Well, it’s Saturday, and that means it is time to share the collected links of the week with you. Hopefully you’ll find something tasty in the mix:
- Another One Bites The Dust. Brand Bookstore is closing. I think I mentioned this on Facebook last week. We were in Glendale last weekend when they were starting the closing sale. Whereas my wife loved the place for the books, they also had a great selection of records in good condition, including obscure shows and hard to find material. I found LPs there for $6 that were at least an order of magnitude more on Amazon. As an example, last Saturday I found the soundtrack to “Robin and the 7 Hoods” (which is hard to find), as well as loads of Sammy Davis Jr and Chet Atkins albums. I will miss this store, much more than I miss Cliff’s.
- And Then Sum. Since Empress Pavillion closed, we’ve been on the hunt for a good replacement Dim Sum spot. We’ve tried NBC, and we last went to Seafood Harbor. Here’s a good guide to Dim Sum in the San Gabriel Valley, and it talks about the move to menu-based Dim Sum. I still prefer the carts, but I understand what they are saying. There are some places here that we really must explore.
- Neverland. Abandoned places are fascinating. I still remember wandering around some homes that were about to be torn down near my grandparents when young. Here’s an interest exploration of an abandoned amusement park you might have heard of: Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara.
- The Bible Says What? Those of us on the progressive side of the scale often have trouble understanding the orthopractic and how they sincerely hold their beliefs. As for me, I view it with bemusement, and have no problem with orthopractic beliefs as long as they are not imposed on others (cough, Hobby Lobby, cough). Here’s an article on Orthopractic beliefs you might have missed: A Severer Chasidim village in New York has provided books to students in a girls school that cuts out some R rated passages in the Torah. It also leaves a word blank in each passage being studied, because it is forbidden according to this groups interpretation of Torah for women to study the whole Torah.
- Coming Together. Before you think I’m picking on the Orthodox above, I’d like to share two excellent commentaries on the recent murder of three teens in Israel from two Orthodox friends of mine. In the first, Rabbi Micha Berger of Aishdas highlights something very important — although the various sects of Judaism may disagree between themselves, we come together in unity for tragedies like this. This is a demonstration of the Jewish family — although the family may bicker internally, and there may be times where one doesn’t talk to another or writes someone off, we call come together when we need to. In another post from Rabbi Yaakov Menken, he also talks about how this brings the community together, and discusses what the Torah means when it refers to avenging the deaths. It is not a quick and swift military retribution — the deaths are avenged by the survival and perseverence of the Jewish people. All those cultures that have attempted to wipe out Judaism haven’t survived; Judaism has. That’s the best revenge.
Noah Webster published a King James Bible in the 19th century that censored passages he deemed unsuitable for family reading. As Kohelet said, there is no new thing under the sun.