67.03/ 1. Sara is absolutely correct: the ketuba is a pre-nup; the husband pledges a sum of money to the wife in event of divorce or death. 2. In addition, as an officiant, I *require* a pre-nup. Specifically the one from the RCA: theprenup.org
67.05/ After 7 #NFL weeks, I feel a lot better about this #Steelers team. We played terribly in our 3 losses against what turns out to be high quality opponents: CIN 5-2 & current 1 seed, LV 5-2 & 2 seed, GB 6-1 & 3 seed. #HereWeGo
67.06/ Hot #MLB take: the AL East & NL West were the monster divisions. The #Mets NL East was considered pathetic & people cried that LAD should've been the 2 seed etc. No. This year proves why winning the division is still the better and more accurate metric of relative quality.
67.07/ #NFL hot-take: the cheater-vs-cheater battle of who's better, Belichick or Brady, now seems to favor Brady based on how bad the Patriots look since he left. Except NE's kryptonite has always been having just ONE decent team in its division e.g. 2008, 2009 (the Jets!)
67.08/ NJGov declared a state of emergency today. Since #Ida laid waste in my community, I thought people would heed today's warning. Nope. Fragile machismo from the easily conned. Overheard: "Ida was a once-in-a-century storm so we can't have another one" wunderground.com/severe/us/nj/p…
67.09/ As a shomer Shabbas kid in public HS I needed to play catch-up on assignments, skip activities & be outright excluded from events/clubs/honors. My kids now have that experience in yeshiva in reverse. But they miss out b/c we follow dina d'malkhuta and believe in science.
67.11/ Dr. Taber is fun to read. Here's a great thread by her about the fragility of armed robot "dogs" filled with details from her experiences and some practical thought experiments about how they could break down. Hamavin-yavin.
67.12/ If I read this article right, this is a real-life D&D "river flowing through a sustained ecosystem" cave right on Earth. Watch out for mimics, trappers and piercers. The flumphs are fine, though. cntraveler.com/gallery/photos…
67.13/ The "chop" is obviously and laughably racist. Manfred is a bigot and/or a coward to say:
"The Native American community in that region is wholly supportive of the Braves program, including 'The Chop.' For me, that’s kind of the end of the story" theathletic.com/news/mlb-commi…
67.14/ I taught myself this trick many years ago & bequeathed it to my kids who've used it to great effect. Also works for micro-aggressive sarcasm. Basically, any real-life troll who just wants to see you squirm, respond to them straight and they scamper.
67.15/ Re: #Halloween halakha; while it's problematic to go around schnorring for candy - as with most Christian things it's avoda-zara for us, not for them - IMO it's a good idea to give out candy b/c of mishum eiva, darkhei shalom & hakhnasat orchim. cf. myjewishlearning.com/article/collec…
67.17/ OK, totally missed this Daily Show clip from 2000* about the difficulty of being a Sabbath observing public servant. The rigors of Torah U-Madda fully illustrated, as it were.
(* in my defense, that year I tried saving money by not having a TV)
67.20/ Weird JTwitter kerfuffle sparked by some goofy troll insisting that the 2nd plague, "tzefardeia," means "Spaniards" (see humorous rebuttal below)
Ironically, as I kid, I really did think the word came from "Tzarfat". It made sense: France... frogs.
67.23/ This story is stupefying, infuriating and I have no idea truly how these criminals got so far. I also plan to keep this story handy for a million halakhic and hashkafic uses. theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines…
67.24/ A sobering but I think essentially true point by Berger here. We need to change the system to make it more equitable and free. Until then, let's keep using whatever power we have to make life better for as many people as possible.
67.25/ Watching the #BlackWidow movie and it's more James Bond vibe than technicolor punch-fest. And I like both.
Ray Winstone as Dreykov is brilliant casting because he looks and acts like Harvey Weinstein and I hope that was the point. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Wid…
67.26/ I agree with this: take whatever we can get. Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good.
67.27/ It's getting creepily uncanny that every new quote I read from Chappelle's latest show is somehow more ugly and cruel than I expected. His hatred is violent. I'll bet, with some digging, we'll find some terrible acts in his past, not only words.
67.29/ Rushing around trying to finish cooking (grilling, yum) for Shabbas before the rain starts. Great news to end the week about the #VaccineForKids. What a bracha. #ShabbatShalom everyone.
97.02/ #ShavuaTov everyone. My wife texted from Israel that she got positive PCR test when she landed in Israel - one day before they rescinded that requirement! She's asymptomatic, thank God, but I just don't know how it could've been avoided b/c the 'rona is rampant y'all.
97.03/ It was in the 90s today and my downstairs A/C broke days ago and I can't get a guy here until Tuesday. I told them they can prioritize others because my upstairs A/C works, Thank God, so it's not a safety issue for us. But I wouldn't mind it getting fixed soon.
96.03/ It's really this simple. And b/c it's actually this simple, it's clear anti-voters don't understand citizenship & shared responsibility like I do.
They're like anti-vaxers that way. In this way too: both threaten all our lives when they opt out.
Me: "Talk to them, teach them, it's part of the role of parent. I do it all the time."
My kids: "Yes! He does! Please make him stop!"
Me, distributing handouts: "OK, on page 3, we have fieldnotes I took in '95..."
Kids: "Nooooo!"
95.03/ Hey, I think I got the @HowieRose trivia question for the first time today (Q: which Rolling Stones song mentions the Kentucky Derby. A: "Dead Flowers"). But I refuse to believe this is one of Howie's favorite songs. It's purposefully terrible, man. It's just awful.
94.02/ Health update: still no symptoms from my bout with COVID except for general irritability but it's impossible to know if it's different from my normal state. Isolation is lonely (big, if true) but my overall emotion is fear of making someone else sick. Dread is the worst.
94.03/ I see the #Mets won (this is a fun season so far, especially since I'm not the one getting hit by fastballs in the head) and the #NYR won and are ready for the playoffs. Best of all is post-#NFLDraft Sat. night when I get to see all the gifts my team gave me as a fan. #LGM
92.02/ This has been one of the busiest #CholHaMoed periods I've had in years. Many things are opening up again while I recognize the window may be closing again so we're doing errands (like getting drivers licenses, passports etc). I'm actually looking forward to yuntif to rest!
92.03/ This is very nice! #Disability accommodations are always a good thing. #LGM