Thanks to my brother Tom for a guest post on Olive Oyl olive oil: My friend Mike is a connoisseur of olive oils. He can taste an olive oil and tell you the oil’s country of origin, the blend of olives used, the time of year the olives were harvested, the type of stone used to…

Every year, I spend a few weeks drooling over boxes of fancy-schmancy Hanukkah candles – you know, the beautiful beeswax, hand-dipped kind that don’t look like fruit-flavored twizzlers. I ruminate for a good long time over whether or not to spend $10-$15 on each box of candles. Then, before I know it, it’s about five…

I blogged a few days ago about my friend’s decision to remove a Christmas tree from the school where she recently became principal. The letters to the editor in the local newspaper have been overwhelmingly nasty, and mostly not worthy of rebuttal. A few would be entertaining, if only they weren’t so darned depressing. Here’s…

Many years ago, my brother was in an alt-country/folk band called 5 Chinese Brothers. Their oeuvre included a truly wonderful hanukkah song called Age Old Story. You can listen to it here. I posted the lyrics below. (Now he writes songs that teach vocabulary words. You can listen to those here. Oh, he’s also cute and…

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