Presence

The Talmud of Curb: Schwimmer's Watch

In the fourth season finale of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David is about to star as Max Bialystoyk in Mel Brook's Broadway musical, The Producers, with David Schwimmer as Leo Bloom. Before the show, Schwimmer loses his watch, which Larry finds, but then loses (or so he thinks), an argument ensues as to who is responsible for the lost watch. Later, Larry discovers that the watch was acutally stolen from him by one of the hotel workers; he recovers the watch and returns it to Schwimmer, and The Producers is a big hit (much to Mel Brooks' chagrin). See the above clip.

The question is: had the watch not been found, who would have been responsible? Would Larry have to either reimburse or replace the watch? Or is Schwimmer out of luck? Usually, things don't work out to well for Mr. David. Whose side is the law on?

Fortunately for us, this is a famous debate in the Talmud. What is the halacha when someone finds a lost object, but then that object is either lost, stolen or accidentally damaged? The Talmud, in tractate Bava Metzia, 29A (and other places) brings down the famous case of pruta d'Rav Yosef, the penny of Rav Yosef.

When one finds a lost object, one becomes a guardian over that object; ostensibly, one is an unpaid guardian, which would mean that should anything happen to the object while one has guarding it, one would not be liable. Rav Yosef, however, has a famous opinion which changes the game: Rav Yosef holds that when one guarding a lost object, since they are at times taking care that the lost object is maintained (making sure it remains functional, clean, etc.), they are considered "involved in a mitzvah", and, should they happen to be approached by a poor person asking for money while caring for the lost object, they could claim that they are exempt from the mitzvah of tzedakah, as they are involved in the mitzvah of hashovas aveidah, returning a lost object. The monetary savings, albeit insignificant and probably theoretical, do have some actual value to the guardian. When applied in this case, it turns out that, according to Rav Yosef, Larry is benefiting, however minutely, from watching over David's watch. Therefore, he is considered a shomer sachar, a paid guardian, and would be obligated to reimburse David should the watch be lost or stolen (but not if it was accidentally damaged). For those that do not hold like Rav Yosef (Rabah, in this case), Larry would simply be a shomer hinam, an unpaid guardian, in which case he would not have any responsibilities vis-a-vis the watch, and would not be obligated to pay back Mr. Schwimmer.

The Rambam, in Hilchos Gezeilah V'Avedah (13:10), holds like R. Yosef (which would mean that Larry would be on the hook for the watch); other rishonim, such as the Ri and the Rosh, hold like Rabah, that Larry was a shomer hinam and free of responsibility. The Rambam's opinion, however, is favored, and the Shulchan Aruch, in Choshen Mishpat 267:16 agrees, paskening that one who is guarding a lost object is considered like shomer sachar. As usual, things aren't looking good for Larry.

But wait! The Ramah adds that, "just as in a case of collateral, we have the same ruling here." This cryptic statement can be understood with the help of the Meiras Einaim, who explains that in a case one takes collateral on a loan, but the collateral is worth more than the value of the loan, we are uncertain if the lender is responsible for the value above the total amount of the loan in the same way as he is for the principal value. For the principal value, the lender is certainly considered a shomer schar, and would be responsible for that portion of the collateral. But the value of the collateral beyond the total amount of the loan? We aren't sure, and so we are lenient and treat him as an unpaid guardian. So to, in the case of the guardian of a lost object, we say that we are unsure, and therefore Larry would be, quite uncharacteristically, off the hook.

Happy Purim!

Hasidic Jews in House

On last week's episode of House, patient of the week was a woman who became suddenly ill at her wedding. The catch: the patient was "a music producer living in the fast lane until she converted to Hasidic Judaism."

I'd heard much about this episode, but hadn't seen it when it aired; it recently became available online and I got a chance to watch it.

House is insistent that people don't change. He is adamant that the woman's religious renewal is related to her illness. House characterizes religion as both mental illness and masochism before it is revealed that, in fact, the woman's illness was unrelated to her choice to become Orthodox. Throughout the episode, there is a parallel between House's diagnosis of the woman's illness, and his argument with Wilson regarding his girlfriend (known on the show as CTB). At the end of the episode, House consents to Wilson dating CTB, even though it will damage their friendship. Wilson accuses House of changing, but House continues to insist that people don't change.

