Odd Day

Somewhere along the line, perhaps during the years when I worked with many Europeans at Pfizer, I began writing dates as DD-MM-YYYY. When you think about it, this really makes sense, going from the particular (day) to the next level (month) to the highest level (year).

Here in the US, dates are usually written as MM-DD-YYYY. Hence the date today is 11-13-15, which consists of three consecutive odd numbers. That raises a question: how often does it occur that the date can be written as three consecutive odd numbers?

Every year has a maximum of 12 months, each month a maximum of 31 days, and each century consists of 100 years.

The odd months in each year are 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11

The odd days in each month are 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, …, 31

The odd years for each century are 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15,……99

So, we have six days in each century that follow the pattern:

1-3-5

3-5-7

5-7-9

7-9-11

9-11-13

11-13-15

In other words, this configuration will not appear again until the 22^nd Century, January 3^rd of 2105 (1-3-5) to be precise!

Just to have some fun, how does this work for even numbers?

The even months in each year are 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12

The even days in each month are 2, 4, 6, 8, …, 30

The even years for each century are 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, …

So we have

2-4-6

4-6-8

6-8-10

8-10-12

10-12-14

12-14-16

If I have gotten this correctly, December 14^th of next year is the very last time this can happen until we get to the 22^nd century, right? Barry just told me he does not expect us to be around to see it on January 3^rd of (210)5, so we should enjoy it now.

I am getting dizzy just thinking about this.

Thanks to my sister Wendy for sharing this with me.

Have a nice weekend,

Love,

Rebecca

Understanding priorities

We saw two movies over the past week. First, Barry and I went to see “Truth,” with Robert Redford as newscaster Dan Rather and Cate Blanchette as the program producer, Mary Mapes. I remember Dan Rather but to be honest I had no recollection of why, after many years as the anchor on CBS News, he appeared to have fallen off the planet.

It all began with a topic that had come up a number of times before: George W. Bush’s military service. Mr. Bush’s family connections had allowed him to avoid being drafted into the war in Vietnam, serving instead in the Texas Air National Guard. In September 2008, the CBS 60 Minutes news team reported on newly gathered evidence that Mr. Bush had been derelict in those duties, and what happened then is the story the movie tells.

Meanwhile, the supporters of Mr. Bush did a fine job of discrediting the story and the key staff of 60 Minutes. At the end, Mr. Rather, Ms. Mapes, and most of the other reporters were fired from CBS. In their zealousness in reporting a story they truly believed was factual, were they too quick to believe their sources? On the other hand, when key sources later recanted, was it because they felt the reporting was in error or because they were forced by Bush’s advisors to do so? Admittedly in the enthusiasm to report this story, there was some sloppiness in documenting everything the CBS News team had learned from the extensive interviews. The movie does not really try to answer that question, and you walk out realizing how easy it is to change the entire narrative by altering just a few key facts.

We spent the weekend up in Sharon. We had an especially enjoyable Sabbath lunch with Barry’s brother’s daughter, our niece Sarah, who lives in Boston. Although Sarah and her sister are fairly close in age to Simmie and Dina, the girls did not spend a lot of time together growing up; sometimes life gets in the way of doing the things that really matter. But what is funny is that Sarah is also an educator, working with children with learning disabilities. She and Dina are able to speak the same lingo and compared thoughts on various approaches, and she is very good at engaging the children, who, not surprisingly, took an instant liking to her. We all agreed that we should not let so much time pass before we get together again.

On Sunday, while Simmie and Ronen shopped for a new car to replace one of theirs that is on its last leg, we took the girls to see The Peanuts Movie. It was very nicely done, with the comic strip characters up to their usual antics. There were also some “classic” moments, like when a famous Van Gogh painting flew out of Snoopy’s doghouse window and Maya yelled out “there’s Starry Night!” The story is about a new girl in town who attracts Charlie Brown’s attention, but his nervousness gets in the way of just being able to speak with her. It was good but I cannot imagine why anyone would go to see this movie without children.

