tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-129599422024-03-07T04:15:50.519-05:00Divinity is in the Detailsthis blog will mostly deal with progressive politics, progressive judaism, and random quirks.ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.comBlogger414125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-26682542744601748272011-03-02T15:00:00.005-05:002012-02-03T00:41:24.555-05:00BreadThe past year or two, I have gotten really in to baking bread. Homeade quality is rarely as high as an excellent bakery but since freshness makes a big difference and good homemade is much much better than day old bakery bread, I find it's more convenient, more fulfilling, more delicious and cheaper to bake rather than buy under more circumstances. Additionally, when I bake at home the resulting bread doesn't have all the stabilizers and preservatives they use to keep commercial bread shelf stable for longer. At a more abstract level though, there is something very powerful about baking bread myself. Just by putting a few ingredients together, exposing it to heat we end up with something wildly different. This surprising process by which wheat is turned into loaves was the key factor that led to the rise of cities based on agriculture (in much of the world). I am moved by being part of the simple discovery with such profound implications.<div><br /></div><div>I find that it is the easiest to make this recipe using a digital scale. They can be had for pretty cheap although <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Grips-1157100-5-Pound-Pull-Out-Display/dp/B0020L6T7K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1299096446&sr=1-2">here </a>is a good one for $30. It's not necessary though--I list volume measure later.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>Here are some weights (see above for info on scales):</div><div>Flour 860g (we prefer bread flour to all-purpose. You could also make it partially whole wheat or other types of flour but need to work to get the same lift. Since I make a lot of bread I buy King Arthur Special by the 50-pound sack.)</div><div>Water 690g </div><div>Salt 16-18g (I prefer {misnamed} Kosher Salt)</div><div>Yeast 2g (I prefer jars/cartons to packets)</div><div><br /></div><div>1. Mix flour, yeast, and salt. (salt can kill yeast so i put them on opposite sides before i mix)</div><div>2. Add water</div><div>3. Mix</div><div>4. Let stand in a warm, but not hot, place at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours (18 hours is optimal) [if it is colder than 65 degrees or so in your house overnight, you'll get less rise]</div><div><br /></div><div>after the 12 to 24 hours have passed</div><div>5. Stir dough a couple times so it begins another rise. </div><div>5. Preheat oven to 465 with a soup pot/dutch oven with a lid (make sure it is ovensafe)</div><div>6. When oven reaches 465, take pot out and dump in the dough</div><div>7. Optional--dust top with a bit of flour (this just makes it look nice)</div><div>8. Put in over for 38 minutes with lid on</div><div>9. After 38 min, remove lid and bake for additional 10 to 20 min, until chestnut brown (some prefer golden but then you'll get less caramelization of the crust)</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Ta Da!</div><div><br /></div><div>It is a really forgiving recipe so if you mess up, don't worry. It will be delicious no matter what. </div></div><div>If you'd like to make an olive bread, follow the same recipe to make the dough. While you are pre-heating the oven, dice some olives. Obviously this will be easier if you buy pitted olives. Stir olive bits into the dough before dropping the dough in the pot. Try to have as little olive brine as possible get into the dough. Don't put the olives in at the beginning since they inhibit the rising of the dough.</div><div><br /></div><div>Any pot with a tight-fitting lid should work so long as it is oven safe to 465. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000N501BK/ref=s9_simh_se_p79_d0_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=auto-no-results-center-1&pf_rd_r=1BVYMF7HRS94X40PQQHD&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_p=1263465782&pf_rd_i=ecsd43">Here </a>is a good candidate. Note, that if you buy that one, you'll have to swap out the top handle since it isn't oven safe to a high enough temperature. It's pretty easy though, just unscrew the screw and add a replacement.</div><div><br /></div><div>I find that lining the pot with a silpat like this <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Non-Stick-Silicone-Microwave-10-25-Inch-Diameter/dp/B00032S0IE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328247604&sr=8-1">one</a> completely prevents the bread from sticking to the bottom of the pot and makes cleanup much easier.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here are volume measures: </div><div><div>6 cups of flour </div><div>1/2 teaspoon of yeast</div><div>somewhere between 3 and 4 teaspoons of salt</div><div>3 and 1/4 cups of water</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Thank to AZW for his mentorship in this arena. Thanks to Mark Bittman (popularize-r) and Jim Lahey (originator) for the original <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1299096069-M7a+YTnlGIRQ5hd/7WOdvQ">recipe</a>. </div>ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-9579062932434999482010-12-14T10:37:00.005-05:002010-12-14T11:31:10.412-05:00Wedding Manifesto v1.2<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: normal; "><p id="internal-source-marker_0.13880873820744455" style="text-align: center; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; font-size: medium; "><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Wedding Manifesto</span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span></p><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">As we planned our wedding we came under pressure to spend obscene amounts of money on a variety of silly things--I suspect this is the American way. The pressure was real, came from many places, and thankfully was almost entirely resisted. If it can happen to us--it can happen to you! I’ll outline some of the things we did and why, including resources. My approach to weddings is that it’s critical to save your budget for things that will make your wedding match your goals. Since the budget is limited, spending on things you care about will necessitate ruthlessly cutting things you don’t. I’ll talk more about this throughout. My experience with wedding is a bit limited (though I’ve been to 30 or so I’ve only planned one).</span><br /></span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">What’s the Point?</span><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">When you organize a political event, start a new project, or decide how to manage an initiative, you probably start by thinking about what you want to accomplish. What are your goals? A wedding, for all its differences is still an event and you should start by clarifying your goals. Would you like friends from different parts of your lives to get to know each-other? Your families to acquaint? The friends and family assembled to understand more the nature of your commitment to each other? Give people a sense of how your life works? </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">What do you view as important? Classiness? Environmental simplicity? Your ethnic heritage? Labor rights? Silliness?</span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Fashion? </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Think about your goals before you think about the details. Most do it the other way around and that often leads to spending lots of money on things that don’t meet your goals. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">If you have it in your budget, spend lavishly on things which facilitate your goals and be relentlessly thrifty on things which don’t. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> At the end of the day you will be married. You need to figure out what else you want to happen.</span><br /></span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The Wedding Industrial Complex (WIC)</span><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">There is an entire industry devoted to profiting from your joy. Profiting from your joy isn’t necessarily bad--you are joyful and businesses exist to profit so sometimes it can work out. The big problem occurs when they manipulate you to increase their profits. The easiest way to avoid such manipulation is to avoid conventional wedding professionals. Some are terrific but many aren’t. Typically they have spent years learning their trade and are better at getting you to spend a lot than you are at resisting their charms. They have a lot more practice (several hundred weddings) than you do (this is probably your first, possibly second, certainly not 253rd). </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">From the photographer who wants you to spend an extra $1000 for some fancy doodad that will “help you remember this day forever” to the wedding dress boutique salesperson who is paid on commission and says “don’t you think you look a bit sexier in the other dress” rather than “is the other dress really worth $2000 more, they are quite similar”, you should know that they are very clever and have had lots of practice. The WIC uses gender assumptions against you, they use self-consciousness to profit, and build up expectations to unreasonable levels. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Don’t do business with people who make you nervous, seem manipulative (even if it’s just a bit), or are not on board with your ideas.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /></span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Books</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">As my partner says:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">“Don't read too many </span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">wedding</span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> books or websites. they're bad for your health, seriously, they warp your </span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">wedding</span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> planning from being about what you and your partner want to being about what </span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">they </span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">want you to want. It's a mess.”</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Most wedding books are part of the broader wedding industrial complex. Books which build up the idea that you are trying to achieve </span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">your perfect day</span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> should be discarded. Books that make your feel stressed or inadequate are bad for the soul. Books that don’t focus on how </span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">your </span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">wedding can reflect who </span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">you </span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">can slowly move you towards someone else’s vision. