kochleffel

A Purim Carnival is a typical event in Jewish schools. I once ran one in a school where fishing for live goldfish (with a net) was an activity, and any child who caught one got to keep it. One mother approached me that morning to say that her children were absolutely not allowed to win any goldfish. They weren't very hard to catch, and her children had brought some home in prior years. They still had all of them and they were growing larger and larger. The last time I set up a fishing game, it was with plastic fish that floated in a tub and could be caught with a magnetic lure. The kids didn't get to keep those.

For dinner I'm making a casserole of quinoa, cremini mushrooms, and shallots. It's "not quite tricolor" quinoa from Misfits: there is a standard formula for tricolor quinoa and this batch has the proportion of colors wrong. At a glance it appears to have too much black quinoa and not enough red.

I would have preferred not to be reminded of either chocolate chips or sliders today. I would probably like Tzatziki Chicken if it were served to me, but I couldn't make it at home except with vegan yogurt (or vegan chicken, I suppose). Yet another pineapple drink! I don't think the wine will be on my shopping list and I haven't been to Port Arthur. The National Woman Suffrage Association was one of two organizations resulting from the split of an earlier organization that stemmed from the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, north of here, in 1848. The northern Finger Lakes and Rochester were a hotbed of radicalism in the 19th century. Lucy Stone led the other organization, which favored a more gradual approach. Seneca Falls is also said to have been the model for "Bedford Falls" in It's a Wonderful Life.

I want to share the email that a certain vendor of kosher meat sent out yesterday. Forgot to buy her flowers? Get her something she'll love even more! Flowers are nice, but we all know what moms really want: Dinner done in 20 minutes with zero mess. We can make that happen with our marinated and seasoned meats. Save Mother's Day by ordering a week's worth of dinners today!

Nutmeg, possibly the only cat that a cocktail has been named after, has died. Nutmeg was one of the resident, semi-feral cats at the Disney park in Anaheim. Disney may have been started by a mouse, but that’s no matter to the dozens — maybe hundreds — of cats that roam the company’s signature parks each night in search of errant rodents. https://wapo.st/3BmJh26

Unable to celebrate Mother's Day, but here is a picture of my mother. Also unable to bond with a dog, don't want to dance like a chicken. Generally in favor of decency but not so much of the National Legion of Decency. Even paranoiacs can have enemies. No ham-and-anything will be in my plans, so I'd choose Roy's alternative. Actual dinner will likely be a pasta casserole using the remaining pizza sauce. I'm not from Wisconsin, but I think that an Old Fashioned should be made with brandy. Would try the wine. Haven't been to Greenland. I taught Hebrew this morning and will be going to Wegmans later.

Birth mothers deserve recognition although we need to understand that not all want it to be public. Jumping frogs are OK as long as they jump somewhere other than here. To my mind, frogs are a Biblical plague. I like hummus but, oddly, most of the local Jewish community does not. It seems to me that time is more often portrayed as man, i.e. Father Time. Dinner tonight will probably be garlic naan pizza and I could add herbs, but not steak. The cocktail sounds awful. The wine is probably OK. I haven't been to Brazil, but what else is new? The wedding was great. Here's a picture. This is when they were exchanging the equivalent of wedding vows. In a traditional Jewish ceremony, the groom would say to the bride (in Hebrew) "You are consecrated to me according to the law of Moses and Israel," but the bride would say nothing, just accept the ring or any other object of value; in a modern ceremony, the bride might reply "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine," a quotation from the Song of Songs. A same-sex wedding now uses a different formulation, "I consecrate myself to you," which I think should be standard for everyone. Their only attendant was another of my students, a woman in her 70s who carried flowers and the rings. The job of the witnesses is done before the ceremony, where the couple symbolically indicate their acceptance of the wedding document, which only the witnesses actually sign. And here's a photo from the Bar Mitzvah ceremony this morning, during the reading of Torah. In another respect, these were sad occasions, because one of them is moving to a new job, as head of food service at a large Jewish camp in California, next week. The other is staying for a while to sell their house and complete the period of notice in his job. They did not bring Davinci and Mona Lisa to the synagogue, nor did they bring their dogs. This is in contrast to an infamous bar mitzvah service about ten years ago when an eccentric relative brought a small dog (not a service dog) in a tote bag. The young person's mother prayed fervently during that service, mostly that the dog would not bark.

