Discover This
My third and newest book - Discover This - is due out this summer. Stay tuned! Go here to find out more and get involved.
Add comment May 26th, 2010
The Big Lie. Sorry Chicago.
The craziest thing about my trip to Chicago was my visit to the Sears Tower (now “Willis Tower” – but nobody calls it that). I went in, looked around, stood against the outer wall and looked up, and admired it from a distance. But I didn’t have time to go to the top.
It is a cool building and it is black. Black is cool. But it isn’t that tall. Yes, I know the stats. I know that it is supposed to be the tallest building in America.
But it isn’t.
Stand next to the Empire State Building. The Empire State feels taller. And it dominates the skyline in a way that the Sears Tower doesn’t. I used to get the same vibes from the Twin Towers – they felt tall, too. And they also dominated the Manhattan skyline.
But not the Sears Tower. The Sears Tower is just another big building. Some people have a theory that it looks short because it is black. If it were white it would look bigger. Maybe.
But I don’t buy it.
I think it is a Chicago-style scam – similar to their dirty politics – to get recognition for their city.
Sorry Chicago – but cut it out. Admit that the Empire State Building is taller. And feel good about yourselves. Chicago is a cool place. It has a lot to offer. You don’t have to lie about your buildings to get people to love you.
Add comment March 7th, 2010
Kosher Dunkin Donuts in Chicago
I don’t know what to say. Chicago has a Kosher Dunkin Donuts and it is open 24-hours a day. In three days I ate four egg & cheese croissants, plus a donut. The beauty wasn’t the novelty of a Kosher Dunkin Donuts – Boston had one for many years – it was the fact that it was open 24-hours. No matter how late I got back, Dunkin Donuts was there and ready to serve me an egg & cheese croissant. I am home now and suffering from withdrawals. Please help.
Add comment March 5th, 2010
Speaker of the Month
February was awesome. I spoke 19 times at 14 different locations to 572 people. NICE. Aish Connections named me Speaker of the Month. Book me now before I raise my rates!
Click here to see the list of places who booked me.
Add comment March 5th, 2010
Chulent. A Love Story.
More Torah fans! What happened? Where have I been? I am at the airport in beautiful, sunny Milwaukee. It is time to get back to business and update the More Torah site.
Epiphany! Someone commented on a More Torah blog post about Shwarma. Here is an excerpt:
I always feel so sorry for the Jews who lost so much of their own culture and culinary traditions throughout their 2000 year exile that in modern times they had to resort to copying arabs and other middle eastern cultures in order to even begin to have anything like native cuisine in Israel.
You can read the whole thing, I can’t tell if it is anti-Semitic, political, whatever, or both. But that isn’t the point. The bottom line is that the opinion about Shwarma is somewhat correct. Ultimately shwarma is a Jewish adaptation of non-Jewish Middle Eastern food. It is the food equivalent of Yiddish or Klezmer. And that is cool. But there is an exclusively Jewish food.
Chulent.
Yikes. Why promote a hybrid? Promote a Jewish original.
This Shabbos I had three different Chulents. I had one Friday night, one at Kiddush on Shabbos morning, and a third at Shabbos lunch. I am a changed man. True, I nearly OC-ed (over chulented). True, I am a lot heavier today. And true, my stomach is rumbling. But that is all part of the beauty of chulent.
Chulent is a Jewish original. It is pasty. It is love.
Maybe it is the new Shwarma.
Add comment February 21st, 2010
Eating in LA.
I spent three days in LA and ate a lot.
First encounter: I was starving by the time I got to my hotel. I was told to visit Nagila. Nagila is really two places. The left side is dairy and the right side is meat. I went to the right. I ordered shwarma. It was good. It makes sense that the shwarma was good. LA is a major city. It has a large Jewish population. It attracts a large number of Israelis. It obviously has a decent shwarma joint. I was pleased because my shwarma experience was authentic – French fries were stuffed in the sandwich (not as a side dish), and no silly American gimmicks like lettuce. It was good, not very messy – it was wrapped in a type of wax paper and held together with a piece of masking tape! (I have never seen that before) – and it didn’t sit in my stomach like a lump. If you are in LA and need shwarma, I recommend Nagila.
Next: I ate three times at Jeff’s Gourmet Sausage. What a treat. Allan was the first person to take me there. I decided to eat light because I had a second dinner planned for later that night. I ordered the Smoked Chicken and Apple Sausage. It was good although it was basically just a fancy hot dog – I was expecting more. Someone had hyped it and I was expecting my mouth to do back flips. But don’t get me wrong – it was tasty. I also ate most of Allan’s BBQ wings. The wings were served with a white Ranch Sauce. It tasted like treif – wow – very good.