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Two books we liked (I'd like to add some non-Jewishly-specific books, please recommend):</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/New-Jewish-Wedding-Revised/dp/0743202554/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1286473087&sr=8-1"><span style="font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(204, 102, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The New Jewish Wedding</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Jewish-Wedding-Book-Hands-/dp/1580233988/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1286473087&sr=8-2"><span style="font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The Creative Jewish Wedding Book: A Hands-on Guide to New & Old Traditions, Ceremonies & Celebrations</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span">Our friend WB writes: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; "> </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; "></span></span><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; ">T</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; ">he best non-Jewish wedding book I know is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Miss-Manners-Weddings-Judith-Martin/dp/0609604317/ref=dp_ob_title_bk">Miss Manners On Weddings</a>. Despite what some people might assume about Miss Manners, the book is subversively anti-WIC, It's very good about discouraging versions of the "everybody tells us our wedding has to have outrageously-expensive thing XX" line of thinking.</span></span></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Invitations</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; "></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><b><br /></b></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">If you are snail mail oriented you might send out save-the-date cards and invitations. To us, that seemed a little bit silly since most people in our generation do better with e-mail. Turns out doing it with PaperlessPost costs about $0.05 per invitation. Much cheaper than the $0.44 stamp and the printing/envelope that can be a couple bucks. Send out 150, do both save-the-dates and invitations and you can be looking at about $500. For us it wasn’t worth it. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /><a href="http://www.paperlesspost.com/" style="font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Paperless Post</span></a></span><span style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; font-size: 13pt; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span">WB again:</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><blockquote>We used paper for two main reasons. 1, we really enjoy stationery and paper goods, so our invitations were a chance for us to share our love of paper goods with our guests. 2, we had a number of guests from a significantly older generation, and we worried that they would find paperless invitations and save the dates confusing, disorienting, and alienating; in order to make them feel more welcome, we used traditional paper for everybody.</blockquote></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span">It sound as though they really enjoyed the aesthetics of the invitation. Given the amount of enjoyment they got from this, it sounds like they made a great decision. We sent paper invitations to older folks who we thought wouldn't understand our normal approach. In our case, that ended up being about a dozen people. </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><br /></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Registries</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">For us, it was hard to balance focusing on getting married with a lot of people being excited to note the occasion with gifts. On the one hand, it seemed like it’d be cool if everyone just gave to a charity and came to celebrate but on the other hand it was great to get lots of stuff that makes it easier to cook, serve, and host, since those are all things we like to do. Lastly, it was hard to balance being happy to receive things which will enrich our life with not wanting to be nor appear to be materialistic. Lastly, we have heard a lot of feedback that we should have a wedding registry. One guest said, “look I am getting you a present, you can either tell me what you want/what kind of thing you want, or I can decide. Put up a registry since I am going through a crystal vase phase.”</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Typically people go to one or more retail establishments and go around with a scan gun, laser-beeping things on to their registry. For their part, the stores usually encourage people to register for many presents than guests. This has the effect of people sometimes feeling sad when they didn’t receive something that a few weeks earlier they had never heard of, let alone need. It’s a very good way to get couples to demand more stuff than they intended. It’s so much fun to go around and scan things--a sort of twist on on the 1980s hit </span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">supermarket sweep</span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">. I think zapping is fun, if you do as well, go to a laser-tag place (do they still have those?).</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">We initially tried to avoid having a registry all together but after much feedback from family and older friends we built one. Our goals were:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span></span><ul style="font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><li style="list-style-type: disc; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span">to be very clear that we don’t expect gifts and that the main thing is that folks should come celebrate with us</span></span></li><li style="list-style-type: disc; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span">to have items in many price ranges</span></span></li><li style="list-style-type: disc; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">to avoid an array of choices which would overwhelm folks (see </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice:_Why_More_Is_Less"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Schwartz</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">)</span></span></li><li style="list-style-type: disc; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span">to help people understand why we were excited about the things on the list</span></span></li><li style="list-style-type: disc; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span">to help people coordinate so that we wouldn’t get multiple identical gifts</span></span></li></ul><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">We ended up using </span><a href="http://www.alternativegiftregistry.org/" style="font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">alternative gift registry </span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">and borrowing artful language from our friends JN and EM. In addition to gifts, we listed some organizations that we would be honored to have folks support with us in mind. On the gifts front, we vaguely prioritized our list and tried to have roughly two items under $50, two between $50 and $100 and two over $100 most of the time. When someone bought something (more specifically, indicated that they would), we deleted that item and added the next one on our list. This was a bit confusing for some guests but was generally well received. AGR gives a place for text where we described a bit about why we put an item on the list. If we had something specific in mind we posted a link (victorinox makes reasonably priced chef’s </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-125th-Anniversary-Limited-8-Inch/dp/B001XCWNNG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1286911948&sr=8-2" style="font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">knives </span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">that outperform ones 4 times the price). When we didn’t know much about the subject we said so: “Composter--We’d like one that turns food scraps into dirt.” For the most part this system worked for us. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /><a href="http://alternativegiftregistry.org/" style="font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Alternative Gift Registry</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /><a href="http://alternativegiftregistry.org/view_registry_public.php?registry_uid=4893" style="font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 153); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Our text</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> (thanks JN/EM!)</span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Families</span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">If they are helping you fund the wedding, it is important to have a sense from your parents about how they think the money will work. Some of my friends have split it evenly 3 ways (couple, one side’s parents, the other side’s), others have picked it up entirely themselves. In some cases the bride’s parents have picked the whole thing up (traditional American approach), and in some cases the parent’s split it down the middle. It’s helpful to have a clear idea from the outset so you can start to have a vague idea of the budget. They can pay for things directly or fund an account that you write checks from (the way we did it). </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Exercise</span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">: Set up a meeting where all parents and partners can be present. Say something roughly like: “we will take two minutes so we can all visualize a specific moment in the wedding that we are excited about. We’ll then go around and share our moment, what it sounds like, looks like and feels like. Remember this is a snapshot not a discussion of broader themes.” In our case, one parent talked about the ceremony, another the band, and a third the food. We had worried that they’d have strongly differing views but actually, this helped us see that they were focused on different pieces and prioritized differently. It was a huge relief. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Getting to Know You/Rehearsal Dinners</span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">It is important to help people get to know you better as individuals and as a couple. Many friends of your parents, family members, etc won't know you as adults nor your partner at all. Part of the task of a </span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">wedding</span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> experience (especially any pre/post events) is to help people learn about who you guys are. For instance, rather than a rehearsal dinner, we did an open mic where we served dessert, wine and beer while people played music, toasted us, roasted us, and through the process introduced us to the people who didn't know us well from the other side. It was a lot of fun, and fulfilled a goal (help people get to know each other, and us) rather than us trying to fit our goals into the normal way of doing things (an expensive rehearsal dinner).</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">The Wedding</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap; "><b><br /></b></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: medium; ">With regard to the actual </span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: medium; ">wedding</span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: medium; "> itself, we tried to focus on what things would tangibly help people enjoy the experience and build community. Cut flowers are expensive, bad for the environment, and usually are produced under bad labor conditions. Since we don't think they mattered, we just didn't have any (if cut flowers are important to you, cut somewhere else, and go all out on flowers).