Uncle Jazzbeau’s Gallimaufrey

marlene dietrich & johannes kepler

Well, another birthday has rolled on by over me. As a kid it was something less than desirable to have a birthday two days after Xmas. How do you get anybody to come to a birthday party? Your friends’ parents can barely find the door, so they can drive the ten or so miles from Sonoma to Schellville. Oh, well, it’s not as bad as my cousin Doris, whose birthday fell two days earlier. All those combined Xmas-birthday cards, half as many presents, etc. Many suggested that I just celebrate my birthday in July. Where’s the fun in that? So, one year, while I was living behind Charles “Sparky” Schultz’ place in Santa Rosa, I threw a Xmas in July party. Lots more people came to that than I ever remember coming to one of my pre-adult birthday parties. We had a cheesy little aluminum tree, presents, and home-made eggnog. I figured it was no hotter than Xmas down under. Anyway, enough whining. This year I got some great Yiddish books from V., mainly Sholem Asch (with some translations) but also a ten volume set called di geshikhte fun literatur bay yidn by Israel Zinberg. Monika sent us a mysterious present that consisted of a pair of gloves and what looked like the world’s smallest film changing bag. Turned out to be for keeping warm while you’re holding hands in frozen Old Europe. She also sent a small pocket sundial. I got V. a necklace and a Victorian brooch with some human hair under crystal. Tonight, Cliff will be coming by for dinner, and we can have great fun reading aloud from Asch’s ist river or motke ganef. I also have to figure out exactly when this blog goes into its third year.