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Point of Information…………………
In many states, including Connecticut, the purchaser/importer of goods from out of state does NOT have a requirement to pay sales tax. Sales tax can only be collected for the state by the merchant. The purchaser has an obligation to report the purchase and pay USE tax. The rate is generally the same as sales tax. Years ago they would publish forms quarterly in the English newspapers to use to remit tax. Now it is a question on the state income tax formHaving just completed income tax returns for many family members and many clients (including trusts) I find that less than 10% report any of such purchases.
#1 Costco will take it back and refund your money
#2 Divide in ziploc bags and freeze@Avram
I was in local government a long time, There is no history of damage/accidents in our High school parking lot. Students actually have to apply for and are assigned parking spaces. It is well patrolled and under video surveillance.
Our youngest two daughters went to yeshiva high school in the morning and took AP classes in the high school during the afternoon. Both drove themselves in own cars junior and senior year, never had as much as a nick.
Not unusual for the sports teams to hold car was/detail fundraisers there. Park your car, pay a $10 fee, come out after school top a bright and shiny and well vacuumed car.@Avram
Our Jaguars are not considered super luxury cars in our town. Lots of Maseratis, Lambos, Bentley. Ferraris in town.
The average 17 year old at the public high school is driving a BMW 3 series or Audi A6.
Minvans are usually driven by the soccer moms who used to drive Volvo station wagons@klugeryid
Until Chrysler downsized with the unfortunate K-Cars, I drove an Imperial and Mrs. CTL had a New Yorker Station Wagon with a rear facing seat.
I switched to a Lincoln Continental Town Car and Mrs. CTL got a Mercury Colony Park Station Wagon (there was no Lincoln station wagon) with the twin rear seats that faced each other.Once the eldest children were no longer at home, I switched to a Jaguar XJ8 Vanden Plas and Mrs. CTL drove Lincoln Aviators and when discontinued MKX.
The Aviator is coming back next year and she has expressed interest in the new design.I love the 5.0 V8 engine you reference and have owned cars with it including a Mustang GT, Colony Park, Lincoln Town Car. In 2002, the dealer tried to sell me a Continental saying it was better styling and less boxy than the Town Car. I took a test drive and said no. The 4.6 V* did not cut it.
I drive less than 5000 miles per year, so gas cost is not a real consideration. I want full power, no little egine souped up with turbocharging for me.@Klugeryid………………..
I didn’t say anything is wrong with a minivan, they are not Mrs. CTL’s style (nor mine).
We are old enough that back when we had a carload of our own children they still made full size 9 passenger station wagons. We owned one of those. I always had a Full-sized 6 passenger sedan with 8 cylinder power.Living in the country, we did not need cars that fit into restrictive city parking spaces.
None of our children have owned minivans, they have had SUVs (with three rows of seats if needed).I am far from new here…………………..
Your remarks are both sexist and inaccurate.
If women were far worse drivers than men, young females would be charged far more than young males when they purchase insurance and start to drive.
BUT>>>>16-25 year old males are charged much more, they have a far higher accident rate and commit far more violations of the driving laws/statutes.I have one associate in my firm that handles driving infractions/citations?DUI, etc in local traffic courts. 70% of those seeking representation are male.
“Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) released a report on gender-specific traffic deaths in America, segueing in with the fact that “many more men than women die each year in motor vehicle crashes.” It’s a fact that cannot be ignored, as studies from numerous publications prove that because men typically drive more than women and tend to engage in more risky driving practices, they stand a much higher chance of getting killed in an accident.
The NHTSA reports that traffic accidents were up across the board in 2015, with testosterone-fueled hoopleheads leading the reckless charge. Findings show that men are far more likely to skip safety belts entirely, drive while impaired by alcohol and/or drugs, and speed, making crashes that much more severe than those involving female drivers”
@Toi
What a despicable sexist remark about women drivers.
My wife and daughters are excellent drivers.
I much prefer to have MRS. CTL drive and I can relax.Mrs. CTL wouldn’t be caught dead in a minivan.
Spring is in the air, the 1971 V12 Jaguar E Type convertible is out of winter storage and on the road (she’s had it since it was new).
BTW, it’s yeshivish Black, not bright redI use a card case in which I keep business cards, drivers license and 2 credit cards (business and personal) cash goes in my front pants pocket.
If I plan to go to a particular store and shop using their credit card I take it from my safe and place it in the card case for the excursion.
This would be the antipathy of Shalom Bayis………….not eating at parents, children or in-laws during Pesach.
