JIN I Something Extra
Excuse Me!
he dog ate my home-
work." Ever heard that
one? It is one of many
excuses, valid and rationalized, that
many of us use to try to worm our
way out of something.
It is so hard to admit that we
made a mistake that it is much eas-
ier to claim, "He made me do it."
SY
This,
we hope, will shift the blame
MANELLO
onto
someone
else and get the
Editorial
"heat"
off
of
us,
at least for a while.
Assistant
Of course, we do not take time to
consider that this excuse labels us
as so easily manipulated.
The oldest and, I'm guessing, most frequently
used is, "I forgot." Yeah, sure. In this day of
appointment calendars, Palm Pilots and the like,
that is really going to hold up as an excuse. Well,
for hard working folks such as I who have so much
on their minds, it is a valid explanation; but for
the rest of you slackards
Why is it so hard to tell someone "no" when that
is the obvious answer? It seems that we do not
want to hurt feelings or just lack the courage of
our convictions, so we say, "I'd like to think about
it.
When it comes to diet and exercise, we have
ample excuses to fall back on (and if we procrasti-
nate long enough, that isn't all that will be ample).
We will say, "I just can't resist," "It's in my genes,"
"I'll do it tomorrow."
As for putting things off, we make it easy to
excuse things because of the weather, which never
seems conducive to what needs to be done. It is
either too hot, too cold, too light, too dark, etc.
With all the labor-saving devices that surround
us today, why do so many still rely on the old, "I
didn't have the time"?
Whenever we approach any type of election, we
Israeli Imprint
Kosher Parties On Shabbat
The mayor of Detroit visited Israel nearly five years ago on a Michigan-
originated mission and last week told the Detroit Jewish community the
trip remains uniquely memorable.
"Still to this day, it was the best experience
of my life," Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said at a
Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan
Detroit farewell for its executive director,
David Gad-Harf, who is moving with his wife,
Nancy, to New York City after 17 years here.
Gad-Harf led the 11-day mission in
November 2000, a year prior to the mayor's
election.
"I learned a great deal," Kilpatrick said.
"Stories of the Bible have been something that
I've been amazed by since I was a small child.
I have taken the Israel experience with me
everywhere that I go."
Oakland County, Lansing and Washington
Mayor Kilpatrick
proclamations were read as 200 well-wishers
greeted the Gad-Harfs and their son, Josh, at
Grille 173 in Royal Oak on June 14. Gov .
Jennifer Granholm and her husband, Dan
Mulhern, gave the Gad-Harfs a framed photo
of the Mackinac Bridge in honor of David's
communal and ecumenical bridge-building
efforts.
Kilpatrick recounted meeting Bethlehem
Mayor Hanna Nasser. "He went through the
whole ordeal that the region had to come
together for economic reasons and to grow
tourism and to deal with the issue of terror-
ism," Kilpatrick said.
The politically embattled Kilpatrick quipped
that he used that spin at his last lunch with
Oakland County Executive L. Brooks
Patterson. "I said, 'Hey, if Mayor Nasser can
talk about regionalism, certainly you, Brooks,
David Gad-Harf
can come to the table and talk about regional
cooperation.'"
Kilpatrick added, "God bless you, David and
your family in New York. I'm in New York very often to beg and plead
for Wall Street to leave me alone, so I'm sure that we'll cross paths again."
— Robert A. _Sklar, editor
7/21
2005
14
are sure to hear, "What difference can one person
make?" Maybe you should consider all the times
that one voice has been the needed impetus.
Then we find that too many of us like to dismiss
what should be our concern by blithely passing it
off as, "Not my problem." Or better yet,
"Everyone does it."
(Can you recall the challenge offered by a parent
who questioned if you would jump off a building
if your friend did it? Apparently, yes.)
To get to things really beyond our control, we
have taken to blaming things on global warming.
This is probably a politician's best friend as far as
excuses go.
One excuse that there is no excuse for is, "Well,
we've never had anyone else complain about that
before." So? I am complaining now; doesn't that
matter?
Well, I would have had this column out several
weeks ago but, "The computers were down." 0
An announcement that the Matt Prentice Restaurant Group will offer kosher
events on Shabbat at the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield puts
them right in line with all other area kosher caterers supervised
by the Council of Orthodox Rabbis of Greater Detroit (COR).
Prentice's recent newsletter publication stated that they have
"received permission from Council of Orthodox Rabbis to
offer functions every Saturday throughout the year."
According to Rabbi Joseph Krupnik, COR's kashrut direc-
tor, "The events they hold at the JCC can take place while it is
still Shabbat, while following the same regulations as the other
kosher caterers we supervise. No cooking is allowed on
Shabbat and there is no use of electric equipment like
blenders, choppers or dicers," he said. 'A number of rabbis did
a walk-through of the kitchens to review how food can be pre- Rabbi Krupnik
pared and re-warmed on Shabbat."
Other kosher caterers supervised by the COR are Elite Kosher Catering in West
Bloomfield, Farmington Hills Kosher Catering, Jewel Kosher Caterers in West
Bloomfield and Oak Park and Sperber's Kosher Catering in West Bloomfield.
"They all follow the exact same rules," Rabbi Krupnik said. And they some-
times have to get creative to be able to do that, like serving gazpacho instead of
hot soup. They have found a lot of ways to make their meals still nice, while fol-
lowing the laws of Shabbat."
— Shelli Liebman Dorfman, staff writer
Yiddish Limericks
"This hekdish* you live in," I said
One day to my college boy, Fred,
"Shocked me like a jolt.
Food's either fay:tarn
Or good and fiirshimIt'*, instead!"
tkk
— Martha Jo Fleischmann
*decrepit place **rotten *** moldy
zva 'cha Don't Know
The Jewish founders of Haagen-Dazs ice cream, Rose and Reuben _Manus,
had an interesting reason for choosing the brand name for their product.
\X/hat was it?
— Goldfein
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