New Air Freshener is a Big Hit w Mr. Pumpkin

 Mr Pumpkin is nearly always on message with the value of pumpkins, whether nutritional or indirectly benefiting national defense or the health of children.

So we ordered some "pumpkin spice things up" air freshener.  As with the pumpkin spice latte, it lists ingredients that only tangentially refer to pumpkin. In the case of the air freshener, the ingredients include 'fragrances'. 

But that seems good enough for bragging rights to Mr. Pumpkin.

Awesome Arm Rests Dude

 

I brought home two boxes of pizza today.

Michelangelo used the occasion to set them up so he could use the boxes as arm rests. 

 

Mikey's comment was easily anticipated.

 

.

Pumpkin Spice Latte Found - But there is an issue

After searching other places, I found a bottle of Pumpkin Spiced Latte (yes it is a Starbucks product) at a Safeway.  

Mr. Pumpkin had been advocating getting this product. His reasoning is that it helps the national defense and you can't put off helping the national defense.

Interestingly, other than the name of the product, the word 'pumpkin' does not appear any where on the label. The description indicates cinnamon and all spice and the official ingredients has 'natural flavors' as the 5th component.

Mr. Pumpkin contends that, notwithstanding its role in national defense and childhood nutrition, the pumpkin industry is comprised of humble, hard working folks who just want to support our country and our country's health.

The Professor Cogitates

 

The Professor came out to look at the construction site of our sukkah.

He had this to say,

"It is a differential experience to see a  construction site honor a conceptual construct, particularly one that aims at a pre dialectic neo narrative in a self sufficient paradigm of meta cultural realism.  Although with a subtext of patriarchal interpolation spaced within a mythic normative liberationalist materialism, it does not fail to give a degree of pretense to rationalism."

Wile Joins Us for Socially Distanced Coffee

 

Ann works for a contractor that, although continuing to pay her, has run out of work to give her. Explanation below.

So we went out for coffee today. We took Wile E Coyote but made sure he was masked for protection from infection. You can tell from Wile's eyes that he likes the smell of coffee. 

Ann had taken off her mask to drink the iced coffee.

Ann's company is responsible for auditing medical coding at a major Federal facility.

 

However, the primary coding is slow because a number of coders quit. Basically a series of management mistakes.

Coke Bear Mostly Approves

Coke Bear was investigating our inventory of 2 litre bottles.


He approved of the fact that we had an 11 bottle inventory.



He was disappointed that one of the bottles was a grocery store house brand but not upset with us because, as he puts it, 

"Coke doesn't consider house brands a threat, otherwise we would have a stronger defense against them."



.

Soccer Bear Has Influence

A Soccer Dream 

This was also a post in the regular chronology blog.

I don't generally think much about soccer and when I do think about it, it is about how boring I find it.

Notwithstanding, I had a dream in which I was building a soccer practice field.  I had guideposts like in the image but I had mounted them on Roomba-like devices. They would look like the second image (which has a big vacuumed material  retention box) except sleeker.

I also had the soccer field tilting to make it harder for the forwards to control the advance.  

One of the coaches was talking to me about my design and how to get the players, who would be trained, on this practice field.

Then I woke up.


.

Hardrock Bear Now Likes Dr. Fauci

 At a meeting today, Dr. Fauci, who leads coordination in the US response to the Corona2019 Virus (what I sometimes call the Wu), was giving a long speech and presentation.

As part of that,

"the spectrum of involvement with the same pathogen is very unique," Fauci says.

This was from a story in Axios reporting from a TB Alliance meeting.

The story is here. 

Of course, Hard Rock Bear insists that he is 'very, very unique' in that there were only 50+ bears made with the Atlanta patch on them, at least at the time he was made.


.

Setback for Gate's Favorite University

Apparently, the taunting cheer used at the University of Florida called 'Gator Bait' is being ended per orders of the University President.

Somehow, this cheer which follows some short music and consists only of the words 'Gator Bait' and hand motion as in the image, has been found by the University President to be racist.

He said,

“While I know of no evidence of racism associated with our ‘Gator Bait’ cheer at UF sporting events, there is horrific historic racist imagery associated with the phrase,” 

... in an email to the student body,

I have no idea what horrific imagery he is talking about. There have been some movies starring a super large gator that eats people but those movies are supposed to be campy comedy. In those movies the people eaten are a pretty diverse bunch. There was also a fairly obscure movie called "Gator Bait" done in 1973 and an equally obscure GatorBait II done in 1988.

Initially Gate took this report with a grain of salt but it was also reported by the Miami newspaper, here. That report has comments from a person (who is black) who says he inspired the cheer.

Anyway, 



Image and article here.

Ski Bear Gets to Practise his Tutorial

Ski Bear has not had ski instruction work since early March this year because ski slopes have been closed to skiers.