As a sort of experiment, we took the train to and from Boston (the nearest stop to Sharon Route 128). We had planned carefully on our last trip, making sure we had all we needed so we would not have to bring too much luggage with us. The train, I have often said, is quite civilized. While we cannot do it every trip, we should be able to use it to ease up on Barry doing so much driving.

Barry has a very full day today, so I did something I keep talking about doing, attended Rav Avi Weiss’ Tuesday morning class on the biblical story of Joseph. I was stunned to find 25 seniors there! Many had obviously come before and were very comfortable about contributing ideas and asking questions. Learning with Rav Avi is never boring. During the course of the class, he told a story some of us have heard before. For many years, Avi was one of the leaders of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, an organization that worked to liberate Soviet Jews; earlier this year he published a memoir detailing his efforts, Open Up the Iron Door: Memoirs of a Soviet Jewry Activist.

His son’s junior high school graduation was scheduled at a time when he was supposed to be overseas for one of the countless events he attended as part of SSSJ. He spoke with his son, and his son waved him on saying “I understand, this is important, you have to go.” It was only a few years ago that this topic happened to arise, and his son, now grown, voiced his disappointment that his father had not attended his graduation. Rav Avi said “you wanted me to go to the protest in Poland,” to which his son replied, “come on, Dad, I was just a kid, what did I know? Now I wish you had been there!”

I remember the first time Rav Avi shared this story with Barry and me. Barry’s father (may he rest in peace) died just a few days before Dina’s high school graduation. I was chatting with Rav Avi about how disappointed Dina was that her Abba (father) would not be with her at her graduation. You can probably see where this is going. Rav Avi asked me to let him think about this, and he got back to us encouraging Barry to go to the graduation, albeit with some restrictions. With the help of friends, Barry came, sat in the back, and saw Dina receive her diploma before returning to his mother’s apartment where he was sitting shiva. After the class this morning, I went up and told Rav Avi about this incident. I did not expect him to remember this, but I did want him to know that 15 years later it still means a good deal to our family that Barry was able to be there even if in a limited way.

Have a good week.

Love,

Rebecca

You Gotta Believe

With Tug McGraw urging his teammates on and celebrating victories with what soon became the catch phrase of 1973 Mets, "You Gotta Believe!!!" the Mets kept zigging and zagging away from would-be tacklers, and taking an occasional side-swipe, headed for this most unlikely of pennants.

These past two weeks have been a roller coaster ride for fans of the New York Mets baseball team. Just ten days ago was the thrill of the team winning the National League Pennant. Two days later, the Kansas City Royals won the American League Pennant, and the World Series kicked off in Kansas City last Tuesday. Unfortunately for Mets fans, the thrill was not to last:

Game	Date	Where	Mets	Royals
1	Tuesday 27 October	KC	4	5
2	Wednesday 28 October	KC	1	7
3	Friday 30 October	NY	9	3
4	Saturday 31 October	NY	3	5
5	Sunday 01 November	NY	2	7

By yesterday (Sunday), with the probability of the Mets overcoming the Royals looking quite grim, StubHub was filled with tickets for sale and prices rapidly dropping. Despite being a (nearly) life-long Mets fan, Barry had never seen a World Series game live, and just the opportunity to do that was a real thrill. So by early Sunday afternoon, we bought tickets, even though we knew we would likely watch the team lose.

That last game ended up being especially painful. At the end of the 8^th inning the Mets were winning 2-0. Then, in the top of the 9^th the Royals scored two runs, bringing the game to a tie and into extra innings. Neither team scored in the 10^th  and 11^th, but then the Royals scored 5 – yes 5 – runs in the top of the 12^th. When the Mets had two outs and no runs in the bottom of the 12^th we, like most others, chose to leave. It was almost midnight, which felt more like 1:00 am with the clocks having just been changed to standard time, and we listened to the rest of the game on the radio in the car.

