As usual I was stumped for a topic for this week’s article. Upon awakening to snow on Monday, I remembered the time I was “forced” to go white water rafting. It was 1984 and our good friend Shimmy Stein put together a white water rafting expedition to Lehigh. He had his chevra from Forest Hills (us) and his friends from everywhere else. All my friends said it would be a great experience and that I had to try it at least once. The Webers and Maels were also going and talked me into it as well. As we got close to our destination, I started to panic. I knew I was going to hate it. more

Judy Joszef is off this week, so we’re rerunning one of our many favorite Joszef columns. We were heading out to a wedding dear friends were making and I wanted to leave enough time to get there since we always get lost somehow or stuck in horrendous traffic. I hadn’t eaten all day and was looking forward to the shmorg. Lucky for me there was no traffic and we got off the highway in record time. Only problem was, the road we were supposed to merge onto was nowhere in sight. Jerry assured me it must be up ahead.“ more

Being way past deadline (as usual) for this week’s column, I was frustrated as not only was I late, I couldn’t come up with a topic to write about. Total writer’s block. And as hard as it is to come up with ideas for my column, it’s even harder to correlate them to the recipe, as you have probably noticed in the past, or you will certainly notice this week. So last night, while sitting at my computer, which by the way is from the Dark Ages, or so my kids tell me, I was close to calling my editor and admitting defeat, when while eating the fifth snack in the span of 20 minutes, I started to choke. Seems the almond I swallowed had different plans than the norm. Being home alone, I panicked a bit, but all ended well. I was a little shaken, but I had an idea for this week’s column.N more

It’s late, 2:30 am. This article is going to get to the editor late, and my Braves lost their lead and their do-or-die playoff game late in the game. I hate being late, but when I’m late, I hustle. When I worked in the city, I became so adept at making the train, no matter how late I was, that I was able to leave my house, drive a mile, find a parking spot (no easy feat!), run toward the train and across the tracks while the train was already there. All in four minutes. Of course I couldn’t catch my breath for half the train ride and I had to listen to the conductor admonish me not to run across the tracks while the gates were down (yes, I know he was right). more

With the close of summer and the close of the yom tov season, came the end of baseball’s regular season, and the greatest closer closed his last game. I’m a diehard Atlanta Braves fan, yet last week, when Mariano Rivera played his final game at Yankee Stadium and I watched clips of it after yom tov, I actually cried. Not because he had one the most iconic careers in major league history, winning more awards and holding more records than I could ever fit into this article, but because it was the close of a career of an amazing human being. more

With a growing number of Shomer Shabbat patients arriving at Rockville Centre’s Mercy Medical Center, a member of Catholic Health Services of Long Island, the need for hospital-based bikur cholim assistance has been increasing. more

This week, we got our sukkahs out of hiding, bought our lulavim and etrogim and those new Yom Tov fall/winter outfits (clothes that we won’t be able to wear yet, although we’ll certainly spot one or two women suffering through the heat in their suede or fur trimmed suits, all in the name of fashion … come on, you’ve been there once or twice). And then there is the planning for not one, but two, three-day Yomim Tovim. And we will eat, till it’s time to eat again — all six meals, all three days, both Yomim Tovim. more

On Central Avenue, in the kosher supermarkets, in shul, or on the LIRR, you hear the same conversation. “What?! Rosh Hashanah is next week!?” And then the dreaded “three day yom tov — oy!” I wonder why, every year, everyone is so surprised that’s it’s already yom tov time. Truth is, it has been three months since the start of June. Kids were packed off to camp, parents went on vacation and we partook in lots of family and friends BBQs, lounged in our backyards, and enjoyed the lazy days of summer (some of us more than others, but it’s ok, I’m not jealous … well, yes I am, but this isn’t about me). more

As the Jewish world focuses on teshuva and spiritually preparing for the New Year, it is also gearing up for three sets of three-day yomim tovim (holidays), with Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot falling on Thursdays and Fridays followed by Shabbat. Careful planning for this confluence of feast days by Gourmet Glatt, a kosher supermarket in Cedarhurst, may make holiday food shopping and preparation a bit easier. more

What in the world did we do before cell phones? Wait, I think I actually recall. We would make plans and have to stick to them! If we made up to meet our friends, we had to be there on time. Of course there were instances when we would be standing there for over half an hour without a friend in sight. Did I have the wrong location? Should I walk a block or two to a pay phone and call her house to see if she left? What if I walked to the pay phone and then I missed her? more