Television: Friday night at the Goodmans

It's not quite "Who Do You Think You Are" but "Friday Night Dinner" may strike some familiar chords with Tracing the Tribe's readers.

The new UK series will premiere on BBC America tonight (Saturday, July 30).

Read an interview on Collider.com with actor Simon Bird and creator/producer Robert Popper as they describe their own childhoods and the differences between American and UK Jewish families.

According to the interview, there's a creepy neighbor, a grandmother in a bikini, embarassing parents and more.

Here's one bit offered by Bird who plays one of the two brothers who get together with their family every Shabbat evening.

"I don’t think Robert is out to specifically write a Jewish sitcom. I think he wanted to write a sitcom about his family, and his family just happens to be Jewish, but they’re quite relaxed Jews. Some of the Jewish customs don’t really come into it, just because they’re not a big deal for Robert’s family. But, I’m a massive fan of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. I don’t know if they’re over-the-top, though. On Seinfeld, Judaism didn’t really come up much. It does more in Curb, only for the occasional storyline, here and there. In America, you’ve had decades of humor being fused with Jewish humor. In England, we just don’t have that. Our humor is not infused with Jewish humor. It’s completely different. So, whenever I see Jewish people depicted, they’ve always been done in either an over-the-top way, or a sentimental way. This family is Jewish, and they meet on Friday night. Their candles are lit, but they’re not going to do the whole thing. The way they talk is modern British. It’s second generation and third generation Jewish people. Jewish people will recognize they’re Jewish, but non-Jewish people might not. They might, if they know some Jewish people, but it’s not an issue. If you get it, you get it. If you don’t, you just enjoy it.

Read the rest of the interview at the link above.
There's another short review here.

Fun: Are you a genealogy geek?

ProGenealogists' Natalie Cottrill shares the telltale signs of finally realizing that you're a genealogy geek.

Here are some:

-- You know that Ahnentahfel is not an Egyptian Pharoah.

--You don’t travel with just a briefcase or folder back and forth to various research settings, but instead you carry in BOXES of genealogy.

-- You have put an old board across the handrails of your treadmill to put your laptop on so that you can keep researching ancestors while taking a walk.

Read the complete list here.

Peeling the layers: Onion genealogy

Peeling an onion can make you cry.

This Onion, however, brings tears of laughter.

Back in 2002 - long before many geneablogs existed - the satire site seemed to forecast some of today's genealogy problems.

Dick Eastman's newsletter pointed to this old Onion article, so I went to take a look. I'm glad I did. Thanks, Dick.

I used to read The Onion frequently, but life has just gotten too busy. This post offered some interesting tips to working on one's family history.

Here are some:

-- Avoid this common mistake made by many first-time genealogists: Search for people with the same last name, not first. [Tracing the Tribe might also add that if you are creating an index, it be done by surname, not given name. It seems obvious, doesn't it? But we've seen a foreign cemetery index done by first name. Oy.]

-- Note to women: In this society, it is unimportant to know anything about your lineage on your mother's side. Just skip it altogether. [NOT! There are many genealogists who would like a piece of the article's author.]

-- Go to your oldest living relative and ask him or her about your lineage. Work your way down to the second, third, and fourth oldest until you get to someone who makes some sense. [and make sure to audio and video record each of these people, of course.]

Read the rest of them.

Podcasts: Cemetery records and more

Family Tree Magazine has just posted its free May 2010 podcast, availble through iTunes and online.

Cemeteries are the main focus with some NGS news. Here are the segments on this one:
Click the Podcasts Page to see all the episodes; June 2008 was the first!

-- The Editor’s Desk: Podcast host Lisa Louise Cooke chats with Allison Stacy about the magazine's upcoming book "Grave Humor," which finds the lighter side of cemeteries with contributors’ photos of hilarious headstones.

-- Top Tips: Sunny Morton, author of the July 2010 Family Tree Magazine article “Tombstone Tales,” discusses questions to ask when searching for cemetery records.

