"Good Yuntiv, My Son"

Simply loved this scene as a Gen X-er growing up.   Hollywoodized as it is, I loved it.   The cantorial chanting is pretty much authentic.

 May we all have a meaningful fast!  I'll take this opportunity to ask for all of your forgiveness and I will try to do better next year.

And here's the original with Al Jolson

Street Shofar NYC

Happy New Year - may it be filled with blessing, healthy, renewal, light, prosperity.

Yiddish Tunes. You read that right.

When you've got a resident Yiddish speaker and musician at your disposal (as if the world is clamoring for such a gem), what better way to spend a Labor Day Sunday than to upload some Yiddish tunes courtesy of our lovely Stango?

Since we're missing our khaverim at the Golus Festival at Yiddish Farm this weekend and just couldn't make it upstate, we dedicate these videos to them.

If you wanna get really fancy, check out the descriptions below each of these videos (on the YouTube page itself) for the transliterations and translations of the songs.

Let Our Salvation Come



Our Tune

Let there be songs to fill the air

This remains, in two words, and two words only:  timelessly classic.

My Very Own Blueberries for Sal AudioBook...on YouTube!

Something I have been wanting to do for a long time!

Listen to mama reading this classic.




Of course, my favorite books on record were produced by Weston Woods as a child.  I love love loved their imagery of the green pine trees as their logo.  I loved seeing all of those records stacked in the light wood record holder in the library, and flipping through them to see what titles they had that day.  We got great classics like "The Snowy Day" and "Whistle For Willie."  Later, Weston Woods went onto video and then DVD.    Unbeknownst to me that Weston Woods was headquartered only a few towns over from where I grew up.  I can still smell that musty dank smell in the children's room of our public library, reaching the high shelves on the kick stool.  I am so not surprised that Weston Woods is now owned by Scholastic.

Gwyneth Paltrow I am not, but I think my homegrown Blueberries for Sal is pretty darn good!

Melvin Kaminsky, Where Have you Been My Whole Life?

The guys in high school I hung out with loved it.

The guy I married loves it.
It is a great movie.
The guy I dated in college went to high school with Mel Brooks' son, Max.

So, as a supposed comedy fan, why did it take me so long to even watch some YouTube clips of the classic comedy "Blazing Saddles" let alone the film in its entirety?

Mel Brooks, I hope you're alive, well and kicking.
May you live till 120.

We were listening to his hilarious performance yesterday as a baby in "Free to Be You and Me" and I realized that I just haven't gotten around to seeing some of Mel's best work.

 What have I been doing the last 40 years exactly?

Goldiggers Jeans

Finally this commercial surfaced!  I had these and loved the little "gold" nuggets as the zipper pulls.  What kind of message this sent to us little girls I can only start to analyze now...

Anyway check out the girl twirling her baton in the beginning.  I had one of those I got as a party favor at my friend Nicole's sleepover party in 3rd grade.  These girls are exactly my age.  True nostalgia...




Any girl who had these in the late 70s and early 80s will surely love seeing this commercial again.  I remember the logo for the brand now that I am seeing it.  Apparantly the brand Jet Set was also a big jean company, but I don't remember that.  I just wanted Goldiggers like my friend Nicole had, and eventually I got them.  Thanks, Mom and Dad!

The Twins From France

The existence of two twenty-something French twins who happen to be both acrobat street performers and Chabad Lubavitch chassidim is not something I can make up!  Yaakov and Yisroel Gourion, who are known simply as "The Twins From France" are quite impressive and certainly not the image of a book-entrenched chassid that some people hold as the stereotype.

All you have to do is check them out.  Here is Yaakov Gourion's wedding last spring.

And here they are tasting wine.
Nice job on the traditional bottle dance.
Used as a dessert wine, their sponsor, Jeunesse, is a nice choice.  Otherwise I find this wine way too sweet.



And here's an insider's look at how they made their Twins playing cards, which reminds me of the times Mr. Roger's Neighborhood visited factories.




Yes, these guys are for real!

A far cry from the theatrics at Karma Wash...

Costco Frozen Yogurt a No Go...Ikea, Yes!

These days I have been hitting up all a lot of big box stores as part of my household maintenance.  Putting aside the fact that I shouldn't be eating frozen yogurt due to lactose intolerance, I recently succumbed to the temptation of this dessert I love so much.  That's what happens when you don't bring along a salad in the car.  And I gotta say, it reminded me so much that we live in a supersize country.

A few weeks ago I was at Ikea where you can get a frozen yogurt cone for $1.00.  I noted that the portion was pretty small, but it was satisfying and tasty.  Also, I realized that the portion itself was a fair size:  approximately 4 ounces.  Anyone who has done Weight Watchers knows that this is a proper portion size.  According to this website, the Ikea fro yo is 100 calories.  Got to hand it to the Swedes:  keep the portion normal, and it will satisfy.  I didn't feel like a glutton in the least.

Now jump today to Costco:  $1.35 plus tax for a ridiculous size cup of frozen yogurt.  I felt like my mother when I remarked to my sister Reba:  it could serve three people!  C'mon, look at this:

Costco frozen yogurt is a 12 ounce serving!

According to this blog, the portion is nearly 400 calories.  Whoa!  That is nuts.  Clearly not a portion according to Weight Watchers.  It just goes along with the rest of the Costco theme which is supersize everything and get it cheap.  I felt yucky sitting at the indoor umbrella table, watching people eat their huge pieces of pizza and huge sodas and greasy sausage sub sandwiches.  Of course, it is hard to throw away the portion you don't eat, and naturally I ended up eating almost the whole cup.

And for those of you wondering, don't ask about the kosher status.

Jonah Lehrer Resigns from New Yorker Magazine

We so much like Jonah Lehrer's writing in our house.  And now this.  Oy.

The story broke in Tablet Magazine just 10 minutes ago, and then was covered in the New York Times Media Decoder Blog.

Jonah Lehrer fabricated numerous quotations from Bob Dylan in his book "Imagine," which was published in March.  Flat out made them up.  Lied.  Panicked and just made stuff up.

from the New York Times, Nina Subin

And just minutes ago, David Remnick said in a statement:  "This is a terrifically sad situation, but, in the end, what is most important is the integrity of what we publish and what we stand for."

On these pages I doubt the quality of my own writing.  I know that at the current moment I couldn't write half a rat's tail that Jonah could offer up.  (Wait, does that expression even make any sense?).  I know a lot of folks don't even read what I have to write.   Yes, my writing is mediocre at best, and people don't even leave me comments.

I am more of an ideas and connectivity kind of a gal.

But I don't make stuff up here.

I feel sad for Mr. Lehrer.  I really do.