People Are Strange When You're a Stranger

Happy Monday, everyone.

I decided to be low-key and not offer advice to people, etc.  But I just did it again, and I wished I held back.  But if I don't want to be a stranger.  And I think I have good info to share.  Who knows where things will lead.

So, I am going to still hold back a lot but offer up advice in a kind, happy, good way.  And know when to shut up.


Why I had a poster of Jim Morrison hanging in my college dorm room is beyond me.
It should have been Jerry Garcia.
At least this photo is a bit more modest than the famous bare-chested one of him.

   

Rashi Mincowicz, Of Blessed Memory and SITM

"Unimaginable heartache" is what my friend Rachel just told me when I mentioned the sudden passing last week of Rashi Mincowicz. z'l.  She was 37.  Married and a mother of 8 children.  It was a huge shock.  She was named for her grandmother who also passed away at the age of 37.  She ran a Chabad house.  I can't even get into what that means, but it's all good.  Clearly she had beautiful taste - look at this photo of her and her beautiful family.

But the style is just the surface.  She wrote a beautiful email to her family last year when her aunt passed away regarding how to deal with loss of a family member that has been shared with the public.  And it is very deep.  Way deeper than the beauty you see on the surface in the picture above.

Rashi lived in/near the town of Alpharetta, which is where Phish played numerous times.  So I recognized that right away.

Her children have no mama.
Such sadness.
Look at that sweet little baby next to her.

Do what you can and support them to help with household help.

Music isn't the thing we do when someone passes away in the Jewish tradition, but I am posting this anyway.   A lot of special people go to see Phish.  And they were all right near Rashi at the time in Alpharetta.  They play Silent in the Morning (SITM).  I don't know what the words mean exactly but it's a pretty tune.  So, I dedicate this to Rashi Mincowicz whose neshama (soul) should have an aliya in shamayim (have an honor in heaven) and continue to glow, sparkle, and offer "resounding echoes" of bracha (blessing) to her family.

Rainbow Hamentaschen? Go for it!

If you're a Jewish mama like me, you've seen these rainbow hamentaschen trending on Facebook these past few weeks.

From Kitchen Tested

What can I say?

Kids...there is NO.WAY.I.AM.GONNA.MAKE.THESE

The recipe itself as well as my friends who have ventured into this den of self-inflicted pain echo the same warning signs. They take time.  They aren't easy.  And that's all I need to conclude that they are not for me.  No ounce of Jewish mothering guilt will get me there.

I love to bake, but I dread the annual hamentaschen baking.  My mom didn't make them growing up, so I decided it would be a good thing to share with my kids.  But, yet again, I learn that my mother was a very smart person back then (she's still very smart).  Every year when the hamentaschen either open, ooze out their jam, make a sticky mess, or any combination thereof, I utter the same thing:

You Nasty Expletive  *@A#  %*^ three-cornered Eastern European Purim cookies.
You jerky Haman's pockets.
May there be an ugly curse on you, Haman's Ears.

So, while these rainbow hamentaschen look stunning, this year I will enjoy the hamentaschen that everyone else made from the shalach manos packages we receive.  And I will eat them with a smile.

Rock N Roll Resort Contest for a FREE VIP Weekend

This music festival coming up this April 4-6th in "The Mountains" (if you are Jewish and reading this and from the east coast  you know what mountains I am talking about.  To my Santa Monica SparklingSister, sorry to be so New Yorky!) called Rock N Roll Resort is having A CONTEST FOR A FREE VIP WEEKEND

Here is the Link

https://facebook.antavo.com/DOW/F/?oid=tI

Click on that to enter to win a free weekend for two.

And to all you Yidden, yes of course you recognize that town name of Kerhonkson!  You can betchyer bottom dollar that there's only one thing there that you would know of.  And that some smart person renamed the former Granit Hotel (didn't people just say "The Granit?"  Didn't Aunt Sherine used to go there?) as the Hudson Valley Resort and Spa hotel..  I never went there, but it was one of "those places in the mountains."

Actually it looks like you can go there for Pesach this year!

So, Nu, the real question is...for the winner of the Rock N Roll Resort, will you find a minyan and can they get me kosher food?!?  (I am sortof joking.  Sortof not.  Maybe so or maybe not. Was this the life I sought?)

)

Oh yeah, if I win, (Cuz , yeah you bet I entered this even though The Wolfman has his kung fu testing that Sunday and we really can't miss it but I would love to win this!) I will figure out the (kosher) food thing, the shul thing, and the convince the husband thing cuz it's something we won and you know how much live music makes me happy and it's something we love to enjoy together, and good thing the baby loves his mama and he will come along with us no worries there and by the way mom and dad if we win can the kids come to you for Shabbes that weekend?)

I hope I didn't just jinx our chances.

Relationship Building in the Age of Social Media...Simple Smiles and Good Times

Who else is fed up with Facebook friends?  People who you haven't seen in years, people you have never met, people who you danced with at a show once?  All those photos of dinners in Wine Country, at Disneyworld, on the ski slopes.  You weren't there.  These aren't real relationships.  They are virtual and fun, but these friends aren't calling you to find out if you got over the stomach flu.  Who makes phone calls anymore, anyway?  The voyeurism of Facebook, Twitter and other social media may be fun, but it's not a real deal live relationship.

Just the other day, Stango and I were chatting about the idea that it's time to cultivate REAL relationships.

Time to have real tea.