Even with the ticket prices having dropped, going to this post-season game was quite a bit more expensive than attending a regular season game. But neither the cost nor the fact that the Mets did not win is the reason we might hesitate to do this again. This game was an entirely different experience than all the other games we have attended over the past few years. The first major difference could be seen in front of the rest room entrances: a handful of women and a long line of men, the opposite of what is usually seen. Women do go to baseball games, but perhaps when it comes to the World Series, which is so outrageously expensive, their numbers are much smaller. The second major difference was the noise level and decorum of the fans. While I appreciate that the stakes are high when the World Series is being played, the volume and content of the language left me with a headache by the time we left Citi Field. As the game wore on, I was wondering at what point those guys sitting right in front of us would finally lose their voices entirely, but it was not to happen, and at one point they nearly got into fisticuffs with a group sitting across the aisle.

I had spent too much time in my younger years hearing about baseball because some members of my family had a rather intense (to put it mildly) love/hate relationship with the game and players. Three years ago when I “discovered” baseball as a pleasant outing, the Mets were just the Mets and Citi Field was a perfect place for a patient undergoing chemotherapy to spend an afternoon. Fans can even buy kosher potato knishes and hamburgers and hot dogs to enjoy during the game. But a World Series game is something of a different experience, not necessarily one I would care to repeat. Truth is, had the Mets been winning this series, the ticket prices would not have been as low as they were. Yet these were not fans who were satisfied to just be able to attend a post-season game: they are counting on much more.

I will leave to Joshua and Barry a detailed discussion of the game and the implications for next year. Who knows, maybe someday we’ll be going to World Series games with Joshua? After all, “They don't call them the Miracle Mets for nothing. You just gotta believe.”

 Love,

Rebecca

They won!

I am exhausted, having stayed up rather late too many nights this week to watch the New York Mets win the National League Pennant after only four games against the Chicago Cubs. The first two games had been in New York while the next two were in Chicago. It was so sad to see the looks on the faces of the Chicago fans. The connection of some fans to their teams runs very deep.

I am ready for a few days away from baseball now; I do not plan to watch the final game(s) for the American League pennant.

But, speaking of statistics…my blog is just about to hit the 30,000 mark!

As of	Posts	Page views	Time Lapse	Avg. views/day
25 October 2013	131	10,000	9 months	36
24 June 2014	128	10,000	8 months	42
30 October 2015	116	10,000	16 months	9
Overall	375	30,000	33 months	30

I know that relative to all these posts that “go viral” and have millions of views within hours, this is not a very impressive showing. But it means a lot to me that you continue to read it, and that is all I ever wanted.

It appears that the cold weather is about to return, perhaps this time for a while. So this weekend we won’t leave our coats behind! Stay warm and be well.

Love,

Rebecca

Steve Jobs

A number of interesting and well-reviewed films have opened in New York over the past couple of weeks. Since we were here this weekend and it was too cold to do anything outdoors, we took the opportunity to see one.

Barry usually likes to let me choose, although I do not always relish the pressure of these choices. This weekend, there were a few options. There was “Bridge of Spies,” a Steven Spielberg historical thriller in which Tom Hanks stars as the lawyer who represented a Soviet spy and negotiated a swap for two Americans. That word “thriller” bothers me, because usually it describes a tense story, and I am only rarely in the mood to feel more tense than I already do much of the time. Then there was “Truth,” a journalistic telling about the events that ended Dan Rather’s career as a CBS anchorman. This was higher on the list.

My first choice, the movie we saw, was “Steve Jobs.” I had seen the trailer and read a bit and it just seemed interesting to me. After all, Barry and I both use iPhones and Barry has a Mac. The movie is about the early development of Apple computers.

To be perfectly honest, I was lost through a lot of the movie. I really knew very little about the development of the company during the 1980s and early 90s. I would have a hard time retelling the plot if not for cheating a bit with the help of A.O. Scott.

“Steve Jobs” is a rich and potent document of the times, an expression of both the awe that attends sophisticated new consumer goods and the unease that trails in the wake of their arrival. The movie burnishes the image of this visionary C.E.O. even as it tries to peek behind the curtain at the gimcrack machinery of omnipotence. Mostly, though, it is a formally audacious, intellectually energized entertainment, a powerful challenge to the lazy conventions of Hollywood storytelling and a feast for connoisseurs of contemporary screen acting. 

