That’s Odd

MAY 2022

The “Proteksia” That Got Our Son Into Yeshivah

The night was taking forever. I turned from one side to the other, unable to find rest. Yossi! His precious, maturing face was plastered before my eyes. I simply couldn’t sleep! The tension and worry was getting to me.

You see, Yossi is not your typical bachur. He faces various challenges when it comes to learning and has to work very hard to keep up. But he is a gentle child who doesn’t mean any harm. Still, the administration of his yeshivah chose to send Yossi home. They didn’t want a boy who was lagging behind, falling short of his grade level and the yeshivah’s standards.

It was painful. I was pained. My son was pained. I couldn’t look on as my son wallowed in his anguish.

In the meantime, Yossi was home with me all day. We reached out to one yeshivah after the next, trying to find a new haven for him, but the response was the same. Each one denied Yossi the right to education. The only thing I could do was daven. And daven I did. I poured my heart out, knowing that only Hashem could help us.

Hashem must have heard my tefillos, because soon, He directed me to the world of Tehillim Kollel. The more I read about this unbelievable organization, the more impressed I was. Locations around the world, mekomos hakedoshim, kivrei tzaddikim, minyanim of talmidei chachamim reciting all of Tehillim… It sounded amazing – exactly what I needed just now.

I signed up my Yossi right away.

You know how the yeshuah sometimes comes from the back door? That’s how we felt when we got a phone call one week later from his old yeshivah. The principal actually called us and informed us that they were willing to take Yossi back.

I couldn’t believe my ears! This was the best case scenario! Yossi could go back into his familiar surroundings where he felt comfortable and beloved among his peers. It was the best place for him.

The first thought that crossed my mind was: Thank You, Hashem! How fortunate we are to have a direct line, the power of tefillah.

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Court-Martial Leads to Conviction

A U.S. Air Force officer was found guilty in a military court of abusive contact. The case is the first-ever court-martial trial and conviction of a general officer in the military branch’s history, an Air Force statement said.

During the trial, Maj. Gen. William T. Cooley was found guilty of one of three specifications of assault connected to a 2018 incident in New Mexico.

Cooley had pleaded not guilty.

However, a senior military judge found him guilty of one of the counts. He was found not guilty of the two other specifications.

The victim’s attorney, Ryan Guilds, praised the court-martial process as “fair” and said, “It is very hard to be a survivor in a criminal case. That is one of the many reasons you see so few of these cases go to court-martial.”

Flying Fail

A mid-air stunt went awry last week, resulting in a pilot parachuting to the ground and his plane drifting back to Earth.

The Red Bull stunt involved a pair of pilots attempting to skydive into each other’s aircraft mid-flight. What could go wrong? Well, apparently a

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lot could go wrong if you try to skydive into another plane 12,000 feet in the air above the Arizona desert.

Pilot Andy Farrington, 42, and his cousin, Luke Aikins, 48, were each piloting a Cessna prop plane in what was billed as the first midair “plane swap,” which was being livestreamed on Hulu.

One of the planes went into a flat spin after the pilots sky-dived in an attempt to jump into each other’s planes. Farrington deployed his parachute while falling 140 miles an hour; Aikins remarkably made it to Farrington’s plane and took over the controls.

The other plane that had spun out of control deployed a tail chute and drifted to the ground. Amazingly, both pilots made it back to the ground unscathed.

But the story doesn’t end there. The stunt made national news, which garnered the attention of the Federal Aviation Administration which said it is launching a full investigation into the stunt.

Supposedly, the FAA had denied Red Bull’s request for “an exemption from federal regulations that cover the safe operation of an aircraft.”

Sounds like sparks will fly.

Bear Scare

A family in California will be sleeping a little easier this week after a family of bears was evacuated from under their home.

Throughout the winter, the family had heard rumbling, snoring sounds from under their floors. Their neighbors thought they were imagining things. But as spring came, there was no denying it: bears had taken up residence under their home.

The family called in The BEAR League, a nonprofit organization that helps people live “in harmony” with bears. Members of the league came in to “un-invite” the bear from the home, only to find that they were dealing with a family of cuddly animals: a mother and four cubs. Supposedly the furry group had found a hole in the crawl space and settled in for the winter months ago.

