The New York Times > Fashion & Style > The Man Date

The New York Times > Fashion & Style > The Man Date

I'm not sure how much credence to give this... although it does explain why so many guys have closer relationships with (platonic) girl friends than guy friends.

Does that mean it's a sign of sexual security when a man feels comfortable enough to be seen in public, at a restaurant or museum (for example) with just one other guy?

Hmmm...

Any responses?

A bruised eyeball, academic backlog and the Jewish holidays, and whatever else is new

At the moment, I am sitting in my bedroom, procrastinating from writing a paper on "situational contingencies"and religious conversion. The paper isn't due until Thursday (8:10 am). I'm having a hard time motivating myself. My eye hurts. And--although the actual due date is three-and-a-half days away, I only have one in which to write it. "Why?", you might ask. Because of Sukkot. I HATE having the Tishrei holidays fall on weekdays. I never manage to accomplish very much on weekends (well, that is, during the first half of Friday, Saturday night, and Sunday--the part of the weekend that is not Shabbat). Thankfully, I have not fallen behind in my reading. But getting assignments done has been no picnic. Also, I am already experiencing holiday burn-out. I'm usually OK until Shemini Atzeret and only really out-of-commission for Simhat Torah. This year, though, I feel like it's all-Jewish, all-the time. Even though I've only missed two classes in the past two weeks, I can barely remember what we've been studying.

It hasn't helped that I spent 3 hours today in the emergency room. My generally clutzy behavior has landed me with a minor, but annoying, injury once again. On Friday, while on BART, I was opening a book (Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception, to be precise) when the train suddenly lurched. The book pushed up my glasses and rammed itself into my eyeball. Alas, the injury is not healing as quickly as one might think (since eyes are usually very quick to heal, as anyone who's had either cataract removal or Lasik surgery will tell you). I woke up this morning to find that my eyeball was swollen (yes, swollen) and hurt even more than yesterday. The advice nurse engaged in what was essentially emotional blackmail in order to convince me that I should go to the emergency room today instead of the opthamology clinic tomorrow (it's not open on Sundays).

I now know why Kaiser Oakland is expanding their ER. Just to let you know how small it is, the waiting room is smaller than my apartment. This is in OAKLAND. A big city. And the minor injury clinic is there, too. After all that time, though, the only thing they could tell me was that I did indeed manage to bruise my eyeball and scratch my cornea. I got to have fancy dye put into my eye. They didn't tell me to do anything at home. Basically, all I got was instructions to go to the opthamology department tomorrow, and the comfort of knowing they'd expedite my appointment because of the ER visit. Oy.

Other items of the moment:
J. is in England, and I'm not. Sigh.

I am currently trying to decide what to do about my cellphone... should I switch to MetroPCS, or stay with Sprint? New lower monthly rates at Sprint may make it worthwhile, particularly because cheaper phones are available, due to discounts, etc.

A Friendly Adjective

One of my more pleasantly geeky friends sent me the following nifty vocabulary word. Apparently, she read the A.Word.A.Day on Friday (see below) and thought of me... I guess I'm flattered. I do have long, thin fingers. More importantly, this is daily list actually has words I haven't heard before (unlike the ones on Dictionary.com, et al). Every week has a theme. This week's (starting today) is words derived from the names of persons.

The entry below can be found in this archive.

> Subject: A.Word.A.Day--leptodactylous
> Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 22:11:54 -0700
> From: "Wordsmith" <wsmith@wordsmith.org>
> To: <linguaphile@wordsmith.org>

This week's theme: words formed using combining forms.

Leptodactylous (lep-tuh-DAK-tuh-luhs) adjective

If you are still stuck to those tired words to describe
your sweetie, here is a new one for you. Leptodactylous
means having fine, slender digits.  No, not, digits on a
bathroom scale or on a bank account. Here digit means a toe
or a finger.

It all sounds Greek to me: from lepto- (thin) and -dactylous
(fingered or toed).
-Anu Garg (gargATwordsmith.org)

"Hitchock described many examples of strangely-shaped,
thin-toed footprints and classified them as leptodactylous
footprints."
Brendan Hanrahan; Great Day Trips in the Connecticut Valley
of the Dinosaurs; Perry Heights Press; 2004.

פיוט Cool Hebrew Website

פיוט

Saul Friedman, a fellow PhD student here in Berkeley, gave me a lead on this incredible site, ww.piyut.org.il. It is an awesome database of Jewish melodies from all over the world. This link will take you to the Piyyut of the week: Eil Norah Alilah, which is a beautiful poem for the last service on Yom Kippur. The number of melodies available for this one piyyut is pretty amazing; there are tunes from Morocco, Kurdistan, Italy, Yemen, Iran, Turkey, India, Bukhara... I think you get the picture.

Be aware, though: (1) it is VERY slow to download the music files; (2) the site is in Hebrew only.

In other words, it's not particularly useful yet. But it has promise.

Hag Sameah

Happy Birthday, World!

May all on earth experience a year with more peace, more love, more safety, more health, more wisdom, and more joy. May we all enjoy a year of renewal and return to God's roles for each of us.