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Yes I think most sushi is vile, same with sashimi
I don’t like fish.
I still cure (pickle) my own corned beef brisket. Usually three weeks in the barrel/brine before cooking.
I also smoke my own pastrami, sausages, turkey, etc.
Some of the benefits of living in the country
My wife and daughters eat herring, I can’t stand it.
Popa……….
Those days ended with the Bush Great Recession of 2007/8
There are very few top tier Wall Street or White Shoe law firms hiring the top 2% of graduates from the top 10 Law schools at 6 figure salaries. This especially goes for frum first year associates who would not slave away and bill thousands of hours because of Shabbos and Yuntif restrictions.
Graduates of second tier and public law schools who have passed the bar are hungry for work and not find much of it. There have been many articles about this in the NY Times in the past couple of years.
Add the fact that government in many jurisdictions has laid off attorneys or has hiring freezes…and there is a bleak outlook for most new members of the bar.
The OP has no name brand college degree, and likely will not have an Ivy League/Stanford/U Michigan law degree….unless he is taken into a family firm his prospects are slim. Even if taken into a family firm, he will not start at top salaries (as earned in the 80s and 90s).
I have a small firm (by choice). I occasionally hire a starting associate (often as a favor for a friend or client). Generally they are not Jewish. This allows coverage on days when I cannot work. Not all judges are good about scheduling motion hearings and other minor appearances around religious schedules.
Today’s clients expect a quick call back when the call or email, not after a 2 day yuntif followed by Shabbos and courts closed on Sunday.
Your Legal Studies degree is pretty worthless as a precursor to law school, unless you work as a paralegal for about 5 years and then apply to law school.
Get a BS in Economics, History, Psychology, Math, etc. Do well on the LSAT exam, pay lots of money and don’t plan on making the kind of money that was possible 20 years ago.
There is a glut of lawyers on the market. The availability of low cost on-line forms, etc. has taken away much of the bread and butter work for lawyers.
You would likely earn far more as a good paralegal than a starting lawyer.
I know that I pay my closings (Real Estate) and wills and trusts paralegals approx 100K. I can get all the first and second year associates I want from good law schools for 45k. The paralegals then have to teach the new associates the real nuts and bolts of law work–forms, filing, calendar tracking, etc.
This advice is from someone who has been in this for years and has convinced his children not to come into the family profession.
In 1975, I remember my paternal grandmother complaining that her building on Ocean Parkway was going Schvarze.
I didn’t see any black people and questioned this…………….
Her reply: Black Hat
The yeshiva crowd was moving in
Not weird at all.
My wife and I were talking about 3 weeks ago and realized that each of us has been driving for more than 45 years. Between us we’ve owned more than 50 cars.
Definitely not your NYC Cliff Dwellers. Here in the burbs it is very common to own more than one car per person, not per family.
@daasyochid
They were always a class organization. Not all their employees are classy.
Disclosure: I hate football, but have had business dealings with the Krafts. I also know the Schwartz grandparents and the father of Ezra.
won….a seat on the municipal legislative council
remind me in 2 years..
@syag
Actually it started life a dark brown color. For my 60th birthday my wife had it painted bright red. That attracts police attention and makes me drive slower. Smart lady
Why should my wife mind? She has her car and no one else is allowed to drive it. The children have their own vehicles….life in the sticks.
@Popa Bar Abba
1971 Jaguar XKE 5.3 Liter V12 engine Roadster in Bright Red. This was a high school graduation gift from my Zaidy, meant to aggravate my mother. It did. I have had it since new. It is kept in a climate controlled garage and only is used from May to October for limited pleasure use.
You can tell I live out of town…no public transit and no parking woes.
I love my cars……………
All three of them
My Big Family Sedan
My 4wd with the plow to clear my driveway
My mid-life crisis sports car
All mine, the wife and children do not get to drive these
Sunday in Massachusetts………..
His grandfather was my physician in New Haven when I ;lived there, and his father grew up there.
ABSOLUTELY>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I am an American who is Jewish. I am proud of both. This country took in my maternal line in 1868 and my Paternal line in 1873.
My Zaidy was a corporal in the US Army during WWI. My father and uncles served in the US Army in WWII. My Father-in Law in Korea and my Brother in Viet Nam.
The past 150 years in America has been a far better life for this Jewish family than the hundreds of years in Germany and the Russian Empire.
It is not just celebration of American Holidays, it is HONORING AMERICA by observing those holidays.
I also observe Veteran’s Day to honor those who served and survived.
