It Ought To Be Simple

Temple Emmanuel, the synagogue I grew up in, had a picnic every year at the nearby Clementon Lake Park. The Park opened in 1928, just in time for the great depression to fossilize it as a relic Hoover era entertainment culture. It always seemed to need a coat of paint. It's been in the news lately for being saved from the bulldozer by an eccentric investor. But I remember if for one thing: not its wooden framed roller coaster, or the lake in the center with paddle wheel cars, nor its hot dogs and cotton candy, but for every boy's first memory of the freedom of the road. The bumper cars. Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild" is probably about a measuring up to a white "YOU MUST BE THIS TALL" line on the wall at the bumper car pavilion somewhere, everywhere, at amusement locations throughout these fruited plains. I grew 10 inches in my sophomore year of high school. As a result, year after year, I did not "measure up" to the required h...

On this day, June 24, 2021, under a cloudless still sky and a rising full moon, Linda gently breathed her last and was gathered to her people and to the presence of God whom she steadfastly loved and was fascinated by.   She was surrounded by her children and myself.  We were in her room all day, laughing and crying, searching in vain through hundreds of pictures for one of just her, not gathered with family, friends and most especially, her gorgeous grandchildren.    We couldn’t find a single one.   She never posed, not for a photograph and not in life.   So I picked just one with Josh, and no one will feel left out.   She was beautiful, charming and brilliant, a summa cum laude in her double majors of mathematics and early childhood development, but all she wanted was to teach children to read, have her own school and a family to pass on all that was good.  So she did.     She beat her diagnosis by a long shot, but heaven mus...

  Cash Cow Auction. The bidding begins. Opening offer: UAE I wanna say "I called it".   I assumed some Arab country or Hamas breakaway group would figure out they could become fabulously rich, rebuilding and being the landlord of all of Gaza's real estate, and skimming / embezzling all of the world's aid money.  Sinwar, Haniyeh, and Mashall parlayed the misery of Gazans that THEY manufactured into personal fortunes in the billions.      Sinwar got his noggin rearranged in Gaza, Haniyeh got all-blowed-up visiting Iran, and Mashall is happily playing ping pong at one of his lavish cribs in Turkey or Qatar.  I assumed some ambitious Gazan with guns and ghouls would punch this golden ticket.  Someone besides me had to see this cash cow sipping Pina Coladas on a Gazan Mediterranean  beach.  All the gelt, with none of the guilt of bleeding out your own people.  In the words of Hanniyeh after October 7ths Israeli ac...

There's  a Hebrew well-wish-saying "עד מאה ועשרים", "ahd meah v'esrim", which means "(may you live) to a hundred and twenty".   I don't know if anyone that says that really believes it will happen, but I have good reason to believe I'll live to a hundred and forty.   When I turned forty one, I was a prime candidate for a mid-life crisis.  The sad cliché of having an affair with a woman from the office was off the table and the pathetic sports car purchase didn't seem to fit my four-wheel-drive persona, but Linda and I were sitting at the breakfast table and I opened the newspaper to see a full page ad for the newly released BMW Z3 and said "that is the most beautiful car!".  Linda said "go get it".   No sane man would have an affair on a woman that stellar and suddenly the guy in his forties who buys his first sports car seemed less pathetic and more go-get-ic.    Lots of folks told me that the car was a mid-life-cri...

  Forty two years ago today, in twelve inches of snow, I finished my greatest accomplishment, tricking Linda into marrying me. I had to act fast before it became obvious that I was out of my depth with her, though it turned out her generosity of spirit would make allowances for me. I asked her to marry me just three weeks after our first date or to be accurate, I told her that we would be married, and she agreed. She never actually said "yes". Through the high and low tides of circumstance, she was constant. I said a thousand times in my head "within the walls of my house, all is well". On this happy occasion, I'll tell a story that became a hallmark of things to come. On our first anniversary, my last boss before I hung up my shingle gave us a gift of a weekend stay in the top floor suite of "The Merry Widow" in Cape May. The entire town of Cape May is a National Historic Landmark and a treasure trove of Victorian beachside homes that time and mo...

Western leaders want A CEASEFIRE with Hezbollah? Baffling. Does anyone know who these DEATH CULTISTS are? Iran has been building this death cult in Lebanon for 20 years, unleashing murder and terror THROUGHT THE WORLD. The West's coddling of Iran and it's paid proxy-murderers is baffling enough, anger that Israel won't IMMEDIATELY cease fire, while the West has an insatiable thirst for adding to the 500,000 dead in Ukraine Understanding Hezbollah's Global Reign of Terror Understanding what a nexus of evil Hezbollah is SO important.  The linked interactive site is so helpful.   At a glance, or in-depth.    Knowledge leads to discernment. Clik on the banner on the left, you don't need the opening page text. washingtoninstitute.org Lebanese Hezbollah - Select Worldwide Activity