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Show Us Your Most Embarrassing Bar Mitzvah Pictures
If this experiment in traffic whoring has taught me anything, it is that it is an exercise in complete and utter humiliation in exchange for traffic. And for me, that means two little words: Bar. Mitzvah.
Or Bat Mitzvah, if you are a lady like I am. Now that I have shared mine with you, it's time for you to share yours. I want to know all about the giveaways (one lucky Freeze Dance winner went home with the Austin Powers movie at mine, ya jealous?), the games (Coke and Pepsi, a truly fantastic way to subtly flirt with your crush as half of the game is spent sitting on his or her lap), and most importantly, the hora.
Also, please know that the competition is not exclusively for the star of the show; embarrassing photos from a Bar or Bat Mitzvah you attended are perfectly acceptable as well. For those of you unlucky souls who have never been to one, I invite you to sit back, relax, and enjoy the cringe-worthy embarrassment that is unique to a people forced to sing and dance in front of all their friends and family at the ugliest stages of human life.
Here's how to play.
- All entries should be posted in the comments section of this post. Emailed entries will not be considered. If you're not a commenter, find out how to become one here. (Pro Tip for new commenters: you won't be able to see your comment until it is approved. Just put it in once. We got it! We promise. Don't put it in five times because it didn't show up.)
- Here is how to upload a picture in the comments. Upload your picture to the internet, I suggest using TinyPic. Go to the comments and enter some text, then click on the little photo icon. Paste the URL of your photo (the one that ends in .jpg) into the box and press "Share." Presto! If you have any problems, email the help desk.
- The deadline is noon tomorrow, February 2nd. We'll publish the winner on the 3rd. The winner gets a box of Manishewitz, some Hanukkah gelt, a memory candle made by a Gawker staff member, and some other priceless Judaica. Note: If this turns out to be an especially popular post, we will turn it into a weekly feature. Think, "Best Bar Mitzvah Photo of the Week." It's in your hands, readers.
- Standard Contest Rules apply.
[Thank you to Alex Glaser for the original compilation]


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Lyrics:First verseFreemen, awake to duty's call! Assert your rights, defend your all. Our starry flag shall ever be, The emblem of sweet liberty; Let ev'ry nation, near and far, Revere each stripe, salute each star, Revere each stripe, Salute each star.Second verseShall we bequeath to children dear Great Freedom's strength, or minions fear? Shall mothers blush to hear our name, And daughters weep at our fell shame? Or, shall we strike with freemen's might, And thus protect our country's right, And thus protect our country's right?Third verse - The ballot is our weapon strong, The friend of right, the foe of wrong, And he, who spurns this sacred trust, Enslaves himself to greed and lust, And yields his heritage to foes, And bends the knee to despot blows, And bends the knee to despot blows.Fourth verse - No kingly crown, no tyrant hand Shall ever rule in this fair land. Almighty God! to Thee we bow, And all our strenth to Thee we vow, Let Justice reign, Let Peace abide,
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subset: commoncrawl


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Astros struggle to solve A's aggressive ways
HOUSTON -- Despite his 0-3 record entering Thursday's game, Astros starter Brett Oberholtzer could at least be proud of some gritty performances during those losing efforts.
Unlike his one-run no-decision in Oakland last week, the A's made sure Oberholtzer wouldn't exit Thursday's game with any warm feelings.View Full Game Coverage
HOUSTON -- Despite his 0-3 record entering Thursday's game, Astros starter Brett Oberholtzer could at least be proud of some gritty performances during those losing efforts.
Unlike his one-run no-decision in Oakland last week, the A's made sure Oberholtzer wouldn't exit Thursday's game with any warm feelings.View Full Game Coverage
Buoyed by Josh Donaldson's first career multi-homer game, the visitors rocked the lefty for six runs in 3 2/3 innings to blow past Houston, 10-1, as the A's extended their dominance over the Astros and tested the home team's patience to open up a four-game set in Minute Maid Park.
Houston is now 4-19 against Oakland since becoming AL West rivals last season, and the A's are off to a 4-0 start against the Astros in 2014.
