The Sex Museum, New York
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Posted:Oct 12, 2008 6:16 am
Last Updated:Mar 19, 2009 3:51 pm 43422 Views
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This museum is steps away from the Jewish museum. It's on the underground station line. And you can get off here if you've bought the Gray line hop on hop off New York bus tour with recorded commentary. They mention Macy's department store (founded by Jewish brothers - one of whom died on the Titanic with his devoted wife who refused to leave him and get in the life boat. the tour doesn't tell you to get off here for the Jewish Museum and the Sex Museum but we knew.
The Sex Museum is on two floors. The ground floor has the shop and the exhibition on animals and sex, with lots of videos taken by zoos and safari parks which have breeding programmes and fund investigation.
I already knew from a visit to a UK bird park that flamingos are encouraged to breed when they see other flamingos going at it. So the park installed mirrors to give the impression that twice the number of birds were indulging in an orgy. This method did seem successful. Makes you wonder about human peer pressure and teenage sleepover parties.
To my surprise nothing in the museum about flamingos. But my interest had already been roused and I wanted to linger. In contrast to some of the male visitors who rushed past and upstairs to see what was shown and said about human sexuality.
Frankly, I found the information about animals quite shocking. If you think the behaviour of people on the sister sites to this one is uninhibited, animals are even more so.
Some animals have group sex. Some are bisexual. Others mate with anything, any age, too young to breed, the animal equivalent of sex predators.
A small number pair off and stay devotedly coupled. I've been researching on line for a project for and wonder what I dare tell them and how much to comment. A friend told me his 9 year old liked watching wildlife TV programmes. One showed baby birds eating each other. He wondered whether this might upset her. But she wasn't phazed; not as much as he was. (He was concerned for the birds, himself, and his . She just shrugged.)
After this shock, I raced upstairs to catch up. (I'd lost my companion and running short of time.)
It would take a while to read all the captions and digest the significance. They showed: condoms, art displaying sex acts, films though the ages and how censorship had changed and landmark films.
And sex advice films showing different sexual positions. That was really useful.
The shop had some amusing books. One on make your own sex toys - no serious, things like woolly condoms.
Another was on sexual versions of fairy tales. Things like Snow white and the seven gay dwarfs. I'm now sorry I didn't buy that for a laugh. I was trying not to buy heavy things because of luggage weight flying home.
They also sold chocolate covered condoms. I think every person will get something quite different out of it. Strange that I was shocked, but not by the human stuff at all, only by the animals.
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Jews And Sex
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Posted:Oct 12, 2008 5:54 am
Last Updated:Apr 26, 2024 12:2 am 41744 Views
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I just returned to the UK from the USA where I visited the Jewish museums in New York and Philadelphia and the sex museum in New York.
Now I've got your attention, I'll do separate posts on those three subjects.
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Guess Who's Jewish In Literature - Justine!
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Posted:Sep 1, 2008 8:07 am
Last Updated:Apr 26, 2024 12:2 am 38502 Views
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I just read in the TLS (Times Literary Supplement) on line an article about Lawrence Durrell. The author wrote the novel Justine, main character in that book and others in The Alexandrian Quartet a series of (four linked novels set in cosmopolitan Alexandria, Egypt, telling same story from the viewpoint of different characters).
Justine was based on his friend Eve Cohen, who seems to have been one of him girlfriends or partners because they went to Israel.
Durrell's equally famous author brother wrote My Family And Other Animals, a cute book short and easy reading, about the family in Greece. This brother went on to found the Jersey zoo.
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The Most Famous Jew In France?
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Posted:Aug 20, 2008 10:53 am
Last Updated:Apr 26, 2024 12:2 am 37520 Views
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Marcel Proust, of course. Founder of the modern novel. There's a trail you can follow around coastal north France reading plaques.
The trail goes to a hotel which has his bust in the reception area. His statue stands outside in a circle in the public road.
He lived in the hotel in a room upstairs. He was there writing A La Recherche du Temps Perdu. His novel is in three volumes but I think you can get it translated into English as one giant volume or abridged as one short volume.
I wonder whether he was gay because of genetics, as seems to be thought nowadays, or because of his upbringing.
In addition to writing a hugely influential book, he had connections to the infamous Dreyfus case. the controversy caused so much excitement in the newspapers of the day, involving literary figures as well as those in politics, in fact just about everyone. There was some connection between Proust and the writing of J'Accuse.
If anybody knows more or can fill in more details by researching on the Internet please add some comments. Thanks.
