¡Shabbat Shalom!

this is the cutest video. i could not resist posting it! enjoy! oh, and have a great shabbos all!

the perfect purse

i have been looking for the perfect purse for the past ten years. about ten years ago the armpit purse became in style . an armpit purse is a purse with a short strap so the purse sits right under your armpit if you wear it over your shoulder. i find the idea of an armpit purse extremely impractical for new york city living. besides i like purses with long straps so i can position my purse over my shoulder and across my body. this way my purse will be secure and un-smelly.
i also do not like the purses that have a front pocket that opens into a wallet . its a great idea but often these pocket wallets have zippers that unzip on three corners which makes me fear i may lose the contents every time i open it. if i just opt not to use this feature i feel like its a waste of purse space and it must be weighing me down  so why bother?
i don't like purses that don't zip shut or have a zipper that doesn't totally zip up as is often  the case. i never quite understood this feature. why buy a purse that doesn't completely enclose my valuables ?
about two weeks ago i bought a purse that is near perfect. the shoulder strap is long enough, it does not have a built in wallet and the zipper on the main section mostly closes shut. it would be the perfect purse if the main section was slightly wider so it wasn't such a tight fit for my kindle, but the fact that my kindle fits at all is pretty cool.  this purse is also a neutral color and light weight . its leather so i don't have to worry if i forget  an umbrella. the contents of my purse will stay dry.

ili world leather makes this perfect purse. ili  has a booth at the bryant park, union square and columbus circle holiday markets in nyc.  i am in love.

Chanukah Jewish Rock of Ages - Official Hanukkah Video

and so it begins. the viral videos of the chanukah  season. this one is pretty good. the only problem that i have with these spoofs is that it makes me want to listen to the originals . the only one that i actually liked better than the originals is the maccabeats  candlelight video. i like their version better than tao cruz and mike tompkins' versions.

New York Times Rocket Into Roses

talk about making lemons into lemonade this man makes missiles into menorahs. it is truly beautiful. it takes an amazing person to even think of doing something like this. he really personifies gam zu l'tovah. .

secret admirer

often the only guy willing to approach a woman at a singles event is the nerdy guy one doesn't want to go out with. even though said woman does not have any interest in said nerd, she still must give him credit for actually having the oomph to actually approach her.
i was talking to one of the "nerdier" types recently . i hate to label him as such. he really is a nice person even though i do not know anyone i would set him up with.  anyway, he was telling me how he is still interested in my friend, but she doesn't give him the time of day. the sad part is he was so sincere that i really felt bad. it wouldn't help for me to intervene on his behalf because i know that she would not appreciate him or even appreciate hearing about his sincere interest in her.  she would just think "oy why do only the nerds show interest in me?" so i  won't bother irritating her. too bad though. its always nice to have an admirer even if its not mutual .

must drive car

among the geriatric set the most important requirement of a romantic partner is that he/she must still be able to drive a car. this of course makes me pause and think . is this what it all boils down to ?  what  does  this mean for   singles under 80 ? perhaps this means that the most important quality in a partner is if he/she can get you where you need to go. for the geriatric this means a car, for those of us who don't yet qualify for medicare this might simply mean "does this person help us get where we need to be in life?"  not so simple to answer and i wish just having a valid driver's licence would do the trick.

single gender buses

all this talk about women sitting in the back of the bus and men sitting in the front of the bus on "mehadrin" buses in  israel has made me not want to visit israel again.  after much thought i've come up with a better solution. there should be single gender buses in israel. this way no one has to be designated back of the bus status. i find it insulting to pay full fare for a bus ticket and not be able to sit anywhere i would like on a bus. if there were separate gender buses i would be much less insulted by the separation of the sexes. im not quite sure how family outings would go if there were gender separate buses, but i suspect there is not much whole family time among those who require separate seating on buses.
i don't understand the reasoning for making the women sit in the back of buses or making men and women walk on separate sides of the sidewalk. i suppose there need to be different hours of the day for men and women to shop in a grocery store or the post office. perhaps men and women should live in separate homes and children should only be conceived via artificial insemination. after birth the child should live with the mother if she is a girl and with the father if he is a boy.
 i would imagine it matters less who you marry if men and women are so separate. you cant squabble if you don't spend all that much time together.
every generation adds their own chumrahs , but this one of extreme separation of the sexes would make me go  otd  if i was part of a community that upheld such laws.
p.s. its worse than i even thought in israel. i just found this failed messiah .