</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Bridesmaids/Groomsmen</span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">We elected not to have them and it turned out well for us. Our friend Will remarked that he and his wife didn’t need any more divisions and public prioritizations among their friends. We primarily thought that causing people to buy dresses they wouldn't want to wear again was silly. Still, it is important to many people to have wedding parties, if you do this, think back to when you have been on the other end, what would have made your experience better? What did you resent?</span></span></span><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Who is the Wedding About?</span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><br /></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">It’s entirely about you and your partner! Nope! Lots of folks will say that the wedding is all about you--normally to sell you something designed to enhance your appearance. Really, the wedding is about your relationship with your partner and your collective relationship with family and friends. If it was all about you, you’d be better off taking the money and going on a very long cruise or something similarly lavish.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent; "></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">This day, is very important for most people at the wedding. Brides and grooms must resist the pressure to focus exclusively on themselves. Weddings can be hard for single friends or coupled friends who aren’t ready to marry. Weddings can be challenging for people whose relationships are not recognized as readily in society, especially if your relationship is. Be aware of how others may be thinking and feeling--it will mean a lot to them, and ultimately to you. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Food</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; "></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><b><br /></b></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Since most catering isn’t amazing, it seemed silly to spend $100 per person when we could do fine for $20. Our experience is that catered food is rarely delicious for the price. We focused on a cuisine with a tradition of delicious buffet dining and figured that it would be good rather than amazing. Since we didn’t feel strongly that there ought to be meat or fish, we served vegetarian Indian food (and some bland food for those who didn't like Indian). This cost about 1/3 to a 1/6 of what normal catering would have cost--this freed up budget for other things. The vegetarian-ness also made the food lighter which led to more dancing. I suggest you speak with restaurants you like a lot and see if they’d cater and for what price. Not only will it be more delicious and cheaper than most other options, it’ll also give people insight into your life. For some folks, food is the signature piece of the wedding. If this is you, it’s reasonable to spend like it. If it isn’t, you don’t need to break the bank.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><br /><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Delegating</span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">We had an amazing experience with delegating. Everyone we asked to do anything at our wedding exceeded expectation and did a breathe-taking job. From the Carinne and Seth who who MCed the open mic and organized a band of mostly ex-housemates to Beth who put together a team to make all the desserts to Jon who wrote a 4-part arrangement and trained a group to sing it while we processed to Kavitha who ran point all day--literally everyone nailed it. We considered which skills each of our friends had (cooking, likes to be charming/funny in front of large groups, creating intense emotional space, juggling, singing, connecting people etc) and thought of things to ask of them. This helped our wedding feel like </span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">our</span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "> wedding and our parents/parent’s friends/relatives got to see why we love our friends so much. Highly recommend!</span><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent; font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">Takeaway</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; "></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><b><br /></b></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">At the end of the day you’ll be married. The rest is just details.</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; "><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; ">In a future edition:</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">How do you get reluctant stakeholders (parents) on board with this plan?</span></span></span></span></div>ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-57525472867065129352009-12-03T11:19:00.000-05:002009-12-03T11:20:35.128-05:00Movement, Denominations, and Minyanim…oh my!A little while back, in addressing recent discussions of minyanim and reacting to Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, BZ posted:<br /><br /><blockquote>Rabbi Kaunfer writes “New self-proclaimed movements sprung up — Reconstructionism, and the Renewal and Chavurah Movements.” The “Chavurah movement” is not now and has never been a “self-proclaimed movement” parallel to the “big three” or the Reconstructionist movement. Rabbi Kaunfer himself has argued for why the latest wave of independent minyanim do not constitute a “movement” in that mold, and the same is true for earlier waves of havurot.</blockquote><br /><br />This has led me to think about the similarities and differences between what people tend to refer to as Chavura, Conservative, Independent Minyan, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, Reform, and Renewal. (note that I alphabetized them rather than forcing them into a spectrum that doesn't quite fit). Of course these labels have substantial overlap. Some are parallel. Some are not. They all come about because people want quick categories that they can use to label the Jewish approach of themselves and others. <br /><br />--This next paragraph can be skipped, it defines a few terms and frames the issue, but some might find it needlessly semantic--Some of these labels are (what I'll call) institutional, ideological, and/or aesthetic. Insitutional groupings are based on a subset of Jews being unified based on connection to an institution(s). For instance, The Conservative movement is an institutional grouping since it's people are connected through camps, schools, youth groups, an other institutions. It is also an ideological grouping since it has positions on many questions that it endorses. Conservative Jews have tendencies to think about Israel in certain ways, egalitarianism, etc. Of course, some differ and there is some diversity, but certainly, you can see what I mean by ideological grouping. By aesthetic, I mean a preference for decision-making model, prayer approach, or something else which is not explicitly Ideological. In many cases these issues are deeply moral, so I don't mean to imply that this is in any sense superficial. Minyanim, for instance are united by a desire for lay-ledness and thus "Minyan" is an aesthetic grouping. This is a rather arbitrary nuance but there certainly is a nuance between how people think about the world (ideology) and how they prefer their prayer specifically (prayer aesthetic) that while influenced by the former is a slightly different issue.<br /><br />Now I'll take a look at a few common groupings and examine what they are, where they come from, and which they are parallel too, and not. <br /><a name='more'></a><br /><ul><strong>Chavura</strong> </ul><br /><br />This term is especially confusing since it refers to two substantially disparate kinds of communities. Some use it to refer to lay-led communities which don't employ professionals. For instance, this label is often is often associated with the groups that sought a more organic, spiritual, and culturally relevant Judaism in the 60s and 70s such as <a href="http://www.thehav.org/">Havurat Shalom </a>in Boston (which began as a seminary of sorts), the New York Havurah, and <a href="http://www.fabrangen.org/">Farbrengen </a>in DC. All these groups had major learning and political components in addition to davening and social retreats. The critical writing in this do-it-yourself movement was <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=jewish+catalog&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a">the Jewish Catalog</a> (and its 2 sequels). Many of these early havurot where like communes. The collective living aspects soon diminished but many still had consensus-based decision-making, specific membership, and intense community.<br /><br />At the same time that these pioneers of lay-led intimate communities were striking out to build new kinds of independent models the term was also being used to refer to synagogue-based sub-groups. Harold Schulweis <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=jewish+catalog&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a">helped</a> create this model. <br /><br />The 20th century use of <em>chavurah</em> <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=7j6wzn4Aoz8C&pg=PA127&lpg=PA127&dq=havurah+schulweis&source=bl&ots=Np63JIGw9g&sig=DCQ0Aro6LI5-7dqAhiYA4AuldBY&hl=en&ei=a4oBS5K9NcLblAeIlbSTCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=havurah%20schulweis&f=false">originated</a>s with fellowship who met to study the writings of Moredecai Kaplan. More of the relationship between Reconstructionism and havurot later...<br /><br />This is largely an aesthetic group. There is wide variation on every ideological issue. Havurot tend to be egalitarian but aren't necessarily. Really it's two different aesthetic groups (the in-shul and is-a-shul). Both though seek intimacy and intensity in Jewish life and have members who are willing to put in more time and energy to achieve those goals than many big congregation Jews are willing to.<br /><br /><ul><strong>Conservative</strong></ul><br />People often use "movement" and "denomination" interchangeably. In the case of the Conservative movement/denomination, this is reasonable. The Conservative denomination has institutional and ideological ties. It has a process for making movement-wide practice decisions (The Committee on Jewish Laws and Standards), its own seminaries (JTS, UJ, Schecter/Cons. Yeshiva), an organization of synagogues (United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism), and a pseudo-union for it's clergy (The Rabbinical Association). <br /><br />Interestingly, the Conservative denomination has given rise to many of these other innovative groups (mostly unwillingly). Many of the early havurah-niks were former ramah campers/staff and Art Green, one of the main early leaders graduated from JTS. Mordecai Kaplan, founding thinker of the Recons, was a faculty member at JTS until his retirement. He influenced generations of Conservative rabbis and did not intend to start another denomination. Many of the current leaders of new minyanim have connections with the Conservative movement--specifically @ Hadar (of course, many minyanim have no connections to the Conservatives).