Chit Chat

By Ted Belman

From now on comments on every post must relate to the content of the post.

Comments that don’t relate to the post must go here.

Any person who contravenes this demand will be put on moderation. Also their offending comment will be trashed.

The reason for this demand is so that people who want to read comments which pertain to the post, don’t have to wade through the chatter.

Everyone will be happier.

April 16, 2020 | 7,945 Comments »

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50 Comments / 7945 Comments

  2. @ honeybee:
    Men are a bit annoying when they are sick. Although some men are very self sufficient. My, I had to pull out of myself all the patient a person can muster when he had a knee replacement. I can’t believe I did not threw him on the road and let him hitchhike back home. I nearly lost it.

  3. @ mrg3105:
    The question was in October. Since it was solved. As soon as we resume the Torah classes I’m sure you will be of great help. The rabbi is now in Israel and does not comes back until the 18th of May and I have to go to see my grandchildren. Two little munchkins who are very funny.

  5. @ mar55:

    Thank you for kind words. I can handle being ill, but I have also been dealing with two ill men. Anyhow , after much nagging from DR. MOM, I think they will survive and I can recover.

  9. To all who comment and have wisdom and great humor on ISRAPUNDIT:
    HONEYBEE
    DIANA
    LAURA
    AVIGAIL
    DOVE
    I hope I have not forgotten anyone;
    Have a Happy and Great Passover. Full of Joy and blessings.

  10. To all who comment on ISRAPUNDIT:
    TED BELMAN
    BERNARD
    mrg3105
    YAMIT82
    BETHESDA DOG
    SHMUEL HALEVI
    PHOENIX (even if you are absent)?
    ERIC R.
    BEAR KLEIN
    ARNOLD HARRIS
    Have a Happy and blessed Passover!

  11. mrg3105 Said:

    Don’t watch much TV

    One does not watch ” The Rake” one listens. The script is marvelous, once one gets pass the impossible Australian accent.

    mrg3105 Said:

    If you really knew me, you would rethink the “you are a comedian” characterization

    But you a sense on irony !!!!

  12. I had never heard of The Rake until now. Don’t watch much TV.
    I also come from a family of lawyers 🙂

    If you really knew me, you would rethink the “you are a comedian” characterisation 🙂

  14. @ mrg3105:

    I want to yak, but growing long hair and living off last year’s frozen grass in the Himalayas isn’t really my thing

    lol….no doubt! I think most of us feel the same way!

  16. Arnold, sorry for a belatedreply

    1) Regarding Operation Mars, which I had not previously studied at length, it looks as though you have been reading David Glantz’s exhaustive research on the Great Patriotic War. Maybe you ARE David Glantz, for all I know. That’s one reason that I use my real name in comments.

    Glantz and others. I’m not him, but can put you in touch.

    2) About Marshal Zhukov’s repeated and bloody attacks in the planned Mars assaults; he used the same tactics repeatedly, notably at the Seelowe Heights and in Berlin during the last battles, namely, repeated head-butting that reminds me of Grant’s overland campaign that wrapped up the American Civil War in just 11 months. Even if Mars was not a Soviet victory, Zhukov remained in Stalin’s favor throughout the war, because Stalin favored the same tactics and overall strategies.

    No, Zhukov did not either a) use repeated and bloody [frontal] assaults during MARS, or b) used same tactics repeatedly, including at Zeelowe Heights on approaches to Berlin.
    Stalin had no ‘favourites’. Stalin did not understand tactics.

    3) About Zhukov murdering Stalin in late winter 1953. With no serious evidence available, my assumption is that Stalin, who was seriously aging by that time, and who had indulged himself with heavy eating and drinking the night before his death struggle, died the death of most other old men who get little exercise and practice little abstemiousness at table. It’s called a permanent and fatal visit to the cemetery.

    When murdering Stalin, would you want to leave evidence?!
    During his nearly 20 hour death-throes Stalin’s skin turned almost black, a sure sign of radiation poisoning.

