UNITEd We Stand

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So today was the Walk for Israel walkathon. I don't know numbers, but let's just say thousands of people gathered at a park at the lakefront where it started, wearing their T-shirts, touting Israeli flags on knapsacks, wagons, carriages, backsides and even on faces. Dignitaries speak at the beginning of the walk, there are inflatable rides and amusements for the kids, the world's largest hora is attempted and the fever is set.

It is a beautiful thing to march in with friends, neighbors -- and countrymen. And what is even nicer is when you have non-Jews who march in solidarity with us, some representing Christian causes, others just feeling pro-Israel and letting the Jews know it.

Many groups and schools and synagogues are represented -- it is really a cross section of the community in this city who come out to this event and help make it what it is. Lubavitcher men approach male participants of bar-mitzvah age to ask them if they'd like to lay Tefillin, Jews for Judasim folks are out, ready to hand out brochures if they meet up to Jews for Jesus missionaries.

I've lived in this city my entire life, so I get to see people who have crossed my path my entire life, whether from day school, high school, university, jobs, shuls, parenting groups -- to share in a commitment is a special thing, and I think we all know it when we're walking across the lower part of the city together for a few hours.

I have fond memories of the "Walks for Israel" that I participated in when I was a young girl -- the route took us through just about the whole city and took an entire day to complete, if we were lucky. So, yes, of course they were longer as well. But whether the route or the mileage differed, the cause has always been the same: raise money for Israel to help nurture this still-growing country and make it the best it can possibly be. In doing so, bring out Jews from the Toronto woodwork who join in a common cause.

Am Yisrael Chai!

Holiday Weekend

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Hello, Americans. This is a post to you because I think most of my readers are Americans...or ex-Americans living in Toronto!

I hope today was a lovely start to your weekend...your long weekend: Memorial Day.

We Canadians had our weekend last weekend, Victoria Day, complete with fireworks -- some public displays on Sunday night, others on Monday night. But most people don't associate the weekend with anything other than fireworks, bar-be-ques, beer, no work on Monday. They forget the holiday is named for Queen Victoria...our country's "grandmother".

You Americans on the other hand might also associate the weekend with bar-be-ques and beer and no work on Monday -- I don't know if fireworks are lit. But you also make a beautiful point of associating the weekend with memories...of veterans...who helped fight your wars and keep your country free and safe. I don't know if you have fireworks, but I do know that you have local parades, with citizens showing their pride, waving their flags, displaying their patriotism on their sleeve and on their chests with medals and ribbons and the like.

Kerckhoff Coffeehouse's blogging buddy of mine, Doctor Bean, said it beautifully in his post the other day:

In Grateful Memory

I have dozens of work and family obligations to fulfill before this weekend, but it would be wrong to let Memorial Day come without some reflection on its meaning.

I own my home and my own business because of property rights we usually take for granted that do not exist in many countries. I worship as I please, which can not be said in Saudi Arabia or Yemen. My family is safe, which would not be true in much of Africa. I can criticize my government publicly, and frequently do right here in the Coffeehouse, which would be a criminal act in China.

These freedoms are the bedrock of our lives upon which everything else is built. Our families, our individual traditions, our professions and our leisure would all be swept aside in an instant if tyranny replaced liberty.

All these abundant blessings were bought with the lives of American soldiers. On Memorial Day, we stop to realize this; we honor their sacrifice; we offer our heartfelt thanks to the families who grieve for the loss which helped sustain our nation. May we all strive to live in a way that is worthy of such sacrifice.

Here's a concrete way we can show our appreciation. I'm going to ask ball-and-chain to break out a credit card and donate to one of these. Please do the same.


Operation Hero Miles. Donate frequent flier miles to our troops.

Any Soldier. Send a care package to an American soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Operation Gratitude. Send a care package to a U.S. soldier



I applaud you Americans, the vets and the citizens who've stood behind them over the years. You help make your country a colorful one and I tip my hat to you.

Happy Memorial Day!