Even those of our in-law relations who don’t eat gebrokhts eat here during Pesach. We prepare foods they will/do eat and warn them which items they should not eat.@DovidBT
about 10 years ago I attended a pre-Pesach shiur. The Rav stated that one could have canned chometz dog food using a separate can opener that was simply placed in a zip loc bag and not washed during Pesach, and use plastic disposable spoons and bowls. One could not use chometz canned cat food, becxause some human eat it. Instead one should buy Pesachdicke tuna for the cats.
I laugh, because if ever anyone served our kids chunk light tuna instead of solid white albacore they’d refer to it as cat food and not eat it.@Midwest2
Read my posts on this thread. We have 2 cats, don’t use commercial cat food.That said, chometz cat food is a bigger issue than dog food.
Humans don’t eat dog food. BUT, every few years you’ll see an article in the general newspapers about impoverished elderly people who buy canned cat food because they can’t afford human tuna, etc.
Cats don’t need to be walked on a leash with their owner following with plastic bags and a pooper scooper.
@Joseph,
Did you pay attention to my remarks about the Shabbos issues of having a dog in a community that requires they be walked on leashes, never mind requiring to you pick up their leavings. Many Frum Yidden I know don’t hold by eruvim in NYC.@DovidBT
If you read this thread from the start you would have seen that we have two cats.
I like the cats, love the dogs. The cats are not as social as the dogs. They tend to be nocturnal and keep to themselves.
There are four dog beds in my home office. As I type this, all are occupied.I love my dogs, I also love chicken soup, chopped liver, and swimming in my pool.
This is NOT the same ‘love’ I have for my children and grandchildren.
However, it is a level above ‘like.’It is nonsense to belittle someone who says they love their pets by comparing that to loving Jewish children.
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Life is the country is different than in the city.
I live in a small town where everyone lives in a single family home. There are about 13,000 households and more than 13,000 licensed dogs (per our Town Clerk). Many are not licensed. We have 4 dogs. Our shul Rav has two. I don’t know any local non-senior citizen frum Yidden who do not have a dog. Many had them when they were younger and did not replace them because the senior Yidden in town tend to be snow birds and many have Florida condos that do not permit dogs.When my parents OBM lived in NYC, prior to 1950 they did not have dogs, neither did their parents. They were not suitable to life in a six story apartment building and required walks on leashes, Shabbos being a real problem. As soon as they moved to CT and had a single family house with a fenced yard they got a dog. All one had to do was open the door and let the dog run in the yard. No leash, no Shabbos issues.
I am in my mid-60s, the only time I did not have a dog was when I spent a year in Yeshiva in Brooklyn after yeshiva high school in New Haven, and college. Mrs. CTL is of a similar age and has always had dogs.
All of our children and grandchildren have dogs, all live in single family homes.@Meno
Our dogs have allergies and can’t eat grain.
Our home-made fish has matzo meal in it (we eat gebrokhts)
The Ungar fish has no wheat and therefore the dogs can eat it.We have 4 dogs and two cats………………
We don’t sell them for Pesach.
We don’t use commercial pet food any time of the year.During Pesach, the dogs eat a mix of sweet potatoes and Turkey with carrots mixed in.
The cats eat bits of fish, turkey, chicken or beef, chopped up with vegetables from the soup pot.All of them like gefilte fish, particularly Ungar’s .
We used cloth diapers for two of our oldest children because of allergies/skin reactions to the disposables.
We used a diaper service and they dirty diapers went in a covered pail in a shed next to the back door. Back then (about 40 years ago) it was $5 per week per child. Pampers cost about $25 per week per child.
We have 2 grandchildren using cloth diapers. Our daughter has a separate washing machine in the basement for the diapers (she bought it on Craigslist for $50).@Zahavasdad
No one has to contest anything……….
If the man dies without a will and any property (house, car, bank accounts, stocks, etc.) are titled in his name then the estate must be probated in order to LEGALLY distribute the property to heirs. Then the statutory distributions may be made.It is NOT possible to ‘contest’ an estate distributed in this manner. One can only ‘contest’ a will. One can mount a challenge in Probate/Surrogates Court to any particular heir based on testamentary evidence or challenge paternity.
Just a clarification on probate court distribution to children when there is no will
You state that grandchildren will inherit if their parent is no longer alive. The grandchildren will only get their deceased parent’s share if the parent died before the grandparent.
Sam dies leaving 3 living children (a, b, c), no spouse, no will. The 3 each get 1/3.