<br /><br /><ul><strong>Independent Minyan </strong></ul><br /><br />It seems that "Independent Minyanim" is the chic term for lay-led communities not based in synagogues. These groups have much in common with the kind of havurot discussed earlier. In the 60s, 70s, and 80s most of the leaders in the network of lay-led communities used "minyan" to mean prayer groups and "havurah" to mean a member-based group which was social, political, religious, cultural, and often residential or semi-residential. More on the nuances between havurot and minyanim <a href="http://divinityisinthedetails.blogspot.com/2006/09/is-it-havurah-or-minyan.html">here</a> and <a href="http://divinityisinthedetails.blogspot.com/2006/09/is-it-havurah-or-minyan-part-ii-some.html">here</a>. It is a sad when words which formerly conveyed nuance cease to, since their usage blends. In contemporary terms the nuance between "havurah" and "minyan" is less well-known and that's a shame.<br /><br />Back to the main point. Independent minyanim are categorized by their lay-ledness. This category contains havurot and minyanim (with the possible exception of those based in synagogues). It is an aesthetic category. There are a few institutions, the <a href="http://havurah.org/about-us">National Havurah Committee </a>and <a href="http://www.mechonhadar.org/">Mechon Hadar</a> for example, which help <em>independent </em>community members connect with folks from other communities both socially, for learning, and for mentoring each other on the mechanics of running minyanim. <br /><br />I put "independent" in scare quotes since I think it is a silly term that doesn't do a good job describing what makes these communities different. More on why <a href="http://divinityisinthedetails.blogspot.com/2006/09/is-independent-best-descriptor-of-our.html">here</a>.<br /><br /><ul><strong>Orthodox</strong></ul><br /><br />Though Orthodoxy is frequently thought of as one of the "big three" along with the Conservative and Reform movements it isn't really analogous. The Orthodox world has many denominations. It is an umbrella containing a variety of ideologies with aligned institutions. For instance, Lubovitch, has its own seminaries, schools, places of worship, etc, and is parallel to C and R. Modern orthodoxy has some institutions (YU, Maimonides etc) and is somewhat parallel. This is a world linked by ideology (though the spread between Soloveichik, Salanter, and Schneerson is enormous). Many orthodox communities, as it happens, don't have paid clergy lead prayers and are, in this regard, lay-led making some orthodox prayer groups minyanim or even (ack!) havurot.<br /><br /><br /><ul><strong>Reconstructionist</strong></ul><br /><br />Reconstructionism is somewhat like Cons. and Ref. It has a seminary, Rabbinical Association, synagogue coordinating organization, youth group, and camp. It is somewhat different in that it has a commitment to local community process to create policy and construct ideology. it has a similarly wide spread to the havurot. Though it has just a smidge over 100 congregations some use a (the?) hechsher system for koshrut, others use an eco-koshrut approach, yet others are vegetarian as a means of making food match their values. Some have clergy-oriented services and others are chavurot or minyanim. <br /><br />Reconstructionism differs from Reform and Conservative in that it was started primarily in a US context. As a result it prioritizes democracy at the national and local level to a very large degree. This may be part of why communal process is prioritized in the movements ideology. Recons have major aesthetic diversity but tend to be somewhat similar ideologically though the movement doesn't have positions quite the way the Conservative movement does. <br /><br />Lastly, it's useful to not that in the early years of Reconstructionism (<a href="http://www.rrc.edu/site/c.iqLPIWOEKrF/b.1453735/k.90AF/RRC_Home_Page.htm">RRC</a> and Havurat Shalom were both founded in 1968), there was a lot of cross-pollination. Many early Recon rabbis were Conservative-trained and had been part of the community-learning model in the Kaplanian Havurot. The NHC was originally located at the Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and Havurot (FRCH was the USCJ equivalent). The director of FRCH was a member of a minyan. In the years since, the Recons became more focused on growth in suburban synagogues though there are major exceptions.<br /><br /><br /><ul><strong>Reform</strong></ul><br /><br />Like the Conservative grouping, Reform is an ideological, aesthetic, and organization grouping. There is diversity on all points. <br /><br /><br /><ul><strong>Renewal</strong></ul><br /><br />Renewal is an interesting case. It is somewhat similar to the Con., Rec., Ref. set since it has institutional, ideological, and aesthetic connections but is much smaller and has a different model for Rabbinic training. I understand that it is decentralized. In some sense, Renewal is more like an "independent" synagogue. It tends to have employed clergy but limited institutional frameworks. Of course the main nuance between havurah and Renewal is that the former is lay-led and the latter tends to be focused around charismatic leaders (rebbes).<br /><br />It is useful to have labels that give us shortcuts in understanding the practices, preferences, and beliefs of others. These <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuristic">heuristics</a> can help a lot but haven't kept pace with the times. We now have many which overlap. What kind of Jew are you? Well I prefer the structure of a havurah, the basic ideology of Reconstructionism, and pluralistic institutions. If you happen to go to a Conservative synagogue, send your kids to USY and Ramah, and like the prayer book/Rabbi's sermons you have a much easier answer than I do. As the years have gone by, and America has changed, people increasingly want embrace complicated identities. I talk a lot more, <a href="http://www4.jrf.org/node/2122">here</a>, about how institutional decoupling will happen over time. Increasingly people will want to separate the organizations for Israeli politics, American politics, worship, camp, etc since our placement of one slides (israel, etc) doesn't strongly correlate with others, hence the interest in having several sliders rather than just one (Reform, Ortho, etc). More and more people will want to separate their Institutional, Ideological, and Aesthetic affiliations. This is why the old denominations are changing and most young people are looking for different solutions. The labels are changing because Jewish life is changing. We'll need to develop better organizations and better labels to keep up. <br /><br />[<a href="http://jewschool.com/2009/12/03/18949/movement-denominations-and-minyanimoh-my/">Crossposted </a>at Jewschool]ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-28028434155239304252009-08-17T15:59:00.010-04:002009-09-01T10:36:46.339-04:00Shtick[I hope there will be a lot of collaboration on this one, so i will set out the framework and edit it a lot, so please make suggestions and additions in comments and I'll add them to the main text.]<br /><br />One of the most festive parts of the (Ashkenazic?) Jewish wedding tradition is the <span style="font-style: italic;">shtick</span>. According to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shtick">Wikepedia</a>:<br /><blockquote>"Shtick" is derived from the Yiddish word שטיק, meaning "piece"; the closely-related German word <i>Stück</i> has the same meaning.<br /></blockquote>In a wedding context however, it refers to a specific part of the dancing. Generally there is circle dancing. At some point brides and grooms (and sometimes their families) are lifted in chairs. Once the couple* is returned to ground level it is time to fulfill a special wedding-specific miztvah: <span style="font-style: italic;">mesameach chatan v' kallah </span>(gladdening the groom and bride).<br /><br />The general setup is:<br /><ul><li>bride and groom is sitting on chairs </li><li>open space in front of them</li><li>music playing </li><li>people standing around the open space. </li></ul>Now, many things will happen, all designed to entertain the couple. I'll look at a few categories of entertainment and then at a few common tricks. I am sure that many of you will have all sorts of ideas as to how to do these various tricks better and will have suggestions of others I forgot. My intention is to create a framework so that we can all collaborate to make a good repository of ideas so that folks unfamiliar with this part of a wedding can think about how they'd like to participate ahead of time. My personal experience, is that this offers an opportunity for different kinds of skills to emerge and people who aren't used to having some of their talents recognized in a Jewish context get that chance here.<br /><br /><u>Skits</u><br />Oftentimes guests who know the bride and/or groom well will have prepared various sorts of brief skits. These should be short because quick turnover is important to the flow, and these can drag out if brevity isn't a focus. As my new neighbor, <a href="http://mahrabu.blogspot.com/">BZ</a>, reminded me--since the music is often loud, skits should be purely visual so the bride, groom, and assembled masses can all enjoy it without hyper-focus. Examples?<br /><br /><u>Signs, Decorations, etc</u><br />It commonly happens that people will use inside jokes, groom/bride related humor, etc to concoct funny posters and other objects that relate to the specific couple. Who has examples?<br /><br /><u> Cuteness</u><br />Often, kids get involved and do very cute things. I saw a 7-year old bring a violin once, hush the band and play a piece he had recently learned. It was delicious.<br /><br /><u>Dancing/Acrobatics</u><br />Personally, this is my favorite category. Tons of approaches are in-bounds. Magic tricks, feats of strength and balance, fancy dancing, and anything else worthy of the spotlight. Here are a few examples:<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Bottle Dancing</span>--This is a feat of balance that ranges from simple to extremely hard. You move around with a bottle on your head. If you are beginning you might just walk around, which may very well impress. The guy pictured below can come very close to lying down and standing back up without ever touching the bottle. Word to the wise: this trick is easiest when the bottle is about half full. Difficulty: Ranges. Wow Factor: Very High. Injury Risk: Low.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixPsWoejs2A2G435hm9iNJ_JzicN2YtOSgay_rELrs5PV6h07FFWzhN6j_bCzUoTpZCR_JiHRjrvVTAoPQ7bJMwGFNxSTaTpyWx0S4WI-ih13ogVOKxLpmhe2VWkp8YzmvhjeMuQ/s1600-h/bottle+dance.bmp"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 236px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixPsWoejs2A2G435hm9iNJ_JzicN2YtOSgay_rELrs5PV6h07FFWzhN6j_bCzUoTpZCR_JiHRjrvVTAoPQ7bJMwGFNxSTaTpyWx0S4WI-ih13ogVOKxLpmhe2VWkp8YzmvhjeMuQ/s320/bottle+dance.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5371345950124367026" border="0" /></a> (Photos Courtesy of <a href="http://jewschool.com/author/thewanderingjew/">The Wandering Jew</a>)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Super Spin </span>(no idea the actual name): This one is about balance and focus. It happens with two people. They hold both their partner's hands, lean back and spin as fast as possible. Without good execution this can lead to all sorts of problems. A few thoughts on how to do it well. You need a lot of space--if you don't have enough you may end up in a high speed collision. Make sure your hands are fairly dry. If you lose your grip, both people will go flying. There is some tendency to move together away from your starting point, slow down when you feel this motion since you will be somewhat disoriented and have a difficult time judging how far you can move. Generally, it's optimal to have people of roughly the same size and weight if you plan to go very fast. Additional variation: if one person is much lighter then the other, the light-one can jump and become fully horizontal. Difficulty: Low-Moderate. Wow Factor: Moderate. Injury Risk: High, if inexperienced. The name I attached to this is stupid. Does anyone have a better suggestion?