I’m old–mid 60s, not ancient. But in the 1950s I spent lots of time on Ocean Parkway. My paternal Grandmother and her 3 sisters had adjoining single family houses on the east side of OP between Cortelyou and Ditmas. In the early 1960s they all sold out to a developer and then lived in apartments all on the same floor of the apartment building erected on the land until the late 90s.
I’m not that old to have seen the horse and buggies, but my father A”H often talked about hiring a horse and wagon in the 20s and 30s to move large objects/furniture. My father was born on 18th Ave in 1922, his father was born on Ft Hamilton Pkwy in 1882.
Brooklyn was a kinder, gentler place in my youth, truly a suburb, and yes I did see the Dodgers at Ebbets Field as a youngster
and I remember when we’d rent horses in Prospect Park and ride them up and down Ocean Parkway. We’d tie them up at the front railing of Bubbe and Zaidy’s house just south of Ditmas and go in for cake and a cold drink.
Things have really changed on the Parkway ion the last 60 years, gone are most of the lovely single family homes and the traffic is horrific
@no email….
Re: Wimpel instead of Gartel
Is this for use on sifrei torah, not on male adults?
My maternal side is Yekke and the Wimpelim from all the brisim have been cleaned, embroidered and used on sifrei torah for generations. I have two sifrei torah from the bungalow colony my grandparents owned decades ago. They are tied with the Wimpelim from my older brother and my Brisim.
No male on that side of the family ever wore a gartel to my knowledge. That’s for Chasidim.
Thank you. I appreciate that you remembered.
I now look forward to two years of attending even more meetings and hearings.
BTW> I personally visited over 3,000 homes in my electoral district and made more than 5,000 phone calls. There were many voters who told me at the polls that I was receiving their vote, because I made that personal call to introduce myself and solicit their vote. A number of my opponents used robo-calls, and the consensus is that if you can’t be bothered to make live calls, you will not be trusted to respond to your constituents.
When the poster mentions those who don’t like cholent and their maternal Yichus, answering ‘I don’t like cholent’ and not mentioning my maternal roots is not enough of an answer.
I like my red meat red, not brown throughout, thus overnight cooking in a cholent is not what I consider ‘properly cooked.’ I would not expect you to eat extremely rare beef or raw in the case of Steak Tartare, but I do.
I have explained, I use ‘cheap’ in the sense of quality, not price tag. cheap goods can be overpriced, it depends on merchant and demand.
The starches I refer to are potatoes, barley, and beans…common cholent ingredients. They form a tiny part of my diet.
I don’t make and/or serve cholent in my home, I din’t grow up with it. My wife did and doesn’t miss it.
I don’t hide the facts that I am both a lawyer and involved in politics.
No, I take out the trash, mow the lawn, shovel snow and we don’t have a maid.
I work hard and use what I make to provide for my family.
I have no reason to hide my maternal Yekkah roots or paternal Litvak roots. The original comment about someone not liking Cholent asked about maternal yichus.
‘greener’ ‘greenhorn’ still in use.
My ex-wife was the child of Yekkah Yordim who came to the USA in 1955, having been in Palestine/Israel from 1939 on.
They were definitely greenhorns. They arrived by air at Idlewid.
The pecking order of who arrived when is definitely still in play. My ex-MIL who arrived in 1955 has no use for the new Yordim arriving since the 80s.
Most, but not all My direct lineage is all, some cousins branched OTD, but no intermarriages, conversions, etc.
@Syag
Cheap, doesn’t mean inexpensive. It has to do with quality. The fat content necessary to sustain 20 hours of cooking is found in cheap cuts of meat. A lean quality steak would not be appropriate for overnight, wet cooking.
My words are not rude or offensive, but a qualitative observation of the fatty meat, potatoes, barley, bean combinations that are served as Cholent.
It is possible to make a quality stew or pot au feu that is not gloppy and has lots of root vegetables instead of all the starches used to extend the cholent.
Anyone whose family came through Ellis Island are newcomers. Old-timers came through Castle Garden at the Battery. As a youth, I remember my great-great uncle (paternal side-Litvak) referring to a crowd/tumult as ‘ah regular castlegard’
@Flatbusher and Feivel
again, cheap doesn’t mean inexpensive. It is only the cheaper cuts with lots of fat and connective tissue that can stand the lengthy cooking of a cholent.
When I was a child Brisket and hanger steak were cheap cuts. Today, because of demand for BBQ or fajitas, they are expensively priced cheap cuts of meat.
I don’t like cholent. I’m not fond of overcooked mush made of cheap cuts of meat and lots of starch.
As for my maternal yichus, my great great grandparents arrived in NY from Munchen, Bavaria(now Germany) in 1868. They were merchants on one side and doctors on the other. They did not eat what was considered peasant food by Yekkahs. A soup kept warm on the blech or a pot au feu hanging from a hook in the hearth over the coals was the hot dish for Shabbos lunch.
