songbird's crazy world

interesting article on superstitions It always fascinates me how superstitions work, and why people believe.  This article explains the origins of thirteen superstitions. though honestly, I never knew about the Jewish superstition to always keep something in the oven.  Guess you learn new things every day. Don't Kiss a Mustachioed Man: The Origins of 13 Weird Superstitions   Monica Garske AOL News (Sept. 23) -- We're surrounded by superstitions every day -- don't walk under a ladder, don't step on a crack, avoid black cats -- but where do these beliefs come from and why do we follow them? More importantly, are superstitions the real deal or just real silly? British author Harry Oliver has just released in the U.S. " Black Cats & Four-Leaf Clovers " (Perigee), a book that explores the origins of superstitions and old wives' tales from around the world. Today, AOL News delves into 13 of Oliver's weirdest and wackiest superstitions and...

(cross posted at Midcentury Modern Moms ) With two kids in college I've become somewhat fluent in the language of financial aid -- FAFSA, Pell Grant, Stafford loan, PLUS loan, scholarship..... I was browsing the federal government website, I needed to make a payment on my Parent PLUS loan, when I opened the link to my "account history" and disocvered.... the government never forgets. There, in detail, were all of the student loans I'd taken out "back in the day" to finance my own education.  In those days we called them "Guaranteed Student Loans."  I borrowed money for each of the three years I was an undergraduate, and for each year I was in law school.  the maximum you could borrow for undergraduate education was $2,500 per year, and $5,000 per year for grad school, so my total amount borrowed was $22,500.    That covered a good deal of my tuition, room, board and expenses.  took me 10 years to pay it all back, and worth every penny....

So, OK, I watched the premier last week.  good to see Bob and Jillian again.  they started with an anti-obesity message. It's individuals this time around, not couples or friends or relatives.   the show staff  went to 7 different cities and in each city there were 3 people competing for 2 spots on the ranch.  Really couldn't get into who's who just yet.  but it's an interesting mix of characters. I'm thinking it's time to go back to Weight Watchers.  I'm feeling gross and disgusting.  And the next WW at Work cycle begins today.  Wish me luck.

So a group of us went to play Monster Golf. It's very much like any other game of miniature golf, except it's done indoors.   The course is laid out on a black carpet.  Everything is painted with fluorescent paint and the room is lit by black lights.The theme, of course, is "monsters". You enter through the cemetery gates: This box actually moves: And try hitting the ball when this beast is roaring at you: Jimmy Buffett's worst nightmare: And the scariest hole, the 18th:

Your thoughts? I like to hang out with friends as much as anyone, but I'm not wild about block parties. There have been several such parties in Drew's neighborhood this summer, including one last night.  They block off a portion of the street for the party, play their music  very loud, and create a parking nightmare for all the surrounding blocks.  I usually park my car in front of Drew's house when I'm there.  That is, unless there's a block party and someone took "my" spot.  (I'd love to park on his driveway -- there's room for two cars, but one of his house mates has a non-working vehicle semi-permannetly located on the driveway.) I wonder if any of these parties had a permit?

I occurs to me that I don't have anything definitive planned for this weekend, or the next, or the next.... Drew mentioned that he wants to try Monster Golf.   Apparently that's mini golf played indoors and in the dark.  reminds me of the moonlight bowling events we did back in the 80's.  We've got friends who are interested, so we're going to try to set something up.... but we don't have theater tickets or concert tickets or party plans or anything....that used to be my norm, when my kids were younger and I was car pool mom extrordinaire.  But that hasn't been the norm lately....gotta start planning!

The last Friday of every month is Denim Day at our office. Employees are permitted to wear jeans to work that day -- usually we're business casual -- if they donate to whatever charity the company is sponsoring that day. We've donated to the American Red Cross, the American Cancer Society, the Boys and Girls clubs of America....It's an easy way to raise money for worthy causes. So if you see me in my jeans today, I'm not playing hooky, I'm doing my part.