*********

BTW, you folks had better be celebrating because my reading "stats" were quite low yesterday (today was Shabbos, so that usually lowers the numbers), and I'm guessing they might be the same for the next two days. But don't forget about me; you can read my words (old or new) once you're back at your jobs on Tuesday and need something to do besides WORK, or instead of it. (PsychoToddler, Air Time, Just Passing Through, Still Wonderin', Doctor Bean -- yeah, I'm talking to you.)

And tomorrow is our community-wide annual walk for Israel, a big and very fun to-do with family and friends. Hope the weather cooperates, hope my legs cooperate and hope my kids cooperate. "Right, left, yemin, smol, right left, yemin, smol...!"

The Latest Hit Parade

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K-Tel (R) Records is proud to present this compilation of the hottest hits. Look for some of your favorite songs, reworked just for you!

You Light Up My Blog -- Debby Boone
Whole Lotta Blog -- Led Zeppelin
Mother and Blog Reunion -- Paul Simon
Hard To Blog I'm Sorry -- Chicago
Blog Man -- Sam & Dave version AND The Blues Bros. version
I Blog for You -- Chaka Khan
Blog It -- Devo
Blogger's Delight -- Sugar Hill Gang
Oh, What a Blog! -- Irene Cara
American Blog -- Don McLean
Blog 'Round the Clock -- Bill Haley & the Comets
Blog with You -- Michael Jackson
Rock the Blog -- the Hues Corporation
How Deep Is Your Blog? -- the Bee Gees
The Blog from Ipanema -- Joao Gilberto

and featuring that famous hit Get Off My Blog -- the Rolling Stones.

Run, don't walk to the nearest music store to get this collection. It'll be flying off the shelves before you know it.

What Are You Dangling These Days...?

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GOTCHA! (with that title, didn't I?) Nothing perverted here; if that's what you're looking for, link elsewhere!

While driving in to work this a.m. my mind got stuck on the notion of items people have dangling from their car's rearview mirrors.

I've seen fuzzy dice, rosary beads, keychains, garage door openers, "artwork" that children have made, baby shoes, blessings.

I have something hanging that my friend once sent from Israel--no doubt a freebie for her, considered to be a gift for me... It's a heart-shaped laminated card with a Tefillat ha-Derech (The Traveler's Prayer). How do I know it was a freebie, you wonder? Because on the other side of the prayer, there's an advertisement for some product, but I never read the small Hebrew print to learn what the product actually is. But the advertisement, translated from the Hebrew, reads: "Mother, you promised us chicken for this Shabbat!"

How is it that for the Jews everything comes back to FOOD?

"Okay, kids, we're leaving the city limits now. Let's say Tefillat ha-Derech...and then let's break out those chicken sandwiches!"

*******************

Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom, and here's hoping you all get to have chicken.

"Gehrls Just Wanna Have Fun"

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I am about to talk about my youngest child, a five-year-old; I don't mean to embarrass him, although I am bringing one of his weaknesses to light. But this "weakness" is also a MOST ENDEARING AND SWEET ATTRIBUTE OF HIS, so in my mind I am elevating his sweetness for you.

The other day, when I posted about "A Whole New World," I got a comment from Rochelle who said that her granddaughter, although she lives in Los Angeles, sings the song, pronouncing it as "A Whole New Woild" -- a taste of Brooklyn.

I couldn't help but think of my own little one who cannot pronounce my name properly nor the word "girl." Now "girl" and "Pearl" rhyme with each other, and one would think they're easy to say. But not for him!

For reasons beyond my comprehension, N seems to have a Scottish brogue when he says these words. He rolls his R's, so "girls" becomes more like "gehrls" and "Pearl" becomes "Pehrl." I try to work with him on his pronunciation but at the same time am amused by this quirky stylistic "thing" of his.

What's even more interesting is that lately I've been listening to myself when I speak. And, just like N, who seems to use inflection at the end of every statement, and tags his statement with "Yeah?", I've started to do it. For example, saying, "We're going to finish our homework today, kids...yeah?"

Not too long ago, I'd reached a point in my life when I panicked and thought: "I'm becoming my mother!" These days I'm sort of laughing and thinking: "I'm becoming my five-year-old!"

Yeah, that's right -- this gehrl Pehrl just wants to have fun...

nbc.com

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Hey, someone over at nbc.com linked to my "Bloggers Anonymous Wannabe" post a short while ago, referred to by jrants.com.

