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Nov. 6, 2009
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How
to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Nov. 5, 2009
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking
Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker
With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater?
With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change
With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Oct. 29, 2009
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our
Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
JWisdom.com Why what we wear
impacts who we are
With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love
With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks
With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness
with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really?
By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A
Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious
By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things
By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices
By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 15, 2009
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
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JewishWorldReview.com
The year of living vicariously
By
Andrew Silow-Carroll
Here's a Few Book Proposals I'm Considering
TO: Annie Daynow, literary agent
FROM: Andrew Silow-Carroll, professional writer
SUBJECT: My next book project
The last time I pitched you a book proposal, you turned me down — and
frankly I don't blame you. My idea, a memoir about my family's
heartwarming and life-affirming search for the perfect dog, was, as you
so astutely pointed out, severely undermined by my chronic allergies,
which prevented us from actually getting a dog. What was it you wrote in the rejection letter? Ah, yes: "No dog, no dog book."
You'll be happy to hear, then, that my latest proposal doesn't include a dog. You're familiar with "stunt journalism"? A.J. Jacobs wrote The
Know-It-All about his experiences reading the Encyclopedia Britannica
cover to cover. He followed that up with The Year of Living Biblically,
for which he spent 12 months performing the Bible's commandments as
literally as possible. Now we have My Jesus Year by Benyamin Cohen, an
Orthodox Jew and rabbi's son who chronicled his year touring the Bible
Belt.
The popularity of these books tells me the genre is not yet exhausted,
even if their authors may be. Below are a few projects I'm considering.
"My Bar Mitzva Year" — Hilarity ensues when I tag along with my
seventh-grade daughter on a year's worth of bar and bat mitzva invitations. Thrill to my late-night attempt to find yet another
catering hall in an obscure Long Island exurb! Watch as I race my way
through the 57th game of Coke and Pepsi! And see me shed a tear as the
bar mitzva boy dedicates candle number six to his late Aunt Sophie - and sob some more when I realize there are still seven candles to go! (Added bonus for medical mystery buffs: My visit to the dermatologist, who will determine if the strange growth on my neck was caused by a Glo-Stick necklace.)
"Lotsa Matza: A Year Without Cametz" — It's tough enough to go without bread for the eight days of Passover — imagine 12 months eating shamelessly overpriced foods that contain not a whiff of leavened product, rice, corn, or anything else that brings pleasure to life. In "Lotsa Matza," I will ingest matza brei for breakfast, matza ball soup for lunch, and gallons of Pepto-Bismol at dinner. (Possible marketing tie-in: April is Irritable Bowel Syndrome Awareness Month.) On the serious side, I will investigate the kosher food business, and get to the bottom of such burning questions as, Is there any difference between eating a bowl of Manischewitz Fruity Magic breakfast cereal and injecting a half-cup of maple syrup directly into your veins?
"Paper Lion of Judah: Confessions from the Women's Philanthropy
Department" — Think Yentl, Mandy Patinkin plays Mindy, and
the setting is not a shtetl but the UJC's General Assembly, the year's
largest Jewish charitable convention. I'll go undercover at the plenary
sessions and buffet lines, and perhaps lead a discussion at a for-women-only breakout session. (Granted, not much drama here, but I'm
thinking the screen adaptation could include a Some Like It Hot romance
between my character and a small-town federation executive. Either way,
I may need a budget for Max Mara suits and Michal Negrin jewelry.)
"The Boys and Girls on the Bus: Undercover with the Birthright Kids" —
What really goes on during those 10-day, free trips to Israel for young
people? And do you really want to know? I mean, isn't it enough that
they're having a good time with other Jewish kids? So she fell in love
with the sabra security guard — why complain? It's a phase. They all go through phases. What's that? He wants to come back with her to the States? Gevalt. Listen, tell her you're not going to help with the rent on her Upper West Side studio if he's going to use it to lounge around and pursue a cockamamie "music" career.
These are just a few of my ideas. Please let me know which one you'd be
interested in pursuing and which has the best chance of being optioned
for a movie starring Paul Rudd.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and the media consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
To comment, please click here.
JWR contributor Andrew Silow-Carroll is the editor in chief of the New Jersey Jewish News.
© 2009, Andrew Silow-Carroll
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