songbird's crazy world

 

 Before I get to today’s theme … Neil Sedaka passed away on Friday.  Drew and I were real fans.  Drew and Sedaka share Sephardic Jewish heritage.  It’s a “six degrees of separation “ situation —  Sedaka’s cousin was another famous singer, Eydie Gorme.  Eydie was also Drew’s mother’s cousin.  Drew isn’t actually related to Sedaka, but he does feel a kinship of sorts.  We had the pleasure of seeing Sedaka in concert in July 2012.    At the time I wrote: Sedaka was amazing.   He sang songs from his first career, 1958-1963.  He sang songs from his second career in the 1970's.  He sang songs he wrote for other singers. He did ballads and rock n roll.  He sang a salsa piece he just wrote.  He did classical music.  And he brought down the house with "My Yiddishe Mama" - in Yiddish. Great concert. So here are a few of his best:    Tzedakah is a foundational Jewish commandment mandating justice and ri...

The ancient kingdom of Persia looms large in Jewish scripture.  The Bible tells us two important tales, First we read about the Babylonian exile, circa 586-538 BCE, when Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon’s  Temple, but then Cyrus the Great of Persia defeated Babylon and allowed the Jews to return to Israel and rebuild the Temple. Next we read the Book of Esther.  Esther was the Jewish girl who married the king of Persia.  Esther and her Uncle Mordechai  defeated the wicked vizier Haman and saved the Jews of Persia from certain death. Tomorrow is the Fast of Esther, the precursor to Tuesday’s holiday, Purim.  On Purim Jews celebrate Esther’s victory and Haman’s defeat. The ancient country of Persia is the modern nation of Iran. Yesterday the US and Israel bombed Iran. Virtually all of the leaders of the evil regime are dead.  Our leaders claim we have freed the people of Iran.   I don’t know if that is true …  I hope they have ...

 A small piece of good news.  My missing garden flag turned up.  As I suspected, it was buried in the snow.  So when the temperature rose to 40°F and the snow began to melt, my flag turned up. What else is buried under all that white stuff?  I guess we’ll find out … eventually. The TV meteorologist is saying we might get more snow next week. Or maybe we’ll get rain …and flooding. Yes, that was me spreading ice melt on the driveway.  One fall on the driveway was one fall too many. There’s a ginger cat living in my neighborhood, I’ve seen him on my Ring cameras, walking through my yard as if he owned the place.  I’ve posted some of the videos.  I thought he belonged to someone, but I was mistaken. One of my neighbors told me that “everyone” feeds the poor thing.  He’s certainly not starving. But it’s cold outside. Here is the most recent video. He was crying at my door.  If I had known …  Sigh. There was a pond near my parents’ house ...

  Farewell, Amanda Welcome to  Saturday: 9 . What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme!  Saturday 9: Farewell, Amanda (1949) Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it  here .     1) The record begins with a long instrumental interlude, and when the lyrics kick in at about the 1:00 mark, they bid Amanda "farewell, adios, addio, adieu." Of course you recognize "farewell" as English. Without looking it up, can you identify the other languages? Spanish, Italian and French,   2) Can you say "goodbye" in a language not represented in question #1? Shalom,  L’hitrao...

 So the Olympics are over, and suddenly all our favorite network shows are back. Matlock. Elsbeth. Law & Order. Ghosts. Happy’s Place. And we still have all the shows we’re streaming, Dr. Who.  The Pitt. Star Trek. Not to mention, baseball is back. And considering we are expecting more snow next week.  When will it be spring?