Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Arlo And Alice Meet Jane

Jane Ellen @ OASIS Albuquerque: The 4th of July is a long way from Thanksgiving (145 days this year, to be exact). So Abq Jew is pretty sure he will be the first to remind the world of the


Abq Jew here writes not of the song, but of the event (or series of events) that inspired it.
This song is called "Alice's Restaurant." It's about Alice, and the restaurant, but "Alice's Restaurant" is not the name of the restaurant, that's just the name of the song. That's why I call the song "Alice's Restaurant."

As Abq Jew recently reported (see Summer 2015 @ OASIS Albuquerque), Jane Ellen (see Atomic Cocktail & Uranium Rock), the Musical Muse of the Abq Metro, will be teaching about Arlo Guthrie this week.


Now, the story of the Alice's Restaurant Massacree (as the song is properly known) began back on Thanksgiving Day in 1965.

For those keeping score: Thanksgiving 1965 fell on Thursday (you knew that, right?) November 25, which was (unlike this year) but 144 days after the 4th of July 1965.

The Alice in the song (Wikipedia tells us) was restaurant-owner Alice Brock, who in 1964 used $2,000 supplied by her mother to purchase a deconsecrated church in Great Barrington, Massachusetts,
Now it all started two Thanksgivings ago ... two years ago, on Thanksgiving, when my friend and I went up to visit Alice at the restaurant. 
But Alice doesn't live in the restaurant; she lives in the church nearby the restaurant, in the bell tower with her husband Ray and Facha, the dog. 
And livin' in the bell tower like that, they got a lot of room downstairs where the pews used to be. And havin' all that room (seein' as how they took out all the pews), they decided that they didn't have to take out their garbage for a long time.

Now what, Abq Jew hears you ask, does this have to do
with the price of pastrami in Poughkeepsie?

And the answer is ... nothing much. Except that Arlo is, in fact, a dyed in the wool MOT, although the color has faded somewhat over the years. As Wikipedia tells us
Arlo Guthrie was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of folk singer and composer Woody Guthrie and his wife Marjorie Mazia Guthrie. His sister is record producer Nora Guthrie. 
His mother was a one-time professional dancer with the Martha Graham Company and founder of the Committee to Combat Huntington's Disease, the disease that took Woody's life in 1967. 
His father was from a Protestant family and his mother was Jewish. His maternal grandmother was renowned Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt.

And what, Abq Jew hears you ask, has Arlo managed to accomplish in the fifty (50) years, less 144 days, between the Massacree and now? Well ... a few things.

The Guthrie Center (that's a hint!) website tells us
In 1991, Guthrie bought the church that had served as Alice and Ray Brock's former home in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and converted it to the Guthrie Center, an interfaith meeting place that serves people of all religions. 
The center provides weekly free lunches in the community and support for families living with HIV/AIDS as well as other life-threatening illnesses. It also hosts a summertime concert series and Guthrie does six or seven fund raising shows there every year. 
There are several annual events such as the Walk-A-Thon to Cure Huntington's Disease and a "Thanksgiving Dinner That Can't Be Beat" for families, friends, doctors and scientists who live and work with Huntington's Disease.

And what, Abq Jew hears himself ask, has he managed to accomplish in the fifty (50) years, less 144 days, between the Massacree and now? Well ... a few things.
  1. He was graduated from high school. Yes, the Massacree was that long ago.
  2. He was graduated from college. With a degree in Engineering, no less.
  3. He was graduated from grad school. With a degree in Education, no more.
  4. He survived more than 32 years as a worker in the technology mines.
  5. He built the Abq Jew Blog and the Abq Jew Web and the Abq Jew App;
    and, most recently, helped to build the New Mexico Jewish eLink.

But more importantly, Abq Jew married Perri Yellin the Artist. And helped to raise Dov Yellin the Film Editor and Alex Yellin the Communications and Development Pro.

Which may not rank up there with Alice's Restaurant and the Guthrie Center.

But, Ken O'Hara, it ain't bad, either.

When Abq Jew ponders the knowledge and values he will pass on to his kids  - he realizes that Dov and Alex have no idea who Arlo Guthrie is or what Alice's Restaurant meant to a whole generation of anti-war kids way back when.

They have never heard the song. The phrase
"twenty-seven 8 x 10 colored glossy photographs
with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back
of each one explainin' what each one was"

means nothing in particular to them.
So - this is for the kids.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Shake Your Windows

And Rattle Your Walls: Although the waters around him have grown, Abq Jew must report that his time, to him, is worth saving. He therefore happily announces that

The Times, They Are A Changin'

Yes, there will be changes - to the Abq Jew Web.