Steve Jobs is played by Michael Fassbender, known for his roles in the films “Inglourious Basterds” (2009), “X-Men: First Class” (2011), “Shame” (2011) and “12 Years a Slave” (2013), none of which we have seen. He certainly did a fine job (pun intended?) of portraying Jobs, down to the posture and expressions that are so familiar from seeing him over the years. Kate Winslet played a marketing executive who, at least in the movie, was his near-constant companion, Joanna. Jeff Daniels was John Sculley, and Seth Rogan played Steve Wozniak. Jobs’ daughter is played by three different actresses as a young girl, a teenager, and a college student. He apparently had other children but only this one was part of the movie tale.

This is a movie I do recommend, even to people who are not crazy about those Apple products (you know who you are J). I was left admiring of his genius while recognizing that he was not the sort of guy I would have liked to know or with whom I would have cared to work.

On Monday afternoon I attended a luncheon at which our friend Carole was given an award by the Center for Children’s Initiatives for her work as a Co-Director of the Infancy Leadership Circles Project of New York Zero-to-Three Network. It was quite gratifying to be there with her friends and family celebrating this honor. This write-up explains Carole’s background and the work that she has done for many important causes.

Saturday Night Live, while still going strong after 40 years (the first show was in October 1975) is definitely not the show we baby boomers remember from the early days, but every now and then my attention is drawn to something I find on-line or see briefly on TV. This past Saturday night, Larry David played quite a convincing and hilarious Bernie Sanders, and I have to believe that even Mr. Sanders had to chuckle.

I never thought I would find myself saying this, but I stayed up too late watching the New York Mets play the other night. So far our guys have won two games against the Chicago Cubs. During their history, the Mets have won two World Series titles (1969 and 1986) and four National League pennants (1969, 1973, 1986, 2000).The Cubs, on the other hand, have played in seven World Series following their wins in 1907 and 1908, the most recent in 1945. So I do understand why people are feeling a bit sorry for them, but we are sticking with our Mets for now!

Have a great week!

Love,

Rebecca

The days go by slowly but the years go by quickly

This phrase has been on my mind but, after spending too many precious minutes surfing the world-wide web, I cannot seem to find the source of this quotation. But that does not detract from its veracity.

We had a nice end of the Sukkot holiday with our family and friends. A few days after the end of the holiday, Barry, who had finally recovered from a cold he had gotten during the middle days, went off to Chicago for a meeting. Although I had been away from our New York home for than two weeks, it just made sense to stay in Sharon, which I did.

That enabled me to do a few things I had wanted to do. First, I was able to spend some time with our friend whose husband had died a couple of weeks ago. As is customary when a death occurs during one of the week-long holidays, the Shiva (7 days of mourning) had been postponed until after the end of the Sukkot holiday. People often talk about being stymied by not knowing the “right thing” to say to someone who has had a loss. The guidance for Shiva is to let the mourner(s) lead the conversation. Sometimes they will not want to speak at all, and you can sit quietly and hope that your presence and prayers somehow strengthen them. In this case, talking about the final days and the difficult decisions seemed to help our friend, although now that the period has ended I imagine she is quite exhausted. While shiva is a beautiful custom, the trouble is that the mourners go from having a house full of people to suddenly being relatively alone to begin the hard work of putting their lives back in some sort of new perspective. It is just one of those things for which we can never be prepared.

When Maya was at our house for her “Nana/Sabba” week back in early September, she took great interest in the piano. She sat at it for quite a while pressing keys and creating melodies. At some point I asked her if she wanted to learn how to play, and she enthusiastically agreed. I could not seem to find any beginner piano music in my pile, so we went on-line and stumbled upon a course. We started with the first lesson, and she learned that little 3-note song very quickly. She played it over and over again, each time her finger movement becoming more controlled. It was abundantly clear that she is ready for piano lessons.

