[Kotke](http://www.kottke.org/06/04/movie-literate) has listed and annotated the “102 Movies You Should See Before You Consider Yourself to be Movie Literate.” He has seen 40 of the 102, or 39%. Want to see how I do? (Sure you do!)
Over at his fatherhood blog, DaddyDaze, Dave posted some father-to-son advice called, [Don’t buy crappy beer](http://dave.typepad.com/dave/2006/04/father_to_son_d.html). He says:
>Life is way too short to drink that swill. Seriously. You’re going to be tempted, but trust me, you don’t have to drink that junk. How do you know you’re drinking crappy beer? If you’re spending $5 on a 12 pack, or if you have an opinion on the “King of Beers vs. Silver Bullet” debate, you’re drinking bad beer.
I laughed, but here’s the thing: during the whole Passover clean-up process, I discovered that we had a lot of beer in our fridge. I don’t generally drink a lot of beer, but the guys bring it over on Poker Night and when there is left-over, I just toss it into the garage fridge. And, during the clean up, there it was.
You know what I discovered while engaged in a bottle-by-bottle observance of the ritual Passover Cleaning? I *like* cheap beer. Really, I do. I had a fridgeful of Coors Light and Bud Light and I drank it, and liked it. Yessir.
I used to be more snooty. I didn’t drink beer that often, but, when I did, I drank Guiness, Sam Adams, Pete’s Wicked Ale or Boulevard (our local KC micro-brand). But, I’ve come to realize that beer is really a comfort food. Like potato chips or soda, beer is an experience in which I’m not trying to find the best beer I ever drank… rather I’m looking for the *same beer I always drank.*
I mean, Coke makes lots of [wierd flavors](http://www.coke.com/usa/ourBrands/flashIndex1.html), but when I want a Coke, I want *a Coke,* and not a diet-caffiene-free-black-cherry-vanilla-Coke-with-lime. Right?
And when I want a beer, I don’t want to have to think about it. Just give me a Bud Light and move on to the next guy. I’ll be fine.
My 1997 Saturn SL2 is no more.
On my way to school just before Pesach, I ran a red light and had an accident. I can’t explain exactly how it happened, but–for a brief moment–I was so distracted that I didn’t see a traffic light turn red. When I did see that it was red, I hit the brakes but had not reacted in time to prevent my car from screeching into the intersection.
I hit a minivan coming through the intersection from my left to my right, impacting into its rear passenger-side quarter-panel. Our two cars rotated clockwise (to my right) 90 degrees and wound up in the median of the steet I had been crossing, as if I had made a right-hand turn.
Needless to say, this was not good news for my car. Both of my airbags deployed upon impact, though, since I had been slowing down (with my brakes locked) when I hit the minivan, I did not bounce into the airbags themselves. I called the police on my cell phone, then hopped out to make sure the woman in the minivan was OK. I then made sure that *I* was allright, then called Judi, to whom I had been speaking when the accident occured. My next call was to the auto-insurance company, who handled the whole thing wonderfully for me.
I am insured by AAA (the auto-club people), so they sent a tow-truck, recommended a collision repair shop and arranged for a rental car from the Enterprise office across the street from the place I took the car. The accident happened at about 7:40 AM and found myself back at school well in advance of my first class.
Since the accident happened just before Pesach, I didn’t get a chance to look for a new car (since AAA totalled my Saturn) until this week and, in my next post, I’ll tell you all about that.
Oh… and I’m fine. Thanks for worrying. 🙂
Funny Story: Our friend, Ephy, got a job a couple of years ago as the Alumni Coordinator for the Yeshiva I went to in Israel. One of the first things he did was clean up the alumni database by putting a form online and asking alumni to check their contact information. So, I did.
While filling out the form, I tabbed into the “title” field and it auto-filled with “Rabbi” (which I am not). I thought Ephy would get a kick out of it, so I left it there. That night, my phone rang. I answered it, and it was Ephy, who began the conversation with, “‘Rabbi,’ my ass!”
But, Ephy has an unusual sense of humor… so he left it. And the result is that my mother has the envelope from my invitation to the Annual Dinner hanging on her refrigerator and things like the image you see here get posted on the web site from time to time.