Time to stop texting, because you can't text an intonation.

Time to learn from the Green Bubbie!



Here's an oldie but a goodie about relationships.  Not very solid relationships, but they probably were solid at one point.  Such a classic newbie tune.  Reminds me of when I began to fall in love with my favorite band.  Good times.

Stuck in the Middle With Fill in the Blank

Thanks Bob Lefsetz for referencing this tune today.




Been wondering where I've been, eh?  (That's the Canadian eh)

Been trying to not really care about the little stuff.

There's a lot of little stuff out there.

At least the baby's clean, the boys are in the shower and Nistar is on her way home from gymnastics.  That's what matters in my tiny corner of the earth.  You don't need to care about any of that, but I do, and I'm glad.  The question is why in the world would I write this all on a blog?

No clue.

Baby Levi.  My Nova Scotian roots ain't too far away.

If Not Now, When?

It is lovely to see Pete Seeger quoting Rabbi Hillel's famous words.  There have been so many posts all week about Pete.  He was a giant.  I was grateful to have said to him directly:  "Thank you."


 

Thanks Pete Seeger.  We'll be seein' ya.

Pete Seeger at the Strawberry Festival in Beacon, NY June 2010  Photo by yours truly

I Must inquire, Mr. Salinger, can you still have fun?

Today is the 4th anniversary of J.D Salinger's death.  Us Jews call it a yahrtzeit.  Even though he wasn't Jewish, Salinger's father was.  Close enough.

You should watch the documentary about him.   You really should. I liked it.  Then again, I am no film critic.  I told a friend that I watched it; she said she heard it got bad reviews.  I don't care.  I liked seeing all the interviews.   I liked envisioning eating popcorn made with brewer's yeast with Jerry, which is what he did with one of his young girlfriends.  That would've been fun.  But then again that never would've happened cuz I wasn't a good writer.  As such, Salinger wouldn't have been terribly interested in me. 

Here is my own sweetness at the library last week.  I hope he and all of my kinderlach will love Salinger's many works.  And that they will read more than just Salinger (which is what I basically did in high school.  That and Cliff's Notes for the rest of the stuff).  And that they will be better writers than me.  

And why the blog title, you ask?  Cuz I was listening to Wilson from 12/31/91 today, a show I should have been at in Worcester when I was a college sophomore, just after the prime of my wannabe Salingeresque youth, but wasn't.  And boy is that Wilson so much fun.  The blog title comes from Wilson.  A lot of modern-day Holdens have enjoyed that one.  Please me have no regrets that one comes straight from my baby Levi's mouth.

Which leads me to the whole Wilson-Seattle football team thing that Trey got going.  I love these guys.

Here's a look at Wilson from last summer.  The very day when Levi, the sweetness above, was born.  Not like Trey knew that.  But hey, it's all connected.

Salinger's 4th Yahrtzeit Approaching

On January 27th to be exact.

Which is 1/27.

For those of you who have followed my antics here, you might recall my fondness for the number 127.

Here's one time I mention it.

Here's another, earlier, time I mention it.

It's a lucky number for my mother.
Her first name is Sarah.
127 is the age when our biblical matriarch Sarah passed away.
It's the number when you add up its digits gets to 10.
And who doesn't love a perfect 10.

So, why is it that I missed that Salinger passed away on 1/27?
Read about my fascination with Salinger books.

J.D. Salinger drawing that appeared on the cover of Time Magazine

I just finished watching the Salinger documentary from last year
All Americans should see this.
We all loved and love Catcher in the Rye.
You may think I am biased, since my college advisor and favorite professor, Stephen J. Whitfield, appears as a commentator in the film.
But I loved this movie even before I saw him in it.
No, I didn't know he was in it.

I do believe strongly that the sporadic release of Salinger's remaining works from 2015-2020, as noted by the film, will play a strong role in creating positive energy in the world.

It is a good thing!

There is no doubt in my mind that larger questions of religion and God existed for Salinger.  His Glass family practices a religion, after all.  Seymour commits suicide.  Salinger's father was Jewish and he helped to liberate the camps.  He served as a counterintelligence officer soon after the war.  He tried catching Nazis.  He married a former Nazi and soon divorced her.  I wish I could have had Jerry Salinger over for a shabbes dinner at our house.  I think he would have liked my challah.  I hope he would have had fun.  I just had some popcorn with brewer's yeast on it.  Good stuff.  But what about warm chocolate babka?  That would be good, too.

Forget about the music I love affecting so many Americans for the good.  (for the moment, at least!)

J.D. Salinger's books affected so many Americans for the good.

And, disturbingly, as noted in the film, they affected not just one but 3 Americans for the bad in their assassinations or attempted assassinations of famous people.   That concerns me but as Salinger said to his fans, he isn't a therapist.  He did good for the world by writing what he wrote.  And it will be so exciting to read the rest of his goods in the next decade.  The Glass and Caulfield families will finally rise to their fullest potentials in American literature.

I imagine little Suzy Greenberg, a girl who said she wants to be a sociologist but it was suggested she should get checked by a neurologist, must've read Catcher and related to Holden just as much as the next girl.


I loved reading about the Glass children (was it Franny or Zooey?) when we lived in New Haven, envisioning myself on the very platform I used to ascend when I commuted to Manhattan from there in 2003.

Thanks, Mr. Salinger.
This blog post comes from a good place and the best of intentions.
I only claim to be an ideas person who wants good in the world.