Yankee/Seinfeld/Jewish Programming Note

Tomorrow at 11PM, Larry David will be on centerStage on YES Network. Set those DVRs!

Mixed Emotions

Well, it's finally here. Tomorrow is my last day at Big Blue. I'm sad to leave as my experiences at IBM have almost always been great--except for bonus day just about every year. :-)

I've never left one job for another so that's a new experience for me, plus it's not as if I'm leaving for a competitor or a very similar job. I'm not sure how to feel, aside from gratitude to the people I've learned so much from and sadness for the inevitable lost friendships.

Blackberry, Treo or Other?

Coincidentally, I'm coming on two years with my current phone at the same time that I'm starting my new job. I'm thinking the timing is perfect to finally dip my toes into the Blackberry waters. I am waiting to hear what the policies, etc. are, but I'm leaning towards the Blackberry World 8800ish. Anyone have that? How about a comparable Treo?

How was your fast?

Mine wasn't bad at all. In the last 3-4 years, I've really gotten a good handle on how to make it through unscathed. I find Tisha B'av to be harder because it's longer and in the summer, but these tips help there too:

• Begin heavy water consumption the day before erev YK
• Consume slightly more sodium than usual on day before erev YK
• Light lunch on erev YK
• Limit salt intake on erev YK but not entirely
• Chew parsely after you're done eating erev YK dinner
• Force glass of water down after erev YK dinner
• Gargle very well with Listerine after erev YK dinner

Hope you find this helpful next time around. A zissen yur!

I Love Samantha Brown

Well, maybe love is a strong word but she sure is adorable. For those of you who don't know who this charmer is, check her out on The Travel Channel website. She's witty and cute and gets to do cool things in cool places. What more could one want from a TV fantasy crush?!

The Business Uniform

I guess it's my prep schooling, but I've always been partial to the light blue shirt, tan or gray slacks and blazer look. I just came from an IBM event where Steve Mills, the master of this look, was once again decked out in this combo. My question is this: does he have like 10 or 15 blazers or just 1?

Relatedly, what should my new wardrobe consist of? Now that I'm switching jobs to one where my clothes are more important--how could they not be?!--I'm thinking I need to clear out some of my old stuff and really work on my basics.

Social Bookmarking

Caught this cool clip from my friend Jeremy Epstein's blog and I wanted to share: Social Bookmarking rocks

iPod Video?

Do you have an iPod with video? Do you enjoy watching videos on a 1.5" screen?

I was riding the NJT back home yesterday evening on a SRO train. There was a guy standing in front of me watching The Office on his iPod. I loved the theory of video on an iPod from the day it was announced, but I watched for about 45 seconds and it became apparent to me that it was not that great in practice. I'd like to hear some feedback from any folks out there who watch video on their iPod regularly.

Lev Leviev in NYT Mag

Sunday's NYT Mag had a profile of Bukharan-Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, who is among the biggest Jewish philanthropists in the world. It was an interesting piece in general, highlighting some of Leviev's quirks and vague contradictions and also shedding light on his upbringing and business acumen.

One aspect of the piece that struck me as odd was its treatment of the Chabad movement. As some of you who know me know, I am a big fan of Chabad, so I would be remiss to admit that it's hard for me to be unbiased, but I will try.

First of all, the author (or editor?) likely mischaracterized Rabbi Eliezer Shach's (zt"l) feelings about Chabad. While I am not familiar with the exact quote, I find it highly unlikely that a Chabad critic like Shach would call it the sect closest to Judaism...Christianity perhaps, but not Judaism--note that this is not my feeling but my understanding of the misnagdic Shach's thoughts.

My bigger issue with Chafetz's piece was the following:

Most of the 300 rabbis are Chabadniks, adherents of the Brooklyn-based Hasidic group Chabad — fundamentalist, missionizing, worldly and centered on the personality and teachings of the late Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher rebbe. Chabad is anti-abortion, regards homosexuality as a sexual perversion and generally finds itself aligned with other fundamentalist religious groups on American domestic issues.

It seems to me that the writer--knowing the typical NYT Mag reader is left-leaning--is trying to unfairly paint Chabad. Yes, Chabad may be officially anti-abortion--like nearly all of traditional Judaism--but in the US at least, it almost completely avoids politicizing the issue. Furthermore, regarding homosexuality, Chabad, again like all of traditional Judaism, regards male homosexual acts as abominations, but the choice of the word, "perversion," creates an unfair bias in the reader's mind, in my opinion. Chabad is generally considered to be the most moderate of all haredi and hasidic groups, especially in the US and Leviev's association with them is tainted by the choices of words and phrases to describe Chabad.