This year, Wegman's also had stack of packets of coupons for Passover stuff, which was nice. It's actually somewhat ridiculous -- we get everything that's listed here with a price (rather than "available in select stores) [link] in a town where there's just one synagogue within fifty miles in any direction, and that synagogue usually just barely has a minyan for Shabbat.

(And that list is definitely not complete. I notice several things I bought -- Osem soup mix, some packets of chestnuts, chocolate covered matzo with rainbow sprinkles on top, peanut butter, and mini matzos -- that aren't on the list.)

Thank you for the birthday wishes! There was breakfast out with Sara, a massage, a tattoo, and a lovely dinner, and there is cake! Plus flowers! Feeling very blessed, and like I really don't want it to be tomorrow anytime soon.

Tattoo? More details please.

That sounds very nice, and I am willing to let it keep being today for longer than usual for you.

I am pretty sure that I've never lived further than ten miles from a synagogue in my entire life... and I'm not Jewish. How weird to be reminded what an actually small demographic "Jewish" is, when it is such a essential feature among my family, friends, and acquaintances.

(Around 30-ish years ago, my cousin visited the northern part of Florida, and was astounded to find people who didn't know what bagels were.)

(OTOH, I was fair distance into adulthood before I encountered actual Grits.)

Double Chocolate Milano: Thanks for the feedback on asking for help. Anyone who's done it, is there a difference between sites that let you do it? Is there a Dummies Guide to Begging Online out there somewhere that I should consult?

Nice day, Amy!

Theo: rule #1 is don't think of it as begging. Think of it as giving people the opportunity to help.

This is why you're a professional fund-raiser et cetera and I'm a semi-employed Uber driver.

I am pretty sure that I've never lived further than ten miles from a synagogue in my entire life... and I'm not Jewish. How weird to be reminded what an actually small demographic "Jewish" is, when it is such a essential feature among my family, friends, and acquaintances.

There actually used to be a bigger Jewish community around here. During the wave of Jewish immigration from Germany from about 1840 to 1870, a lot of those German-Jewish immigrants moved "out west" (which, back then, included Appalachia) and often owned stores in the small towns that supported larger farming areas. There are tons of small towns all over the midwest and west and south that have old synagogue buildings -- there was enough of a Jewish community to support a synagogue during that time, and for a few more generations, but most of them closed as the Baby Boomers went off to college (which had been relatively rare in earlier generations) and then stayed in the cities.

This is why you're a professional fund-raiser et cetera and I'm a semi-employed Uber driver.

True! On the first part, at least. But it is a really good way to think about it. People want to help!

That's also why so many of the old department stores have Jewish names -- a whole lot of them (plus Levis jeans, and a bunch of other brands) were started by those German-Jewish merchants and peddlers who gradually built up their small stores into a few other stores, and then lots of big stores. (I've got some distant cousins who did this. Started with one store in Appleton, Wisconsin, then expanded to a couple more stores, and then, after the Chicago fire, they realized that Chicago now had a ton of people and not many stores left, so they quickly started a branch there, which was really successful, and built up a chain of department stores all over the midwest. Then the whole thing collapsed in the Depression. One of them married someone from the Florsheim Shoes family, who had a similar story.)