He has been driving for Uber but plans to go to the southern hemisphere soon as the ski slopes in New Zealand are soon to open.

So today we helped him out by getting pizza and fries as these are the items Ski Bear uses in his skiing tutorials (to go faster, put your skis parallel like fries; to slow up put your skis at a front intersection like pizza). 

So, not only does ski instruction require large mental resources, it also helps to practice your lesson giving.

Meanwhile, Lev is looking on wondering what Ski Bear is doing and thinking about how it would require machos if Ski Bear were jewish.

Hadassah Gets into the Weiss Chronology Blog

Mother's Day Tulips before Sabbath 

I got flowers from the store instead of from the yard for the Sabbath before Mother's Day.




Hadassah, representing the Parnas clan of the Ukraine, wanted to make sure there were no 'problems'.

Some of the other stuffed animals are now a bit scared of Hadassah and her husband, Lev, is thinking he maybe got more than he thought he was getting when they married.

Heh.


Cards from Ann's birthday are near the Tulips.

Tulips match the table cloth. Cross posted with the Weiss Chronology.

A Setback in the Makkos Universe

According to a report from Reuters, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is going to end the practice of flogging.


Lev is pondering this as it pertains to a possible world wide trend.

There is no set  'end of flogging' date reported in the article.

Also, it seems there is no movement to end the practice of amputation and execution, including by public beheading, in the Kingdom.   This does seem to Lev that flogging is being unfairly singled out as 'inhumane' (whatever that means).




Reuters report is here.

Not in our house

In our house Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote get along fine.


In some areas, the fight goes on.

I was unable to determine where exactly the image was taken but it looks like the Southwest since there is a barrel cactus on the left (and barrel cactus doesn't grow much north of Phoenix). 

It also looks like an urban area.

Makkos During Chol HaMoad Pesach

Lev has felt that several of our family's actions, e.g. abbreviating the maggid during the sedar, deserve Makkos (lashes).

The problem that Lev has is that Rabbinic Courts are closed for Pesach including the Chol Ha Moad intermediate days.

Lev has been looking for a reason to justify administering makkos on the intermediate days.

He thinks that by declaring that administering makkos are part of his Simcha of the Chag he could justify it. The image shows Lev looking at the back of an annotated volume of the Talmud which contains both Makkot and Shavuos (oaths)

Lucy Gearing up Legislation, the (p)PPARA

Lucy is working on a contingency plan so that Biden can advocate something 'innovative' in the next Democrat Debate.

It is the (pretense of) Patient Priority and Affordable Referral of Care Act (p)PPA(R)CA which would in the case of a Trump 2nd term be branded as the Making Referrals Great Again (MAGAa) act (the 'R' for referrals is 'silent' in the acronym). 

The basis of the legislation is to make referrals an entitlement funded publicly but administered privately by referral professionals certified by a new referral board.

Some critics might call it the Referral Full Enrichment Act but Lucy might counter with 'and what is wrong with that'.

Re Education Camp run by UGA

Dad has been victimized by fraud as of late, most recently by a gift card based scam.


UGA has been conducting a mandatory re-education camp.


As you can see by the image, UGA decided to start with the basics (definition of fraud - click on image ).

Wedding During Superbowl halftime

 Hard Rock Bear offered to have the wedding in his stadium (formerly Joe Robbie Stadium) which was also being used for the Superbowl. It made sense since the guards, lights, etc. had already been paid.  Also, it would be unique (though Hard Rock Bear might take that description up a notch or two).

Image one shows Hard Rock Bear in the left background and Hadassah, Lucy and Ms Coke on the right (they came from the Bride's reception).

Image two shows Lev with Road Runner next to him and Pengy next to him. They were the witnesses. Ski Bear is in the background as he came in case there was a need for large mental resources.
 
The sheva brachos and honeymoon will be in the Ukraine as Hadassah's family (The Parnas clan) wanted to host them for that.  They might even visit Rav Nachman's Gravesite in Uman.  Road Runner and Pengy will not be going to the Ukraine, nor will Lucy, Ms Coke or any other stuffed animal. In fact Lucy will hand around Miami for awhile 'giving' referrals and Uga, who didn't show in the images but was in the background, will do some Security Consulting in Miami.

Image 3 shows Hadassah post wedding as she now wears a head-covering frequently.

Igor Pitches In

We have assembled a lot of boxes in our family room and the sun room.

The boxes are to be filled with used clothing and other items for charity.

We do this once or twice a year.

This year there were a lot of boxes.

So Igor took some time off from working at Vampy's Castle to help us out.

I thanked him and said I would tell Vampy that he was lucky to have such an assistant.

"Yes, I'm a great assistant vampire." said Igor.

"No. You're assistant to the vampire." I said.

"It's the same thing." said Igor.

"No. No it's not." I said.

