Growing up in my quasi-kosher family, I had to tolerate a lot of hypocrisy. One outstanding bit of chicanery involved the Sabbath, the holy day that started every Friday at sundown and lasted 24 hours. No work could be done, and cooking a meal, even turning on the oven, was considered to be work. My grandmother, a devoted Jew if there ever was one, got around that rule by cooking all the weekend meals on Friday morning, then simply turning on the oven to "warm up" the food when it was time to eat.
"But Grandma," I would say, "I thought turning on the oven is not allowed."
"Not to cook, but a warm-up is allowed," she'd say.
I was reminded of this semantic nonsense earlier today during a Facebook sniping contest with a friend over Hillary Clinton's dishonesty; he's a Clinton-lover, I am proudly not.
I called her conniving. He said he could live with conniving. I then gave him the definition of the word: Given to or involved in conspiring to do something immoral, illegal, or harmful. He countered with, "Depends on who finds it harmful," pointing out that Bernie Sanders probably found some of Hillary's actions harmful to his campaign, but in reality she was just being "strategic," adding, "I understand why people who fail to strategize at her level would feel like they'd been poorly treated."
Honestly, sometimes it's exhausting trying to talk to those people.
"But Grandma," I would say, "I thought turning on the oven is not allowed."
"Not to cook, but a warm-up is allowed," she'd say.
I was reminded of this semantic nonsense earlier today during a Facebook sniping contest with a friend over Hillary Clinton's dishonesty; he's a Clinton-lover, I am proudly not.I called her conniving. He said he could live with conniving. I then gave him the definition of the word: Given to or involved in conspiring to do something immoral, illegal, or harmful. He countered with, "Depends on who finds it harmful," pointing out that Bernie Sanders probably found some of Hillary's actions harmful to his campaign, but in reality she was just being "strategic," adding, "I understand why people who fail to strategize at her level would feel like they'd been poorly treated."
Honestly, sometimes it's exhausting trying to talk to those people.
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