Not every frum ashkenazi Jew in America who went to Yeshiva is from the Austro-Hungarian or Russian Empire territories. We are also not all from families where Yiddish was an acceptable tongue. My Oma would cringe when she heard someone speak Yiddish, asking how such a beautiful language could have been ruined by introducing those slavic words and accents.
There are no ‘skys’ or ‘Itzes’ in my maternal line, just Jacobs, Schwarz and Braun.
B”H they came to America in 1868 for economic opportunity, they never had to escape pogroms or worse, but were able to establish the network that provided support for the latecomers from the Pale.
as my moniker implies I live out of town….
Harmony with your neighbors requires that you graciously provide candy to the youngsters who knock at your door and compliment them on their costumes.
Our small town neighbors are aware of our religious practice and in the occasional year when Halloween falls on a Friday, no child comes to the door.
These same children may grow up to be the policeman, volunteer fireman or EMS that responds to your emergency.
Rule #1 it better be a style the girl wants. Most feel very uncomfortable discussing this with the boy or his parents.
When my eldest son was at the ring purchasing point, his two closest in age sisters had a ring shopping date with his future wife. they went to a few stores and the intended tried on different styles and sizes and discussed what she liked with my daughters. They even took pictures of her top choices on their cell phones.
Then this information was shared with my son, wife and myself,
Rule #2 Poppa will Pay….therefore Poppa (or momma) is involved in the actual purchase.
We went to a diamond merchant we have used over the years and chose a stone of suitable size, cut and quality that met my expected expenditure and showed the merchant a picture of the chosen ring. He called in a jeweler in the building and that jeweler provided the ring and the stone was mounted.
Remember, this ring will be worn for many years and what may be suitable on a 20 year old hand is not on a 60 year old hand. Don’t go trendy.
Rule #3 Stay away from anyone who offers to save you the tax by you paying cash. If the merchant is willing to cheat the government, he might also be cheating you
Glad to meet another Yankee, not these greenhorns who came through Ellis Island…………….
1864 Yekkahs and 1872 Litvaks all eneered through Castle Garden
My Zeidy Z”L used to ask? Are you Jewish or Galitzianer?
Then my Litvak father Z”L married a Yekkah…Oma Z”L called all Yiddish speakers: Peasants from the east……………..
@dassyochid
I’m a Liberal. I LOVE Gefilte Fish. It’s a perfect forsphies before the roast duck is served. After all they both started as water animals.
Daas Yochid
Noritake and Mikasa are JAPANESE, NOT Chinese products. Your predjudice and/or ignorance now shines through.
No, they all don’t look alike, just as you don’t have horns.
Comlink-X
I do not reveal details about my children in any campaign literature, that is private. It should make a difference in how voters vote and I keep family life separate.
There are 169 towns in CT and I have not identified where I live, nor the office I seek. I do not think you would easilly find me from what I post here.
popa_bar_abba
No, I don’t deliberately call people who I know have asked not to be called.
The calling list is the list of registered voters in the district. It is generated by the Registrar of Voters and contains the phone numbers given by people when they register to vote. This government provided list is not checked against a ‘no call list’ because calls to these numbers are not subject to that list.
If a voter does not want calls from candidates and political parties/pollsters, the voter does not have to provide a phone number when registering to vote, or can ask the Registrar to remove the phone number.
Just because something is legal doesn’t mean it isn’t offensive. Slaughterhouses are legal, but I wouldn’t want to live next door to one because the smell and noise is offensive.
The history of the Chinese Auction, where the replacement of the word tricky by Chinese is documented and offensive to those of Chinese decent.
My family arrived in the US in the early 1870s and were storekeepers in the south. Those general merchandise stores were known as Jew Stores by the populace. It wasn’t illegal, but is sure was offensive.
If you are told by someone with a Chinese child that the term ‘Chinese Auction’ is offensive, why fight it? It would be far more respectful to say: “I didn’t know that, thank you for educating me.” That doesn’t mean you’ll change your opinion or practice, it does mean you show courtesy and perhaps compassion for a fellow human being.
So now that everyone had a chance to make fun of my screen name, one that is accurate I am a lawyer in CT. I don’t do medical Malpractice cases so no CT scans in my files…
I suggest that none of you rely on Wikipedia for authoritative knowledge. Almost anyone can post or edit entries.
My discussion was based on actual experience having a Chinese child. I doubt there are many in the Coffee Room with such a child, but out of town it is not that unusual in the Jewish world to have one. In fact my rov recommended such an adoption as when marriage tome came around there could be no possibility of mamzerus. Only Chinese girls are available for adoption, never boys.