They did it by rocking Oberholtzer, whose record had not matched his relative success on the mound. Entering the game, he was just 4-8 in his career but had a 2.76 ERA in 14 starts, including four solid efforts this season.
"I wouldn't say [it felt] weird, but I guess it's something new," Oberholtzer said of his struggles. "It's baseball, and I get an opportunity to work at all of it tomorrow. This won't stop me going forward."
Between some sloppy defense behind him and the aggressive A's lineup, Oberholtzer never had much of a chance.
Donaldson ripped a two-run shot off the southpaw in the first, and there was no lull after that. Donaldson scored again in the third on a Derek Norris single that preceded Alberto Callaspo's own two-run dinger, the final dagger for Oberholtzer's evening.
"They did a good job of boxing me in," Oberholtzer said. "I didn't feel much let up from them."
He finished with a whopping 93 pitches on eight hits and two walks through just 11 recorded outs.
"Some nights, you just don't have it," said Astros manager Bo Porter. "I think [Oberholtzer] tried to battle through it. He didn't have that sharp breaking ball and the changeup he's had in the good outings. Once you can't get a feel for those, it turns you into a one-pitch pitcher.
But the Astros' defense was certainly no help. A bobbled ball at shortstop prevented an inning-ending double play in the second, and Coco Crisp's single eventually plated a run. Crisp reached second on George Springer's misfire back into the infield.
Even Matt Dominguez, so renowned for his glove work at the hot corner, committed a pair of errors on one play. The Astros ultimately made five errors in the first five innings, which matched their hit total during those frames.
"We've been playing really well defensively and haven't had games with multiple errors," Porter said. "It's a part of the game. Do you want to make them? No.
"But Matt is one of our better defenders, and I'm not going to put too much weight into him making one poor decision with the baseball after an error."
Meanwhile, the Astros' bats opened hot but ran into a familiar problem: hitting with runners on base. Houston threatened in each of the first two innings but only scored on a first-inning walk and left five runners on during the two frames.
They led off the fourth and fifth innings with hits, but the A's Scott Kazmir retired Houston in order after that each time.
"We had the bases loaded there in the first and ... some opportunities to get a big hit and make a game of it early," Porter said. "[Kazmir] was able to get out of it. When you don't get those hits that can put up two or three runs, it normally comes back to haunt you."
Kazmir lasted six innings, striking out seven and surrendering the lone run. It was more than enough for an Oakland offense that wouldn't quit.
Houston loaded the bases in the ninth inning, but Carlos Corporan's flyout to end the game only ensured that the Astros matched the A's in number of men left on base with 11.
The A's added a pair of runs in the fifth inning off reliever Paul Clemens to effectively seal Houston's eighth loss in its last nine home games since opening the season with a pair of wins over the Yankees. Clemens was ejected in the seventh inning for hitting Jed Lowrie on the backside with a pitch, seemingly continuing the beef from last week in Oakland.
"Surprised, yeah," Clemens said. "It's a tough situation for the umpire, but I respect his decision, follow it and move on."
Clemens denied purposefully plunking Lowrie, saying he "cut" a fastball already aimed for the inside part of the zone.
Donaldson brought Lowrie home with a massive homer to deep left-center field, his second of the game. The third baseman now has three home runs, eight hits -- including three doubles -- six runs and eight RBIs in four games this season against Houston.
"It was neat," Donaldson said of the multi-homer outing. "I [said] yesterday I was going to hit three today. I fell one short. It was nice to have a good game, especially after the last three days."
The Astros and A's still have three games remaining in this weekend's set, giving Houston plenty of chances to reverse its luck against Donaldson and the defending AL West champs.
Chris Abshire is a contributor to MLB.com.


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Taranaki, Titahi, Ngā Mahanga
(1973- )
Matthew McIntyre Wilson (Taranaki, Ngamahanga, Titahi) was born in 1973 in Hastings. He studied jewellery at Whitireia Polytechnic, gaining a Certificate of Craft and Design in 1992, and later at Hawkes Bay Polytechnic, toward a Diploma of Visual Art and Design (Jewellery) in 1996. The artist currently lives and works in Khandallah, and teaches at Whitireia Polytechnic.