I think House's point is: people don't change; we may make changes, sometimes even drastic ones, to our lives and lifestyles, but those changes are often only superficial, done in service to something deeper in our psyche that is unchangeable. The woman's illness, although unrelated to her religious changes, doesn't indicate that people do change. Becoming Orthodox, for her, was simply following the same inner compulsion that she had been following her whole life. Although her life may seem drastically different to the casual observer, when looked at as a whole, her entire life's actions would fit into a single context. This is also illustrated by the Dr. Taub, who left a career as a plastic surgeon to become House's intern; although a drastic change in career, the change was preserve his marriage, to prevent change. House's change of heart for Wilson is simply based on the fact that he now feels that the relationship is good for his friend.

On note of trivia: the actress who plays the patient of the week is Laura Silverman, sister of comedienne Sarah Silverman.

My Vote for Best Super Bowl Commercial

Humor + Creativity. And the myriad of Charlie Brown references.

The rest are here.

This Just In

Trade on This: Insurance

Yeah, that's my boy! Who else goes on CNBC to talk about insurance stocks and ends up talking about slaughterhouses? NOBODY, 'cuz MS is off the hizzle. I also think the anchor kind of dug him.

For the record, Allstate had a slight jump just after 2PM, right after this aired.

The Season Finales

A quick rundown of my thoughts on the various finales. In no particular order, spoiler-full (don't say I didn't warn you).

• 24 - this show is just getting old. They didn't even end the season on a cliffhanger, just Jack half-shrouded in darkness looking all gloomy and stuff. Why do I want to tune in next season? To see Jack sitting at home drunk in the middle of the night crying over Audrey? Nope. I still think the best thing they could do for this show is kill off Jack and do the whole thing again with a new guy in the lead role. Ricky Schroeder would have been perfect for this, but he went and got all blinded. Oh well. This show is old and tired; if I have to watch Cloe break the rules and almost get fired one more time, or suffer through another Jack Bauer-guns-drawn-shout-down scene, I'll...do something. Season Overall: C-; Finale: D
• Heroes - weak ending. Heroes had it's moments this season; the beginning was interesting, the middle was boring. The episodes that did the best were the ones where the actually focused on telling a single story (like the one with Claire and her family where the house blows up). But the finale? The action sequences were mind-numbingly boring. Is there some unwritten Heroes rule that no more than two people can be fighting at the same time? And they didn't do the one thing that would have allowed to make sense out of that whole future episode thing (which means the whole thing made zero sense). I'm willing to suspend disbelief and accept that because of some genetic mutation, some guy can fly, but when you start messing with time travel, you better get your facts straight. Season Overall: B+; Finale: C
• The Office - the finale was really funny. I've been trading people Stanley nickels for like two weeks now, and they never lose their value. Oh, and regarding Jim and Pam: Yay! This season was just a bit ridiculous in terms of how things played out, I'm happy that their together, next season should be interesting. Things I am not happy with: BJ Novak. Why is this guy in the credits? His character has been so insignificant, especially compared to Kevin, Angela...even Phyllis (and certainly Stanley). I realize he's a producer or writer or something, but c'mon. And now he gets the job, making him Michael's boss. Puh-lease. I could write a whole post about this, but I'll just say: Ryan is a minor character, has had maybe three funny moments the entire series, and should stay in the background. We've got Pam and Jim, Dwight and Angela, and Michael and Jan (which I'd be willing to lose). That's enough. Series Overall: A-; Finale: A-; Ryan Howard/BJ Novak: D-.
• Lost - Whoah. Putting aside the fact that we didn't really learn anything new about the island, the finale was just really, really good. I'd even read some of the spoilers, and I was still enthralled. The whole end of the season was good. I can't get into too much here or I'll go on to long, but suffice it say, we've got something going on with alternate time lines. Weird stuff. I'm sad about Charlie, he was a right good bloke. But: Christian Sheppard Lives! Season Overall: A-; Finale: A+; Death of Charlie: :(.

Lost: Careful What You Wish For

On Lost, wishes come true. Examples:

• Juliet wished to Richard that her husband would be hit by a bus.


• Ben tells Richard to bring him the Man from Tallahassee.


• Ben wished for a spinal surgeon to fix his tumor; the plane crashed with Jack on board.


• When Ben (as a boy) meets Savage Richard in the jungle, and Ben says he wants to go live with the "Hostiles," Richard tells him, "If that's something you really want, I want you to think about it, but you'll have to be patient."


• After The Purge, Richard asks Ben, "Do you want us to go and get [your father's body]?"

The common denominator: Richard.

Also: the title of the episode was, "The Man Behind the Curtain," an obvious reference to The Wizard of Oz. And we all know what the whole point of going to see The Wizard was, right? The Wizard grants wishes.

My take: Richard is some kind of genie. He doesn't age, he does whatever Ben wants (notice he always asks Ben what he wants him to do). I'm not sure why he listens to Ben (maybe he listens to others as well, which could explain some things); it's clear that it has something to do with Ben's ability to see his dead mother as a child, but I'm not sure what.

