Why Josh Can't Be Left Alone

A ran across a recent story in the Chicago Sun-Times about a group of young people in my community who throw a cultural event referred to as the Indo Jew Bowl. As could be inferred from the name, it consists of a Thanksgiving Day football game between, you guessed it, some Indian kids and some Jewish kids. Cute, I guess.

Then I read the story and the website. And I saw some of the names that were involved. And I realized that not only did I know them, but these had been the guys who made up my closest circle growing up. These were the guys on my Little League team, in my summer camp, and at my birthday parties. And I hadn't seen or heard from most of them in over ten years. It was kind of strange to see guys that had been so close in a major newspaper, where they seemed as close to me as ever, but yet I was no closer to them than any other reader of the paper.

As I peered into every corner of their website, trying to simultaneously find out what my friends were now up to as well as relive my childhood, I caught a part of me that felt as though it had died. But maybe it hasn't. The game is tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, 3 miles from my house.

And as a Thansgiving Day Football bonus, this article highlights a recent decision to open up a prayer area at Giants Stadium. A victory for Mincha Minyanim? Actually, just a favor for Muslims. But in the city of Jew Day at Shea, why hasn't this been done before? Don't the Jews have Minyanim already? I know at Wrigley Field they have a Mincha Minyan (although it is private, consisting of the Yeshiva and Ida Crown students vending concessions).