My assessment of the Apple Watch—get it for this singular feature: its ability to ping your phone—sold both my neighbor Betsy and my mom on getting theirs. Betsy and I are doing facetime. We are co-sleuthing with Google: How to get notifications on an iPhone and iWatch simultaneously. I read, step by step, as Betsy […]
After hearing the cycle of the alarm clock and snooze button from 7:00 until now, 7:32, I open her shades and curtain. “Time to get up,” I coo, trying to soften the transition from delicious sleep to preparing for school. She orients herself to the room and declares, “I need eight more minutes of
George Carlin had a routine about how anyone who drives faster than you is a maniac and anyone who drives slower is an idiot. “It’s surprising,” the comic mused, “we get anywhere at all with all these maniacs and idiots on the road.” I’m thinking about with whom we compare ourselves. Our delight with our abilities
There are difficult things to think about when it comes to starting a new religion. Getting started with filling out the paperwork shouldn’t be one of the difficulties. Hi. I’m Rabbi Brian. I’ve been assigned to provide you with assistance. Today we will be looking at “Starting a New Religion, Section 1Eª 1-5: God
Years ago, I wisely gifted visiting friends the large, stainless steel mandoline I had received years earlier as a wedding present. (I wrote “I received” instead of “we received ” because my beloved isn’t a cook.) “You want me to just take it? It’s beautiful. Almost new.” Zanthe exclaimed. “That sharp blade, my brain,”
It’s raining. People think it’s always raining in Portland, but that’s not true. We have lots of moisture in the air more than 150 days a year. But it’s not always rain, like the kind for which you might use an umbrella. Right now, however, it’s coming down in My mom arrived yesterday afternoon
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Dr. Robert Farrar stands at the front of the corner-windowed third-floor classroom. We are waiting for the official class time. Only then will he begin today’s talk about educational history. I look out the window at my 2003 Honda Odyssey parked a few car lengths up, off of Ventura boulevard. I’m spending a fortune to
I flew from Los Angeles to New York to attend my friend Arthur’s rabbinic ordination. “His seminary isn’t legitimate,” I hear from some colleagues. “You shouldn’t go,” I’m told. I suspect, and time will prove this to be true, I will lose some rabbi friends because I choose to attend the ordination
In this moment, I can accurately predict the future—she won’t eat the cheese bagels that she is about to put in the cart. How do I know? Last week, between alarm clocks and getting out the door for school, my 12-year-old child complained about being hungry. She said this at the kitchen table,
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“Do you see these?” I ask, pointing to the dozens of packing slips I have taped to the wall next to the fire escape of my classroom in Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles, California. I continue. “Do you realize what these mean? Each and every one of these papers means that a random stranger believes