*my* "little" girl at the University of Chicago (1st-year) cast her first vote in this election and was absolutely thrilled. Already headed to Grant Park.

I gave her a good laugh when I described my first vote when I was a freshman at Cal --- the infamous 1980 election when Carter conceded. Still remember Reagan being burned in effigy at the corner of Durant and College.

I think her experience will beat mine.

Just wish it was over and I could exhale.

actually, mostly for underanothername since she is in NY, but if you enjoy preparing Middle Eastern food -- try to make a pilgrimage to Kalustyan's in Manhattan (123 Lexington, 10016). Unbelievable spice selection and all sorts of fixings. One of my students was from Lebanon and refused to buy canned chickpeas from anywhere else...

Definitely worth a trip, it's not far from the Greenmarket at Union Square so it makes a great two-fer on a Sat AM.

Oh, and they have a website and extensive online ordering.

Couldn't resist, since you guys made me hungry.

to my fellow New Yorker regarding Palin's distain for modern science... right on the mark.

Palin's fruit fly comment in all of its ignorance is ricocheting across my field at present as an example of anti-intellectualism writ large, haven't received this many irate emails in awhile.

Really folks, this is where we end up when there is little respect for science coupled to sheer ignorance. Frankly, the use of drosophila on the bench side of mental health-related and neuroscience represents some of the most creative approaches out there. And you know the amusing part? It's damn cheap when compared to the work in my field that is based on mammalian models.

For those of us who have watched as the freeze on the NIH budget has slowly but surely trickled down to start picking off junior scientists -- the prospect of another administration with medieval beliefs is chilling. It is a never-ending source of amazement to me when folks like Gov Palin (with no understanding of how modern science is conducted) feel free to express their "learned opinions" instead of finding real experts (hell, my high schooler would understand that flies are useful experimental model systems). It is a fatal flaw for a modern leader to be this ignorant.

Of course, the irony is that there is every possibility that young Trig would someday benefit from findings that originated in "fruit flies" -- I expect that Gov. Palin will refuse to avail herself of these advances on principle.

I have a group of cousins that are Modern -- and I have always marveled at the size of their families, though they topped out at 6!

And I couldn't agree more about the term "Ultra-Orthodox" -- somewhat bizarre.

Interesting point about the French Canadians. I can also add anecdotally that my children will likely end up more observant than we are.

But are you Modern Orthodox or "black hat"? I actually graduated from YU in NYC and even there you could find real differences in opinion though many of the most observant Orthodox were quite conservative.

One of my most observant colleagues is Modern Orthodox and is a fervent Obama supporter.

And while their birth rate is impressive, I cannot remotely imagine the Orthodox will ever comprise most of American Jewry.

that consistently votes for Democrats for president is actually quite interesting.

I agree (quite strongly) that the Jewish population is by no means monolithic, I have always found it quite amusing when pundits start in with this bizarre equivalence between Israel and Jewish voters. Completely uniformed -- and assumes that Israelis are all of one mind when it comes to their own security and how best to safeguard their own existence. Nothing like over-simplification, the mantra of the neocons and Republicans alike. Works great. If this were true, Lieberman would be a hugely popular in the Jewish community, he is not.

I think what gets lost is the deep cultural thread that runs through American Jews -- no matter how observant you are (or aren't) or how assimilated you have become, there is a shared experience that shapes your outlook. The central role of education should never be underestimated. Obama was raised with very "Jewish" values -- that he should look out for those who are in need, he should work very hard to obtain the best education possible and that he should excel. Obama's story resonates, and I think that many Jews embrace him as one of us, I know that my extended family does. Except of course for my one delightful bigoted relative, I guess every family has *one* of those.

The flip side to this is the fact that the Republican party over the past 8 years has shown itself to have values that are antithetical to this view. Bush was bad enough, but Palin is the poster child for what many Jews would not want their children to be. As I have commented in another thread, if I had a cousin that had gone through 5-6 colleges to get a degree and had children and a soon-to-be son-in-law that were high school dropouts, she would be a serious shanda (scandal), not VP material. When you couple that to her fundamentalist views (and sitting through a sermon given by David Brickner??), I have no idea why anyone, save the most addled neocon, would think that Jews would embrace her.

The final straw is the nasty, divisive campaign filled with innuendo, lies and guilt-by-association. While I am young enough to have avoided serious anti-semitism, many of my relatives have not, they know what this is like first-hand and the parallels are hard to ignore.

So I really have no clue why these pundits thought Obama would have a "problem" with Jews, guess I have to default to ignorance and self-absorption on their part. Not the first time.