This is not the first time I have had a blog. But the other times have been when I was still working, so it has been a while. When I look at my earlier blogs (I have them all printed out and in three ring binders), I see a different person. Back then, I did things. I went to work five days a week (at least), and we went to the theater, saw movies, went to museums, ate at restaurants, saw friends, and read books. All this is in the blog – a lot of reviews of plays, films, books, exhibits and so forth.

It’s different now. Is it because of age, or pandemics, or Netflix, or something else? I am not sure. But, take yesterday, a typical Tuesday. I only left the house to drop things off at the laundry. Oh, yes, I took a walk of probably less than a mile late in the afternoon. That’s it.

What did I do at home? Actually, yesterday was a fairly active day. Here goes:

(1) I watched a program on line sponsored by the Baltimore Zionist District, a group that I had never heard of. It was entitled “Jewish Odessa Tour: From the City of Dreams to the Gates of Zion”, and included three contemporary videos (pre-war) and a presentation by a Ukrainian woman who runs tours of Odessa. What was amazing is that there were over 400 screens open, if Zoom’s statistics can be trusted. And, if anything can be trusted, Zoom statistics can. The program was long (the presentation itself over an hour), the videos were very attractive, but showed a lot of old buildings that began to blur together (rather than giving a feel for the overall city – e.g., where were the Potemkin Steps? The speaker was very knowledgeable and equally dull and humorless. The program dealt with 19th century Odessa, which – I saw by the Q and A – disappointed some because they wanted to know what happened during the 20th century, or what was happening today. But I learned quite a bit – especially as I very recently read Charles King’s book “Odessa” (which did not concentrate on the Jewish elements of the city, although he certainly dealt with them).

(2) I the evening, I watched another program, this one sponsored by the Haberman Institute for Jewish Studies, of which you probably know by now I am vice president. This was a discussion of “jealousy” in the Bible and in early rabbinic writing – jealousy, I would say, as a normal emotional reaction to certain situations (real or imagined), and an emotion which can itself get out of hand, leading to marital and/or societal disruptions. The talk, by Assistant Professor Sarah Wulf of the Jewish Theological Seminary, was interesting – although I was not sure that “jealousy”, as we think of the term, was the right term to use to discuss the various reactions a man can have when he knows or suspects that his wife has eyes, or other body parts, elsewhere.

(3) I did start a new book, as I keep going through my Penguins. This time it’s “Greenmantle”, a World War I novel by John Buchan, otherwise known as Baron Tweedsmuir, who became Governour General of Canada in his later years. I had read one other Penguin novel by him, which I did enjoy, but was quite different. The first one, “John McNab” was set in Scotland; “Greenmantle” was set in the Middle East and, it appears to me from the first 60 pages, could never be published today because of the attitude taken by Buchan towards the Muslim religion and Muslims; they were both evil and stupid, it appears, at least at the start. We will see what happens, as our protagonist tries to find a way to keep the Germans from bamboozling the Muslims to join their anti-British cause.

(4) The Nationals beat the Cubs, 4-1, and the game was on without sound during Prof. Wulf’s presentation. The Nats are in the last place in the East, to be sure, but they are one of the better last place teams in Major League Baseball. So far.

(5) I spent some time watching TikTok and YouTube clips of Dame Edna. I really don’t know much (i.e., I don’t know a thing) about Dame Edna, who so recently and so sadly passed away. I know she was a he, and his name was Barry Humphries, and that he was Australian, and that she had (or was it “she often had”) purple hair. Had I ever seen Dame Edna before today? Maybe, but I really don’t recall.

But I saw a few clips today and I have to say they were very funny. Now here’s a downer: I am not posting the clips here (I have no clue how to do that), so you will have to use your imagination to “see” them.

Clip 1: It is an opera house in London, and Charles and Camilla, dressed to the nines, are sitting in what is obviously the Royal Box. The door to the box opens, and in walks Dame Edna. She says hello to the royal family, the audience cheers and is already laughing, and while Camilla has only a hint of a smile on her nervous face, Charles is laughing away. Dame Edna sits down and, a second or two later, a proper looking man (a proper looking valet type man) walks in and hands Edna a note. She reads it, looks pleased, stands up and starts to leave the box. Before she does, however, she turns back to the royal families and says, with a hint of apology, “They found me a better seat.”

Clip 2: Dame Edna is on stage somewhere, and she is conversing with a member of the audience, a young woman. I don’t know if she knows the woman, or if the woman is someone famous – after all, this is just a clip. But she tells the young woman how nice she looks and how much she just adores her clothes. The young woman looks pleased. Dame Edna then says “Yes, and I am trying to think of the word that perfectly describes that outfit.” The woman looks at her expectantly. Dame Edna thinks for a minute and then says: “Ah, I have it……….affordable.”

This got me thinking. Who wrote these skits? Dame Edna? Or a comic writer? You may have seen that the comedy writers have now gone on strike, and all of the comics are apparently besides themselves because they can’t think of anything funny to say or do. This raises a lot of questions in my mind.

(6) Talking to my 2 1/2 year old grandson, Izzy. We were looking at a plate of figs (why not?), and I asked him. “If I had one fig and picked up another one, how many would I have?” Looking at my figs (I guess), he responded “Two”. “OK”, I said. “Now if I have two figs and I eat one of them, how many have do I have left?” Proudly, he looked at me and with great confidence said “Five!”.