Well, it turns out that the unveiling is next week. That allowed me to shop (successfully) at Aldi and (unsuccessfully) at Rite-Aid: no cashier. Now I'm waiting for the "between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m." fridge pickup, and trying to get three loads of laundry done. ... Fridge is gone.

I disagree with the last part of the quotation. The meal suggestion is one that I have occasionally. You don't have to make it with real vegans. I would be willing to try the cocktail but doubt that I could obtain the essential ingredient. The selection of flavored rums available here is small. Would probably like the wine. Haven't been to Cyprus. Rather full day coming up. Unveiling in the cemetery at 11:00, lunch at the synagogue if I have time, but I have to be home for refrigerator pickup "between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m." For the pickup I had to get a grounding adapter because the fridge has to be plugged in and working, and the outlets near its temporary location aren't grounding, even though the entire house is wired with Romex. After the fridge pickup, Aldi if there is time. Then the wedding--I'm to be one of the witnesses--and the evening service in the synagogue. There will be champagne, which in my book would be reason to go even if I didn't know the couple and they weren't giving me Davinci and Mona Lisa.

Make a Book Day? Like "become a bookmaker?" I would avoid the soup, but dinner tonight is naan pizza because it seemed to be the best thing to do with garlic naan. I might like the drink but I still think it's a waste of good Bourbon. The wine would be OK if it were available here, which is unlikely. I haven't been to Santarem. My main accomplishments today have been getting a haircut for myself, and giving the lawn one before I get a nastygram from Code Enforcement. For a while there was a person on this block who called Code Enforcement every day about something, and when she got no satisfaction from them, often called the police, who took even less interest. I think she really wanted there to be an HOA with herself in charge of it. I also shopped at Wegmans and found the cardboardeaux that I bought last week and put in a safe place, the location of which I immediately forgot.

I prefer the default size.

During one of my Alaska ferry trips, the purser announced that we would be encountering some very rough water and anyone who needed to take medication should do so right away. There was also an announcement that passengers who wanted to be in another place on the ship during the next hour should go there and stay there.

Davinci and Mona Lisa will be coming to me in a couple of weeks. The M&G wasn't a total success--they're afraid of strangers--but they didn't hiss or try to claw or bite me, so it will be OK.

It was because of a school nurse that I got glasses before my nearsightedness became so acute that I couldn't see anything. I wouldn't mind spinach tortellini but you can keep the latest pseudotini. The wine would be OK. Malaga is in my itinerary for the fall. Executive committee meeting last night and this time they asked me to stay while they discussed the (so far unsuccessful) search for someone to succeed me. The posting cover too many unrelated duties and wants full-time work for a half-time salary.

I find that missing socks often turn up later, typically in the sleeve of a shirt. I like twice-baked white potatoes but I'm not sure about sweet potatoes. No on the cocktail. Yes on the wine if someone else is paying for it. I haven't been to Indonesia, but I have been to Bletchley Park. I wouldn't have known that they were the same dog, or even the same breed. What is the preferred length for his fur? I've learned a little more about the littermates. They were adopted at different times: my friends chose one, and went back to the shelter weeks or months later for the other. I hope that I will actually get to meet them on Wednesday, given that they hide when anyone comes to the door. Fergus and Sasha did the same thing, although Fergus would come out if, and only if, he sensed that a guest was afraid of cats.

I may be receiving a bonded pair of cats, although not any of those from the shelters. Do you remember my adult student who is having a Jewish wedding on Friday and a Bar Mitzvah on Saturday? The following week he moves to California for a new job. He and his husband have a number of pets and could not find a place to rent where they could have all of them. Among their menagerie are two cats who are littermates, and I'm going to meet them (the cats, I mean) on Wednesday.