If I close my eyes I can hear Zero Mostel as Tevye, reciting the opening monologue of Fiddler on the Roof . Anyone who grew up Jewish in the 1960's knew all the words to all the songs of (as Harvey Fierstein calls it) "the sacred Fiddler ." It opened September 22, 1964 and ran for over 3,000 performances. I was fortunate to see the original production on Broadway, at the tail end of its run, in 1972.  I was 12 years old, and it was the first live musical I ever saw.  I went with my grandmother, who'd grown up in a shtetl and who once had dreams of being an actress in the Yiddish theater.  I've seen the movie, of course.  I own it on DVD, and I've got the soundtrack as well as cast albums from several productions in my CD collection. I was delighted to take my children to see the revival a few years ago, where Alfred Molia played Tevye.  (Becca walked out of the theater saying "I'm proud to be Jewish" -- mission accomplished!) Would have ...

(cross posted at Midcentury Modern Moms ) "...it's late September and I really should be back at school...." (five points to the person who recognizes that lyric) Well, it's that time of year again -- the time of year when every conversation with one of my daughters must always include the question "Mom, can you put money in my bank account?"  Yep, the National Bank of Mom is once again open for business. Jen has settled into the school year very nicely.  but that's to be expected, it's her junior year, and much of her school routine is old and familiar.  Her new adventure this year is living off campus and finally having a room of her own, one without a sister or roommate.  Of course, that means she has to cook for herslef (no more dining hall) and she has to leave herself time to get to class (no more rolling out of bed and into a classroom, it's a 20-minute drive to school).    She's completed most of her required core courses, thou...

A recent NaBloPoMo prompt asked the writer to imagine what they'd do if their electricity was out for a week. I don't have to imagine. It happened in January 1978.  I was a senior in high school.  One of my sisters was also in high school and the other two were in elementary school. We had a horrific ice storm, it knocked out power to our entire neighborhood.  No lights, no heat, no hot water.  And worse yet, unlike our neighbors, no fireplace.  A tree came through the roof of the den, taking part of the chimney with it, and blocking access to the fireplace.  (My mother always wanted a skylight in the den, and the tree obliged by coming through the roof  -- right where we'd put the skylight.) My youngest sisters were parked at a friend's house, one where they didn't lose electricity.  the rest of us, along with the cat and the dog, stayed in the house. Well, we spent a good deal of the daytime at the mall and eating at the diner.And vi...

My page for this year's event: http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/MakingStridesAgainstBreastCancer/MSABCFY11Eastern?px=7087350&pg=personal&fr_id=27996

Thinking about yesterday's blog post...and my summer job at the cosmetics company. 30 years later, I still remember all the details about my least-favorite job. How to asemble an eye shadow compact. The compacts were made by an outside company, we'd get the plastic shells with our company's logo and we'd have to put al the pieces together.  We'd have to glue in the mirror and the little tins of shadow and add the applicator brush, cover the shadow with a thin piece of clear plastic, add a sheet of foam to keep the mirrow from scratching and then add the label on the bottom. the compact would be wrapped in a liner and placed in a box (this was a department-store cosmetic, not one you can buy in a drugstore).  the box would be labellled.  several boxes would be placed in a larger box, and the larger boxes would be removed from the assembly line and placed in cartons on a pallet. the worst job on this line was cleaning the extra dust out of the compact.  ...

For me, it had to have been the summer I worked for a well-known cosmetics manufacturer. It wasn't a terrible job -- it had its pluses and minuses -- but it was a job that opened my eyes to the real world. My previous summer jobs had been just that -- jobs that were available only in the summer, where all of the employees were students planning to head back to school in the fall.   I'd worked in the playground program at a local park, and I'd worked as a general laborer at the beach.  the job at the cosmetics company was attractive because: (1) it paid better than the beach job; (2) the plant was open Monday - Friday, the beach job required me to work on weekends; and (3) "general laborer" at the beach meant I had to pick up garbage and clean restrooms (yuck!) -- though I would miss swimming in the ocean on my lunch break.  And working for the company gave me an opportunity to buy their products at a tremendous discount, not to mention the freebies they'd ...

