Hot guys 3: smart, nerdy Jewish guys.

I'm still getting requests for more of these posts. It might have to become a regular feature!

I've got a bit of a thing for smart, nerdy, slightly neurotic Jewish guys of the Woody Allen variety.

I'm not sure why. It could relate back to high school, where my favourite teacher was a smart Jewish guy. I wouldn't say he was 'hot' though. If I remember correctly, he was a Rabbi, and he reminded me more of Teyve from Fiddler on the Roof than Woody Allen.

All together now:

If I were a rich man,
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
All day long I'd biddy biddy bum.
If I were a wealthy man.
I wouldn't have to work hard.
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
If I were a biddy biddy rich,
Yidle-diddle-didle-didle man.

Maybe it's because through my knowledge of pop culture, I link smart, nerdy Jewish guys to New York City, which is the place I'd like to visit the most in the entire world.

Or perhaps it's because I see this type of guy as unattainable. I'm a shiksa - a non-Jewish woman - and traditionally, children have to have a Jewish mother to be considered Jewish. Which is quite a strong reason for Jewish men to marry Jewish women.

I haven't completely given up hope though. Kristina Grish has written a whole book about shiksas dating Jewish guys, Boy Vey! The Shiksa's Guide to Dating Jewish Men.

Anyway, enough about my idiosyncrasies, on to the pictures!





Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated. That first picture is great; he looks like he could be a librarian! And then I could work with him... And then we could find a quite corner of the history stacks...

Sorry, I'm getting off track.





Danny Katz. Danny Katz is hilarious. I love his columns in The Age and when he answers the reader questions in the Good Weekend. His columns often make mention of his beloved, whom I believe is a shiksa. There's hope for me yet!





John Safran. I like how outspoken and opinionated he is. The interplay between him and Father Bob Maguire on shows like Sunday Night Safran is gold.






Woody Allen. There's just something about him.

Thinking about this type of guy, it's probably their intelligence that makes them sexy, rather than their looks. Which is probably a downfall for a largely pictorial blog entry.

Still, as a single girl who is in a period of exploring what and whom I find attractive, I have to admit these guys do it for me.

Intelligence is a very sexy quality.

Link: Jewlicious

*Update*

For Stef:

David Krumholtz. Hot Damn!

Would the penalty have been as harsh if he'd been a white Australian? It's doubtful.

The culture of fear is alive and well in Australia.

Not only is the Sydney Lord Mayor advocating residents prepare an emergency kit for any potential terrorist attacks, a man will be placed in a detention centre, then eventually deported because he gave his SIM card to his cousin. The cousin was then involved in the recent terrorist activity in London.

There had better be more to it than that. If all he did was hand his cousin a SIM card, we're probably all potential terrorists.

As Ron Hyndman wrote in today's letters to the editor in The Age:

OK, I confess. I recklessly loaned my phone to someone I didn't know well. I also recklessly stopped to help a woman whose car had broken down. Then I recklessly paid for a man's lunch when he couldn't do so himself. Any one of them could have been a terrorist. I plead guilty.
Please lock me up. I'm a danger to society. I'd rather die in prison for reckless acts of kindness than live a free man in a country where love, mercy and compassion are outlawed.

*Update* There is a great opinion piece about the issue by Julian Burnside here.

P.S. Like Burnside's style? Come join us at the Facebook group, Julian Burnside is the thinking woman's crumpet.

P.P.S. Not interested in the Burnside group? Alternatively, let me bite you on Facebook and turn you into a zombie!

Link: Let's get ready Sydney!

A new direction for BTC?

I'm on Myspace, Facebook, and I keep a blog (obviously). Much as I love the social interactivity and the creative space of the internet, sometimes I wonder about my increasing dependence on it. I feel the need to check my email every single day, even though I don't have a computer at home. Myspace is slowly becoming one of my primary methods of communication with people.

For the most part, I think the internet is a positive development. Social networking through Myspace and blogging can increase links with people in your immediate circle of friends and across the world. Yet sometimes I question the pull I feel to 'exist' online. Why do I feel the need to have my name come up when 'Susanne Newton' is entered in Google?

I enjoy blogging because I like to write, and to create something that is of interest to other people. I like the way words can be constructed and edited before they are put out into the world, in a way that can't be done with face-to-face communication. How the words you write are kept there in print; rather than being lost in face-to-face conversation. Recorded for prosperity.

In internet communication, there is a distance between the writer and the reader; a screen between us. Yet there is also a closeness and intimacy that can be reached through blogging, a cerebral element. I have never met many of the people whose blogs I read, and who read this blog, yet I know what they think about, what they are interested in. Perhaps the distance of the screen allows bloggers to be personal and intimate in a way that might not come so easily face-to-face.

These days I'm more confident than I used to be, and more of my communication is direct, face-to-face. Perhaps I don't need to blog as much as I used to.

For the most part, I shy away from getting too personal on this blog. I use my real name, and real-life friends read it. Strangely, if the blog was anonymous, I would be more open in my writing. From now on, I will try to put a bit more of my self into this blog. What have I got to lose?