Filed under: blogs, calendar, Dictionary of Jewish Words, milestones, New Year, The Word Mavens | Tags: New Year
Like Ryan Seacrest (or Dick Clark if you prefer) The Word Mavens are preparing for our first ever New Year’s Eve Countdown. Looking back over the old Google calendar, we think we’ve had a very good year. So as 2011 comes to a close, without further ado, here’s some of our vital statistics:
We started our blog, “Shmoozing With the Word Mavens” in April 2010. Unlike many other bloggers who start with enthusiasm, but then fall by the wayside (admit it, how many times have you clicked on a link to a recipe/travel/cultural musing blog and seen that their last post was April, 2008?) we’ve kept up faithfully writing, editing and posting. We’ve made an effort to keep the enthusiasm, the writing and the jokes going –and we’re proud to say that this post will be number 61.
We still have fun writing together and we haven’t run out of things to say – so look-out, number 62 will be up soon!
Our blog hosting site WordPress, keeps all kinds of statistics about our blog. According to WordPress, we’ve had 127 comments posted on things we’ve written – and not all of them were from friends and family! We hear from readers who are also bloggers and that leads us to read their blogs and then they comment back and before you know it we’re making fun connections all over cyberspace.
We’ve had 10,400 all time views –more than 10,000 people have clicked on our pages! Our most read day was March 10, 2011. Views of our blog usually go up when we have a piece in the Inky and on March 10, 86 people read our blog!
As of last week, blog views are trending up – 67.28% over the week before. That’s almost as many views as the live “geyser cam” of Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park.
Every time we speak at a synagogue, we ask our audience members for their email, so we can sign them up to receive our blog updates. Then they say to us, “What do we know from computers. We only do the Facebook to talk to our grandkids, girls.”
The Word Mavens tweet too. We have 73 followers on Twitter, including “Jewish bloggers” (who call their tweets, messages from the “chosen bloggers”) InterfaithFamily ( a great resource and fave site of ours) and the Shiksa in the Kitchen, a fellow blogger who writes about Jewish cooking. She came upon our blog because we frequently write and schmooze about our favorite Jewish foods. She also does cooking demos at Zabar’s – one of our favorite establishments in the world, so our paths could easily intersect at 80th and Broadway, in the real world, as well as in cyberspace.
Borders has gone out of business and we’re sad there’s no place to buy a book in our neighborhood. We used to really enjoy going into Borders, heading for the Judaica section, hunting down our Dictionary of Jewish Words and then pulling it off the lower shelf — and placing it face out on a higher shelf, eye level with the potential customers.
Since it came out, our Dictionary has been on Amazon.com You can now download the Kindle edition or buy the app for your iphone so you’re never without a Yiddish insult when you need one.
In the past year, we’ve continued to present our “engaging, enlightening and entertaining” book talk to audiences at local synagogues. We meet lots of nice people who share funny stories of their family’s Jewish traditions, favorite foods and Yiddishisms gone wrong.
Most recently, Joyce attended a ceremony in which former Roman Catholic priest who had left the church to get married was “incardinated” as a priest into the more modern and inclusive Old Catholic Church of America. The ceremony was conducted by The Most Reverend Julius L. Licata, an Archbishop who was decked out in turquoise robes with magenta lining and wearing a gold and purple mitre. His sermon was running long. He looked at the crowd and said, “I always talk too much. I’m a yenta.” Joyce couldn’t believe her ears. She ran home and googled the guy to find out how he knew from “yentas.” Turns out he grew up in Brooklyn and must have played stickballwith some Jewish boys.
the yenta bishop
A mother told us that her elementary-school age daughter, who shleps a big backpack to school, lets out an oy when she lifts it out of the car each morning. One day, the child asked her mom, “What do people who aren’t Jewish do when they need an oy?”
Good question, because The Word Mavens always say that sometimes a good oy just makes you feel better.
A public school teacher shared a story with us about an African-American student named Zipporah who always wore a large, gold Jewish star necklace. When the teacher inquired about the star, Zipporah explained that her family was Jewish and that she was one of eight children — all with biblical names. The oldest was Elijah, one sister was Zemira, and the eighth child, the youngest was named Dayenu. In Hebrew, dayenu means “enough.” That is a true story – and the child wasn’t joking.
And now it’s time for us to say “dayenu.” Enough writing. Enough reading. Go have a glass of champagne and welcome in the New Year. We wish you a wonderful 2012, filled with much mazel, nachas and all good things.
And keep reading (and commenting!)
Filed under: Christmas, culture, shopping | Tags: Brookstone., Christmas, Crate&Barrel, elves, Hanukkah, holiday gifts, holiday shopping, presents, Santa, shopping
With all the texting, tweeting, blogging and emailing going on, why are we surprised that our mailboxes are filled with that most old-fashioned of communications – the Christmas catalog? This time of year, these catalogs are weighing down the mailman and filling our recycle bins.
Starting with the 1894 Sears catalog, the self-proclaimed “Book of Bargains,” seasonal gift catalogs were designed to tempt consumers with page after page of items they never even knew they needed.
Who Would Want This Stuff, Anyway?