Thankfully, The BEAR League managed to convince and Mama and her cubs to vacate the home.

A 13-Year-Old Graduate

Elliott Tanner is about to graduate college. But he will not be driving himself to graduation. You see, Elliott is only 13 years old, and he is set to graduate with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota in May.

Elliott has majored in physics with a minor in math. But he’s not stopping there. He has his sights set on the school’s doctoral physics program.

Elliott’s mother, Michelle, said he taught himself to read at an age when most kids are still figuring out how to tie their shoes.

“He had started reading when he was maybe 2, just 3. We said, ‘Oh, well, that’s interesting. You’re reading. We didn’t teach you to read,’” she told KSTP-TV.

Tanner started reading college-level textbooks at the age of 9, and two years later he graduated from Normandale Community College with an associate of science degree.

“It’s amazing. It’s sort of been a crazy ride getting here, but it’s just been such a nice experience,” Elliott said.

He said he is hoping to earn his doctorate and give back to the university.

“I’m hoping to become a professor at the University of Minnesota in order to also spread this joy and passion for physics with other people,” the 13-year-old boy said.

And I’m still struggling with getting to the bus on time each morning.

Clear Cut

Would you pay for a piece of invisible art? Well, what would you pay for the receipt for a piece of invisible art? We’re guessing it’s not millions.

But this week, a receipt for a piece of “invisible art” by French artist Yves Klein surpassed expectations by selling for nearly $1.2 million at an auction.

Sotheby’s said the receipt, part of Klein’s imaginary art series Zones of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility, had been expected to fetch up to $551,000, but surpassed expectations by fetching a top bid of $1,151,467.40.

The receipt was dated December 7, 1959, just a few years before the artist’s death in 1963.

The receipts for Klein’s artwork are rare today because Klein invited buyers to participate in a ritual that involved burning the receipt and throwing half of the gold into the Seine River in order to make the buyer the “definitive owner” of the conceptual artwork.

The receipt was originally issued to antiques dealer Jacques Kugel.

Talk about a blank canvas.

1 Million Steaks

We got no beef with Gayle Dudley, who has earned the distinction of grilling one million steaks during the 20 years she has worked at the LongHorn Steakhouse in Columbus, Georgia.

Gayle was surprised at work by executives from the nationwide chain after grilling her millionth slab of meat.

Executives presented Dudley with a $5,000 check, a gold chef coat and the title of “Grill Master Legend.”

LongHorn Steakhouse, which operates more than 540 restaurants nationwide, said Dudley is one of a small handful of employees to be dubbed a Grill Master Legend after cooking 1 million steaks.

The designation previously was bestowed upon Simeona “Simi” Tamaseu, a cook at the LongHorn Steakhouse in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2018.

Holy smokes!

A Feline Family

In an effort to never be separated from her pet cat, Deborah Hodge has married it.

Yup, Deborah says that it took months of emails for her current landlord to allow her to keep her cat, India, on premises. But Deborah now lost her job and may be evicted. Her future landlord may not allow pets on the property.

Finally, Deborah – who has two children – came up with an idea: if she marries India, then her future landlord will realize how important India is to the family.

And so, it went. Deborah, who is 49, married India at a civil ceremony presided over by her friend in a park in London.

Deborah wore a tux; the five-yearold cat was draped in gold lamé for the big day.

“She is fundamentally the most important thing in my life after my children,” Deborah said about her new family.

She wants to be with India together furr-ever.

Engagements

Eliezer Yablonsky and Caylee Finkelstein (Baltimore) Tuli Silberberg (Lakewood) and Sara Esty Glazer (Baltimore) Yitzy Radner (Detroit) and Ellie Ziffer (Baltimore) Adam Lombardo (Silver Spring) and Miriam Waxman (Baltimore) Yossi Bereliani (Chicago) & Batsheva Kibel (Baltimore) Menachem Kops (Queens) & Malky Cohen (Baltimore) Nachum Twersky (Queens) & Chaya Yehudis Neuberger (Baltimore) Yosef Spero (Baltimore) & Avigayil Samuels (LA) Eli Pottash (Baltimore) & Sarah Chamberland

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