The look & feel will be very different. Brighter colors; clearer, simpler navigation. But the new focus will be much more on Albuquerque, and much less (except for special events) on Santa Fe and Elsewhere, NM. And much of the ... ahem ... extraneous material that has (over the past five years) clogged the pipes will be gone, including the [in]famous Go Do page.

The Abq Jew Web will continue to be a source and a resource for Jewish life in Albuquerque and beyond. Abq Jew will continue to strongly support those who have supported him. But there will be a fresh emphasis on the Abq Jew Blog, the Abq Jew App  - and on the New Mexico Jewish eLink.




Yes, there will be changes - to the Abq Jew Blog.

The look & feel will be very different. Brighter colors; clearer, simpler navigation.
But the rest of it, G-d willing, will continue.

As Abq Jew first stated in June 2011 in Unorthodox, He Said,
Of the many things of which he is proud - especially his humility - Abq Jew is most proud of his commitment to, and practice of, equal opportunity criticism, sarcasm, and sardony. But only within the bounds of civility and good taste.

Abq Jew must tell you, as if you didn't already know, that there's always more than one version of any good song. See here are The Seekers and their version of The Times, They Are A Changin.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Sparks of Restitution

Adele in Gold: Congregation B'nai Israel is proud to present Sparks of Restitution, the June installment of the popular Shabbat Sparks series of Friday evening events.

Sparks of Restitution follows the release of the film Woman in Gold, starring Helen Mirren.


As Abq Jew reported in Adele in Gold:
The just-released film tells the story of Maria Altmann (Tatiana Maslany and Helen Mirren), who was forced (and able) to flee Vienna shortly after the Anschluss (March 1938) - the joining of Austria with Nazi Germany. 
With the help of a young lawyer, Randol Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds), the then elderly Maria sought to recover Gustav Klimt's portrait of her aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer (Antje Traue), from the Austrian government. 
The portrait , the "Mona Lisa of Austria," had been displayed at the Belvedere Gallery in Vienna since it was stolen by Nazis off the wall of Maria's family home.

Cantor Leon Natker will speak about the theft of Gustav Klimt’s stunning portrait of Viennese Jewish socialite Adele Bloch-Bauer by the Nazis during World War II.

Completed in 1907, the painting, known as the “Lady in Gold”, became the subject of a riveting law suit filed against the Austrian government by Adele’s heirs.

The battle was to last over a decade and ultimately involve the US Supreme Court as well. Drawing from his personal relationship with the family during this time, Cantor Natker will share some of the details of the case as it unfolded.

Having recently completed his Master’s degree in Museum Studies; and through his ongoing work in archaeology, Cantor Natker will address the ramifications of the Supreme Court decision regarding restitution for stolen works of art, and its impact on the art world.

Here, then, is Abq Jew's advice:

Go see the film.

Better: Go see the film and go read the book, The Lady in Gold, by Washington Post contributor Anne-Marie O'Connor.


Better yet: Go see the film and go read the book; then go participate in Sparks of Restitution!


Thursday, June 18, 2015

Shariah and Halacha

Ishmael and Isaac: Abq Jew recently had the pleasure - and the honor - to hear Imam Shafi Abdul Aziz, leader of the Islamic Center of New Mexico, discuss the important and intriguing topic of Myths and Misconceptions About Shariah.


The topic is important because of the hatred, violence, and subjugation that the news media have associated with Shariah. The topic is also intriguing - at least to Abq Jew - because of the similarities in world-view and approach between Islamic Law (Shariah) and Jewish Law - Halacha.

The class was held at OASIS Albuquerque, as Abq Jew announced in May. The classroom was full. Abq Jew was not the only one wondering - and eager to hear - what the Imam would say.

Myths & Misconceptions About Shariah
Wed 10 June @ 10:30 am - #90
Instructor: Imam Shafi Abdul Aziz

What It Is: In this class, we will examine the correct meaning and practice of Islamic Shariah to dispel popular misperceptions. Based on a belief system of a divine origin, Shariah envisages both a religion and a social order. 
Core textual, theological, and legal components, along with historical impact, will be discussed. We will examine different phases of Shariah through its sources and methodologies leading to development of schools of opinions and legal theories.


Here is Abq Jew's summary of what Imam Shafi Abduk Aziz said.

