qualities of a worship chairman

I used to be the chair of my synagogue's worship committee. The incoming president and I were discussing candidates for the position. I have some fairly strong opinions about the requirements of the job, which I thought it was important to articulate. (If he disagrees, he'll want to take that into account.)

Caveat: My only experience is with one well-functioning congregation. Your mileage may vary. (I know I have at least one reader whose mileage definitely did.)

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Alaric-con

Our friend Alaric recently turned 40, so he decided to celebrate by inviting bunches of people to his house for the weekend to play games. Hence, my dubbing of the event "Alaric-con". :-) (It's 11:30PM Sunday; Dani is still there.) It was fun.

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short takes

Things that make you go "huh?": "Did you know that anvils float?" (From a locked entry, so not attributing.)

Useless cat made me laugh out loud, disturbing the nearby cat. (Link from nancylebov.) Dani pointed out (after I sent him the link) that if you Google for that phrase (without quotes), the first three hits are to that page and the fourth is to some editorial comments about a certain Unix command.

I drove Dani's car home today (so he could stay and hitch a ride later). There are things you know intellectually that aren't ingrained no matter how long it's been: I kept reaching for the gear shift. Oops.

Embla has been less skittish lately, even cooperating when I pick her up. Whether that's because picking her up is likely to lead to canned food, or because treating hyperthyroidism is calming her down, I don't know. (Fortunately for me, Embla is utterly indifferent about foreign substances concealed in food, at least so far. So medicating her is easy.)