Ashamnu, Al Cheit, and Barnes and Noble

Just as surely as my father and I chanted Kol Nidre, Ashamnu, and Al Cheit on Yom Kippur, so, too, did we spend time in Barnes and Noble on Saturday afternoon.  It is, as they say, "how we roll."

Our annual browsing in the Menlo Park bookstore began with Helen Rappaport's The Romanov Sisters.  Earlier in the week, my father had suggested he might want to read it, but after perusing it, he changed his mind, finding it to be too focused on the sisters' clothing, social events, and other "womanly" pursuits.  Once I chimed in with "Like a Russian version of Little Women?" we moved on to another table near the store's entrance.

There he found In the Kingdom of Ice, a book he has been eyeing for some time, but is awaiting the paperback edition.  Long a lover of books about exploration, many years ago, he turned me on to Endurance, the page-turner about Ernest Shakleton's Antarctic expedition, and more recently suggested two of Alan Moorehead's exploration volumes:  The White Nile and The Blue Nile.

Skipping the "Bargain Books," calendars, journals, and, of course, the cafe, we headed upstairs, where, much to my father's delight, we found this display table:

A Teddy Roosevelt groupie, my father currently is reading -- and thoroughly enjoying -- The Bully Pulpit, which was on prominent display there, and elsewhere throughout the store.  Among the other books on the table, several of which he's read were The Path Between the Seas, Franklin and Winston, Theodore Rex, and Traitor to His Class.

As for my reading pursuits, although I'm about halfway through The Emperor of All Maladies, lack of time and energy makes my progress slow, despite the fact that it's exceedingly well written and informative.  I do hope to finish it this fall, however, so that I can move on to another of the many books in my to-read pile.  With any luck, I'll work my way through at least of few of them in 5775!

Football Tutor Wanted

Although it's nearly a year away, my college roommate and I already are talking about getting tickets for the 2014 Lafayette-Lehigh game, which will be the 150th meeting of the two teams, and is the most played college rivalry in the country.  The game is slated for Yankee Stadium, which is, compared to either Lafayette or Lehigh, right in my backyard, and, best of all, easily accessible by public transportation.

Yesterday when I checked the Lafayette Leopards' official athletic site, however, I found this message:

The initial allotment of tickets for the 150th Lafayette-Lehigh football game, hosted by Lafayette at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2014 at 3:30pm, have been exhausted.  Additional tickets have been requested from the Yankees.

Class of 2014 will be considered students for the 150th -You will be able to purchase when the student allotment goes on sale in April.

Aside from the fact that we can't yet get tickets (never mind that there's a grammatical error in the text of the message), I have another problem:  despite possessing a fine liberal arts education from one of the aforementioned schools, I don't understand the first thing about how football is played.

When I attended football games in high school--generally only on Thanksgiving, when Franklin played Piscataway, its arch rival, in a homecoming match-up--friends repeatedly would attempt to explain the basics to me, but as I told them each year after the game, "By the time I figured out which way Franklin was supposed to be running, they were supposed to be running the other way."  Despite my best efforts and exceedingly competent tutoring, I just never seemed to catch on.

Sadly, I'm not overly optimistic that the NFL's Beginner's Guide to Football, Football Rules and Basics for Dummies, or Football 101 - The Basics of Football will be of much help.

My best hope when it comes to learning about football between now and next November is that a few friends and acquaintances who are fans of this crazy, confusing game, and also happen to hold the title "rav," (which, in its purest sense, means "teacher"), might be willing to step up to the plate (I know, I know, that's baseball terminology) to teach me the basics of football as though it was the aleph bet.

What do you say, rabbinic football fans?  Are you up for the challenge?