Shariah is today a "commercialized" and loaded term, but its true Arabic meaning is "a clear and direct path to faith."

Shariah offers Muslims practical guidance for everyday life. Shariah is not simply a legal system. Rather, it is a social system that provides a code of conduct that emphasizes faith, life, family, property, and intellect.

Shariah proclaims freedom of religion, sanctity of life, importance of family, security of assets, and the power of reasoning.

Islam, as expressed through Shariah, is not just a religion - it is a way of life. And, as the Imam also pointed out when he spoke at Congregation B'nai Israel a year or so ago - Islam is intended to be a peaceful way of life.


Here is Abq Jew's interpretation of what Imam Shafi Abduk Aziz said.

The parallels between Shariah and Halacha are astounding. Both provide law codes that deal with, for example, oxen that gore. But both are in their own views, much more than just law codes - they are ways of life.

Halacha as a way of life is easy for more traditional Jews to see. Judaism as expressed in Halacha is not just about when Shabbat starts or ends, or whether a chicken is kosher or treyf. It is also about how to treat your Jewish and non-Jewish neighbors. Judaism and Halacha comprise an all-encompassing view of how to live in the world.

And similarly for Islam as expressed in Shariah. And similarly for Christianity as expressed in Church Law.

Since the Reformation (or perhaps the Magna Carta), Christianity and Church Law are no longer synonymous. Since the Enlightenment, neither are Judaism and Halacha.

Where, Abq Jew asks, is the Islamic equivalent of the Reformation and the Enlightenment?



Both Christianity and Islam claim to be religions of peace. Yet Christians have fought Christians, Christians have fought Muslims, and Muslims have fought Muslims for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Peaceful Christians will say of fighting Christians,

"They do not understand the Savior's message." 

Peaceful Muslims will say of fighting Muslims,

"They do not understand the Prophet's message."

And yet, here we are.


There is, in Kabbalistic (Mystical) Judaism, the concept of tzimtzum. Wikipedia tells us:
The tzimtzum (Hebrew צמצום ṣimṣūm "contraction / constriction / condensation") is a term used in the Lurianic Kabbalah to explain his new doctrine that God began the process of creation by "contracting" his Ein Sof (infinite) light in order to allow for a "conceptual space" in which finite and seemingly independent realms could exist. 
This primordial initial contraction, forming a Khalal / Khalal Hapanui ("vacant space", חלל הפנוי) into which new creative light could beam, is denoted by general reference to the tzimtzum.


Here is Abq Jew's interpretation of the tzimtzum.

Through the means of the tzimtzum, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, withdrew Himself from a portion of His universe so the world could exist.

In a similar but lehavdil distinct fashion, modern Christian and Jewish people of faith withdrew from a portion of their all-encompassing view of how to live in the world so the modern world could exist.

This process is called secularization, and it leads to a philosophical construct that designates a portion of the world a place where God is kavyachol not involved.

Islam is now confronting modernity, and - just as Judaism and Christianity did in their times - trying to learn how to be both Muslim and modern.


On Sunday June 7 2015

led by Rabbi Arthur Flicker

and members of the Islamic Center of New Mexico
led by Imam Shafi Abdul Aziz

worked together to help Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity
led by Beth Goldman

build a home for a deserving family.


There is another principle involved here.


This is America.

When you come here, you are entering the New World.

If you have hatreds and prejudices that you acquired and nurtured in the Old World - kindly leave them there. Do not base your New World view on your Old World ways.

Abq Jew asks: Is secularization, a withdrawal of the holy from the profane world, the only way to achieve this?


Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity's website tells us
Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity is part of a global, nonprofit housing organization operated on Christian principles that seeks to put God’s love into action by building homes, communities and hope. 
Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity is dedicated to eliminating substandard housing locally and worldwide through constructing, rehabilitating and preserving homes; by advocating for fair and just housing policies; and by providing training and access to resources to help families improve their shelter conditions.   
Habitat for Humanity was founded on the conviction that every man, woman and child should have a simple, durable place to live in dignity and safety, and that decent shelter in decent communities should be a matter of conscience and action for all. 
Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity, founded in 1987, is a locally run affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International , a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing organization.
The June 7 Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity project involved members of a Jewish synagogue working together with members of an Islamic center to fulfill the Christian values of the project's organizers.

The holy was not banished from the work site, yet the organizers and participants took a step back from rhetoric and polemic to allow the work to proceed - as if it were a secular undertaking.

Is this a way forward, toward the Besorot Tovot - Good Tidings - we all await?