    4) I doubt any conspiracy was involved. To half the population of the USSR, Stalin was their heroic vozd who had recently saved Russia in the Great Patriotic War. The rest of them, even if they disliked him, were scared shitless of him. Nobody but his personal guard detail had any access to his quarters, and they mostly held him in reverence. The USSR was the most complete police state in human history, and there is no evidence of anyone organizing any kind of palace konspiratzia against the chief of chiefs. Nor could there ever have been such activity, because everybody had to assume that anybody and everybody else was a stooge for the NKVD or SMERSH. Which meant that to protect yourself, you said nothing to anybody about anything.

    Firstly, Zhukov had a score to settle for all his friends that were killed before the war, some tortured to death. Secondly, Zhukov disdained how Stalin treated him after the war. Thirdly, Zhukov became aware of the plan to exterminate the Soviet Jewish population. Aside from having witnessed the Nazi extermination camps personally, he had served with many Jews during the war. And lastly, Zhukov had built up during the war a close circle of officers and sergeants that he could rely on for his life. Evidence shows that dozens of these men somehow found themselves in Moscow on the day of Stalin’s death.
    Stalin made a mistake. He never had a permanent guard, fearing predictability and leaving the way open for an assassination from a ‘trusted’ guard, which is after all a lesson from history. However, this also meant that his guard were not loyal to him, but were just doing their job.

    5) About the possibly-Jewish commissar who planned and directed the massive relocation of most of the heavy industry manufacturing plants, equipment and personnel from western Russia to the Urals, out of reach of German armies and even the Luftwaffe.

    My research tells me the man in charge was Nikolai Alekseevich Voznesensky, the head of Gosplan, who had developed much of the pre-planning in late 1940 and early 1941, when evidence was accumulating that Hitler planned a large-scale military assault against the USSR.

    Vosnesensky, along with certain other high-ranking Leningrad-based bosses, was purged in 1950 by Stalin, after planning an inadvisable stunt involving a trade fair for that city alone. Stalin never did like Leningrad or the people who came to power there. So it probably was only a matter of time before Voznesensky got the same treatment as Trotsky, Kirov, or not a few others.

    Look up Nikolay Shvernik.
    Although history records him as Russian, his family was assimilated, and had managed to change their documents before the Revolution. He remained Stalin’s favourite, but disassociated himself from the Party’s Leningrad network though also from Leningrad (Petrograd).

    I was told that he only found out he was Jewish after his retirement.

  17. I want to yak, but growing long hair and living off last year’s frozen grass in the Himalayas isn’t really my thing 🙂

  19. @ honeybee:
    @ yamit82:
    @ honeybee:
    Thank you for the music and the beautiful poem.
    HB I love your description of the different creatures in the forest. It must be a poem of sounds and songs of the various species calling each other proclaiming: SPRING IS HERE!
    Lucky you living so close to nature.
    NY spring. Left for shul in the morning with a suit and a light raincoat. It was not cold or hot. Just pleasant. After kiddush left and, surprise, the temperature had dropped and snow flurries were falling.
    I had a good time. It was a wonderful and happy service and I refuse to let snow or anything deter me from having
    an enjoyable time.
    HB you will love this shul. It is not one of these men bastions of power where the women do not participate.
    In fact everybody participates reading Torah. They do have a kiddush for the crowd under eighteen or nineteen and they have a great time and so do we.This rabbi is great. A man of the people and everyone loves him. No BS but real praying and real happiness.
    I have to ask if I’m allowed to video at least part of the service. The little ones who are a real delight go to the library where they learn the basics with a puppeteer. I wish I could stay there.
    SHABBAT SHALOM! today I waited until it was over.

  26. @ yamit82:

    Both tunes are good. Only one prob with the first one – cant see the guys who are singing it. 🙁

    In the first one it brought some memories back. A rabbi told me that when Esther invited Haman to a feast she seduced him – just like any Jewish woman would do. That rabbi is lucky to be alive. G-d restrained me!

  30. @ mar55:

    I saw the plane that almost skidded off the runway into the water. Yikes!

    I also heard about the terror attack in Jerusalem this morning and how Hamas praised it. It really annoys me how the MSM rarely show how our opposition responds.

    Who knows. Maybe G-d won’t flood the earth again but will find some other way to get rid of this cesspool of a human race!