Can you think of other examples of wishes coming true on the island?

Time-Traveling Hiros

I've been holding back from posting about Lost, mostly because the picture keeps changing from week to week. But last night's Heroes, which was awesome (the episodes that are one long story, rather than snippets of each character, are the best, in my opinion; the other great one was the one with Claire's family, where the whole episode was one story), requires some comment. There were some real holes in the whole future/alternate time lines thing that I'm having a lot of trouble with; if anyone can offer some explanations, I'd be much obliged.

OK. Future Hiro tells Geeky Hiro that, in his version of history, Sylar got to Claire and learned her power of regeneration. Geeky Hiro says that, in his past, Peter actually did "save the cheerleader," and as such, in Geeky Hiro's timeline, Sylar would not be invincible. Thus, if Geeky Hiro can get back to his own time, and kill Sylar, the bleak future portrayed in this episode would never come to pass. This all makes sense, except for one thing: Claire wasn't dead! Bennett was hiding her in Texas (how conspicuous). If Claire is still alive, Sylar doesn't have her power of regeneration, which means that when Future Hiro killed him, he should have been dead. Sylar confirms this as well, when he finally gets to kill Claire, saying, "I've been looking forward to this for a long time."

I'd have no problem with this if the show were adhering to a strict alternate time line structure; but they weren't. What sets everything in motion is Geeky Hiro telling Future Hiro that Peter actually did save Claire, which meant that Claire was still alive. There's a co-mingling of Future Hiro's present with Geeky Hiro's past. It doesn't make sense to me. The whole comic book thing was also a little strange, for the same reason.

I do think the writers have one way in which they can make this all make sense, but it would require two things: 1) Candice being killed by Sylar before the bomb goes off and 2) there being no such thing as an alternate time line...which means that all of Future Hiro's plans are/were/will be for naught.

Don't get me wrong, I like the whole idea that everything that's happened this season is as a result of a Future Hiro from an alternate time line going back and trying to set things right. But to do it right, Claire should have been dead in last night's episode. Otherwise, it makes no sense.

Also: I was trying to figure out how Peter had a scar; shouldn't he also have Claire's powers of regeneration? But if he never saved Claire, he might not have her powers...still it seems a bit odd that he never came in contact with her.

A final note: there still seems to be some confusion as to how Sylar learns new powers; I've seen speculation that he eats the brains of his victims, and other crazy ideas. I thought it was obvious from the beginning. Sylar used to fix watches, he had a knack for seeing how complex systems fit together. When he brained his first victim, he got a glimpse of how his mind did whatever special thing it did. Again using his ability to manipulate complex systems of even the smallest size, he is able to modify his brain to do the same thing. I like that Sylar and Peter basically have the same capabilities (learning and copying other's powers) but the manner in which they learn them is different. Sylar's requires him to murder the subject, while Peter's require him to empathize with them. It's that difference that makes one a villain, and the other a hero.

Lost and South Park: Awesome.

Last night was just an awesome night of TV. Lost was just awesome. I normally don't care for the filler episodes (I'm more interested in what's going on with the A-team and The Others than what's going on back at the beach), but the whole Nikki/Paulo back story, along with how they retrofit the two of them into the whole first and second seasons, plus the unbelievable ending, made for one exciting episodes. A few notes:

• It was so cool the way they worked Nikki and Paulo into the past goings-on on the island. Was that done with computers, did they actually shoot Nikki and Paulo from the beginnging, or did they recreate the whole plane crash scene?


• Paulo knew a whole lot about what was going on with the hatches and The Others that he didn't let on. If he'd been paying attention, he could have told everyone about Michael and Ben in advance. Just goes to show that Jack needs to be a bit more open with everyone about what goes on


• The big reveal, I think, was that the whole purpose in sending in Michael to convince Jack, Kate and Sawyer to trek to the other side of the island (end of Season 2) was to get Jack to do surgery on Ben's tumor. All Ben needed was Jack, Kate and Sawyer were only there to be used to convince Jack to do the surgery. Ben is one sneaky (and smart) feller. The only thing I can't figure out: I understand why Ben would not want to leave the island, as he's never been off it before, but why not, before the sky went purple, bring in someone else to do the surgery? If The Others can produce The Man from Tallahassee with their magic box, why can't Ben conjure up a less-jaded spinal surgeon?


