short takes

[cellio]

I have a theory about meetings at my company. For any meeting that does not involve food or take place in a room with too few chairs, assume the offset from the scheduled meeting time is is 2 minutes plus 1 minute per attendee (in the late direction, of course). This actually seems to track with my previous few companies, too.

Cheat out, an essay that siderea wrote about one particular SCA group, has a lot of application in other groups, SCA and non-.

This explanation of "shabbos goy" made me giggle in places but is basically right (link via almeda).

A while ago I wrote about the contrast in attitudes between two (I thought) 80-something women in my congregation. Last Shabbat I learned two surprising things: the one with the great outlook on life, who seems young (despite having lost her husband of 65 years not long ago), just turned 93 -- and the cranky shrew for whom nothing is ever good enough, who seems "old", is only in her mid-70s. What a difference attitude makes!

Comments

[goljerp]

I'm in a similar situation.

When I'm in a situation where I'm spending Shabbat with non-Jews (or non-observant Jews), what I do is this: using timers/leaving lights on/night lights, I set up the space so that there's enough light for me. Then I tell them not to disturb what I've set up, but to do whatever they like with the lights, as if I were not there. So the basic rule of "turn off the light when you leave a room" applies, even if I'm still in the room. If they happen to turn on a light for themselves and I use it too, fine... as long as they're not doing it just for me.

On the other hand, things are more sticky at Shul. There's a shabbos elevator there (stops at pre-programmed floors without human intervention), and I'll take that. If it isn't stopping at a floor, I don't have a problem climbing stairs... the problem is, there are people in my shul who do have a problem with the stairs. So there have been times where I've had to tell the non-Jewish shul staff that, say, the elevator isn't stopping on the 4th floor, but it needs to.

[cellio]

So there have been times where I've had to tell the non-Jewish shul staff that, say, the elevator isn't stopping on the 4th floor, but it needs to.

That's awkward, yes. Have they not developed the sensitivity to subtle clues like "Mrs. Rosenburg -- you know, the lady in the wheelchair -- can't get to the fourth floor"?

[goljerp]

That's awkward, yes. Have they not developed the sensitivity to subtle clues like "Mrs. Rosenburg -- you know, the lady in the wheelchair -- can't get to the fourth floor"?

I don't know. My approach has been to state the problem: "The elevator isn't stopping on the fourth floor." The fact that they then decide to tinker with it, rather than pursuing another course of activity, like moving the activities on the 4th floor to the 3rd (where it is stopping) is then their business...

I guess I could try being more subtle next time this happens.