  31. @ honeybee:
    honeybee, where are you? What is going on? You do not care for your audience? I have many dichos from Spain but many are so old fashion that even I do not understand. Only people who are scholars would be interested.
    Come back and bring Deborah with her dichas.
    I had a good recipe for Hammentachen but this year I fund one in the internet that it is better than the one I had.
    When you come back I’ll give you the link. The cookie itself is nothing but, the filling needs to be done before hand. I did not have poppy seed that I like or raspberries.
    Had prune, apricots and my daughter made them with Nutella.
    Do I have to tell you what the kids did like?
    My are not Parve. I made them with butter and whoever wants them, can eat them with tea a couple of hours before the meal. After the meal fruit is more digestible anyway.
    I hope you celebrated Purim in good health. Jewish holidays are great. Always something good to knoch.
    I tried something new in the kugel. Made two kinds.
    be well. I wish you a Happy Purim to you and your family.

  32. @ dove:
    I do not like many aspects of NY but, the advantage is: We have some many shuls and more being build plus so many delis and restaruants that cater kiddush and other affairs. The workers from the shul prepare tables and chairs and, the people who have been contracted bring the food and arrange everything. It is a big, big shul. I would not want to do it for anything. I would not mind footing the bill but anything else, no way. It is good you have youth and stamina.

  33. Thanks mar55 and a Happy Purim to you and your family. I love ‘Jewish Princess’ Day. I was out shopping today for the Kiddush for Saturday. It was fun. We have someone hired that does the shopping and prep at the shul but they aren’t available this Saturday. I was kind of glad because I am sponsoring this weeks kiddush and I was hoping to change the menu up a bit. Usually we just give our money and specify what size and type of kiddush. I find the basic kiddushes only seem to have fattening foods. Caesar salad dripping in dressing, with a variety of cookies and cakes.

    I am having a fruit platter and a veggie platter (with dip), challah, LOTS of hamantaschen and some cookies dipped in chocolate. A nice festive kiddush. My ‘overseer’ might also be pulling some cakes out of the freezer for the die hards.
    Looking forward to it – I don’t mind setting it up. Our office arranged for me to have lots of help so it will be a breeze!

  34. @ dove:
    Happy Purim Dove. I could not get to shul today. As you know we are buried again in snow.
    Yesterday services started at 5PM. I stayed until a bit before 7.30PM and enjoyed part of the Megillah. I was going to stay longer but I got a call telling me a snow storm was going to hit us soon. I love Purim. It is a fun holiday and the kids are precious with their customs and the entire family.
    I wish I had my family here.
    Thank you for the links. The first two are fun.
    Happy Purim to you and your tribe.

  36. SHmuel HaLevi 2

    I have an interactive link for: Don Quijote de la Mancha
    edicion original. Mi padre tenia uno que fue el que yo lei cuando joven. Hace como cinco anos queria comprar una copia con el lenguaje original de la epoca y no lo consegui a ningun precio. Encontre algunas ediciones con el castellano moderno pero a precios exhorbitantes.
    Yo le envie el link a ted y tambien hace dos semanas otro link con expresiones coloquales espanolas. Muchas de ellas
    se encuentran en desuso. Tambien se las envie a Ted para que se las enviara.
    Me puede dar acuso de ecibo a traves de Chit Chat o, si quiere preguntele al administrador del for que le de mi direccion electronica.
    Yo creo que los viejos debemos guardar las joyas de nuestras lenguas para pasarsela a los hijos y los nietos.
    Gracias. Saludos a su esposa.
    PS El Rabino del shul a donde voy es argentino y majisimo ademas.

  37. @ yamit82:

    Just got your reply. Been busy. Don’t you sleep? I’m not sure you would really want to discuss this amongst your peers- or on the internet.

    Sometimes you are confusing. You seem to have an old school of thought but yet you claim to be liberal.

    G-d only created one Eve yet you claim that man was not made to be monogamous. It sounds like Larry King. I always feel like you want to pull us back in time. I don’t think the majority would want to go back and live the way our ancestors did.

  38. dove says:
    March 3, 2015 at 12:33 am

    @ yamit82:

    Do you mean mentally or chronologically????? 🙂

    Neither. If you would like to discuss this further step over to chit chat.

