Mir Blogn

Thanks for choosing to continue, bubbela.

We thought about doing the most mediocre thing about passover, but because we love to gripe, today's ice breaker is "The Worst Thing About Passover is:"

• Adam: No cereal. K4P cereal is the worst. Ian enjoys the first bite of Honey Stars. After that, it's all downhill. Sandra is complaining about the cereal her mom bought her.
• David: A lot of K4P alcohol leftover, especially after a party on the last day. [Editor's note: If you'd like some Cherry Manischewitz/Dimetapp, please contact me.]
• Aaron: Disorganized and at the same time, really, monotonous meals. Can’t have a good meal schedule. Brownie bites all day. It throws off the whole schedule. I'm irregular. I've eaten the same thing five nights in a row.
• Adam, again: Not being able to eat chametz.
• Shira: The intermediate days—in between meals—no good snacks, especially on campus and in the dorms. David hollered that, not challahed.
• Sarah: The day before. It's a fast day-ish for everyone from eleven in the morning, onward. Not to mention the first-borns who are so lucky to fast the entire day.
• Daphna: Concurs with Adam #2. The older sister, who happens to be a great cook and dishwasher, is really bad at making pesach desserts. Never something to look forward to. Adam asked about the ice cream cake. [See Relay Recap for details.] Daphna doesn’t cook when sister is in town … Daphna and Adam are arguing about supposed bullying that when preparing the cake. Great quote from this exchange: “Constructive is in the eye of the beholder.”
• David, again: Timing issue. Ian interrupts, Delete. [Editor's note: ???]
• Ian: Trying to make two meals last for 8 days! It's like Hanukkah. You know, the seders. Big lively discussion. Aaron brings up the passover miracle: watching the Robinson’s ration their meals throughout the week. It actually scared off a neighbor, Julia Gulia. Ruby acting as chef? for Ian? Ian claims to be microwave adept, not inept. He also used the toaster, once, with assistance.
• Sandra: Yontof (sp?) more than half the time. Can’t talk to Shira. Awwww x 7. When it comes to food, matzo pizza in the dorm and EVERYBODY loves it, meaning the non-Jews. Debate about whether they should be entitled if she’s…. “get your crumby hands out of my matzo box, right now.” Hypothetical situation regarding pan-asian food analogy. Vegetarians with veggie patties. Hamburger and Indian food together, sacred cows? Alf eats cats. If there is enough matzo pizza for everybody… Sandra paninied vegetables to put on her matza pizza. Huge innovation.
• [Eli enters]
• [Sarah leaves. Her friend was pregnant, so it made sense that she had a baby.]
• Ruby: Trying to make the entire week out of what you have, because you don’t want to go to the grocery store. But everyone is wondering why you don’t want to go? Principle. [Ruby gets up and returns with a box of Matzo Sticks] Ah…cause you don’t want to eat leftover KFP food after its over. Sandra’s question: Whats the deal with egg matzo and Tam Tams? Is it kosher. Maybe not at the seder, otherwise it's all good. David misses the matzo factory.
• Eli: Best part, my argyle socks. Extra pesadikhe food, money gone down the drain. Especially in college. What am I going to do with four boxes of egg matzah, cart it to NYC?

[Editor's note: Keep in mind that all Passover gripes dealt with food, except Sandra's Yontof complaint. Odd? Or on point? PS. I've never used the phrase "on point" before, but I like it.]

Huge discussino develops over chicken soup. Beginning with David's point: "It’s not really chicken soup and it has finger nails in it." Shira says it's never a good idea to have chicken soup at a restaurant. Adam disagrees, "Steve's Deli has great chicken soup." Shira boasts: Once you eat my mom's chicken soup, you can never go back.” Eli tries to ameliorate these concerns with sports analogy about Baseball and Football in October.

After forty minutes of introducing ourselves, we begin...

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Recap of Relay: We achieved our goal. Should we do the hour-by-hour recap, ala 24? No. Ways to improve for next year

1. Decorate our area.
2. Attract more people.
3. Leaflets/pamphlets, anytime.
4. Shmooze mascot ala the "Brown Squadron". Shmooze submarine?
5. Grill, if possible.
6. Hot Dog Cart as the baton with regenerative breaking? [FDR joke interlude. It's okay because it's been at least 14.3 years...]
7. Only one tent is necessary. Maybe just a canopy/chuppah

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Shmooze publicity See article, here.

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Shirts. Here are some of the ideas:

1. Shmooze approved with stamp and block M. Implies pride to be part of the university.
2. Brody’s store idea. It has nothing to do with anything. "We're going to have a whole [Shmooze-specific] clothing line," Ian.
3. Kosher symbols venn diagram. Or just OU symbol somewhere.
4. "Ehh… we shmooze" idea. With block M.
5. Whatcha know... is a bad idea. ERASED.
6. Shmooze with pais. Happened at the Jewish Academy, can't be done, again.
7. Just a picture of someone’s grandma. Maybe Bubbe? We hope to have "Shmooze" written somewhere. Could become the universal shmooze symbol. Not seven-layer cake. Not a gecko. Not holiday lights. Not a stapler. Not OU. Ian with thumbs up is a good idea.
8. Shmooze in Yiddish.

Jon London can draw things. Sandra is applying to the art school. She volunteered to draw a bubbe. We'll draw some sketches and vote between "shmooze approved" and a variation on the bubbe idea. Tell Elektra. She can draw too.

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Headbands.

"Do it" argument goes back and forth between Ruby and Ian. Like Starsky and Hutch.

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New House?

The Heisler/Berman Mansion @ Ann & Division. It hasa porch and a lawn.

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Festifall. Sept. 7, 2006. We need to get some ideas. In school time, it's two weeks from today. How about a gimmick. Adopt-a-bubbe? Shmooze adopts a bubbe. [Laughter ensues] Something shmoozerific. Bazooka Joe, in Hebrew? Bagels and cream cheese? Shmooze pins? Great idea. People love pins. “Pins is [sic] the new black.“ Shmooze yarmulke? Sexist, religious? Pamphlet? No go. Bagel holes? Sandra’s great idea! Fruits chews? We can bring in a local shul's candy guy to pass out the Sunkist fruit chews. Toss, clap, and mazel tov? Kiddush cups, too?. We should get a posterboard. Definitely a Tri-Fold. E-mail sign up for the blog. [Eli stands up to leave, pauses, and listens to Ian]

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Ian has an idea for programming: "Prolonging Stereotypes:" Jews in Entertainment Series. We would screen TV/Film adaptations of Judaism, ie. bar mitzvahs. We would need a facilitator (sp?) [Eli leaves] Bergman?!

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[Copi, the landlord, used David’s handtowel to clean the sink and the plunger. David is fuming. Will throw away his handtowel.] “If you schedule it, people will come.” New motto for events.

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Shmooze Film Series? First Thursday, every month.

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Yiddish Word of the Week Next year, either in the e-mails or on the blog, a new word. Discussion about discrimination of Ladino. No one to speak up for Ladino speakers. We'll consider it, though. Sandra: Why does Zach Weisman live here, and not Zach Weiss? Answer: Well, they’re different people.

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Funding application due May 1.