Ultimate in Legos for girls

I have written before about the Lego kits we have bought for our grandchildren. The ones designed for girls are filled with pink and purple and flowers and puppies and all sorts of things that little girls love. Still, the same skills are required to put these kits together as the original kits, so we have bought quite a few of them.  

I was so excited when I came across this: Lego figurines of the three current and one past female members of the Supreme Court of the United States.

For 192 years, until 1981, the constitutionality of United States law was decided by men alone. In that year, President Ronald Reagan appointed Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. She served until 2006. Three women, Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1993), Sonia Sotomayor (2009), and Elena Kagan (2010) have since joined and continue to serve on the Court. 

Unfortunately, at this time the Lego set is not available for purchase. It was submitted to LEGO Ideas, but was rejected by the company for going against their "no politics or political symbols" rule. If they ever change their minds, I can promise you we will be the first to order it!

We were up in Sharon for the weekend. We had a fun Purim holiday, a terrific meal, and a lovely Shabbat. The only downside was that Ella was under the weather and was unable to join in all the festivities. But by the weekend she was back to her usual self and we had some time with her. Then, as planned, we spent Sunday preparing the apartment for Passover. It is still four weeks away, but this was our best opportunity to take a couple of days to focus on that activity. We will be in New York the next few weeks, so it works well.

Barry was a bit under the weather so we stayed up in Sharon until early this morning, and then made our way back to New York. Shortly after we arrived home and plugged in our laptops, Barry received some wonderful news.

Barry had submitted a grant proposal to the Prostate Cancer Research Program of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, and he found out this morning that his project is going to be funded. Many of you may not be aware but these are incredibly difficult times for basic research, with far less funding available than in the past. At one time, 25-30% of grant applications were approved and funded; now that number is fewer than 10%. This was not Barry’s first attempt to obtain funding for this project, which is the result of years of federally funded research work. This was especially frustrating because that work is now coming close to yielding results that will help doctors and patients determine the best treatment for their particular tumors. It would be a great shame to have to abandon it now. So we are thrilled that, at least for the next three years, he will be able to keep it going.

And it is a bit warmer outside!

Love,

Rebecca