High Holy Days Hodge-podge: Day 2

Day 2 of the High Holy Days, and the weather is warm and sunny: perfect, the way that one expects the weather in southern California to be 95% of the year.

Last night, after ingesting my daily portion of reading (this week is Sandra Tsing Loh's A Year in Venice), I had some time to ruminate, so ruminate I did. One thought led to another (as is so often the case in rumination) and soon I was thinking how unfair I am sometimes to Alvin.

Alvin is always very patient with me. He listens to my whining, then does his best to offer comfort or counsel. I am sometimes dissatisfied with his suggestions, but he is a faithful listener and dispenser of (not-always-helpful) advice. Alvin lets me pilot our conversations, even when I hijack them and take us on a journey on which he does not want to go. He would probably rather not discuss the merits and vices of Harriet Myers, or how Prime Minister Koizumi's economic reforms have poised Japan for a new decade of economic prosperity, or how Turkish ascension to the EU will affect Sino-European trade relations. But he lets me ramble on, and chimes in when what would otherwise be my uninterrupted monologue has gone on for too long.

There are probably two or three dozen other ways that I exploit my friendship with Alvin, but I think my enumeration thus far is sufficient to apprise the reader of my evils.

So, in the spirit of Rosh Hashanah, I thank Alvin for his graciousness, publicly apologize to him, and ask for forgiveness. Sorry, Alvin! You can remind me when I start to do any of the two to three dozen things that didn't list.


Secret Jew of the Day: Kenneth Cole
Not-so-secret-Jew of the Day: Steven Spielberg