Hey, who are you, nbc.com? I have a show I'd like to pitch to you. It's a show about a blog. But in reality it's about NOTHING. "Yeah, a show about nothing. It can work. We'll make it work!"

So, someone over at nbc.com, who linked to my site, when can we set up a meeting? Have your people call my people. Better yet, have your people send a comment to my blog!

Bloggers Anonymous Wannabe

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Fellow blogger Neil Fleischmann, of NY's Funniest Rabbi fame (see link in margin) posted this wonderful scenario.

I hate to admit it, but I'm supposed to be at that meeting...right now, at 12:55 a.m.

Care to join me at Bloggers Anonymous?


"Hello my name is {YOUR NAME HERE} and I'm a blogger."

All: "Hi, {YOUR NAME HERE}

"I started out slowly. Someone told me I'd like it so I got a blogspot blog. It was free. I figured why not. I posted...I thought that was it. But a few days later I went back. Then I went back the next day. Before I knew it I was posting several times a day. Then I got my first comment. I'll never forget the rush...I was hooked. I started checking regularly for comments. Commenting on other blogs... hoping they'd visit mine. Then I stopped leaving the house because I needed to blog. Then I started skipping meals...staying up all night. Then a friend told me about these meetings. At first I said I could stop whenever I wanted, that some people had blog addictions but not me. Then they turned my electricity off because I didn't pay because all I was doing was the blog. The blog became a blob... taking over my life. So I joined a friend for a meeting, just to see, not because I was ready to admit my problem. And I couldn't believe the similar stories I read. People from far away... Texas and Toronto... with stories that sounded so much like mine. Computers needed fixing, books needed editing, students needed to be taught, but they all fell to the wayside because of THE BLOG. But then I saw people getting better... through the meetings. We will always be bloggers. But there is a force bigger than ourselves, even bigger than technical support. We must give ourselves over to the program. If you're in this chat room for the first time know... there is hope. Thank you.

~ copyrighted by Rabbi Neil Fleischmann 2005 ~

It All Comes Out in the...Comments

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When I feel that I need to laugh in the middle of the day, I just click on some of my favorite blogs. Some of these bloggers have me bursting out in laughter or silently grinning from ear to ear behind the walls of my work cubby -- oops, I mean office.

There are dynamics at work amongst these bloggers that work wonderfully together.

Do check out the blogs and comments of Treppenwitz, Jack's Shack, PsychoToddler and Doctor Bean and his gang. You will see overlaps throughout these comments and the same familiar names popping up on all of them. One would think that these folks have been pals forever, but that is not the case (except for Doctor Bean and some of his "pallies" -- and wife); they are strangers in a strange land, and have become stranger for the experience. But they're most amusing and it's a breath of fresh air.

Another set of bloggers who are newer to the scene and to my list of faves work equally well in unison/tandem. They are Air Time, Still Wonderin', Just Passin' Through and sometimes OrthoMom. Some of these folks know each other, others pretend to know each other, but they all make beautiful comments together.

Do check out these people for your cheap entertainment.

One of these days, you might even notice me commenting on a blog near you. Just ask around; my puns are better than yours. Na, na, na, na, na, na!

All Roads Lead to Here

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People, I'm brainstorming and I need help. I want to find alternatives for naming streets. So far I've come up with Place, Street, Avenue, Road, Boulevard, Crescent, Court, Gate, Way, Gardens, Circle, Lane.

Do you have any other suggestions? Think of where you live -- anything different to what I mentioned above?

Guard Your Tongue

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I've talked about "lashon harah" before in my posts and how my parents tried to drill it in us to not speak ill of someone and to watch what we say and how we say it.

This morning, I got the following mailing from www.aish.com. It is a pearl of wisdom that is not my own, but one I wish to share with you.


Their tongue is like a sharp arrow (Jeremiah 9:7).


Some people would never physically injure another person. The sight or even the thought of violence makes them cringe. They may not realize that their words can cause more damage than their fists ever could. A physical injury eventually heals and may even be forgotten, but an insulting word can penetrate to the depths of someone's being and continue to reverberate, long after a mere physical wound would have healed.

