Dr. Pepper

squeak-

I posted the sequel in the “Funny Shidduch Stories” thread.

Where would you like to continue the conversation about Fermats Last Theorem?

Sequel to http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/funny-shidduch-stories/page/3#post-43239.

Some background information first- the shadchan was a family friend who thought that if she’s a nice girl and I’m a nice guy why wouldn’t it work? She meant well, I’ll give her credit for that, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Anyway, she was looking for someone who was going to learn full time which I said I would love to but in case there comes a time where it’s not practical I’d like to get a job. She asked me to commit to 3 years and refused to “bargain” for anything less. I agreed to commit to 2 years (I was two years away from graduation), and said I would like to learn longer if feasible but I refused to promise.

Since she was flying to NY for a wedding a few days later the shadchan asked us to set that issue aside for the time being and negotiate after the first date if it’s applicable.

During the first phone call she accidentally said something really inappropriate about herself and I decided that “it wasn’t going to happen”. (Had she been talking to a close female friend it may have been appropriate, but not to a guy she never met before. I didn’t hold it against her since it was obviously an accident. Luckily we were on the phone so she couldn’t see my facial expression and I was able to laugh at it afterwards, but I was terrified at the thought of her saying something similar in front of my family or friends.)

As mentioned in the linked post- it was one of those “one up one down” experiences, but I did ask for it.

Getting to the sequel. My youngest brother is totally different from me and the rest of my brothers and somehow he always knows everything. He doesn’t brag about it or anything, but he just knows everything. I never told anyone who this girl is and as far as I know he didn’t even know I was out on a date since he should have been in yeshiva. On top of that, he even knew the reason why she said no. (My only guess is that he found the shidduch notebook my mother kept with all the information about the names that came up for me and my siblings that were dating at the same time.)

Fast forward a few years. This brother gets a call from the girls mother- apparently she either forgot about me or just didn’t realize that he’s my brother- and asked him for information about two different guys, I have no idea who they are so let’s call them Reuven and Shimon.

Now my brother knew that Reuven was dating the callers’ younger daughter (did I mention that he always knows everything somehow?) but decided to play along. So when she asked him to compare Reuven and Shimon, my brother explained that Reuven was “busy”.

“How busy is he?”, she asked. “Uh, I’ll find out and get back to you” my brother responded. “Oh no, you don’t have to. Do you know who he’s going out with?”, she pressed. “You know what? Let me find out all this information for you and I’ll call you back in an hour or two.”

“It’s OK”, she responded, “don’t bother finding out”. She then asked my brother to compare and contrast the two guys.

“Well they are both nice people, but Reuven is an exceptional mench and a solid all around guy. Shimon is also a mench but not as big of a catch as Reuven.”

“Actually, what I really need to know is who is smarter, you see, all my kids are geniuses and they can really only go out with the smartest people around, otherwise they just can’t relate to them.”

At this point my brother was thinking of telling her who is brother is and asking why her older daughter told the shadchan that I was too smart for her if her kids “are geniuses and they can really only go out with the smartest people around”, but he’s a good brother and didn’t want to say anything without my permission.

I granted my brother unrestricted permission for the future. My brother found out (some how) that the mother broke off the shidduch between her daughter and Reuven and took Shimon instead. In a casual conversation with Shimon, not knowing that my brother knew who he was dating, he mentioned that he likes the girl but he’s beginning to suspect that she’s a ditz.

They ended up getting married and as far as I know, that’s the end of the story.

Squeak,

Sorry if it was confusing. Her question was, “In your opinion, before it was actually proven, did you think Fermats Last Theorem would be proven or disproven?”

Being that I originally thought it would be disproven I explained why I though so. She then wanted to know how it was proven so I explained it in great detail. (I had just finished a course in abstract math and the teacher stressed the theorem so I knew more about it than your typical math nerd.)

Max well-

I agree with you 100% but the question is- where do you draw the line?

My sister went out with a guy who abruptly stood up and said, “if we leave now, I can still catch second seder”. How holy is that?

Would you say that once the guy realises she’s not for him he has to leave right away? Is he allowed to drive her home or does he have to pay for a taxi for her?

Hopefully you agree that he should finish the date like a mentch and drive her home. For some people the date isn’t finished until he takes her out a second time so it isn’t too depressing.

Going out more than 2 or 3 times when one knows it’s not happening is, in my opinion, Gneivas Daas. I don’t feel that way about a second date.

There was a story going around yeshiva while I was dating about a guy who opened the car door for the girl after the date for the ride home. The girl reached in and opened the button to the back door. She explained to the guy that her Rebbetzin said she can’t sit in the front seat if she knows she’s going to say no. The guy said that his Rebbe said he can’t let the girl in the car if he knows he’s going to say no.

I’m not trying to be arrogant (it wasn’t through my merits that I was in this situation, rather it’s because I’m a male) but I always had a large selection of potential dates, including many who “already agreed to go out and is just waiting to hear a ‘yes'”.

Nevertheless, there was still some pain in being rejected- even if I asked for it by trying to disprove Fermats Last Theorem on a first date.

Now look at it from the other side. Some girls have to wait weeks or even months to get a date. Imagine the hurt feelings of not giving them a second date. I still remember my sisters and their friends discussing how some of them “just couldn’t ever get to a second date”.

Isn’t it worth a few dollars and a couple of hours of your precious time to save another persons self esteem?

(I know most people will not agree with this, but I heard a story where a Rebbe suggested a shidduch to a Talmid and the Talmid wasn’t interested. The Rebbe asked him to go out with her anyway- just to boost her self esteem- since she hadn’t had a date in months.)

popa_bar_abba-

Here’s what some friends of mine do; they daven at the 7:00 minyan and then bring their kids to the 9:00 minyan and daven with them. They stay there with them as long as they last and then bring them home.

