Mailed another one off to Will....

It's a Thursday; I hope he doesn't think the gimmick is too contrived.

Mailed another one off to Will....

It's a Thursday; I hope he doesn't think the gimmick is too contrived.

Topical puzzle of the week

So of course the word-puzzle world is abuzz about the fact that Pres. Obama (VCVCV) nominated Elena Kagan (VCVCV CVCVC) to the Supreme Court. That got me wondering how many previous presidents and justices had family names that alternated vowels and consonants. ( I found four and five; rules but no spoilers behind the cut. )

And of course the HCHS alumae list is abuzz with the same news. How many previous presidents and justices are HCHS alumnae? OK, that's a bit easier. :-)

Topical puzzle of the week

So of course the word-puzzle world is abuzz about the fact that Pres. Obama (VCVCV) nominated Elena Kagan (VCVCV CVCVC) to the Supreme Court. That got me wondering how many previous presidents and justices had family names that alternated vowels and consonants. ( I found four and five; rules but no spoilers behind the cut. )

And of course the HCHS alumae list is abuzz with the same news. How many previous presidents and justices are HCHS alumnae? OK, that's a bit easier. :-)

An index of biblical citations in the Bavli

To help me find ideas for my dvar Torah, I downloaded the entire Talmud Bavli from Mechon Mamre and wrote a Python script to compile an index of biblical citations in the Bavli. This might be useful to others, so here's the link. Edited: Mechon-Mamre has graciously given permission, so you may now forward the link. There's also now a PDF version.

If you are the kind of person who is interested in this sort of thing, I'd love your feedback on how I can make it more useful.

An index of biblical citations in the Bavli

To help me find ideas for my dvar Torah, I downloaded the entire Talmud Bavli from Mechon Mamre and wrote a Python script to compile an index of biblical citations in the Bavli. This might be useful to others, so here's the link. Edited: Mechon-Mamre has graciously given permission, so you may now forward the link. There's also now a PDF version.

If you are the kind of person who is interested in this sort of thing, I'd love your feedback on how I can make it more useful.

My email server is down

If you're trying to reach me via email, please note that the greenehouse.com email server has been down since about 8:30 this evening. I've put in a support ticket on our hosting service but I don't know how long we'll be offline.

Edited to add: We came back online at 6:30 this morning, and the backlog is now flowing again. Thanks, jik!

My email server is down

If you're trying to reach me via email, please note that the greenehouse.com email server has been down since about 8:30 this evening. I've put in a support ticket on our hosting service but I don't know how long we'll be offline.

Edited to add: We came back online at 6:30 this morning, and the backlog is now flowing again. Thanks, jik!