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghJxd61RHTS7jsrdmPvbIo3tOIrtxjjV9-ACM3Uxn0mW39cJ2biVMrM-0GjRTHyQYBDXMzeEA_b28803l3azEhLOJMUg38Dpas5kSN2ngoVnGuC-fBl2Zi9rZB7RJ4pHDb-dAk4g/s1600-h/circle+game.bmp"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 238px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghJxd61RHTS7jsrdmPvbIo3tOIrtxjjV9-ACM3Uxn0mW39cJ2biVMrM-0GjRTHyQYBDXMzeEA_b28803l3azEhLOJMUg38Dpas5kSN2ngoVnGuC-fBl2Zi9rZB7RJ4pHDb-dAk4g/s320/circle+game.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5371346445269136546" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Flying Hora</span>--This is another trick that is easy to dabble in and hard to execute well. It happens with an even number of people and is a close relative of the super-spin which is discussed above. The taller (and usually bulkier) folks spin the leaner folks so they are nearly horrizontal. This is accomplished by the taller folks holding each others hands and the lighter folks holding hands behind the taller folks shoulders. If you want to try this out, look at the specifics of the grips and locations in the picture below carefully. Difficulty: Moderate. Wow Factor: High. Injury Risk: Low, if experienced.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_QTfyF29Z6fNkchSV2CiAPo1oatlGRagAHz_2mNW5l65MJr0kqe5LmqtdCKbb0_U_vuewt8fDL81sxC8-7AhRLjPm9fKLFS6tMd_0xkqLKOOEkJBhcbk0h0XeTnrxl_PwpkUzBQ/s1600-h/flyinghora.bmp"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 236px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_QTfyF29Z6fNkchSV2CiAPo1oatlGRagAHz_2mNW5l65MJr0kqe5LmqtdCKbb0_U_vuewt8fDL81sxC8-7AhRLjPm9fKLFS6tMd_0xkqLKOOEkJBhcbk0h0XeTnrxl_PwpkUzBQ/s320/flyinghora.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5371346308754807954" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Juggling</span>--pretty obvious. Difficulty: Ranges. Wow Factor: Medium (unless stuff is burning, then high. If plastic is burning, very high, bro.) Injury Risk: negligible.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Kazatsky </span>(sp): This is one of a variety of difficult dances which originated in the Russian folks dance tradition. It features kicks from a squated position. This one takes practice, balance, strong ankles, backs, and legs. It also has a wide range of variations with different difficulties. The name, probably emerged from Kazak, the word for Cossack in many Eastern European and Central Asian languages. Here is a video that features the most common variation of that dance at the 0:38 mark. Difficulty: Ranges widely. Wow Factor: Moderately high. Injury Risk: Moderate (especially with a history of back or groin problems).<br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2dNyBN8wZ7E&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2dNyBN8wZ7E&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Balancing Stuff: </span>People sometimes do complicated balancing routines besides the bottle/head maneuver. Just this past weekend I saw a guy balance a folding chair on his chin.Difficulty: High. Wow Factor: High. Injury Risk: Modest (mostly to people besides the balancer).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Fire Tricks</span>: This is a very broad category of tricks which includes everything from juggling to fire swallowing. My personal favorite involves lighting hats on fire. Fedoras work well for this. It must be done with a liquid that will burn at a lower heat than the one at which the hat's material will burn (or melt). The theory goes, that the fluid (isopropyl alcohol, for instance) will burn but the hat will not, giving the appearance of the hat being on fire but not being consumed. Make sure there isn't alcohol on the under side of the top of the hat. You MUST NOT use a fluid with a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_point">fire point</a> close to that of the hat nor can you let the hat burn for more than a few minutes. Lastly, beware of hats made of synthetic materials as they can melt. If you get good you can also toss the hat. As with any fire trick, beware of this <a href="http://shullymully.com/family/well-done-wedding-schtick/">problem</a> and make sure you have water or an extinguisher handy. Difficulty: Modest. Wow Factor: Very High. Injury Risk: Ranges widely with practice level.<br /> <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCnRFwbEqJI7Jjj0kHilLjcfQR_MULS_UNq8TBQfkzPKCBMumjpJ9BMJyUJ5Vj-KSv80nkWgsLgxRGJKMmJ7MupSFBUyx1gnr6q-xSpMomGUdpkEo4Dsi5UHXE204SIL4ZcngOzA/s1600-h/hatonfire.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCnRFwbEqJI7Jjj0kHilLjcfQR_MULS_UNq8TBQfkzPKCBMumjpJ9BMJyUJ5Vj-KSv80nkWgsLgxRGJKMmJ7MupSFBUyx1gnr6q-xSpMomGUdpkEo4Dsi5UHXE204SIL4ZcngOzA/s320/hatonfire.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5376507898740536194" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Human Pyramid:</span> You are no doubt familiar with this standby. Obviously, bigger people on the bottom, lighter folks on the top. Difficulty: Depends on size. Wow Factor: Depends on size. Injury Risk: Modest.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Break Dancing:</span> This is another big category. Be it b-boying, popping/locking, capoeira-influenced it will be a hit. Difficulty: High. Wow Factor: High. Injury Risk: modest.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Wheelbarrow: </span>This is another piece of shtick that is very common. It is exactly as you remember from grade school. One person holds the other's legs and the other walks on his/her hands. Some just go straight to walking on their hands.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bull Fight</span>: This is another common maneuver often making an appearance during the shtick portion of the celebration. You typically see a person with a napkin waving it as a matador might. A second person snorts and charges as a bull might. Great fun is had by all.<br /><br />What other things have folks done, seen, considered?<br /><br />Here is a <a href="http://jewishweddingsblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/amazing-wedding-shtick.html">clip</a> of what I assume is a professional shtick guy. He does some wild stuff.<br /><br /><br />*for simplicity's sake I will defer to a wedding with one groom and one bride, though several other combinations are obviously possible. Brides, Grooms, and a Bride+Groom function basically identically in this ritual, so assume when I say "Bride and Groom" assume I mean "a bride and a groom, brides, or grooms" .ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-24081470085529319112009-05-21T15:58:00.002-04:002009-05-21T16:13:09.834-04:00The BattleI just had a birthday. In this era of social media I found myself warmly embraced. Thanks to all who called, e-mailed, facebooked, sung on conference calls etc.<br /><br />Before I get into my main birthday-related point I should say that I am mostly posting elsewhere these days and apologize that this blog has largely fallen into disuse. I occasionally post at Jewschool.com. You can find my feed <a href="http://jewschool.com/author/zt/">here</a>. I also have gotten into <a href="http://labornerd.blogspot.com/">Labornerd</a> where I post occasionally under a super-secret pseudonym. So check me out in those places.<br /><br />Now, back to my story. My parents came to town for my birthday. We had a few great meals and hunted for wedding venues for a bit. Then we ran a couple errands. When they departed I used a newly learned skill (thanks Aba!) to fix some scratches in the floor with polyurethane. This experience worried me greatly. By itself, fixing one's floor isn't worrisome. What is worrisome is the satisfaction and happiness it provided. I fear that I am now in the waning years of my fight against being grown up.ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-91087342657024390082009-05-01T10:17:00.004-04:002009-05-01T10:51:55.961-04:00Souter and SpecterA few quick thoughts on recent events:<br /><ul><li>Specter switched due to polling. (obvious)<br /></li><li>I prefer him as a Dem than as Rep but I'd prefer a real Democrat. (nothing new here).</li><li>If Specter isn't the key vote on cloture for several major issues (un-rigging labor law, healthcare, judges) then he will get a serious primary opponent. Perhaps <a href="http://schwartz.house.gov/">Allyson Schwartz</a>. </li><li>He may get a decently top-tier challenge anyways from <a href="http://sestak.house.gov/">Joe Sestak</a>. </li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Sestak">Sestak </a>is a telegenic former Navy Vice Admiral and would run well statewide, but I have an inkling that we could get someone a bit more progressive.</li><li> Whether Schwartz, Sestak or someone else, that person might sit a long time. The state is now solidly blue and trending bluer.<br /></li><li>Lots of Dems are pissed that Specter is getting to carryover his <a href="http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/democrats-push-back-on-specter-deal-2009-04-29.html">seniortiy</a>.</li><li>I suggest they give him .5 years of Dem Seniority for every year he has been in the Senate. That way, he won't get any major chairmanships ahead of Feingold, Boxer, Mikulski, etc and won't be a Senator long enough for the deal to screw young Senators. Arlen might accept the deal in order to get a prominent sub-committee chairmanship.<br /></li><li>Here is the seniority list of the Senate Judiciary <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_Committee_on_the_Judiciary">Committee</a>. Hatch has occasionally been very reasonable. I wonder how he will perfrom as Ranking Minority Member.</li><li>We really, really don't want the guy who presided over the Alito and Roberts processes chairing Judiciary if Leahy swings to Approps.</li><li>How did the Souter news impact Specter's decesion?</li><li>Shouldn't we have extracted a deal where by he would have supported our candidates as a Republican and given a bipartisan veneer?</li><li>Specter must have known this was coming down the pike. It wasn't much of a secret. I, for intance, am very much out of the loop, especially on SCOTUS, and heard rumors starting before pesach.<br /></li></ul>ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-23860549623520537922009-03-10T12:18:00.002-04:002009-03-10T12:24:21.066-04:0025 Best DaysPeople often worry about down markets and investing in them.<br />Once the market is down, it generally has some of it's best days of growth on the way up.<br /><br />This makes a teaching from Ramit Sethi especially timely:<br /><br />From 1970-2006 (the period studied) the average return of the S&P 500 was 11.1%. In that 36 year period, what would your return have been if you missed the best 25 days (less than 1 day per year)?<br /><br />Was it 11.0%? 10.7%? 8.4%? 7.6%?<br /><br />Think about it for a minute and then check the excerpt from his book below.<br /><br />From Ramit's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0761147489?ie=UTF8&tag=preorder-blog-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0761147489">book</a>: “Recently, a group called Dimensional Funds studied the performance of the S&P 500 from January 1970 to December 2006, during which time the annualized return of the market was 11.1%. They also noted something amazing: Of those 36 years from 1970 to 1986, if you missed the 25 days when the stock market performed the best, your return would have dropped from 11.1% to 7.6%, a crippling difference."ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-10190174018315525012009-03-10T11:41:00.002-04:002009-03-10T11:45:31.484-04:00Better than a Nursing Home at half the costI read this wonderful <a href="http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-me-cafeteria8-2009mar08,0,7329796.story">piece</a> <span style="font-style: italic;">A faithful diner's last will and condiments</span> in the LA Times. It's about a guy who spent decades of his life eating three meals a day at a small college in Southern California.<br /><blockquote>Over the years, the gray-haired man in the short-sleeved plaid shirt became a legend at the 2,200-student university, where -- over a plate of Swedish meatballs and a large bowl of soft-serve ice cream -- he would hold court in the crowded dining hall. Lindsay befriended students and dispensed Depression-era advice to anyone who would listen: Respect your parents, never drink or smoke, be frugal, save money.</blockquote>It just seems like such a fun way to age, imparting wisdom, and spending time in a vibrant atmosphere. Acting as a source of institutional memory and serving as a student advocate. He loved the community so much that he donated his estate to the college. Read the story. It's totally sweet.ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-78204926719194725592009-02-27T14:06:00.002-05:002009-02-27T14:20:29.483-05:00Getting a DealIt was our office intern's birthday today so several of us took her out for lunch. It took 40 minutes or so for our food to come and so I asked for the manager and said, "our food eventually came and we enjoyed it but it took 45 minutes. Can you please offer us a discount," and handed him the bill. A few minutes later he came to our table with a 20% reduced bill. They asked me to explain a bit how I worked it out. I think there are a few things to keep in mind when asking for a discount based on poor service, performance, etc:<br /><br />1) Ask.<br /><br />It is unlikely the manager knew we had waited that long and the bill didn't come with a discount. You aren't out much by asking so you mine-as-well. In this case, as with most, the manager was happy to offer a discount in the hopes that we would return and spread the word that they were accommodating rather than had poor service.<br /><br />2) Make sure to talk with someone who has the authority to grant your request.<br /><br />In the case I mentioned above, this meant realizing it wasn't the server's fault and she probably couldn't offer us a discount, so I found the manager.<br /><br />3) Have them make the first offer.<br /><br />The manager has a better sense of what is reasonable than I do so I punt to him. I didn't say "i'd like $10 off" just that I'd like a discount. It's very hard for him to say no to a discount of any sort and once he has mentally committed to it, he'll likely make a decent offer. You appear nice, and then have room to bargain further. <br /><br />4) Be Nice.<br /><br />This is implicit in 3. I made sure to point out that the food was good. It's embarassing for a manager who care's about his/her business to find out about an instance of poor service or performance. Everyone does better when negative (constructive) feedback is tempered with the positive.<br /><br />The main takeaway here is that the key is <span style="font-weight: bold;">asking</span>. Do it nicely and make sure it's to the right person and you'll get plenty of discounts in the years to come.ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-46204530215752918182009-02-23T13:57:00.002-05:002009-02-23T14:10:44.869-05:00GanjmentumNate Silver has a good <a href="http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/02/americans-growing-kinder-to-bud.html">piece</a> up about the increasing popularity of marijuana legalization. Apparently the numbers have been on the rise for the last twenty years and now are roughly 42 in favor and 50 against. Here is his chart:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiUzHxGELYdiKFQ0_T1KTq-OLXi9cNR-zDXQuNeSZvB5AQuXPTgaGgLqS93RXFFVG6GQ5PZFV0-FHJ1VKmT5uonpKKcliMBWDVvAxIqejZmOlIJNPPPhZC_GyhRQ1mgYdOcJaL-Q/s400/pot.PNG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 311px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiUzHxGELYdiKFQ0_T1KTq-OLXi9cNR-zDXQuNeSZvB5AQuXPTgaGgLqS93RXFFVG6GQ5PZFV0-FHJ1VKmT5uonpKKcliMBWDVvAxIqejZmOlIJNPPPhZC_GyhRQ1mgYdOcJaL-Q/s400/pot.PNG" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />These polls are usually based on a simple permutation of "Do you favor or oppose the legalization of marijuana." I doubt most respondents have heard the best arguments in favor (or perhaps against). The result is that they answer based on whether they think marijuana is harmful or not particularly harmful rather than thinking through how a thing being legal or illegal impacts its incidence. If someone was framiliar with these three arguments (my favorites) I bet they'd be a lot more than 42% likely to support legalization of marijuana (or at least decriminalization):<br /><ol><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Tough on Crime</span> When we prohibited alcohol it led to the rapid expansion and increasing violence of gangs because they had a natural market. LEgalizing marijuana would hurt the multi-national gangs that sometimes sell it.</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Makes it Safer</span> The biggest health risk with marijuana is foreign additives like rat poison (rare but dangerous). If it was legal and FDA regulated, people could be much surer of the safety or non-safety of a specific package. Since usage would be unlikely to change much from legalization this would be a good way to make the public safer.<br /></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Save money, make money</span>. Because it would be sold in more conventional ways, marijuana would be taxed and the US would generate billions of a dollars in revenues. Lord know we could use the money. I'd force a % of it into education. The US has more non-violent drug offenders locked up than there are people imprisoned for all crimes in all of Europe. It is very costly to lock people up. We'd save almost as much money from not locking up marijuana users as we would gain from the tax. The economic impacts taken together are very powerful.</li></ol>I just don't see many good arguments on the other side. Perhaps the best is that it is thought that if marijuana was legalized it would become more convenient to purchase and thus be used more resulting in other problems.ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-13114954311539584472009-01-21T11:23:00.003-05:002009-01-21T11:44:59.454-05:00InaugurationWow, what a day!<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Wake up 5:50 AM</span><br />We serve coffee and outmeal to the 7 people staying at our place. Thankfully the Fire Marshall didn't show (this will be a recurring theme of the day).<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Leave house 6:35<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Arrive Metro 6:40</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Get on first train toward Branch Avenue 6:45<span style="font-style: italic;"></span><br /></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Arrive L'Enfant Plaza 7:00</span><br />This is when the problems start. People can move through the exit gates (if all 8 are set for exiting) faster than they can move up the stairs to street level. So, to keep from having people get knocked up the stairs, they only opened the exit gates every few minutes for about 30 seconds. This was smart and would have been even smarter if they communicated what was going on. All we could see (Pilar, Becca, and I) was that we were in a mass of thousands of people, pressed close enough that i didn't need to hold our newsaper, i could just leave it pinned between other people and my jacket. It was an awful feeling to have no idea what was going on and have no motion for 5 minutes at a time as the crowd grew larger and more unruly. Chants of "let us out" were much more commons than anything patriotic. (Again, thankfully the Fire Marshall was absent from the scene. I can't imagine they would have approved)<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Exit L'Enfant Plaza 8:00</span><br />We next got ourselves to the Silver Ticket line. At that point it was about 4 blocks long. It was totally stangnant and then starter moving at a jogging pace. Again, no communication, but at least this time there was much progress.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Enter The Silver Section ~8:40</span><br />I eventually got patted down and let in to our section. We were right by the first jumbotron and about 500 feet from the main show on the Capitol steps. It was pretty slow at first but we had some good space, set down newspapers and set up camp. It was about 22 degrees or so and we were bundled up. Becca and Pilar felt it was time to pass the time in song. We kicked out <span style="font-style: italic;">This Land is Your Land</span> and as we started some mid-late 20s folks from Foggy Bottom joined in as did an older Black lady from Texas and several other nearby people. The older lady had some other suggestions and seemed to know all the lyrics to every song suggested. It turns out she was an elementary school music teacher in Texas.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Innauguration Begins</span><br />The actual program was probably seen by just about everyone so I won't get too much into the specifics, just crowd reactions that might not have been clear on TV.<br />Biggest booing of the day: Lieberman (way more than Bush or Cheney). I found this surprising but am no fan of any of the three myself.<br />When Bush entered there were lots of boos. Many bursted out with <span style="font-style: italic;">sha-na-na-na sha-na-na-na hey hey hey goodbye</span>. It was sweet and cathartic.<br />Obama seemed to trip up the swearing in but we later found out that Roberts had actually erred.<br /><br />To get home we walked to <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=waterfront+metro&sll=38.89611,-77.022905&sspn=0.001979,0.003455&dirflg=w&ie=UTF8&ll=38.87473,-77.01107&spn=0.030069,0.055275&t=h&z=14&iwloc=addr">Waterfront Metro</a> and headed for home.<br /><br />All told, it was a day for the ages. The logistics were terrible. Imagine leaving a baseball game but 50 times worse and 10 times as long. The program, though was worth it. To be part of such a moment was perhaps a once in a lifetime oppurtunity and one we happily accepted. I sincerely hope that this is a real inflection point in American politics. We shall see.ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-76102633370360128492009-01-21T10:55:00.003-05:002009-01-21T11:23:10.079-05:00Eagles ReviewThis past year was an incredible run that showed heart, shocking failure, and unexpected victory, all punctuated with piercing heartbreaking loss.<br /><br />Looking forward, the Eagles have more draftpicks that any other football team (10), including 1.22, 1.28, 2.22, 3.22, 4.22, 5.5, 5.22, 6.22, 6.23, and 7.22. If you were to trade all their extra picks for a single pick, using the NFL chart, they'd be worth (660+39.5+19.2=718.7) roughly the 25th pick in the first round.<br /><br />Now, to review there areas of need:<br /><br />QB: McNabb had a terrible first half against the Cardinals and needs to improve his consistency but is the best chance we have to win next year. His backups are fine. We may see a late-round flyer since Andy likes to draft QBs in that way but nothing should come on the first day.