We can hope.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

There's A Bathroom

On The Right: This has nothing to do with building design, restroom accessibility, or home decor. Or, for that matter, politics. This, in fact, has everything to do with how we humans hear what we hear.


Oh, and life. This has everything to do with life.

Specifically, the life of Dr Oliver Sacks, one of the world's most prolific and fascinating writers. The man who gave us The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Awakenings,  and other neurological gems.

Dr Sacks recently discovered that he has limited time left to live. From The New York Times:
My Own Life
Oliver Sacks on Learning He Has Terminal Cancer 
A month ago, I felt that I was in good health, even robust health. At 81, I still swim a mile a day. But my luck has run out — a few weeks ago I learned that I have multiple metastases in the liver. Nine years ago it was discovered that I had a rare tumor of the eye, an ocular melanoma. The radiation and lasering to remove the tumor ultimately left me blind in that eye. But though ocular melanomas metastasize in perhaps 50 percent of cases, given the particulars of my own case, the likelihood was much smaller. I am among the unlucky ones. 
I feel grateful that I have been granted nine years of good health and productivity since the original diagnosis, but now I am face to face with dying. The cancer occupies a third of my liver, and though its advance may be slowed, this particular sort of cancer cannot be halted. 
It is up to me now to choose how to live out the months that remain to me ....


Back to how we humans hear what we hear. Dr Sacks has something to say about that, and he took the opportunity to say it in The Times a few days ago:

 
Mishearings 
A few weeks ago, when I heard my assistant Kate say to me, “I am going to choir practice,” I was surprised. I have never, in the 30 years we have worked together, heard her express the slightest interest in singing. But I thought, who knows? Perhaps this is a part of herself she has kept quiet about; perhaps it is a new interest; perhaps her son is in a choir; perhaps .… 
I was fertile with hypotheses, but I did not consider for a moment that I had misheard her. It was only on her return that I found she had been to the chiropractor. 
A few days later, Kate jokingly said, “I’m off to choir practice.” Again I was baffled: Firecrackers? Why was she talking about firecrackers?

Back in 2010, Dr Sacks wrote a revealing piece in The New Yorker about prosopagnosia - also known as face-blindness.
Mild cases can seem comical, but severe prosopagnosia afflicts millions in the U.S.

Face-Blind
Why are some of us terrible at recognizing faces? 
It is with our faces that we face the world, from the moment of birth to the moment of death. Our age and our gender are printed on our faces. Our emotions, the open and instinctive emotions that Darwin wrote about, as well as the hidden or repressed ones that Freud wrote about, are displayed on our faces, along with our thoughts and intentions. Though we may admire arms and legs, breasts and buttocks, it is the face, first and last, that is judged “beautiful” in an aesthetic sense, “fine” or “distinguished” in a moral or intellectual sense. And, crucially, it is by our faces that we can be recognized as individuals. Our faces bear the stamp of our experiences and our character; at forty, it is said, a man has the face he deserves.

Abq Jew was so intrigued by this article that he took the test offered at faceblind.org by the Prosopagnosia Research Centers at Dartmouth College, Harvard University, and University College London.

The results confirmed what Abq Jew's family has long known:

Abq Jew can't spot people he knows in a crowd, and can't recognize people he has known forever if his line of sight is broken. His own family wears name tags.


But what was that middle thing again? Oh yeah - mishearing.

Abq Jew does a lot of that, too.


And then there's Bad Moon Rising, the seminal 1969 song by Credence Clearwater Revival. Wherein the verse

There's a bad moon on the rise.

is regularly misheard as

There's a bathroom on the right.

In 2014, WatchMojo.com ranked the mishearing #5 on Top 10 Misheard Lyrics.


What, Abq Jew hears you ask, was #1? 


That honor goes to Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze. Wherein the verse

‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky.

is regularly misheard as

'Scuse me while I kiss this guy.

Which brings Abq Jew to the website KissThisGuy.com, the Internet's archive of misheard lyrics. Which of course has a special place for John Fogerty and CCR.