For those of you tracking my busy-ness, we’ve just closed a major chapter.
I direct the play at school every year – this is my third. We did *[Lost in Yonkers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_In_Yonkers)* by [Neil Simon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Simon) this year and the show ran last week, Wednesday and Thursday.
There were eight weeks between our first rehearsal and our opening night, and that is not very much time. The show has a cast of seven and, let me tell you, they worked like slaves for most of that time. When we do difficult, long-term projects, we (or I, anyway) tend to focus on the negatives, on the problems, on the things that need fixing, and not on the stuff that’s working. It’s only once things are over and done with that we can sit and look back over the entire process to see what went right.
Let me tell you, this one went right. These seven students (and about six technicians) produced a superior show, one that I was proud to be associated with. Our audiences are always kind, but, this year, we blew them away. The play is usually the highlight off the school year for me, personally, and I’m still feeling the good vibes from this one.
Of course, there’s about three weeks of work sitting on my desk, since I didn’t do much during the week before, during and after the play. But, I’m ignoring that part. 🙂
I haven’t posted anything since March 9 and haven’t written since the day of Gedaliah’s bris. Wow… talk about a drought. Truth be told, I’ve been busy. *Really* busy.
First things first: The kids are darn cute. As Judi wrote, Purim has happened recently and, as part of the festivities, we went to a Purim Seudah here in KC. At the end of the evening, a clown performed for the children who was fantastic. I’ve done some clowning, and I know how hard it can be and, let me tell you, this guy was talented. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding; ignore the red-eye and take a look at the reaction he got from my kids in this photo.
What else has been happening. Well, mostly, the play. In addition to my teaching duties, I direct the High School play at school. This year, we produced *Lost in Yonkers*, by Neil Simon, and the performances took place this past Wednesday and Thursday nights. I’m not exactly unbiased, since I’m a little too close to things to be impartial, but I think that the students did a bang-up job and the audience response was totally positive. We impressed our audiences for the third straight year which, when you think about it, is pretty remarkable, expecially if you know that we had only eight weeks between our first rehearsal and our opening night.
So, that kept me pretty busy. I’ve also been trying to keep up with school, the newspaper and this year’s yearbook, as well as our school’s once-every-seven-years accredidation process and the fact that we had a baby. That’s a lot to heap onto once plate, so you’ll understand why blogging has slid down the list of priorities a bit.
The kids are great and, as expected, Gedaliah is as cute as a button. This coming Tuesday is his one-month-day and he is already responding to visual and auditory stimuli and has, thank-God, been sleeping through the night since he and Judi came home from the hospital. He eats nicely, poops nicely and is generally good natured so we’ve got nothing to complain about… and lots and lots to be thankful for.
The bris was Tuesday morning (March 7) and Seth said it was my turn to blog but I was beyond tired. Sitting at my computer AND thinking comprehensively was absolutely out of the question. But realizing the blog was 6 days old, I am now motivated.
Everyone looked at me funny when I walked into school today.
They seemed to think that I should have stayed at the hospital with Judi as opposed to coming in to teach. Last night, Judi and I talked about this very issue, and we came to the conclusion that there really isn’t much for me to do at the hospital, so I came in.
You see, life goes on. There is laundry to fold, dishes to wash and three other kids to take care of. Plus, it’s not like there’s much for me to do at the hospital, anyway. Judi is working the phones, announcing the news and preparing for the *bris*, finding a caterer, etc… I spent most of yesterday closing the door of her room when people left and answering the phone so she could rest. By this morning, she was rested, so she didn’t need me anymore.
As a matter of fact, her staying at the hospital is a sort of vacation. They cook for her, wash the dishes, change her sheets… they even take care of the baby when she is in pain or too tired. So here I am, working today, while she sits at the hospital eating bon-bons and watching her soaps. 😉
###3:00 AM: Setup###
It’s about 3:00 in the morning (on Tuesday) and I’m at the hospital. *Finally.* Judi is in bed, asleep, about nine centimeters dialated, and the nurse just said that we’re going to be delivering this baby once and for all pretty soon.