-- 101 Best Web Sites: Cooke talks to David Day about his Names in Stone cemetery mapping website.

-- Safe Keeping: Family Tree Magazine online editor Grace Dobush offers advice for tombstone rubbings.

-- News From the Blogosphere: Reviews news from the recent National Genealogical Society conference.

Moment Magazine: What it means to be Jewish

Moment Magazine's 35th anniversary issue asked two questions of 70 Jewish individuals in diverse fields: What does it mean to be a Jew today? What do Jews bring to the world today?

Click here for the responses of these individuals.

Theodore Bikel - Shmuley Boteach - Geraldine Brooks - Mel Brooks - Michael Broyde - Alan Dershowitz - Stephen J. Dubner  - Dianne Feinstein - Ruth Bader Ginsburg - Rebecca Newberger Goldstein - Dan Glickman -Arthur Green - Blu Greenberg - Jerome Groopman - Roya Hakakian - Michael Hammer - Susannah Heschel - Madeleine May Kunin - Tony Kushner - Liz Lerman - Daniel Libeskind - Joseph Leiberman - Yavilah McCoy - Ruth Messinger - Leonard Nimoy - Sherwin Nuland - Judea Pearl - Itzhak Perlman - Judith Shulevitz - Gary Shteyngart - Ilan Stavans - Elie Wiesel - Leon Wieseltier - Ruth Wisse.

and here for these:

Daniel S. Abraham - Marc Angel - Ed Asner - Adam Berger - David Biale - Mayim Bialik - Sharon Brous - Andrei Codrescu - Anita Diamant - Ari Fleischer - Joshua Foer - Yuri Foreman - Samuel Freedman - Myla Goldberg - Peter Himmelman -  Dara Horn - Yitz "Y-Love" Jordan - Deborah Dash Moore - Walter Mosley - Aryeh Neier - Elisa New - Judith Plaskow - Francine Prose - Jonathan Rosen - Hannah Rosenthal - Elizabeth Samson - David Saperstein - Zalman Schachter-Shalomi - Harold Schulweis - Howard Schwartz - Dani Shapiro - Yoam Shoham - Rigoberto Emmanuel Vinas - Edward Witten - David Wolpe.

Here's some of just five of the list:

Mel Brooks - comedian, writer, actor, director and producer.

I’m part of the generation that changed their name so they’d get hired. I went from Kaminsky to Brooks. My mother’s name was Brookman. But I couldn’t fit Brookman on the drums. ... There was a lot of comedy when I was a little kid, street corner comics. We couldn’t own railroads, so prize fighting and comedy were open to us. We’re still comedians. Maybe because Jews cried for so long, it was time to laugh. Who knows? I started in the Borscht Belt with terrible jokes. The first joke I ever wrote, I think, was, “You can’t keep Jews in jail, they eat lox.” ... What can we offer the world? We can still offer what Maimonides and Moses laid down. We can offer the law of human behavior. We astonishingly were one of the first cultures to create this thing called law, what is right and what is wrong, based on the tenets of the Old Testament. And, if they want something tasty, we can certainly offer matzoh brei.

Roya Hakakian - author, "Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran."

... When I emigrated to the United States in 1985, however, I had options. Living in a democracy means that Judaism is not a monochromatic exercise, it is a multi-colored fact, a brilliant spectrum of many possibilities in which the range is so vast that all of us can find a shade that becomes us and allows us to continue to identify as Jewish. ... This is what we do as Jews: We read. Our connection with the higher authority is through a very rigorous exercise of reading. Human religious proxies are dangerous because it is easier to manipulate people this way. If there is to be a proxy, let it be a book. As Jews, we can help bring all other faith communities, including Muslim ones, in contact with the texts that they worship. Enhancing literacy among all populations is the way to engender the greatest Jewish value there is.

Michael Hammer - population geneticist, University of Arizona.

