Radiohead

I have a new radio, a Bose Wave with a CD player. I'd read a lot about them, how the quality of the sound is comparable to a large system but in a compact size. And everything they said is true. Lovely, clear sound, highs and lows. Right now I'm playing a compilation CD called "Night Tracks." It's all instrumental, some Vaughn Williams, Saint-Saens, J.S. Bach, Copland and others. The size is perfect; takes up less room than the smallish boombox I had there, and pulls in KNBR 680 and the Giants broadcasts loud and clear.

Speaking of the Giants, they won again tonight behind Jonathan Sanchez' brilliant pitching. Fun watching this team with its rookies scramble its way toward making the doomsayers eat their words. Now that the season is in full swing, I spend my evenings listening to and, now that I have cable, watching the games. I manage to have both media—radio on in the kitchen, TV in the living room, so I can hear what each of the broadcasters has to say. There is one funny thing about doing that, though; the radio play-by-play is always ahead of the TV, sometimes by just a few seconds, other times (like tonight), a whole play ahead. It's convenient, though; if I'm in the kitchen or the bedroom and hear somebody gets a hit or makes a spectacular catch, I can dash into the living room and see it as it happens in TV land. Just reinforces my belief that all electronic communication is magic.

Seder

It's Passover, and tonight I went to a seder given by my friends Ken and Karen Firestein. There were about 15 of us, and Ken led us through the prayers, songs and eating of the ritual foods (matzah, horseradish, parsley dipped in salt water) and drinking of the ritual wine (four glasses). Then we got to the dinner, itself, which was delicious (meat done by Karen, the rest of the items—salad, kugel, veggies, desserts—provided by the guests.

I met Ken sometime around 1984 or '85, when he and I both worked in the reference department of Shields Library, and we became friends soon enough. I wasn't Jewish back then, but my interest was alive and well, and when we'd go on coffee breaks together, Ken and I would often talk about Judaism. It was Ken who invited me to my first seder way back when. One of the guests tonight was Seymour Howard, professor emeritus of art, whom I also knew years ago when he'd come into the reference department and offer me sunflower seeds. Never would I have thought he and I would find ourselves seated at the same seder table. This is what happens when you get adopted into the tribe.