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When I stop for gas at a full service station I get out of the car to schmooze with the attendant- nothing too deep, just like “How’s your day been going so far?…” (If it’s really cold outside I offer them to sit in the car and warm up while the car fills up (only one attendant ever took me up on the offer.))
When I’m done I give the person a dollar. The one dollar means much more to him than it does to me. (You should see the look of appreciation on some of their faces. For the $50 to $100 a year this tipping costs I think it’s worth it.)
One guy at a station on the NJ Turnpike made a mistake once and couldn’t stop apologizing. I felt so bad for him that from then on I always made sure to stop at that rest area and pull up to the pump that he was serving. If he wasn’t there I asked the attendant who served me to send him regards (he would usually let me know on my next trip that he got the message). I kept up with him for a few years until he got promoted (to fork lift operator at the warehouse) and switched locations.
1974- Philippe Petit snuck into the World Trade Center with a 450 lb box of 3/4 inch cable and took it to the 104th floor in a cargo elevator.
Traditionally my family knew we descended from a certain gadol but didn’t know how.
For the project my sister was researching this gadol and at the end of one story she read the magazine said that the author is an eight generation descendant of this gadol.
After contacting the author she determined that he is my grandmothers third cousin but he had a tree from his great-great-grandparents down which included my grandmothers grandfather. He then offered a tree going up to Rashi. From there my father did research and traced it to Dovid Hamelech and eventually up to Odom.
If the information is there- it’s there. If it’s not there I have no idea how to go about getting it. Sorry 🙁
For a class project my sister traced us back to Rashi. From there my father got a tree going back to Dovid Hamelech and then all the way back to Odom Harishon.
He told some loony he met on the subway who claimed that we all come from apes that we can prove we descend from humans but “I have no problem believing that your ancestors are monkeys if you insist”.
This never happened to me but I heard that there is a restaurant in midtown that charges employees from certain companies for free delivery!
When I’m waiting for an elevator and another person comes and has to press the call button even though it’s clearly lit.
(I don’t lose much sleep over this though.)
I personally don’t like the idea of dating more than one person at a time (can you decide which song or food you like better by listening to them or eating them both at the same time?) but it’s just my opinion.
This story happened to my sister (who shares my opinion). My only involvement was that I was an unknowing accomplice.
A shadchan called and had a guy for my sister who (at that time) was the top guy in Lakewood. Guy drives in, takes her out and she decides she isn’t interested. Before she can get in touch with the shadchan- another shadchan called to set her up with the top guy in Lakewood (it must have been a tie for that zman). My sister readily agreed to go out with him. This guy though insisted that my sister travel to Lakewood for the date.
When she called the first shadchan to let her know her decision, the shadchan told her that she has to go out with him again since it’s understood that if he has a long drive he gets at least two dates.
She is now committed to going out with two guys.
She told the first shadchan that she has to go to Lakewood for a simcha or something so she’ll go out with the first guy in Lakewood.
My mother got all frantic that she might come back a little late from the first date and the second guy will be sitting in his car watching her come back from a date so she had my sister go out from two different cousins houses.
Now here’s where I come in. My mother called a cousin of ours and asked them to invite us under the guise that my wife needed a break (she was in her 9th month at the time). So while we were in Lakewood my sister “happened to also be there” and needed a ride from one cousin to another for a date. (I only found out about the whole story after the fact.)
I guess it’s better to say that your brother dropped you off for the date than to say that another date dropped you off!
You all probably figured out what happened next, right? She liked the first guy better and agreed to go out with him again. When my mother called the shadchan for the second guy, the shadchan told her that she made him commit to two dates since my sister was traveling for the date.
Now again she had to date two guys, in the same city on the same day.
After this date she liked the second guy better and ended it with the first.
She later ended it with the second guy also. 🙁
I hope you don’t feel for a second that your parents don’t have the best intentions in mind for you when they pursue or reject a potential date.
Try to explain to them what you feel is important in a spouse and listen to what they feel is important to them in a son-in-law.