• The Monster: Did you hear the clicking sound (producers of the show have confirmed it is sampled from a NYC cab receipt machine) right before Nikki was overrun by Medusa spiders? That's The Monster's sound! Watch the episode where Mr. Eko dies, you'll hear the same sound before Yemi appears. The Monster can shape shift, and seems hell-bent on justice. Crazy.


• Where were Ben and Julia coming from? They didn't come down the ladder, and they mentioned something about "The Flame." Is/was there an underground tunnel that connects the Pearl station to the now-exploded Flame station?


• Yes, Locke was watching Expose on last week's episode. If you listen carefully, you can hear the characters mention "The Cobra."


• Doc Arzt! Lando!


• And the ending. O.M.G. I thought they were going to wake up before the dirt went on. Oh, was I wrong.


• I feel like I'm forgetting something...

And the latest South Park parody of 24 was hilarious. See it on YouTube, before it gets pulled down.

Seinfeld Video of the Day

Documentary on the Resurgence of Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century

Last night (edit: Monday night), PBS aired a documentary entitled "Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: The Resurgence." It was quite an interesting show; despite my familiarity with most of the major incidents, such as various prime ministers making public anti-semitic statements, the overall affect of their presentation in documentary form was quite disconcerting and shocking. The NY Times has a review of the program.

Many of the clips shown during the documentary were from MEMRI.org and MEMRITV.org. Search MEMRITV.org for al shatat, the name of a documentary in which a dying Baron Rothchild discusses the Jewish conspiracy to take over the world, and Hasidim kidnap and slaughter a Christian child in order to obtain blood for their matzah. Or read this transcript from an Iranian TV special on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Or, for giggles, read this transcript of an Iranian TV show that claims Tom and Jerry (yes, the cat and mouse) was created to bolster sympathy for Jews:

The Jews were degraded and termed "dirty mice." Tom and Jerry was made in order to change the Europeans' perception of mice. One of terms used was "dirty mice"...Tom and Jerry was made in order to display the exact opposite image. If you happen to watch this cartoon tomorrow, bear in mind the points I have just raised, and watch it from this perspective. The mouse is very clever and smart. Everything he does is so cute. He kicks the poor cat's ass. Yet this cruelty does not make you despise the mouse. He looks so nice, and he is so clever... This is exactly why some say it was meant to erase this image of mice from the minds of European children, and to show that the mouse is not dirty and has these traits.

It's amazing, unbelievable and terrifying.

MEMRITV is an amazing site; in my opinion, they should be uploading their videos to YouTube to increase public awareness.

In case you missed it, the documentary will be airing again tonight (Thursday night/Friday morning) at 2AM (if you have a TiVO...) on WETA 26 (in Baltimore) and on Sunday on WHUT 19 at 11PM.

80's Classics

My chavrusah and I got a little side tracked (it began with a discussion of time travel) and were reminiscing some of the cooler movies/tv shows from the 80's, particularly ones we'd like to share with our kids.

The short list:

• Explorers - I can't tell you how many times I watched this on TV. Until they get to the alien spaceship, this movie is perfect; from then on, it's just good.


• The Last Starfighter - seriously, who doesn't, at some point in their childhood, think, "Maybe the video game I'm playing is actually a recruiting tool for an oppressed alien race's fighter pilot squadron?"


• War Games - Shall we play a game?


• Flight of the Navigator - I don't remember much of what happened in this flick, but I remember the ship was very, very cool.


• Land of the Lost - nothing beats a 70's show making a comeback in the 80's. When I was six, I was obsessed with two things: dinosaurs and Star Wars. Land of the Lost had elements of both. Plus killer special effects.


• Voyagers! - Han Solo clone travels through time with overly educated whizkid (who we all wanted to be). I was totally in love with this show, as it was both educational and fun. If I could find a DVD of this series, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

I think I'm going to buy some of these on DVD (thank you, Amazon Credit Card) and watch them with my son. I hope the CGI hasn't made it impossible for him to enjoy the stories that stimulated my imagination as a young lad.

More here

The Old Gray Mare She Ain't What She Used To Be

This year's Simpsons Halloween episode took on The Golem:

As Jewish humor goes, this is a pretty pathetic offering. The Simpsons did better Jewish humor back in the old days (ya' know, when Conan was in charge).