Now back to the telemarketers, My father Z”L taught me more than 50 years ago to simple say “I’m sorry we have no budget for that, thank you for calling, Goodbye….then hang up.”
No lies, no wasting the callers’ time and very polite.
I no full well the wrath of callers, especially at dinner time. I am currently running for local office, and we call voters from 6-8:15 PM. People are quick to yell into the phone that they are on the no-call list, however charities and politicos are exempt under the law. Also any company you have done business with in recent history may call you.
Coffee…read this 2002 post from wordoriginsorg…….it brings home the point I made:
Joseph, it also answers your question about checkers
CONFUSED ABOUT CHINESE AUCTION #21 [-]
Mar 19 02 10:50 AM
My children came home last night with an advertisement for a Chinese Auction that was going to be held at one of the local elementary schools. We are Chinese Americans.
My 10 yr old son asked me if only Chinese people were allowed to go. I told him “no”. He then asked me what an auction was. I explained. He then asked me if they were planning to sell Chinese people.
When I asked the schools about the term “Chinese Auction”, I was told that this is what it has always been called. (Not that this is justification…..). I then asked the obvious question, “WHY?” I was told then that the Chinese, a long time ago, were considered “tricky” and “deceptive” and that that was why the term “Tricky Tray” was synonymous for “Chinese auction”. I went from curious to offended very quickly.
It seems to me that things should be named appropriately. I am not offended by “Chinese Food” or “Chinese Checkers” because those are appropriate names and accurately describe these things. I am offended by “Chinese Auction” because there is absolutely nothing Chinese about it. Call it a “Basket Raffle” or “Surprise Raffle” or even “Tricky Tray”. But for goodness sakes, let’s not call it “Chinese Auction” because that is not what it is.
Coffee Addict.
The term Chinese auction is a very disgusting and derogatory term and should never be used. They are not auctioning off Chinese people as they did with blacks in pre-Civil War America.
I have a Chinese daughter, my wife and I adopted her in China 18 years ago at a time when due to government one child per family policy, newborn girls were being killed.
Any charity or organization that advertises a Chinese Auction will never get one cent from me, and I will publicly urge a boycott of the charity/organization until the term is banned and proper apologies made.
We know dozens of other Jewish families that adopted infant girls in China and we are all offended by this racist term.
BTW, we also have a white, American born adopted daughter who is 30. We did not start to adopt until we had 3 natural birth children, then for medical reasons could have no more.
Daas Yochid…
yes, we have 2. My grandparents owned a bungalow colony in Loch Sheldrake in the 50s and 60s. When they sold the land for commercial development, zaidy donated the siddurim and chumashim to his shul, but kept the sifrei torah in the family. I’m the youngest male in my generation and have had them since 1988.
Plumber………………
If it’s really hot, I walk in shirtsleeves and slacks. If going to shul, there’s a suit waiting, if coming home, a closet full of clothes awaits me.
Both shul and home have central air conditioning…no window units on timers like in the city.
If I know on Thursday that Shabbos is supposed to be 95 degrees plus, I invite enough Shabbos guests to have a minyan at home and lunch is served by the pool (within an enclosed fence with door from the house so carrying is not a problem). Having a dozen Shabbos sleepover guests may not be easy in a city apartment, but is no problem in a 7 bedroom 5 bath house when all the kids are grown and no longer at home. Just holding on until we fill them with grandchildren on Shabbos and Yuntif…………..
I have a couple of Rain Suits bought at LL Bean. I keep one in a closet in Shul, where I also have a suit bag with a Shabbos Suit, shirt, Tie, socks, underwear and a pair of dress shoes.
If It’s pouring when I’m planning to leave for shul, I wear sweats under the rain suit and boots, when I get to shul I change. If it’s pouring when it’s time to leave shul, I take off my suit and put on the rain suit I keep there. The key thing is to remember to take the items back to shul during the week.
Twice in the past 10 years weather has been so bad that I have had to stay in shul overnight because of rain or snow. Here in our small town there are no sidewalks and I live about 2 miles from shul.
How else would they cut the grass?
Seriously, in many cemeteries there is no way to get to many graves without walking on other graves. If there is a usable walkway, then one should try to use it. But as for telling other adults NOT to do something…if you aren’t on the cemetery board it’s not your place. Children on the other hand can be given a lesson in ettiquette
My father, OBM, grew up at #312 Ave F and celebrated his Bar Mitzvah there in February 1935.