Somewhere out there is that one special person who is perfect for you and your parents.
The longer and harder you have to look for him the more special he’ll be to you and your parents.
Hashem created you with love and he created someone just for you, also with His infinite love.
May you be zoche to find your basherte in the right time.
I heard this story about R’ Mendel Kaplan and I think it’s a great story.
This probably goes back to the 50s or 60s.
R’ Mendel was driving from Philadelphia to New York when he saw someone trying to hitch a ride to who knows where. The guy asked R’ Mendel where he’s going and after R’ Mendel told him he said, “hey Rabbi, I’m also going to New York, can I come along?”.
After he starts driving, R’ Mendel tells the person how happy he is to have picked him up. “I hate doing the drive by myself so I am so happy you are here to keep me company.” Later on R’ Mendel apologized and said, “I’m so sorry to take you out of your way, but I really need to get a coffee, can I at least get you a coffee or a soda?” His passenger declined, but did agree to wait in the car right outside while R’ Mendel ran in so that he didn’t have to park.
When they arrived in New York the guy asked to be dropped off at a subway station. Before he left the vehicle he looked at R’ Mendel and said, “you know Rabbi, I just got let out of prison this very evening and I need some money. I was planning on robbing the first person who stopped for me but I just couldn’t do it to you- you were too nice to me”.
Yes I can only try, that’s the correct answer.
He assumed it was 8% (4% chance that he was not a carrier + 4% that she is not a carrier = 8%), he happened to be close though.
The method I used was 1 – .96 * .96 = .0784 or 7.84%.
He did not feel it was worth it for such a small chance. I felt that I didn’t have the qualifications to convince him otherwise but I strongly convinced him to speak to a rov (which at first he refused to).
The rov from Dor Yeshorim who told them the news advised them to not speak with each other anymore and any communication between the two of them should go through him, the shadchan or another competent person. For obvious reasons he did not tell the shadchan what happened (he didn’t feel it was right to have the shadchan know that she was a carrier) he just said “thank you” and that he would highly recommend the girl to anyone else but they are not meant for each other.
He found out through the rov that she went for additional testing and he felt he owed it to her to go for the additional testing also.
The results were that they are not compatible.
I don’t know who she is but I heard that she got married.
He is married with some kids.
This is based on a true situation.
A guy I know was about to get engaged when they submitted their numbers to Dor Yeshorim and were told that they are probably not compatible.
The test that Dor Yeshorim performed had a 4% rate of false positives for the genetic disorder that they both tested positive for (in other words there was a 4% chance that he was not a carrier and a 4% chance that she was not a carrier). The rov that called them informed them that there is a much more expensive test that is 100% accurate.
Before spending over $1,000 on the test, he wanted to know the probability that they would be compatible.
What are the chances that they are compatible?
With 18 numbers the odds would be 1/9,075,135,300.
1 1 in 36
2 1 in 630
3 1 in 7,140
4 1 in 58,905
5 1 in 376,992
6 1 in 1,947,792
7 1 in 8,347,680
8 1 in 30,260,340
9 1 in 94,143,280
10 1 in 254,186,856
11 1 in 600,805,296
12 1 in 1,251,677,700
13 1 in 2,310,789,600
14 1 in 3,796,297,200
15 1 in 5,567,902,560
16 1 in 7,307,872,110
17 1 in 8,597,496,600
18 1 in 9,075,135,300
19 1 in 8,597,496,600
20 1 in 7,307,872,110
21 1 in 5,567,902,560
22 1 in 3,796,297,200
23 1 in 2,310,789,600
24 1 in 1,251,677,700
25 1 in 600,805,296
26 1 in 254,186,856
27 1 in 94,143,280
28 1 in 30,260,340
29 1 in 8,347,680
30 1 in 1,947,792
31 1 in 376,992
32 1 in 58,905
33 1 in 7,140
34 1 in 630
35 1 in 36
36 1 in 1Someone asked this to a friend of mine-
“If he marries my daughter and they have a baby and the baby wakes up in middle of the night, will he get up and feed the baby or will he make my daughter get up and feed the baby?”
