"For over 300 years Scots Jews have waited for their own tartan and now - here it is!
The official Jewish Tartan is an authentic Scottish tartan created by Heritage Experts and Rabbis.
It is the only Scottish Jewish Tartan approved and registered by the Scottish Tartans Authority.
Initiated by Rabbi Mendel Jacobs (pictured above) - the only Scottish born Rabbi living in Scotland, it's 100% Kosher - being a non wool-linen mix, and as it incorporates many aspects of Scottish-Jewish cultural and religious history, it is the perfect representation of our heritage.
Scotland has a rich tapestry of culture and history and for many years has welcomed other people into its midst.
The Jewish people have been an integral part of Scottish Culture for more than 300 years, with the first Jewish person recorded as living in Edinburgh is 1691."
If I Were to Order a Kilt
Weird Flashback- Fraternity Memories at the Gym
To be clear a really bad team doesn't have to be one that consists of players with limited ability and talent. You can have great players on your team and still be stuck with a bad lot. Much of it has to do with chemistry. Some guys are team players and some aren't.
There are more than a few guys who are quite talented that I don't like playing with. The basic explanation for that is that they don't play good defense and they don't pass the ball. That drives me crazy because it is a recipe for disaster.
However today was great. I had awesome teammates and we were pitted against teams that were very challenging and that is always something I want. I need to play against someone who is better than I am. I like the challenge of trying to raise my game, of trying to figure out a way to compensate for my shortcomings.
Anyway, we played for a good 90 minutes or so and then collapsed in a heap outside of the gym. After spending a few minutes recovering I headed up stairs with a few of the guys to grab a beer and that is when I had my flashback.
They had a dance class playing all sorts of dance music from the 80s and 90s. As I walked by I glanced inside and watched them dance and then bam! The music triggered a memory of a fraternity party.
If I could reach inside my head and upload the memory to YouTube I would because it would be far easier to share it that way, but alas it is not a possibility. So I'll do my best to give a description.
It is a Saturday night, approximately 1988 or '89. I am at the fraternity house. I spend the first few hours working the bar. It is one of my favorite places to be because it is one of the easiest places to meet women. You don't have to come up with any sort of goofy line. They come to you and ask for a drink. Bingo, perfect opportunity to start up a conversation.
Anyway, the bar at the house is always hopping. We're pouring kamikazes and all sorts of assorted drinks and shots. Just to the right the keg machine keeps the beer flowing. All throughout the backyard there are groups of people talking.
Just to the right of me is the entrance to the living room, or in this case the dance floor. It is packed full of people dancing. After a while a girl from my biology class spots me at the bar and comes over to talk. She is at the house with a half dozen of her friends, but can't find them. I give her a little grief about women traveling in packs and shoot the breeze.
She asks me if I can help her find her girls and takes me by the hand. We wander inside and the dance floor is packed. It is just jammed full of people dancing. Since space is at a premium we start dancing with each other. The thing is that it is so crowded we can't really do much more than kind of move a bit. It is good for me, I am not the most skilled dancer, but in a crowd I can do a little shimmy that makes it look like I can.
On the other hand maybe I can't and she just let it go. Have to think about that one, aw, who cares. Anyhoo, after we have been dancing for a while we start kissing. As you might imagine I am pleased with this turn of events, but I am a bit concerned about one thing. It is really hot in there.
It is a like a sauna, all you need to do is bring your own brick and towel. The heat is such that I am sweating as if I just played two hours of ball. I like this girl and I want to make a good impression, but the last thing I want to do is look like some giant sweat hog.
While the great brain is trying to figure out the best way to handle things the great hormones are raging. I figure that if she is not interested in seeing if I can lose 20 pounds of sweat she'll let me know. So I mentally shrug my shoulders and go back to just enjoying the moment.
At some point she wraps an arm around my neck to pull my head down so that she can kiss me. Just as our lips are about to touch disaster strikes, three gallons of sweat pour right off of my head and into her mouth.
Talk about killing a moment.
I have heard that some women find sweaty men to be sexy, but she apparently wasn't one of them. In a matter of moments she excused herself and glided off the dance floor. I hung out for a moment and tried to come up with a cool remark to cover the whole sweat thing. Unfortunately, I never did come up with anything clever.
Flashback to the present, as I watch the people dance inside the class I realize that 20 years later I still don't know the name of the song that was playing when the infamous perspiration incident took place. Not that it matters, but I am mildly curious about it.
