the 5 prostitutes?
no.
here you see shane warne beginning what will no doubt be a long and national celebration of the poms going down down under.
can't talk about qpr at the moment cos they haven't won in weeks or scored a goal or even drawn. the scum are catching man ure, and the yankees are talking about trading my man melky.
what kind of monday morning is it when the best news is that the suffolk police have arrested a man in connection with the murders of the 5 prostitutes?
the proust questionnaire
how many times have you received an e-mail sent to all your correspondent's dearest friends asking you to answer questions about yourself then pass on the message to your own nearest and dearest?
it turns out that this is not an internet phenomenon, but has been parlour entertainment since at least the 19th century. a random article that i found notes:
"In the back pages of Vanity Fair each month, readers find The Proust Questionnaire, a series of questions posed to famous subjects about their lives, thoughts, values and experience. A regular reference to Proust in such a major publication struck me as remarkable, and it was only until I'd read Andre Maurois's Proust: Portrait of a Genius that I understood what this was all about. The young Marcel was asked to fill out questionnaires at two social events: one when he was 13, another when he was 20. Proust did not invent this party game; he is simply the most extraordinary person to respond to them."
for the rest of p. segal's notes, and the english version of the questions proust received and his answers, click here
the only question i can think of at the moment is could it possibly possibly be possible for england to last out the whole day and not lose the 3rd test and the ashes? come on freddie and kevin - hang in there!
it turns out that this is not an internet phenomenon, but has been parlour entertainment since at least the 19th century. a random article that i found notes:
"In the back pages of Vanity Fair each month, readers find The Proust Questionnaire, a series of questions posed to famous subjects about their lives, thoughts, values and experience. A regular reference to Proust in such a major publication struck me as remarkable, and it was only until I'd read Andre Maurois's Proust: Portrait of a Genius that I understood what this was all about. The young Marcel was asked to fill out questionnaires at two social events: one when he was 13, another when he was 20. Proust did not invent this party game; he is simply the most extraordinary person to respond to them."
for the rest of p. segal's notes, and the english version of the questions proust received and his answers, click here
the only question i can think of at the moment is could it possibly possibly be possible for england to last out the whole day and not lose the 3rd test and the ashes? come on freddie and kevin - hang in there!
Sunday, December 17, 2006
whose fault is it anyway?
a story from d's buddha book (an excellent little thing to keep in the bathroom fyi)
"There's another story that you may have read that has to do with what we call heaven and hell, life and death, good and bad. It's a story about how those things don't really exist except as a creation of our own minds. It goes like this: A big burly samurai comes to the wise man and says, 'Tell me the nature of heaven and hell.' And the roshi looks him in the face and says: 'Why should I tell a scruffy, disgusting, miserable slob like you?' The samurai starts to get purple in the face, his hair starts to stand up, but the roshi won't stop, he keeps saying, 'A miserable worm like you, do you think I should tell you anything?' Consumed by rage, the samurai draws his sword, and he's just about to cut off the head of the roshi. Then the roshi says, 'That's hell.' The samurai, who is in fact a sensitive person, instantly gets it, that he just created his own hell; he was deep in hell. It was black and hot, filled with hatred, self-protection, anger and resentment, so much so that he was going to kill this man. Tears fill his eyes and he starts to cry and he puts his palms together and the roshi says, 'That's heaven.'
from "Awakening Loving-Kindness" by Pema Chodron pp 65-6
you don't have power over anyone else, well you should not. perhaps it works better to say you do not have power over anyone else's heart, only over your own. there is no way to avoid pain, but perhaps there are ways to heal. am i brave enough to try any of them out?
"There's another story that you may have read that has to do with what we call heaven and hell, life and death, good and bad. It's a story about how those things don't really exist except as a creation of our own minds. It goes like this: A big burly samurai comes to the wise man and says, 'Tell me the nature of heaven and hell.' And the roshi looks him in the face and says: 'Why should I tell a scruffy, disgusting, miserable slob like you?' The samurai starts to get purple in the face, his hair starts to stand up, but the roshi won't stop, he keeps saying, 'A miserable worm like you, do you think I should tell you anything?' Consumed by rage, the samurai draws his sword, and he's just about to cut off the head of the roshi. Then the roshi says, 'That's hell.' The samurai, who is in fact a sensitive person, instantly gets it, that he just created his own hell; he was deep in hell. It was black and hot, filled with hatred, self-protection, anger and resentment, so much so that he was going to kill this man. Tears fill his eyes and he starts to cry and he puts his palms together and the roshi says, 'That's heaven.'
from "Awakening Loving-Kindness" by Pema Chodron pp 65-6
you don't have power over anyone else, well you should not. perhaps it works better to say you do not have power over anyone else's heart, only over your own. there is no way to avoid pain, but perhaps there are ways to heal. am i brave enough to try any of them out?
