Ex-CTLawyer

@ubiquitin
I gave an example of a wait for a specialist by my MIL…she’s in her late 80s, on Medicare…that single payer system
The Gerontologists only serve senior citizens, so they all are single payer (Medicare) patients. Again in a 50 mile in-state radius, the earliest appointment available was 4 months out.

This is a non-emergency room type visit. The delay is devastating. Without the evaluation, the secondary insurers will not authorize coverage by in-home health aides, durable medical equipment (walker, wheel chair, commode, etc). She can’t gain admittance to certain care facilities or day programs. Event the Town Senior Citizen transportation won’t serve her without the evaluation. Unfortunately, we watch her slide downhill every day. We have offered to pay for a number of these services/programs, but without the gerontologists evaluation there is no entry. (In terms of durable medical equipment, she is currently using items that belonged to my late mother A”H. They sat in our garage, because Goodwill won’t accept used DME.

@yekke2,
I’ll probably be bashed for this or called elitist or wealthy or out of touch with most members of the CR, BUT

I have found when people bash the gift ‘slinging’ it is because they do not have the means to do so.
When eldest brother got engaged, my future sister in law was vociferous about not liking sterling silver, a sentiment echoed over and over again by her mother. They were from simpler beginnings than us, as the parents were survivors with little formal education. When the kallah made the announcement, my mother told her: ‘in that case CTL and his future bride will get paternal grandparents’ sterling which is engraved with the family initial.’ SIL has seethed every yuntif at our home when she sees this on the dining table. For her 10th anniversary, My wife and AI bought her a set of sterling, trying to make peace. SIL also told my brother that she couldn’t have a diamond bigger than her married sister or mother. So she received a half carat stone while other brothers’ wives and Mrs. CTL got much larger stones (from the family yerusha). SIL never wears her ring, says rings bother her. Her daughters all got 2-3 carat stones when they were engaged, SIL had learned to enjoy better things during marriage.

@Joseph
Every family has different traditions
My wife took our daughters to have their sheitels made and paid for them, not the chassan
My eldest brother’s wife made a gift of the lechter for each of our children who has married
Each of our sons gave their kallah a diamond ring, granted the diamonds were family pieces that came out of our vault, but the boys paid for the setting and any additional side stones.
The boys purchased the kallah’s wedding rings. In fact, the mesader kedushin specifically asked the boys if they had paid for the wedding ring with their own money.

My sons already each had a shas long before they were engaged
Opa (my mother’s father A”H) bought each of my sons a talis when they became Bar Mitzvah. Because they followed my paternal Litvak tradition, they were packed away for use after marriage.
The kallah or her parents purchased Kittels for the boys.
Our daughters presented the chassan with a gold watch after receiving an engagement ring. These were watches that were family heirlooms.
It is our family’s tradition for the mother of the Chassan to present the kallah with a gold bangle bracelet for the engagement, and a long string of Pearls for the wedding.

B”H we are blessed with a treasure trove of inherited jewelry, crystal and sterling and it has been our pleasure to give each of the five couples a nice share of the yerusha.
This coming Sunday, our youngest I”H will wed.
Her chassan has purchased the engagement ring. He was presented with the gold watch that belonged to my wife’s late father. My daughter went with him and bought him a kittel, but he paid for his own Tallis. He had a Shas before they met. His parents gave my daughter diamond earrings as an engagement gift. They are moving into my MIL’s house, as it sits empty since she moved in with us this winter. I don’t know if they’ll end up there permanently, that will be their decision.

Going back to my great grandparents at the turn of the 20th Century in Brooklyn, it has been the custom of our family for the Kallah’s father to buy a set of furniture for the first apartment and to set the new SIL up in business. In my case, the Chassan and daughter will come work for the CTL firm. I hope that in 5-10 years when I retire the firm will be run capably by our children and spouses and eventually by our grandchildren.

Pence has impeachable actions as well

People have different minhagim.
In my family we wear white kippot only for the Yomin Noraim. The exception is for the chassan on his wedding day (with its fast, similar to a Yom Kippur Katan).
Over the years, at weddings and B’nai Mitzvah I (and my father before me have amassed a large collection of kippot that are stamped inside with the name of the celebrant(s) and the date of the simcha.
On Pesach, when guests arrive to our seder, they may often find a kippah from their, or their father’s Bar Mitzvah/wedding attached to their place-card. It brings a smile to their faces as they don this special Kippah for the evening.

