In my many years of blogging, I’ve learned that sometimes, it is better to leave some things unsaid. I know first hand how your best intentions, laid out in black & white, can be misconstrued, twisted and be read different ways by different people. Which is why I’m struggling here and now to even put this post together. But I will – because I feel that there is a precious soul out there that needs [...]

Over the past week or so, I’ve been reading quite a few articles regarding the worth of college and MBA programs in particular. I can respect and see the perspective of those that say that an MBA degree is overrated. However the ongoing theme of these conversations is return on investment (ROI), using a very quantitative approach to their analysis. However such research is far from comprehensive, and in many cases only refers to a [...]

I’ve learned to love my name. But it wasn’t always that way. I remember when I was a young child, I was incredibly frustrated that no one else shared my name. I also didn’t like the fact that it’s spelling was not intuitive to most people, and my name was (and is) constantly misspelled. However when I started becoming interested in Judaism, I was surprised and delighted that my name was distinctively Hebrew; to the [...]

As a liberal and democratic socialist, the topic of welfare is a hotbed one that most people will disagree with me on. First of all, I have little tolerance for those that berate the welfare system. Sentiments like the ones expressed below, strike me as both cruel and socially short-sighted: As Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich writes in his essay “Renewing America,” “The welfare system has sapped the spirit of the poor and made [...]

  Growing up as a child in Southwestern Pennsylvania, I only had a vague notion of my family’s background in Jamaica; even though I was born only 2 short years after they arrived in the U.S. Perhaps that is the exact reason why I was told so little; my family was too focused on settling in here that they didn’t want to dwell on and tell stories of the family history in Jamaica. It was [...]

One of the things that tends to drive me up the wall is the inaccurate media definitions of Orthodox Jews. They seem to carelessly and loosely define the term, as well as make it synonymous with Chassidic Jews, as well as having to clear distinction made between “standard” Orthodox Jews and “Ultra-Orthodox Jews“. First of all, let’s start with the basics. An Orthodox Jew is simply a Jew that believes that the Torah is divine [...]

Does anyone remember the Phil Donahue show? The show went off the air when I was 17, but I distinctly recall liking Phil Donahue a whole heck of a lot more than Oprah Winfrey. Some time spent looking at old episodes on YouTube reminded me why. It’s because Phil Donahue had shows like this on a pretty regular basis: It may shock many people to hear that I actually agree with the general sentiments of [...]

A friend posted this video on her Facebook timeline, remarking “Now that’s real talent!” Without a doubt, both Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis, Jr. were world class entertainers. However I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of offense; in that seeing two grown Black men tap dancing is just a little too reminiscent of a minstrel show to me. I began to wonder if I was being too sensitive perhaps. Well I found the following quote in [...]

About two months ago, I opened a Pinterest account. At first, I really didn’t get it. However with all of the recent buzz about the site, I decided to give it another go about 3 weeks ago. This time, I created some of my own boards and started following some of my friends from Facebook and Gmail. All of a sudden, Pinterest seemed to come to life — with lots of visual eye-candy of things [...]

Last week, I was talking to a co-worker with pre-teens about youth and angst issues. As a pre-teen, I experienced a lot of angst at the fact that I was being raised by “old-fashioned” Grandparents that never let me do anything fun…and also the fact that me and my relatively young mother did not get along. I felt like an outsider in many ways. But thankfully I grew up and learned to see and appreciate [...]