Kol Nidre ... sung by the cantor on Yom Kippur eve, a prayer sung for hundreds of years, simple Aramaic words and a melody ... recorded by Perry Como and Johnny Mathis ...sung to perfection by Al Jolson inthe very first talking picture "The Jazz Singer" (and no, Neil Diamond's remake didn't do it justice)... A song to touch the Jewish heart and the Jewish soul...

I have many favorite authors.  I like classical literature and popular novels. Today I will talk abou t Nelson DeMille. I've read every novel he's ever written under his own name. My favorite book is By The Rivers of Babylon.  It's a bit dated, but it's a great book.  I love the whole Biblical link.  for a new reader, though, I'd start with Plum Island.   It's the first of the John Corey novels, you get to meet all of the characters that make up John Corey's world.  Back then, Corey had weaknesses that you don't see in the more recent novels.  I love Corey's sarcasm and his distain for fussy bureaucrats.  I love the mystery, the action sequences, the excitement of the story line.  And I love how DeMille works in real details of Long Island and New York City into John Corey's world.

and not in a good way. I work in Jersey City, right on the banks of the Hudson, right where the Hudson meets New York Harbor.  I left my office at 5...the sky was overcast and the wind was picking up.  It takes about 10 minutes to travel from Jersey City to the World Trade Center via the PATH train, and then there's one short block down Vesey Street to get to the E train -- the NYC subway.  By the time I got to the Trade Center, the sky had grown very dark, I could see lightning and there was a lot of thunder.  I was grateful that it wasn't raining yet, knew the rain would come soon, and hoped the rain would hold off until I was safely in the subway station.  felt the first drop of rain just as I was walking down the stairs.... Here's the story from the NY Daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/09/16/2010-09-16_fastmoving_storm_packing_tornado_conditions_tears_across_new_york_city_with_wind.html got on the subway, got a seat,  and ...

Though the painting that hangs in my room is a Van Gogh, I think one of my favorite painters is actually Chagall: I guess it's because Chagall and I share common heritage  -- he was Jewish, from Russia, as were my grandparents --  and his paintings speak to my roots.

(cross posted at Midcentury Modern Moms ) On Rosh Hashanah it is written, on Yom Kippur it is sealed. The High Holy Days are a period of introspection, of reflection and remembrance. Our tradition teaches that the Almighty writes each person's name in the Book of Life on Rosh Hashanah, and their fate is sealed on Yom Kippur. Who shall live and who shall die? One ceremony is called Tashlikh. We go to a body of water -- the sea, a river, a pond -- and cast bread upon the waters, symbolically casting our sins away. My synagogue is fortunate, our building is across the street from a small pond, so we always gather on the first day of Rosh Hashonah to perform this ceremony. My Aunt Bernice, who died last spring, loved to go with me to Tashlikh. So my thought this year was to have her in mind while performing the ritual, to think about her while reciting the prayers. Instead, I found myself looking at my neighbors' children, the kids who were laughing and giggling as ...

not a real uniform, like a police officer or a flight attendant or a mail carrier or the guy who sells you a Happy Meal. not a quasi-uniform, like a medical professional in scrubs. but some sort of "uniform" you've created for yourself, that you wear every day. for years, when I had to wear "business attire" instead of "business casual", I usually wore a skirt suit, but I tried not to wear the same style of suit every day, I'd wear a dress every now and then, and even ventured into pants suits when I didn't have to make a court appearance. I didn't want to look like I was wearing a uniform, I wanted to have a sense of style. there's a woman who works in my office building, I see her on the train periodically as well. Her "uniform" is an outfit she's put together. she has the same outfit in black, navy, brown, gray and dark green. it consists of a long skirt that ends just above her ankles, a matching jacket, wh...

Not as silly a question as it may sound. seems becca's roommate -- the one who went home -- is the girl who brought the microwave. Becca always used the microwave to boil water for her tea at home. didn't have a clue how to do it on the stove, like we did in the stone age.