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Jews in Greece, especially Thessalonika
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Posted:Aug 20, 2008 10:44 am
Last Updated:Aug 20, 2008 10:56 am 37729 Views
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Jews were half the population of Thessalonika, I discovered when I went to Greece's second city. At least they were on the eve of World War II. You can guess what happened. Now only a handful are left.
When Thessalonika had a large Jewish population so many worked in the port that it shut on Saturdays.
There were hopes of starting a Jewish memorial museum in Thessalonika. I imagine they are still waiting for funding.
Athens has a Jewish museum, I've heard.
It's extraordinary to think that there were so many Jews in Greece and I'd never learned about them.
That fits in with history. The Jews, some of who later became Christian, went from their homeland to Greece, especially as what is now Israel was occupied by the Greeks - later the Romans.
Here in England we had Romans, never Greeks, yet we feel an affinity with the Greek culture and its influence on ours.
As I was saying, the nearness of the two countries suddenly makes the whole jigsaw puzzle of history and migration make sense.
I found Greece to be a very pro-Jewish country. But then I meet welcoming people everywhere. What I mean is that the literature seems to be pro-Jewish and non anti-Jewish.
Non-orthodox Israelis are known to go to Greece to get married. This must give the Greeks in the tourist industry an interest in promoting good relations.
I think the Greek mother of Prince Philip, our Queen's husband, received an honourable mention at Yad Vashem for sheltering Jewish people, actually in the Greek palace. I must check up on that. I'll do it later and come back.
If you have anything to add from your general knowledge, or you have time to research on the Internet, I'd be glad to hear it.
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Jewish Angels As Matchmakers
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Posted:Jul 1, 2008 10:37 am
Last Updated:Oct 12, 2008 5:50 am 39917 Views
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Somebody asked me if there were any Jewish angels. They thought that angels were more of a Catholic concept.
Visual depiction of angels is more common in Catholic stained glass windows because of the taboo forbidding likenesses of human beings which could be worshipped. If I remember rightly - this dates back to the story of Abraham smashing the idols in his father's shop after realizing that statues were powerless and demonstrating the point to his father by claiming that the other statues had been smashed by the chief statue.
Looked at from a sociologist's point of view, it is merely an attempt by a more spiritual religion of ancient times to discredit the religion of surrounding and rival power groups.
To get back to the angels, yes there were angels. Cherubim and seraphim are concepts which end with the syllable im which is the Hebrew plural.
I did a search on the web for angels and Jewish and found web pages which referred to Jacob wrestling with an angel.
I then remembered hearing about the idea that everybody had a guardian angel and that marriages are made in heaven when two angels get together and each advocates their protegee as a suitable marriage partner. One of my favourite stories is about Mendelssohn, the one who wrote the wedding march, and his speech to persuaded his bride to be, describing a supposed conversation between their guardian angels.
Religions and holy books and encyclopedias about religions are full of scary, sordid and superstitious stories. The turning of the woman into a pillar of salt is only one I can recall from The Bible. The fore-runner of Frankenstein, the Dybbuk -a vengeful soul inhabiting another - to name spooky ideas from later literature. But one of the loveliest images is of the goodwill of the guardian angels lovingly arranging a marriage.
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How do you fireproof furniture?
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Posted:Jun 21, 2008 1:57 pm
Last Updated:Apr 26, 2024 12:2 am 39913 Views
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Anybody into property rental? I just discovered that in the UK when renting out property all upholstered furniture must carry a label saying it meets fireproofing standards.
Now I'm wondering about my furniture at home.
How do you check that furniture you have at home is fireproof?
Can you get re-upholstery or a fireproofing spray?
I searched on line but the only fireproofing spray I found was for theatres and not suitable for home use because it was not waterproof so it you tipped a glass of water over it or cleaned it with a damp rag it lost its waterproofing.
I called in a firm which offers (fireproof) new covers, and re-upholstery but they didn't seem to be able to do it.
Somebody suggested I should call Citizens Advice Bureau but my local one doesn't answer phone calls. They keep short hours and are far away.
Any other suggestions?
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More Hidden Secret Jews - Latest - Was Keats The Poet A Jewish Mr Katz
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Posted:Apr 4, 2008 10:50 am
Last Updated:Jun 21, 2008 1:49 pm 39138 Views
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Here's the latest. Keats supposedly died of consumption overseas. Now the church has discovered that his supposed body is four inches taller and matches the description of his friend's servant who had consumption.
Sounds like Katz, hiding the fact that he was Jewish, got tired of the pretense so he could marry his Jewish girlfriend and go back to being Jewish. So he pretended he'd died, and the servant's grave was given his name.
