the accidental feminist

i recently finished watching the first season of the cable tv series mad men .  though it was fun to watch the glamour of a bygone era i feel grateful to be born after that time period. the gender discrimination that women suffered in the workplace in those days was appalling. nowadays sexism hasn't been eliminated, but its a million times better for women in the workplace today than it was in the early 1960's.
i often  hear  in women my mother's age saying that young women these days have no idea how good they have it and how the women of the sixties and seventies really paved the way for young women currently  in the workplace. i never realised how much they were correct until i watched the series mad men. we've come a long way.
so much for the 'good old days'. as carly simon put it into song, these are the good old days.

the demise of the bookstore

one of the most sad events in current history is borders bookstore filing for chapter eleven. a lot of borders bookstores in manhattan are closing including one branch that was/is  near where i work. i am despondent. i loved their book events. i loved being able to run there for a seven o'clock book event on nights i worked late and still be able to get their on time because it was so close by . i loved browsing the books during my lunch break from work.
alas, i too am the owner of an e-reader. so even sad as i am about the bookstore closures i am part of the reason bookstores are closing. i don't buy as many print books as i used to.
another reason bookstores are closing is due to the internet. many of us are buying books online. its usually cheaper to buy a book online even if its from a website that has a physical bookstore.
of course now that everyone is buying almost everything online what are we all doing in all of our free time??
libraries are still open. i like libraries, but i've always liked bookstores better because bookstores always have the new releases quicker than the library does.
i recently attended a book event at barnes and noble . it was incredible. the place was filled with swarms of people. im sure that there were  many people who bought the book, but it seemed like there were less people who bought the book at this event then at events years ago. the event that i was at recently was for the younger crowd. the younger crowd is much more tech savvy so they might not be as likely to buy print books than the older crowd.  perhaps more bookstores should have book events that target the older crowd that  is more technologically phobic and more likely to buy a print book.
p.s. the above photos were taken at the borders at columbus circle which actually is still open. i just didnt have any photos of any other borders bookstores.

tis the (purim) season

i was in the east village today and went to moishe's kosher bake shop to have my first hamantashen of the season when lo and behold a policeman followed me into the store.  not unusual i know. it was a bakery and you dont  have to be jewish to eat baked goods from a kosher bakery. well, after i purchased my poppy seed hamantashen, my policeman friend purchased some cherry filled hamantashen. well maybe he is jewish , or maybe he just likes hamantashen . you never know.
another fun culinary fact for all of the gastro jews out there is the story of  alvin lee. his bakery is not kosher, and lee is black and gentile,  but its worth a mention none the less. alvin lee saw a recipe for rugalach in a newspaper forty years ago and perfected the art of making rugalach. now he owns a bakery in harlem which carries rugalach . people love his rugalach so much that when he had to close his doors last may due to financial reasons his former patrons rallied to help him stay open because they loved his rugalach so much. hmmm so i guess there is a reason some people stay connected to judaism just for the food.... even a non jewish harlem man got into the act to make a jewish culinary dessert !

shabbos yom menucha

people who do not keep shabbos always revel at how i am able go 25 hours without being able to text, speak on the phone , watch tv or go veg out on the computer. i say how can i not have a 25 hour period each week with such restrictions?   bring it on!! being restricted from the possibility of a 2 hour phone call is divine. im so hypnotized by my computer that its good to have at 25 hour weekly break from it. oh and i don't watch enough tv to miss it on shabbos. im not such a heavy texter so i don't even think about not being able to text on shabbos.
i feel sorry for heavy texters . for them its as addictive as smoking. they can barely go fifteen minutes  without increasing the intensity of their carpal tunnel. they have to learn the art of face to face conversation . what a bummer.
 i think that hashem knew what he was doing when he banned electronic devices on shabbos. he knew  that we needed a weekly break from it all so we would actually have shabbos menucha.

engagement

when a friend gets engaged it is always bittersweet. im happy that they are able to move to the next step, but im sad because im never sure whether we will still be friends once they get married.
no matter which way it ends up, whether we remain friends or not i am still glad my friend is engaged.
of course i am envious of my friend if she is engaged, but this is good envy. it motivates me to take action and try to make it happen for myself  (though it hasn't come up with  any desired results...)
buts seriously , some people aren't envious of   their friend's engagements , weddings and children because they don't think they will ever have one. not hard not to be envious if your self esteem is that low.
other times it is easy not to feel envious because one knows how much ones friends went through to get to where they are.
yes, i am genuinely  happy for my friends when they get engaged its just that sometimes im sad for myself that i haven't gotten there myself and i guess gets worse every year that goes by because after all some people never get married . then again its good to know that some of my friends have gotten engaged and married so they don't have to continue going through all the singleness.

about a city

when i lived in the midwest  the city i lived in was more of a backdrop. my focus  was on my friends and family . when i moved to new york it all changed. new york city takes on a life form . new york  is like a selfish younger sibling demanding all of your attention. sometimes you have to leave "the city" not just to get away but to get away from all of the new yorkness.

hallmark

one low tech item that i wish i would see more of these days is the greeting card. there is nothing like opening up a non-virtual card and holding it in one's hands. e-cards are fun, but  they are as intangible as the wind. i still have paper cards i have received from grandparents , aunts and uncles who are long deceased, but i am still able to see their  love written on the greeting cards that they had sent me. who knows what new technology looms in the future. the computer could one day go the way of the record player or the vcr. low tech as it is you can always hold a paper greeting in your hands and read it provided the ink on the card hasn't faded.
i don't own stock in hallmark. i just miss the  golden age of the greeting card. whenever technology advances there are always pros and cons in new vs. old. the cd is more compact than a cassette tape, but a cd can warp like a record used to. a dvd is more compact than a video, but when you don't watch a whole movie at once on a video its easier to pick up where you left off. the video stays stopped at the part of movie you paused. with a dvd you have to remember to write down the name of the scene  and chapter you paused your dvd on  and then go through the whole rigmarole before you find the place where you left off when you want to continue watching.
i know that the clocks of change can never be turned backward, but i sure do miss those hallmark moments.