Muffti at the Kotel
Muffti at the Kotel. Ha ha.

ROI 120 is probably a wonderful event. However, since Muffti is not a real participant, he’s been fortunate to avoid the apparently continuous speaches about continuity, 7 a.m. wake up calls, trust games and discussion groups about such issues jewish identity and continuity. To kill the time, Muffti has been doing some fun stuff on the side. In particular, when not editing his dissertation, he is sneaking into a linguistics conference at Hebrew U – the papers yesterday were largely on how to handle the semantics and syntax of transitive/intransitive alternations, i.e. ‘Jerry rang the doorbell’ and ‘the doorbell rang’. Hmmmn. Maybe it would be better to try and get in on those continuity chats.

In the evening, however, Muffti has put on the disguise of an ROI conference goer and enjoyed visiting the Wall (the western one, not the separation one!), good food, wine, a movie attempting to authenticate the Old Testament’s story of the Exodus (apparently God is nothing more than the eruption at Santorini! And Muffti believes in volcano eruptions!) and late night drinking/dancing with some people whose reverse engineered nationalities legitimated fully celebrating Italy’s victory over Germany. It turns out that these sort of get togethers can be awfully fun if you avoid and ignore all pre-8 p.m. activities. As for tonight, Muffti will scare up his best french and yell allez les bleus! like any old Francois or Pierre.

Anyhow, Muffti is just waking up and contemplating a falafel which he’s temporally distanced from by an hour and a half or so. He just consumed some of CK’s Honey Nut Cheerios and is sleepily enjoying the fact that he can sit and post in relative peace while everyone else he’s been hanging out with have been up since the crack of dawn and talking about, Muffti can only guess, continuity. ROI people, buck up and look sharp: there’s no free lunch. Unless, of course, you’re a Grand Muffti.

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21 Comments

  • I offer you, in a spirit of Jewish brotherhood, my remaining Cinnamon Quaker Squares. They should be on our oddly-positioned breakfast nook. I also recommend the falafel at Merkaz Ha-Falafel Ha-Teimani in the Russian Compound.

  • the papers yesterday were largely on how to handle the semantics and syntax of transitive/intransitive alternations

    Don’t suppose there are internet links? =)

  • What did you think of the Exodus film? I’ve not seen it, but I’ve been quite impressed with Simcha Jacobovici’s filmmaking over the years.

  • I think you meant to say “re-editing” your dissertation, right?

  • I gotta say – that’s the best way to be part of any conference. BBYO was the most fun when we were skipping the serious things and spending time relating about life as a Jew in a secular society. Or playing Mario 64 in our hotel rooms… either way.

  • Jason, forgive me, but there’s a small typo on the first page of your portfolio. You should fix it. I didn’t look at the rest of it closely but details might matter to someone who is seeking to hire you for a project.

  • Michael, a million thanks but it doesn’t make up for your absence.

    Aron: start with: this and tell Muffti if you want more.

    JVancouver: the film was kinda neat, but left a fair bit to be desired in some respects. Muffti thought Simcha was clearly bright and had thought about these things but it would have been nice to have some discussion about the counter evidence for his view. He traces both the exodus and the eruption at Santorini to unorthodox times, puts a lot of stock in the interpretation of a few phrases; it all fits nicely but Muffti really doesn’t know enough about the other theories and what makes them attractive to judge. And he suspects that there is something quirky about the time sequencing of the 10 plagues but he leaves that to people smarter than him to judge.

    Skylar, good point. Things like that are making Muffti’s job so hard!

  • Les blues, les blues?? Pourqoui Muffti? You break my stony lil heart!

  • Muffti is sorry, Joy; but one of his best ol’ friends, Pierre, is French and Muffti has to route for his best friends teams (and dont’ start asking him what to do in case of conflict…)

    Mend your stony heart and let Muffti find a more romantic way to break it 😉

  • muffti– it looks like you’re having problems keeping the yarmulke on your head! did you go to the Kotel drunk?! awwwwwww.

  • hehehe…woulnd’t you loike to konw, jessica 🙂 Muffti wasn’t drunk; he was using a paper kippah they give out for shegetzs like himself. And it was windy. Muffti leaves you to figure out the rest.

  • muffti! meeting you in person was better than decoding the exodus. its a shame the encino yeled had to poop at the exact time that simcha was explaining his tectonic plate-volcano-tsunami theory regarding the splitting of the red sea.

    oh, and i might drink like a vagina…er, i drink like a vagina, okay, i’ll admit it, but you…you…i got nothing on ya. youre some type of athiest machine of some sort. im coming down to sinai with you fools, hope someones gotz the herb.

  • hehehe…yeah, well, EY, if you smoke as well as you drink…

    Jus tkidding, meeting you wa the highlight of Muffti’s summer. Ladies, take note. The EY is muffti approves even if does believe in the big man in the sky.

  • muffti, wheredja sleep? don’t answer if you don’t want to. but, if you did manage to find a bed where i think you did, then how can you NOT hold weight to some sort of divine intervention? maybe the locked dryer in england happened for a reason?

    and more like big force here on earth, between all of us. sky is too cold. this link has cool pics. tell laya. you can check it out too. sinai is going to rock the fucking desert. photo essay

  • actually, that night gave Muffti reason to believe in demonic intervention. not divine. We’ll talk in front of the scorpions.

    Your short sentences leave Muffti a little confused. Glad the sinai will be fun. As for the big force on earth, well, Muffti believes in that too…isn’t it called ‘gravity’?

  • Hey, EY and Muffti, you know what also works well for communication between two people? Email.

    Shabbat shalom, and so beginneth my 25 hours without phone and internet.

  • But if they communicate by e-mail the rest of us won’t get the details of the Muffti’s sleeping arrangements!