For Openers

A Beastly Good Time

11 who know me and have read
my various rants about includ-
ing pets in lifecycle announce-
ments are probably convinced
that I have something against our four-
legged or furry or beaked or finned ani-
mal friends. Not so.
I am not only aware but also apprecia-
SY
tive of the contributions that animals
MANELLO have made to expressions in our language.
Editorial
Consider the following:
Assistant
• Dogs are either the most maligned or
the most admired, depending on the
expression being used. If you work like a dog and get dog
tired, can you truly desire to live a dog's life? And how
often are you aware of a neighborhood, generation,
school, etc., going to the dogs?
• Horses also share the good-bad aspect. If you work
like a horse (which is, I guess, just a bit more than work-
ing like a dog) that can be good. If you eat like a horse,
that's not so good.
• Cats do share one thing with dogs when it is raining
cats and dogs (the only thing worse is hailing taxicabs). If
you're really old (like some people who write columns),
you may remember that a really great experience may be
described as the Cat's Pajamas. Never having seen the
creature so attired, I've no guess as to what the suggestion
is.
• If you have ever been overwhelmed by a situation, it
may be safe to say that you have faced a bear of a prob-
lem. A bear hug, on the other hand, may be just the lift
you need at the end of a bear of a day.
• If there is a sense of urgency accompanying a project,
it would not be advisable to move at a snail's pace.
• You may want to scrutinize things with an eagle's eye.
Actually, any bird's eye view may be sufficient to satisfy
you as to what is going on.
• If you have an opinion to share, do so with originali-
ty; don't just parrot someone else.
• If caught espousing another's view, you may exhibit a
sheepish grin.
• Should circumstances be questionable, you may want
to give someone the fish eye.
• Or you may witness all your plans take a swan dive.
• That may then necessitate you trying to weasel out of
the situation.
• But be sure you are not making a mountain out of a
mole hill.
• Not to get into the evolution thing, but there are
times when you experience something just beyond belief
that may make you say, "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!"
• Even those who are extremely optimistic and con-
stantly finding silver linings behind gray clouds might be
hard pressed to make a silk purse out a sow's ear.
(Considering some fashion fads, you may have a really
hot item there if you could do so.)
• I'm not sure how you would balance things on a
camel's back with the humps there — yes, I used the plu-
ral since the one hump belongs to the dromedary — so
how then could a straw break a camel's back?
• Well, I'm sure I'll understand that one and many of
its ilk when pigs fly. Until then, I'm out of here like a bat
out of — a cave; and I'm not lion.

Quotables

At-AnV 'cha
Don't Know

© 2003

E

ighteen Jews have been elected to
the College Football Hall of Fame
in South Bend, Ind. Some played
the sport in Michigan. Can you

"Today, it's very chic, very 'in vogue,' for blacks
and Jews to get along."

— Rabbi Marc Schneier, founder and president
of the New York-based Foundation for Ethnic
Understanding, in advance of Martin Luther
King Jr. Day, as quoted by the Forward.

name any?

— Goldfein

.S0f61

DT uT IIEWAADN AllET4

pug sOZ6I alp In urtupaIid Auuag :Jamsuy

Yiddish Limericks

An ad I saw said, "Gib a cook!'
Don't read word-by-word like some

shnook**
If you're into bicher***,
You'll flip through vos gicheY****
On speed reading, we wrote the book!"

.

— Martha Jo Fleischmann

take a look
** sucker; sap
*** books
**** faster; right away

"South Palm Beach is probably the fastest-grow-
ing Jewish community in the country, with the
exception — maybe — of Las Vegas."

— Ira Sheskin, director of the Jewish Demography
Project at the University of Miami, in a story
about the wave of young Jewish families moving to
Boca Raton, -as quoted in the Forward.

"Xenophobic, anti-Semitic and racist move-
ments will become more active as the election
draws near."

— Alexander Tarasov, an analyst of political radi-
calism at the Moscow-based Phoenix Center for-
New Sociology and the Study of Political Practice,
about the December 2003 parliamentary elections
in Russia, as quoted by JTA.

"It's all about revenge and reaction. I've read in
the Hebrew papers, while in prison, that most
martyrs are 'normal people.' What they do is
based less on ideology than reaction."

Yiddish-ism

gozlen

A thief, but not a professional (for that, see
gonif); a swindler.

— Nizan Jabari, chief of the Palestinian
Authority General Intelligence Service for the
southern third of the West Bank, indicating why
its so hard to eye a potential suicide bomber, as
quoted by the Forward.

Source: The Joys of Yiddish by Leo M. Rosten
(McGraw-Hill).

Shabbat Candlelighting

"Lighting the Shabbat candles gives me a feeling of spiritual renew-
al, pride and belonging in my Judiasm."

— Julie Bussell, teacher, Temple Shir Shalom, West Bloomfield

Sponsored by Lubavitch

Women's Organization.
To submit a candlelighting

Candlelighting

Candlelighting

Friday, Jan. 31: 5:26 p.m •

Friday, Feb. 7: 5:36 p.m.

Shabbat candlelighting,

Shabbat Ends

Shabbat Ends

call Miriam Arnzalak of

Saturday, Feb. 1: 6:32 p

message or to receive

complimentary candle-

sticks and iii formation on

Oak Park at (248) 967-

>056 or e-mail: amza-

lak @jullO.00111

.

111

.

Saturday, Feb. 8: 6:40 p.m.

