"The Jewish King Family"

That's how Danny Miller described my family in a comment below. Not sure if that's a compliment, but it sure cracks me up.

Yes, my old man and my mom, who each had one sibling growing up, decided they really needed consistent screaming and whining in their lives, so they had six kids. My True Ann-Sister is number one. My brother is number 5. I bring up the rear, in more ways than one. (He refers to me on his blog as his "annoying little brother." He whines about not understanding the blog phenomenon, but he's already got two blogs of his own. Oy, don't get me started on this guy.)

And now, introducing the next generation in the family blog-roll: our nephew (don't let that fool you; he's pushing 30). He is a sweet, thoughtful soul, an inner-city elementary school teacher. One of my most vivid memories of him is taking a walk with him when he was about 4, and him saying, "Uncle David, this world is really, really old, and one day soon it's gonna die." If he'd known his own way back home I just would've hung myself on the nearest diseased Elm.

Later, other than a brief period as a wise-cracking, pseudo-cynical middle schooler, he blossomed into ... well, go see for yourself.

Check out his blog and cheer him on. At this rate, we may have to start our own blog host. How about "Blogliebs"?

--T.A.

Comments

[Tamar]

I love the Blogliebs or Jewish Kings - whatever! I wish my family would read you and learn how to take parts of the "liebness" into their ways!

[Danny]

Great first post on your nephew's blog. Very moving, how lucky those students of his are. Oy, just perusing that list of books he's currently reading--we always knew you Hyde Park Jews were smarter than us North Side Jews. You guys were discussing Chaucer and Spinoza and playing pranks on Milton Friedman while we were watching "I Dream of Jeannie" and eating endless SuperDawgs. Is it just because you lived near the University of Chicago while we lived near Riverview and its "Palace of Wonders" Freak Show?

Meanwhile I need to sign some Gottliebs to write Heinemann books. There are so many of you we could start a new imprint!

[Ally]

Hey, temples and churches are full of agnostics. Just because I "whine" about not understanding the blog phenomenon doesn't mean I want to be "left behind" if it really does mean something. It's called hedging your bets.

[David]

Dearest Brother: Having one blog is hedging your bets. Having two blogs while saying you don't get it is trying to have it both ways.

You should change your blog initials to "BTW" -- for both "by the way" and "born to whine."

[Ally]

Or, as pertains to you, "Bite This, Wanker."

[David]

The possibilities for you are endless, now that I think of it:

Bitter Teaching Weasel
Bitchy Time Waster
Balding, Thick Warthog
Bad, Tasteless Writer
Brother, The Worse
Brittle Tech Wonk
Big-Toed Weevil
Born to (fill in the blank) worry, wait, wish, wash the dishes, ...

More later
Your Loving Brother