I have seen this phenomenon in my own practice. Many children are spanked by their parents. Still, with the exception of cases of severe abuse, my patients rarely, if ever, mention the spanking as a trauma. Not so with degrading words. After thirty or more years, patients will remember having been called "stupid," "rotten," or "a no-good bum." A child who was not spanked, but was instead disciplined with shame and made to feel that he or she was a disgrace, is likely to retain that feeling for decades and may harbor an attitude of shame that affects everything that he or she does.

While we are taught to refrain from striking out in anger, we are far less restrained when it comes to verbal lashings. Whether we direct them towards spouses, children, or peers, we should be aware of the impact that words can have. The verse cited above correctly describes the tongue as a sharp, penetrating arrow, which can be every bit as lethal as any physical weapon.

Some people have a wise custom. When they become angry, they clamp their lips tightly. The anger will safely dissipate and the words which could have stung for years never come out.

Today I shall ...
... try to avoid words that may be injurious to another person.

The Ultimate Dinner Party -- Revisited

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I'm not desperate for posts, but I was just reviewing some earlier ones and came across this one from March. It received no comments then. Perhaps today I have some different readers, who are in a different frame of mind, who might want to respond to the call-out...

Back in March this is what I wrote:

If you could host an intimate dinner party with 3-5 others, people from the worlds of music, politics, entertainment, history, etc., and it could be people living or now deceased, who would sit at your table, and what would you serve?

I'm not sure about menus, but I'd love to have one dinner party that hosted Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Jerry Seinfeld. I'm not sure that I'd have to serve anything in fact, because I'd be too busy laughing to eat, and those guys would be too busy keeping me in stitches to care enough about eating. And Jerry? Jerry would talk about NOTHING...but that would be something.

And then I'd like to have a literary dinner party, surrounded by Elie Wiesel, Sholom Aleichem, Anne Frank and perhaps author Judy Blume. Some heady conversations, some personal recollections and some sadness would permeate the room.

And one night I'd like to host a musical-inspired dinner party with Chopin, Ella and Louis and Isaac Stern. What kind of dinner music they would provide, huh? Better make sure the piano is tuned, the violin strings are tightened and water bottles and hankies are available for the vocalists.

So, you fellow bloggers, how about sharing plans for your ultimate dinner party?

*****************

And in the next post, this is what I wrote:

Well, this evening I figured that if I threw this post's scenario/question out to a bunch of strangers, why not pose it to my family!?

My 7 1/2 year old daughter wants to entertain celebrity teens-of-the-hour Lindsay Lohan, Hilary Duff, Raven, and...get this, ALBERT EINSTEIN. She specified that she'd serve Albert "brain food", ie. sushi.

My 5 year old son wants to entertain Spiderman and several other characters from Game Cube games.

My 9 1/2 year old son wants to...just entertain us, it appears, with his dry wit and his sharp observations.

My 40-something-year-old husband wants to host Shammai and Hillel. I told him that guests like these would have to sit at opposite ends of the dinner table because they'd be in disagreement all the time. I guess hubby would have to be the buffer, the deciding factor in the "discussion/debates."

And if any of you would like to come to a bloggers' dinner party at our home, we could arrange that too...!

I Applaud All of You... or : BUTTERFLIES

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Have I ever stopped to openly thank my blog readers? No, I don't think so. Now is as good a time as any to do so. I don't have to wait for the six-month mark.

Thank you. Todah rabah. Merci. Gracias.

When a person starts a blog for whatever reason, he/she is writing in a vacuum...because that's what cyberspace really is: one, big, gaping hole. Your words are tossed out to float around, sometimes endlessly, without a true destination.

I visualize a post like a butterfly -- some are very beautiful, others ordinary, some are unique-looking. But for every butterfly that flutters around, there has to be a flower upon which it'll settle, or there has to be someone out there to catch the butterfly with a net. We send our butterflies out to the world, not always knowing if they're caught, but surprisingly thankful when they are.

"Happiness is as a butterfly, which when pursued, will fly away, but which when you sit quietly will alight upon your shoulder."

