Bluma
@bluma.bsky.social
Werewolf advocate, Golem appreciator. Writes a little about H. Leivick on https://blumalangerobertson.substack.com/
Last year’s big medical conversations included ‘why did half my hair fall out?’ with the response of ‘that just happens sometimes. Do you expect us to find out why?’
I am delighted to report that some of it has come back and come back white.
So I am that much closer to ‘hag’ now.
I am delighted to report that some of it has come back and come back white.
So I am that much closer to ‘hag’ now.
November 11, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Last year’s big medical conversations included ‘why did half my hair fall out?’ with the response of ‘that just happens sometimes. Do you expect us to find out why?’
I am delighted to report that some of it has come back and come back white.
So I am that much closer to ‘hag’ now.
I am delighted to report that some of it has come back and come back white.
So I am that much closer to ‘hag’ now.
Now I’m going to go insane — more insane, maybe — because we are citing a version of the poem which is not the version that appears on the page cited.
WTF, Mr Rivkin?
WTF, Mr Rivkin?
November 11, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Now I’m going to go insane — more insane, maybe — because we are citing a version of the poem which is not the version that appears on the page cited.
WTF, Mr Rivkin?
WTF, Mr Rivkin?
Today I answered a question on Facebook that someone asked last week and I really hope they still wanted and answer.
I would have.
(And there was an iffy answer that annoyed me)
I would have.
(And there was an iffy answer that annoyed me)
November 10, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Today I answered a question on Facebook that someone asked last week and I really hope they still wanted and answer.
I would have.
(And there was an iffy answer that annoyed me)
I would have.
(And there was an iffy answer that annoyed me)
I’ve thought that ‘Clouds Behind the Forest’ is a show-stoppingly gorgeous poem for a long time and there are definitely other ones in this book that are also beautiful. But ominously beautiful
Like that silly Zola where the girl suffocates on flowers because she’s heartbroken
Like that silly Zola where the girl suffocates on flowers because she’s heartbroken
November 10, 2025 at 3:30 PM
I’ve thought that ‘Clouds Behind the Forest’ is a show-stoppingly gorgeous poem for a long time and there are definitely other ones in this book that are also beautiful. But ominously beautiful
Like that silly Zola where the girl suffocates on flowers because she’s heartbroken
Like that silly Zola where the girl suffocates on flowers because she’s heartbroken
Thinking back on the time I was apparently a bitch because I yelled at people for putting Krapp’s suit back in the costume store (aka, bin bags full of clothes) with a peeled banana still in the pocket.
November 9, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Thinking back on the time I was apparently a bitch because I yelled at people for putting Krapp’s suit back in the costume store (aka, bin bags full of clothes) with a peeled banana still in the pocket.
I keep saying that repetition in Leivick isn’t a bug, but a feature, and I think this poem (just including the end here) proves the point.
Even if you can’t read Yiddish, you can see the visual repetition of the same words, the same letter beginning every line of the last section.
Even if you can’t read Yiddish, you can see the visual repetition of the same words, the same letter beginning every line of the last section.
November 9, 2025 at 2:44 PM
I keep saying that repetition in Leivick isn’t a bug, but a feature, and I think this poem (just including the end here) proves the point.
Even if you can’t read Yiddish, you can see the visual repetition of the same words, the same letter beginning every line of the last section.
Even if you can’t read Yiddish, you can see the visual repetition of the same words, the same letter beginning every line of the last section.
A plus of Rivkin’s book (which I am sitting with at the moment) is the super narrow focus — 1932-44. There’s a good chunk on the Soviet poems from ‘25-‘26, which only get the lightest of treatment in Charney’s big brick of a book.
And there’s more public interaction with Rivkin I have access to.
And there’s more public interaction with Rivkin I have access to.
November 9, 2025 at 1:28 PM
A plus of Rivkin’s book (which I am sitting with at the moment) is the super narrow focus — 1932-44. There’s a good chunk on the Soviet poems from ‘25-‘26, which only get the lightest of treatment in Charney’s big brick of a book.
And there’s more public interaction with Rivkin I have access to.
And there’s more public interaction with Rivkin I have access to.
My friends are lucky that I (usually) can’t just buy them a book and repeatedly ask them if they‘ve read it yet so we can discuss.
Although since my partner reads French, he really has no excuse.
Although since my partner reads French, he really has no excuse.
November 8, 2025 at 10:06 PM
My friends are lucky that I (usually) can’t just buy them a book and repeatedly ask them if they‘ve read it yet so we can discuss.
Although since my partner reads French, he really has no excuse.
Although since my partner reads French, he really has no excuse.
This Chanukah I might actually get to use the Forverts menorah!
(Long story short, my grandmother asked me on the phone what bad things I had done that the Forverts, of all things, was sending me menorahs)
(Long story short, my grandmother asked me on the phone what bad things I had done that the Forverts, of all things, was sending me menorahs)
November 8, 2025 at 8:01 PM
This Chanukah I might actually get to use the Forverts menorah!
(Long story short, my grandmother asked me on the phone what bad things I had done that the Forverts, of all things, was sending me menorahs)
(Long story short, my grandmother asked me on the phone what bad things I had done that the Forverts, of all things, was sending me menorahs)
Life hack: You don’t need to develop your own inferiority complex if you surround yourself with people who will tell you your every fault in exacting detail.
November 7, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Life hack: You don’t need to develop your own inferiority complex if you surround yourself with people who will tell you your every fault in exacting detail.
I believe this is slightly relevant to the parashat hashavua…and the fact that school plays have always been a little bit special.
![Once, a novel idea for how to close the celebration at the siyyum for a tractate at the end of a term occurred to the head of the yeshiva; an idea which almost has a relation to our current situation.