He answered-
“Come to think of it, in all the years he was my roommate it never came up!”
I can only try-
I used a grid also, but each time I filled in a piece of info I wrote an explanation to justify it.
Did you type that up or copy it from somewhere?
Josephf-
I was planning on writing an explanation for each step of the way, not a table.
nameless-
Did his father marry a divorcee?
Josephf-
I actually solved it before. Around 12 years ago, when I was in Israel, a Rebbi gave me a Jewish version of the puzzle which his kid needed solved for extra credit. (The kids teacher probably needed it solved for his own kid but that’s a whole different chad gadya…)
Instead of different nationalities it was names like Chaim, Moshe, Tzvi, Eliyahu and Dovid…
Writing out the whole logic would take too long but it is doable.
Do you just want the answer?
Josephf-
Around the day that “I can only try” answered the riddle I was very busy at work in case I needed to take off from work for a couple days (my wife was due in a few days and I might have had to be busy going to the hospital, bringing them home, possibly a bris…) and I posted my last post for about one week.
The morning my daughter was born I signed on again and posted a riddle (anyone remember it?). She turns 7 months old today so that’s how I know that “I can only try” answered it around 7 months and one week ago.
You actually responded to that last post, “Dr Pepper – Not very intuitive :)”
Do you feel the same way now?
No, Josephf asked it about 7 months and one week ago.
But I remembered it on my own.
Sleeping on the job?
startling
starling
staring
string
sting
sing
sin
in
I
Josephf asked that many months ago.
startling
starling
staring
string
sting
sing
sin
in
I
They are part of a set of triplets, quadruplets or higher multiple birth.
Many years ago I was walking with two of my sisters when someone stopped us and said, “are the three of you twins?”.
One sister said, “No, triplets”.
Thanks for the great story, I couldn’t stop laughing while I was reading it.
Glad to hear there was a happy ending.
With all respect to the opinion of the one who wrote the article;
I read/ heard recently about the life of the first kollel yungerman of the yeshiva. (As a side point- he never left the yeshiva, he went on to work for the yeshiva for the rest of his life. When he passed away he was also the person with the longest affiliation with the yeshiva).
What I found very interesting was the amount of mesiras nefesh he put in, not only for his own learning but for the well being of the yeshiva. Besides for learning a full day in the yeshiva, during bain hasedorim he would ride his bike to different hotels in the area (he didn’t own a car) and raise money from the Jewish people vacationing at the hotel. (This was in the 1940s when kollel was virtually unheard of in the U.S. Imagine how hard it was to explain to people on vacation what he was raising money for.)
He supported his growing family on the meager stipend the yeshiva provided at the time. That was sincere mesiras nefesh for learning.
When his kids got older he moved them to New York where they would not have to attend a coed school. He commuted to Lakewood during the week and back to New York for the weekends until the yeshiva opened the New York office and he got a job there.
I’m curious to know if the writer did any research for the article.
Contrary to what the author wrote- Lakewood was a resort town when Reb Aaron Kotler decided that he wanted his yeshiva located there. He wanted it at least three hours away from the distractions of New Yrok (as Squeek hinted to above). It was not “established with the Yeshivah at its core to accommodate bnei Torah”. With no separate schools, Lakewood was definitely was not a place “to raise their families in an atmosphere of Torahdike hashkafos and dikduk hamitzvos”.
I hope I don’t get in trouble for writing this but from what I understand the purpose of the yeshiva was for bochurim/ yungerleit to learn for a few years with all their needs provided and no responsibilities to distract their learning. In the early days of the yeshiva the bochurim were not charged tuition for that reason. Reb Aaron, if I remember correctly, was against talmidim taking support from the government for then the time one was able to spend in yeshiva would seem infinite and the talmidim wouldn’t give it “their fullest” compared to if they knew they only had 6 to 12 months left and they had to “chap arayn”.
As this is a sensitive issue, I sincerely hope I did not offend anyone. Please forgive me if I did.
