GLORY be to God for dappled things
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded goat;
According to National Geographic (and they should know), mountain goats are not really goats.
That clears up any confusion.
(This picture is available as wallpaper from the link above.)
Alfred Adler had two problem Sigmunds in his life. Best known is Freud, but preceding that he had 'issues' with his older brother Sigmund, described as "intelligent, competent, and domineering". Adler apparently felt "eclipsed by his 'model brother' and resented his favored status in the family" (Hoffman, 1994, p. 11). In latter years, Sigmund Adler helped his siblings financially, including Alfred. This support prompted the world-famous, middle-aged Alfred Adler to refer to his older brother as "a good industrious fellow [who] was always ahead of me—is still ahead of me" (Bottome, 1957, p. 27).
(Downloadable source)
Sigmund Freud had a fair few siblings, but the one who stayed home and looked after the parents was his sister, Esther Adolfine (Dolfi). Unmarried, she cared first for her father Jakob when he fell ill, then her mother, becoming 'impetuous' Amalie's constant companion, which her nephew Martin considered could not have been a welcome fate. "She was not clever or in any way remarkable, and it might be true to say that constant attendance on Amalie had suppressed her personality into a condition of dependence from which she never recovered" (M. Freud, 1958, p. 16).
Sigmund was no doubt grateful as the following letter suggests:
Four of Freud's sisters. Dolfi is first on the left. All four died in concentration camps. Dofi died in Theresienstadt.
Some five and half years ago, I began this blog with a post on barmitzvahs of the famous. I reckon it's time for an update.
J D Salinger had a barmitzvah aged 14, one year later than usual. Shortly thereafter, his parents told him that his mother wasn't Jewish. This apparently did not go down well with Salinger and his sister Doris. "It wasn't nice to be part-Jewish in those days," Doris is reported to have said. "It wasn't no asset to be Jewish either, but at least you belonged somewhere."
Edward G Robinson was bar mitzvah at the Romanian shul on Rivington Street in New York (which stood shakily until a couple of years ago). He reportedly gave the longest barmitzvah speech in the history of the shul.
When he was 13, Walter Mosley had a party, where he gave a little talk.
Leonard Bernstein's dad Sam bought his son a baby grand piano for his barmitzvah, which took place at Temple Mishkan Tefila, Boston, Mass.
Stan Getz had his barmitzvah in 1940 round about the time his dad bought him a $35 saxophone. He did what he had to do.
Bonus pic: The invitation to Franz Kafka's barmitzvah:
A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry
Enriched by the short intros to each poem, sometimes critical, provided by Milosz.
Isaac Deutscher: The Non-Jewish Jew
This was a great help in kickstarting the escalator post and is worth reading even if you aren't interested in escalators.
Louis & Allen Ginsberg: Family Business: Selected Letters Between a Father and Son
This collection of letters illustrates superbly the tensions that inhere in two types of reconciliation: the parental desire to judge and protect; and the filial desire to plough one's own furrow while seeking parental approval for the results.
