tisha b'av

i ate this year on tisha b'av, but i went to the kotel to witness and walked back the hour plus walk. (I intend to be in america next tisha b'av, so might as well take a look this year.) I saw micha who kicked me out as a friend and also steve, who is a potential future friend. (I have dismissed the idea of calling the woman i met at micha's almost two years ago, this is a change, not necessarily a positive one, but a change.)

the kotel was not inspiring after midnight although the jaffa gate with streams of people was inspiring.

tisha b'av is another black hole in the calendar to go along with yom hashoah. yom kippur is worse than a black hole, because i find that not fasting is worse than fasting and fasting leaves a 24 to 48 hour post fast impact. and it is not yet 24 hours post tisha b'av and i'm feeling better, although not 100%.

I engaged in intermarriage arguments on mondoweiss yesterday and mooser treated me like dirt again. it certainly raises the advisability of participating there. shmuel has been absent for a while. maybe he's on vacation. phil weiss is not a positive voice on jewish identity, by any stretch of the imagination.

i saw a movie "girl with the dragon tattoo" and it was decent and stuck in my mind. i need to return "tokyo story" it was decent and did not stick in my mind. I chatted via gmail with danny yesterday. he mentioned that joya had been at jew camp. she is destined to marry a goy, unless she goes to brandeis.