As for Orthodox Synagogues being called Temple it is not common in NY, but in the Boston area it is very common
Feivel…
You don’t need internet on your computer, you need a WiFi card built into your computer. There are computers that require connection to an outlet in the wall via an ethernet card. WiFi is a wireless connection.
WiFi is also used for Intranet connections-between computers in a home or business or to send documents to your printer wirelessly…all without accessing what we think of as the Internet.
Most publicly owned buildings-schools, town/city halls, libraries have FREE open WiFi.
Using that is not theft, it is provided for the public’s use through tax dollars.
Sitting in your car outside a Starbuck’s or McD’s to use their free WiFi intended for their customers would be theft.
I think that Justbecause must be thinking the boy and the girl’s parents live in the same metro area.
We live out of town (Connecticut) Our son dated both at Yeshiva in NY and in Israel. It would have been very inconvenient for us to have a set number of dates after which we would require meeting the girl.
He ended up marrying a girl he was set up with while in Israel, we met her at JFK when she had a layover flying back from Israel and changing planes for Miami. I have no idea if they had been on 4 dates or 10. We met her for 90 minutes. We then had a long phone conversation with our son and made arrangements to fly to Florida and meet her parents.
OTOH, our daughters went to school in NYC. If they reached the stage of wanting to go out a 4th time with a boy, we would drive in on a Sunday afternoon to meet him for coffee. In both daughters’ cases they ended up marrying brothers of their school room mates and had already met the parents when they came to bring their daughters to school or when our girls went as guests to the room mates homes.
Skripka………….
Apikores? No Misnagid yes
My mother Z”L was of German descent (I’m 5th generation born in America) and never served cholent. I only make it in the really cold weather if the sons-in-law and grandchildren will be here for lunch as they are accustomed to it.
My wife and daughters like to keep their trim figures and avoid the starches that comprise most of cholent. They’d rather I made a good Boeuf Bourgignon or Veal stew with mostly root vegetables than some glop made of potatoes, beans, barley, kishke, kugel and one hunk of fatty meat for flavor.
Glad you mentioned the cost of good chicken soup. I use 10 pounds of chicken to make a 12 quart soup. No powder or frames fro me. I then use the soup chicken for making knishes, chicken croquettes or chicken salad later in the week.
We don’t buy or use prepared food with the exception of Challah in warm weather (we do bake Nov-April). We are down to 4 adults in the house and I figure that we spend approx $25 per adult per Shabbos excluding wine. We do not generally make cholent, Warm weather Shabbos lunch main course is generally a salad topped with cold grilled chicken or beef, lamb or veal shishkebabs. I smoke my own deli meats (the joy of living in the country with a small smokehouse in the yard). We also do not serve both fish and liver at the same meal. One Friday night, one Shabbos lunch.
Whole life is great…for the selling agent.
It is sold as a forced savings vehicle, but you lose out on the returns available on investments that have no commissions involved.
What good is building policy value, then borrowing it to pay for weddings and G-D forbid something happens to you and your widow and children get a pittance?
Term life is cheap, just develop the discipline to save each month.
The only time whole life was great for policyholders was in the times of great inflation. In 1980 my father was able to borrow $100,000 in policy value against a whole life policy he bought in 1946 for 2% and invest it in bank CDs at 18%. But in modern low interest rate economies one would not accumulate that amount of policy have and have the chance to arbitrage the funds.
I am old fashioned and believe social invitations should be hand addressed, not printed on a computer label.
My wife hand addressed all the invitations for our wedding all those years ago and our married daughters have done the same thing. My son’s shvigger addressed the invitations for his wedding as the Kallah’s handwriting was not as beautiful as the mother’s.
I grew up eating Fleishcige breakfasts, such as salami and eggs or corned beef hash and eggs. I drink my coffee black so it never made a difference to be Fleischige so early in the day.
In fact after Yeshiva and while in Law School, as a single adult I had a Fleischige apartment, no milchige keilim at all.
With the advent of so many parve milk substitutes we had no problem making a fleischige bris for our son 25 years ago.
My grandsons have had pareve brisim (fish, eggs, veg) as it was not the custom of my sons-in law (or theor families) to eat fleischiges in the morning, and one of the shuls only permits milchiges or pareve in their kitchen
Better to taste her mother’s cooking. If it’s not to your taste you probably won’t be happy with that the girls cooks either. Her reference point will be her mother’s cooking and seasoning.
Homer…
One party rule doesn’t work. It doesn’t work in Hartford or in my unnamed little town with Republicans holding all the power.
Only in a split legislature where compromise is necessary do we achieve good government.
When I was young, CT legislators were part-time, they met every other year and set a 2 year budget and it worked.
I want term limits, not long term professional politicians feeding at the public trough