Rabbi David Nesenoff gave a talk at our synagogue on September 4. You may remember him as the rabbi to whom Helen Thomas gave the infamous intervidew. He was charming, erudite and very very vocal in his opinion that the people of Israel and the land of Israel and eternally linked.  He spoke about the Thoams interview, his shock at what she had to say and the repercussions he's experienced because he posted the video and it went  viral.  He got over 25,000 pieces of hate mail, some of which he's posted on his website. Amazing and terribly sad that such a thing could happen here in America.

it's been nine years since that horrific day. Ground Zero is now a construction site, the new One World Trade Center a half-finished shell. subway and PATH train riders have to endure all that goes along with a massive construction project. and the tourist still come, of course. and the protesters. are you in favor of the Islamic community center or do you oppose the Ground Zero mosque? business as usual in NYC, I suppose. nine years ago today, who would have thought we'd be able to say "business as usual" in NYC?

So, what was the greatest work of art you ever created? I could say "my children", of course, but let's keep it to more conventional art projects. I am a muralist. Or, I was. At age 5. There was a huge white wall in our den.  My parents hand't hung any pictures on it, nor had they placed any furniture against it. It was just....there. And to two little girls, aged 5 and 4 (my sister), it looked like a blank canvas. So we drew on it. An entire city. We covered every portion of the wall we could reach. Needless to say, my mother was underwhelmed by our artistic endeavors.

Loved The Switch . nice little romantic comedy.  I thought there was great chemistry between Jason Batemean and Jennifer Aniston.  it's not laugh-out-loud funny, but there are many humerous moments.cute and quirly movie.  the best scene was when he had the magazine with Diane Sawyer's picture on the cover....and that it's set in NYC always helps....defninitely worth seeing. On the other hand, Eat, Pray, Love was boring.  I like Julia Roberts, but the storyline....the movie takes her from New York to Italy, India and Bali.  Liked the New York portion, loved Italy but started to fall asleep in India and didn't really the last part of the movie.I won't be looking for this one on HBO.

(cross posted at Midcentury Modern Moms )  It's going to be a weird holiday. As a divorced parent I am used to split holidays,  my children periodically absent from my family table. But this is different.   This isn't about custody and visitation and all that goes with it. First, let's talk about Becca. She's living in a dorm now, and she's a freshman, so she feels she can't miss class.  She'll be home for Rosh HaShanah dinner -- she can either come home by train, and she can catch a ride back to the dorm with my sister who lives in Queens.    So she won't be sleeping in her own bed, she'll be leaving at the end of the evening.  I can live with that, I suppose. But Jen....well, in previous years she'd come home for the holiday, make arrangements with her professors to make up the work she'd miss in order to celebrate the holiday. But today is the very first day of classes at her school.  "Mom, I can't miss the fi...

Did the prompt suggest short rides, like the ride from my house to the place where my wedding was held?  Or did it suggest longer rides, like road trips. I remember, when I was a little girl, the drive from my parents' house on Long Island to my grandmother's apartment in Queens.  There was a place in Queens, right off the Long Island Expressway....well, the 1964-1965 Word's Fair had very unusual street lights throughout the park, and when the Fair was over, a number of the light poles -- with their distinctive orange and blue lights -- wound up in a lot on the service road to the expressway.  We rarely drove past Flushing Meadow Park (where the Unisphere and a few other remnants of the Fair still stand), so those lights were like a last reminder of the good times we'd had at the Fair. My grandmother used to rent a bungalow in the Catskill Mountains every summer.  When we'd drive up there to visit, we'd always stop at the Red Apple Rest Stop.  And before we ...

"Don't worry Mom ... you and daddy don't have to help me move into my house ...I'll just put everything in my car and go there myself. You don't have to drive back and forth to Rhode Island on Labor. Day. " So guess where we were today? At least we got to meet housemates and their parents. Thank goodness for Drew's van.

