I’m going to say something here in this space that will make me sound tragically “un-hip,” overly PC, supremely humorless and highly whiny. But so be it. Wouldn’t be the first time. I have a lot of friends and acquaintances who absolutely worship Howard Stern. Besides being blisteringly funny and acerbic, they say the mother of all shock-jocks is… read more

Suburban House … is moving … into Fuddruckers. When I say that sentence to people indigenous to the Pikesville-Owings Mills corridor, their jaws simply drop and their eyes get as big as manhole covers. It’s almost like how I imagine informing people about the Orioles’ four-game sweep victory in the ’66 World Series, or even the Kennedy assassination, would’ve… read more

Suburban House … is moving … into Fuddruckers. When I say that sentence to people indigenous to the Pikesville-Owings Mills corridor, their jaws simply drop and their eyes get as big as manhole covers. It’s almost like how I imagine informing people about the Orioles’ victory in the ’66 World Series or even the Kennedy assassination would’ve been. I… read more

Suburban House … is moving … into Fuddruckers. When I say that sentence to people indigenous to the Pikesville-Owings Mills corridor, their jaws simply drop and their eyes get as big as manhole covers. It’s almost like how I imagine informing people about the Orioles’ four-game sweep victory in the ’66 World Series, or even the Kennedy assassination, would’ve… read more

There are certain words in our language I just can’t get enough of. One of them is “schadenfreude.” Schadenfreude is that wonderful German phrase stolen by English speakers that loosely translates as the phenomenon in human nature of gaining great pleasure from someone else’s misfortunes. Perhaps like the proverbial schlemiel who chuckles after he inadvertently spills the proverbial boiling… read more

Like you, I don’t know what to make of the recent Washington Post investigative article on Rabbi Menachem Youlus. What is one to make of someone who you’ve met from time to time over the years and have surmised is an individual of the highest ethical caliber and standards – and then read an article claiming he possibly is… read more

Way back in the mid-‘90s, my wife and I thought we should get back in touch with our roots and finally learn Yiddish. After all, my in-laws speak the language fluently, and my parents certainly understood it well and could converse. So we figured that before we had kids, we’d better learn Yiddish (so we could speak in a… read more

In a recent syndicated column titled “Nonbelievers, Please Leave Christmas Alone” that ran in The Sun, the great Garrison Keillor takes umbrage with non-Christians who jump on the commercialization bandwagon of what we Jews call “that other December holiday.” “This is spiritual piracy and cultural elitism, and we Christians have stood for it long enough,” he writes. “And all… read more

Sam Stone. The name itself is as solid and dependable as the man. Last Saturday morning, Dec. 12, my old friend Sam’s synagogue, Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah Hebrew Congregation, honored him for his decades of service to the Pikesville shul. Sam got a new title at MMAE – he will become the congregation’s president emeritus, after years of holding… read more

The other day, someone who isn’t Jewish asked me to define the Yiddish word mentsch. I did the best job I could, explaining that it means someone who is a decent, caring, upright individual. I know a lot of people who call themselves mentsches, but it’s rare that I see what I consider “mentschlikeit” behavior. But every now and… read more