<br /><br />RB: Buck is probably heading out since he wants a bigger role (and should get one somewhere). 36 is getting old and his game has been becoming less scary. He needs to take fewer carries. It's time to draft a better version of Ryan Moats to learn from Westbrook and take over at the end of the 2010 season. Westrbook is a great blocker and this shouldn't be overlooked. Eckel seems fine as a third-RB. I'd assume we'd draft a back in the first three rounds. Here are some <a href="http://www.fftoolbox.com/nfl_draft/2009/top-nfl-prospects-for-2009.cfm?pos=RB">profiles</a>.<br /><br />WR: Baskett should no longer be thought of as a future starter. He dropped too many important balls in the playoffs. That said he is fine at number 4. Avant is perfect for number 3. Curtis and Jackson are good for #s 1 and 2. That leaves me wondering about Greg Lewis and Reggie Brown. I wonder if we can trade Brown and the Panther pick to get to a middle pick in the first round.<br /><br />TE: We need a guy who attracts defenseive attention and can block LBs well and DE's decently well. Tough set of skills to combine, I know, but this is a probable use of a first round pick.<br /><br />O-Line: I think Runyan and Thomas have lost some of their oomph. One or both should be let go based on film study. The running game was mediocre in the playoffs and used to be a strength. My gut is that Runyan goes, Herrmans slots in at RT and Cole/MJG slides in at LG. How has dunlap been progressing? Any signs of life from Justice?<br /><br />D-Line: Looks very good. If we move Klecko back to rush on passing downs then Howard may get cut. Johnson would love Peppers but I think we may need to budget more money towards the offense. We only get Peppers if we can get some picks for Lito.<br /><br />LBs: It's be great to get a Will-LB and have Jordan be the 4th guy and rotate.<br /><br />CBs: If Jack Ikegwuono looks good, then lets trade Lito and resign Joselio. Can we get a 3d rounder? That'd be great.<br /><br />FS: Is Demps good enough to take over? If not, this is a high priority for a using a first-round or second-round pick.<br /><br />SS: Mikell is good. Condesine seems like a mediocre backup but it's too expensive to have great backups everywhere.<br /><br />P: Rocca is golden. Needs practice punting in bad conditions.<br /><br />K: Akers looked terrible at Arizona (in a dome no less) and will get some stiff competition. Unlikely but possible scenario: we use a late-round pick on a kicker.ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-59849506610295353122009-01-16T11:57:00.002-05:002009-01-16T12:04:24.322-05:00Heroes are Usually Union MembersAlan directed me to this great <a href="http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/01/16/this-miracle-brought-to-you-by-americas-unions/">account</a> of the USAir crash and heroic campaign that successfully saved everyone. I was at LaGuardia earlier in the day for work and the conditions were really lousy. Anyways, in times like these it is wonderful to appreciate people who go above and beyond, sublimating selfishness to a real sense of duty, like the pilot who went the whole length of the plane twice to ensure everyone was off before he left. The frigid waters were pouring in and he insisted on being the last one off.<br />Amidst all the hoopla and media coverage i didn't hear the word "union" once. It is therefor quite notable, as EmptyWheel points out that almost all the folks who saved the lives are union and the safety training they have gotten was bargained for by the union's for exactly this reason. In tough negotiations many members have forgone raises to keep safety training when the boss has forced us to decide. So thank god for that.<br />Here is Emptywheel's post:<br /><blockquote>They're <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/nyregion/16crash.html?pagewanted=1&hp">calling it a miracle</a>--the successful landing of a US Airways jet in the Hudson and subsequent rescue of all 155 passengers. They're detailing the heroism of all involved, starting with the pilot and including cabin crew, ferry crews, and first responders. What they're not telling you is that just about every single one of these heros is a union member. <p>There's the pilot: </p> <blockquote><div class="wbq"><p>What might have been a catastrophe in New York — one that evoked the feel if not the scale of the Sept. 11 attack — was averted by a pilot’s quick thinking and deft maneuvers,</p> <p>[snip]</p> <p>On board, the pilot, Chesley B. Sullenberger III, 57, unable to get back to La Guardia, had made a command decision to avoid densely populated areas and try for the Hudson,</p> <p>[snip]</p> <p>When all were out, the pilot walked up and down the aisle twice to make sure the plane was empty, officials said. </p> </div></blockquote> <p>Sullenberger is a former <a href="http://www.examiner.com/x-2071-DC-Special-Interests-Examiner%7Ey2009m1d15-Miracle-on-the-Hudson-happened-thanks-to-the-skill-and-dedication-of-union-workers">national committee member</a> and the former safety chairman for the <a href="http://www.alpa.org/">Airline Pilots Association</a> and now represented by <a href="http://usairlinepilots.org/default2.htm">US Airline Pilots Association</a>. He--and his union--have fought to ensure pilots get the kind of safety training to pull off what he did yesterday.</p> <p>Then there are the flight attendants: </p> <blockquote><div class="wbq"><p>One passenger, Elizabeth McHugh, 64, of Charlotte, seated on the aisle near the rear, said flight attendants shouted more instructions: feet flat on the floor, heads down, cover your heads. </p> </div></blockquote> <p>They are members of the <a href="http://www.afanet.org/">Association of Flight Attendants-CWA</a>. Yesterday's accident should remind all of us that flight attendants are first and foremost safety professionals--they should not be treated like cocktail waitresses.</p> <p>There are the air traffic controllers: </p> <blockquote><div class="wbq"><p> The pilot radioed air traffic controllers on Long Island that his plane had sustained a “double bird strike.” </p> </div></blockquote> <p>They're represented by the <a href="http://www.natca.org/about/default.aspx">National Air Traffic Controllers Association</a>. Someday, they'll rename National Airport for the work these men and women do to keep us safe in the air. </p> <p>There are the ferry crews: </p> <blockquote><div class="wbq"><p>As the first ferry nudged up alongside, witnesses said, some passengers were able to leap onto the decks. Others were helped aboard by ferry crews.</p> </div></blockquote> <p>They're represented by the <a href="http://www.seafarers.org/index.xml">Seafarers International Union</a>. They provide safety training to their members so they're prepared for events like yesterday's accident. </p> <p>There are the cops and firemen: </p> <blockquote><div class="wbq"><p>Helicopters brought wet-suited police divers, who dropped into the water to help with the rescues. </p> </div></blockquote> <p>They're represented by the <a href="http://nycpba.org/news/index.html">Patrolmen's Benevolent Association</a> and the <a href="http://www.ufanyc.org/index.php">Uniformed Firefighters Association</a> and <a href="http://www.ufoa.org/index.htm">Uniformed Fire Officers Association</a> (IAFF locals).<span id="more-3387"></span>They're the men and women who performed so heroically on 9/11--and they've been fighting to make sure first responders get the equipment to do this kind of thing.</p> <p>Bob Corker and Richard Shelby like to claim that union labor is a failed business model.</p> <p>But I haven't heard much about Bob Corker and Richard Shelby saving 155 people's lives.<br /></p></blockquote>ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-909023359116660752009-01-14T10:14:00.002-05:002009-01-14T10:15:18.046-05:00Pirkei Avot II (Sayings of our Ancestors)My mother often said "90% is showing up" when I worried about going to be supportive and not knowing what to say. "The main thing is to be there."ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-76388376467874954292009-01-13T17:17:00.004-05:002009-01-13T17:20:32.335-05:00High-Class ProblemI suppose, in every experience we have there is learning. One of the most interesting things I learned in my second job (an extension of my first job), from my <a href="http://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/s71300/testimony/patters1.htm">boss</a>, was thinking of certain kinds of problems as <span style="font-style: italic;">high-class problems</span>. They are the types of problems created of success. For instance, when your press release hits it exactly right and so many reporters call for additional quotes that you can't get back to them all before their press deadlines, that is a high-class problem. It's a great phrase that has helped refined my thinking a bit. Thanks Bill!ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-59365224516461880812009-01-13T17:09:00.003-05:002009-01-13T17:13:05.120-05:00Pirkei Avot I (Sayings of our Ancestors)My Grandpa Sam sometimes used to say: "Never trust anyone who says 'trust me.'"<br />"If they can't earn your trust through what they do, let that tell you something."ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-24964209019599849502008-12-23T09:48:00.003-05:002009-01-03T19:01:57.717-05:00A Primer on DC Neighborhoods for Young Progressive FolksPeople thinking of moving to DC often ask me (and many others) for an overview of neighborhoods they could live in and so I figured I should put something up based on the e-mail I've been using.<br /><br />There are several neighborhoods to consider living in, each with some perks and potential drawbacks.<br /><br />I spent my first three years in DC living in <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Mount <span name="st">Pleasant</span></span> which is a mix of residential and commercial. My street there was quiet but a few blocks away from the commercial strip which is peppered with central american papusarias and bodegas while having the requisite liquor store, convenience joints, grommet pizza place, and yuppie progressive bar. MtP is mostly populated by Latinos and young non-profit workers of various sorts. It's a great place and I highly recommend it. Rent for one bedrooms tend to run $900-1200 a month for most places. There are lots of English basement apartments around (small windows, mostly below ground). A room in a group house generally runs $700-$900 but can be cheaper if it is extremely small or the house is not well maintained.<br /><br />I currently live in <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Columbia Heights </span>which is a much bigger neighborhood than MtP. It is closer to a Metro station and is more block-to-block, meaning some are gorgeous, safe and cheap while other blocks are less safe or gorgeous and that there is substantial economic diversity, moreso than other neighborhoods. There are beautiful renovations, dilapidated houses, and assitted housing all on the same blocks sometimes. <span style="font-weight: bold;">CH</span> is east of Mount <span name="st">Pleasant</span>. Lots of people are moving in here and it just got a big box development strip with Target, Best Buy, a slew of great restaurants, etc. Some parts are gentrified and others and the racial mix is mostly White and Black with few Latinos. Rent is cheaper than MtP but the scales overlap. This also comes highly recomended but care should be used and all houses should be looked at in person.