Well, the Buggles were quite right with their song…..media is a short lived creature and easily consumed by some new species.
So I apologize for being “off the air” for such a long period of time.
I have honestly no idea whether I will have more time for the blog again as the birth of my twin boys draws nearer, but who knows?
Anyway, here’s just to let you know I am still alive, altough someone else is doing the kicking at the moment…..
Aprongirl
I loved the Gilmores, seriously. But my brother kept telling me I should be ashamed for watching that kind of crap. Well, thankfully the world is quite a fair place sometimes and I eventually got my revenge. One boring evening I was talking about the latest developments in the show with a friend when he revealed some rather geeky insider knowledge…….or how would you call it if someone recalled that the Huntsberger Mansion featured a painting by Velazquez? Well, the laugh was on him that evening. Definitely. But let me get to the point of this post.
The finale of the show made me so angry. Usually I’m not the kind of person who has strong feelings about TV shows or movies. I mean o.k. George Lucas really ruined the Star Wars saga with the new numbers I-III, but what the heck?! As long as I can still watch Princess Leia hop around with the weirdest hairdo ever, he can do whatever he pleases with the story beforehand. I am cool with that. I mean it. But Gilmore Girls….that one really got to me.
And the thing is, it has to do with the message it transmits to young women out there. It tells them flat out that in order to live life your way, you have to sell your own grandmother. In order to get the job she wants Rory has to dump her boyfriend. And what does the mother advise? “The pain will fade.” How dysfunctional is that?
There are so many TV shows out there that only encurage women to be pretty and readily available. The Gilmore Girls on the other hand presented active women who took their carreer in their own hands. But at the end the show has not succeeded in keeping the usual stereotype about succesful women at bay. At the end all those prejudices about the lonely women at the top have been proven right.
Now, let me vent a bit……
Firstly, why for heavens’ sake do women get involved with men which they do not consider husband material? Isn’t that just an aweful waste of time? I mean why invest in lost cases? Why do we not transmit that message to young women? Girls, if you can’t picture the guy you want to get involved with as the father of your future children then he is not the right pick. He might be a great flirt, but that is it. No need to move in with him, no need to pick furniture or get mutual friends because at the end all these knots will just have to be undone again. Painfully. Why do most women out there chose their outfits more carefully than their partners? Is it just hormones or bad examples as well?
Well, the mother sure is not a good example in this case. But up to the final episode there was at least still hope for the daughter to be a real human being and not just a brainwashed career girl. But we all know better now. We know what would happen if these were real life persons. The daughter would go on to have just as many wrecked relationships as the mother and find herself thirty something, alone and with so many bad experiences tying her to her past that she is unable to find a present day partner of value.
The secod point is that a relationship is never a win win situation. Actually it’s a lose lose. You lose freedom, time, choice, money and many other things. But that is the case with all kinds of compromises. Each party loses a bit and at the end both find out that they can still be happy with it. Doesn’t sound very modern, does it? Nowadays we want it all and we want it now. But that is not how it works. If in a relationship only one person is able to give, it will end eventually. Logan was able to give. He did change for her and he offered her a home. But that was obviously more than she was prepared to give in return. Great example for the girls out there. If you come to the point where you have to invest…back out! No wonder relationships don’t work out any more. And I am not saying that it should be women only to invest. No way. But is it really wise to tell women that in order to lead happy emancipated lives they have to ruin their relationships completely?
Third. Be honest with your partner. If you don’t think he is your Mr. Right, tell him. Maybe in his eyes you are. At least one shold be fair enough to give the other half the chance to reconsider. And for that he needs the basic facts. It is not exactly noble to keep your partner dreaming about your future wedding day when you at the same time think about touring the country as a journalist, alone. That’s not a relationship, that is a desaster waiting to happen. One does not just out of nowhere get to the point where one partner wants to get married and one does not. That involves one party fooling the other in some way for quite some time. Have I mentioned yet that men, contrary to popular belief, have feelings, too? Maybe we should tell young women that in order to expect fairness they have to live fairness.