The Rosh Yeshiva, R’ Itche Frades, he was called, was quietly a devotee of Zion. Had a sharp mind. An even sharper eye. Was a singular intelligent man. This was around 1899. (Incidentally, S. Charney also studied at the same [Berezin] yeshiva the year before I arrived there) — Do you know how it occurred to the head of the yeshiva that those distinguished in study should close the celebration? — That they should act out, before a large yeshiva audience, ‘The Binding of Isaac,’ over a couple of evenings.
I, too, was asked to be amongst the actors. I was about eleven years old then. Most of the students were older bochurs. The Rosh Yeshiva himself prepared the script for us.
And here was the role he assigned to me:
When the Angel cries out to Abraham that he should not put his knife to Isaac, who lies upon the altar, a sheep needed to appear near Abraham’s feet and the sheep would to be the offering. I was given the role of the sheep, who didn’t need to utter a word, only lie under a chair, not far from Abraham’s feet, and await the slaughtering knife.
They dressed me in an inside-out sheepskin jacket and on my throat was hung a bladder of red beet vinegar. When the moment came, Abraham slashed the bladder and, it seemed, slaughtered me instead of Isaac.
All around me was drenched, so it seemed, with sheep’s blood.
That moment left an impression upon my entire life.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:6azpaiitjwqpyaslanivqbky/bafkreielwpm2eibf6qyzb65radppj3cgqaphkmnmb7khvhosr5lmuhuqsm@jpeg)
November 7, 2025 at 12:42 PM
I believe this is slightly relevant to the parashat hashavua…and the fact that school plays have always been a little bit special.
I am, generally, stubborn.
But I think they’ve finally ground me down.
But I think they’ve finally ground me down.
November 6, 2025 at 3:30 PM
I am, generally, stubborn.
But I think they’ve finally ground me down.
But I think they’ve finally ground me down.
Dear council website — I would not be trying to order a replacement card if I had the original card to scan.
kthxfckoff
kthxfckoff
November 6, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Dear council website — I would not be trying to order a replacement card if I had the original card to scan.
kthxfckoff
kthxfckoff
I haven’t been able to see well at all for the last few weeks. There nothing particularly wrong — and nothing that would be ‘fixable‘ that is.
It’s just depressing.
It’s just depressing.
November 5, 2025 at 5:22 PM
I haven’t been able to see well at all for the last few weeks. There nothing particularly wrong — and nothing that would be ‘fixable‘ that is.
It’s just depressing.
It’s just depressing.
B. Rivkin is the perfect critic for this, I think.
It’s always spooky season in this house.
It’s always spooky season in this house.
November 4, 2025 at 7:47 PM
B. Rivkin is the perfect critic for this, I think.
It’s always spooky season in this house.
It’s always spooky season in this house.
Basically, I don’t have enough connections to sustain being the kind of person I am.
November 4, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Basically, I don’t have enough connections to sustain being the kind of person I am.
LitCrit and Billy Joel.
Wild day here.
Wild day here.
November 4, 2025 at 1:31 PM
LitCrit and Billy Joel.
Wild day here.
Wild day here.
Finished up with the David Opatoshu book (I wonder where his writing would have gone in a slightly different world?) and remain enormously fond of some of the stories.
A contrast from B. Rivkin on Leivick and ’The Charlatan,’ certainly.
A contrast from B. Rivkin on Leivick and ’The Charlatan,’ certainly.
November 3, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Finished up with the David Opatoshu book (I wonder where his writing would have gone in a slightly different world?) and remain enormously fond of some of the stories.
A contrast from B. Rivkin on Leivick and ’The Charlatan,’ certainly.
A contrast from B. Rivkin on Leivick and ’The Charlatan,’ certainly.
Oh, to be an ignorant teenager who doesn’t think the middle-aged mother passing by them could possibly know what pot smells like.
November 3, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Oh, to be an ignorant teenager who doesn’t think the middle-aged mother passing by them could possibly know what pot smells like.
Are we cheering for ‘the Champ’?
Of course we are, with mezuzah pendant in hand, and embroidered star on his short and a blue and gold robe, the Bronx boy who learned to box at the YMHA.
Of course we are, with mezuzah pendant in hand, and embroidered star on his short and a blue and gold robe, the Bronx boy who learned to box at the YMHA.
November 3, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Are we cheering for ‘the Champ’?
Of course we are, with mezuzah pendant in hand, and embroidered star on his short and a blue and gold robe, the Bronx boy who learned to box at the YMHA.
Of course we are, with mezuzah pendant in hand, and embroidered star on his short and a blue and gold robe, the Bronx boy who learned to box at the YMHA.
Now we are having a not-un-homoerotic pre-boxing match rub-down.
After a book full of people, horses and dogs having sex (or trying to get laid)
After a book full of people, horses and dogs having sex (or trying to get laid)
November 2, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Now we are having a not-un-homoerotic pre-boxing match rub-down.
After a book full of people, horses and dogs having sex (or trying to get laid)
After a book full of people, horses and dogs having sex (or trying to get laid)
When we’re no longer shocked by the horrifying, we’re all in trouble.
November 2, 2025 at 2:47 PM
When we’re no longer shocked by the horrifying, we’re all in trouble.
“But I think two happy stories in one go is too much, even for a person like me”
Same, man, same.
Same, man, same.
November 1, 2025 at 4:40 PM
“But I think two happy stories in one go is too much, even for a person like me”
Same, man, same.
Same, man, same.
In high school, everyone was pretty sure I’d go ‘Carrie’ at the prom.
Would have if I could have, comrades. Would.
Would have if I could have, comrades. Would.
October 31, 2025 at 3:46 PM
In high school, everyone was pretty sure I’d go ‘Carrie’ at the prom.
Would have if I could have, comrades. Would.
Would have if I could have, comrades. Would.