@Joseph
Would you also allow consenting adults to have open heart surgery performed by a non-doctor?
Professionals have specific education, must pass licensing tests as well as character and fitness review before getting their license to practice law.

Tort Reform is far better handled at state level than through Congressional action. The vast majority of Tort actions take place in state courts. Those brought to Federal court because the Plaintiffs and defendants live in different states are still tried by a Federal judge apply state law where the alleged wrong was committed.

Some state have tort limits. Massachusetts severely limits the amount a charitable institution may be sued for, which is why virtually every hospital in Massachusetts is a non-profit charitable institution.

No Coke, Pepsi

@770Chabad
There is no such thing as ‘real Yiddish’
It is a language that picked up words as the people left Germany (ashkenaz) and moved east through Poland, The Baltic Sates and Russia. It picked up more word as the post 1871 waves of immigrants reached America.
Your Chasidische Yiddish is no more real than my Litvak Misnagid Yiddish.

As my Oma (my maternal grandmother) on the German side used to say. “Yiddish is a gutter language, spoken by the peasants from the east” I don’t agree with the word peasant, as plenty of upper income and intellectuals spoke Yiddish in Vilna and elsewhere, But it really is a corrupted dialect of middle German, just as Ladino (used by the S’fardim) is a dialect of 1400s Spanish.

Unlike French, which has an official language institute which must approve new words, Yiddish is ever changing and evolving.

I can remember my Litvak Great Grandfather cringing when listening to someone who substituted ‘P’ for ‘B’…I remember him asking one man: Tell me are you Jewish or a Galitzianer?

My Yiddish was learned in morning public high school which I attended before Yeshiva from 1-9 PM. It was one of 12 foreign languages offered at the time. The teacher, also taught Hebrew, and World History. He was born in Yerushalayim in the the 1930s, Chasid, came to America when the Yishuv ended, married a Modern Orthodox woman and taught public school for 30 years to afford to send his kids to yeshiva. He didn’t thibk that the Yiddish spoken by the Chabad Rabbis at the local Day School was the ‘real Yiddish’ it was Americanized Yiddish, his was Israeli Yiddish..3 generation removed from Poland,

@Jakob
No, the young couple with a car lease won’t have a $600 maintenance bill sneak up on them. Especially, since you have separately budgeted for oil changes which is the only regular maintenance item when you have a new car lease. The couple will not need a set of tires during the lease….
The things that pop up that need fixing with the exception of light bulbs and wiper blades will be under the manufacturer’s warranty. Some cars, even have bumper to bumper warranties.
My son leased a 2017 Hyundai Elantra for our eldest grandson: 36 months @$80 month plus taxes (sales and property in CT) total $115/month. 12,000 miles per year. Dealer through in all scheduled oil changes. All parts including bulbs and wipers are covered for the first year. The new vehicle warranty will outlast the lease.

“Rich or poor, it’s nice to have money”

I’ve lived in wealth and in poverty as a child. 55 years ago my father’s business partners put the company into bankruptcy while my parents were in EY for 2 months. We went from a 6 figure income (at a time when a good middle class salary was $7,000 per year) to living in the $4,200 my mother made as a public school teacher.

The stress caused by the lack of money, dunning calls from business creditors, shunning by former business associates/friends, not going to summer camp, etc. caused lots of unhappiness.

My father got rid of his partners and started fresh. Mom and my older siblings worked in the store after school and at night. It took 5 years but B”H he rebuilt his business and income, had 7 stores and 200 employees. The end of collection calls and resuming activities, as well as mother being home after school, nights and summer certainly brought happiness back to my life.

As an adult, I’ve lived through up and down business cycles. My childhood taught me not to live beyond my means. Yes, I earn a very handsome living, but I value money and don’t waste it. We B”H live debt free. No mortgage, no student loans, no car loans. It gives Mrs. CTL and I great pleasure to support Jewish and community religious, cultural and educational institutions.

