i meant to stick this in weeks ago

but never did, and now it's almost shabbat and i feel sorta bad leaving off like this with such a troublesome statement, but anyway:

A guy here at the Yeshiva told me that my eyes have "that Israeli look." Further inquiry revealed that statement to indicate "a bright sparkling soul light which has been brutalized and crushed."

Felt like I needed to share that.

On Sunday I am going to yet another wedding, a religious one this time, and then moving to Jerusalem. Or perhaps in the other order.

Have a great weekend, and stay in touch.

I have a date with a beautiful French babe

But that's not the point. Tonight I went to a secular wedding with Rav Yehoshua (of Bat Ayin fame). My second wedding this week! I nibbled on the enormous and glorious array of appetizers. He didn't-- you know-- issues with the hekhsher. What's a hekhsher?? Good question. Someone answer.

Cheese? These Israelis have these gorgeous function halls with elaborate gardens and sultry mood lighting. This place was up near Pardes Chana, where I once smoked cigarettes and ate felafel with Amber Rogers, and where Jason met Sara (and, some say, where Harry met Sally). I am going to take this moment to mention how beautiful and smart and kind and generous Sara Kravitz is, in hopes that she might COMMENT ON MY BLOG at least once.

Ah yes-- so the Chuppah (the little tent under which a Jewish wedding is performed) was on a little dock in a little pool in this gorgeous garden. As the bride and groom walked the little bridge to the little dock in the little pool together, the little DJ played a brutal instrumental version of ABBA's Dancing Queen, slowed down and writ grand with the addition of an angelic chorus singing the melody. That's how I want my bride (may she appear in my life soon and in glory) to walk to the Chuppah-- accompanied by ABBA. Or even better, maybe I can get Chris Meade (who has probably never read this blog) to bring his Harpsichord and play an instrumental processional version of Give it to Me, Baby by Rick James, z"l.

But wait-- take 10 steps back. The ABBA begins, the handsome couple approaches the bridge, and when they reach it-- shaznizzle!!! the remote-controlled sparklers explode on the sides of the bridge, spraying sparks of the purest white into the air. Actually a nice touch, and yet.....

But wait-- at the end, at the very instant when the groom smashes the glass in memory of the as-yet-unrebuilt Jerusalem (classic moment in any Jewish wedding), the oh-so-Israeli DJ cues a SOUND EFFECT OF SMASHING GLASS to accompany the just-not-real-enough sound of actual glass breaking---- the music kicks in, and the wild rumpus begins.

This wedding, with the gorgeous people in the gorgeous garden eating gorgeous food also featured a real-live ARAB WOMAN baking pita in an oven-- right there while-you-wait.

Reminds me of that Alabama wedding I once went to where they had the "plantation theme," and a few unkempt Negroes sitting on some bales of hay and pouring black-eyed peas onto freshly-baked cornbread.

Look-- I found a picture of both of the people to whom I referred earlier in this post. And me!! At my big birthday dinner and Karaoke bash. You weren't there? Hell with it, I'm in far-off Israel, I'll tell the truth--- you weren't invited. Really.


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By the way-- tonite I had my worst gin and cranberry ever. Cheap gin, cranberry syrup gunk and the Israeli inability to mix a cocktail. Blech. But all in all, a wicked good time, and a great drive with Rav Yehoshua, who became a Rabbi at JTS, and then moved over into the Orthodox world a few years after.

the ol' mule barge birthright thang

here is the latest installment of a recent email conversation that i have been having. prizes for the most creative (or accurate) interpretation:

No - I just like using the words B'ivrit..I didn't say "Yachmar" which is the same. Donkeys are given a bad rap..or are they mules? Did you ever take the mule barge canal boat ride in New Hope Pennsylvania..all pulled by mules who are supposed to like what they do. This is how it was back in Pennsylvania in those days..mules hauled items up the canal.

Even as you delve deeper stealing someone's birthright seems downright wrong with or without commentary.

Good night,

Alexander Marc Siegel, z"l ; 15 Av, 5765

Tonight is the 2nd Yahrzeit of my father, Alexander Marc Siegel, Avraham ben Shaul, zichrono liv'racha, may his memory be for a blessing. He died of diabetes on 13 August, 2003. He was 59.

