Their Titles Are Masterful - IMHO

We tend to treat others the way we'd like to be treated. This can be a flawed approach. We all have our own inclinations, each as different from the other's as DNA.

Since my first parsha column in the Jewish Week I've been curious to read who else is writing. I feel it's kind of a club and I like to know who's in it.

One of the other writers is someone I've known for over twenty years, one of a small group of dear friends of a dear friend of mine. Another parsha author is also a friend of my friend, which prompted my friend to comment that the criterion to write that Jewish Week piece is to be his friend.

Another recent columnist is a brilliant very young man who directed me in a short movie he wrote. Another J.W. parsha author is an old friend and college mate who, once upon a time, I wrote alongside in the same Y.U. literary journal, and competed against in a speech contest.

They post the parsha essay early in the week. This week's is up. It's about the irony of Yitzchak's name as he didn't seem to be a man about laughter. It's an interesting piece and an interesting addition to the club, written by a man who has been written about by the Jewish Week in the past but - to the best of my research - has never before written for the paper.

Part of the gig of blogging is being self conscious. According to my statistics I get around a hundred hits a day. I push and pull around this. Do I want more readers? One of this things that increases "readership" is name dropping. Most often I allude to names but don't mention them, though now and then I do.

Though the post time for this says 11:59 PM, it's actually being written and posted much later than that - during a sleep intermission. To my mind, the very early A.M. hours belong more to the previous day than to the morning soon to dawn.

If you google anytime this Wednesday, November 4 (my nephew's birthday!), you will find their logo has Big Bird's feet in it. This is in honor of Sesame Street's birthday (which is on November 9). Feels like yesterday that I was arguing with a classmate over about the name of the brand new show. He insisted that it was pronounced see same street. Yes, yes, I remember it well.

In the eighties, when I spent a chunk of years learning in Israel, I wrote these lines, with which I'll close for now. I'd write it differently today, though I won't write now.

It's late at night, it's time for bed

The thoughts run wild inside my head

Perhaps one day these thoughts will thrive

If I'm not working nine to five.