B predeceased Sam, then B’s children split B’s 1/3
BUT, it B dies after Sam, but before estate is settled. B’s 1/3 is paid to B’s estate and subject to B’s will and/or the probate process. The 1/3 could very well end up being shared by B’s spouse (widow/er)@Millhouse
“The main point is that the GOP has no control over this, and is not responsible for him in any way. He is not a Republican.”Sorry. I don’t agree.
In some states, such as my own, Connecticut, the courts have ruled that a Town Party Committee can have a member of the party stricken from their rolls if that person disavows the party’s platform, rules, beliefs, etc.
Once, stricken of party affiliation, the elector can’t run for the nomination or be on the general election ballot as the candidate of the party.The CT Appellate Courts rued on this within the past 3 years when a Town committee instructed the Registrar of Voters to remove party affiliation from a member.
@Moderator100
Your continued questioning makes me laugh, it is the stuff that turns people away form religion.
Do I have a canopy, what does my rav think about baking matzo outdoors?
Where do you think those fleeing Mitzraim baked their matzo? They did not have buildings as we know them and modern ovens? They baked outdoors!
@Mod100
I’ve checked with my Rav before we set this up years ago.
He is of the opinion that what you quote from the Shulchan Aruch uses the word Etzel meaning next to or adjoining the oven. So I would not knead the dough on the couter whoch abuts the oven.Our work tables are steps away from the oven and he paskens that if just fine. Outdoors that distance is more than sufficient to make sure the work surface is not warmed by the oven which could cause the dough to rise at an accelerated rate.
We did our baking this past Sunday. The temperature was about 34 degree Farenheit. The 4 ft distance from tables to oven door were not affected by the heat from the wood burning oven.
Thanks for your concern, but we checked it out long ago. Since our Rav not only gave his ok, but eats matzo from our oven, I’m fine with it as it stands.
@Geordie613
I learned to bake matzo from my employer at the bakery in 1974. He was originally from Lodz and his family bakery had a separate location where they baked and sold Matzo. He continued to have a separate private matzo baking facility here where he baked for families and friends.Mrs. CTL’s grandparents also baled Matzo for sale in the early 1900s in Bridgeport. The tradition and skill was passed down in her family as well.
@twisted
with the death of local kosher bakeries due to supermarket bakeries under kosher supervision, home kosher baking OOT has been on the rise for 25+ years.
I was in the Kosher Bakery business in the 1970s
Mrs. CTL’s family owned and operated a kosher bakery
Thus we have always baked most of our own things.
In addition to inside kitchen ovens, we have a brick oven in our living room fireplace wall and both the outdoor matzo oven and an outdoor wood fired beeehive shaped pizza oven, used for all kinds of milchige baking, pizza, calzones, kugels, etc.
I built the outside ovens myself. The fireplace wall oven is more than 200 years old@klugeryid
We set up production tables outside within steps of the oven. All the mixing, kneading, etc. is done there. We have water source, etc. The have an outdoor kitchen with stainless steel sinks and counters that are easy to kasher, so there is provision for washing keilim, etc.
We are not dealing with making dough and shaping matzo in the house and having to get it outside and baked within the time limits. The distance from outdoor work station to outdoor oven is actually closer than if I was preparing food in one of my indoor kitchens and carrying from the center islands to ovens,@KLugeryid
Raw matzo is draped over a 2″ diameter stainless steel dowel. As one edge of the matzo hits the oven floor, rotate one’s wrist to place the entire circle on the oven floor smoothing with the dowel. Years ago we used wood dowels, but the stainless cleans much faster with boiling water, no chance of residue becoming chometz.@Joseph
Zaidy liked the look of them that way. Since he was paying the photographer, why shouldn’t he get what he wanted?@Midwest
Taller wife, a true story form our family.
My paternal grandfather was 5′ tall. In 1917 he was engaged to my grandmother who was the same height. He was drafted into the US Army and sent off to fight in WWI. My grandmother remained at home with her parents and finished high school and worked in my Great Grandfather’s office doing the accounts.
Zaidy returned from Europe and was discharged from the Army in the spring of 1919. He hurried to Brooklyn to see his family and his Kallah, My grandmother had continue to grow while he was away…she was now 5’9″ tall. They were married in June 1919 and enjoyed 58 years as husband and wife before she was niftara.
Every picture that they arranged had her sitting and him standing. Every non-posed picture shows them as the mismatched (by height) but happy couple they were.@Gaon
Most ‘commercial’ matzo is at least a couple of months old.