Alex loved the pleasures of life. Everything about him was big: his belly, his mouth, his hair (in the 70s), his appetites and his heart. He loved people, and always tried, in his often abrasive and convoluted way, to help those in need. Mark Horn, a Chabad Rabbi from Miami, said this at the funeral (paraphrased by me):

Believe it or not, Alex was one of the most religious men I have known. He passionately pursued the most important Mitzvot of lifting up the downtrodden, of helping the orphan and the widow.

Alex's funeral in South Florida was like the funeral in the movie Big Fish; a motley crew of ex-cons, lawyers, family and men of the cloth turned up to honor his passing.

Famous quote from the funeral from Uncle Jerry, my dad's brother:

My brother touched a lot of people in his life. Where he touched them, I can't say right here, but he touched them nonetheless....

My father died on the 15th of the Jewish month of Av. "Av" means "father" in Hebrew. The 15th of Av, also known as Tu b'Av is like the ancient Israelite Sadie Hawkins day. Supposedly the single women of Jerusalem (or maybe Shiloh...) would go out to the fields on this day and dance around in plain white clothes, and single men would come out and choose a wife from the crowd. Or something like that. A fitting day to remember Alex-- a day of dancing girls.

Tu b'Av is a day of love, a day in which ideas of marriage and love are auspicious. Or at least in the air. May those of us who yet walk alone in this difficult life be blessed, through the memory of my father Alex, to find true love, and holy satiation for all of our appetites.

Shabbat Shalom.

Other Side--- They Suffer Too, and the Guavas die

It's so hard to balance my repulsion and anger at Palestinian hate-mongering and ultra-violent rhetoric on the one hand, and my immense pity for the suffering of the individual Palestinians on the other. Why is the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) in the territories? To oppress the Palestinians ruthlessly, or to protect the Jews from unstoppable violence? If the Palestinians tolerated a few thousand Jews on their land (8,000 out of 1.4 million people in Gaza), would Israel be less restrictive?

My guess is that we are all playing dirty in this one. (notice how I say "we." but does being a Jew automatically include me in what goes on? philosophically, yes-- and you too)

Look at the second half of this article for some details on how life can be so hard for the Palestinians. Not because of ideological matters, or direct clashes, but because of logistics.

Last night I had a dream that I went to Publix, after hours, to buy eggs for Esta. I know she likes Jumbo, but the Jumbos were all broken, so I told her that she would have to settle for Large eggs. The rest of the dream is too sad to recount.

Shabbat Shalom

More images

All from the Yahoo! news slideshow site. Lots of stuff there.

I hope she comes for Esta's baby next

People love The Onion. That's a fact. Try this tidbit:

Angelina Jolie Coming For Your Baby

MALIBU, CA—Angelina Jolie has filed for adoption of your newborn baby, sources close to the actress reported Tuesday. "Angelina loves your baby, and you should be honored that she has chosen it," said publicist Jacqueline Silver, citing the growing collection of babies Jolie has culled from families worldwide. "Color, creed, whether your child is wanted—none of it matters. Angelina has fallen in love, and through legal means or force, your baby will soon be hers." Immediately after acquiring your child, Jolie will dress it in Betsey Johnson infant wear, give it a faux-hawk, name it after a random passage from the The Tibetan Book Of The Dead, then resume her relentless search for babies.

Images

This stuff is truly heart-rending. And meanwhile, some Israeli monster had to go and kill random Palestinians as an attempt to stop the disengagement/expulsion. Stupid. Let them be the terrorists...

Thanks to Mobius for the link on Jewschool to this enormous photo archive. And for those of you aspiring Jewish hipsters, take note that the 2 top Jew-Cool sites, jewschool and jewlicious, are both deep deep with coverage of this most difficult and sorrowful time. To wit- real cool has substance behind it. That is to say, you won't find coverage of the disengagement/expulsion at Heeb.

Black smoke is still billowing from the fires.

It sounds more intense than maybe it is. That line might be more appropos for a piece on the Shoah (Holocaust) or the 17th century Chielmnicki (sp?) massacres than for the disengagement/expulsion. But it was an intense sentence, so I put it there:

Black smoke is still billowing from the fires.

Anyway, check the Jerusalem Post and Haaretz for lots of coverage on the whole process. Here's an interesting quote, revealing a significant difference between Israeli and American society:

Eliezer, who would not give his last name, said he would not strike soldiers, "but I might possibly hit the police if they come."

