Comment

An Easy Machine
The Baby Can Work

ERICA RAUZIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

T

he business wizards who
invented the facsimile ma-
chine didn't really under-
stand its true purpose.
I suspect they thought they
had created a corporate marvel,
the scourge of messenger ser-
vices, the alternative to the post
office, a whiz bang way for
lawyers and bankers to send
sheets of paper to bankers and
lawyers. Wrong again, Edison.
The real purpose of the fax ma-
chine is to keep grandparents and
grandchildren in touch with each
other. My dad faxes love notes to
my children; my children fax
their school papers and their
crayon drawings to their grand-
parents. In our case, the grand-
parents live 1,000 miles away,
but that isn't a prerequisite for
burning up the fax lines.
Our next door neighbors' pre-
cocious five-year-old, Benjy, fax-
es drawings to his zayde across
town, sometimes a dozen or so at
a time. At an age when zayde
thought his main expense would
be denture cream, he's spending
his discretionary funds on fax pa-
per. Zayde doesn't mind, even
though sometimes Benjy cranks
up his drawing production rate
to a furious pace, in order to have
the thrill of faxing (even more ex-
citing than the thrill of drawing,
or even of showing off to Grand-
pa).
In electronically transmitting
our children's masterpieces, we
have made a few handy discov-
eries. For instance, ink faxes bet-
ter than pencil; dark drawings
fax better than light ones; and
rich, primary crayon colors fax
better than modish pastels.
Copies of pale crayon drawings
fax better than the originals. I
guess we could have expected
marketers to create special cray-
on packages of glitter crayons,
varying skin tone crayons, and
two color crayons. Who knew
we'd want them to come up with
crayons for facsimile master-
pieces. This is worthwhile be-
cause, now and then, the promise
that we'll immediately fax a
school assignment to Grandma
and Grandpa gets the assign-
ment done a little faster, with a
little more pizzazz.
We do have one strange back-
log: our kids do lots of arts and
crafts projects at school, particu-
larly for the Jewish holidays. But
since their productions are part
of the holiday decorations at
school, those drawings don't get
brought home (or faxed to Grand-
ma) until after the holiday. Thus,

5756

1995

last fall, my parents received pic-
tures of Rosh Hashanah honey
pots just in time for Sukkot.
We've just faxed them some Lag
B'Omer tree pictures, and they
should get the Shavout master-
pieces sometime right around Fa-
ther's Day (along with the
year-end report cards).
In many ways, the fax ma-
chine seems slightly miraculous
to me (but then, I'm still adjust-
ing to the microwave oven). My
kids, however, have no trouble
adapting to all the delights of
available office machinery, either
at my husband's office or around
my desk in the garage.
The home copier we got last
spring is the most popular piece
of gear in the house. We are copy
central for synagogue notices and
youth group bulletins. Children
come from blocks around to du-
plicate class notes and such. We
do keep an eye on them to be sure
that no outright larceny is going
on, like undergiuund traffic in the
multiplication tables, but they
use the copier properly and copi-
ously. It's not their usage that -
makes me feel ancient; it's their
matter-of-factness. They are not
the least bit surprised to have a
copier and a fax machine at their
disposal. These machines are as
familiar and routine to them as
the telephone or the toaster were
to us at their ages.
So come on, drop by our
house. Turn on the machine of
your choice. Copy your childish
scribbles and fax them to a dis-
tant relation. Why shouldn't
you? Everybody else does (even
me). El

Neo-Nazi
Mercenaries

Bonn (JTA) — German neo-
Nazis who have returned home
after serving as mercenaries in
the war-torn former Yugoslavia
have German security officials
concerned about an "internal se-
curity problem."
Some who fought alongside
Croats and Bosnian Muslims
have returned with weapons —
including submachine guns and
hand grenades — that might be
used in Germany, it was report-
ed.
Some 3,000 Germans actively
participate in neo-Nazi organi-
zations, the security officials es-

To All Our

Friends, Customers
& Relatives
A Happy,
Healthy & Prosperous

NEW YEAR

from

The Milen Family

J WC11°I

more than
Qj just
a car

"

wash"

The Alan Bishop family & the Crew
at Mr. Alan's wish you and yours
a happy and healthy New Year!

MU. ALAN'S

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