daf bit: Gittin 76

The mishna teaches: if a man says to his wife "this is your get (bill of divorce) if I do not return within twelve months" and he dies in that year, it is not a valid get and she is not divorced. However, if he says "this is your get from now if I do not return", and he dies, it is a valid get. The mishna later makes clear that a get's "effective date" must fall within the lifetime of the man issuing it. (76b)

I have heard anecdotally, though I don't know how common it was, that men would sometimes write gets before setting out on dangerous journeys, lest they be killed but that not be provable (e.g. sea voyages). That would be to avoid the problem of the agunah, the woman who cannot remarry because she has no get (and it cannot be proven that her husband is dead). I suspect that the mishna here is discussing that sort of case, though it does not say so explicitly. (Why else would someone set up a time-delay divorce?)

bad form

About a week ago I started receiving spam ("that you signed up for" -- um, no) from the Obama campaign. Complaints to their postmaster have gone unheeded (and have not bounced). My first letter took the tone of "this must be a mistake" and I commended them on the otherwise good experiences I've had with their campaign while asking them to correct this error; the second was closer to "you are reflecting poorly on your candidate". Still nada. As a matter of security I do not follow "unsubscribe" links in unsolicited email (who knows what they'll really do?), though I did go to their site (through the front door) and leave feedback reporting this problem.

The problem is not only continuing but escalating. I can set my spam filters to take care of this, but it's bad manners on their part and seems unwise when they want my vote.

If anyone reading this has ties to this campaign, you might want to tell them to knock it off. I would point out that the opposition has not stooped to spamming me so far. (If I'm really lucky, perhaps this post will snare a campaign person following referrer links.)

food safety

Dear LJ brain trust,

I'm having folks over for lunch on Wednesday (second day of Rosh Hashana) and I want to serve salmon. I almost always buy fresh fish the day I'm going to cook it, but that won't work then. The Google-aggregated wisdom of the net seems to hold that you can keep salmon in the fridge for two days. But I would want to buy it Sunday rather than adding a grocery stop to Monday, which will already be hectic with trying to get home from work in enough time to do prep and get to services that night.

What are my options? Can I freeze fresh salmon -- and if so, would I regret it? Do any of you have recipes that I can cook Monday that would reheat ok on Wednesday? (I was going to bake it.) Any other ideas? I guess the current default is that I'll buy frozen salmon filets if I can get them, but I was hoping to cook one big piece -- it looks mice on the big platter surrounded by veggies and stuff that way.