Bearded iris is not yet blooming here. Is Truman Day about Harry S, or someone else? The meal suggestion would only be OK for me in the broth version, and I have improvised something like it. I'd prefer to make the cocktail with gin. I'll be ready for the wine at about 6:30 p.m. Have not been to Fort-de-France. I'm still waking up too early, but this morning I was able to get back to sleep. I'm trying to avoid knowing anything about the search for someone to replace me, but the grapevine says that (a) the job posting is written so that no sane person would apply, (b) no sane person did apply, and (c) they are offering a half-time salary for full-time work.

I used to have a morning newspaper delivered (at home, I mean) partly so that I could check it to be sure what day it was.

It's also the state flower of Ohio.

The car in the 1960s film The Love Bug was named Herbie. I don't love macaroni and cheese even when made with low-lactose ingredients, and it is hard for me to imagine making it in a slow cooker. The steak restaurant on NCL offers it as a side with steaks, and I am incredulous when people order it as to my mind they don't go together at all. I'll skip the newest fake martinia and I don't really like Malbec. And I haven't been to Moreton Island, but you could have guessed that. This morning at the synagogue several people were absent, having told us that they were getting up in the middle of the night to watch the Coronation and would go back to bed after it. In honor of the occasion we sang several of the prayers to the musical settings most often used in British synagogues, only some of which are regularly sung in the U.S. We didn't try to fit any of the prayers to British patriotic songs, as we do with U.S. patriotic songs for the Fourth of July. We also had a lunch, not in honor of King Charles, but for our former rabbinic intern, who has moved to the North Country. He's still some way from ordination, but is a licensed surveyor and took a job with local government there. The lunch was unbalanced (no coronation quiche or coronation chicken) and my blood sugar plummeted around 5:00 p.m., just as I was starting to prepare dinner (veg burger, orange and purple cauliflower, fruit and kefir).

To my surprise, the refrigerator arrived on time this morning. I needed help to get the cabinet down, and the fridge arrived before the handyman did, so it was rather crowded in the kitchen for most of the day, with the new fridge a foot out from the wall and the old one right in the middle of everything.

My mother said often that she would never vote for a divorced man for president of the U.S. In her view, if a marriage failed, the husband was always at fault, and presumed to be dishonest at best, with worse possibilities left unspoken. For a frame of reference, if my mother were alive now, she would be 111 years old, and with a rural upbringing, her attitudes were Victorian. On the other hand, she thought of the Edward-Wallis story as one of the great romances of all time. I don't think that their carryings-on were widely known over here, and my mother didn't read the gossip columns, so she didn't know much about the hijinks of movie stars, either. FDR's relationships with Lucy Mercer--who was at his side when he died--and Missy LeHand (probably only an emotional connection) were not mentioned at all during his lifetime. Neither was his paralysis.

Many on this side of the pond love the pageantry, too, even if we aren't going to pledge loyalty to the Crown. I noticed that your menu didn't include the coronation quiche. Several food writers have said that the recipe wouldn't work, and one over here has published an adaptation that she says does work: https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2023/05/02/coronation-quiche-spinach-eggs/.

Graham, that's what I thought! I've also read that the Houses of Commons and Lords would probably have accepted his marriage to Mrs. Simpson, but there was greater opposition from other Commonwealth countries.

Yesterday on social media I saw a long, angry post inveighing against celebrating Cinco de Mayo. The post stated that it's not the Mexican independence day, is not celebrated at all in most of Mexico, is not a legal holiday except in the state of Puebla, you name it, and was especially vitriolic about people who use it as an excuse to eat tacos and drink beer. As if eating tacos and drinking beer required an excuse at any time. However, May 5 was Addison's and Fergus's birthday, and when we lived in Los Angeles they loved it that the entire city had a party for them. In Connecticut the term for that kind of sandwich is "grinder." I'd be OK with the salmon, would skip the cocktail, don't know what the wine is, and haven't been to Rio de Janeiro.