Rosh Hashanah

[profrobert]

Two friends, a Jew and a Gentile, are taking a walk together on a September evening through their upscale suburban neighborhood.  Suddenly, there is a low, moaning sound that fills the air.  The Gentile jumps.  "What was that?" he asks.  "Oh," replies the Jew, "It's Rosh Hashanah tonight, the Jewish New Year.  What you're hearing is the traditional

Comments

[bunny42]

We're well and strong, thanks for asking. Your Yankees appear to be imploding. My Mariners are only 1 game behind you for the wildcard. Perhaps this is the year they'll finally make the playoffs. It's been a long dry spell. Did you know the M's are the only team that's never played for the Series? Forty-four years without making the Big Show. They haven't even been in a playoff since 2001. It's high time. I went to Seattle in July and watched them lose 2 games at T-Mobile Park. Sigh...

Ron was recently honored on the field as veteran of the, I dunno, month, week, whatever. They do it periodically. He was on the Jumbotron! They showed an ancient picture of him in his Navy uniform, along with some shots of him working at the ballpark, and read his bio. Then they announced his name and brought him out onto the field. Everyone stood and applauded, and he waved and smiled. It was wonderful. His 15 seconds of fame. As he was returning to his seat, he was high-fived and thanked for his service. But it didn't really get to him until he reached the back of his section, and a father and 10-year-old son were standing there, waiting for the mid-inning to go back to their seats. The kid said to him, thank you, sir, for your service to our country. Ron said that was when he nearly lost it. Wish I could have been there.

Also during my visit, my niece was honored for being promoted to Battalion Commander of her fire station. It was just coincidental that I happened to be there for the ceremony. Quite an honor. Wish I could visit more than once a year. Last year I didn't get to go at all. We didn't spend any time in Seattle, except for the games. It's just too dangerous and depressing. Used to be such a lovely city. Nuther heavy sigh...

Sean has been working from home for over a year, and doesn't think he'll be required to return to the office, which is just fine with him. He's well-suited for telecommuting. Still running his bi-weekly D&D game, only now it's via Zoom. I can't stream my Father Brown mysteries while the game is in progress. Fiber optic cable hasn't reached our little corner of the city yet, so we don't have sufficient bandwidth to accommodate both Zoom and streaming. I'll live. 😀

[profrobert]

That's a great story about Ron. I don't understand why it took so long to figure out "Honor the vet, even if you oppose the war." The Yankees honor a vet during the seventh inning stretch every game, but they ruin it with the jingoistic "God Bless America." At least they got rid of that old racist Kate Smith.

I wish Antifa were a real thing. I'd totally support it. You know who was Antifa? My father. He volunteered to fight fascists in World War II. I'm sure he would have much rather have continued his undergraduate career at Harvard, but fascists urgently need to be killed. In the event, he never left North America, but he would have gone where he was ordered and done what he was told to do by his superiors. Antifascists are my heroes.

The Yankees stink beyond all human comprehension. They sneaked past the .500 Mets yesterday, but needed four homeruns to do it. It's like that's the plan -- four homeruns a game. What you do in the nine out of ten games when you don't get four dingers seems not to have been considered.

[bunny42]

In the same vein as "Honor the vet," I find it possible to honor the art, regardless, in most cases, of the artist, Barbra Streisand being a notable exception. Many times I don't even know (or care about) the politics of the artist, and that includes Kate Smith. I've even been known to watch Jane Fonda movies, although Ron gets itchy about that. Part of his service was in Viet Nam, so his feelings about her are pretty strong. And I had no idea G.K. Chesterton was anti-semitic until I looked up Chesterton's Fence (Sean mentioned it) and found it to be very sensible. The Wikipedia article also mentioned his tendency toward anti-semitism, but also that he was great friends with G.B. Shaw, and all of this was long before there was an Israel. I was, and remain, only interested in his novels.

When you have such as Judge and Stanton, I suppose the tendency is to rely too heavily on their contributions. Stanton can't stay healthy, so that's a bad path to follow. Meanwhile, the M's just lost to the D-backs, again, THE D-BACKS! That's crazy. They won several games against the A's and even one or two against Houston. And they lose to AZ? Go figger. You may have noticed I haven't mentioned the hapless Marlins. Nice to see Jeter in the Hall, but his team is less than stellar.

One of the reasons you haven't heard from me for a while, is my reluctance to participate in political debate. I find you as misguided as you undoubtedly find me. Idealistically, I don't feel welcome in your posts, so I leave it to you and nonelvis to handle the politics. Doesn't make you (or me) a bad person. We're each entitled to our opinions, in this, the greatest country in the world. There's other stuff going on upon which I'm sure we can agree.

I meant to ask, how did you fare during the remnants of Fred, was it? Or Ida? We've been so fortunate not to have been affected by any of the, what is it, twelve major storms so far this year. The Northeast has experienced far worse than we have. And let's not even talk about New Orleans. They can't seem to catch a break. Good thing the Government can print all the money it wants, or FEMA would be broke! Uh oh. That came perilously close to a political statement. I'd better quit while I'm ahead.