GNAMGB

On Shabbos the mom of the house asked the table to say their favorite/what they considered most important of the asseret hadibrot. Her second grader son said kibbud av va'em. When asked to explain, he said that if not for that then kids would eat giant whole bags of candy and get really sick. Reaffirms my belief that kids and adults too like not being able to do whatever they want. Freedom must include rules. As Wynton Marsalis says, "There's no freedom in freedom, there's only freedom in structure."

The Beach Boys, last night at the Grammys did their biggest selling song ever, according to what I read. It was also a song that cause great contention within the group. Brian Wilson experimented in this song by using a different sound, which included the unusual instrument - the electro-theremin. A fight in the group ensued about whether they should break from a formula of song style that had worked for them till this point. Go know.

The story is well known: Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski had a guest at his Shabbos table who knocked over a cup of wine. Rav Cham Ozer knocked over his cup and said, "Hmm, it must be a shaky table." Everyone tells this story and makes light of it (a friend of mine's father jokes that the carpenter who made the table was also a guest that Shabbos and was offended) and yet I think we undersell it. The natural reaction of most people when someone else drops their cup is to hold theirs more tightly or move it from the edge of the table.

Tiredness is a world all its own, a whirlwind that has led up to the moment when you simply must sleep. That moment has come. Good night and may G-d bless.