I'm very happy with my butterflies; no doubt some of you are too. I've even noticed new visitors to the butterfly garden, visitors who've linked my efforts to theirs. What a beautiful butterfly garden each one of us can cultivate on our own or as part of an ensemble.

Here's hoping many more of you catch up to my butterflies sooner or later...

It's All Relative

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I'm not going to reveal my maiden name or my married name. But I'll tell you that my maiden name is a German name, although my roots are Polish. I know several people with the same last name, although their roots are Hungarian. And then there are those with the same last name, whose roots are actually German.

My married name is a Hebrew name and my husband likes to joke and say that the name was shortened from ____ovitch -- he was born Ashkenazi, but they shortened the last name and he became Sefardic. I will say that through marriage I share the same family name as some big Hollywood producer. Are we related through marriage? Don't know, but if he has a job for me as a writer or even as a studio gofer, then yeah, okay, we're related...

Are you like me? If you travel, or even if you don't travel but just check out phone numbers online, do you look for your own name in a foreign phone book? Don't know what attracts someone to do that, but I do know it is a common curious habit of people. Perhaps it's just natural curiosity, perhaps it's somewhat of a power trip to know that there are more of you in the world.

In the same respect, a few years ago someone told me that she GOOGLEd my name; at the time, I wasn't as Internet literate as I am today, especially because I was an ASK JEEVES junkie. I had no clue what GOOGLE was or what she'd meant when she said she'd GOOGLEd me. When she explained that she inputted my name and saw items that came up, I had to see for myself. Wow, I was famous. I was actually listed and some genealogical correspondence I'd had with someone was linked to the listing, as were reader tips I'd sent in to a magazine, as was a contest suggestion.

Over time, my egotistical self learned to GOOGLE combinations of my name; name and maiden name; name and married name; name and maiden name + married name; name of my blog. Suddenly I'm "computer famous," I realize. I'm listed under all those name combinations.

So I figure that I soon I won't be checking my name out in phone books any longer. GOOGLE meets my needs just fine...for now. One day, perhaps, I can work my way into a Who's Who In... book. But how will I list my name for that entry: given and maiden name; given and maiden and married name; or given and married name?

Guess it's all relative...

A Whole New World

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I can show you the world
shining shimmering splendid
Tell me princess now when did you last let your heart decide?
I can open your eyes
Take you wonder by wonder
Over sideways and under
On a magic carpet ride.

A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us no
Or where to go
Or say we're only dreaming
A whole new world
A dazzing place
I never knew
But now from way up here
It's crystal clear
That now I'm in a
whole new world with you.
Unbelievable sights
Indescribable feeling
Soaring tumbling free wheeling
Through an endless diamond sky.

A whole new world
A hundred thousand things to see
I'm like a shooting star
I've come so far
I can't go back
to where I used to be.
A whole new world
With new horizons to pursue
I'll chase them anywhere
There's time to spare
Let me share this whole new world with you.
A whole new world
That's where we'll be
A thrilling chase
A wondrous place
For you and me.

When I married, "A Whole New World," the theme song from the movie Aladdin was to be "our" song. Because I had a mixed crowd at my wedding, we were only going to have mixed dancing after the meal and after bensching when a lot of people disappear.

When we spoke to the bandleader, we told him that he could not have a female singer, and so he told us that he wasn't certain our choice song would work. So he asked for any other songs we might want.

The wedding was beautiful and very "leibedik" with LOTS of shtick being performed for hubby and I. And the speeches were very nice -- of course, I felt the need to speak and used lots of publishing and book analogies to describe my husband and our "courtship."

The evening was nearing its end, the eating and bensching had been done...and it was time for our song....

Well, turns out our song was not to be and second choice won out: "It Had To Be You."

Well, eleven and a half years later, it still is "him" and every day of our marriage is "a whole new world."

******

Everyone has a fantasy world of their own. My fantasy world includes a lot of singing. In my world, my wedding would have seen me at a piano in the middle of the dance floor, spotlight on me and me playing and singing -- serenading, really -- to my husband Stevie Wonder's "Ribbon in the Sky." The lyrics are beautiful, the music is beautiful.
Oh, well, some fantasies are better left as fantasies...

