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1. Robert Novack rates Reagan higher than most presidents. He said something about this that I think applies more broadly than just to the president. He said that Reagan understood that a president is not an administrative position but a position of leadership, and that it's not your job to micromanage but to inspire.

2. David Sedaris has a heart wrenching essay called A Plague of Tics. Did I mention that it was heart wrenching. It's heart wrench wrench wrench wrenching. Heart wrenching. It captures in a very powerful way what it was like for him to have these tics as a child. It sounds like Tourette's. But what's in a name?

3. Once upon a time a boy cheated on a test and was sent to the principal. The principal berated him. The boy went into his uncontrollable parade of tics (some said it was Tourette's). The principal then screamed at him - Oh, so you're going to start your twitching now!?!

4. I recently met a frum woman whose father is an avid reader of HaModia. He was thrilled recently when he opened to the middle where they have Gedolim pictures and exclaimed, "Look, Uncle X made it. He's in the centerfold!

5. The Tic Code is a good film with good music about a boy and a man with a common bond.

6. In his latest book Oliver Sachs writes about the power of music. One of the people he profiles is Clive Wearing. Recently WNYC had a segment featuring Clive's wife Sarah, and Dr. Sachs talking about Clive and how he forgot and forgets most everything. There seem to be two notable exceptions - music and love.

7. In Away From Her there is a powerful presentation of how certain memories run deeper than others and how painfully complex/simply beautiful that is.

8. Did you know there's been a National Association For Poetry Therapy Foundation (NAFTP) for the past 27 years. I discovered them in a session at the Federation's Bikur Cholim seminar.

9. "He stayed up all night wondering where the sun had gone. Then it dawned on him."

10. Get out or stay in
Either way he would not win
Time to learn to swim

(By Rabbi Neil Fleischmann)