Language arts through pen pal project Anyone with children who would like a pen pal cousin with matching interests? The 10-year-old lighting menorah above is now pen pals with a 10-year-old cousin in Israel, and also with another 10-year-old in our Ohio branch. More pen pal arrangements are in the works via E-mail between parents and this enthusiastic fan of the pen pal experience (if you're interested, drop us a line to get the ball rolling:  michael-david@bendor.org ). The pen pal project is always in handwriting mailed via U.S. post office, the best way to develop language skills and nurture sense of our larger family.

98 Degrees, Tony Bennett and Cece Winans were on a broadcast last Saturday night, Dec. 4, on Channel 2, CBS, for an Amy Grant holiday special.  It kicked off her 3rd annual tour with our cousin, flutist Norma Rogers, in her orchestra. This is Norma's third tour, so there is already an extensive feature on our web page linked from her photo in the table of contents. Norma was in her 26th year with the Nashville Symphony when the first edition of our story appeared.  She has agreed to provide for the next edition of her story six musical snippets I requested, being a former flute player myself.  Her husband's grandfather is Morris.

Cousins marrying cousins In our family, we have two cases of first cousins marrying each other, involving the children of three nieces and nephews of Usher. But that's nothing compared to the hilarious situations in a poem recently posted on the JewishGen newsgroup.  It totally cracked me up, and since when is a little mirth not a good thing?

Family Tangle
         Author unknown

Many many years ago
When I was twenty three,
I got married to a widow
Who was pretty as could be.

This widow had a daughter
Who had hair of red.
My father fell in love with her,
And soon the two were wed.

This made my dad my son-in-law
And changed my very life.
My daughter was my mother,
For she was my father's wife.

To complicate the matter more,
Although it brought me joy,
I soon became the father
Of a bouncing baby boy.

My little baby then became
A brother-in-law to dad.
And so became my uncle,
Though it made me very sad.

For if he was my uncle,
Then that also made him brother
To the widow's grown-up daughter
Who, of course, was my step-mother.

Father's wife then had a son,
Who kept them on the run.
And he became my grandson,
For he was my daughter's son.

My wife is now my mother's mother
And it makes me blue.
Because, although she is my wife,
She's my grandmother too.

If my wife is my grandmother,
Then I am her grandchild.
And every time I think of it,
It simply drives me wild.

For now I have become
The strangest case you ever saw.
As the husband of my grandmother,
I am my own grandpa!

Oigh veh.