News that will cause you to fondly remember the halcyon times when coffee was for closers and third prize was you're fired.

Urgh. I'm only being reminded of the insanely hacky commercials for Mamet's new "comedy" that air 2-3 times each morning on my local news station.

Jesse! Did you know that tonight is the premiere of Miss Rap Supreme on VH1? And MC Serch is the host?

Mamet's new "comedy" that air 2-3 times each morning on my local news station

Ugh, I say, too. Although Mamet has yet to hit upon waterboarding as a sales motivation strategy.

I have a friend whose barely competent manager has decided that the solution to all their problems is to drag the whole department to some outdoor/nature center that does team building programs next week. (Including the person with skin cancer and the person with some sort of porphyria disorder, naturally.) Wonder what neat tricks they'll come up with.

Heh. Shir and Nilly, I thought you might appreciate this little story. My students were writing poems that played with sound devices this weekend, and one of their choices was to write a Jabberwocky-esque poem using some other type of nonsense words...or substituting real words that would sound like nonsense to the listener. For example, one poem uses names of Indian dishes ("'Twas Balti and the Saag Aloo/Did Murgh Makhani Rhogan Josh/All Methii were the Vindaloos/And the Madras Tok Gosht...").

One of my students used Hebrew words! I don't understand them (which is the point, really), but thinking about how it would sound to you makes me giggle. She starts, "'Twas rabotai and the n'vareich toves/Did Y'hi and sheim in the m'vorach:/All mei-atah were the v'ad olam,/And the baruch she-achlanu mishelo...." I thought you'd get a kick out of that.

Oh, and her "Beware the Jabberwock, my son!" became "Beware the birkathamazonock, my son!"

Jesse! Did you know that tonight is the premiere of Miss Rap Supreme on VH1? And MC Serch is the host?

I did know that! But I won't watch it til the weekend.

So I was just having a conversation with a coworker who has recently (recent years, I guess) become more religious (Jewish), and was saying she just doesn't think she can deal with wearing skirts all the time. Then she was saying she knows a woman who covers her hair, and wears pants, which she thought was interesting. Thinking about it, I think pants are probably more modest, in our culture. (Leaving aside actual rules about split clothes or whatever) What say you?

Gronk! I just had lunch, and my body has just crashed hardcore. It wasn't even a lot of food, but I feel like I just had Thanksgiving dinner or something. Want nap. Send help.

Oh, Kristen, it is a lovely story! And she definitely used American-Hebrew terminology.

And it reminded me of this, but mostly of the funniest version of Jabberwocky in my opinion: The Yiddish one. It's called "D'ar Yomervokhet", and I find it impossible to read it out load drunk or sober, but it's very, very funny.

I think I just found a new idea for this year's Seder...

Then she was saying she knows a woman who covers her hair, and wears pants, which she thought was interesting. Thinking about it, I think pants are probably more modest, in our culture.

Nilly will probably have more true things to say about it (I'm mostly secular), but I don't think it's so rare here as well. Still, most of the religious women in Israel wear skirts.

What am I doing here typing? I should clean!

We're much more entertaining than cleaning!

I actually think about modesty a lot, usually when I walk by one of the women in my neighborhood who wear the full burqa or whatever -- only their eyes showing. I wonder if they think I'm as much of a whore in my dress past my knees and tights and etc. as the girl in tight jeans and a belly shirt.

So, I was supposed to go to a wedding tonight. I had to teach this afternoon - my students have their exam tomorrow, so I had to give them a rehearsal lesson, and I couldn't start early because some of them had exams up until two-thirty or so. I've been teaching for 4.5 hours, and missed my ride to the wedding (it's in a no-buses-get-there place, and, alas, I have no car). So I'm not there.

The funny thing is, I seem to have something I lacked for, oh, the last decade or so (um, or at least that's what it seemed like): a couple of hours with nothing of the I-must-do-this-right-NOW in them.

I mean, there's lots and lots I have to do. With deadlines even. Close-by deadlines. Looming at me with their evil eyes all red and glowing and whispering "we'll catch you, little girl, and your little post, too" in the dark. And then there's Pessakh.

And still, the one thing I find I can do, the minute I can actually do it? Yup, post here. I've missed you guys.

May I imagine all of you wearing nice clothes and eating yummy foods and dancing around?