Smokes, Pick Your Poison

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Smokes, Pick Your Poison

What She Smoking?

Is looks like a cigarette but it has red and blue wires hanging out the front of it. 

So is it a smoke or a ticking time bomb? 

Or maybe she's just trying to look cool.

Nope~Kaboom! ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

What She Smoking?

Card Ya

Thought this was novel in the store. 

They have a digital calendar with the date from 21 years ago.

It says:

To Purchase Tobacco Products You Must Have Been Born On Or Before This Date.

 Thank you for showing you I.D.

Ah, easy to match the DOB on the I.D. presented to the date on the calendar.  

Nothing to calculate, no mistakes. 

They raised the age for smoking (cigarettes and vaping) in Maryland to 21 on October 1, so it's the same requirement as for drinking alcohol.

Luckily for me (even though I'm over 21), I don't really do either--definitely not the smoking, and the drinking limited primarily to the Kiddush prayer on Shabbat. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Card Ya

Amazing Cuban Art

I never knew about Cuban art until we visited Cernuda Arte gallery in Coral Gables, Florida.

They treated us like royalty and gave us a personal guided tour of two buildings filled with works by Cuban artists still at home in Cuba and here in exile. 

This was better than many museums that I've been too. 

I just want to thank the gallery owners and our guide for a wonderful showing and tell them how impressed we were with the art there. 

Even while the Cuban people are repressed by their dictatorial leaders, there is so much of interest in Cuba: from their colorful colonial architecture to their cool "oldie cars", renown cigar smokes, some pretty talented artists, and I'm sure much more. 

Cuba is only 485 miles from the USA!

I pray for the freedom of the Cuban people. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Amazing Cuban Art

Friendly Sightings 613

So this is a first where other people are contacting us with their experiences seeing 613 (the holy mystical number of Commandments in the Torah).

These two photos of a police car and a no smoking sign are coming to us from South Florida. 

Also, I experienced another weird 613 experience this week in that I was number 36 in The Top 100 Most Social CIOs (see the 613). 

If you see 613 in extraordinary ways in your life, please feel free to share the them with Dannielle and I. 

We hope and pray at this time of Passover (commemorating redemption and freedom) that this is a sign of great mazel and blessing for all our times. ;-)

(Source Photo and with gratitude to Ms. Ellen Weiner)

Friendly Sightings 613

Smokem Peace Pipe

So we are almost all settled in our new place (now about 2 1/2 months)...

And in the kitchen, I am re-organizing one of the top cabinets. 

I reach in the very back, and I feel something all the way in the corner. 

I pick it up and pull it out, and it's this really weird looking smelly pipe. 

The pipe has a face on it and a blue and red stone above and below it. 

My wife says it looks like a peace pipe, although I've never really seen one of those before. 

There are no feathers or pictures of Indians on it, just this crazy-face staring up with crooked teeth and a big schnoz. 

Did someone actually smoke this thing? 

Ick, washed my hands like 3 times. 

Left it on the counter to show the rest of the family.

Throw that G-d darn thing out!

Dirty smokem peace pipe with ugly face heading down the garbage chute--wonder if I should've sold it on ebay. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Smokem Peace Pipe

Addictions R Us

I was having an really interesting conversation with a friend--okay, and it got a little deep. 

He said something fascinating to me--which is that everyone is addicted to something. 

Think about it--some are addicted to the hard stuff...drugs, alcohol, smoking.

Others are addicted to sex, work, shopping, exercise, even religion. 

In modern times, there are new addictions to technology, gaming, and social media.

My friend is smart and we discussed or alluded to a number of reasons for the addictive nature of all people. 

1) Meaning - Many people have a tough time dealing with the seemingly meaningless, mortal nature of their lives. Without a strong purpose and meaning, we can sort of float through every day looking for some anchor, stability, or rhythm. Addictions, for better or worse, can provide that habit or repetition compulsion. While not very meaningful itself, these addictions help people forget--temporarily, during their high or while they are being kept busy--that they are perhaps lost amidst it all. 

2) Pain - Everyone has pain--emotional, physical, mental--these cause stress on people and their ability to deal or cope can be stretched thin, and they turn to some sort of addiction as a "crutch" to help them get through the day. It reminds me of a very crude song that I overheard years ago, called "F*ck the pain away" (excuse the language here, please). Anyway, simply replace the first word, with "work, shop, drink, and so on and poof, you have opiates (i.e. pain relief) for the masses. 

3) Fear - People are afraid--afraid of living, afraid of dying--and addictions take us away from having the time to stop, think, and have to deal with our fears. If every minute, I am running around doing a million things--then I don't have the time to shut it all down and out, and deal with what's really going on inside. In fact, some people credit the Holy Sabbath day, as being beneficial to us to just stopping all that daily stuff at least for one day a week!

We are all human, and there is no one who is immune to looking for meaning, avoiding pain, and dealing with their fears. 

The question is do we just throw ourselves into something to keep going or do we take more of a Buddhist approach, accept that life is suffering and try to raise ourselves above it through healthy balance, contemplative meditation, compassion and thinking about others, doing good deeds, and so on. 

Keeping busy is good too--but going through life in a drug or otherwise induced fugue is not--then we've lost ourselves, which is maybe the point for our crazy world where addictions abound and we are all too happy to dive right in. ;-)

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Miles Cave)

Addictions R Us

Smoke 'em Peace Pipe

This was a funny picture that I took on A1A in Fort Lauderdale.

Who climbed up there and put that in his mouth? (Not me!)

And that red cone in front makes it look like a real smoking emergency. 

Also, the Indian looks sick from smoking that thing.

Maybe a good ad for people to kick the habit.

But where would you put the nicotine patch? ;-)

Smoke 'em Peace Pipe

PaRTy ANiMaL BeWaRe!

Just thought this was so cute.

Elephant with a jet pack, helmet, and goggles. 

Looks like he's ready for some fun. 

Honestly, though I never understood the incessant party types.

Drinking, smoking, fooling around--basically, getting into trouble.

For a straight Jewish guy from the Bronx, I got enough with regular life stuff to keep me plenty busy.

It's good to let loose a little, but party animal I am not. 

On second thought, what have I been missing all these years. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

PaRTy ANiMaL BeWaRe!