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Nov. 23, 2009
JWisdom.com: Actually, it really is all about you with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff
Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review April 22, 2009 / 28 Nisan 5769

If the first lady can dig in the dirt, why can't I?

By Celia Rivenbark

Celia Rivenbark
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Great. Julia Roberts is composting and Michelle Obama is planting a garden at the White House. Are there any other ways that brilliant, successful women can make the rest of us feel like slugs? It's not enough that I BUY fresh produce, occasionally even from a real farmer wearing real bib overalls at a real produce stand, but now I gotta grow the food myself? Using composting advice from a movie-star?


One step forward, three steps back, y'all. It's just never going to be enough, no matter how much shopping, cooking, working, laundry that we do. Because if the wife of the leader of the free world and the most bankable actress in Hollywood can do it, why can't the rest of us? If Julia can turn eggshells into eggplants or Michelle can grow her own herbs for spaghetti night, why can't I?


Let me just put "hoeing" and "weeding" on the chore list this week. It's no longer good enough to simply try to occasionally buy organic fruit, no matter how icky it looks, now we have to grow our own. Buying from a food co-op? That's just so 1998. We must plow the north 40, wherever the heck that is.


Of course, the first lady won't actually do all the garden work. After tilling the garden, it was reported that daily work will be divided among White House groundskeepers, the kitchen staff and Vice President Joe Biden, who has been grousing about not having enough responsibility in the Obama administration.


"Hey," said Biden to no one in particular. "I may not be in on the key decisions or even have any presence at all in this administration, but you haven't lived til you've tasted my crookneck squash."


Meanwhile, the Obama garden will also include a fully functional beehive to provide honey for daily use, allowing the family to finally toss the bear-shaped bottle with the crusty top that they've been using since they got married.


Not since sweet ol' Ladybird Johnson implored every American to plant "a tree, a bush or a shrub" back in the day have we seen a first lady so committed to gardening.


And with the whole Victory Garden vibe returning for the first time since Eleanor "Hot Lips" Roosevelt kicked it off, this could be the start of a gardening revolution in our nation, a nation facing the prospect of growing our own food for survival, not just because it sounds cool.


If I sound a little negative, it's because I just found out that Ben Bernanke, the Enormous Brain That Will Save Us All, used to work at hokey interstate amusement park, South of the Border. That's right: We've pinned our financial future on a guy who used to load tourists into the Sombrero Tower. Holy compost, y'all.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

Celia Rivenbark is an award-winning news reporter and freelance columnist for The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Comment by clicking here.


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Sound bites not easy in Southern
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Like taking Miley Cyrus tickets from a baby
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Hate mail spawned by humor columns
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© 2007, The Sun News Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services

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