Efrex

So… 90 minutes before mincha?

“In the Way that They Grow”: An Old-New Approach to Building a Community of <em>Mitzvot</em> and Obligation — Sources Journal Guy Austrian Summer 2025

Really like this piece from Rabbi Guy Austrian:

www.sourcesjournal.org/articles/in-...

Joker origin story:

Gave blood yesterday for the first time in a few months. I don’t believe I noticed it last time, but the pre-donation questionnaire has FINALLY been updated to remove any reference to same-sex activity as a risk factor. If you can give blood, please do so…

👋

Was getting more of a Runt/Rita vibe personally, but I guess that’s too obvious…

Love her so much… in one of her cabaret shows, she recalled asking William Finn to explain what happens at a bar mitzvah, as she’d never been to one. Her description of Finn’s reaction to her not being Jewish (“you just have a Jewish aura”) was a source of merriment for years in our home.

Do the reverse Maria Dahvana Headley and replace all instances of “bro” with “hweat”…

I would really love to revisit it, as I’ve become much more of a jazz fan in the intervening years. It’s so well written that I can easily imagine any production being excellent, but Wood & Falco were on another level.

Saw him in Side Man. He was excellent, although Frank Wood & Edie Falco were transcendent. One of those incredible shows that seem to have been forgotten…

IIRC, there was an episode of Fear The Walking Dead that featured (I kid thee not) a Reform rabbi going through a crisis of faith tending to his zombie congregation…

The Incredible True Story Behind TV’s Strangest Space Jew An eight-year investigation to explain why a religious Jew appeared in one of contemporary science fiction’s most celebrated shows

www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Took a picture of this machzor at a now-closed Heights shul several years ago. It wasn’t that long ago that Jews crossed the Washington bridge to and from the Bronx to attend services on each side…

Lovely. May you and your family find comfort in your memories, inspiration in your history, and fulfillment in your activities.

A diagnostic questionnaire used to evaluate the severity of nasal problems is officially known as the Sino-Nasal Outcome Test or SNOT. Not sure if I should giggle or be disappointed…

A colleague was a ferry pilot to Fire Island in the late ‘80s. Talking to her 20 years later about what it meant to have AIDS survivors was a memorable experience. This is another incredible step in ending incalculable suffering.

I’ve been a Tom Lehrer fan for some four decades now, and croaked out many of his songs in my piano bar days…

Surabaya Santa

Tom Lehrer Podcast Episode · Desert Island Discs · 07/12/1980 · 30m

For those who might not have heard it: here’s a BBC “desert island music” interview with Tom Lehrer from 1980. Not at all surprising that we have a few overlaps:

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...

“When you attend a funeral/ it’s sad to
think that sooner’r/ later those you love will do the same for you”

Always a favorite. RIP and thanks for everything…

I don’t think I knew that you were a Warhammer widow. My condolences. That’s not a commitment thar people make lightly…

(She probably also said something about my overuse of commas, but I’d already been ignoring that for some 20 years by that point…)

When I moved into management from my technical position, my company enrolled me in a business writing class. The teacher took one look at my writing sample and said “oh, you’re a good technical writer. Just learn to use the active voice and maybe cut down on the semicolons, and you’ll be fine.”

As Fearless Leader noted, it’s often the correct way to go when you want to draw attention to The Thing Being Done more than to The Person Doing The Thing…

In many scientific/technical applications, it was the standard for describing experiments: “the mixture was refluxed at x temp for 2 hours, after which it was filtered and allowed to cool to room temperature. A white precipitate formed…”

That’s what I meant by “that state.” And yes, I-80 is the most boring stretch of tar in the Good Lord’s creation. The New Jersey Turnpike at least has amusingly-named rest areas…

We’ve done the New-York-to-the-Midwest (Chicago, Cleveland, Indiana, and Milwaukee) car trip a number of times. Some variant of “How friggin’ big is that state?” comes up every time…

Link is still paywalled…

How about “run” and “take”?