Letter Meme Response - H

[gnomi]

Here's the meme:

This is how it works: Comment on this entry and I will give you a letter. Write ten words beginning with that letter in your journal, including an explanation what the word means to you and why, and then pass out letters to those who want to play along.

baiacou assigned me the letter H:

• Haptic -- also known as "touchy-feely." That's very much me. I'm a hugger (though not in all circles; my haptic tendencies and tzniut often bump up against each other), a toucher.
  
  
• Hectic -- sometimes my life is, very much. Especially around certain parts of the Jewish calendar, which segues beautifully into...
  
  
• Holiday -- I have many of them, at odd times of the year.
  
  
• Hopefully -- I am on the descriptivist side of the "hopefully" argument. This is not a request for debate. I just say that if you're not going to pick on "thankfully," what's the problem with "hopefully."
  
  
• Heretic -- I frequently use this sarcastically, to refer views I have that may not jibe with what people expect me to think/believe given that I'm an Orthodox Jew.
  
  
• Hebrew -- My mostly-useless-in-this-country second language, except for in religious contexts. Except now that I work for an Israeli company, it's become slightly more useful.
  
  
• Hillel -- Not just a Talmudic rabbi, also the Jewish organization on college campuses, and at the one at BU, I met mabfan (as well as others on my friends list).
  
  
• Headaches -- I get them from odd things. Nitrites, all artificial sweetners. Yeah, I don't get it -- sacharine, Splenda, aspartame...all give me headaches. Go figure.
  
  
• Heat -- I live in the Boston area. Heat in one's house is a Very Good Thing most of the year.
  
  
• Hypertext -- My conversations frequently require it. I need conversational clicky-links to help explain the random references that pop into my day-to-day discourse.
  
  

Comments

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Hillel is where I met my wife. I was working as the cook. Apparently, when she told her mother, the conversation went:

Mom, I met someone.
Great.
At Hillel.
Great.
He's the cook.
[silence].
Oh, he's Jewish.
Great

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Heh.

[docorion.livejournal.com]

"haptic tendencies and tzniut"

I will eschew the urge to say "Gesundheit" and instead ask "What does this word 'tzniut' mean"?

[tikvah.livejournal.com]

The literal translation is "modesty." In most Orthodox Jewish circles, adult men and women who are not married or closely related are expected to refrain from casual physical contant. Some "Modern Orthodox" folks do not subscribe to this rule - an example would be Senator Lieberman.

[docorion.livejournal.com]

Oh, *nice* icon choice...

("Heathens aplenty", is it? Alright, sister, it's *on* now :-)

[tikvah.livejournal.com]

You were expecting anything less?? ;-)

[docorion.livejournal.com]

Also? Thanks!

[tikvah.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. By the way, if you ever have a question about something Jewish and gnomi, myself, or Jewish friends of yours are not reachable, you can check out Ask Moses. There is a knowledgebase available at all times, and there is a reasonably learned traditionally observant Jew available, except during the Sabbath You'll only get an answer from the Orthodox perspective, but the site is very informative.

[ckd]

I'm still amused every time BU Hillel sends me mail, trying to get me to donate so that other students can have the same Jewish experience on campus that I did.

It's even more amusing when they call, though...the folks calling never quite seem to think about the etymology of my first name. "Christ-bearer", indeed.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

BU Hillel probably got your name off some program it ran with some other BU organization. And once they have your name, you'll be followed by them forever. :-)

[fernwithy.livejournal.com]

I loved my campus Hillel at Tufts. Sigh. Very warm and wonderful place. And I loved my rabbi there, who wanted to be a Hillel rabbi because he didn't like all the movements, and referred to himself as Reconformodox.

I need conversational clicky-links to help explain the random references that pop into my day-to-day discourse.

Live hypertext would make all things better. I'd put it on people's names so I could click on them and remember where I know them from and what they do. :am horrendously bad about this:

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I know people who identify as Reconformodox. It amuses me.

Sometimes, mabfan will hypertext for me or I will for him. But yeah -- having a hypertext name list would be great.

[fernwithy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's amusing. But also very sincere in some cases. He was the one who was so exasperated with Reform kashrut practice... he just tore at his hair and said, "I want any Jew to feel able to eat in my home!" (As opposed to the all to common, "So, will we be able to get good lobster at the bat mitzvah, or is it out of season?")

BTW, I'll take a letter if you want to give me one.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

BTW, I'll take a letter if you want to give me one.

All right. How about...O?

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

oh man! I wanted O! (well, actually, I didn't specifically want O, but as soon as you wrote O, I thought of a word that works for me with O... that doesn't mean I could think of 10 words, but ya know...). Ahem. Anyway, could you, um, maybe give me a letter?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Here! Have an...I.

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

This sounds interesting, and I would like to give it a shot if you don't mind!

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Sure! I give you...M.

[xochitl42.livejournal.com]

This is far too much fun. I'd like a letter, please. And I never knew the word haptic before! Very cool.

An as for the headaches--look into maltodextrin. It's a filler used in most artificial sweeteners to increase bulk (otherwise it'd be just a tiny spritz of powder in each packet, and the consumer would feel gypped, I suppose). My roommate has similar troubles and she seems to have narrowed it down to maltodextrin.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Ooh, interesting about the maltodextrin. I'll have to see if anything else with maltodextrin gives me headaches. Thanks for the tip.

And your letter is...P.

[seborn.livejournal.com]

whoa, I can have posts sponsored by letters, not just numbers? Sign me up!

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I'm very much enjoying your number-sponsored posts. I keep meaning to tell you.

The letter you have been granted is...F.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

Headaches -- I get them from odd things. Nitrites, all artificial sweetners. Yeah, I don't get it -- sacharine, Splenda, aspartame...all give me headaches. Go figure

This is a very common effect. All artificial sweeteners are known migraine triggerers, in addition to being know to trigger headaches.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Good to know. I knew that aspartame did. But Splenda is, I believe, just sugar wearing a slightly different hat, which I wouldn't figure would give me headaches.

[xochitl42.livejournal.com]

Take a look at a Splenda packet--right there, in dark blue print, is [spooky echo-y voice] Maltodextrin! Which continues to prove my theory that all Germans love Maltohasselhoff. --No, wait....