Wanderingstu contest!! can you figure out what this quote tells us about Israeli society (hint: how does the structure affect the attitude?)? POst an answer-- and no cheating!! The winner gets something. Here's another powerful quote, expression the mixture of anger and deep sorrow:

She and others plan to stay in their homes until the soldiers come to evict them. "We will fight with all our strength but will not strike anyone. There will not be violence in my house; we have suffered too much already," she said Tuesday.

In Jerusalem itself, things are calm. Business as usual. Time will reveal the wisdom or folly of this move-- unheralded in political history, by the way.

As for those worried about wanderingstu-- here I am. I have been away from my computer since friday, and so that, among other fun facts, accounts for the gap in posting. Among other fun facts.

A couple more tidbits on Gush Katif. This is from a Haaretz piece:

I have lived here for 29 years, Toker replies. And in every one of those 29 years, they came and told me that next year I would not be here. Every year they asked me, Anita, where will you go. And for all those 29 years I have replied to whoever has asked that with God's help, he will come here next year and ask me the same question. I am not blind. I know that this time it is different. It is closer. But look around. Everything is growing here. The settlement is alive. And I am a believing person. Every farmer is a believer. So last week I planted 10,000 celery seedlings. This week I will plant another 10,000. I still believe.

And a last bit of scathing commentary from Daniel Pipes.
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Hope you're having fun, wherever you are. Take some time for a litte late summer enjoyment before August rolls out-- you are all commanded to go swimming! for crying out loud.

I am going to IKEA today...

Living the Vida Estupido

Golly. Even in Israel, stupid, narcissistic crap trumps drive-by shootings and mass-protests any day. (Pardon my slight exaggeration.)

It appears that our own Ricky Martin (he is considered an American, right?) taking up the cause of oppressed Arab children ("As a Latino, I understand your plight") got dressed up pretty like Arafat on international TV. Luckily, a quick meeting with Israel's Consul General in New York cooled the tenuous Israeli-Martin relations.

...as a special gesture he planned to play a concert in Israel on his next world tour in spring. During their meeting [Consul General Arye] Mekel suggested that Martin collaborate with Israeli artists, and Martin replied that he would be happy to do so.

In an attempt to further patch up relations, Martin told Mekel that he learned several Hebrew words from his friends in Los Angeles. He then turned to Mekel and said "my dear" in Hebrew.

At which point the former IDF Navy Seal put Martin into a secret ShinBet choke hold and threatened to crush his wind pipe if he every "Got all smarmy and Latin-like" on his ass again.

Mekel summed up the meeting by saying: "especially in these times when we are busy with issues like disengagement and the Shfaram murder, Martin's arrival in Israel is both a breath of fresh air for issues over and above the conflict, issues that we are interested the media cover."

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Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post page on which I found this article has a "Google ads," box. So an advertiser pays Google for an ad, and then Google buys as space on various other (and probably more prominent) sites. The ads are supposed to be related to the site on which Google places them. So, for example, if you are selling wheat germ, Google ads might place your ad on a natural cooking site, but not on the Victoria's Secret site. On this particular Jerusalem Post page, the Google ad offered the chance to purchase an article called "Israeli Atrocities." Whoops! The internet is magic.

JPost articles prove that everyone is mean to everyone

Looks like no one can win....

Shoot a Jew;
Ruin an Arab's life.

Do it now--> Talk For Free, to me, to each other

SKYPE.COM
(sorry about no link--> technical difficulties)

SKYPE.COM.
my name is wanderingstu . it's free. it's like IM, but with talking.

do it now

Love from heaven, Discipline on the ground

During the day on Wednesday, thousands of people gathered on a dusty field in the little town of Ofakim to protest the disengagement. It was a lukewarm rally, to be honest. Lots and lots of people (although, in theory, there could have been many more), but not enough fire in the belly. This was no Selma, Rav Natan pointed out. There was a stage, and various speakers addressed the crowd. Some got excited cheers, and the name of Mr. Sharon always got some emphatic boos The highlight of the afternoon rally was this character in the flying machine, which had the slogan "A Jew does not expel a Jew" written on its underside. He was tossing orange bracelets onto the crowd as he looped around over our heads. From the stage at the front of the field, someone announced something like "even in heaven they support our cause!" or something like that.


