That's Entertainment

Human Tetris. Why is Japanese TV so much better than ours, even when I don't understand Japanese? Or maybe it's because I don't understand Japanese?

Overheard at the seder

"He wasn't a chochem."

Earth Day Eve

Earth day is tomorrow. Did you know? Michael Pollan wrote an op-ed called Why Bother? on the subject. It shows, first of all, why I’m writing here and he’s writing books, and it also explores a tough question. It’s hard to see how anything I do is going to have an effect on the world, so where do I get the motivation to do it? In my case, I don’t. The gap between what I profess to care about and what I do about it, or what Pollan, quoting someone else, I think, calls the difference between what we think and what we do, is enormous.
I drive my car more than I need to, I buy conventional lightbulbs and use plastic bags when it’s convenient, I don’t spend the extra cash on organic food – the list of what I don’t do is endless. But the article makes several arguments why we as individuals should still do things we believe in even if there’s no evidence, not even real hope, even, that it will make a difference. Partly so we feel good about ourselves, and even more to be a model for others. None of this is news, and none of it has worked for me so far.Thinking about this today I was reminded of something one of my fellow authors here participated in back in his church days. A small group of individuals who got together to hold each other accountable. Not unlike AA meetings, I guess. Supportive peers help. So why not get a little environment group? If I were in a small group of six or eight people who met every week or two to discuss what we’d each done in our fight to conserve the environment, where we failed, how we’d move forward, I might feel more accountable. I’d know someone was paying attention, and I’d feel a part of something.

Sadly, this is what I think, but I think what I’ll do may be far different.

overheard in the park

A man on a bicycle, whose arms, hands, chest, and life were all apparently intact: "So every other day, I'm getting crucified."

Oh the mundanity!

Approximately 4-7 days a week I find what I believe are called “circulars” in my mailbox. It is a whopping newspapery packet full of coupons and sales announcements that drop all over the place like postcards in magazines, and I never bother to even look at it before discarding. But in the name of journalism and freedom, and because I have nothing else to do since I already watched my Netflix today (Deliverance – a movie perhaps better left unwatched), I am going to provide running commentary as I leaf through my Washington Post Shopping Guide.
The cover is a furniture ad for the “#1 livingroom value in America!” And if the $299 sofabed wasn’t enough to prove it, there is a picture of a half-smiling, half-attractive woman in the corner, which is either supposed to be a half-satisfied typical customer, or perhaps the kind of woman I can attract if I have a 6 piece living room package.
Inside the front cover the Washington Post is offering me the Sunday paper for 49 cents. I’ve ignored the zillion solicitation letters they’ve sent me, but sneaking it into the circular may just win me over. They’d like to believe that. News is for people who don’t have tremendous blogging responsibilities.
Ooh – my first glossy circular. From Shoppers, which by the looks of it is a grocery land of limitless savings. Yet even though they’ve put 10 Kraft Mac n Cheese’s on sale for $6, which is about as good as it gets in these times of economic hardship, I don’t even know where a Shoppers is.
Verizon is offering cheap wireless. Big whoop.
Safeway must also be suffering from the economic downturn, because its colored newspaper circular is Sunny Delight to Shoppers’ Fresh Squeezed gloss. Is it the Hormel Natural Choice Lunchmeat (2 for $7) or the Lawry’s Marinade (2 for $5) that gets people running to Safeway?
Next up is Giant, which is nearly identical to Safeway, and whose “fine foods for Passover” section includes Fresh Soup Mix, a Tranquil Bouquet of flowers, and California carrots. This circular needs a Jewish editor.
Don’t worry, it’s almost over.
Rite Aid has gone glossy on us, and has Free and Hot Buys! printed prominently in several places, and there’s a huge BOGO on nutritional supplements. Damned if lipo-flavonoid wouldn’t hit the spot right now.
Last up is a Manny & Olga’s Pizza page with coupons, which I guess I’ll stack up with the rest of the menu’s I get in the mail (including a Manny & Olga’s menu) and then never use. Nah. Why bother.
I can't wait to see what else I get in the mail.

So much chrain!?

From the afikomen to the zuzim -- I eagerly anticipate my trip to my ancestral homeland for pesach.