@lightbrite
Opticians (who fill prescriptions written by Optometrists and Opthamologists) don’t like to re-lens frames because they don’t make profit on the sale of a new frame.
Opa was both an Optometrist and an Optician…he taught us to grind lenses when we were adolescents. Back then lenses were glass, not plastic. He taught us that you never should re-lens a frame more than 2 years old. By then it would have become so mis-shapen and unable to hold proper shape very long. The patient loses the benefits of the new lenses when they are not aligned correctly because of a frame that’s out of ‘true.’

Appalachia is bigger than you might think, look at this list of cities, plenty with frum Yidden
“Within Appalachia, there are several areas of urban concentration, the largest being the Pittsburgh metropolitan area in Pennsylvania. In Alabama, the Greater Birmingham metropolitan area is the largest urban concentration followed by the Huntsville metropolitan area . In Tennessee, the Knoxville metropolitan area and the Chattanooga metropolitan area are the urban clusters.”

@Joseph
WRONG, AGAIN!

Ongoing bullying can cause protracted impairment of emotional health…the language of the NY Statute.

STOP excusing bad behavior and start stopping bad behavior.

You may be a history teacher, but I’m a Family Law Attorney and certified Guardian ad Litem. If I represented a child and the school gave these repeated excuses, the school and staff would find themselves in court pronto. The cloak of a yeshiva being a private school is not an excuse for non-compliance with the law…and NY law makes every adult a mandated reporter…this is the broadest language in the nation.

@Joseph
again, Take your NY blinders off.

Lakewood is NOT in NY.

You claim to teach in the NY public schools ad therefore are a mandated reporter. I assume you’ve had some training. There is no reason that Yeshiva staff should also not be trained.

The staff and administration of the yeshiva are mandated reporters. IF the boy was bullied, cut, scraped, hit etc. They are battery to the person and the authorities and Child Protective services must be notified.
None of this boys will be boys nonsense is acceptable.
This is the same look away attitude that allowed child molestation to take place in the yeshivas, and day schools of the frum world.
It is the other boys who should be expelled

@Sadugare Rebbe
I knew the ‘original’ Rabbi Levy “OBM” who founded OK Labs. He was from my home town of New Haven. He explained to me back in 1978 (when he came to our bakery in Hamden, CT to supervise a run of frozen Challah) that the Rebbe wanted all Jews to eat kosher. The Rebbe did not feel it was neccessary to extend Chabad chumras to the masses. Thus, they could supervise milchige cholav stam cookies that ordinary Jews would buy instead of then treif Oreos at the same price points in the general supermarkets.

Similarly, in those days, before the Agriprocessors, local kosher meat production was mostly of non-glatt meat. Many a local rabbi who only ate glatt in his own home supervised local butcher, caterers, delis that sold ordinary kosher meat. The fact that it wasn’t glatt didn’t make it not-kosher.

@iacisrmma
A number of Archway cookies are listed on the OK website. It may be that they have multiple plants under different supervision producing different items

@Jakob
“I am a Trump supporter & believe he is doing a great job & definitely better then Hillary .”

Real nonsense comment. Trump cannot be doing a better job than H. Clinton as she never held the office. You can compare him to any of the 44 men who have been President, but not the billions of people who never were President.

BTW>>>I am NOT a Trump supporter and think he is doing a terrible job, lying to the public, embarrassing the country and accomplishing little but playing golf at our expense.
I hope he does not finish his term and that many of his team end up in prison for breaking the law

@Sadigurarebbe

The OK absolutely certifies Chalov Stam products and uses the OK Dairy symbol.
There are tons of cookies in their product list, both brand name (ex. Archway, Famous Amos) and Store Brands (sold by Stop and Shop, Aldi).

She should never wear them with an alligator purse.
No mixing of species

AviK
Just because an attorney is in solo practice or a partner in a small firm is no guaranty that e/she’ll be making more than someone with similar years experience working for the government.

Solo practice or partnership means you are running a business with a bottom line and shouldering all expenses.
Some years the bottom line may be great, others the attorney may be eating noodles most nights.

@Joseph
Laws don’t have to be ‘just’………..they have to be applied justly. Meaning equally to all who fall under the laws’ jurisdiction.
Cruel laws are not in and of themselves unjust. Our Constitution prohibits ‘cruel and unusual punishment’
The good thing about America is that citizens via the ballot box can change laws and/or the legislators who enact them.

The law is all about semantics and the meaning of words. It does not matter whether or not you as a person like it.