The beginning of the school year is incredibly busy for our both of our daughters. Simmie is a teacher in the Pre-Kindergarten class and Dina is an administrator developing curriculum (among other things) in the elementary grades in the local Jewish day school. So Barry and I started searching for a piano teacher. We contacted all the teachers we found listed within a small radius and I dutifully prepared a spreadsheet to track the details of each one. We started to arrange for times to meet when Simmie and the girls attended a 250^th celebration of the Town of Sharon and met a neighbor they had never known who is a pianist and looking to take on more students. When we were in Sharon a few days later we met with her and liked her ideas and her style. Maya had her first lesson and it went very well. She has already been “performing” for us. She had two assignments from her first lesson, one of which was to compose her own piece. Here she is playing it. Perhaps jazz piano is in her future?

While I am on the subject of accomplishments of the Rosenstein progeny, I had the great honor of accompanying Dina into Boston on Columbus Day to sit on the sidewalk in my wheelchair on an absolutely glorious day and watch her start and finish the Tufts 10K Race. Dina started running for fitness during the past year and has run in a number of events but this was the first time I have had a chance to go with her. It was really a thrill to see that sea of faces and know that she was in there somewhere. Maybe 10K seems like a trifle to any of you hard line fitness buffs, but in family with parents and grandparents who are each a little less fit and coordinated than the next, this is a very big deal! Joshua and Ella must have gotten a dose of whatever gene Dina has, and Eliana is surprisingly strong and athletic as well. Congratulations, Dina – you go girl!

Looks like I will need to spend time putting away the summer clothes and dragging out the winter ones. It had to happen eventually, I guess. Let’s just hope that Boston has a bit less snow this year!

Love,

Rebecca

No words

I know it has been a few weeks since I have posted. At first it was just that we were very busy with the holidays. We came to Sharon the weekend before Sukkot and have been here the last couple of weeks. The holidays always keep us busy. The weather was perfect the first two days, sunny and comfortable, just cool enough to keep the bees from intruding on our festive meals. We ate with our children for the evening meals but were invited to friends both days. The first was a wonderful opportunity for the two of us to spend an afternoon with the two of them, their daughter and her husband, and their young grandson. It had been far too long since we had the opportunity to time to sit and reminisce. The second day was the annual gathering at another friend’s house. A number of people were away but it made it more possible to really chat with almost everyone who was there, and that was quite enjoyable. There was an abundance of delicious food throughout the holiday, too!

After the first two glorious days of Sukkot, the rain came, and came, and came, and did not stop until the last days. So we really had much less time in the Sukkah than we would have liked; maybe next year.

During our years in Sharon, we lived very close to a number of members of our synagogue. Most of us were 30-something couples with elementary or younger children. A few of us lived on Brook Road in Sharon, including Barry and Hilary and their children. Just before last Shabbat we received the news we had all been dreading, that Barry had died of cancer. Barry (my husband) and I had been visiting our friend on nearly every trip to Sharon over the past months. He had been diagnosed about two years ago and initially seemed to do well following surgery, but the cancer returned with a vengeance and he had been in home hospice for the last couple of months. All of their children were in Sharon for the first days of Sukkot. Their oldest son lives on the West Coast and left his wife and two young children behind, but their other two sons, their daughter and her husband and two children all spent the holiday in Sharon.

Barry and Hilary were both doctors: Barry specialized in hematology/oncology and Hilary in pediatrics. It was actually through our friend Barry that Barry met Dr. K., an oncologist/radiation oncologist in Israel, and it was Dr. K. who organized an intensive week long course Barry has taught in clinical radiation biology. The course has taken a number of forms but basically Barry taught a clinical radiation biology course in Israel or in Turkey for an intense week every three years or so.

There was a memorial service in Sharon before the family travelled to Israel where he was to be buried today, and they are probably on their way back as I write this, to sit Shiva at their home on Brook Road. I am confident that all of their wonderful friends in the Sharon community will help Hilary navigate the difficult road ahead.  

Love,

Rebecca