When I look at the Jews, I see continuity among people of different communities—Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, the Bukharan Jews from Central Asia—who remained apart for thousands of years. From a population geneticist’s point of view, to be Jewish today is to be a beautiful example of the process of descent with modification from a common ancestor. We not only share a common culture and religion, our genes tell us we share a common origin. One example is the special genetic marker of the Cohanim, the priestly class, which is represented by a unique Y chromosome lineage carried by Cohanim in different Jewish communities today that traces back to a common male ancestor over 100 generations ago. I’m not a Cohen but knowing this has an emotional impact on me. Our ancestors almost went extinct many times in history, so it’s amazing that Jews still exist today as a people. Our genetic heritage brings with it all the forces that shaped that struggle for survival. Genetic variation is influenced not only by chance but also by selective pressure. Whether you have what it takes to survive changes in the environment depends on what you carry with you, so in our genes and our culture, we carry the special talents we have as Jews. There are many explanations for this. Perhaps Jews, as a result of having evolved through the many near-extinctions and persecutions, had to be clever and outthink others to survive. Perhaps because Jews could not own land in many places in the past, they had to work with numbers and mental constructs and abstractions more than others. And, of course, our culture has always taught us the importance of education and studying. So what do we offer the world? We offer our unique brand of intelligence.

Rigoberto Emmanuel Viñas - rabbi, Lincoln Park Jewish Center, Yonkers, New York:

To be a Jew is to be a part of a people with a very open, vibrant and inclusive spiritual path. I am a first-generation Cuban-American rabbi and am in contact with many people who are descendants of 14th-century Spanish and Portuguese Jews forcibly converted to Catholicism during the Inquisition but who continued to practice Jewish customs in secret all over the world. Today, there are millions of such people in Latin America, and an enormous number of them are seeking out their Jewish roots. What is calling them home to Judaism is a spiritual quest to get above all the chasing after power and the unbridled hedonism that goes on in this world. Unfortunately, their openness to Judaism is often greeted with suspicion, legalism and exclusion by other Jews. I want Jewish communities all over the world to become more open to these people and to others looking for a connection with something larger. What Jews can offer the world is to present Judaism as the open spiritual path that it is. We should embrace Jews of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and share our diversity and openness with the world. If we do so, it will reinvigorate us and present a different and more accurate face of Judaism to the world.

Marc Angel - rabbi emeritus, Congregation Shearith Israel-Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, New York City.

After nearly 2,000 years of exile, Jews returned to Israel and revitalized the Hebrew language and culture. For an ancient nation to rise again in its homeland is an awesome historic accomplishment. To be a Jew today is to share in the glory and responsibility of Israel reborn. Jews, who may number 15 million in a world of seven billion, offer the world unparalleled idealism. In spite of centuries of anti-Semitism, we have retained an amazing optimism in the ultimate goodness of humanity. There is scarcely a humanitarian cause that does not include Jews as leaders and activists. A recently deciphered inscription dating from the 10th century BCE—the earliest known fragment of Hebrew writing—captures the essential spirit of the Jewish people: “You shall not do it, but worship the Lord. Judge the slave and the widow; judge the orphan and the stranger. Plead for the infant, plead for the poor and the widow. Rehabilitate the poor at the hands of the king. Protect the poor and the slave, support the stranger.”

Read the other 65 responses at the links above.

TV: Genealogy shows we want to see

Our favorite creative geneablogger, Thomas MacEntee, has produced a list of genealogy shows that we'd all like to see.

Do we have a T-shirt entrepreneur out there who can see the possibilities of producing some of these for sale at upcoming genealogy conferences?

Although his post at "Destination: Austin Family" called these "failed genealogy television shows," Tracing the Tribe believes it's just because no one in TV Land is smart enough to actually produce these!

CAVEAT: Do not read this list or his original post while eating or drinking. At the least, cover your keyboard with plastic!

There's a long list, so here are just some that Tracing the Tribe really liked. Visit Thomas' blog to see the complete list.