This phenomenon - mishearing -  Abq Jew must advise you, has its own name:

 mondegreen

Named for

Lady Mondegreen

who never existed. Wikipedia explains:
A mondegreen is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase as a result of near-homophony, in a way that gives it a new meaning. 
Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to clearly hear a lyric, substitutes words that sound similar, and make some kind of sense. 
American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in her essay "The Death of Lady Mondegreen", published in Harper's Magazine in November 1954.
The term was inspired by "...and Lady Mondegreen," a misinterpretation of the line "...and laid him on the green," from the Scottish ballad "The Bonnie Earl o Moray."
Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl o' Moray,
And Lady Mondegreen.  
Wikipedia goes on to say that Ms Wright also appreciated the verse from Psalm 23:

Surely good Mrs Murphy shall follow me
all the days of my life

and further points out that
Sometimes, the modified version of a lyric becomes standard, as is the case with "The Twelve Days of Christmas". 
The original has "four colly birds" (colly means black; in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare wrote "Brief as the lighting in the collied night."); sometime around the turn of the twentieth century, these became calling birds, which is the lyric used in the 1909 Frederic Austin version.
Non-English mondegreens are also possible. Wikipedia gives us two Hebrew examples:
Ghil'ad Zuckermann cites the Hebrew example mukhrakhím liyót saméakh ("we must be happy", with a grammar mistake) instead of (the high-register) úru 'akhím belév saméakh ("wake up, brothers, with a happy heart"), from the well-known song "Háva Nagíla" (Let’s be happy)." 
The Israeli site dedicated to Hebrew mondegreens has coined the term "avatiach" (Hebrew for watermelon) for "mondegreen", named for a common mishearing of Shlomo Artzi's award-winning 1970 song "Ahavtia" ("I loved her", using a form uncommon in spoken Hebrew).


Don't remember CCR?
Don't remember Bad Moon Rising?



Yes, Abq Jew hears you cry, we have wandered a long way from Dr Oliver Sacks and his impending demise. Therefore, Abq Jew wishes to point out that:
  1. Each of us has limited time left to live.
  2. Jewish tradition forbids us from either hastening death or preventing its natural occurrence.

Which of course brings us to the old Jewish joke about ...
The old man is lying on his death bed, attended by his son. He says, “I can smell that your mother is making chopped liver. Get me a cracker with chopped liver.” The son exits to fulfill his father’s request, then returns and says 
“Mom says she is saving it for the shiva.” 

Friday, June 5, 2015

Welcoming the Bride in San Francisco

Modern Style: As the holy Sabbath approaches each week, Jews all over the world prepare to greet the Sabbath Queen, aka the Sabbath Bride.

Each Jewish community greets the Sabbath in its own special way: the Jews of Placitas, the Jews of Aberdeen; the Jews of Livingston, the Jews of Ashkelon.

And, of course, the Jews of that most special place

San Francisco
https://youtu.be/Sq_9bDWPn34
The City By The Bay

Lior Ben-Hur has a beautiful way of welcoming the Sabbath Bride. The website MyJewishLearning.com tells us:
With roots in Greece and Iraq, Israeli born Lior Ben-Hur is a San Francisco based musician and educator. His band Sol Tevel performs original modern global Jewish music.

And Lior's website further explains:
I am an Israeli living in San Francisco. Although I lead Shabbat services around the Bay on a weekly basis, I myself do not observe Shabbat the way my grandparents did in Iraq or Greece. 
My very secular celebration of Shabbat relates to the San Francisco Jewish experience. I drive to temple, play instruments and sign songs, and when the service is over, I might even go out for a drink in a bar – a far cry from how my ancestors observed this weekly tradition. 
Therefore, there is a transformation of the meaning of Shabbat in my personal experience from a very holy, almost solemn tradition of observation to one of celebration. I want to express this transformation in the music video and song composition. 
I often play this song on secular venues where people don’t necessary know the meaning of the text but they feel the energy of the music and dance as if they were in a Kabalat Shabbat service, anticipating the celebration of Shabbat and the change of pace to daily routine that it represents.  
The music video was filmed in an alley in North Beach with the goal of bringing the music to the streets to share with every day San Franciscans, and experience the reaction of strangers passing by as they hear the song. 
While the people walking by the alley did not know the Jewish meaning of the song they responded in a way that corresponded with its essence; the happiness and festivity of Shabbat. 
This spirit of shared, even viral festivity and celebration is captured in the music video.


Shabbat Shalom, New Mexico!
Good Shabbos, Albuquerque!

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Advice from Notorious R.B.G.

