views

for openers

Let’s March!

WIKIPEDIA

Left foot, Left foot
Right foot, Right.
Feet in the morning.
Feet at night.
Left foot, Left foot, Left foot, Right.
Wet foot, Dry foot.
High foot, Low foot…

— The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss

I

think it’s pretty ironic that the per-
son who wrote The Foot Book was
born in March, something you do
with your feet. Actually, Dr. Seuss also
wrote The Tooth Book and The Eye
Cat in the Hat, which promptly reno-
Book, but there are no months
vated the early reader land-
called Bite-uary or Stare-
scape, and poor old Dick and
ember — although if there
Jane were goners. There’s just
were, it would admittedly be
no competing with a cat who
equally ironic — plus, we’d
knows how to “have lots of
be living in an even stranger
good fun that is funny.”
world than we already are.
Even without Dr. Seuss, I
So now March 2 is celebrat-
enjoy all the puns that come
ed yearly as Dr. Seuss Day, as
with feet and March-ing.
Rochel Burstyn
a thank you to the fellow who
Like, you might be rushed
wrote such tongue-twisting,
off your feet or have the rug
mind-bending, smile-tickling
pulled from under your feet,
books that adults enjoy read-
but as long as you have both
ing as much kids. He intro-
feet on the ground and con-
duced the word “nerd” to the world
sistently put your best foot forward,
(check out If I Ran the Zoo) — a term
you should manage to get your foot in
that would catch on particularly well
the door. Also, its super handy when
for decades of teenagers.
other people offer to foot the bill!
Another fun fact: Apparently, Dr.
Speaking of bills, the other day I
Seuss thought reading skills were
February-ed (see what I did there?)
down in schools because the only
into the bakery to get hot dog buns.
early readers available at the time
To be more precise, I ran into the bak-
— the ones about Dick and Jane and
ery while the hot dogs were already
their active dog (Run Spot Run) were
cooking. Unfortunately, the bakery
so boring that kids hated reading
was all out of hot dog buns, so I was
them. So, he sat down and wrote The
left with quite the dilemma: Should I





buy hamburger buns that don’t quite
fit hot dogs so perfectly? Or perhaps
brownies?
Let’s just say my kids loved dinner
that night.
One last thing about feet. My
husband asked me why my clean-
ing lady gets an exuberant, heartfelt
and enthusiastic greeting when she
walks in, about 2,000 notches more
excited than the one he gets. It’s really
quite simple: When my cleaning lady
arrives, she picks up a broom and
starts sweeping. When my husband
arrives, he picks up his feet and starts
sleeping.
The best part about Marching and
feet-sing is (warning: Corn alert!)
Oh, The Places You’ll Go! Published in
1990, it’s still a bestseller, selling hun-
dreds of thousands of copies for prac-
tically every graduate in the country,
reminding us all that “with brains in
your head and feet in your shoes, you
can head in any direction you choose.”
Have a wonderful March! •



0DLQWDLQLQJ*RRG
+HDOWK1XWULWLRQ 
<RX


'RQ¶WPLVVWKLVRSSRUWXQLW\WROHDUQ
PRUHDERXW06DQGFRQQHFWZLWK
RWKHUVLQWKH06FRPPXQLW\

DW30

0DJJLDQR V/LWWOH,WDO\
:HVW%LJ%HDYHU5RDG
7UR\0,


This event is accessible to people
with disabilities.
A light meal will be provided.

letters

Interfaith Blessings

In our home in West Bloomfield, on
two different levels, there are ornate
sign of “God Bless Our Home,” both
to given me and my late husband Dr.
Shelly Kapen, by former Veteran’s
Administration medical colleagues.
One was given to us by a Pakistani
former neurology resident, acquired in
Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where his father
had the great honor of being one of the
guards of the Kaaba, or Black Stone, a
sacred Muslim relic.
The other one was given us by a
former fellow in sleep medicine, after a
family visit to his native Syria. I remem-
ber how on one of the occasions that
we had the staff and family over at the
house, we were talking longingly of one
day when we would both visit each

other’s countries of origin.
Meeting people of different faiths
and nationalities has enriched my life
tremendously and vice versa.
I thought of these two Muslim
friends when reading the heartwarm-
ing story of the Muslim community in
Philadelphia mobilizing to repair the
desecrated stones in the Jewish cem-
etery.
The two “God Bless Our Home”
beautiful hangings given to us by
Muslims have done a beautiful job of
blessing our home. In time when anti-
Semitism is on the rise, the beautiful
gesture of Muslims coming to the aid of
Jews in their midst is a glimmer of light.
As the Hebrew saying goes: Me’az
Yatza matok, meaning “from a bad
thing came a sweet good one.” Let us

hope and pray that this sweetness
will not be only a result of tragedy but
rather the start of a beautiful friendship
between cousins.



3OHDVH5693IRU\RX
DQGDJXHVWE\FDOOLQJ

Rachel Kapen
West Bloomfield

Letters to the Editor: We prefer letters that relate
to articles in the Jewish News. We reserve the
right to edit or reject letters. Brevity is encour-
aged. Letters published will include the name
and city of residence of the writer. Letters sub-
mitted must contain the name, address, title of
the writer (if applicable) and a daytime phone
number. We prefer emailed letters. Please
email to letters@thejewishnews.com. (Letters
sent by U.S. Postal Service must be hand-
signed and mailed to the Jewish News, 29200
Northwestern Hwy., Suite 110, Southfield, MI
48034.)

-RLQXVWRKHDU

(PLO\+RVOHU)13%&

VSHDNRQWKHWRSLFRI 





0000000

jn

March 16 • 2017

5