Spirit Wrestler Gallery
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Vancouver, BC
Canada V6J 1K1
Toll Free: 1-888-669-8813
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Between Pine St. and Fir St.
Tuesday to Saturday, open 10-5
Sunday and Holidays, open 12-5
© 2019 Spirit Wrestler Gallery. All Rights Reserved.


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I was intrigued by several articles that were just published this month in the journal Quaternary International . The entire May issue is devoted to research devoted to understanding history and implications of the Toba volcano super-eruption. The Toba volcano is found near the center of Sumatra, Indonesia. It is not much of a volcano anymore because in the past it completely blew its top and then collapsed into what is called a caldera which then filled with water to form a huge (100km x 30km) lake. It has been estimated that at least 2800 cubic kilometers of material was thrown into the air during the explosion or series of explosions. To put that in perspective the Krakatoa volcano threw just over 2o cubic kilometers of material into the air some of which circled the globe causing dazzling sunsets in Europe. Mt. St. Helens in Washing State only threw 1 cubic kilometer or less into the air so this Toba volcano was some 2800 times as large! In fact, the Toba super-eruption may be the single largest volcanic explosion in earth's history.
——Also see follow-up article to this one – The Toba Super Eruption and Polar Ice Cores —-
The extent of this eruption is difficult to comprehend and can hardly be overstated! It was MASSIVE but how do we know? The size of this explosion is estimated from both the vast hole it left where the volcanic peak must have once stood (see the picture above of the lake that now resides in what is left of the volcano) but also from measurements of the ash layer, called tuff, it left over all of southeast Asia and even most of the Indian subcontinent. This ash layer can be over 1000 feet thick near the volcano to several inches as much as 2000 miles away. Signs of this volcanic eruption are even recorded in the Greenland Ice cores. A thick layer of ash several inches to a foot thick is found in cores pulled from the floor of the Indian and South China Sea. This ash layer can be assigned with little doubt to this particular volcano based on the ratio of a number of chemicals that make up the magma of the Toba volcano.
Studies (see references below) of the most recent Toba super-eruption tuffs called the YTT (youngest Toba tuff) suggest, not surprisingly, that this event effected the climate of the earth by blocking the sun resulting in lower temperatures and less rainfall, causing wide scale changes in vegetation beyond even where the ash fell. Where the ash did fall, dramatic changes in vegetation structure can be inferred. Vegetation analysis of pollen and plant parts found in sediments below the ash layers in India and Indonesia have been performed and in sediment cores from the Indian ocean where fine scales pollen analysis can be performed to see what pollen was drifting in the air over the ocean from the continent and settling to the ocean floor. What these data strongly suggest is that there were widespread tropical forests and dense deciduous forests with little grass in most of India prior to this volcanic eruption. Above the ash layers much dryer conditions prevailed with grasslands contributing to the fossils in the sediments immediately above the ash layers.
When did the Toba Super-Eruption Happen?
You might be wondering, wow, very interesting, but why haven't I heard of such a HUGE event in Earth's history? Well, I haven't said when this occurred. Dating of the Toba tuff layer and sediments above and below the tuffs from many locations have all yielded a date of around 74,000 years ago. This corresponds with small global climate changes recorded at the same dated age on the Greenland and Antarctic ice cores.
With respect to young earth creationism this date is a problem but irrespective of radioactive dating, I think it is clear that this layer of volcanic tuff is not particularly young because it is found many tens to hundreds of feet under other sediments in many places in Asia and under 10 to 50 feet of sediments in sea floor cores. Ok, you might be thinking this is just another example of a dating problem and some apparently old features of the sedimentary record and so not really that profound. Most YECs acknowledge the existence of super volcanoes in the past but they always propose they happened during or right at the end of a global flood (see refs for some examples).
