(no subject)

This is a reminder to myself to write up a short list of Don'ts for the Wiscon Writer's Workshop web page next year.

* Don't single-space your manuscript. No excuses.

* Don't print in anything smaller than a 12-point font.

(Because apparently asking for it in standard manuscript format is not enough.)

* Don't say in your cover letter something like, "My first choice: an editor. Second choice: an agent. Third choice: a writer." Name names or skip it.(The lattermost is partly my fault for not getting the lineup settled earlier [and up on the website]. But that's a different note to self.) I could pen a little rant about how this is supposed to be a critique session, not an impromptu marketing session, but I'll skip it.

Other notes: the huge prevalence of retold fairy tales is mildly depressing. I think I will swear off them as soon as the Snow Queen series is finished. Whenever that is -- years from now, no doubt.

Coming soon (as soon as I can find a certain missing cord, anyway): cute pics of the kitty perched atop the mail bin full of workshop manuscripts. It's very A Day In The Life Of An Editor.

(no subject)

I find I cannot participate in the current googlebomb to get Wickipedia's entry on "Jew" to the top of the list (to counter a racist/anti-Semitic googlebomb -- does anyone have a good pointer to info on the counterbomb campaign?) without supplying some content to go with it. So here, forthwith, is a discussion of how (not why) I am not a Jew.

To some people, this will come as a surprise; other people will be scratching their heads as to why I need to state the obvious.

The surprised people will say: but you celebrate Passover! You know obscure facts about the kosher laws! What about that joke you told?

The short version is: my father is a wannabe.

Now, the reason that he's a wannabe is somewhat more complicated. He seriously considered converting, early in his adulthood -- when I was a kid, in other words, and ready to absorb everything my parents handed out. Eventually he decided, more or less, that he wasn't sure enough about the existence of God to go full bore on that one, and dropped it, but he didn't drop the general affinity. But there's more to it than just that. There's some evidence that my father's family might have been crypto-Jews.

My father's family were the only German Lutherans in their Chicago neighborhood, which was dominated by Polish Catholics. But they weren't really very religious (although they did send Dad to Sunday school).

My father tells tales of the older members of his family speaking a language that he didn't recognize -- and that they refused to teach the children. It wasn't German, though.

I have evidence that my last name is at least sometimes a Jewish surname.

Anyway. it's not clear whether this is true or not -- there's more evidence, but on the other hand my father's a wannabe, so maybe he's coloring the facts -- although the full-fledged theory that imnotandrei came up with is really very entertaining, and if you know me in person you'll have to hear it sometime.

btw, imnotandrei isn't Jewish, either, according to the Wickipedia entry. But his father is. Hanging out with him for the past ten years has also helped with this cultural absorption thing, although I am astounded in retrospect by how much I already knew when I met him. Also both East Lansing and Chicago boast sizeable Jewish populations, and I absorbed a lot of things that way.

Including the observation of Passover. As I said to a friend last night, "It's a holiday all about food. Of course it's important to me!"

I used to think that I was just a culturally aware person, however, until I moved to California. In California, we all know how to use chopsticks, but some of us still think that Jews have horns. (Oops, that's another imnotandrei story. Sorry, dear.)

So, in a nutshell: No, I am not Jewish. Yes, I celebrate Passover. It makes sense if you're me.