NERVOUS SHELLEY. The Official Shelley Berman Website (accept no imitations) celebrates a career that stretches from the Great Jewish Comedy Boom of the 1950s to "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Boston Legal." And AARP offers a profile of comedy's Everymanic-Depressive. 'REST' RHYMES WITH 'BEST,' 'DIE' RHYMES WITH 'SKY.' Then there's Norman Greenbaum and his one hit, "Spirit in the Sky." The song psychedelic, the lyrics confounding. Creator and creation apparently eternal.
TAKE ACTION. Jewish Funds for Justice is a public foundation working for social change in the United States. Check out their ethical travel pledge, which seeks to make the people we don't see visible to us. NOT THE GALICIA IN SPAIN. As the son of a Galitzianer, I was fascinated to discover the Galicia Jewish Museum, in Krakow, Poland, on the banks of the beautiful River Vistula. Where Jews never had troubles (at least very few). Closed on Christmas and Yom Kippur. AND SPEAKING OF JEWISH GENEALOGY. The JewishGen database has links to records from Belarus to Ukraine (alphabetically, not geographically).
MY WIFE, I THINK I'LL KEEP HER. Condescending? Sure, and it sold a lot of Geritol. TaglineGuru's 100 Most Influential Taglines Since 1948 not only lifts and separates, it's finger-lickin' good. Try it, you'll like it. the pleasing familiarity of a medium-roast coffee and a sensible muffin. Where other news sources offer sound bytes and sensationalism, IPR – Irrational Public Radio – informs, challenges, soothes and/or berates, and does so with a pleasing vocal cadence and unmatched enunciation.
HELP IS ON IT'S WAY. The Apostrophe Protection Society will warm the cockle's of the hearts of those who caught that, and offers real-life examples provided by the societys member's. For others, its' just another opportunity for some snooty prig to try to make you feel that just because you do'nt get worked up about these things your not as smart as he is. David's NAMEDAY: December 29. Calendar Zone's Religious Calendars is a handy resource if you want to look up a yahrzeit date, check next year's Muslim holidays, find Roman Catholic liturgical dates in German, see if the Sikh festivals are early or late this year, or double check an appointment on the ancient Latvian calendar.
ONE THING BOB GUCCIONE ISN'T SURE ABOUT. That Christopher Hitchens doesn't believe in God is well known. But neither does Micky Dolenz. Or Barry Manilow. Find out where your favorite stars stand on the Almighty at the Celebrity Atheist List. The site also includes agnostics (Guccione, Uma Thurman) and the ambiguous (Bruce Willis, Marilyn Manson).
IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME. JewTube.
IT'S ART. AND SHE'S FRENCH. Julie Cerise is a wonderful photographer. Peruse her work here.
Close your yap, bo, or I squirt metal. Ah, to talk like a tough guy. Twists, Slugs and Roscoes: A Glossary of Hardboiled Slang can help you satisfy your inner Cagney.
sry i didnt taK txt n hi skool Lingo2word will translate text messages into English and transform your well-honed prose into something a high schooler would key into his/her cell phone. There are also lists of acronyms, text lingo and emoticons. (^-^)
HOW DO YOU SAY GEFILTE FISH IN URDU? Ask Musa is an attempt by "a group of Jews who work for a major Jewish human rights organization" to reach out to Muslims. (The name is remarkably like that of the site AskMoses.) The site covers the basics of Judaism and the Jewish experience in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Indonesian Bahasa, as well as English. The goal is tolerance and understanding.
WHEN GIRLS GO BLOG. Leslie Edwards has been busy. Among other things, she's been starting blogs. She's been writing in them, too. There's She Happens, and her screenplay, Bringing Down the Bangos. Leslie Fiction is aptly named and Leslie Edwards includes previously published non-fiction. She gleefully contributes to The Smirking Chimp. There's this here. And her wonderful A Wake has been available on The Jewish Angle since, like, forever.
WE'RE ALL MINORITIES NOW. Meet the Ladins, 17,000 inhabitants of two valleys in the Italian Alps. And the Sorbs, a Slavonic people, most of whom live in Germany. Eurominority.eu, tracks these "European Stateless Nations and minorities," including the Grishuns, the Scanians, the Aosta Valley People, the Gagauzians, and many, many more.
NO SINGING IN LUSH HARMONIES IN THE LIBRARY. While you weren't watching, Art Garfunkel has been reading. A lot. His website lists everything he's read in the last 40 years, beginning with Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "The Confessions" in June 1968.
WHY WAIT ANY LONGER? Is it procrastination that separates humanity from the animals? That question may be asked and answered at Procrastination Central, but frankly I haven't gotten around to checking. There is a lot of stuff about procrastination at the site, though, and you can take a procrastination assessment. I haven't done it yet.
BLOGS
NEWThe Jews of Lebanon blog is an open window into a tiny community. NEWKeeping up with Mr. Dylan on grow-a-brain NEW Bigmouth Indeed Strikes Again is writer and performer Amy Guth's contribution to blogdom. She's also Guth-a-Go-Go. NEW All the Way from Oy to Vey covers a lot of ground for writer and Jewgirl Katie Schwartz. Sui Generis Ben Bratman's blog is one of a kind. YudelLine If it isn't here, it's not important. The Conversation...with Leonard Fein The venerable activist interacts about peace. Peoplehood.org The central address for all things Yossi Abramowitz. IsraelBeat Music news and reviews.	NEW Walking On Fire Blog of Death Yo, Yenta Groceteria Detroitblog Zackary Sholem Berger *-=JeWSCHooL=- - Israelity POVonline Amarji – A Heretic's Blog Blogs of Zion Ari Davidow's Klezmer Shack Iraq the Model JEWISH AGGREGATORS JewishBlogging NEWJrants.com**