I’ll be baking our hand schmurah in a wood fired outdoor brick oven in our yard this coming week. It will be nice and fresh for Pesach.
My sons and I built the oven as a bonding project about 25 years ago and we enjoy using it every year. Once the matzo baking is over, the oven is secured and not used until the following year.
Our smokehouse is full of meats, fowl and fish that is curing for Pesach. As I have mentioned in other posts, we buy no prepared foods, but make everything from scratch. We have a separate Pesach kitchen and today was soup and potato kugel preparation day. All are cooling now and a freezer will be filled before we go to bed tonight. Mrs. CTL and I are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the gantze mishpocha for the entire Yuntif, should be about 50 sleeping and eating here in the compound.Final factor affecting the taste of matzo…………………
What fuel is used to bake the matzo?
I’ve had hand matzo baked in coal or wood fired ovens that has a distinctive taste. I like wood fired, not coal.
Machine matzos are baked in gas or electric ovens (as are some hand matzo) which impart no flavor to the matzoMy eldest brother is 3 years younger than his wife. They are married 51 years
My eldest sister is 3 months older than her husband. They are married 48 years.I don’t think a few months or years matter……………………………
Many considerations besides hand or machine…………………………..
#1 American, Israeli or other country of origin
In the 70s and 80s and early 90s I loved the taste of Rakusen Machine Matzo from England
Until the 2010s I could NOT stand the taste of Israeli matzo Hand or Machine. Now I stockpile Yehuda machine matzo for year round use. Stop and Shop gives away a 5lb box with a $25 purchase and I’ve already put 50 lobs away that cost nothing. I could have chosen other Israeli or American brands, but I like this taste better.
#2 Hand is it thick or thin? Texture isn’t really taste, but a blah taste lingers longer when the matzo is very thick.
#3 Is the hand matzo burnt and overcooked. I don’t like the taste of char.#4 which grain is used? My niece has celiac disease, We buy both oat and spelt matzo for her, I like the taste of oat, not spelt. In fact I think an Oat machine matzo tastes better than a wheat hand matzo.
I’ve read this thread with great interest and have a few comments think back on my time in the kosher food business and as a consumer.
#1 I just came back from a quick trip to Johannesburg and was there when Stan and Pete lost their hashgacha. The supervising agency did the right thing and made sure consumers who had booked affairs would be accommodated by other establishments under supervision.
In the 1970s I was in the kosher bakery business and later the kosher catering and restaurant business in the New Haven area.
Bakery supervision was lax. the mashgiach only visited monthly and was happy that I could light the ovens and take challah. Problem was workers on the night production shift (when owners were not present) would bring in their own treif meals and heat them in the ovens. I reported this to the mashgiach, but nothing happened. I left for other opportunities.
The kosher catering and restaurant business had great on premises supervision, BUT our keilim went out to synagogues of all varieties and were washed in their dishwashers and used ion their ovens with only the supervision of the synagogue Rabbi, not our kosher supervising authority. Once I saw that, I never ate from our catering division again. (It was housed in a separate building and there was no mixing with the restaurant).
Problem is that if you were a kosher consumer and you knew X caterers was under Y supervision and you were invited to a dinner at the JCC or Synagogue Z catered by X, you assumed it was kosher. BUT, as I learned, once the sealed containers left Caterer X’s facility kashrut was no longer at a guaranteed standard.In most cases, unless I know who is supervising the facility where the affair is held, I come to the simcha, will have a drink and maybe a bit of fresh fruit and that’s it.
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Another problem that is encountered out of town. Many brides like a particular baker for ‘wedding cakes.’ The baker is under ‘reliable’ kosher supervision, so area kosher caterers are permitted to allow brides to order and buy their cakes from the baker and the caterer plates and serves them at a x$ per head fee.Mrs. CTL ordered our wedding cake form the baker all those decades ago. At the chasunah, I heard her tell the caterer: ‘make sure to save the riser posts used to set the tiers, I have to return them to the baker and get my $100 deposit back’
Turns out this baker charged a deposit on all these post/risers and had no control over where they went, many non-Jews ordered form the baker. Who knew how these items were washed and then reused on the next customer’s cake.
We made a symbolic cut of the wedding cake and the caterer cut sheet cakes he had in his freezer to our guests for dessert.
The caterer’s supervising rabbi had never considered this problem and had allowed these cakes for years. That ended with our chasunah.@CoffeeAddict
Basic Civics Lesson:
Mueller is an employee of the Executive Branch of government. He can’t recommend impeachment because he does not report to the US House of Representatives (part of the Legislative Branch). This is Separation of Powers.