This is a personal preference but when typing I find it much faster to press WINDOWS LOGO + D at the same time than to remove my hand from the keyboard, grab the mouse, move the pointer to the icon and click.
It also looks very suspicious if you quickly grab the mouse when someone is coming as opposed to casually pressing two keys at the same time.
That was a great story ames. Thanks for sharing it.
The Doc and I were laughing so hard when we read it together last night.
He actually felt bad that someone outdid his proposal but I’m actually relieved that he didn’t think of that. 🙂
To get back to the main topic-
Someone offers to sell you a piece of jewelery but insists that the transaction take place on the NYC subway during rush hour. You’re not sure how much you’re willing to pay for it until you see it. You plan on making an offer between $1 and $1,000. Being that it’s on the subway during rush hour you don’t want to display too much cash.
Here’s the plan-
You’re going to put different amounts of cash into a number of different envelopes and write the amount in each envelope on the top left corner, and give him the envelopes that contain the exact amount.
How many different envelopes do you need, and what are the amounts in each one, to be able to come up with all the possible numbers between $1 and $1,000?
No reason to spend too much time on this. It rarely happens but it does happen (obviously with new patients).
Usually the case is someone sees me returning the files to the receptionist after an appointment and assumes I’m a nurse. They don’t realize I’m a doctor until I meet them in the office and introduce myself. The kids think it’s hilarious that there is really a person named Dr. Pepper and the parents are mortified.
… but on some airlines they do. LOL
It doesn’t happen too often and I get a kick out of it when it happens.
The best part is when I walk into the room and say, “Hi, I’m Dr. Pepper”. The parents turn red in the face and the kids crack up.
Oy, I know, that’s what I was thinking when he first told me the story.
Where do I start from?
It’s a long story…
The Doc is the oldest of a mid to large size family. There were a handful of siblings dating at the same time; The Doc, his twin brother and two sisters- the older was one year out of seminary and the other was fresh out of seminary. (Another brother was 19 or 20 at the time and wanted to start dating but Dr. Pepper Sr. convinced him to wait.) His twin is very Yeshivish and refused to take any names unless it came from a professional shadchan, and the sisters, being girls, were also also at the mercy of shadchanim.
One particular “professional” shadchan used to set him up with people that were like so not compatible and threaten him that she will not give any names to his siblings unless he went out with so and so. If he still refused she would reach into her grab bag of techniques (including, but not limited to, getting his Rebbe to convince him to change his mind and in one particular case she even called a friend of his who went out with her and told him that as teshuva for saying no to her he has to get him to go out with her).
Saying “NO” after the first date was also very tough. She would say stuff like, “you didn’t give it a fair chance”, and give him a hard time about it. Eventually he decided to act in a way where the girl would for sure say no and he’d be off the hook.
His parents couldn’t figure out what was going on but his younger brother, who either knew everything or knew how to find it out, offered to investigate. He called a friend of his from camp, who was a son of the Shadchan, and came back with the following information. I think it’s highly exaggerated so take it with a grain of salt.
Supposedly there were some rich parents of girls, who were not the brightest, yet they wanted their grandchildren to have a chance. They called this professional shadchan and offered large amounts of money if she could find the smartest guy for their daughter. The parents usually liked what they heard about The Doc; he wanted to learn long term, took davening and sedorim seriously and earned a secular degree so that if need be he’d have a means of supporting a family and he was known in Yeshiva as being a big masmid as well as intelligent and worldly. Poor guy, through no fault of his own he was stuck in the middle of all this. But he came up with hilarious things to do on a date (and he did it all very innocently) to make sure she said no.
With this particular girl, after she said straight out that they were not compatible he was relieved since he thought for sure she was going to say no. For some reason she said yes and they had to go out again. It turned into a soap opera (for no better way to describe it).
I’m pretty sure this happened with the same girl but can’t guarantee it. After he picked her up (it wasn’t the first date) they were deciding where to go and she asked if he could take her to a ball game. He’s really not a baseball fan so he explained that he doesn’t know what time the game would start or even if there is a game that night, and besides even if he could figure out how to get to the stadium and get tickets, a ball game wouldn’t be the best place to get to know each other. She let him get away with it but said, “after we get married I expect you to come with me to games”.
