(no subject)

Pittsburgh doesn't have spring and fall. It simulates them by dithering winter and summer. (Source unknown)

(no subject)

Many of the charitable organizations out there send you doo-dads in hopes of guilt-tripping you into giving them money. I generally dislike this tactic; I want them to spend my donation on the cause in question, not in making little stuffed panda dolls or t-shirts or whatever. Usually the stuff they send is junk and thus counter-productive: I'm much more likely to give them money if they don't send me this stuff. (I'll forgive return-address labels, as they cost basically nothing and are even useful sometimes, but more expensive stuff is a lose.)

Today I was surprised to recieve something non-trivial, useful, and actually relevant to the interests of the organization in question: Mesorah (aka Artscroll) sent me a copy of Pirke Avot, Hebrew and interlinear English, unabridged. (Some other publishing company out there likes to send you the first chapters of books, by contrast.) I actually don't have a complete bilingual Pirke Avot, and I'd been meaning to fix that, so I can use this. And I'll send them a donation as a result.