I'm actually reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and through the Looking Glass .  We've all seent eh classic disney movie, we've all seen Johnny Depp take on the role of the Mad Hatter, we've all see references to the White Rabbit and the Red Queen and the White Queen....but how many people have actually read the Lewis Carroll novels? The original work is amazing....

I've got my materials for this year's walk. Didn't go last year due to bad weather, and other issues.  Went a few times when Jen was a cheerleader -- her whole team walked.  and I took Becca a few times when she needed credit for Key Club. guess I have to go register on line and set up my donations page....

You will all recall how I went to the Jimmy Buffett concert  at Madison Square Garden last November.  OMG, Jimmy turned the Garden into a huge beach party!  Well, imagine my joy when Jimmy announced a concert at the Jones Beach theater.  (He plays there every year, but since I've only recently become a Parrothead I was a bit oblivious...) the Jones Beach Theater  is in the middle of Jones Beach State Park.  The park itself is on a barrier beach island, separated from the Long Island "mainland".  The outdoor theater is located on Zack's Bay -- literally.  The platform for the stage sits in the water of the bay, and the audience gets to see water on either side of the stage.  As Wiki explains, [t]he original design of the theater had a "moat" — the stage was actually on Zack's Bay and separated from the beach, and performers could be brought to the stage by boat (some scenes had floating scenery). The moat was covered or filled in during th...

she's been there a whole week and she's loving every minute of it.  loves her classes, loves the dorm, loves being in NYC. and her dorm situation has improved considerably. unfortunately, that's because someone else wasn't loving college, wasn't loving her classes, wasn't loving the dorm and wasn't loving NYC.  the young lady packed up her bags and went home. after less than a week. so Becca's rom is no longer a "forced triple".  there are now two girls in a room designed for two.  I don't know yet whether Becca and her remaining roommate will keep the extra furniture. there are still 7 of them in the apartment, but things will be easier for all of them now.

Art…well, that’s certainly a broad category. We’ve all had exposure to art in school. The first day of school – be it kindergarten, pre-k or whatever – you’re asked to take out your crayons, or you’re given some sort of craft project (usually involving copious amounts of Elmer’s glue) or you’re donning a smock (your father’s old shirt?) so you can do something with paint. A classic project is a child’s handprint in plaster, painted gold and handed to mom as a present…. I was fortunate to attend a public school system that was very strong on art, we had regular art classes throughout elementary school and junior high. And I spent many a summer in the arts and crafts shed in day camp. I remember drawing and painting, sculpting with clay, working with beads…so many interesting things. The classes in junior high also gave us some exposure to art history. Great painters – Rembrandt, Picasso, Monet. Wish I’d gone further with that, I would have loved to have taken art history in co...

you remember my story about the red ribbon ?  it's supposed to ward off the evil eye.  I think I'm going to wrap Jen in a dozen red ribbons. actually, the bracelet I bought when I was into kabbala -- the silver one with the Jewish star charm and the red ribbon woven into the links -- should suffice. as if two car accidents, a cyst on her eye that came thisclose to needing surgery, horrible mosquito bites during the overnight at camp and an infestation of lice weren't bad enough.... the poor kid now has strep throat.

(cross posted at Midcentury Modern Moms ) Becca moved into her dorm last Friday.  It was chaotic and emotional.  But I knew it would be. When Jen moved into her dorm freshman year, she had me, her father (my ex) and Becca to help her. Her school is in New England, about a 4 hour drive away from our  home on Long Island.  but Becca goes to school in Manhattan, so she had an entire entourage --her father, her sister, three aunts, a family freind and her mother (me) -- to help her move in.   And she brought enough "stuff" to outfie the whole dorm, I think.  Her first full day of college life was spent in a volunteer program, a group of students went to Harlem to plant a garden.  then they had a "cultural experience" in chinatown, visiting a Buddhist Temple and eating dim sum in Chinatown. The students who did not participate in the volunteer program moved into the dorm Sunday.  When I spoke to Becca she was gushing aobut h...