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Essays on Changing Identities in the Buckle of the Bible Belt
The Iconography of Tam Tams
In Nashville, the annual Passover Grocery Sighting is a big deal, and for me, a heart-stopping moment. It happened today, and even though the entire selection fit on one end-cap of the beverage aisle, I was thrilled. I went straight for the matzah and Tam Tams, all else being of secondary concern. But as I […]
Posted in: Jewish identity, Kosher
Shabbat Shira: with the birds
February 5, 2012
A bird woke me up this morning. Just before dawn, a Great Horned Owl in the front yard breathed its low, hollow call. It was answered, like an echo from somewhere across the street, near the hackberries by the Dukes of Hazzard house. I don’t reckon most folks know from this old TV show, but […]
Posted in: Jewish Holiday, Jewish identity
PPD and a cup of tea: anxiety and gratitude
January 3, 2012
In which I describe a low point and use my first online curse words. In a nutshell: See Mom. See Mom nearly snap from pathological lack of self-care skills.
Posted in: Depression / Anxiety
Simchat Torah: the next round
November 5, 2011
The plan: rosy. The reality: not. This essay is a peep at how I plan and execute synagogue events. In other words, it is a carefully considered blow-by-blow of another Jewy opportunity for me to freak out. Includes a riff on Margaret Wise Brown.
Posted in: Jewish Holiday, Jewish identity
Back of the Bloody Bus, or the Tampon Whip
October 24, 2011
A rude and moist response to the Brooklyn bus debacle.
Posted in: Jewish identity
You’re so Nashville if You Can’t Get Kosher Bagels
March 11, 2009
The Greater Nashville Area is home to over a million people. Can’t one of them create a kosher bagel? Right now, my synagogue has no bagels. No bagels for Shabbat Kiddush lunches, no bagels for morning minyan, Sunday school, adult education classes, committee meetings, celebrations, or gatherings of any kind. What kind of town is […]
Posted in: Jewish identity, Kosher
The Trayfe Pantry: Going Kosher
March 9, 2009
I was raised in East Tennessee and didn’t meet my first Jew until after college. Two years after that, I was Jewish myself, married to a Yankee Jew and running a kosher home in Nashville. I am a veritable Bible Belt balabusta by now, but back when I started keeping kosher, I started from zero—no, […]
Posted in: Jewish identity, Kosher
March 22, 2012
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