So is this just a case of another volcano that caused devastation during a time that was catastrophic anyway? Not at all! There is another aspect of some very recent research on the Toba ash that suddenly has made this particular volcanic event of much greater significance to the creation debate.
Toba Super-Eruption and Human Migration
The YTT (youngest Toba tuff) ash layer is particular relevant to any discussion of human origins and migration and is why this ash layer has been studied so intensively the last 5 years.
Why, because in a valley in southern India (see picture to right) where this ash layer has been preserved very well, more than 200 stone artifacts have been found in layers of sediments just BELOW the ash layer. 500 miles to the north there is another site where this ash has been investigated and evidence of human occupation below the ash has been found there as well. The inescapable implication of these stone tools is that people were living in India when the volcano blew its top. For the past three years anthropologist have hotly debated who these people were that left these stone tools at this location and whether they were all killed by the volcano and had to repopulate southeast Asia from Africa/Middle East again or if they survived in small numbers and repopulated the region but that debate is not my primary interest here.
Implications for Young Earth Creationism
This massive and apparently world-altering volcanic explosion cannot be explained away as having happened during the global flood as are many other super volcanic events, such as those of the Yellowstone caldera, by YECs. Here we have an example of a volcano that must have obliterated nearly all life on Sumatra when it blew and likely completely deforested most of Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and even parts of India. Massive layers of air-borne ash would have killed the majority of animals in this entire region. But rather than try to explain this as happening while Noah and his family where safe inside the Ark the evidence of humans occupying a site before this massive volcanic eruption means that this volcano has to have blown its top in the very recent past according to the YEC time line. This is because most Creationists argue that all humanity was gathered together at Babel and it is expected that Babel didn't occur until several hundred years after the Flood. Logically, then these stone tools could not have been dropped at this location in India until well after that point. Hence, for young earth creationists, the volcano didn't destroy Sumatra until well after the dispersal of peoples from Babel. So far I have been unable to find a single comment by young earth creationists about the significance of these artifacts apart from a reference (see below) by Brian Thomas at ICR who uses the presence of artifacts as evidence that these people were fully human and not some other species but seemed to be quite unaware of the implications of the position of these artifacts for the creationists' time-line.
There is so much more that could be said about this site and its implications but I don't want to distract from the main point: Within a young earth worldview, this is almost as close as you can get to proof that people had already migrated long distances and had to deal with a major catastrophe that could not have been part of a global flood event. So, when did these people live? How did they get there? How could much of this ash be covered by many dozens to hundreds of feet of sediments including many other "ancient" sites of human occupation that predate any written record? Why did the people who lived here only have very crude rock flaking technology if they had just dispersed (probably in less than one lifetime) from building a sophisticated tower of Babel? How could this massive eruption not have been noticed by people all over the world and been recorded in human history? When it comes to the human origins, there are no simple answers to these questions for anyone who wishes to compress these events into a short time window.
References, Sources and Interesting Links
This is a link to the Article index for the May issue of Quaternary International. If you have access to the articles there is a wealth of information here.
Middle Paleolithic assemblages from the Indian subcontinent before and after the Toba super-eruption. M Petraglia, R Korisettar, N Boivin, C Clarkson… Science 6 July 2007: Vol. 317 no. 5834 pp. 114-116
A science direct highlight of research on the human occupation of this region at this time.
Michael D. Petraglia, Ravi Korisettar, J.N. Pal. The Toba Volcanic Super-eruption of 74,000 Years Ago: Climate Change, Environments, and Evolving Humans. Quaternary International, Volume 258, 1 May 2012, Pages 1–4
http://www.icr.org/article/supervolcanoes-mount-st-helens-eruption/ – Supervolcanoes and the Mount St. Helens Eruption, By Steven Austin. Here Austin presents an argument for supervolcanoes during the flood with gradual reduction of force after the flood to the present.
http://www.icr.org/article/early-advanced-human/ – Brian Thomas of ICR makes comment on the Toba eruption but doesn't say when and doesn't mention the volcano's power. He just uses it as an example of humans in India being advanced (advanced apparently means only capable of making stone tools?!).