This guy was selling ices and other frozen treats out of a shopping cart, and ranting loudly. His politics demonstrated a bold mix of national identity and personal concern: "Protests are good for the People of Israel!! Protests are good for the economy!! Ice pops are good for the Jewish people!!"


After dark, thousands of people marched out of the town of Ofakim and headed down the highway, ostensibly towards Gush Katif. There were 15,000 soldiers and cops out to stop us. They stood in what was often total darkness, lining the sides of the highway, arms linked, faces stoic (for as long as they could remain so). Teenagers in orange t-shirts ran up to them, offering snacks and hugs, and chanting: "Soldier! Cop! I love you!!" On the other hand Rav Natan, reliving his youthful days battling NYPD in the 60s, bellowed "MEDINAT MISHTARAH!!! (police state!)." {It's worth a reminder here that the soldiers, unlike in the US, are not voluntary. So these were just kids, friends, neighbors, family members, ordered to block the protest, regardless of their personal beliefs. A cop, on the other hand, is a cop...}

After a mile or so we hit a junction, at which point the human blockade cut across the street, and along the intersecting road for quite a while. There was a row of soldiers/cops right along the road, then another row further out in the brush. At the junction itself, there were some huge floodlights, cops on horses and a few large armored police vehicles. Not tanks, but more like some scary Mad Max stuff. I did not see any dogs. Some of the cops carried huge nightsticks, especially the shorter ones. Rav Natan found this quite amusing.

Unable to move, and unwilling, as of yet, to back down, tired protesters lay down in the dust and thorns at the side of the road to wait out the night. A few cars had been outfitted with p.a. systems, and folks called out slogans and logistics ("boys sleep on the right side of the road, girls on the left") all through the night. It was really an amazing site. Most of the area was dark, but, as you can see in some of the photos (click the title bar for the whole gallery), there was an area which was bathed in a surreal orange glow from the streetlights. This area was away from the main center of energy, and so had an oddly subdued tone, in spite of the human barrier lining the street. As you walked further from the main junction and deeper into this yellowed domain, the stoicism began dissipating. Cops joked and chatted, protesters and soldiers shared cigarettes, people let down their guard.

Here are some news articles on the event (click the text in parens):
-Gearing up- Wednesday afternoon (JPost)
-The rally ends (JPost)
-Joy at others' sorrow? (NYTimes)

[you might have to log in to read this piece about the Arabs in Gaza celebrating the pullout, including some fun slogans like "Gaza today, Jerusalem tomorrow!"]

-US money funds withdrawal? (Al-Jazeera)

As if US money isn't propping up the Palestinian economy and half the developing world at the same time..... But nonetheless, in this piece you see an Arab perspective that the disengagement is not much of a strategy towards peace:

"Furthermore, an advisor to Sharon said in an Israeli newspaper interview that the withdrawal from Gaza is not part of any peace plan. It is just an excuse to put off serious peace negotiations.

"Some 8,000 settlers from Gaza will be removed, four small settlements in the West Bank will also be shut and that's it. As Sharon's adviser admitted, there won't be any serious negotiations with the Palestinians until they 'turn into Finns.'"

As always, watch out on Al-Jazeera, the bottom of the page is a quasi-open forum, usually filled with hate, anti-Semitism and threats of violence. Read at your own risk.

-Bibi says 'NO' (JPost)

An article about former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is against the Gaza pullout (from this interview). I specifically liked this quote, in which he objected to the Israeli Police blocking roads to prevent people from even reaching the protest:

"I thought that the decision to stop vehicles in distant cities [ahead of the protest in Netivot and Kfar Maimon] was strange, even bizarre. I am not aware of even one instance where in any democracy forces were used to prevent people from gathering for a protest located far away from where they were blocked,"

- And then there's this: Miracles(?) (JPost)

I'd love to hear your thoughts on all of this, especially the miracles thing. And Dr. B_., whose entire family are gold circle patrons of this site, would love to debate on any issue. Even the most mundane.
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Hey friends, just remember-- I ain't wearing orange in this photo, more of a neutral brown. Just holding the flag for the sake of the photo-op. But, the more I think about it, the more I don't like this whole process. It's got nothing to do with the Palestinians in my mind, but more about how Jews treat Jews. Check out the Al-Jazeera quote up there for more on the value of this "disengagement" in the efforts towards making a real peace. And for more fun photos, click the title of this post, or just clicky click here.


