Gassing Up: Still the Story of My Life, But With a Twist

If you substitute OMD for OOD, much of this post still pertains today.

The arrangement I have with OMD, the same arrangement I had with OOD and OYS, is that so long as she drops me off at the train station in the morning, and picks me up at night, she can use my car during the day. Thus, I barely get to drive it. And, as I've noted in the past, none of my kids seems to have figured out that the "E" on the gas gage means empty. Or that the lit up picture of a gas tank means you need gas.

So, last Friday, as I drove my car to shul, I noticed that the car gage was, indeed, very close to the "E". I made a mental note to gas the car up on Sunday morning despite the fact that I knew OMD would be driving it on Saturday night (albeit only locally).

I woke up ten minutes earlier and, on my way to shul, stopped at the gas station. I took out my credit card, got authorized and began pumping.

To my astonishment, the car took only two gallons. It then hit me that I hadn't re-checked the gas gage and had just assumed that OMD would not fill up the car on Saturday night. Well, obviously, she had.

Mea culpa to OMD. My constant whining is apparently having an effect.

Tales From the Front

1. Yesterday I spent the morning on the fixed income trading desk of the New York headquarters of a major international bank. The good news is that the place was hopping, like back in the good old days. (It hasn't exactly been hard to make money in my market this year; prices have run up over 40% and banks have been able to borrow money essentially for free). What a contrast to last year.

2. BofA, unable to recruit a decent CEO or retain top talent because it was constrained by the TARP executive pay rules, has gotten the feds to agree to let it pay back the $45BB it borrowed. This is also a very good thing. How GM, which is still constrained by the pay limitations, will be able to find an "A Team" CEO, is an open question.

3. Mega deals are back. Banks are lining up to provide loans (to the tune of $9.1 billion) to finance the acquisition of NBC.

4. All of these things are good. The only part that's not good is that none of them will have any material impact on the unemployment rate which is still over 10.2% and rising. This is bad.

Ikvisah D'Mishicha

Tootsie Rolls are now certified by the OU.

Worrying About "Worrying"

I have recently read a number of articles, mostly on the economy, that used the word "worrying" in a way that I'm not sure is correct. Similarly, I've seen and heard the word "concerning" used in the same, possibly incorrect, context.

"She is worrying about the safety of her job." No problem here.

"The current job trend is worrying" (substitute "concerning" and you have the same issue). Are there such words as "worrying" or "concerning" in this context?

If not, should I care or is this just the way language evolves?

Black Black and Whites

On Sunday morning, I went to Gourmet Glatt to buy some things for a tikun for my father's yahrtzeit. I bought some herring, some rugalach, a mandel bread and some crackers.

As I was picking up the baked goods at the Zomicks counter, I stumbled upon an all-black black and white cookie.

"It's not possible", I thought. I had been looking for an all black black and white for years. Only once, more than 20 years ago, did I see one (in Boro Park, of all places). And now, right here in my neighborhood, less than ten minutes from home, I can presumably now get one any time I want.

Life is good.

More Evidence of G-d's Sense of Humor

In the same week that I am helping OMD polish up her essays for admission to seminaries in Israel, MHW and I are meeting with the principal of a girl's elementary school in the Five Towns to help us figure out where to send the Vance to kindergarten next year.

Five Years

Tonight marks my father's 5th yahrtzeit. It is very hard to believe that so much time has passed since he left this world.

The older I get the more I recognize how much my father influenced me and how many of his characteristics I have. He was always in a hurry. I am always in a hurry. He had little patience for shtick. I have little patience for shtick. He walked fast. I walk fast. And so on.

On Friday, while driving to Baltimore to see OOD and THG, I drove about 75 miles while moderately uncomfortable because I really could have used a pit stop. My father in me made the decision whether to stop a tortuous one. Stopping would set me back from reaching my destination by 15 minutes. On the other hand, I was getting increasingly more uncomfortable. (The fact that, even had we stopped, we would still have had plenty of time before Shabbos, like more than two hours, was not a factor in my decision. Stopping on the road unless absolutely necessary is simply not done). Finally, after thinking about it for more than an hour, I actually laughed, turned to MHW and said, "I'm really insane." We stopped at the last rest stop in New Jersey.

Other than inheriting some of my father's mishagas, I know that I have not measured up to him in many other ways. He was a very good man. A man of principle, a man without shtick, utterly devoid of pretense or guile. He was an incredibly hard worker who felt an absolute responsibility to provide for his family. (If he knew how many Jewish families were, more or less by choice, on welfare or using food stamps, he would be spinning in his grave). I don't think a day passed when he didn't think that he was the luckiest man in the world to have married my mom. He was totally devoted to her. I am lucky to have had him as my dad.

This is some of what I said at the levayah:

It is customary to refer to your father as Avi, Mori; my father, my teacher. That, indeed, was the essence of what my dad was.

He taught us both concrete things and abstract concepts. He taught us to throw a softball and he taught us to be erliche Yiddin. He taught us a love of baseball and he taught us to be menches. He taught us the importance of being physically fit and he taught us the importance of being real. He taught us to swim and he taught us the power of music. He taught us the importance of a smile and a good word. He taught us about the sweetness of Shabbos. He taught us z'miros in three-part harmony. He taught us that it was more important to get out of the Shea Stadium parking lot quickly than whether or not the Mets won. He taught us that if you walk at a fast pace you get to where you are going more quickly. He taught us to give tzedakah in a tzniusdik way. He taught us the importance of being oskai Tzorchei Tzibur B’Emunah. He taught us the importance of being on time, especially for appointments with the Ribbono Shel Olam. He taught that it was not beneath his sons or grandsons to do the laundry, clear off the table or wash the pots. He taught us a love for Eretz Yisrael [and, I should have also said, Medinat Yisrael]. He taught us never, ever, to raise our voices, especially to our loved ones. He taught us how much a person can overcome in life just by force of will and determination.

And, he taught us all this without ever darshaning or giving mussar. Indeed, he taught us all this by hardly saying a word. He taught us all this simply by the way he conducted himself. He understood on a very simple level that he was a Ben Melech, a child of the King, and conducted himself accordingly.

My father was a very special man and we will miss him dearly. I take comfort from the pasuk in Tehillim that I was reading last Sunday night when we thought he was about to leave us. Yodai’ah Hashem Yimai Timmim, V’nachalasam L’Olam Tihiyeh. “Hashem recognizes the days of the righteous and their inheritance will be forever.” The Even Ezra says that nachalasam, the inheritance of the righteous, refers to their children and grandchildren through the generations. The Radak says that nachalasam refers to their olam habah.

May Hashem grant my father the olam habah that he so richly deserves and may he be a meilitz yasher for all of his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and all the generations to come.

An Important Post

By Rabbi Horowitz abd Dr. Twerski

Tree Killer

I will not be receiving the Man of the Year award from Greenpeace any time soon.

I am working on a bunch of litigation matters and have printed over 600 pages in the last 24 hours.

When they charge me with environmental terrorism I will say that I was just following orders.