For Openers

Trying To Do The Right Thin

by is it so hard to be "good"?
I refer to attempts to be a caring
citizen — attempts that are met with
frustration and disenchantment due
to bureaucracy (You're not surprised?)
Our recent house cleaning turned up two mer-
cury thermometers, which we decided should be
replaced by a digital device.
We were faced with properly
disposing of the old ones, mer-
cury being a toxic substance.
We called our recycling
company and they had no idea
at all. We called the township
offices and, after being sent
from one person to another,
they also had "no idea at all."
They did suggest calling a
SY MANELLO
Editorial Assistant waste disposal company. (Why
did that sound familiar?)
I looked up medical waste
disposal in the phone directory and found out that
they do pick up such items for $30 a pail; they had
"no idea at all" for two thermometers.
Then I thought that my doctor's office must dis-
pose of such things, so I called and asked if I could
just add these two small items to their waste bins.
No, I could not; they no longer had mercury ther-
mometers and had "no idea at all" as to how to get
rid of them.
Finally, we asked a pharmacist at a local drug-
store and she was kind enough to take the time to
make a call to a state office. She got us thorough,
but rather involved, directions as to how to wrap,
seal, label and deliver the thermometers for disposal.
Early on this tortuous path, I was sorely tempted
to just toss the things in the garbage; after all, if I
was to do the right thing, why did the "sources in
the know" have "no idea at all" how to accomplish
this?
Sometimes, it is so hard to be good. ❑

it[V3.7531 vcha
't, Know ©2000

By Goldfein

he Hebrew name for the fourth book of Hebrew scrip-
tures, BaMidbar, is also part of the name of three Las
Vegas synagogues. Why?
•tisapoN JeqpIN puu nucipmeg
JO qucipriATEg nassauN nIag are nJasap epenaN alp In sanSo2
-euAs atll idL3 Luau snpoxa alp 2ulmono3 sSuilapuum ,sAnaf alp
Jo Lions ay spa pue „niasap alp u!„ sueatu JeqpINEg :aarnsuv

Yiddish Limericks

An Eskimo Jew known as Speaks
I Said, "Winter here's weird when it peaks.
It's finster* all day,
And so, when we pray,
We don't daven shachriss** for weeks!"
— Martha Jo Fleischmann
I * dark
** pray the morning service

Quotables

"The sovereign state of Austria was literally the first victim of the
Nazi regime. They took Austria by force."
— Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, in an effort to distance
his country from the Shoah.

"This is not an event. This is a war. This is a second indepen-
dence war, if you want to call it that . . . We can, and we will,
win this war. We have to."
— IDF Lt. Col. Erez Winner, at the Michigan Friends of the Israel
Defense Forces solidarity benefit at Congregation Shaarey Zedek.

"Today, and from your graveside, I swear that we will never for-
get you, and that we will never grant clemency to the murderer,
the evil man, who will rot until his very last day in prison."
— Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, vowing that Yzgal Amin
who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin five years ago,
would never receive clemency.

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12/8
2000

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