<br /><br />other choices include:<br /><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> <span name="st">DuPont</span> Cirlce</span> is snazzier, and significantly more expensive than MtP/CH, and has a very large gay community (especially known for gay men with small dogs). <span name="st"> DuPont</span> is south of Mount <span name="st">Pleasant</span>. Rooms are about 50% more expensive than MtP. </li><li><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> Adams Morgan</span> is where the clubs are. its quite diverse and full of excitement. Its between <span name="st">Dupont</span> and MtP. There are tons of coffeshops, restaurants (Ethiopian, West African, Pizza, Italian, gourmet California-style, etc). Costs are similar to Mount <span name="st">Pleasant, maybe 10-20% more.</span><br /></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> <span name="st"><span name="st">Cleveland</span></span> <span name="st">Park</span> and <span name="st"><span class="nfakPe">Woodley</span></span> <span name="st">Park</span> </span> are quieter and more suburban feeling but very solid places to live, if not as racially diverse. They are both within the city. I am not sure how prices run. They have a reputation for being safer than MtP and Columbia Heights but I am not sure how much of that has to do with aesthetic factors and how much has to do with actual statistics. I feel quite safe in CH and did in MtP and never had any incidents that gave me pause to reconsider in either place. These neighborhoods (along with Dupont) are on the Red Line of the Metro which makes them east for many commuters.<br /></li><li><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Capitol Hill </span>is cool but i don't much about it because its kinda far away from <span name="st"> Dupont</span>/<span name="st"><span name="st"><span class="nfakPe">Columbia</span></span></span> <span name="st">Heights</span>/MtP/Adams Morgan which are all pretty close to each other. Like <span name="st"> <span class="nfakPe">Columbia</span></span> <span name="st">Heights</span> there are great values to be found here but it is also very block-by-block.<br /></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">U Street</span> took off as a spot where Black intellectuals and musicians thrived during the Renaissance. It still features a half-dozen live Jazz joints, Ben's Chili Bowl, a bunch of Ethiopian places, and some great bars. It is just south of <span class="nfakPe">Columbia</span> Heights and East of Adams Morgan. The prices are somewhat but not much higher than <span class="nfakPe">Columbia</span> Heights. It is majorly gentrifying, perhaps at the fastest rate of any neighborhood in the city. It is very close to where most people work and extremely well-served by transit.<br /></li><li><i><b>Takoma Park</b></i> is suburban but has coops and stuff. Some progressive folks live here but is in a different social loop and I don't know much about it.<br /></li></ul>There are lots of good choices. I love MtP/CH for its reasonable prices, neat people, unpretentiousness, and mix of quiet and commercial.<br /><br />I highly recommend getting involved with various activities upon becoming a DC person. It will create some welcomed diversity in your social life and keep you meeting new folks. For me, playing ultimate frisbee in the Washington Area Frisbee Club has been very useful.<br /><br />The free culture, great restaurants, wonderful neighborhoods, and un-apathetic vibes make DC a sweet spot to sojourn for a while. I am sure since my experience is limited, many will have useful additional information and perspectives please comment to fill out the picture.ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-24116574927996685492008-12-02T10:18:00.002-05:002008-12-02T10:33:06.346-05:00SubPrime MortgagesWe have all been hearing about "sub-prime" mortgages so I thought I'd do a 90 second explanation. * Basically, the more likely you are to pay back a loan, the lower rate you pay for the money. Your likelihood to repay is calculated by three credit rating agencies using several factors to generate a <span style="font-style: italic;">credit score</span>. You can read more <a href="http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/money/creditscores/your.htm">here</a>, but basically the agencies but a big emphasis on your <span style="font-weight: bold;">payment history </span>(are bills always paid ontime?) and <span style="font-weight: bold;">how much you owe </span>(are you using 30% or 90% of your available credit? 30% is much better). The remaining categories represent a combined third of your score: <span style="font-weight: bold;">length of credit score </span>(longer-->better), <span style="font-weight: bold;">New Credit/Inquiries </span>(it hurts when lots of people pull your credit score), and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Types of Credit</span> (more kinds are generally better but not enough to warrant risking not paying a bill). The score range varies by company and is about 300-850. Higher is better.<br /><br />For example, check out how the rates an monthly payments vary by credit score for a 30-year fixed loan of about $300,000:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/credit-affects-your-home-loan.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 423px; height: 224px;" src="http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/credit-affects-your-home-loan.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />A person with very marginal credit (<span style="font-weight: bold;">550</span>) pays about 55% more per month than someone with excellent credit. The good news is that those people weren't able to get loans at all in the old days, the bad news is that they pay a ginormous premium for being sub-prime borrowers. Generally speaking, 680 is the cutoff for a "Prime Rate" loan but it is a sliding scale.<br /><br />*I started working on predatory lending, sub-prime policy, etc while I was interning at The Reinvestment Fund.ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-68601637020660666022008-11-24T13:10:00.003-05:002008-11-24T13:16:34.891-05:00In Praise of Bialetti<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/316cDJbKdDL._SL500_AA280_.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 280px; height: 280px;" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/316cDJbKdDL._SL500_AA280_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />When I moved to DC I bought a set <a href="http://www.bialetti.com/">Bialetti </a>pots and pans at costco. For the most part they have held up very well. The workhorse of the set, a 12-inch skillet, slowly developed small splotches in it's non-stick coating. I decided that this was potentially unhealthy and certainly not normal wear+tear so I contacted the company an asked for an exchange. After sending them some pictures, they shipped me a new frying pan several years after I bought the first one. They shipped me the identical piece with no further hassle. I was impressed with their service and thought I'd pass along the kind words.ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-46319871933893401252008-11-24T11:48:00.003-05:002008-11-24T16:34:07.899-05:00Life, Liberty and a 56% fail rate.I read over at Dailykos that a civics exam has been giving to lots of elected officials.<br /><p></p><blockquote><p>US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday.</p> <p>Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI). </p></blockquote><p></p> I took the <a href="http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx">test</a> and scored a 29/33 which isn't so hot. I should do better than a B+ on a test of this sort. I missed questions 7, 9, 31, and 33. That said, I think my answer was correct on 31 and that 33 is a poor question with ambiguous answers.<br /><br />How'd you do?<br /><br />Update: after re-reading #31 I realize i just misread the second choice as increase rather than decrease (dumb) and thought it was a better choice. I am still sketched out by #33 due to it's vague wording. I had no idea than Lincoln coined of the people...I associated it with JFK who must have been quoting Lincoln. Re: 9, I got it right and was actually 30/33.<br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-12205626514058080672008-11-07T16:18:00.002-05:002008-11-07T16:51:18.408-05:00Post-Election AdjustmentThe hardest thing about adjusting to life post-election has been getting back to sleeping normally. I wake up at 5:15 or so every morning ready to put on a flannel shirt and go talk to workers at an industrial worksite. I look at the clock and notice it's really far away. Then I realize it's because I am in DC.ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-81075062699718219392008-11-06T12:53:00.002-05:002008-11-06T12:55:03.163-05:00A Real Tear-JerkerThis is a super touching (quick read) <a href="http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?ID=17607">piece</a> on a woman who last wish was to vote in this election. Check it out. It'll take 90 seconds and be good for the soul.<br />[h/t Souza]ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-56626132161981950092008-11-06T12:25:00.001-05:002008-11-06T12:26:42.385-05:00My First HalloweenRandom <span style="font-style: italic;">Zach Fact</span>: my first Halloween i went as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Dukakis">Michael Dukakis</a>.ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-8243263946326723442008-11-05T10:44:00.002-05:002008-11-05T11:06:30.293-05:00We Are Getting A New NeighborOn my way to work I bike down 16th Street. I see a big house, with some columns on it. I don't much like the guy who lives there now, but he is actually moving out. A new guy is moving in. I have never put so much time and energy into choosing a neighbor.<br /><br />Well, Obama is going to be our neighbor.<br /><br />I knocked on roughly 3500 doors. The knuckles on the middle and ring fingers of my right hand are ever-so-slightly calloused. The Ward I grew up in (22) went for Obama. He picked up 97.25% of the vote. The Wards we worked the most in went <span class="Winner">80.50 % (Ward 35), </span><span class="Winner">68.49 % (Ward 41), </span><span class="Winner"> and </span><span class="Winner">62.33 % (Ward 45). BHO carried Philadelphia with</span> 82.97% of the vote. Obama has won PA with 54.7% of the vote to McCain's 44.3%.<br /><br />Polls closed at 8pm. I had packed the car earlier that day. Upon the last work being done I hurtled towards Washington DC, hoping to make it there before the race was called and bedlam ensued. I made it. Becca and I watched at Darin's with several friends. When the call came the windows were opened and chants came booming in from the streets. We quickly put on our shoes and went to the intersection outside his apartment building. The crowds were forming, traffic had stopped, and singing began. People yelled, cried, danced, and chanted. Yes We Did. Yes We Did. O-Bama! O-Ba-Ma! Cars began to move again, horns pulsed, fists pumped, the people had their president.ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12959942.post-64190674647595938082008-11-02T09:14:00.000-05:002008-11-02T09:16:24.855-05:00Ad UpdateWhen at home I switch between NPR and sports radio. About every 4th or 5th ad on sports radio now is a Joe the Plumber <span style="font-style: italic;">Obama will raise your taxes</span> spot. It's spiked hugely this weekend. I don't think I heard a single McCain radio ad the first several weeks I was in PA.ZThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00389399563327644386noreply@blogger.com0