More than Words

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I work for a publishing company that is rather big on philanthropy: medical causes, educational causes, women's causes, among others. Two years ago they began a program in which our readers/ our authors submit nominations of people who are working on behalf of a cause or have started a foundation, etc. A company panel reads the letters and chooses five winners. Each winner receives $10,000 U.S. on behalf of their charity/cause and then our company has one of our better-known writers write a story, a fictionalized depiction of the person and their cause. The five stories are then published in an anthology and sold.

http://www.eharlequin.com/cms/charity/moreThanWords.jhtml

Yesterday, we had a company meeting; one of this year's recipients was there to talk about her cause -- Melissa's Living Legacy Foundation.

http://www.teenslivingwithcancer.org/about/mllf.asp

Her daughter, Melissa, who died of cancer a few years back was the inspiration for her starting a cause. This group tries to raise funds to help teens living with cancer. They recently started a web site that attracts countless teens who are looking for medical information, for support systems, for new friends.

What is astounding to learn is that teens are sort of the forgotten population when it comes to being treated for cancer. They are usually treated in pediatric hospitals or in adult hospitals. But they are neither children nor adults--their needs are different than the other two categories, and as many of them are undergoing major life/hormonal changes, it is a truly difficult time to be diagnosed or treated for cancer.

I listened to this mother, thought about her living hell with a sick daughter and the subsequent hell that has become her life since her daughter passed away. But I also thought of the good that she has done since her daughter's passing.

Yesterday morning I had a massive headache when I woke up; to sit in the audience and listen to this mother and try to hold back the tears that wanted to plummet down (yes, I meant to use that verb) my cheeks built up the pressure in my head and made my headache worse. But I knew that my headache pain was only temporary. Melissa's mother's pain is not.

********

I sat there and thought about young people I knew, whom I went to high school with who were stricken with cancer and didn't make it. And I thought about young people I didn't know, but knew about, who also succumbed to their cancers.

Ariel Chaim Avrech was one of those young people. He is the reason that I will be going to California -- I will be attending the second annual Ariel Chaim Avrech Yahrzeit lecture.

And from what I've learned about Ariel, I know that he left behind a living legacy of "More than Words."

I've Got That Holiday Feeling

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My brain has gone on vacation -- WITHOUT MY BODY!

I'm still in Toronto, but my head is in California, specifically Los Angeles and Beverly Hills.

What's it doin' there, you ask?

I guess it's casin' the joint, checking things out until my body can join it in a few weeks' time.

It's MAPQUESTing and GOOGLEing and doing that kind of research stuff, just so when I get there, my body will know what to do and where to go.

My brain already knows who I'm going to meet when I'm in LA-LA Land: at least three fellow bloggers, and perhaps some commenters, too. My brain isn't quite sure, though, what to do now that it has that information. Right now my brain is telling me I should be excited about these face-to-face encounters...and I am. I will be meeting people with whom I exchange playful banter, heartfelt emotions and serious thoughts. Hopefully they will see that I am the same in person as I am on a computer screen. Will I give them any reason to think any less of me when the words I speak are not tapped away on a keyboard, but come from my mouth? I can't make a comment and then hit a DELETE key; everything I say -- and do -- will be the equivalent of the PUBLISH key.

Hey, I think my brain is visiting Hollywood Boulevard as I'm typing this. It already checked out West Pico. Hey, brain, wait for me....

I'll let you people know when my body has arrived to meet my brain.

Long Ago, and Oh So Far Away...

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Nostalgia time (aka blog filler time)!

When I was a young kid I watched some good shows, and even better movies.

My earliest 1960s TV memories, aside from the variety TV shows the Lawrence Welk Show, the Ed Sullivan Show (family nights for both of them), Wonderful World of Disney, the Red Skelton Show, the Jackie Gleason Show were the sitcoms The Mothers-in-Law; the Phyllis Diller Show. I was pretty young when they were around, but remember them.

As for my memories of early movies, I loved Ma and Pa Kettle films, the Marx Brothers movies, Bob Hope ("Going Down the Road") movies, Westerns, Disney movies, Shirley Temple movies, Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland movies.("C'mon gang, let's go put on a musical!") The list goes on, the memories go on...and life goes on.

