Y'know, I talk about choice inertia the whole time. Turns out Barry Schwartz has written a book about it The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less.

The Economist has a special report today on virtual online worlds - Living a Second Life. ALthough I think it might be subscriber only.

Some very kind reader left this fabulous YouTube video of Stephen Colbert with his Days of Repentance Hotline somewhere deep in my comments.

I love it.

Shalome, 1-800 klay tzaddik, how did you offend me?

And the ringtone is havanagila. Fabulous.

I've only got till Sunday night to do all my teshuva. So have you, if you do that kinda thing.

Haddon Hall courtyard

Haddon Hall courtyard

Haddon Hall in Derbyshire is one of my favourite places on earth.

It's also the setting for the BBC's Jane Eyre, first screened on Wednesday night. And they set it alight (carefully, I'm guessing).

And to top it all, someone's used my domain name to send serious amounts of spam, judging by the bouncebacks I'm getting.

My (local) spies told me there wasn't a parking place to be had in Manchester City Centre this week, due to the Labour Party Conference.

Committed to green issues, then Tony? Gordon, I know about.

Interesting piece from last weekend's Observer about the mystery of Natascha, the recently freed longterm kidnap victim in Austria.

This bit is priceless:

Already the Austrian tabloid that obtained the first interview with the girl has a web and blogging site in which Natascha is routinely attacked.

A web and blogging site? Surely the Observer should know better?

So three people I have talked to in India have secretaries called Loretta. Do you think that can be true?

I have just discovered Language Log.

I know, I know, I should be working. It's already 1230 in Kazakstan. Don't even ask.

And another (technical) thing(s). The sound on my PC is intermittent - if I reboot it sometimes works. Also, my shredder has stopped working, and I have to find the Staples receipt to take it back, which means going through all my receipts.

And I have this stupid outlook problem. I searched for something in the calendar, and now it only shows me search mode, and I can't remember how to get out of it.

My brain is full of other stuff. Can anyone advise me (not about the shredder, obviously).

Can you believe that 34sp.com has EXACTLY THE SAME issue with the disk space allocation on one of the partitions as they had yesterday morning? And I'm guessing they don't get there till like 8.30. And it's the end of the day in Asia... arrrrrggghhhh.

My friend just told me this story. And I should say, while she loves being Jewish, she probably wouldn't in any way describe herself as religious. More of a cultural Jew, with a catering edge.

Her husband's family are pretty Anglo (secular), and she invited them all for Rosh Hashanah. She went to a lot of trouble; made challah, used her gradparents' crockery, dressed the table beautifully, replete with pomegranate, apple and honey, the whole shtick.

Her mother-in-law says to her, "what's this, with the apple and honey?" And my friend replies, "you've never heard of apple and honey? The universal symbol for Rosh Hashanah and a sweet new year?"

Apparently not.

Then, she'd baked challah (round, for yom tov, rather than regular plaited for shabbes). And her sister in law says, "what's this?" And my friend said, "challah", and her sister-in-law looked at her, like, waddya mean?

My friend was aghast. Talking to her husband later, he said in her defence, "well, she'd probably have heard of Jewish bread, maybe not challah."

My friend replied: "you mean, Jewish bread that has the blood of Christian babies in it?"

Because, let's face it, "Jewish bread" does sound like something out of a blood libel, not a phrase many/most Jewish would use that often. If at all.

I know it takes all sorts, and I'm pretty unshockable, now. But, interesting, no?

In case you don't read books anymore (wtf?) - DailyLit will send you a book extract by email. Mmmm.

I'm blogging this now because I know next summer I'll be all, I want to go to one of those Yiddish summer schools, where are they.

So, the JMI run the Ot Azoy Summer School, and I think that Yarnton might do something, and I have a feeling that the LJCC do something, too. Last year, I really wanted to do their course, and then I got too much work. Story of my life. Next year, I think I have to, especially now Auntie Fran isn't here anymore.

So, in the interests of full disclosure, I should say that 34sp.com had my email fixed by 8.40, 90 minutes after I emailed them. Not that bad, then. Although annoying when you're working Asian time and people can't contact you all night. Ah well.

34sp (UK budget hosting - low cost hosting with excellent support) seem to have a fatal error on their email. I have not received any email on my work account, despite sending about 50 yesterday - someone must have replied.

These things always happen when you're busy. Really, really busy. 34sp - not so excellent, in my experience.

I just called someone in Moscow, and his secretary said "he is not here now, call back. Goodbye."

On Monday, a (London based) investment banker called me back at 10.45 in the evening. "Hi, may I speak to Sasha XXXX? XXXX YYYYY returning her call." And I was thinking, it's nearly 11pm. Why aren't you out? Or in bed? Why are you still pretending it's the middle of the day? Meanwhile, I'd been waiting for him to call me back for two weeks, so I took the call, and I too pretended that it was the middle of the day.

I had totally forgotten, till someone trupped through here googling on writing online banner ads, that in 2002 I was doing a lot of online copywriting. So like, whatever it is I do now, is certainly better than finding twelve different (short) ways to say "it's cheap, buy it."

I like Threadless T-Shirts.

Wikipedia's entry on deconstruction. Or is it?