Survivor: Ellis Island
Genealogists at the Apollo
America's Funniest Genealogists
Genealogists Gone Wild!
The Microfiche Reader Endurance Hour
When Cemetery Fanatics Attack!
MTV's Rock The Census
Who Wants To Marry A Genealogist?
Escape From The Archives
Not Without My Ahnentafels!
Valley of the Deeds
Touched By An Ancestor
Addicted To Genealogy Conferences
The Insatiable Family Historian
Ancestry Peep Show: Grannies Give It Up
The Secret, Mysterious Life of Genealogists
Dude, Where's My Pedigree?

Not to be outdone, Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings offered some from his talk on "Genealogy is Fun! Seriously!"

Desperate Genealogists
Are You Smarter Than a Genealogist?
Genealogy Idol

My suggestion: "I'm a genealogist - Don't get me out of here" (set in an archive, of course!).

Sheri Fenley suggested Thomas could sell these as bumper stickers or coffee mugs. Personally, I think they'd make great T-shirts to wear at those conferences to which we are so addicted.

Perhaps Thomas will surprise the geneabloggers at Jamboree 2010? Last year, we received "rock star" ribbons for our badges. Anyone taking bets on what our ribbons will read this year?

Do you have shows to add to the list? Please post them below in comments.

Jewish humor: 5 must-read books

Laughing is good, because too much genealogy is too much of a good thing!

Tracing the Tribe likes laughter, and Sarah at the Jewish Publication Society Blog has just listed five must-read books on Jewish humor.

Take a laugh break, thanks to Sarah, who adds her comments on each book and some Jewish humor links.

William Novak and Moshe Waldoks' The Big Book of Jewish Humor

Jon Stewart's Naked Pictures of Famous People

Jerry Seinfeld's SeinLanguage

Woody Allen's Mere Anarchy

David Minkoff's Oy!: The Ultimate Book of Jewish Jokes

Have fun!

And, if this doesn't keep you occupied, read the previous JPS blog post on Jewish jokes spotlighting a website that offers - every Tuesday and Thursday - a new very short video with a new (old) joke.

Facebook Haggadah: Writing on the Wall

Bangitout.com bills itself as the kosher comedy community.

If you haven't looked at the site in awhile, now's the time for the Facebook Haggadah by Carl Elkins of Boston. It uses many familiar Facebook features (albums, walls, friends, even a meme). Here's how it starts off - Enjoy!




Next year in ?

Read it yourself and find out.

Holocaust memoirs: Mocking the fakers?

With the recent forensic exposure of fake Holocaust memoirs, we knew the following might happen somewhere, sometime.

A magazine's competition announcement for a fake Holocaust memoir is hammered by readers who seem to feel that those now-discredited authors of published - and very fake - memoirs, should be treated with the same sensitivity as the millions who perished. The commenters felt that mocking the fakers mocks those memories.

When I first read about it at JTA, I really wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry, but I checked out Heeb magazine's postings.

Remember that the hoaxers cheated not only the public - who wanted to believe - but publishers who didn't check things out.

The announcement of the magazine's contest starts:

To be sure, false Holocaust memoirs are hardly a recent phenomenon (Next time, Art Spiegelman, do a little research—there was no concentration camp called "Mauschwitz."). But in recent years, they seem to have become both more common and more crappy. It’s no longer enough to simply say you were in a concentration camp, like Fauxlocaust survivor Benjamin Wilkomirski. No, now you need to have been led across Europe by wolves, or have a chance encounter years later that results in your marriage to the hidden Jewish girl who saved you. Bad enough that these assorted frauds and lunatics should spew this nonsense, but do they have to do such a bad job of it? Have they no shame?

The answer, of course, is that they don’t. And so while the rest of the world may turn away or offer the occasional book deal, we cannot remain silent (much less offer a book deal). What we can — no, must — do, is confront this dangerous trend the only way we know how — with a self-aggrandizing and somewhat offensive publicity stunt.