Wile adjusting his Sabbath Goy Duty

Last Shabbat Wile E. took Road Runner's delivery route (and the profits from that work).

He was quite tired by the end of the day. Coyotes have a peak speed of about 40 mph but can not maintain that for more than a short burst of speed. Ordinary Road Runners have a peak of about 20 mph but our Road Runner goes into overdrive which is probably just below the speed of sound (as we've not heard a sonic boom).

Anyway, this week George is renting Wile E. his Smart Car for Friday from 2 pm. Wile E. will pay George for the 2pm to start of Sabbath period but doesn't have to return the car until close of Sabbath and Wile E. may use it during Sabbath (although George doesn't get payment for that period). However, the rent for the Car is front end loaded.

The point to all of this is to allow Road Runner to keep the Sabbath in preparation for him being a witness at the wedding of Lev and Hadassah.

Getting Ready for Sabbath Observance

As noted earlier this week, Road Runner will be observing the Sabbath. This will qualify him to be a witness at the marriage of Lev (Davidovich Bronstein) and Hadassah (Parnas).  Also as noted earlier Road Runner already observes Sabbath except for the 'running down the road' delivering packages.  Road Runner, however, might not be 'remembering' the sabbath so well e.g., his Sabbath tefila would be considered sub standard.

Road Runner is having Wile E. Coyote carry out his deliveries on the Sabbath. In preparation for that, they executed a contract whereby the Road Runner delivery service is owned by Wile E. on the Sabbath (the contract is in the notebook as are the general instructions for delivery). These deliveries are limited to Montgomery County, hence the phone book.  

Road Runner has heard Wile E.'s introductory pitch for Christianity before but Road Runner was happy being a Reform Jew. Wile E. is thinking the issue of Sabbath Observance might give Road Runner a new motivation.

Getting comfortable in each other's company

Hadassah (left in image) arrived earlier this week.

She and Lev have had several 'get comfortable' dates.  Lev was a bit put off at first because Hadassah wasn't wearing a head covering. Hadassah said that she would wear one after being married. This was OK with Lev but just to preserve the yichud and of course the negiah, Lev had Road Runner observe (surreptitiously).

Road Runner has now been sabbath observant for several days. He started after the previous havdalah so it hasn't been difficult to be sabbath observant yet (actually impossible not to be observant except in intent).

Also, notice that the snacks during the date are modest.  

Also, Coke is the beverage of choice. As noted in the second image, there is adequate supply for this.

Pre Wedding Conferencing

Pengy and Lev are discussing the Mishna in Sanhedrin 3:3 (Sanhedrin is the 4th tractate in the 4th order, i.e., Damages or Nezikin). This deals

with who is disqualified from being a  witness. Listed there as being disqualified are (per my interpretation) gamblers, loan officers, professional entertainers and people who violate the rules of the sabbatical year.

The talmud adds to this. Other authorities weigh in. Since Lev is Ashkenaz we defer to the Rama (George did the research). The Rama is sort of lenient on this. He finds that one who is on the right path, even if he was previously an apostate, qualifies as a witness. This assumes otherwise good character and reliability (second image). This would qualify Road Runner who is a reform jew but, other than speeding down the highway does observe sabbath.

The issue comes up because three witnesses are needed at a wedding and Lev expects to marry soon.

Grad is looking on. He is only interested because he has heard that there is some nice whiskey served at the Tisch which precedes the wedding. This is essentially the groom's reception and during the Tisch the marriage contract (Ketubah) is completed and reviewed. Also, behind Lev are the professor and Gretel. The former is interested in the 'construct' and the latter wanted to do one of the shiva brochot but since there is no minyan, there won't be shiva brochot.

Ski Bear Compliments one of the Rishonim

 Ski Bear (image 1) frequently notes that his big head is necessary since he has to have a lot of brain power to teach the fundamentals (or maybe the nuances) of skiing.

These fundamentals (or nuances) consist of telling skiers to:


  a. put their skis next to each other like two parallel french fries if they want to go faster, and,



b. put their skis forward point to forward point like a slice of pizza if they want to go slower

this point is made on the T-shirt in image 2.

Ski Bear recently learned of the history of a Talmud scholar from the 13th and 14th centuries who has been called the Rosh by later scholars.

The Rosh is an acronym where the 'R' stands for 'rabbi' and the 'sh' is for 'Asher' as the Rosh's full name was Asher ben Jechiel.  However, "Rosh" also means "head" and, of course to Ski Bear, that signifies something meaningful.

Looking through the accomplishments of the Rosh, Ski Bear said that if only the Rosh hadn't spent so much time studying books like the Mishnah (in image 1), the Rosh might have made a contribution to understanding the fundamentals (or nuance) of skiing. 


As it was, the Rosh actually took pride in not knowing very much outside of Talmud and various halackic subjects related to the Talmud, at least according to the write up available here.