Next she asked him if he weighs over 200 lbs. “Why?” he asked totally shocked. “In one class I’m taking the teacher said we could get 5 extra points on our final if we give blood. I’m not eligible to donate blood for health reasons so he said that if I get someone else to give than I could still get the 5 points.”
“Aha, so why do you need to know if I’m over 200 lbs.?”
“Oh, the brochure said that the minimum weight is 100 lbs. so I was wondering if I brought you and you’re over 200 lbs. than you can give two pints and I’ll get 10 extra points!”
I’ll try to find out some more stuff over Shabbos.
Hold F5 down (or put a book on it) and you’ll be the first one to see your post when the moderator approves it.
Use ALT + TAB to toggle between different windows.
Press WINDOWS LOGO + D quickly if your boss/ supervisor/ spouse is coming and you are in middle of typing a juicy post.
I didn’t say it’s OK, I said what happens.
Have you ever seen a male doctor being asked to watch the kids or make a coffee?
Until people stop asking me to make them a coffee or to watch their kids while they feed the meter, I think it’s important to publicize that not all women in a doctors office are nurses or receptionist, some are doctors.
Correct everyone.
Females can be doctors too!
Great riddle- which Dr. Pepper am I?
A boy was playing baseball and got injured. As he was being rushed to the hospital someone called the ER doctor and said, “you’re son was injured and we’re bringing him to you right away”.
The boy walked into the ER, looked at the doctor and said, “that’s not my father”.
How is it possible that the boy is the doctor’s son but the doctor is not the boy’s father?
I think it’s more the format that the video camera stores the videos on. Ours uses mini DV cassettes and we connect the camera to the computer with a fire-wire cable.
Your best bet would be to call B & H and speak with one of their highly knowledgeable sales people.
Hope this helps.
(If you post the model # you’re looking into I’ll look into it for you.)
Not sure if The Doc posted this or not (if he did feel free to skip it, I won’t be offended).
He was on a date with a girl he really didn’t want to go out with. The whole time she’s complaining about how she hates her boss because of an incident that happened recently (she only said her side of the story but even from that The Doc felt that she was 100% wrong). They got drinks, he opens his looks under the cap and says, “hey I won a free soda” and she said, “NO! we won a free soda”. (He was speechless, he thought she was about to propose.)
He couldn’t get her to stop complaining about her boss let alone stop talking so he just got up, started walking towards the car, opened the door and let her in.
To his relief after they got into the car she said, “you know, I really don’t think we were meant for each other”.
Later on she needed a tissue so he told her that Dr. Pepper Sr. keeps a travel size tissue box under the passenger seat. He’s not quite sure how this happened since he had his eyes on the road but as she leaned forward to get the tissues she wiped her nose in his jacket. He was very calm and asked if he should get it at the next red light but she said, “it’s OK, I don’t need a tissue any more”.
After he dropped her off he was a “Broiled Pepper” as he described himself and took a long ride around the Belt to let off some steam. After about an hour he was down to a “Red Pepper” and decided to go to Maariv. He walks into shul looking like a “Rotten Pepper” and ran right into her father who was also davening Maariv (and also knew where The Doc was for a few hours that evening and probably figured out who the culprit was that did that to him).
After Maariv he came home and my Mother-In-Law said to him, “that was a nice long date, aren’t you happy you listened to me and took her out!?”. Dr. Pepper Sr. knew something fishy was going on but didn’t quite figure it out until the next morning when he noticed that his sonny boy had put 75 miles on the car, considerably more that the 25 miles or so a trip to Manhattan and back should be.
He ended up going out with her again but that’s another story which will have to wait for a different time.
This one’s for you squeek.
Someone approached me at college and asked me the following question. On campus I looked like a typical Yeshiva guy and not someone who was taking graduate level courses. (I’m going to translate the secular terms into Hebrew for everyone’s benefit.)
