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Are you the parent of a teenager who has no real plans for the summer, and you want him or her to get out of the house and learn some life lessons, like how hard it is to get a decent job, or that any job they could even get requires basically none of the skills that they’re learning in school? 

When it comes to finding entertainment for kids who are stuck at home, there’s nothing like a puzzle.  Puzzles have been disappointing kids for eons.  Because it looks like a game – you even keep it with the games – but it isn’t a game.  It’s a problem to solve.  And it’s not even your problem.

I’m going to admit it: I didn’t stay up for Shavuos night in 2020.  I figure it’s been long enough, so I’m finally willing to talk about it, despite shidduchim. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about my traffic ticket lately.  Though I think I’m supposed to. 

It happened: I finally got a traffic ticket, after 20 years of driving, on and off.  I would not recommend it.  For one thing, it takes forever.  How long does it take to write a ticket?  I ask this as a professional writer.

It’s finally occurred to me why I’m not a multi-millionaire.  And no, it’s not because I’m a writer and a teacher, which are two jobs that pay so little that doing both of them together actually makes you get paid less somehow.  It’s because my work is never seen by non-Jews.  And there are way more non-Jews than Jews out there, I’ve noticed.  Okay, I haven’t noticed.  I mostly hang out in yeshivas, where the Jews outnumber the Gentiles by about a hundred bochurim to one janitor and a couple of math teachers.  But in most of the world, I’ve got to tell you: There are a lot of Gentiles out there.  So many that instead of being called “Jews” and “non-Jews”, maybe it should be “Gentiles” and “non-Gentiles”.  And the weird thing is that most of them don’t even know they’re Gentiles.