Saturday, December 16, 2006
happy chanukah!
however you spell it, it is the festival of light, and we all need light in our lives. as we light our candles, the earth is going through its darkest days and longest nights. anything we can do to bring the light back is worth it.
some chanukah links:
the online menorah
judaism 101 by a conservative jew with a traditional perspective
and last but not least, dear old wikipedia
chag sameach.
some chanukah links:
the online menorah
judaism 101 by a conservative jew with a traditional perspective
and last but not least, dear old wikipedia
chag sameach.
quote of the day
reading the blogspot blog of tammy (aka recent mother of twins and partner of melissa e) gave me my first laugh for a while:
"My lesson for the day: don't pump and blog. Any leakage onto the keyboard makes the keys stick.
posted by Tammy, midwestern girl | 30.10.06"
"My lesson for the day: don't pump and blog. Any leakage onto the keyboard makes the keys stick.
posted by Tammy, midwestern girl | 30.10.06"
political correctness
this evening (my time :-) ), yahoo headlined a story about the most politically incorrect word of the year:
""Macaca" named most politically incorrect word
LOS ANGELES (Reuters)
The word "macaca," used by outgoing Republican Sen. George Allen (news, bio, voting record) of Virginia to describe a Democratic activist of Indian descent who was trailing his campaign, was named the most politically incorrect word of the year on Friday by Global Language Monitor, a nonprofit group that studies word usage.
"The word might have changed the political balance of the U.S. Senate, since Allen's utterance (an offensive slang term for Indians from the Sub-continent) surely impacted his election bid," said the group's head, Paul JJ Payack. Allen narrowly lost to Democrat James Webb in November, helping make it possible for the Democrats to capture control of the Senate.
In second place on this year's list was "Global Warming Denier," for someone who believes that climate change has moved from scientific theory to dogma. "There are now proposals that 'global warming deniers' be treated the same as 'Holocaust deniers: professional ostracism, belittlement, ridicule and, even, jail," Payack said.
In third was "Herstory" substituting for "History." Payack said there are nearly 900,000 Google citations for "Herstory," all based on a mistaken assumption that "history" is a sexist word.
"When Herodotus wrote the first history, the word meant simply an 'inquiry,"' he said.
In August, Global Language Monitor picked "truthiness" and "Wikiality" -- two words popularized by political satirist Stephen Colbert on his TV show "The Colbert Report"-- as the top television buzzwords of the year.
The group defined "truthiness" as used by Colbert as meaning "truth unencumbered by the facts." "Wikiality," derived from the user-compiled Wikipedia information Web site, was defined as "reality as determined by majority vote.""
not exactly sure how the reuters reporter is defining 'politically incorrect'. is it
a. a label that offends a minority or marginal group?
b. basically an insult?
c. a mistaken assumption?
i am, of course, utterly offended that the reporter is insulting my intelligence as a woman by refusing to recognise the wikiality of the use of 'herstory'!
""Macaca" named most politically incorrect word
LOS ANGELES (Reuters)
The word "macaca," used by outgoing Republican Sen. George Allen (news, bio, voting record) of Virginia to describe a Democratic activist of Indian descent who was trailing his campaign, was named the most politically incorrect word of the year on Friday by Global Language Monitor, a nonprofit group that studies word usage.
"The word might have changed the political balance of the U.S. Senate, since Allen's utterance (an offensive slang term for Indians from the Sub-continent) surely impacted his election bid," said the group's head, Paul JJ Payack. Allen narrowly lost to Democrat James Webb in November, helping make it possible for the Democrats to capture control of the Senate.
In second place on this year's list was "Global Warming Denier," for someone who believes that climate change has moved from scientific theory to dogma. "There are now proposals that 'global warming deniers' be treated the same as 'Holocaust deniers: professional ostracism, belittlement, ridicule and, even, jail," Payack said.
In third was "Herstory" substituting for "History." Payack said there are nearly 900,000 Google citations for "Herstory," all based on a mistaken assumption that "history" is a sexist word.
"When Herodotus wrote the first history, the word meant simply an 'inquiry,"' he said.
In August, Global Language Monitor picked "truthiness" and "Wikiality" -- two words popularized by political satirist Stephen Colbert on his TV show "The Colbert Report"-- as the top television buzzwords of the year.
The group defined "truthiness" as used by Colbert as meaning "truth unencumbered by the facts." "Wikiality," derived from the user-compiled Wikipedia information Web site, was defined as "reality as determined by majority vote.""
not exactly sure how the reuters reporter is defining 'politically incorrect'. is it
a. a label that offends a minority or marginal group?
b. basically an insult?
c. a mistaken assumption?
i am, of course, utterly offended that the reporter is insulting my intelligence as a woman by refusing to recognise the wikiality of the use of 'herstory'!
Friday, December 15, 2006
of that ilk
a last thought before midnight ... was reading an obit that mentioned an aristocrat named moncreiffe of that ilk. i've always wondered what that meant, so i looked it up:
""Of that Ilk" means "of that same place", i.e. it is a contraction of "Moncreiffe of Moncreiffe" (a common mistake is to assume it means "with the same name" or "of the same type")."
good old wiki-peeps :-)
so, not that it works with polish-jewish peasants, but my original ancestor from friedland might have been called 'friedland of that ilk'!
""Of that Ilk" means "of that same place", i.e. it is a contraction of "Moncreiffe of Moncreiffe" (a common mistake is to assume it means "with the same name" or "of the same type")."
good old wiki-peeps :-)
so, not that it works with polish-jewish peasants, but my original ancestor from friedland might have been called 'friedland of that ilk'!
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