Keats - really a Jewish poet?
Now for the best story for poetry lovers. Wordsworth's immortal poem Daffodils, goes:
I wandered lonely as a cloud
Then all at once I saw a crowd
A host of golden daffodils ...
It doesn't sound the same if you say A host of yellow daffodils. A bit prosaic. Brighter colours. But no, golden daffodils is better.
The original version had yellow daffodils. Who changed it? The Wordsworths' visitor, a Mr Katz. He was married to a Jewish Miss Gold and in business with her brother. Dorothy Wordsworth said Mr K would not eat meat.
Now we wait to hear from the cemetery whether they will allow an exhumation and whether Mr Katz, same dates at Mr Keats, was the same height too.
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What about those of us in the UK! Programmers - please think of us!
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Posted:Mar 17, 2008 2:11 am
Last Updated:Jun 21, 2008 1:48 pm 39864 Views
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I am constantly having trouble with sites which want me to choose a US state for my location. This is a real nuisance. I'm currently typing this in the UK. I've also lived in the Far East. And a relative of mine is working in Europe for a few months. He might want to order from there. I might want to send him a birthday present.
For example, you are allowed to give your country when registering on a book ordering site.
They give you postage rates for your overseas destination. Then when you fill in the recipients address, if different, you are asked to choose a US state and if you don't, the whole system crashes and you can't just retype that page, you have to start all over again with the book title, author, number, postage selected - a real waste of time.
The internet is worldwide and I'm in London, in the UK. It would be helpful to have 'other' under location. I put Maryland because that's where I used to live and in case the system won't let me comment unless I chose a US state and city.
Dating sites often insist that I chose a US state in searches. They allow me to register as being in the UK. Yet I can't search for anybody in the UK. Ridiculous.
Because up come 15 pages of people around the world. I have to read three pages of people before finding one in the UK.
I might end up being listed as living in the USA, although elsewhere in their system the questionnaire allows you to choose from a long list of countries anywhere in the world.
Often the comment and contact systems won't let you tell them about this problem. You can only ask or comment or report if you have on of their chosen list of subjects such as another member being abusive.
Occasionally I type in a comment in a space for other on another subject entirely
If you are a reader, please comment on this whenever you find a system which makes you choose USA. The sites take your money and want your business and more readers or participants.
I don't know whether the programmers don't have the time or are juniors in their first job or simply haven't noticed that they have provision for overseas readers on one page but not another.
If you do page setups, perhaps you can explain to me why this happens.
I might be happy to have a pen-pal on the opposite side of the world. I might be happy to meet somebody travelling to my current location.
However, I want a dinner date or a steady boyfriend. What's more, if I contact people in other countries, a high proportion of them will write back and say I sound delightful but even if I would be willing to locate, they want a local relationship.
They are looking for a date this weekend. Not somebody who will be writing for six months. Besides, by that time one of us may have found somebody else.
If you or the other members are looking for a local relationship, being matched with somebody in the same country in your first search is enormously helpful.
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Bacon in recipes - what can you do? Comment!
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Posted:Mar 17, 2008 1:52 am
Last Updated:May 24, 2008 5:13 pm 39998 Views
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A health newsletter sent a post about using rosemary for health reasons but the recipe ingredients were mushrooms and bacon.
I really think that with the increasing numbers of readers and viewers who are going to be cooking for eaters who are Jewish, Muslim or vegetarian, it would be helpful to list alternatives.
I haven't tried the recipe yet. It sounds a good idea, except that I have read that health food addicts should avoid processed meats.
It would be helpful to have an alternative meat for those who don't eat bacon (Jewish, Muslim and vegetarian family or friends and guests), and indeed any recipe could list alternatives as did WWII wartime cookbooks when meat was rationed and all sorts of ingredients might be unobtainable or the quantities were limited.
I would try the recipe with chicken. Of course you then lose the flavour.
I am not a vegetarian but I have neigbours, relatives and friends who are. You can buy vegetarian bacon-flavour bits which we found a great substitute for bacon.
My Attempts At Comments
I have always meant to tell TV programmes to offer alternative ingredients.
I added the above note as a comment on the internet recipe page.
My first attempt to comment failed. I tried to make my comment without adding a rating because I had not yet tried the recipe. Besides I was not sure that my rating would be useful to other readers if I had made a variation on the recipe.
But the page reloaded and made me type again. That was a nuisance. So I retyped and copied my text before clicking on submit. Then I thought - hey - just the thing for a post on a site with lots of Jewish readers.
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