Yes, Leonard Cohen wrote this back in 1992, and performed it in 2008 — but it’s the song we need today as we close out 2020.
Life
“Jewish Kid Born on Christmas Day Talking Blues”
Continuing with this year’s Christmas theme, we have “Jewish Kid Born on Christmas Day Talking Blues“ by Sally Fingerett, best known as one of the Four Bitchin’ Babes:
The true history of the birth of Jesus (plus some related remarks about 10th grade and the irreverent reverend)
Raise your hand if you have personal knowledge of the true story of the Nativity. OK, most of us were not there at the time, Connie Willis to the contrary notwithstanding, so we have to rely on the words of… Read More ›
“Christmas with your Jewish Boyfriend”
This goes out to a surprising number of couples I know. (I could have sent it to Barbara before we got married, but not now, as husband ≠ boyfriend.) I heard it on the Unorthodox podcast a little over a… Read More ›
Who reads poetry anyway?
Most likely you expect that I’m going to answer the question in the title by saying “Not me. I don’t read poetry.” If you’re a pedant — or if you believe that I am — you expect that I’ll say… Read More ›
Keeping warm
Skinny little Vincent keeps warm by curling up with his fat, furry, and much larger sister, Mollie:
Sorry, but we’re just not going to be able to get rid of the Electoral College.
Finally the American people have woken up and understand the Electoral College (EC), or at least its importance. Well, at least somewhat. My Quantitative Reasoning (QR) students at the Crimson Summer Academy (CSA) certainly understand it: how many electors each… Read More ›
My ethnicity puzzle. Any ideas?
Can you help me solve my ethnicity puzzle? You might have some ideas, especially if you yourself have Ashkenazi heritage. Ancestry sent me this information about my paternal grandfather (from the 1910 Federal census). Does everything look right to you?… Read More ›
Is this the life of a typical college freshman during the pandemic?
Even without actually doing anything, I’m exhausted just from watching this four-minute video! This is definitely not the life of a typical college freshman as portrayed in the media. So the question remains: how many freshmen — excuse me, “first-years” — are… Read More ›
Grey elections
Who cares about the mathematics of elections? We all should, of course — especially now. An informative, even entertaining way to learn about this topic is to watch the videos of CGP Grey. For a scary example, take a look… Read More ›
A Broken Hallelujah: Rock and Roll, Redemption, and the Life of Leonard Cohen
What did Alex Trebek and Leonard Cohen have in common? “Both were Canadians,” you reply. “Both were beloved by huge audiences,” you add. Yes, of course. And both get the title of Rabbi, according to Mark Oppenheimer, cohost of the… Read More ›
Who remembers diagramming sentences? And what does it have to do with Facebook? And the Supreme Court?
Who remembers diagramming sentences? I do, I do! If you’re my age, you never forget the experience of diagramming sentences. Love it or hate it (I was one of the few who loved it), you don’t forget it. Maybe you forget… Read More ›
Will he go?
Will he go? Of course he will! We hope. He says he’s “not sure” that he will accept the results. I have just finished reading the short but vital book by Lawrence Douglas with the full title of Will He Go?… Read More ›
Does he fit?
William thinks he fits in this box. William is wrong.
Who invented the newspaper?
It’s all blurred these days: news, fake news, opinion, print, Internet, newspapers, magazines… Do we even know what’s a newspaper and what isn’t? As newspapers keep dying, do people care who invented them in the first place? I do. Or… Read More ›
(Yawn. It’s so early in the morning.) What do all these people have in common?
Tim Cook, Richard Branson, Benjamin Franklin, Rachel Ray, Napoleon Bonaparte, Ernest Hemingway, and Michelle Obama: what do these seven people have in common? Or is it too early in the morning for you? The answer to the first question, according to… Read More ›
If 2020 hasn’t been depressing enough…
Just in case the year 2020 hasn’t been depressing enough, I was appalled to read today that 13% of millennials in Massachusetts believe that Jews caused the Holocaust. Other related statistics from the study by Schoen Cooperman Research are just… Read More ›
“Even Racists Got the Blues”
Let’s assume that you neither speak nor read Irish. (Probably a safe guess.) I, too, neither speak nor read Irish. But work with me here. Study this image, which shows an American wearing a custom tee shirt. Without knowing any Irish,… Read More ›
There is still hope.
Apparently many people think that the number of Supreme Court justices is immutable, that the Constitution specifies that there must be nine. This is not true. If you think that nine is a magic number written into the Constitution, you… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 