Fourth. Talk. Problems never get solved by evading the talk. Never ever. Not in a thousand years. And also not if you chew it through with your girlfriends or mothers. Because they are not your partner. Let me give you an example: Have you ever watched Sex and the City? I did. Shortly. But it’s not worth the worry. I just kept thinking all through the fourty some minutes that if those people would actually talk WITH each other instead of ABOUT each other they would all be married by the end of season one. But maybe that is just me. Besides, do they finally get married in the movie? Just out of curiosity.
Fifth. If your mother can’t work out her life, maybe be more cautious with her advice.
Sixth. Never change a winning team. The show changed quite a bit in style when the Palladinos left. But that just from the geek point of view.
Seventh. Maybe it’s time that we uproot the ideas of post-sixties feminist society and insted implant some that have come to terms with “the female side”. If you want to be a real woman you cannot live the life of ruthless Amazon at the same time. It just doesn’t make sense. But obviously women have come to believe that if they can’t have the cake and eat it their case is lost altogether. In order to get “the life” they want they have to get rid of any person interfering with their plans, no matter how heartless this may be. But does it really have to be so? Why could Rory not have married the man she obviously loves and still be a journalist? Maybe not one touring the country, but still a very successful one. What an aweful message to all women out there…..you could actually end up with nearly what you wanted and find yourself to be tremendously happy with that………..preposterous!
Here is a pic of my new sheitel. I purchased it from a friend who is building up a sheitel-business. In case you need a very moderately priced human hair wig with french top just e-mail her (esthi@sheitel.ch).
I’ll wear it first time for Rosh ha Shana and I bet everyone will comment on the color! But I just couldn’t go for something darker. Whatever I tried on, I just kept looking like Morticia from the Addams Family. Must be my “death becomes her” facial color…… Well, now I am officially a fake blonde! 
PS I customized it a bit by sewing here and there a few stitches and removing three wefts to make it less bulky. (Many thanks to Rebbezin M. for the suggestion!) Now it really fits like a glove. But I am thinking of having bangs cut in nevertheless, as I am not to fond of all the hair in my face. I’m rather the ponytail girl, which is, except for specialized or rather high priced wigs, not really an option.
PPS After wearing the Sheitel at the Jamim Tovim, some people were disappointed to see me back in a hat. I take that as a really good sign
You will notice that some instructions are rather vague….this is because I am an instinct cook and nearly never read recipes myself. I just look at the pics of a dish and then start. So if you are a bloody beginner in the kitchen you better keep away from my recipes 
So this is going to be my first post. And of course ol’ blabbermouth won’t let you down and has a little story to tell.
Today I went to a bookbinder’s studio to have my old new siddur bound. I bought it by chance on a trip back to my hometown in a secondhand bookshop. It’s quite a special siddur. It was printed in 1943 in Switzerland. The date alone makes it a piece of historical interest. The foreword mentions the special circumstances under which it was printed. New siddurim were needed for a congregation, but there was nowhere to buy them, as the centers of jewish culture in most of the surrounding countries had at that time ceased to exist.
As I am very fond of old books I decided to have this slightly battered prayerbook repaired. It will now get a beautifully blue and red mottled cover with a matching dark blue spine. And hopefully it will again be “zum regelmässigem Gebrauch” (used on a regular basis), just as the person who once upon a time presented this siddur to someone wished for in his dedication.
After the bookbinder I checked out another secondhand store and flipping through some art prints discovered a watercolor by Sunil Das. It was only by chance that I knew this was the name of an Indian contemporary artist, having seen a documentary on Indian art lately (India is one of my many fields of interest). I have no idea whether it is really an original or if it is worth anything, but I liked it. While I am writing this my husband is trying to fit it into a frame….I’ll put a picture of it online when he’s done
Well, so much for today and my first post. I’ll definitely publish some recipes next, so keep an eye on my blog all you gluttonous people out there!
P.S. See below the picture by Sunil Das…….looks like yet another kind of exodus……all in all quite familiar.