    I’m here dove I missed this comment before somehow.

  39. @ mrg3105:

    MRG:

    Thank you for your enlightenment; sort of.

    1) Regarding Operation Mars, which I had not previously studied at length, it looks as though you have been reading David Glantz’s exhaustive research on the Great Patriotic War. Maybe you ARE David Glantz, for all I know. That’s one reason that I use my real name in comments.

    2) About Marshal Zhukov’s repeated and bloody attacks in the planned Mars assaults; he used the same tactics repeatedly, notably at the Seelowe Heights and in Berlin during the last battles, namely, repeated head-butting that reminds me of Grant’s overland campaign that wrapped up the American Civil War in just 11 months. Even if Mars was not a Soviet victory, Zhukov remained in Stalin’s favor throughout the war, because Stalin favored the same tactics and overall strategies.

    3) About Zhukov murdering Stalin in late winter 1953. With no serious evidence available, my assumption is that Stalin, who was seriously aging by that time, and who had indulged himself with heavy eating and drinking the night before his death struggle, died the death of most other old men who get little exercise and practice little abstemiousness at table. It’s called a permanent and fatal visit to the cemetery.

    4) I doubt any conspiracy was involved. To half the population of the USSR, Stalin was their heroic vozd who had recently saved Russia in the Great Patriotic War. The rest of them, even if they disliked him, were scared shitless of him. Nobody but his personal guard detail had any access to his quarters, and they mostly held him in reverence. The USSR was the most complete police state in human history, and there is no evidence of anyone organizing any kind of palace konspiratzia against the chief of chiefs. Nor could there ever have been such activity, because everybody had to assume that anybody and everybody else was a stooge for the NKVD or SMERSH. Which meant that to protect yourself, you said nothing to anybody about anything.

    5) About the possibly-Jewish commissar who planned and directed the massive relocation of most of the heavy industry manufacturing plants, equipment and personnel from western Russia to the Urals, out of reach of German armies and even the Luftwaffe.

    My research tells me the man in charge was Nikolai Alekseevich Voznesensky, the head of Gosplan, who had developed much of the pre-planning in late 1940 and early 1941, when evidence was accumulating that Hitler planned a large-scale military assault against the USSR.

    Vosnesensky, along with certain other high-ranking Leningrad-based bosses, was purged in 1950 by Stalin, after planning an inadvisable stunt involving a trade fair for that city alone. Stalin never did like Leningrad or the people who came to power there. So it probably was only a matter of time before Voznesensky got the same treatment as Trotsky, Kirov, or not a few others.

    Arnold Harris
    Mount Horeb WI

  40. @ dove:

    Blizzard is expected and Snow in Dimona expected too. What does that have to do with a scam.

    I doubt any families in Safad don’t have blankets, we are already in the middle of our winter and it’s cold up there with or without snow. Everybody in Israel knows a storm is predicted and are expected to stock up on food medicines etc before the storm. Sicjk and elderly are sick and elderly 24×7 not for two-three days of storm. Any money donated even if legit cannot possibly be put to use before the storm or during.

    The scam if there is one is solicitation for false purposes.

    Seems like they are using the storm to squeeze money from the naive. I never give to charities that have not been vetted and fully accountable for the money they collect.

    Chabad is not honest and transparent.

  49. attn: I just received an alert that a winter storm is headed for Northern Israel.Colel Chabad is asking for immediate donations to help supply blankets, food and warm clothing.

    Is this legit?

    As you read these words, a devastating winter storm is headed toward Northern Israel, where they are totally unprepared for such a rare and powerful storm… for snow… for freezing rain… for dangerous winds…

    In Safed, the elderly will be completely home-bound, unable to shop for food or life-saving medication.

    Poor families are desperate for blankets and pajamas to keep their children warm. There is no time to waste!

    Colel Chabad is organizing deliveries of blankets, groceries, heaters, hot meals and medicine to elderly shut-ins, mothers with newborns, and anyone else at risk, by obtaining trucks and SUV’s that can handle the toughest road conditions.

  50. dove Said:

    If you had a houseful of men you probably could have a houseful of babies.

    Long ago I learned how to turn Bulls into Steers.!!!!!!!!!!!