Any member of the House can introduce a Bill of Impeachment. But it has to make it to the floor and win a majority vote to cause a trial by the Senate.@CoffeeAddict
It is NOT semantics. Only the House of Representatives part of the Legislative branch of Government can bring an impeachment action against an official of the Executive Branch or Judiciary (Yes, Congress can impeach and Try Federal Judges).
The Special Prosecutor is part of the Justice Department/Executive Branch. He can lay charges for prosecution in the court system for violation of Federal Laws/Code/Acts. This can lead to conviction/fines/imprisonment. However, a sitting President has practical immunity form such an action and only is subject to Impeachment. If Impeached and convicted and removed from office the former President could be subject to prosecution for the ‘High Crimes and Misdemeanors’ which led to conviction in the Senate.
That’s why Ford pardoned Nixon when he resigned, otherwise Nixon could have been prosecuted as a private citizen and sent to prison.@CoffeeAddict
I can not agree with your hypothesis that Trump has been investigated by Mueller and if he had been found to have violated the Emoluments Clause and if Mueller fond so he would recommend Trump be thrown out of office.
The Special Prosecutor has no power to start Impeachment Process. He works for the Justice Department, part of the Executive Branch headed by the President. A Bill of impeachment (similar to an indictment) must be brought by a member of the House of Representatives. If passed, a trial would be held by the Senate. They could sentence the Impeached to removal, or something as simple as a censure or reprimand.
The Special Prosecutor can bring charges against individuals m(and corporations) for violating Federal Laws/Codes/Acts and the Federal Courts would try and sentence.@AviK………….
Typed on my touchscreen Kindle, which autocorrects and does not let me edit as I’d like.
Actually Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. name changed to that of stepfather.The Senate can convict and NOT remove from office. They can also censure or reprimand.
The character of employment you mention has to due with employment by Government, NOT being employed by a business the person owned. There is no question in my mind that many foreign governments/officials suck-up to Trump by sending at his named properties, thus providing these profits. I do not believe he has gifted all the profits to the USA and he provides no backup audited by GAAP.
I don’t trust a thing Trump says or does.@Geordie613
Off topic for the rest.
Daughter arrive in CapeTown on her ship from Antarctica via Tristan Da Cunha. They immediately offloaded 90% of the contents of their freshwater tanks to provide for other ships at the port. The ship spent a week in port running its desalinization equipment and donating the potable water. She flew to JoBurg to meet me and the ship sailed on to Port Elizabeth to provision and off to the Indian Ocean. She won’t be on the ship at all until it’s in the Med this summer.
My comment was about SAA (airline) bound for bankruptcy. SA itself is no more. I found JoBurg to be a 3rd world City. Cape Town is even more segregated than I remember.Tillerson was fired by a twit
@AviK
After House votes to impeach the Senate conducts a trial. No removal after impeachment, only after Senate conviction. It is my belief that if impeached and convicted he would then be subject to other trials and penalties for perjury, obstruction of justice, tax evasion, etc. the convictions and incarceration presupposes his successor does pull a Jerry (the Republican) Ford and pardon Trump@Geordie613
The quick, short reply was to raise Joseph’s hackles.
I’ve answered DaMoshe that I believe Trump has violated Article I Section 9 of the US Constitution (emoluments clause). I studied and taught US Constitution in Law School for decades and that is my opinion of his actions.
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BTW, just flew back from a quick visit to SA last Monday night. 5 days there, two days flying. Probably the last time I’ll be on an SAA flight. Sad to see the way the company has fallen apart. Told the cab driver to take me to Jan Smuts for departure (I had flown into Capetown) and he stared at me like I was crazy. Silly me, in a time warp..Or Tambo is not a name that is in my vocabulary. Sad to see all the changes, 40 years since my last visit.@DaMoshe
Article 1 Section 9 Emoluments clause of the US Constitution.NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He should be impeached, tried, convicted and sent to prisonI’m in my mid 60s. My grandparents and great grandparents were born in the USA, not the alte heim. My paternal grandmother never made Pesach in her life. By the time my great grandmother no longer was able to make Pesach my grandparents came to my parents for the entire holiday. Mrs. CTL and I have hosted the entire clan for the past 25 years. We do not buy any prepared foods.
We taught our children they can live without the extras for a week and experience some of the deprivation those enslaved and then freed from bondage in Mitzraim endured.
We eat many simple meals during Pesach, green salads, with protein, stews, fresh fruit for dessert and almost no baked goods.