Archives for October 2004

I am still a little frazzled and fermished from this recent bout with illness. Aside from my dysfunctional digestive system I have few ailments and rarely get sick. Although I should add that since my son started school he has managed to pass along a number of colds to me. I love sharing his life, but I am not interested in sharing illnesses, there are happier things to share.

In light of the election and various posts I have encountered I’d like to encourage you all to consider making a difference in the world in some way. And I’d to suggest that we remember that it is not always necessary to do something that helps large groups of people.

Sometimes the more important and more helpful things are those that are focused on a couple or even one person. Because if you believe in the concept of viral marketing it only takes impacting a couple of lifes to really help many.

And let’s not complicate things by trying to raise vast sums of money or generate awareness about various illnesses. Let’s make this really simple and try and do one of the following things:

1) Smile at people. They are contagious, sometimes your smile will be the thing that makes someone else crack a grin.

2) Cook dinner for your spouse/girlfriend/partner/significant other.

3) Hug at least 5 people today.

4) Help someone with their groceries.

5) Call a friend/family member/loved one and thank them for being a part of your life.

Simple things can make a difference.

Yes, it is true I am running for office. When I turned 35 I decided that this would be the perfect year for me to wrong. I am of legal age and status and a citizen of the fine nation we call the U.S. of A.

And based upon the candidates we have to choose from I have the opportunity to use some very cool campaign slogans such as:

Vote for Jack- He can’t fuck it up any worse than it is.

You don’t know Jack, but why not give him a shot.

Vote for Jack and let the other two guys bag groceries at the “Bush N’ Kerry.



Now I just came up with those three lines in the past thirty seconds which is demonstrative of my ability to craft policy with the same time and effort as the other two guys. Not to mention that we’ll save money as I won’t need to higher any speechwriters. I’ll do my own press conferences and as I am losing my hair I’ll eventually be able to save more taxpayer money because I’ll be able to let the White House barber go.

Consider a few other perks. If I am elected there will be:

Kaparot at the White House. Watch me swing that crazy chicken

Latkes with Larry King once a week.

Manischewitz Moments with Maury Povich

Pesach with Peter Jennings



And oh so many other priceless moments.

Call me crazy, call me nuts, but don’t call me Shirley. And definitely don’t call me late for dinner. Brian’s weekly roundup has got me playing around with the idea of constructing “Mighty Post” a roundup of all that has taken place since May.

If I do something like that I probably should wait until December, but that is what people would expect me to do. And lord knows I love doing the unexpected, the unconventional and the unsomething or other. (This last line was brought to you by 7-UP, the UN-Cola haahaha).

So here is a quick warm up. Cue the sentimental music and roll tape:

May:

My first Post about the Lakers. I get choked up when I see this and think of how much my blog has grown.

From there we went right into what I called Islam and the Modern World and a post about Death.

These were followed by thoughts on work, life and articles that I found interesting. June began with an article on Inner Genius that no longer exists online so you’ll have to take my word on it being very cool.

It continued with articles dealing with science and technology, Reagan’s death, more thoughts about life, the Lakers, thoughts about war, an opinion piece by Dennis Prager and basically ended with a longer rendition of thoughts on my family, specifically my uncle and grandfather.

July started out with notes on Saddam, stealing a kiss, my rambling on about integrity, more about the countdown to my daughter’s birth, thoughts about Jerusalem, the Lakers, and the news that my father needed surgery and would not be coming home as scheduled.

It basically wrapped up with the news about the birth of my daughter, the impact she had and included odds and ends about this and that.

I think that this is enough for now. Perhaps I’ll take this up again at a later date, but for now I think that I have spent enough time going down memory lane.

I love learning stuff like this. It is so cool.

“This has not brought great comfort to Manchester United’s supporters. On Sunday, before Manchester United defeated Arsenal, 2-0, halting its rival’s 49-game unbeaten streak in the English Premier League, Malcolm Glazer was hung in effigy outside Old Trafford stadium in Manchester. Fans chanted and carried banners that said “Not for Sale.”

“Our fans are extremely fearful,” Mark Longden, a spokesman for the Manchester United Independent Supporters Association, said in a telephone interview. “I’ve never known a militancy like this.”

Although supporters deny it, anti-Americanism also figures in the resistance to Glazer, said Franklin Foer, author of “How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization.” He noted that Roman Abramovich, a Russian oil billionaire, was embraced last year upon his purchase of Chelsea, another top English team.

“The Glazer story is more about the anti-American moment in Europe,” Foer said. “If his possible purchase of the club wasn’t coinciding with George W. Bush’s re-election and the Iraq war dragging on, I think it would probably would have gone through.”

Watch out Europe. We are going to buy your football(soccer) teams and make them learn how to play a real sport. 😉

I just returned from my son’s school. It is located across the street from my office so I routinely head over there at noon to pick him up. I leave for my office before he wakes up in the morning so it is a nice chance to see him mid-day and say hi.

So we were heading out to the car post melt-down (different story for a different post) when she called my name. Jack, Jack, Jack. I turned my head and looked out across the parking lot and there she was, smiling at me.

“Can you help me,” she said with a smile, “I need to be jumped.” I smiled back at her as she realized how that sounded “my battery is dead and I don’t have any cables.”

I restrained my natural urge for the smartass response and said that I could. And that is the story of how she got jumped at lunch. Tomorrow I’ll have to let her know that she is now famous in cyberspace.

On a side note, if you have a car it is really simple to keep a set of cables, a flashlight, first aid kit and matches in the car. Sometimes the Auto Club is not available to help you in a timely fashion.