“You people say the 13 Ani Mamins, written by Rambam, every morning. One of them states that Hashem has no body, has no similarities to a body and can not be physically compared to a body at all (# 3 if I remember correctly). I’m currently taking a course called calculus and just learned about infinity. So, if Hashem is infinite then of course he can not have any comparison to a body? Isn’t this extra?”
I figured that he was either trying to harass me or show off that he was taking calculus and wasn’t really interested in the answer. Here’s what I answered;
“Take the graph of y = 1/x and graph it from x = 1 to infinity. Now take that graph and rotate it around the x- axis. The volume is Pi yet the surface area is infinite. This proves that it is possible for an object to have both finite and infinite properties. Therefore Rambam had to include that principal otherwise one might think that Hashem has certain characteristics that are finite and certain characteristics that are infinite.”
When I was done he was standing there in disbelief with his mouth wide open. He had nothing to say so I just walked off.
InShidduchim-
Did outtashidduchim used to be your friend before this whole fiasco?
Darling-
Did you really think I was letting you know who’s going to run the house when I said that?
It was a joke, come on.
Now people are afraid to come visit.
Didn’t we have an agreement that we’re not going to discuss things here?
Did you forget to fold your Talis on Motzae Shabbos?
Keep it up and I’ll let everyone know what Zippora wrote in her diary.
Oh do I remember that story-
What a day that was, I’m driving down the street minding my own business when some kid decided that a stop sign is a mere suggestion. I totaled my mothers car, got sent to the hospital, got x-rayed…
I come home to call my kallah and tell her that I’m fine and she feels that it’s the right time (we weren’t even officially engaged yet) to let me know that she’ll be the one wearing the Talis and Tefillin of the house.
I considered putting this in the “Sh’luchei Mitzva Einan Nizokin” thread but I thought it might take away from the message that anonymisss was trying to convey.
When we were ready to get engaged the families couldn’t decide if we should “announce” our engagement right before Pesach or one week later on Chol Hamoed. (I won’t bore you with the reasoning since it has nothing to do with the story.)
The Tuesday after we decided to get “unofficially” engaged he was in a bad car accident but B”H walked away without a scratch (very shaken up though). The paramedics couldn’t believe that he was in the vehicle, let alone the driver! He was taken to the hospital anyway for x-rays and was sent home.
He was in good spirits when he called me that night and inevitably the discussion came up if we should have the L’Chaim the next night or wait until Chol Hamoed.
“I’m going to say this once and only one” I joked, “there is no way you are going to propose to me tomorrow night and then Bentch Gomel the next morning!”.
We waited until Chol Hamoed.
chaverim-
Try looking at all of them as limits. For numbers 1 and 3 the graph of the average will bounce lower and lower hitting bottom at 27.0 and 29.5 respectively, eventually as the number of calls whose duration you take into account approaches infinity the “bouncing” will be so small it will level off at 27.0 and 29.5 respectively.
The graph of the average of number 2 “telescopes” around 27 (think of a backwards telescope that extends forever- it goes higher and lower but the “mountains” and “valleys” get smaller and smaller) as you go along towards infinity. As the number of calls whose duration you take into account approaches infinity the “mountains” and “valleys” will level off at 27.0.
In number one the amount of billable seconds saved for a one second phone call is the same as a 61 second phone call, 121 seconds, 181 seconds…
In number two the amount of billable seconds saved for a one second phone call is different than a 61 second phone call, 121 seconds, 181 seconds… so the average will be different. However the longer the phone call the closer the average will be to 27.0. After 10,000 seconds the average is 27.0032, after 20,000 seconds the average is 27.0018. Keep going towards infinity and the limiting average is 27.0 (although it will never hit 27.0).
squeak-
You need individual data for this, not grouped data.
chaverim-
Amount of billable seconds saved (assuming phone calls of random length):
1. 27.0 seconds,
2. Limit as duration goes to infinity is 27.0 seconds
3. 29.5 seconds.