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In simmering irony that barely keeps from boiling over, Mark Twain told how Huckleberry Finn battled his conscience over helping a slave escape. Huck had always been taught that slavery…
Pull up a chair. I’ve got a story for you. Back when I was a mail-order copywriter, one day I was drinking decaffeinated coffee. (It was before a fast day…
In early January, irate victims of cyberattacks, data breaches, and tech giants’ peddling of private information smashed computer network servers in Palo Alto, California. Waves of attacks spread to Menlo…
There’s a pernicious rumor going around that Chicken Little was wrong. However, unlike our little feathered friend, I didn’t run with Henny Penny and Ducky Lucky to tell the king…
Call me a perfectionist (thank you), but whenever I write, edit or proofread, I keep my reference toolkit close at hand. Along with essential dictionaries, thesauruses and usage manuals, I…
When my son Meilech was in his early single digits (I’m not good with numbers), his sisters celebrated birthdays in close succession. Feeling left out, Meilech asked, “When is my…
I lied. Maybe I’d better rephrase that. I exaggerated. Actually, a more precise term would be hyperbole — “the rhetorical device of deliberate overstatement” (Garner’s Modern English Usage). Vocabulary.com defines…
Even in the Pale of Settlement, some people had unsettled rivalries. Like the two merchants who met in a railway station in Belarus. “Where are you going?” “To Pinsk.” “Aha!…
What’s another word for thesaurus? That joke sums up the boon and bane of thesauruses. Why not “thesauri”? Garner’s Modern English Usage says that “thesaurus — a book or online…
When I was a boy, around this time of year in school, we had to write a composition: “How I Spent My Summer Vacation.” Since then, “spent” has taken on…
Ancient Mysteries Revealed: Discover Supernatural Secrets of How to Lose at Least 44 Types of Ugly Sins in Just 10 Days — Guaranteed! Simple Prayers and Rituals Make Your Soul…
The lowly cabbage is packed with nutrition. Mark Twain observed, “Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but Cabbage with a College Education.” Wild…
I was walking to shul one Shabbos and I saw an ID tag that someone had lost. It had his name and picture, and his title: ORDERLY. I thought of…
Where do you turn when you need to know something? (All pious answers of “my Rabbi” or “the Talmud” will no doubt be smiled upon in Heaven, but holy answers…
Jews have often been called “the canary in the coal mine.” Like the miners who carried canaries to detect carbon monoxide or other toxic gases, a society on the brink…
Mrs. Chaikie Brown sent me a kind note about the column. She wrote, “The subject matter is certainly of interest to me as I am a lover of good grammar…
How long can you hold your breath? Very impressive. (If you’re still reading — and you didn’t turn blue — I’m guessing you’re fine.) Now try this: How long can…
One of the worst things about a cold (I’m feeling much better, thank you, and thank G-d — not necessarily in that order), is that it’s so infernally undignified. I’m…
The war’s over. And we lost. The cyber barbarians stormed the gates and tore down the walls of privacy. Long before the war, though, medical offices would poke our privacy…
Long before my brother Rabbi Nota Schiller became dean of Ohr Somayach, long before he became a Rabbi, he was already saving youth. One of my earliest memories is Nota…