The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

Archives for July 2008

Fleeing From Holiness

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Stories like Escape From the Holy Shtetl make me shake my head. I am a Jew from LA, born and bred here. Spent the last 39 years interacting with BT’s and FFBs of all types.

In plain English I know Jews of multiple observance levels. There are those in my circle who are what you would call culturally Jewish and those who you’d call Ultra Orthodox. For better or for worse I have been happy to say that I can comfortably interact with all of them.

It is no secret to say that I have my agreements and disagreements with them regarding various issues. But overall I haven’t any problem recognizing their Judaism. They may do things differently than I do, but that’s ok. I get it, We’re all Jews.

But the Satmars are a different bird altogether. And while I would never say that they aren’t Jewish (a courtesy that they probably wouldn’t extend to me) I find their ways to be cultish and wrong.

It is not an exaggeration to say that things that I have heard and read make me cringe. That story is going to be read by a lot of people who don’t have enough common sense to distinguish that Jews are not monolithic in behavior and we are all going to be tarred with the same brush.

(This is a post in progress. I need to come back and do something polishing. Hopefully there will be time to do so later.)

1 in 4 California high school students Drop Out

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I forgot to blog about this story yesterday it provides more support for why I send my children to private school. The LA Times reports the following:

“Deploying a long-promised tool to track high school dropouts, the state released numbers Wednesday estimating that 1 in 4 California students — and 1 in 3 in Los Angeles — quit school. The rates are considerably higher than previously acknowledged but lower than some independent estimates.

The figures are based on a new statewide tracking system that relies on identification numbers that were issued to California public school students beginning in fall 2006.The ID numbers allow the state Department of Education to track students who leave one school and enroll in another in California, even if it is in a different district or city. In the past, the inability to accurately track such students gave schools a loophole, allowing them to say that departing students had transferred to another school when, in some cases, they had dropped out.

The new system — which will cost $33 million over the next three years, in addition to the millions spent for the initial development — promises to eventually provide a far better way to understand where students go, and why. But state and school district officials acknowledged that the data initially available Wednesday, after a final one-day delay, were limited in usefulness.

“I think as the system stabilizes, you will get better data,” said Esther Wong, assistant superintendent for planning, assessment and research in the Los Angeles Unified School District. For now, she said, the numbers tell only part of the story, albeit more accurately than in the past.

Jack O’Connell, state superintendent of public instruction, presented the new data, based on the 2006-07 school year, as a quantum leap forward in understanding the nature of the dropout problem. But, he said, “no one will argue that the number of dropouts is good news. . . . It represents an enormous loss of potential.”

This report strikes me as an enormous cry for help. What the hell is going on in our public schools that so many children are dropping out. What is the root cause? Is it financial? Are students forced to drop out to support their families or is there some other combination of factors that are driving them to drop out.

Granted there are some problems with the reporting that led to this, but anyway you slice it there is an issue here that cannot be ignored.

Staving off Old Age- The Ironman

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I am not afraid of getting older. I am afraid of what could happen when I get older. Let’s face it, growing older is a good thing, it means that I am not dead. And while I am not afraid of dying, I am most certainly not ready for it yet.

No, what worries me is what happens when my body no longer is willing to respond the way I want and expect it to. Even as I type this there are little signs of this taking place. I have a kink in my neck and an ache in my back that don’t want to go away. My legs feel a bit heavy and overall I feel kind of stiff.

These little nagging pains beg the question of how and why they came about. The simple answer is that they are a result of the exercising I have been doing during the past week. And that brings me to the concern about aging. This never used to happen. I haven’t done anything that I consider to be particularly strenuous, yet here they are.

Listen closely and you can hear little creaks, cracks and whistle emanating from joints, my joints that is. The knees, the elbows and the shoulders all have their own sounds. Just what I always wanted an orchestra of aches and pains.

Unless science comes up with a real fountain of youth I have to accept the fact that aging will take its toll upon me and that some things will grow more challenging. But I don’t have to give in and I can try to do it on my terms which is why I want to compete in the Ironman.

If you are not familiar with it, here is a short explanation courtesy of Wikipedia.

The Ironman World Triathlon Championship or Ironman Triathlon is an annual triathlon race, made famous by its grueling length, race conditions, and sports television coverage.

Held every fall in the US city of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, the race encompasses three endurance events; a 2.4 mile (3.8 km) ocean swim in Kailua-Kona Bay, a 112 mile (180 km) bike ride across the Hawaiian lava desert to Hawi and back, and a marathon (26.2 mile, 42 km) along the coast of the Big Island (from Keauhou to Keahole Point to Kailua-Kona); finishing on Ali’i Drive.

The current course record was set in 1996 by Luc Van Lierde (Belgium) whose winning time was 8 hrs 4 mins 8 sec.

My goal is simple, first to qualify for the big race and then to complete it. Some of you may remember Julie Moss, the college student who almost won the Ironman in 1982. At the end of the race exhaustion set in and she literally had to crawl across the finish line. I remember seeing the clip of her finish and being amazed by her determination.

So you might wonder when I hope to do the Ironman and whether I intend to win. The answers are simple. The goal is to simply be able to say that I completed an Ironman. As for when, well I have given myself the next 11 years to get into shape, qualify, compete and finish.

Now that might sound silly, but to me there is something poetic about doing it the year that I turn 50. I like the symbolism. I like the idea of using The Ironman as a way to say that I may have aged, but I am not old yet.

How Velcro Was Invented

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In our continuing effort to provide information you might not get elsewhere we are pleased to offer information on how velcro was invented.

“You surely know the famous story about George de Mestral’s 1941 hunting trip in Switzerland – while walking his dog in the mountains, he accidentally brushed up against some cocklebur plants, and by the time he got back home, dozens of the round, spiky seeds were clinging to his wool trousers (and his poor dog’s fur).

What you don’t know is how hard it was for de Mestral to translate that natural stroke of genius into man-made one. He quickly figured out why the seed were so sticky by examining them under a microscope – the spikes each ended in tiny hooks that grabbed onto fabric and fur and wouldn’t let go. (Photo: Francoise and Charles de Mestral, aps.org)

But it wasn’t until 1952 that de Mestral made a serious effort to mimic the cockleburs’ hooks using different types of fabric. He quit his day job and raised $150,000 in venture capital, an enormous sum at the time. He also joined up with a textile weaver from Lyon, France – the only weaver who thought the idea would actually work. The pair’s first attempt, using cotton, was a failure. But nylon, sewn into tiny hooks under bright infrared light, worked much better. He dubbed it “Velcro” after velvet and “crochet,” the French word for “hook.”

Want to know the rest of the story? Click here.

A Look Back At Some Old Posts

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The Shmata Queen asked me if I have heard from MC Aryeh lately. And the answer is no. Maybe the man will pick up and start blogging again. I have hopes that he and Abbagav will both reappear, but something tells me that it is unlikely.

Anyhoo, if you are new to the blog every now and then I take a moment to dust off the archives and give some old posts a chance to see daylight again. So here are some old posts that you might want to check out.

Why Is She Afraid of a Snow Man?
Are Soul Mates Real or Fabricated?
My Beard
Are You Smarter Than A Rabbi? Part I
The Impact of My Actions
Letting Love Go
The Blogger I Used To Be