interviewed by vonstrassburg

[cellio]

1. I'll start with the favourite movie question since I'm in movie mode. Favourite movie of all time?

"Single favorite X" doesn't work well for me, whether we're talking about movies, books, songs, TV shows, foods, or whatnot. There are lots of movies I've really liked, but no single one stands out. So I'll list a few assorted ones: The Quiet Earth (even though I'm not sure what the ending means), Prince of Egypt (the animated one from five or six years back), The Right Stuff, The Gods Must Be Crazy, Dances with Wolves, Short Circuit, B5: In the Beginning. That's today, off the top of my head; next week could yield some different results. Does that give you any sense of my weird and varied tastes? :-)

2. If you could change one thing about your husband (anything -- taller, shorter, speaks French, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, prime minister of Zimbabwe), what would that be?

I'd give him the ability to read my mind. :-) Or, more generally, enhance his ability to pick up on subtle social cues. And I'd be fine with it if he said the same thing about me, by the way.

3. Yes the time lord question is tres cool so I'll try it again. Where in time and space would you go, if you were a renegade Time Lord looking for a nice place and time to settle down? Sorry, Mitzra'im is already taken (as is wherever Zach goes if he answers first).

Ok, I'm (gasp) not actually a Dr. Who fan, so I'm not sure about one point: does the option space include the future?

I'm not really happy unless I have contact with friends, so either I have free access to instantaneous transport (the tardis does something akin to teleport, right?) or I have to choose a place where my friends are or bring them along. I'll assume I have transportation and so can go anywhere.

Now, Dr. Who takes place in a fictional reality with other populated worlds. I don't know anything about those worlds, so I'll apply the general principle that says fictional worlds are ok if they're SF-ish.

If all that's kosher, then I'm going to say: Minbar. Gorgeous scenery, peaceful climate (post-civil-war, anyway), people who will leave you alone if you want but would be interesting to talk with.

4. If you could visit any one place on earth for one hour and just look around, not touch, not take anything, not change anything (OK maybe you can take photos), without anyone knowing you'd been there or be able to see you or affect you while you were there (say you're in an insulated bubble), where would that be?

I can't tell if this includes time-travel. If it does, mid-tenth-century Cordova, Jewish quarter, 'cause I'm curious and there isn't a lot of solid information about life then.

If this question is limited to the present day, then... hmm. I think I'd go to Jerusalem, to experience the place in safety and privacy. And, oh, pray at the western wall without being harrassed by fanatics who don't think women who dress like I do should be allowed anywhere near the wall.

5. If you were a satirist, who would you write a satire about? It could be trifling, scathing, amusing, embarrassing, or even career-destroying, but it's understood to be a satire and so you're not subject to any libel or slander laws of any kind, and your skills are good enough to make everyone laugh.

Wow. What an opportunity. I fear I'm not sufficiently mean-spirited to put it to optimal use; the strong temptation when handed a chance like that is to take vengeance against some personal affront, and while there are people who've viciously attacked me at times, I try very hard not to hang onto grudges.

So instead, I'm going to use it politically, in an attempt at "career-destroying". There's no single person who can be usefully taken out in the Middle East, so let's stay closer to home. I think even Pittsburgh's die-hard Democrats are not stupid enough to re-elect our city-destroying mayor again, so I don't need to spend it there. National politics is a mess. So, all that said, I'm going to take out Pennsylvania's governor, Ed Rendell, before he completely destroys what's left of our economy.

Comments

[cellio]

That's good to hear. I've heard accounts (some first-person) of men in black hats throwing garbage, rotten fruit, and paint on women who tried to pray at the wall while bare-headed or wearing pants -- let alone while wearing a tallit, which is a minority thing anyway. I've gotten the impression that I should take an umbrella, or wear clothes I don't care about, if I try to go. Good to know that's not a routine problem. Maybe it's more of a flash point on Shabbat or Yom Tov than on weekdays.

(Did that law, sponsored by Shas or NRP or some such, calling for mandatory seven-year jail terms for women wearing tallitot pass? I'm thinking it didn't, but that's mostly due to the lack of recent protest.)

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

>> (Did that law, sponsored by Shas or NRP or some such, calling for mandatory seven-year jail terms for women wearing tallitot pass? I'm thinking it didn't, but that's mostly due to the lack of recent protest.)

No, it did not, but not (so far as I can tell) due to lack of protest. The law was proposed by the UTJ party in 2000, and at that point the Israeli government asked the Supreme Court for a further ruling on the issue. The court issued its ruling in 2003, saying that the Rosh Chodesh group was entitled to meet at Robinson's Arch, which is near the wall. (BTW, based on my reading it seems that the law referred only to women wearing tallis/tefillin or blowing shofar in the course of conducting a service with Torah reading at the wall, not tallis wearing in general.)

It seems strange to me

[zachkessin.livejournal.com]

That of all the posible violations of Torah law* that we are trying to pushish with jail we pick Begged Ish. There are many more important things we could be trying to deal with here in Israel (such as say the economy) of improving relations between the religous and secular in Eretz Y'israel. The level of hatred there trully bothers me.

As for going to the kotel I would sugest wearing a skirt, but i've seen women going into the women's section in trousers. What I wish we could get rid of is all the folks asking for Tzedakka. Last time I was there I flat out told some guy that asking for Tzedakka at the kotel is Illegal (It is). I have been in the middle of my Amidah there and had people shove a tzeddaka box in my face, which is annoying as all hell.



* I don't think a woman wearing a talit is actually a violation of torah law per se, but people act like it is.