[Via The Shtus Blog]

A Day in the City (with Pictures and Video)

Penny and I are in New York on vacation for her birthday; A quick recap of some of the highlights from our day:

We saw Al Pachino outside the News Corporation building. I managed to snap a photo with my camera phone:

Here's how it went down. While we are waiting in the reception area to go up to TV Guide (see below), we heard the guy in front of us say he was someone's personal assistant (we didn't hear who); he had a list of people he would be signing in for a screening of some sort. Penny managed to catch a glimpse of the list, and saw Al Pachino's name at the top. We then heard him tell the receptionist that they would be arriving around 1:45. We went up to visit TV Guide, and as we got outside, looked at our watches: 1:30. So we hung out for about 15 minutes, and sure enough, here comes Scarface. I managed to position myself between the street and the entrance to the building so that Al would have to pass within about five feet of me and I could get a good shot with my camera phone. Al looked really old and his hair was dyed a yellowish-blond. We sent the sighting in to Gawker Stalker, but so far it hasn't made the site.

Back to TV Guide: Our good friend Sara works for TV Guide in the News Corporation building (same building as FOX News; she shares a gym with Geraldo), so we went to see her office. This is an office of people who get paid to watch TV and write about it; in other words, pretty much a dream job. Sarah introduced me to Michael Ausiello, a TV Guide writer who is a big Lost fan (he's done some interviews with the creators of the show). We talked a little Lost (we both think the third season is awesome; I'll post more about Lost later, cause last night's episode was good), and he was really nice (especially as we were invading his office). The office is otherwise pretty non-glamorous, but it was cool to see; and we got some complimentary TV Guides to take home.

We whiled the afternoon away, visited the Apple store on 5th Avenue (quite a unique structure), did a little shopping, and then headed uptown to The Colbert Report. We got there around 4:45, waited till about 6 to get in the building. Once inside, we waited another hour till about 7, when they brought us into the studio. We were seated in the back row, not bad because we could see everything fairly well, but at one some points a cameraman was directly between us and Colbert. Stephen came out and, before doing the show, took questions from the audience. One woman thanked him for challenging some senator about veteran health benefits, as her husband had been disabled while fighting in Iraq. I'm sure she meant well, and I'm sure there is a problem for vets, but it really killed the comedy mood, and Stephen took no further questions (I was considering asking him for mechillah). The show began, and went very smoothly, the did the whole thing in a single take.

The guest was neither Richard Dawkins (he was on last night) nor Deepak Chopra (phew). Instead, David Kuo, a former top-guy in the Department of Faith-Based Inititives, was there to plug his new book, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction. The basic thesis of the book appears to be that the Republican party knowingly co-oped Jesus/Christianity in order to win elections.

Here's a clip of the interview:

The interview went on a bit long, and at the end Mr. Kuo gave something to Stephen, I think it was his cuff links. Stephen looked a bit disturbed by the gesture, and went backstage for a moment. And then he did a really funny bit involving Senator Rick Santorum and a complete set of The Lord of the Rings action figures:

And then it was over. Here's a post from another person who was at the show. Here's one last clip from the show, this is The Word (one of their daily segments):

Our final brush with celebrity of the evening came later at Abigael's when Daniel Brody of Apprentice fame came in with his wife. Penny knows Mrs. Brody, so we chatted for a minute (I don't think Dan remembered my posts on The Apprentice). Despite being fired early on, Dan is doing fine.

Then it was back to our pad, watch a TiVO'ed episode of Lost (which was AWESOME, more on that later), and then...a little blogging and trying to fall asleep. Tomorrow: Jake or Bust!

Going to The Colbert Report

Peninah and I are going to NY next week for her birthday, so we sent out requests for tickets to The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, without really expecting anything. Lo and behold, I just heard back from The Colbert Report, we've got tickets to the Oct. 18th taping!

Assuming they air the show the same day they tape, the guest for our show appears to be Richard Dawkins, author of The Blind Watchmaker. Awesome.

Update: It looks like the guest for our show will not be Richard Dawkins, who will be on the show the day before promoting his new book The God Delusion. Instead, we're going to see Deepak Chopra. Ugh. Richard Dawkins will be in DC at Politics and Prose on October 24th, however.

Funny Video of the Day

The Office is funny. Exhibit A:

What's Up, Rick Hunter?

The cool thing about Robotech: Harmony Gold wanted to do a mecha/anime show for the US market, but didn't have enough episodes from any single Japanese series to fill up a whole season. So instead they took three seperate series, created a completely new story using the existing moving images as a basis, and retrofit their story on top of the existing footage. The end result is a unique, single continuous and coherent narrative, totally different in meaning than the original component narratives.

And it comes off pretty good. Granted, it's a bit hard to follow at times (OK, so the bad guys are these giant aliens...no wait, they really work for these mind control guys who travel in groups of three...who were really the good guys fighting a race of killer robot alien botantists...), but, to a kid, it makes figuring it all out all the more interesting.

Reminds me of something...can't quite put my finger on it. Oh yeah! What's Up, Tiger Lily! Phew, that was a close one.