An eighth Princeton University student was diagnosed this past Friday with meningitis. To me, this is terrifying. With a daughter getting ready to head off to college next year, this outbreak has my attention, as I expect it has many parents’ attention with college age children.

Ben’s recent blog about Yiddish got me thinking about one particular Yiddish word, “beshert.” My Mom used to call my Dad her beshert because, until the day she died, they were one of the happiest married couples I have ever seen. “Beshert” essentially means “inevitable” or “preordained.”

I am not a fan of reality or contest TV shows, but this year I am hooked on The Voice.  And it is all because of a 17 year old girl from New Jersey.  Here is why.  

This morning the Salvation Army is sending over a truck to pick up some office furniture that's in my garage. That's the technical description of what's happening. The real story is the desk I sat at for over 20 years, the flat files I used for artwork that was lovingly made for clients and the files cabinets that housed the history of the Tobol Group are being given away. I'm sad because this represents many years of my life.  

I am a pre "Baby Boomer" and as such have witnessed Seismic change.

I was first asked to give a DNA sample several years ago. The request came from a cousin who had learned that a graduate student was doing research and compiling a database of Jews of Eastern European heritage. The purpose, or one of the purposes, was to possibly connect distant relatives whose parents and grandparents had been killed and/or displaced during the Holocaust.

I've seen a lot of embarassing things in my lifetime...but how would you like to be one of the wonderful citizens of the city of Toronto.  Mayor Rob Ford continues to feed the evening news with wonderful sound bites that Saturday Night Live must struggle with to actually find something funnier than the real thing.  Again, my guess is it's only funny for those looking in from the outside, not the Torontonians (?) themselves.  How does their system of government not have some type of mechanism that allows them to throw him out?!?