the goldbergs

in the early 1950's there was a television show called the goldbergs that was about a jewish family that lived in the bronx. the funny thing is id never heard of it until i happened to be at the jewish museum in manhattan with my sister and an episode was playing in the media room. this was before they created the fancy media room that they have there now. they used to have a bunch of televisions playing different videos and you could just come by and watch. it was great because you were introduced to shows you would have never been exposed to otherwise. when i watched the goldbergs episode that happened to be playing i had no idea what i was watching. once i found out i went back to the jewish museum to watch more. i also watched several episodes at the museum of television and radio.
the episodes that i viewed also included molly goldberg (gertrude berg) hawking sanka coffe which i found hysterically funny.
who knew this gem even existed? after i found it at the jewish museum i asked my parents if they had heard of the goldbergs. well of course they had. the show was a part of jewish american folklore. they had watched the show as children.
there is a documentary about gertrude berg that has recently been released called yoohoo mrs. goldberg. i cant wait to see it. me and the senior citizens. im not sure when i will see it especially since it is the three weeks, but its still good to know about. often jewish documentaries are re-released so if you miss them the first time around you can see them elsewhere . the jcc in manhattan often shows jewish films that have been previously released. i often go there to catch films id really wanted to see but unfortunately had missed. sometimes they can even pop up again at the quad or lincoln plaza .

tour of jury duty

jury duty has really changed in the last six years since i last served. free internet service is available while one waits in the juror's room. it still doesn't put jury duty any higher than work on things id like to do for the day, but it did make things more interesting. you only had ten minutes to surf, but i was able to check out a few blogs which helped brighten up the day.
this tour of jury duty i got to see the movie about jury duty. i dont know if its different than the one i saw last tour of jury duty because it was six years ago. my favorite moment from the film was how they re- enact a "jury ordeal". whats this you say? apparently they used to drop people in the river if they were accused of a crime . if they floated it meant they were guilty, if they sunk they were innocent. the purpose of this film is to remind us how lucky we are to have trial by jury instead of a jury ordeal. or jury duty ordeal as it were.
i think that the hardest part for a juror is to be impartial. ive never actually been on a trial, but i would imagine that it is quite challenging, especially with a criminal trial.
fortunately i was dismissed from jury duty today and i do not have to be on a trial. i am soooo thankful. the best part is that i now have a letter stating that i served jury today and i dont have to serve again for another EIGHT years!!! whoohoo!!!

jury duty

tomorrow i get to do the one thing i like less than going to work. jury duty. i called in to see if it was necessary. apparently the voice recording thought so. i've packed my mp3 player, knitting and melissa gilbert's new book of memoirs prairie tale. hopefully this will keep me occupied. despite all these preparations, im sure i will be bored out of my gourd. i love this country, i just dont love jury duty.

her sister's keeper

i saw the movie her sister's keeper this afternoon. i was totally expecting a run of the mill disease of the week movie but was pleasantly surprised.
this movie is about a family whose two year old daughter is diagnosed with leukemia so the family has another child who would be a genetic match to their sick daughter in order to be able to save her. when the younger daughter (abigail breslin) is 11 years old she sues her parents to be medically emanicipated . she does not want to have to donate a kidney to her dying sister.
cameron diaz plays the mother. cameron diaz is a such a lightweight actress that she makes the role of the crusading mother of a sick child appear unsympathetic. perhaps this was intended. ill have to read the book by jodi picoult to find out.
jason patric plays the father. he is amazing . i havent seen him in anything in awhile. aside from being smoldering and sexy, he is a great actor.
joan cusack plays the judge . she is playing a career changing part if you ask me. usually joan cusack plays an oddball character. this time she plays as serious as you can get. i almost didnt recognize her.
watching this movie one asks oneself the unaskable. if one chas v'shalom has a sick child and one knows by having another child there might be a genetic match to ones sick child would one have another child? of course this second child will have to undergo many medical tests to help save the first child. many painful procedures. would one still try to have that second child? did one want another child ? or did one just have another to save the first? is this fair to the second child? i dont think there are any clear answers, just alot of think questions.

tolerance

when i was younger i thought life was more black and white. now i realize that things arent always so clear cut. im not as judgemental or at least i try very hard not to be. i have learned that people sometimes do stupid things. sometimes people do things totally out of character because they are lonely or because life hasnt been too kind to them. this doesnt excuse wrongdoing, but it does mitigate harsh judgement.

its easy to judge others because we think we could have acted differently in a given situation. perhaps we would have. perhaps we dont really know if we would have unless we have been given the same challenge with the other persons personality.

some are equally hard on themselves as they are on others. this is not good either. everyone isnt as strong as we think we are.

sometimes we cant understand why someone else is the way they are because we have never encountered anyone who is like them and we ourselves arent like this person.

to say the least, things are not always what they appear.

life without call waiting

i remember when i was first introduced to call waiting. it was was in college when i shared a phone with my roommate in the days of yore before cell phones. call waiting could have been around for a long time before i was in college. i do not know. call waiting is just one of those frills that my parents never had and still dont have. i would say that they dont know what it is , but because i have it and so does my sister and my brother who is married probably has it, i know that they have heard of it.
in truth, we managed with 7 people not to have call waiting. we survived. im not sure how . but we did. after sharing a college phone with a not so talkative roommate and even with just my not so- phone loving self, i still am not sure how we managed. but we did. sometimes when i call my parents there is a busy signal. this of course is unusual this day in age. not only can we contact people when they are anywhere we can also always get through to them or at least get through to their voicemail and leave a message. i think that when someones friend or family does not have call waiting we strengthen the midah of patience. in new york this trait can be in short supply. not a bad idea to work on it. i of course have no choice but to work on it. my parents have just 2 in their household these days because all of my siblings and i live on our own now. if they didnt have call waiting when i was growing up why start now? on the flip side i have to be grateful that they do have an answering machine!

verbal shorthand

the best kinds of relationships are when two people speak the same language so much so that they dont need to finish their sentences when they speak to each other. ive had alot of relationships where the other person THINKS they get what im saying but dont. im not speaking of THOSE types of relationships. im speaking of the type of relationship where two people actually are speaking the same "language" . its so comfortable to have this verbal shorthand. so sad when its over. so hard to rebuild. so worth the effort though. the eternal quest for mutual appreciation and understanding for the essence of another.... the search continues....