Saturday, December 29, 2007

Ayatollah: Ali "strongly adored" by Xians

That's what it says. From Fars:
Ali (PBUH) is the first of the Shiites' twelve Imams and he is strongly adored not only by the Shiite, but also by the Sunnite Muslims as well as Christians and others who may - or even may not - faith in God as he was the symbol (and probably the only symbol) of a perfect man, of perfect humanity.

Monday, November 26, 2007

"Kaddish, extreme edition"--does anybody know what this means?

From Jewish News of Northern California:
All his life, Leon Charney had uttered the Kaddish. By rote.
He davened from the amud alot?
Then, when his mother died, Charney opted for the Mourner’s Kaddish, extreme edition, reciting it several times a day with a minyan for a year. The experience got him wondering why the prayer has proven so central to Jewish life.

Charney’s inquiry resulted in "The Mystery of the Kaddish," a bestselling book he co-wrote with Israeli journalist Saul Mayzlish. On Nov. 29, Charney will speak about the book and the prayer at Berkeley’s Jewish Community Center of the East Bay.

For a man known for his work as a Middle East peace negotiator, talk show host and philanthropist, this intimate quest to understand the Kaddish might seem out of character. It wasn’t.
I mean, a quest to understand Kaddish would be understandable, but an intimate quest?
"What I learned," he said from his New York office, "is that this integral prayer, brought about by rabbinical Judaism, has kept the Jewish people together for 2,000 years. The whole idea is minyan, and minyan is community." [...]
So it's the same concept as shmaltz herring?

Saturday, November 17, 2007

IRIB Radio: "Ahmadinejad: Fossil Fuels have not found their place in the world yet"

IRIB Radio always gives him the title "Doctor" for some reason. Anyway, it's sad about the fossil fuels. Hope you find your place in the world soon!
Iranian President Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said: OPEC is under heavy political and economic pressures and for this reason fossil fuels have not found their place in the world yet. According to IRNA, speaking on Saturday on his way to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, he pointed to the 3rd OPEC summit to open in Riyadh today evening, saying: The pressure on the fossil energy market is not uncalled for or artificial, and the price for this energy is lower than what it really should be.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

I wanna be a Chordate

20, 20, 20 more blogrolls to go, I wanna be a chordate
Don't wanna skeleton that's exo, I wanna be a chordate
Put me in your round-up, put me in your post
Hurry, hurry, hurry, before this blog is toast
If I get recognition, I won't give up the ghost
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

20, 20, 20 more blogrolls to go, I wanna be a chordate
Don't wanna skeleton that's exo, I wanna be a chordate
Don't wanna be a mollusc, don't wanna be a worm
Hurry, hurry , hurry, before I'm back to germ
I wanna walk on leggies, don't wanna creep or squirm
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

20, 20, 20 more blogrolls to go, I wanna be a chordate
Don't wanna skeleton that's exo, I wanna be a chordate
Some people's blogs get comments, I want one of those
Hurry, hurry , hurry, before we come to blows
I can't control my fingers, I can't control my prose
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be a chordate
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be a chordate
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be a chordate
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba I wanna be a chordate

Gratuitous link to my other blog.

Massad denied tenure?

Hat tip: Martin Kramer

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Chicago Sun-Times: "Dentists going extra mile"

This blog is taking a long time taking off, but this seems to belong:
Richard Mueller went to his dentist to get his gum disease treated.

He wound up learning he had diabetes.

Westmont dentist Ronald Schefdore routinely gives patients with gum disease blood tests that measure cholesterol, blood sugar and inflammation.

Mueller's high blood sugar was a sign he might have diabetes. A physician made the diagnosis, and now Mueller has his blood sugar under control.

These days, dentists aren't just drilling teeth and cleaning gums. They're also screening for diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer and treating conditions ranging from headaches to snoring.

"We're discovering that the mouth has implications for the whole body," said Elmhurst dentist Ivan Valcarenghi. [...]
I dreamed I was a back-molar . . .

Saturday, January 6, 2007

A Parable of Reb Nachman of Breslov

"As told by Yonassan Gershom":
Once there was a prince who went mad and insisted he was a rooster. He sat on under the table naked, clucking and eating his food off the floor. The king had tried everything to cure him, but nothing worked, and he was in dispair. How could this mad son of his ever grow up to inherit the kingdom?

Then a Hasidic Rebbe (Jewish sage) arrived and said he could cure the prince. The king was desperate, so he said, "OK, fine, go ahead, I'll try anything..."

So the Rebbe took off his clothes and sat under the table, pretending to be a chicken, too. The king was totally shocked. No doubt he had expected the Rebbe to argue with the prince or try to verbally beat it out of him. But the Rebbe knew what he was doing. And so, sitting there under the table, he got to know the Rooster Prince.

Then one day, the Rebbe called for a pair of pants and began putting them on. The Rooster Prince objected, saying, "What do you mean, wearing those pants? You're a rooster -- a rooster can't wear pants!"

"Who says a rooster can't wear pants?" the Rebbe replied. "Why shouldn't I be warm and comfortable, too? Why should the humans have all the good things?"

The Rooster Prince thought about this for a while. The floor under the table was very cold and uncomfortable.. So he asked for pants, too, and put them on.

The next day, the Rebbe asked for a warm shirt, and began to put it on. Again the Rooster Prince objected: "How can you do that? You are a rooster -- a rooster doesn't wear a shirt!"

"Who says so?" said the Rebbe. "Why shouldn't I have a fine shirt, too? Why should I have to shiver in the cold, just because I'm a rooster?"

Again the Rooster Prince thought about it for a while, and realized that he was cold, too -- so he put on a shirt. And so it went with socks, shoes, a belt, a hat.... Soon the Rooster Prince was talking normally, eating with a knife and fork from a plate, sitting properly at the table -- in short, he was acting human once more. Not long after that, he was pronounced completely cured.
The prince was really a skyclad ancient Celtic Roosterwitchdentist . . .

Ancient Druids used Stonehenge to remember their dental appointments

Photo source.

Photo source.

Friday, January 5, 2007

Introductory Post

My name is Yitzchak Goodman. I have another blog called Judeopundit. That blog sticks rather closely to a certain formula. The idea of this blog is to depart from that formula. Judeopundit is meant to be intelligible to those without much Jewish background. Bridgework will be more of an inside J-blog. Judeopundit cares about its Technorati and TTLB rank. This one won't care. Judeopundit tries to have new content every day. This one will often go for days without new posts. The idea of this one is not really to satirize a certain other blog in any extended or detailed way, but the mystico-toothico-ancient-Celtico theme will be used as a cheap way to generate posts for a while until things get set up. By the way, I'm not a dentist.

Incredible Wisdom from DentalBlogs

Surely the author of this was an Ancient Celt:
Often the dentist’s future vision is limited because he or she just doesn’t know what is possible. Understanding the first three core concepts, being open to new ways of doing things and then just letting your imagination go with childlike freedom will help create a powerful future vision.

An effective leader will then communicate that vision to others and inspire them to follow along.

However many, if not most, doctors have no real goals or plans for implementing new technology. Without a plan they are prey waiting to be consumed by the most aggressive salesman. They go to a tradeshow and see some new technology that they get excited about. Then they buy it randomly, without any idea of how they’ll incorporate it into their overall practice’s philosophy and systems.

One of my missions is to help dentists see what is possible and then to create a future vision.
I dreamt I was a back-molar . . .