My son is too young for that but I do bring him to Maariv sometimes (he can sit still for 20 minutes or so) as he loves saying Shema out loud during davening.

Highly doubt this is true but this story was going around when I was in High School.

A certain yeshiva had an issue with guys bringing milk back to the dorm and not properly disposing the leftovers, so they made a rule that no one can bring milk to the dorm.

Out of protest, some guys went to a local farm and purchased a goat.

When the administrator found the goat he had a cow…

Still not the context I heard it used in.

When I began teaching I tried a technique a teacher used on my class. I stood in front of the class pretending to be totally oblivious to what was going on, spoke in a monotone, kept a poker face and had a permanent smile. The object was to see who the instigators are, which kids start misbehaving once others do and which kids will never misbehave.

Almost immediately I started hearing comments like “OMG, this guy is such a Harry”.

This worked until some students who had older brothers or uncles who knew me figured out that I wasn’t as innocent as they thought.

Recently I started getting harrassing phone calls from a collection agency asking for Harry Pepper and I was wondering if a student got a credit card or something in that name and gave my address.

(I finally got through to an operator who was willing to talk like a gentleman and determined that it probably wasn’t a prank. He also gave me enough info to figure out who the real Harry is- although I never reported him to the collection agency.)

In any case, once I saw this topic I thought some one may be able to shed some light on what a “Harry” is.

What’s a “Harry”?

squeak-

I found the answer there but it’s a little cryptic. It looks as if there was a post deleted (possibly from “ames”).

Thanks, I must have missed it since I didn’t check it on a regular basis while it was active.

squeak-

Sorry if I worded it wrong.

In most cases you will not get a prime number when multiplying a few primes and adding 1. If the number 2 is not one of the primes then there is no chance of (product of the primes) + 1 being a prime since it will be an even number and divisible by 2.

The exception to the above rule is when one of the primes is the number 2. In that case the (product of the primes) + 1 will be odd and the probability of it being prime is greater than 0% (but less than 100%).

squeak-

You may have been here since January of 07 but the CR hasn’t been around that long. Did you post the answer on the main page?

I did notice on an old post of yours that you were going to write an introduction about me when I publish my book. How’s that coming along?

YW Moderator-42-

In most cases you will not get a prime number when multiplying a few primes and adding 1. The exception is when one of the primes is 2, otherwise if you multiply a few primes and add 1 you will get an even number.

Other than that the proof is correct.

A gift certificate to a local restaurant and offer to watch her kid(s) when she goes.

If you read through the entire thread you should have come across that riddle already (the original one was with coins instead of balls).

Back when I was a counselor at camp we went on a trip to an amusement park. We went on the water rides in the afternoon since that’s when the lines were shorter.

As you can imagine, I wasn’t fully dry by supper and when I tried to walk I was in lots of pain.

When the head counselor announced that “Bunk Yud Beis” should follow their counselor to the bus I stood up and told my bunk to follow me. A few second later the whole camp is roaring in laughter. I turn around to see my twelve campers waddling behind me like a duck family. The ringleader said “you did tell us to follow you, right?”

Moderator-80-

It is kind of frustrating in the beginning since the center sphere has a different axis of rotation than the middle sphere but once you get the hang of it it becomes really easy.

There is also some fine motor skills needed but it gets easier in each subsequent attempt.

I already posted this story in a different thread but I’ll post it again for the benefit of those who haven’t seen it.

When I was single I went on vacation with a few friends. For lunch one day we went out to a fast food restaurant to eat. After ordering we found a table to sit at while waiting for our food to be ready.

The cashier called out to us that our meal was ready and one friend went to pick up the food. On the way back he tripped over a kid and the food went flying.

He sheepishly went to the front to order the food all over again and ask for a mop and broom to clean up the mess.

The owner, who must have been watching from the back, came out and told him not to worry about cleaning it up. He then told the cashier to replace everything for free. My friend insisted on paying saying that the owner shouldn’t take a loss since it wasn’t his fault.

“It’s my restaurant”, said the owner, “I want everyone who comes in to leave with positive memories”.

It’s been about ten years since the story happened, yet I still try to go back and patronize the establishment whenever I am nearby.

smartcookie-

I stand corrected. I wasn’t considering the case where there is nothing wrong but the parents might not approve (i.e. blue shirts).

Hopefully one should know their children well enough to know when they are overstepping their boundary.

Setting that aside- it all depends on the situation.

I think what it comes down to is if the person knows that what they are doing is wrong. When my in-laws came to visit shortly after we moved nearby my father-in-law pointed out that a mezuza or two was in the wrong place. Of course I’m happy he pointed it out. After spending close to $100 on each mezuza I might as well have each one in the right place.

On the other hand if I didn’t go to shul in the morning and my father-in-law would say something I’d probably feel differently.

My In-laws,

For letting me marry their daughter,

For being great neighbors and

For not being in-laws!

oomis1105-

It didn’t cost me anything except five minutes of my time, I didn’t realize until now that it saved him so much money.

Concerning the type of thoughts he has about Jewish people- when I met the rest of his family I learned that his wife and kids are Jewish. We found it very ironic that he is more concerned that the kids learn about their Jewish heritage than his wife is. He is the one who makes sure that they learn about the Jewish Holidays.

When a few families made a Purim Seudah (and we assumed he’d be at work) we invited the wife and kids. As fate would have it, they already made reservations at their synagogue…