A Moment of Wisdom: Moment Magazine, North America’s premier Jewish magazine, their website tells us,

was founded in 1975 by Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel and acclaimed writer Leonard Fein. Fiercely independent, Moment is not tied to any organization, denomination or point of view and offers a balanced accounting of the Jewish experience in America. 
As Fein proudly declared in the premier issue, Moment would include diverse opinions “of no single ideological position, save of course, for a commitment to Jewish life.” 
Its pages have been graced by both well-known writers and emerging writers, including Calvin Trillin, Chaim Potok, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Abba Eban, Cynthia Ozick, Wolf Blitzer, Yossi Klein Halevi, Theodore Bikel, Jeremy Groopman, Ron Rosenbaum, Sherwin Nuland, Erica Jong, Dara Horn, David Margolick, Dani Shapiro and so many others. 

This month Moment observes the 40th anniversary of its founding. In true Moment fashion, the magazine is celebrating with

40th Anniversary Symposium: 
Wisdom for the Next Generation


What life experience, advice or piece of wisdom
do you think is most important
to pass on to the next generation?

Here are a few excerpts of Abq Jew's favorites. You can examine the complete Symposium here.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

Wisdom is free, yet it is also the most expensive thing there is, for we tend to acquire it through failure or disappointment or grief. That is why we try to share our wisdom, so that others will not have to pay the price for it that we paid. Judaism has taught me far more about life than the space allows for here, but I do want to share with you three key lessons I have learned.

First, use your time well. Life is short, too short to waste on television, computer games and unnecessary emails; too short to waste on idle gossip, or envying others for what they have; too short for anger and indignation; too short to waste on criticizing others. “Teach us to number our days,” says Psalm 90, “that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

But any day on which you have done some good to someone has not been wasted.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

The best and the easiest piece of advice is to see, think and then speak. I try as much as I can to formulate an answer before answering a question about things I don’t have the faintest notion about. People should be careful not to confuse lack of knowledge and stupidity. Stupidity is not just a lack of knowledge but it is when you twist, misrepresent and do some damage to things.

Keeping quiet is a great art that should be cultivated. If you are a husband or a parent it is a big temptation to pretend you are wiser than you are.

It is very hard if you are in authority to say that you don’t know. In Jewish thought of the Middle Ages, there was an idea that the highest level of wisdom is to say, “I don’t know.”

Leon Wieseltier

Add caption
It is important to find ways in times of suffering to remind oneself of how big and rich the world is. That is how you recover your sense of possibility. Without that you are doomed.

There are many forces that operate against us—economic and social ones—and the most important thing is to protect that sense of possibility.

That’s hard to do when you are lonely, broken-hearted or disappointed. That’s why my advice when that happens is to put on something nice and get out of the house. Accept stimulation from the world so that you begin to live again.


But here, in Abq Jew's not always humble opinion, is the best!

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Let me tell you about an experience I had. It’s a problem that still exists, although not to the same extent.

In the 1970s, I was a teacher at Columbia Law School. I got a call from the head of the lower school at my son James’s school asking me to come down to discuss my lively son’s latest escapade. I got those calls about once a month.

That day, I was particularly weary and I responded to the call,

“This child has two parents.
Please alternate calls. It’s his father’s turn.”

So they called Marty. What was James’s offense?

He stole the elevator.

It was one of those hand-operated elevators and the elevator operator had gone out for a smoke.

One of James’s classmates dared him to take the kindergartners up to the top floor, so he did. Marty’s response was


“How far could he take it?”

The school was much more reluctant to call a man away from his work. I think that young women with children are still experiencing that. They’re expected to do it all—do their job but take care of all the family things. The dental checkups, the new shoes.

If you see work and family as part of your life, of every human’s life, then the men should be involved in raising children … And a woman should not feel guilt that she’s working. Raising children is a shared responsibility.


How, Abq Jew hears you ask, did the Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg become Notorious R.B.G.? This article by Hunter Schwartz in Time Magazine sheds some light.


Ruth Bader Ginsburg goes full Notorious RBG 
Ruth Bader Ginsburg's photo for the "Time 100" is perfect. Wearing a glove, she holds her hand to her face with a slight smirk. The pose looks like something inspired by a rap album cover, and the glove evokes early Madonna. 
She looks like a justice, but she also looks like a rock star. It's the ultimate visual representation of the meme that has become "The Notorious RBG." 
Ginsburg's evolution into a progressive millennial icon has come thanks to her Supreme Court opinions and outspokenness. The "Notorious" Tumblr didn't hurt either.
However, as Abq Jew advances, day by day (the universally approved rate) on Old Age, his favorite picture of Notorious RGB may (that's a caveat) always be

'Notorious' Ruth Bader Ginsburg 'Wasn't 100 Percent Sober' at State of the Union