And thus, we unveil the Heeb Magazine Fake Holocaust Memoir Competition. Simply write a fake Holocaust Memoir recounting your tale of Holocaust survival, get it to us by April 1, and let us do the rest ...

After receiving numerous indignant comments as to the insensitivity of the competition, Heeb's humor editor countered with this:

... Now, I can understand why people would be upset if we were holding a competition that mocked Holocaust memoirs. But — and the competition rules make this pretty explicit to anyone with 3rd grade reading skills and a 10th grade sense of humor — we are making fun of fake Holocaust memoirs. So will somebody please explain to me why this would be so offensive? Did your grandfather survive the fake Holocaust? Did your fake family members perish in fake concentration camps? Were you inspired as a child by stories of fake bravery in the fake ghetto uprising? Perhaps the haters aren’t really haters — maybe they’re just faking it?

He asks how the contest jeopardizes the Jewish people and how the memory of millions of murdered Jews will be lessened by ridiculing the frauds who did write fake memoirs. The Holocaust is part of history and we should remember what happened, he writes, adding that remembering is not the same as reverence.

If somebody wrote a memoir saying that on D-Day, he had invaded Normandy on the back of a dolphin, people would think he was a lunatic. But Misha Defonseca writes deranged nonsense about traveling halfway across Europe with a pack of wolves to find her parents in the Warsaw Ghetto, and it’s translated into 18 languages. And she wasn’t able to do this because of Heeb Magazine going too far with its "irreverence"; she was able to do this because of all the people out there who — well intentioned as they may be (and I’m certainly more generous to them than they are to me) — are so monomaniacal that as soon as they hear the word "Holocaust" immediately shut off those parts of their brain that function critically, and begin to emotionally genuflect.

Read the complete pieces at the links above, and peruse the reader comments. The contest rules (scroll down on this page) sound like Chris Dunham of The Genealogue had a hand in writing them. (see rules 4, 7, 8, 9, 13 and 15).

What do you think?

And, if you are planning to enter the contest, the deadline is April 1, which seems a good day for something like this.

Humor: Genealogy cartoons

Genea-Musings's Randy Seaver pointed to a Wizard of Id cartoon indicating a possible "non-paternity even" - as genetic genealogists term it.

I went over to the Comics.com site and plugged in some appropriate keywords (family history, ancestry, genealogy). "Family history" turned up more than 2000 possibilities (some right on target, others more far-fetched).

I didn't have time to go through all of them, but there are many good ones.

You can email, share or embed the cartoons.

'Special' gen program sought

Is there a genealogy program that wouldn't self-destruct if this so-called family was entered?

Read about a man living with 32 women and who has fathered 89 children. Some readers asked if he has 32 mothers-in-law and others wanted to know who had control of the TV remote.

On the surface, this is an interesting and even funny case for genealogists from a technical charting viewpoint. As a case for family services and child protection agencies, it is a different matter.

The story was in Haaretz.

2009: Year of the Pickle

The Jewish Zodiac has named 2009 "Year of the Pickle." The site is a tongue-in-cheek parody of the Chinese Zodiac that features 12 symbols based on delicious deli foods: chicken soup, egg cream, chopped liver, blintz, latke, bagel, pickle, schmear, pastrami, black&white, knish and lox.

Should we be adding a custom field to our family tree software to record this essential data? Will annual conferences see birds-of-a-feather meetings for Bagel, Lox, Blintz? Will these BOFs research the history of each yummy food?

I couldn't resist finding my sign. I'm a Bagel, my color is chocolate and learned that I'm pliable, always bounce back but feel something's missing in my center. I'm compatible with Schmear and Lox, but not that much with Latke and Knish.

"The Chinese have 'Year of the Pig' and 'Year of the Ox,'" says Jewish Zodiac creator and comedy writer Seth Front. "Being the good rabbi's son that I am, I figured we should have a zodiac of our own." Enter "Year of the Pickle" and "Year of the Lox."