Later that night I went out with my Persian posse. We started late and most of the restaurants were closed, so we went back to Jeff’s. I ordered the spicy wings (different from the BBQ wings, which were more tangy). Wow! And you should know – I am not a wings guy. I don’t usually order wings or go out my way to find them. But these were good. Hot. Spicy. Tasted like treif. And they were messy! I had to wash my hands and face before I could talk to anyone.
The next day I had a meeting in Beverly Hills. We ordered lunch from Pat’s. I had a salmon salad. After all the wings, sausage, and shwarma I wanted light. The salad came with mango, funky dressing, and an awesome chunk of grilled salmon.
I was busy the rest of the day (I didn’t only eat in LA). Late that night I went back to Jeff’s and got a Pastrami Burger. Jeff’s was three-for-three. The burger was great. I didn’t waste my time eating French fries – and this is a good thing – I wasn’t so stuffed that I couldn’t move.
LA was a great trip and I want to express my sincerest thanks to the cows that gave their lives in order to make my experience worthwhile.
Add comment May 21st, 2009
My Visit to Jimi’s Grave
It took three years and two trips to Seattle, but I finally made it to the grave of Jimi Hendrix.Jimi is buried in Greenwood Memorial Park in Renton (a Seattle suburb) just around the corner from Boeing’s airplane factory (you can see the new 737’s covered in green sticky plastic as you drive by). A massive marble tent (similar to the Ohel of Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodonsky, l’havdil) is constructed over his grave. The walls are covered with large images of Jimi, his lyrics, and other Jimi iconography. It looks like the site will eventually be used for the entire Hendrix family, though today there are only a few other people buried there.
I didn’t pray or recite any chapters from Psalms. I did hum the words to Voodoo Child, however, and I played air guitar too.
I have now been to Jimi’s grave in Seattle, Elvis in Memphis, and Jim Morrison in Paris. Jack Kerouac is buried in Lowell, MA – not far from where I live – maybe that should be my next trip.
2 comments May 13th, 2009
No State Worse Than Massachusetts.
I am not happy with Massachusetts today.
Here is my story. I need to renew my registration for my car by the end of April (Thursday). I received a letter in the mail that I could not renew until I paid all my old tickets. It listed the tickets and told me I had to contact each municipality separately. Not cool. But it gets worse.
Ticket Number One:
This ticket is from Brookline. I hate Brookline. I hate everything Brookline stands for. If you read the signs that welcome you to Brookline they say, “Welcome to Brookline. Don’t Park In Our Town.” Right away you know they are scum.
Last year, my wife’s father died. She went to England and I was leaving the next day to join her for the funeral. I went to Brookline to buy a book for my flight. I parked and put a quarter in the meter. The meter didn’t acknowledge my quarter! I was not going to put another one in so I left and went to the store. I came back five minutes later. The meter maid was writing my ticket. I yelled, “STOP!” and told her my story. Unfortunately the meter maid was filth and kept writing. She didn’t believe me and told me I could fight it if I wanted. Who has time to do that?
In the end it cost me $65. I hope they choke on it.
Ticket Number Two:
This ticket is from Amherst. In October 2007 I was in Amherst meeting students and drinking coffee. I noticed a cop writing tickets when I parked my car. It was 2 o’clock. I asked the cop, “Do I have until 5 or 6?” He said, “6.” The meter only let me feed it until 5. At 5:05 I went out to put in more money. There was already a ticket on my car marked at 5:01. The despicable slime came back, stood by my car, and wrote the ticket the second it expired!
In the end it cost me $50. At least the Parking Clerk is super-friendly on the phone and very helpful and empathetic.
Ticket Number Three:
Boston. I never got a ticket! One day a letter came in the mail and said I owed $53. I blew it off too – who has time to waste dealing with all this nonsense?
In the end it cost me $73.
Total: $188 for nothing. Impeach Deval. Fire Menino. And I still have to pay the fee to renew my registration!
Add comment April 28th, 2009
The New Book!
Get my new book, Everything You Want Is Really Jewish! It is fun. Fast. Deep. It will blow your mind.
Everything You Want Is Really Jewish is a book about pseudo-hipsters, hairstyles, loud music, Czech beer, shwarma, the art of New York driving, music school, Israel, and the Earth Jew. It is about identity and asking questions. It is about being Jewish. It is about frustration and not knowing what to ask. It is about everything: and that everything you want, you already know.
The photos alone are worth the cost of the book. As a matter of fact, the photos are so cool you should buy two copies!
You can order the book online at Lulu.com - this is the link.
Enjoy and tell me how much you love it.
2 comments April 17th, 2009
Purim in Israel
Americans do peculiar things. They decorate their Christmas Trees with Succos decorations. They sell Purim costumes in October. And they dress up as bearded Chasidim (but for some reason they wear red outfits and funny hats).
1 comment March 19th, 2009