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And, as a little treat, here's a quote from the Jerusalem Post profile of yesterday's lunatic moron murderer reminding you that they're not all like that out here:

Though he appeared on some Shin Bet [Israeli Security Agency] lists, he was rather anonymous, unconsciously camouflaged by the thousands of the settlement movement's entirely peaceful activists. His newfound fanaticism fueled his hatred, and compelled him to do what the vast majority of settlers think unconscionable.

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Sorry to end it all with such madness and pain, but that's the scene over here these days.
Shabbat Shalom, a wonderful weekend, and much joy and blessing. Please stay in touch my, beloved friends.

how rare the air, replete with prayer

Taking one of many all-too-frequent "breaks" from my (half-)learning of the Gemara (Talmud) on Shabbat (the Sabbath):

Above, the stars, below, the lights of the cities of the hills and coast twinkle in the deep darkness. From the next hill over, the sound of our cousins' prayer rises and fills the void, defining the night with its thick cacophony of supplication and yearning.

I suspect that our voices shall do the same tomorrow night.

Let us hope that they pray for peace and redemption, as should we. As should you.

In Praise of the White Man

My friend Lisa Whiteman is wicked cool. And cute as a button too. And even more so, she's got amazing powers of observation (like she can assess the mood of a sparrow from 300 yards) and a wonderful way of putting it all in words. And she snaps snappy snapshots too.

We met at a hostel in London in 1997, and then we moved to New York City the same day in 2002, the first time I "moved" there, before being shipped to Cincinnati. Separately, of course.

Why this sudden heaping of praise? Just because a recent blog entry of hers tickled me. Though not a star, I have made a few choice appearances on her site.

These are pictures of me in London in 1997. Original context, with titles,here.

Prelude to some fun pix of Jews in Orange

Note-- after reading this political background/ranting on the issue, check the more recent post with more pics and a personal account of the Ofakim rally



It's not the longest word in the English language, but antidisengagementism is a pretty fun word to type. And it's even more fun to observe. Yesterday I hopped into the van with Rav Natan, his wife Ruti, and five of their ten children (we met up with two more later) to drive to Ofakim, in the Southwest of Israel, to protest the impending disengagement of the Gaza Strip. "Disengagement" is a mild sounding term, and refers more to the relation between Israel and Palestine. From the perspective of the Jews living in Gaza (most of them in the region called Gush Katif) and their supporters, the more accurate term is "expulsion."

Regardless of how you hold on the issue of vacating Gaza, giving land to the Palestinians, etc., what I have realized, is that people being forced to leave their homes with little warning (a few months?) and no say in the matter (democracy?) is just that: people being forced to leave their homes. And so it ain't so nice.

Leave out the fact that Gush Katif is a gorgeous strip of beachfront turf that this small community of Jews has nicely cultivated over the past few decades. That's aesthetics, and maybe muddies up clear analysis of the issues. What is worth considering is the following:

- Ariel Sharon is the guy who encouraged the settlements back in the day, and who was most recently elected by viciously condemning the idea of disengagement.

- This is not so much of a move towards peace as a literal disengagement: let's get the hell out of here, then keep building a giant wall between us and them and just be done with it.

- Expelling people from their homes is fascist, whether it's Jews or Palestinians. A friend of mine who is against the settlements laments (as do many Israelis) that her friends and relatives risk/lose their lives in the army to defend these settlers, because any "religious nut" who wants to put a trailer on a hilltop gets immediate military protection. One one hand, this policy of the government is perhaps confusing. The government might say, "if you want to go settle this hilltop against official policy, go ahead, but you're on your own." In cases where it is official policy to build (as it has been with Sharon in the past), well then the problem is the government, not the settlers.

On the other hand (I just don't know enough about the real details of the security situation to give a real analysis of this), many people maintain that the settlements help the security situation in Israel, because the Jews living in the settlements end up being the targets of attack more than people living in Israel Proper.