The site is commercial - don't say I didn't tell you - and you can purchase T-shirts, mugs, magnets and more emblazoned with "Year of the _____."

As for The Jewish Zodiac, Front says more than anything it's about fun. "I get great joy seeing people look at the placemat and say, 'What's my sign? Oh, I'm a Blintz!' They always say 'this is fun!' And if I can bring a little humor into people's lives, well then, I'm doing my job."

Front, a screenwriter and USC Film School grad, thought up the idea in a Chinese restaurant. Nu, where else? Maybe it was also Christmas Day?

What sign are you?

Humor: Mrs. Rabitowitz is Jewish!

Terry Nelson, a painter in Minnesota, writes the Abbey-Roads blog, and I just read his delightful post here.

A surprising story.

Before going out to remove snow this afternoon, I put out more food for Mrs. Rabbit. I don't know if I mentioned this, but she sits only a few yards away from the little table I feed her at while I cover the top with food. I always make sure some of it falls on the ground for the mice and the voles. The table is actually an upside-down plastic litter-box that has never been used. It suits her perfectly as she sits on her haunches and feeds herself like a little person seated at a dining table.

Anyway, as I was putting out the trail mix and baguette crumbs, I heard a little voice say quietly, "Thank you. The food has been especially delicious this winter."

I looked up, quite surprised to see the rabbit speaking, having moved closer to me, less than a foot away I'd say. "You're quite welcome... err... Mrs. Rabbit." I answered.

She giggled slightly and proceeded to inform me that her name was Mrs. Rabitowitz. I asked if she was Polish or Jewish and she explained that her heritage was indeed Jewish, but she couldn't be certain about the Polish part. "You look surprised Mr. Nelson, but most rabbits are of Jewish ancestry, although we don't go to temple. That explains why we are often depicted in art bringing eggs to children at Easter. The Catholics are all at Church and we deliver the eggs and candy for their celebrations."

"Why of course!" I exclaimed, "that makes perfect sense. I just never heard that
explanation before." ...

The story goes on to posit ethnic and geographical origins of household pets. Do read the complete post at the link above. Thanks, Terry!

Is it possible that the Jewish Graveyard Rabbit is a relative of Mrs. Rabitowitz? If you'd like to research this and add to the comments, I'd be happy to compile them!

Humor: Top 10 worst family heirlooms

As noted previously, I am catching up with reading email and my favorite gen blogs, such as Chris Dunham's Genealogue postings, such as this one from November 10.

Thanks, Chris - I really needed a chuckle or two during the last week!

The Genealogue's top 10 worst family heirlooms:

10. Open jar of mayonnaise.

9. Great-grandparents' bondage gear.

8. Toenail clippings.

7. Predisposition to public flatulence.

6. Grandpa's place on the couch.

5. Credit card debt.

4. Live hand grenade with missing pin.

3. Vintage roadkill collection.

2. Grandma's secret crystal meth recipe.

1. Autopsy photo album.

Read The Genealogue regularly for more of Chris' insights!

Chinese pandas love 'Jewish penicillin'

The affinity of the Jewish people for Chinese food is well-known. Now we learn of the affinity of the Chinese - pandas - for Jewish food, namely chicken soup.

To be fair, the Chinese do have a long tradition of drinking slow-simmered chicken broth for health. I'm wondering if the Persian Jewish merchants who arrived so long ago in Kaifeng brought it with them?

Celia Male of London just emailed me:

Flavour of the month in your blog is cooking [re your Iranian Jewish Cookbook] and for many, it means home-made chicken soup, as it gets colder and the nights draw in. "We" always knew it was good for us and now the pandas are getting it too. What could this mean genealogically-speaking?

"Don't worry, bubbelah. The soup's almost ready!"
Here's the Yahoo News link to the AP story Celia sent:

Everyone needs some chicken soup for the soul — even pandas.

The Wuhan Zoo in central China has been feeding its two pandas home-cooked chicken soup twice in a month to reduce stress and give them a nutritional boost, a zoo official said Friday.