Were you hoping to find a 3-foot-tall plush moose footrest, complete with antlers, under your tree? The Grandin Road catalog claims that the footrest is “crafted for years of comfortable lounging or display.” What a bargain at only $179! You could display it alongside the 3-foot-tall plastic Santa boots with gold buckles that they also sell. With all these useless objects littering Grandin Road, we’re not sure we have the courage to walk there.
this won't take up too much room in the den
What about the handcrafted “obol” from Brookstone – a cereal bowl that has two sections, one for milk and one for cold cereal? This ridiculously impractical solution for children (and adults) who don’t like one food touching another will set you back $19.99. Why not order a set of 12 for your obsessive-compulsive breakfast guests?
Does personalizing a stupid gift make it better? For your family movie night, the Personal Creations catalog offers a set of five metal “Popcorn Buckets” that can be personalized with the names of every member of the family. “No more fighting over sharing popcorn,” the catalog promises. This gift creates problems for us. It’s too big to cram into an already overloaded cabinet. It has limited usefulness: How often do we all agree on a movie and then actually sit down to watch it together? We can’t regift the buckets because they have our names on them. And it would make us sad to just stuff our husbands’ names in the trash.
Who Put Us On These Lists, Anyway?
We’ve ordered coffee and music and shoes online. Like the rest of the free world, we’ve one-clicked for books on Amazon. We’ve sent a fruit basket or two through the years. Now it seems that Harry and David have given everyone our addresses and spread the word that we’re ready to shop. Maybe that’s how we got on the mailing lists of stores we’ve never visited – like Zingerman’s gourmet foods in Ann Arbor, Michigan, or the Disney Collectibles Store in Orlando, Florida.
We received the catalog from the Container Store because we have bought plastic bins and desk organizers for our kids’ college dorm rooms. But we have little interest in their 45-page catalog filled with snowy reindeer gift tags, gift wrap with red and black Scottish terriers, and two pages of glass, cellophane and candy cane-printed Chinese takeout containers for the Christmas cookie exchange. If we are ever invited to a Christmas cookie exchange, we’ll be bringing a pound of shnecken.
Whose Idea Was This, Anyway?
This catalog rant all started when Ellen received the Crate & Barrel Christmas catalog. We love Crate & Barrel; we shop there often, but when Ellen saw the picture of their Jingle Elf Plate, she plotzed. Was she the only one who noticed the mistake?
What is wrong with this picture?
Who was the Art Director who thought that graham crackers weren’t attractive enough for the photo of s’mores? And who thought that matzah would be a better visual? We did a double take when we noticed this cultural confusion faux pas.
Speaking of elves and double takes, Joyce can’t get over the Brookstone holiday catalog. After the pages of cool electronic iPad gadgets, kids’ travel toys and massaging lounge chairs, she came across a page labeled “Elf Help.” It featured mini personal massagers and intimate moisturizers. What exactly is an elf’s job if this is the help he gives? We thought they worked with reindeer and toys.
What Would We Do With All This Stuff, Anyway?
If we were Christian, we know we would already own a lot of this Christmas stuff, because although we can resist that moose footstool, we’ve spent years dreaming of the lights and tinsel and the 300 ornaments we would have for our sentimental family tree. If we had a tree. We sublimate by purchasing ornaments for friends who have Christmas trees.
There is not a lot of Hanukkah stuff to tempt us, and with all the clutter we already have in our houses, that’s a good thing. In the flood of catalogs, there was not one devoted to menorahs, dreidels, or silver and blue snowflakes. That’s why our Hanukkah supplies fit in one plastic bin. (We’re heading to our attics to bring them down now).
We love what’s crammed into our little bins – menorahs our kids made in preschool, the same cutouts we hang every year and an endless supply of Hanukkah candles. Because they are one of the few attractive holiday items we can buy, we do so every year.
Whether your halls are decked in red and green or silver and blue, we wish you Happy Holidays.
Filed under: Chinese food, Christmas, holidays, jewish food, jewish foods, Uncategorized | Tags: Chinese food, Christmas, holidays, Jewish food, Jewish traditions
Now that we’ve eaten all of our Thanksgiving turkey and sweet potato leftovers, we’re thinking about our next meal. Everyone knows Jews love Chinese food; you can find us with plates filled with wonton soup and chicken bok choy every Sunday night. We grew up with this tradition, too. Back in the day, it was easy to find a good greasy egg roll. These days, with the upscale Chinese restaurants that offer locally sourced vegetables and offerings from the bar, a good egg roll is hard to find.
Everyone’s heard the old joke that if it’s 5772 on the Jewish calendar and 4708 on the Chinese calendar, what did Jewish people do without Chinese food for a thousand years? Guess they suffered with kishka and gribenes and prayed that something better would come along.
For Jewish people, there’s no better time for Chinese food than Christmas Day, when almost everyone else is celebrating Christmas at home with ham, Yule logs and presents. Most businesses are closed, except for those owned by Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims. When we are home for the holidays, we go to our local favorite Asian restaurants; it’s harder when we’re lucky enough to be vacationing on Christmas. If your hotel doesn’t have the all-inclusive buffet, you have to improvise with what’s open. That’s how we once ended up at Debbie Wong’s in Pittsfield, Massachusetts and at Henry’s Hunan, the world’s worst Chinese buffet, in Red River, New Mexico.
This sign came to us in a forwarded e-mail joke. It’s nice to know our business is appreciated. And please save us a table for 6. We’ll be there after the movie.
