October 2012
2 posts
8 Ways to Boost Your Happiness, and Make Others...
These tips have been pasted to a bathroom mirror in my house for years, and it’s time they got a broader airing. I take no credit for them: They came from The Jewish Women’s Project for Ahavas Yisrael (Love of Israel). You don’t have to be Jewish to benefit from them!
1. Greet everyone with a smile. It makes the world a happier place.
2. Recognize your own virtues; love...
2 tags
My Little Garden
This photo, taken with my iPhone, doesn’t do justice to my little garden. It’s funny how everyone loves the soothing sounds of water softly tapping into a fountain, and my office is just to the right of the garden, so I can enjoy the sounds of the water falling, even when I am looking straight ahead at my messy desk.
Our garden needs some attention, and I am not the one to give it,...
August 2012
1 post
Queen of Comedy Phyllis Diller, RIP
Have you ever noticed how often great comedians live very long lives? Phyllis Diller, who passed away on August 20, was 95. George Burns and Bob Hope both reached the century mark before they went to their final rewards. Art Buchwald defied medical predictions and lived to write a book about being in hospice, finally passing away at 82 with a freshly published book to his credit. I could go on,...
July 2012
2 posts
3 tags
Chocolate Is Good For You -- Again
The good news about chocolate just keeps melting in. This week, the august European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) gave the nod to Barry Callebaut, the world’s largest chocolate manufacturer, allowing them to claim that cocoa flavanols are good for blood circulation. I wish I could fly to Zurich, the headquarters of Barry Callebaut, to offer my personal congratulations, and to ask for as many...
Shut Up and Parent →
My new column on MommaSaid.net, posted July 10 — enjoy!
June 2012
5 posts
Queen for a Day
I was blessed with some wonderful birthday presents the other day, including three orchids (those closest to me know how much I love them), a pair of earrings, and this fabulous mug that assumes I have more power in my little fiefdom — or would that be wifedom? — than I actually have. In any case, it was a birthday that really rocked! And my morning coffee tastes even better in this...
4 tags
Memo to Kids at Camp: I Love You, Now Stop Calling
In most ways I’m a classic Jewish mother. If I’m cold, I tell my kids to put on sweaters. I make chicken soup on Friday nights. (It’s good and good for you!) I worry more than I should. But I depart from the stereotypes in one significant way: I really am not interested in hearing from my kids every day when they are away at sleepaway camp.
And yet, they call. They call from the bus to tell me...
I Think, Therefore I'm Happy?
Here’s a powerful idea from Jewish tradition that I first heard many months ago from Rabbi Noach Orlowek, a renowned Jerusalem-based educator. In a talk he gave about true happiness versus false happiness, Rabbi Orlowek explained that the Hebrew letters that comprise the phrase “to think,” (machshava) are the same letters that comprise one of the words for happiness...
4 tags
Writing as Responsibility
I’ve cracked open my box of personalized note cards, the ones I usually enjoy using so much because I use them mostly as thank-you notes. Today, I am writing an apology note to a woman I care about and whom I accidentally hurt through my writing.
I was totally taken aback when I saw her this morning and realized she was upset with me. I had asked for her permission to quote her by name in...
2 tags
May 2012
5 posts
4 tags
At Least It's Not Fruitcake
No matter the occasion, from births to bar mitzvahs to deaths, we Jews always rush forward with food. Whether in celebration, commemoration, or bereavement, nothing says “Jewish” like food.
One of our lesser known, yet strange and intimidating foods is called cholent (CHO-lent). This is a traditional stew of meat, potatoes, beans, barley, and sometimes, kishke (a sausage casing stuffed with a...
4 tags
Irony alert: Nutty Pete Stark spokesperson for...
Truth is blissfully more entertaining than fiction. Today’s Exhibit A is that “Stark Raving” Pete Stark, a 19-term Democratic Congressman from Fremont, CA, whose history of reckless behavior, false accusations against colleagues, anti-Semitic remarks and generally loony behavior, has issued a Congressional proclamation in support of the National Day of Reason. This event is...
Occupy May Day!
So if May 1 is about workers’ rights, why are people claiming to celebrate it clogging the streets and keeping people from working? “They’re not going to take it anymore!” they say. Great! Let’s hope they stop taking government handouts and go get their own jobs.
Breaking News from 2011!
Headline seen earlier today on MSN TV: “Breaking News: Osama Bin Laden captured one year ago today.” Can’t wait for them to report that Saddam Hussein was found!
April 2012
2 posts
2 tags
"We used to march. Now we occupy."
Comic Jimmy Kimmel hit the podium running with laugh lines that mostly found their mark during the White House Correspondents Dinner last night. Warning the president that he was about to be gently skewered, Kimmel looked at him and said, “Cover your ears, if that’s physically possible.”
I was surprised that Kimmel read many of his lines, instead of performing sans script, but he was still a...
1 tag
Why humor now?
Next Sunday, May 6, is World Laughter Day, so in preparation, here’s a lovely quote:
“Humor is not a trick, not jokes. Humor is a presence in the world, like grace, and shines on everyone.” — Garrison Keillor