Rav Natan suggests that a truly democratic process would let the Jewish settlers know that this land is being handed over to the Palestinians, and then give them the choice of what to do. A tough choice it would be, but at least a choice. Just as there are Arab citizens of the State of Israel, why couldn't there be Jewish citizens of the Palestinian State? At the moment, of course, this is more theoretical than practical, because Jewish settlers left without military protection probably wouldn't be too safe-- and so we end up with a situation like the one we have. Rock and a hard place.

So anyhow, as I mentioned in a previous post, thousands and thousands (millions?) of Israelis are against the disengagement, and are garbed in orange, the official anti-disengagement color, jack-knifing the summer wardrobes of scores of pro-disengagement Israelis. Two days ago there was a giant rally in a town called Sderot, and the fun continued yesterday in Ofakim. This has gone on quite a bit here, so the actual rally i will deal with in a later post.

By the way, friends, this was my first attempt ever ever to ever say anything in writing about politics, a topic which terrifies me, because I never see how you can make a assertion without disenfranchising some element of the whole picture. So if i missed a point, or said something incomplete or ill-informed, be gentle. Guide me, but be gentle. Feel free to engage in active debate, if you so desire.

Fruitfulness and Multiplication

Gotta hand it to my former Yeshiva buddy, avid commenter, fellow Floridian Yid Blogger and friend Chazarmaveth, who just had a baby girl!! Well, his wife did-- he just kvelled. Check out her first appearance in cyberspace. Then check out her second. I'll tell you what friends, having a baby gets blog comments a lot quicker than whining about not getting comments. So in that spirit, I am heading to Tel Aviv for some disco action.

So, just in case some folks (like someone whose initials are D.CDB) think that Chazarmaveth is just some other random dude on-line with whom I trade geeky and insider-elitist backscratches, here's the scoop:

1992. When I first got to BU, Mike Walsh (a/k/a DJ Mike Walsh) somehow got me emailing with his pal Jerry (a/k/a "Choad"). I had no idea who this guy was, but we had a bit of a correspondence, trading off-color jokes and information about Wookiees.

1999. Sevenish years later, when I was here, at the Bat Ayin Yeshiva, I met, among others, this wacky character named Jerry Silverman. So what.

That spring, a pack of us Yeshiva guys took a bike trip from Israel's far north, the Hermon, to the southern tip, Eilat. We were a convoy of bearded gents with kippot and tzitzit, cruising the Holy Land. Somewhere in the middle of the desert, Jerry and I were shmoozing, and, piece by piece, figured out- yes, he went to University of Florida; yes, he knew Mike Walsh; yes, HE WAS THE GUY WITH WHOM I HAD BEEN EMAILING.

Wacky.

2003- .So now, Jerry and his wife Sarah live in New York, in Riverdale (the Bronx). And we have hung out a few times over the past two years. He's got a blog, I've got a blog. It started on line, and now it's still on line, but in the middle, we are cuddly, squishy, real-time friends.

Mazal Tov, Jerry and Sarah, on your beautiful first child!!!

I was kidding about Tel Aviv. As Goethe famously said: Ich kann nicht disko.

Esta Knows

The lost of art of kitchenology:

i was thinking about your idea of an electric wok i
use my electric fry pan much more than my wok it is
more diverse than a wok i stir fry in it more than i
do in the wok and the fry pan can be used for eggs
sauteing etc. it has a bigger cooking surface just
sharing my experience

Yo- not only is my mom thinking about my means of food prep here in Israel, she's droppin' the science on it. Esta puts the 'economics' in home economics (my favorite class in middle school). Unlike Jayrog, who puts the 'ho' into home-ec.

Speaking of Jay-- he is on his own adventure right now- Paris, Prague and points lower on the NATO list. Check this quote from and email, and then check his site:

guess where I went last night...that's right the moulin rouge. You would have loved it. Dinner theater kind of vegas setup. Then the show, and to break up the acts of topless dancing and fairly cheesy themes, there was juggling, clown comedy and an act with mini ponies and one topless girl in a tank of water with boa constrictors. Everything a young boy needs.

I have no idea what he means by "you would have loved it." I don't condone that sort of behavior.

______

UGH!!! I just lost the previous post----> there's some crazed blockage action on the Israeli internet service here (fam'ly values and all)-- and it found a word on the blog it didn't like, and so refused to let me see the blog page. I tried moving some posts out of the way, like this one, with the word TOPLESS up there, but to no avail. I can't see my own blog!!! Nutty.

As long as you can see it, we're cool.