More Christians join Birthright
"As Birthright Israel has grown drastically since starting operations in 2000 - it has brought over 180,000 young adults to Israel - the question of eligibility for the free trips has become more controversial.
According to reports, an increasing number of non-Jewish participants, including devout Christians, have managed to get through the screening process of the program, which is meant for Diaspora Jews between 18 and 26 who have never participated in an organized visit here.
"There were two Christians on my trip, and they didn't hide it at all," 2006 Birthright participant Elissa Glick told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. "They carried New Testaments and protested when we didn't visit the Holy Sepulchre. They were totally segregated from the group."
According to Birthright Israel's Web site, participants are eligible if they are recognized as Jewish "by the Jewish community or by one of the recognized denominations of Judaism, or if either parent is Jewish and the applicant does not actively practice another religion."
But it is evident that this criteria is not always used when selecting participants.
"I think a lot of the times it was just a matter of trying to get as many people as you can, and I think there are a lot of people who slip through the cracks," said an anonymous former night shift interview manager for a Birthright program from March to November 2007.
"One of the questions we had to ask was 'what is your favorite holiday memory?' And people are telling us: Christmas with my family... But we are still saying 'okay, you can come on the trip," the manager said.
According to Tim, a 24-year-old New Jersey native who just completed a Mayanot Birthright trip, his mother's family is Jewish, but he was raised as a Christian Scientist.
"My mother's family is Jewish, but they converted in the 1920s. Our whole family gets together to celebrate Christmas... I am definitely a member of a Christian family," he said.
When asked why he went on the trip, Tim explained: "It was more of a cultural heritage trip for me... I am not a supporter of organized religion, I really don't like it."
Gidi Mark, director of marketing for Taglit-Birthright Israel, admitted that mistakes had been made in the selection process.
"We send about five [participants] home every season out of 40,000... We catch about 100 every year before they come... We have improved the registration process a lot over the last two years," he said.
He added that Birthright had "a very sophisticated screening and interviewing process that has proven itself very well... There are some key questions that put you in a category that may require the interviewer to ask you some more questions."
Edwards explained, "When we were doing interviews there was a lot of fine very lines... We would have to say... all of these other answers were correct, but really just this one little thing was flagged... so we would flag them to be re-interviewed... but who ever knows if they were, or if they were just put on a plane."
Project Playlist
To be clear, this is an unpaid plug. I may try this out and decide that I hate it, or maybe I'll love it. Stick around and let's see. If you want more details about how it all works click here.
Anyway, here is my first attempt.
What is a Mother's Love Worth?
BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- If a stay-at-home mom could be compensated in dollars rather than personal satisfaction and unconditional love, she'd rake in a nifty sum of nearly $117,000 a year.That's according to a pre-Mother's Day study released in May by Salary.com, a Waltham, Massachusetts-based firm that studies workplace compensation.
The eighth annual survey calculated a mom's market value by studying pay levels for 10 job titles with duties that a typical mom performs, ranging from housekeeper and day care center teacher to van driver, psychologist and chief executive officer.
This year, the annual salary for a stay-at-home mom would be $116,805, while a working mom who also juggles an outside job would get $68,405 for her motherly duties.
One stay-at-home mom said the six-figure salary sounds a little low.
Click here for the full story.
I need More Life Insurance
A friend of mine once told me that he feels good when he pays because it means that he is taking care of his family, but that doesn't work for me.
Sure, if I drop dead or get hit by a bus the family won't find themselves out on the street, but that doesn't provide me with much solace. I have far too much to do to die today, tomorrow, next week or in ten years. Although I should add that there are moments where I wonder about it.
It is one of the great contradictions of my life. Most of the time I expect that I am going to outlive almost everyone I know, but some days I have this sinking feeling. Some days I have this pit in my stomach and I wonder if I'll make it to 50.
Anyway, as I paid the bill I realize that I should have bought more than I did. But way back in 2002 I had fewer children and fewer responsibilities. At the time I thought that it was a decent amount. I figured that if something happened the family would get enough to keep them going, but not so much that the wife could retire. ;)
Now I look at the amount and I think that like so many other things in my life it just doesn't seem like enough. I think that I may give my agent a call and find out what I need to do to increase it to a more reasonable level.
Oh the joys of responsibility.