Tell me what early TV/movie memories you have.

Something's Fishy

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I've read blogs that have shared recipes, so I'm going to share one here. I guarantee that you bloggers who try it or pass it on to your wives to make will be surprised by how easy and tasty a recipe this is.

Take one store-bought, freezer section's gefilte fish loaf, and let it thaw enough so that you can slice it. Once sliced, dunk slices one at a time in matzoh meal or bread crumbs so that complete slice is covered. (sometimes I have to give slices a light and quick rinse under water before placing it in the crumbs, so that crumbs stick). Then slowly pan-fry with little or no oil till side is browned; turn over and repeat.

Serve warm or cold.

Children may not eat gefilte fish, but they certainly eat these gefilte fish patties. Can be eaten with horseradish, ketchup, mayonnaise or nothing. I like topping my slices with babaganoush!

Be'teavon. Enjoy. The hostess will no doubt be fishin' for compliments when all is said and done -- I mean EATEN.

Fade to "Twilight Zone" Music

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Someone up there is trying to tell me something...in a most subtle way. I think it's time to stop being on the Internet so much, reading others' blogs, writing my own, and commenting on blogs when moved to do so.

For the past fifteen minutes, I was scanning down the list of favorite blogs I've marked via shortcuts on my home computer. Funnily enough, I could access everyone else's, but not my own! As many times as I tried, I was met with a blank screen.

I finally managed to get in through the Blogger site and felt the need to record this Twilight Zone event.

Okay....everyone all together now; follow the bouncing ball: "Doodoo doo doo, doodoo doo doo..." ("Twilight Zone" theme song; if you don't understand the "bouncing ball" reference, then that's pretty sad, too. Just think pre-Karaoke days...)

Sideways

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I am not much of a film-goer, and if I do see a film, generally it's a family film. Yes, I love animation and computer graphics and usually think the work is brilliant and so realistic. I have no shame in admitting even kids' movie soundtracks can have me crying, and trying to hide the tears from my kids and hubby as soon as the theater house lights come up.

Recently we rented two DVD's -- one for family/kids' entertainment and one for grown-up entertainment (I figured "adult entertainment" doesn't sound so nice.) The family film was Shark Tale http://www.sharktale.com/ -- we all enjoyed it, although there were no real laugh-out-loud moments for anyone. I, however, laughed when my five-year-old asked me in the middle of the film, "Where's Nemo?" Guess he's seen one animated film too many!

I am fascinated by the graphics animation and the myriad details that go into making a film such as this. The characterization and physical traits of the voice-over actors (Robert De Niro, Martin Scorcese, Will Smith, Angelina Jolie for examples) are so closely linked, I can't help but smile inwardly as I think how the many fine nuances of these actors have been captured on-screen for the audience. Of course, children wouldn't recognize this, but we adults do, and are most appreciative of what we're viewing.

Many of these children's animated films are truly grown-up films -- the jokes, the innuendos, the references are tangible for us, if not for children. But they are seeking their own reasons for considering it a good film. Shark Tale passed the test for this family, young and old(er)!

Once the kids were in their beds for the night, hubby and I had tuned in to the second feature, Sideways. My husband had already seen the film at the theater with a male friend several months earlier, but wanted to rent it for me to watch. Am I ever glad he did!

Although slow-moving, it was a brilliant film -- in its casting, in its story line, in its setting, in its photography, in its characterization, in its story within a story, along with the insights to fine wines: wine-tasting, bouquets, clarity, flavor, aging, etc.

Perhaps had I seen the film in a theater, I might have found it more slow-moving, but in the comfort of our family room, with the chance to lounge on the sofa, I found it satisfying, and what I call to be "a thinking man's movie." There's a lot of introspection being done by one of the main characters, and although it's not him who is supposed to be taking a metaphorical journey before marriage, but just leading the way, he also becomes a passenger as he explores his past, present and future relationships and examines himself and his qualities against those of other characters.

This film is quirky and simple and was just right for my husband and I to enjoy -- it's not often that we're both agreeable on viewing a film. I'm pleased that Sideways was one film that we could agree on!