On Monday night and Tuesday we will celebrate Tu Bishvat, the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat. Tu Bishvat is also known as the new year of the trees; the Mishnah mentions this date as the cutoff point when counting the age of a tree. This is important for the laws of terumot and maaserot … [Read more...]
FLYing and landing
January 17, 2008 by
I discovered Flylady when I was pregnant with my fifth child. She took the best of SHE, imbued it with her own unique style and transferred it from a filebox to the internet.Flylady immediately got rid of SHE's biggest problem. She says that the index cards made you feel guilty, and guilt keeps you … [Read more...]
Book Review: Life After Housework
January 10, 2008 by
The idea that someone could write a book about cleaning techniques was a revelation to me. I bought Is There Life after Housework in the local used bookstore because I couldn't resist the title. The author, Don Aslett, explains everything you need to about cleaning your house. If you are thinking … [Read more...]
For those with low housekeeping standards: She Got Up Off the Couch by Haven Kimmel
January 2, 2008 by
If you are depressed about your housekeeping standards, you might take comfort from the memoir She Got Up Off the Couch by Haven Kimmel. It's the sequel to "A Girl Named Zippy." Zippy's father decides to lower the ceiling to save heat, and his family is so impressed by this improvement (". . . we … [Read more...]
Fitting Housework into Life
January 2, 2008 by
When I had only two children, born eighteen months apart, I didn't spend a lot of time on housework. My oldest enjoyed scattering toys around the house, crumpling any paper he could find, and biting his baby brother when I got distracted for a moment. My husband and I developed a system to manage … [Read more...]
Burkas: The New Fashion
December 25, 2007 by
A friend of mine attended an odd wedding and shared some pictures of the new fashions. The one on the left is wearing three head coverings: one under her chin, one covering her forehead, and one going all the way down her back. This is in addition to a full-length cloak. The woman on the right is … [Read more...]
The Lost by Daniel Mendelsohn
December 24, 2007 by
I've been reading Daniel Mendelsohn's book, The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million. Mendelsohn grew up in an assimilated family in New York. In the background of his visits to his older relatives in Florida lay a story about a great-uncle who remained in the family's ancestral town of … [Read more...]
Do kids care if your house is dirty?
December 22, 2007 by
If my mother hated cleaning, she never admitted it to me. But she didn't research or think much about cleaning techniques, like she did with other aspects of homemaking.She was fussy about guests, who were never allowed in the kitchen; she had me for serving and clearing. I didn't mind much, except … [Read more...]
The real reason Israeli soldiers don’t rape Palestinian women
December 21, 2007 by
We take a break for a rare political post. (Update: Link now included.) Update: Israel Satire Laboratory's take on it--it's almost too easy. The newspaper Makor Rishon writes about a recent study by researcher Tal Nitzan and published by the Hebrew University's Shein Center for Social Studies. … [Read more...]
The Non-Denominational Mikveh
December 13, 2007 by
An anonymous reader sent me a link to an article containing an interview with the founder of the non-denominational mikveh in Boston called “Mayim Hayyim.”"For a lot of people, the mikveh's been associated with a lot of negatives -- the second-class status of women, the denigration of women's … [Read more...]
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