Thursday Afternoon Rambly Bits

[gnomi]

-- Fresh blueberries in my breakfast cereal? Magnificent.

-- Last night, I was cooking simultaneously for a shiva and a sheva berachot. There was something of a surreal quality to it all. But we brought the pasta to the shiva house still warm, and she ate it right there and then, so I was pleased to have been able to provide. And the sheva berachot is tonight.

-- Related to the above: "The sheva berachot is tonight" or "The sheva berachot are tonight"? Discuss.

-- I'm working on the fourth of six froggy feet (link to PDF pattern) that I'm knitting. I'm up to the froggie toes, so I have about 8 rounds left, and then I bind off and start the next froggie foot. After that, froggy heads (link to PDF pattern).

-- On Monday, I braved the mall and bought two new dresses for shul for the summer. I've been getting bored with the three different (blue) summer dresses I have, so I took advantage of it being past the midpoint of the summer and hit a dress sale. So, yay. And I think beckyfeld would approve of my purchases. She, in her role as fashion insultant, has trained me well.

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Narf!

[aunt-becca.livejournal.com]

Please with them a mazel tov from us!
Where'd you get the dresses?

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

froggie hat! and feet! very cute. are the feet mittens or, like, booties? i can't tell. they look like froggie booties, tho.

fashion insultant? heeee!

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Narf!

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I shall!

And I got the dresses (two for $60! Yay, sales!) at Sears in the Cambridgeside Galleria, of all places. I was very happy with the selection; I could've left with even more had I not restrained myself.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

The feet are booties/socks. I do froggies and ducks (the ducks are also hat/sock combos).

I've always said that the difference between a fashion insultant and a fashion consultant is that the consultant says, "I think this will look good with that," whereas the insultant says, "You're going out in public in that?!"

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Oooh, good question. I think that because in this context you're not talking about the brachot themselves but the party organized in their honor, you should use the singular, "the sheva brachot is tonight." It's understood shorthand for "the sheva brachot celebration is tonight."

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

Related to the above: "The sheva berachot is tonight" or "The sheva berachot are tonight"? Discuss.

Um, narf?

[norda.livejournal.com]

I think I need to go shopping with you.

I don't have the requirement for shul to worry about, but I'm wearing through my summer "uniform" of tops and floaty skirts. I am wondering whether I'd feel cooler in dresses than just skirts & tops. The humidity this year has just been unbearable, and the less binding a waistline is for me, the better.

[cellio]

Seconded. I still feel funny saying it, but it's less bad than the alternative. If I want to dodge, I'll refer to the sheva-brachot dinner or say I'm joining folks for sheva brachot (note omission of determiner entirely), or something like that.

The same problem comes up when two people are becoming bar or bat mitzvah at the same service.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, especially if it's a girl and a boy. "This shabbat is my cousins' bar and bat mitzvah"? No. "This shabbat is my cousins' bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah"? No. "This shabbat is the bar mitzvah of my cousin and the bat mitzvah of my cousin"? No. Whew!

[tapuz.livejournal.com]

Thirded!

I was going to say "sheva berakhot [implied: recitation] is tonight"

[tapuz.livejournal.com]

"This shabbat is my cousins' respective bar and bat mitzvah" ???
(or just "This shabbat, my cousins Ploni and Plonit are becoming bnei mitzvah"???)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

"This shabbat is the celebration of my cousins' b'nei mitzvot celebration."

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

< Family Feud> ::claps:: Good answer! Good answer! </ Family Feud>

To briefly explain the question -- "Sheva berachot" means "seven blessings" and is, in the Hebrew, plural. But when I'm using it in English to describe the gathering at which we repeat the seven blessings said under the chuppah, I'm never sure if I should consider it singular or plural. My instinct is to default singular.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

If you end up going shopping with Nomi, can we buy a few more Doctor Who DVDs? :-)

[norda.livejournal.com]

Oh, twist my arm, good sir! :-)

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

"Narf" is always a good answer in this blog :)

Thanks for the explanation! If I ever buy more user icons, I totally need to make a Shiksah icon for posts like these.

[zsero.livejournal.com]

Definitely singular. You wouldn't be making food for the actual brachot themselves. So in this context "sheva brachot" stands in for "the meal which will be concluded with the sheva brachot", and that longer phrase is singular.

[aunt-becca.livejournal.com]

I just got total steals at Filene's Basement in Newton. I got a skirt for $30 and change, originally $110. You should check it out if you have the time. It's the one on Needham St. I don't shop often, but when I do, I manage to find really excellent bargains.