He Zhihua said 3-year-old Xiwang and Weiwei — literally meaning "Hope" and "Greatness" — were tired and suffering from a little shock since the start Monday of the weeklong National Day holiday, one of the biggest travel seasons of the year.

On Wednesday, up to 30,000 people swarmed the zoo and about 1,000 tourists packed the panda enclosure, shouting to get the animals' attention, He said. The pandas paced restlessly.

"They had been getting less sleep, and they had to run around more," he said. "We felt it would be good to give them the soup because they were fatigued and had a bit of a shock."

Reflecting the Chinese tradition of drinking slow-cooked chicken soup for health, the zookeepers boiled roosters in water overnight and added a pinch of salt to the concentrated stock.

The pandas were served 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) of soup in giant dishes, in addition to their regular diet of bamboo, milk and buns, He said.

It was a hit.

"They drank it all like they drank their milk. They loved it," he said.

Hey, if all YOU had to eat was tough bamboo, chicken soup would also sound good. I'm looking for a chain of fast-food chicken soup places in the nature preserves in which the pandas survive. And the tourists might like it also!

The story does not mention either matzo balls or Persian gondi. However, since pandas are also known to eat meat and small birds, the gondi might be of interest.

The pair were first fed chicken soup on Sept. 28 - nearly Rosh Hashanah - to help them brave the upcoming cold weather. When they exhibited no stomach problems, they ate it again this week.

Humor: Half of the 10 Commandments

All mothers are Jewish, with slight adjustments for accent, gastronomy and origin. Why do we mothers worry so much? Here's one mother's take on our history.

It seems to me that almost every Jew I know suffers from terminal anxiety. And why not? With a history filled with tsouris we've probably developed a Yiddishe mutation: a W-strand on our DNA for "Worry." Forget Murphy's Law. Chances are his real name was Murphosky and his family taught him: "If anything can go wrong, it will."

Picture it. First day of school. September, 1950-something. Eighty-two degrees. I was polished, brushed, dressed, breakfasted, and school bagged ...

MOM:
"The school bus will be here in an hour. Take your scarf and mittens."
ME:
"But mommy ... it's hot."
MOM:
"It could snow."

There's more - much more.

But first sit down in a nice comfortable chair - maybe go horizontal on a nice bed (with side rails???) before clicking on the link. Your mother wouldn't want you to fall down and hurt something while you were laughing.

No, I haven't looked up Murphosky using Steve Morse's One-Step, but I'm sure some of my readers will. Do report back if you find Mr. Murphosky!

Enjoy!

Crystal Skulls with a 'kipa' ?

Even the movies are getting into Jewish genealogy. The Jewish Exponent's Michael Elkin offers a Jewish look at Indiana Jones and his crystal skulls, or as we call them in Yiddish, chochkes (dust-catchers)

Did you know that Harrison Ford's maternal grandparents - Anna Lifschutz and Harry Nidelman - came from Minsk? Admit it - how many of you will now go to JewishGen to see if there are Belarus SIG records for his bubbe (grandma) and zayde (grampa)? Or to Steve Morse's One-Step to check the Ellis Island Databse?

Jones and bones: Indiana (Harrison Ford) and his kid (Shia LeBouf) meet up with some skullduggery in their new adventure.

Who knew that when Indiana Jones went raiding for the lost ark, he was looking to return it to his synagogue?

According to Elkins, the original Temple of Doom was a synagogue on La Cienega in Los Angeles that couldn't pay the real estate taxes and went out of business.

There's more, and Elkins even mentions that hit series of a certain generation, "Bonanza."

It's always been that way, especially when it makes for a bonanza at the box office. Or TV, for that matter. After all, all four actors playing Papa Ben and the sibling Cartwright clan of "Bonanza" were Jews.

And what was it that Hop-Sing and half-sister Hip-Hop served up for Sunday brunch to the kosher cowboys? Beans and rice? No. Lox and bagel.