NOT CHOPPED LIVER

Atlanta Jewish Life has become American Jewish Life. Same initials, wider reach.

Each month, Jewish Heritage Online Magazine presents several faces of a single topic.

Zemerl, the Jewish Song Database connects you to lyrics and audio clips of classic songs.

Looking for a year-long experience in Israel? Check into the WUJS Institute in Arad.

The Movie Clichés List makes us ask ourselves why we're paying a fortune to see the same flicks we paid a lot less to see in the past.

The Tongue Twister Database Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better!

alt.muslim was designed as an outlet for "civility, humor and wit," according to the creators of this interactive news and information site.

You can never go home again, and The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit is proof. See also: Forgotten Detroit and Detroitblog. Also: Friends of the Belle Isle Aquarium.

The Internet Archive provides a reminder of what conditions in cyberspace were long, long ago (1996, say).

Siddur Audio offers instruction via mp3 clips of Shabbat blessings, prayers and songs. The site is the work of Rabbi Mark Zimmerman of Congregation Beth Shalom in Atlanta, who knows the words and music by heart.

Haruth Communications has a Jewish web link list that in its charm and execution will take you back to the pioneer days of the 1990s.

The Hebrew/Jewish perpetual calendar can help transpose Jewish time to what we might refer to as "regular time."

Sweatshop Watch puts the issue right out front, and offers ways to improve wages and working conditions.

COOL AND/OR GROOVY

A Lengthy List of Jewish Links
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* Because Jews hold the name of God as sacred (especially when written in Hebrew), the problem arose early on (our ancestors called them "challenges") of what to do with sacred texts when they were too worn to be used anymore. You couldn't burn them or throw them in a landfill (first of all because there weren't any and second because trashing the name of God is a major Thou Shalt Not.) So the sages concluded that worn out Torah scrolls, prayer books and the like must be given a proper burial.

Or they may be stored. The Jews of Cairo did what many of us do today when we can't bear to throw something away--they shlepped it into the attic and forgot about it. That was the beginning of the Cairo Geniza in the old Ezra Synagogue. When Solomon Schechter began to study the Cairo Geniza's contents around the turn of the century, he discovered something fascinating. Jews of the 7th to 12th centuries not only had taken their holy books there, they had also dropped off their business letters, contracts, personal letters, dry cleaning receipts--giving us a glimpse of how people lived hundreds of years ago. It turns out that, except for the people on Reality TV, they lived pretty much the way we do.

So why am I telling you this? Because this is the geniza of The Jewish Angle. Our little 21st century getaway, from where you can disappear for a few minutes or a few centuries. Just take your dry cleaning receipts with you.

-- D.H.

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