Pause to Wonder

I know I should aspire to the high road and in so doing always avoid the proverbial “cheap shot”.

Oh, but I just can’t resist this one!!!

Today a headline caught my eye: “Pope attacks blurring of gender”. Cheap shot: “Pretty rich from a guy in a dress.”

Sorry…

“My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a ‘lone traveler’ and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude…”

Here’s a nice little abridged version to whet your appetite.

I can’t believe I didn’t know about the connections between Yidish and jazz! Very, very cool.

I’ve always loved Yiddish. It has a wonderful onomatopœia quality and each word is like a little poem capturing the essence of something.

Here’s the full radio interview, an online Yiddish/English/Hebrew dictionary and, not to be missed, the Yiddish Radio Project. Enjoy!

Added next day: Here’s a short but very interesting factual outline of the Yiddish language. הנאה האָבן!

I confess: every time I open a new notebook, writing pad or agenda, I panic. How can I possibly sully that perfect white paper? Whatever I write down better be good. It better be brilliant.

I own a lot of blank notebooks.

Then along comes something new. At first you think, Okay, someone’s obviously put a lot of thought and effort into this. Then you think, Is this tasteless and disrespectful? And then you think, Oh my god I will NEVER doodle again.

Sarah Palin is at best a painful embarrassment and at worst the person who may destroy the whole world. In the run up to the election, the inability to vote (not American) makes the suspense even worse, so it was a great relief to have a laugh again.

“…given the way the McCain campaign has controlled access to Palin, the prank feels like just plain good journalism — almost as good as the real thing delivered by Katie Couric last month. The prank audio is entertaining, informative and damning, at least if you think the nation’s leaders should be a little more sophisticated than, say, an excitable (and gullible) 10-year-old.”

If your French is rusty, check out the translations in the transcript here. I love the seals and the bread-under-the-arm bits. And the “special American Advisor Johnny Hallyday” mentioned is France’s equivalent of Elvis. Only with a lot more plastic surgery.

Thank you Les Justiciers Masques!