C'mon, you never heard of the famous ... Ponderosa Spread?

Kick back and giggle. Put the kipa on the chochke! For those who aren't members of the tribe, a kipa (Hebrew) is a yarmulke (Yiddish) or skullcap.

Read more here.

Where's the nearest genealogy pub?

The Association of Professional Genealogists discussion list has provided a humorous twist over the past few days.

I was all set to document this interesting idea, but Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings beat me to it.

Tom Kemp of GenealogyBank started it all with a post about the first genealogy publication published some 284 years ago, which he shortened to genealogy "pub" - provoking comments about the location of this Colonial-era establishment.

The first genealogy published in America appeared in a newspaper 284 years ago - today – May 7, 1724.

It appeared in the American Weekly Mercury. It was a genealogy of King Philip V of Spain. Genealogy articles routinely appeared in colonial newspapers.

The first genealogy published in book form was in 1771 – the Stebbins Genealogy and by 1876 and the nation’s first centennial there were less than 1,000 genealogies published.

There's more, so read Tom's complete post.

It went giggling downhill from there on the APG list and covered possible pick-up lines, genealogy-compatible liquid refreshments, amenities that might be offered and even included song lyrics by Drew Smith.

A suggestion was made about organizing a genealogical retirement community which might surround the Gen Pub.

Read all about the suggestions here.

Inventing relatives for fun and profit

What would I do without Chris Dunham of The Genealogue? When I'm overwhelmed with work, a visit to his blog is always a relief.

He's at it again, with his newest post and links. Thanks, Chris, for this one.

How to Invent a Relative

Genealogical research can be really, really hard, but I've found a way to make it easy and fun. The trick is to create your relatives from scratch.

Give him a name — To avoid suspicion, don't use silly made-up names like "Kiefer" or "Barack."

Grab a picture of somebody else and make it look old — "Hey, my great-grandfather looked like Jack Nicholson!"

Borrow some good anecdotes — "Remember the time he shared a hot tub with Kissinger?"

Write fake news items about him — A couple of wedding announcements, an article on his DUI arrest and an obituary will put flesh on his artificial bones.

Give him a proper burial — You don't want this guy showing up at reunions, so make sure he's good and dead!

Each "suggestion" is linked to a story, but you'll have to go to his blog for the complete picture.

Ohio: Yiddish with Michael Wex, Feb. 6

The Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland, Ohio will present noted Yiddishist Michael Wex on "Daytsh aftselakis: How Yiddish Stopped Being German," at 7.30pm, Wednesday, February 6.

The meeting is at Menorah Park in Beachwood.

For more information, click here.

Don't dispair if you can't get to Cleveland in time for this meeting, as Wex's
website is headed:

"Yiddish language and culture in all of its moods. Yiddish - whether you want to read it, hear it, learn it, ask a question about it, curse in it or wear it - this is the site for you."

Among the features: A weekly Yiddish dialogue from Wex, Yiddish-y gifts online store, his blog series, book excerpts and all about the art of Yiddish curses.

Wex says "Remember - you don't have to be Jewish to use this site. Previous knowledge is unnecessary and possibly dangerous."

Wex wrote Born to Kvetch and a follow-up phrasebook, Just Say Nu. A novelist, playwright, lecturer, performer and authority on language and literature, he has been called "a Yiddish National Treasure" and “the finest translator around.”

He provides "a deadly accurate and wickedly funny overview of the language and culture from the Middle Ages to the present day. Whether he’s revealing the real origins of well-known Jewish customs or explaining how The Three Stooges helped bring Yiddish to millions of unsuspecting children, Wex can turn your world into different — and much funnier — place."

Just Say Nu explains the five most useful Yiddish words – shoyn, nu, epes, takeh, and nebakh – what they mean, how and when to use them, and how they can be used to conduct an entire conversation without anybody ever suspecting that the reader doesn’t have the vaguest idea of what anyone is actually saying.

Enjoy!