Mixed Bag

I wish the media wouldn't refer to "The Shoe Bomber" that way. It makes it sound cute or like a joke. They should call him a man who attempted to blow up a plane. Somehow the shoe thing obscures how serious that attack could have been - G-d forbid. (There's a cover story about him in today's Daily News.)

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I like a certain rare type of talk radio. I can't stand the political variety, which is most popular. There have been a few talk people that I've liked over the years. It started in my childhood with Jean Shepherd. It wasn't a kid's show but I got the idea.

During what was probably not a high point in his career for him, I very much enjoyed listening to Tom Snyder's late night radio show in the end of the eighties/early nineties. He was a great shmoozer and entertainer. On more than one level he struck me as one of the good ones. And now he is gone.

From David Hinckley's column in today's Daily News, which sounds spot on to me: "Reading stories out loud, that's basically what I do," he said of his anchor work, which included stints in Philadelphia, Cleveland, L.A, and N.Y. (twice). "And if I may be immodest, there aren't too many of us who can do this well."


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Atah Bechartanu

Oh to be chosen
Loved, desired, lifted up
Thank G-d for all this


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I am sorting through papers and just came across a piece with some notes from graduation. I believe nothing happens by accident so before I toss the paper I will save its contents here. The key note speaker (always a graduate's parent) this year was Mr. Liberman, who presented key points for life that he had a student on each side hold up on a placard and then had the 160 graduates sitting behind him stadium style all repeat. One of the sayings was "With Discipline We Always Win." Another motto was, "I Will Fill My World With Cheers And Never With Jeers." The final quote - the one that he had the students repeat three times and point at their parents while they shouted it - was "I Owe It All To You!"


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Today is J.K. Rowling's birthday. She was born in 1966, so she's 41. She's believed to be the first writer to become a billionaire. She got the idea for the book looking out at a cow field from a train and mapped the main characters before the train ride ended.


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Garisson Keilor just read the following poem aloud on The Writer's Almanac:

Vacuuming Spiders
By Charles Goodrich

I admire their geometrical patience,
the tidy way they wrap up leftovers,
their willingness to be the earth's
most diligent consumers of small bitternesses.
Sometimes at night I hear them
casting silk threads, clicking their spinnerets,
plucking their webs like blind Irish harpists.
I can almost taste the fruit of the fly
like sucking the pulp from a grape.
But when their webs on the ceiling
begin to converge, and the floor
glitters with shards of insect wings
I drag out the vacuum
and poke its terrible snout under the sofa,
behind the radio—everywhere,
for this is the home of a human being
and I must act like one
or the whole picture goes haywire.


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Drew Weston is being interviewed by Tom Barone on Bloomberg Radio as I try to keep house.
Weston wrote a book and pursuant to that tome he's on the air discussing the role of emotions and storytelling in politics. This has been of interest to me since I was a kid. Who are these people? One of the fascinating things to me about West Wing and the acting of Martin Sheen is that the president seems just a little crazy to me. To run for president you have to have something in you that's a little different, I think. But that's not what these guys are talking about. The author works for democrats and bemoans the fact that he sees republicans telling more dark stories about Democratic characters than the other way around. The host is trying to steer the conversation to a more general place. Who are the candidates and how do they rate as storytellers? Obama describes himself as a hopeful skinny kid with a funny name. But more heartfelt than that is Jon Edwards. He speaks without notes and that seems personal. Also, he talks a lot about the poor people - those who don't have deep pockets to help him, which makes him seem sincere. Clinton seems to be learning how to connect, but it seems less natural. Giuliani, in the Republican side, is all about stories. He's typical for Republicans - says Weston -good at /storytelling.


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1 - Who are the only 2 people in Tanach about whom it says Vayedaber X et divrei hashira hazot?
2 - Who named a city after his son, and what was the city's/son's name?
3 - What kind of Eshkol did Avraham and Moshe each deal with?
4 - Who in Tanach asked whom Mi Hu Zeh VeEi Zeh Hu?
5 - a. Who said to who - Linu Poh HaLailah? B. Who said VeLinu VeRachatzu Ragleichem?