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At the Yom Kippur Mincha service:
PHIL, OUR NOT-A-RABBI1: For our Torah portion this afternoon, we have a list of people you shouldn't have sex with.
A VOICE FROM THE CONGREGATION: By name?
PHIL: . . . It's a long list.
A DIFFERENT VOICE FROM THE CONGREGATION: Dang. That would have been useful to have . . .
1: Phil is the spiritual leader of our congregation. He's not a rabbi, and, to the extent that he has "rabbinic training", it's entirely on-the-job. His day job is a professor of philosophy, so he does have some of the mentality which makes a good rabbi. But he's not a rabbi, never intended to be a rabbi, never trained to be a rabbi, and never planned to have rabbinic duties. So why does he do it? Because, a bit over twenty years ago, Morry Kleimantold asked him to lead services, and nobody's told him to stop, yet. All of you on my friends list who are involved in Jewish communities? Let this be a lesson to you. Actually, this holds for fannish communities, too. How do you get stuck doing whatever it is that you're not sure how you got stuck doing it? You failed to say "no" quickly enough, and you're competent, so nobody wants you to stop.
PHIL, OUR NOT-A-RABBI1: For our Torah portion this afternoon, we have a list of people you shouldn't have sex with.
A VOICE FROM THE CONGREGATION: By name?
PHIL: . . . It's a long list.
A DIFFERENT VOICE FROM THE CONGREGATION: Dang. That would have been useful to have . . .
1: Phil is the spiritual leader of our congregation. He's not a rabbi, and, to the extent that he has "rabbinic training", it's entirely on-the-job. His day job is a professor of philosophy, so he does have some of the mentality which makes a good rabbi. But he's not a rabbi, never intended to be a rabbi, never trained to be a rabbi, and never planned to have rabbinic duties. So why does he do it? Because, a bit over twenty years ago, Morry Kleiman
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Date: 2008-10-10 01:42 am (UTC)Freaking AWESOME.
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Date: 2008-10-10 01:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 02:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 02:05 am (UTC)Second: in any case, I'm pretty sure that we can come up with a baseline list which would hold true for everyone. Carrot Top and Tom Green, for instance.
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Date: 2008-10-10 02:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 02:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 02:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 02:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 02:23 am (UTC)I am going to guess that the local Main Line whatsit isn't anything like this at all.
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Date: 2008-10-10 04:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-11 02:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 02:08 am (UTC)Also, the story of Phil explains a lot about how cons are run.
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Date: 2008-10-10 02:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 02:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 02:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 02:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 02:18 am (UTC)That's what I get for not going to the source texts myself.
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Date: 2008-10-10 02:28 am (UTC)Some people can sleep with people who are crazier than they are. They have sanity to spare.
Other people do not have sanity to spare for a partner. They need someone who can lend them a bit.
It's okay to be whichever one you are, really; but you MUST know which one it is, or you will get yourself in a shitload of trouble!
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Date: 2008-10-10 02:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 03:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 03:52 am (UTC)Nicely done. :-)
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Date: 2008-10-10 11:37 am (UTC)--also, d'you suppose there was a side reference to Charlie's list of people to thank in there? Probably. Less funny to those who missed Charlie's famous speech a few years ago though. ;-)
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Date: 2008-10-10 01:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 02:42 pm (UTC)