My Urban Kvetch

New York, dating, freelancing, celebrities, Jewish life, humor and heart...it's all in My Urban Kvetch.

All entries are the intellectual and creative property of Esther D. Kustanowitz. Consider them copyrighted. For reprint information, please contact me.

Monday, August 15, 2005

MyUrbanKvetch.com

I'm pleased to announce my acquisition of MyUrbanKvetch.com , your one-stop shop for all your urbankvetching needs. Change your bookmark...

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

BOY, ARE YOU MISSING OUT...

If you haven't changed your links yet, here's what you're missing over at the new site: What Insurance is For Blogs Reboiled Whe...

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

EVEN MORE NEW POSTS!!!

Over at the new site : MARCH POSTS "The Bachelorette" Finale Madonna vs. Boy George Revisiting Josh Braff's Book in Light of t...

Sunday, February 27, 2005

TRANSITION...

NEW POSTS AT THE TYPEPAD SITE: The Non-Predictions of Oscarsdamus The First My Urban Kvetch Field Trip and Theater Outing "It's Not...

Thursday, February 24, 2005

GET BRENT'S BOD

Finally, you can attain a celebrity's physique! International megastar of the BBC's hit show The Office Ricky Gervais reveals his se...

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

BEER, FOAMY...GOOD

An interesting post over at JDaters Anonymous (if I do say so myself) about the merits of alcohol in social situations. (Sorry, Ken . Lent w...

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

PUTTING THE "DIE" BACK IN "DIET", PART DEUX: THE HUBRIS AWARD

And the Hubris Award Goes to… Inventor Ray Kurzweil , author of Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever , who predicts a coming e...

PUTTING THE “DIE” BACK IN “DIET”

Welcome to what I suspect will be a continuing series on fad diets and the crazy people who adopt them. (Add Ryan Seacrest and it sounds lik...

NEW MACHER IN TOWN

Claiming the title of "The Ultimate Jewish Website," and boasting the slogan of "Your Gateway to the Jewish Community,"...

A RANDOM LANGUAGE THOUGHT

I’ve recently begun thinking that we should take everyday verbs and create proper-name oriented slang for them. It’s a nod to Buffyspeak and...

DYLAN MCDERMOTT CAST IN NEW SERIES

According to Mediaweek's A.J. Frutkin, Practice's McDermott to Star in CBS' 3 Lbs. Apparently it's a show about man's se...

THE REAL QUESTION: WHEN ISN'T "LAW & ORDER" ON?

That question aside, if you want to watch "Law & Order" but don't know if it's on, here are a three easy ways to find ...

Monday, February 21, 2005

"GATES" AND JUDAISM

In this article in the Forward (free registration may be required to read the story, but copious excerpts are available here), there is a di...

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: SANDRA DEE

Sandra Dee passed away at age 62 after a long bout of kidney disease. The sad thing is, there's a whole generation (mine) for whom Sand...

TWO BRADS, NO WAITING

Now there's more than enough Brad to go around. One for Jennifer, and one for Angelina. Brad Pitt's set to star in a movie called Ch...

MADONNA "PROMOTED" ON POTENTIAL ROAD TO RABBINATE

Welcome back to everyone's favorite place-to-visit-but-you-wouldn't-want-to-live-there, the Hall of Celebrity Weirdness. Today’s exh...

Friday, February 18, 2005

MY URBAN KVETCH DOES TYPEPAD: BETA SITE UP

I know. I'm pretending to be a web geek. This may not technically be a beta site. But it is where my blog will be once I negotiate the d...

CONSTANTINE

Let it not be said that bloggers get no perks. Tonight, I attended a preview screening of CONSTANTINE, which turned out to be a pleasant sur...

Thursday, February 17, 2005

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES...

As I previously said, I'm having some problems switching over to Typepad, so you may encounter posting problems when you try to comment....

COMEDY DOMINATION: THE NEW PLAN

Since the Daily Show does NOT seem about to hire me as an entertainment consultant (I guess there's no comeback in the cards for "W...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BREAKFAST CLUB

The year was 1985. I was in high school. So were Bender, Allison, Claire, Andrew ("Sporto") and Brian. 20 years later, they are st...

"THE SKINNY ON USING THE F-WORD"

My new column in the Jewish Week, " The Skinny on Using the F-Word ," is now available online. Enjoy!

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO...HMMMM....

February 20 is the 64th birthday of singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. However, it is also the 51st birthday of actor Anthony Stewart He...

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

CHANGE IS HARD

Change is hard. Everyone says so. And after spending hours trying to transfer my posts from Blogger to Typepad, I'm inclined to agree. S...

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

CELEBRITY X-FILE: THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

Hello, boys and girls. And welcome to the hall of celebrity spiritual weirdness. Kabbalah : Madonna :: Scientology : ________________ Here...

TONIGHT: "SCRUBS" HAS A LAUGH TRACK

Clay Aiken! Low-cut scrubs! Colin Hay, from Men at Work!! Tonight's Scrubsapalooza features a complete departure from their usual, low-k...

"YOUR EPIDERMIS IS SHOWING"

And the winner, for best karaoke song rendered while naked and behind a screen, goes to Ray and Marie LeBrun , for their rendition of Bob Se...

Monday, February 14, 2005

JEWLICIOUS, THE BLOG: THE TRIP

“You’ve got your blog in my Israel trip!” “No, you’ve got your Israel trip in my blog!” “Wait a minute…it’s a blog that becomes an Israel tr...

Sunday, February 13, 2005

JIB AWARDS: UNRATIFIED RESULTS ARE IN

Well, it's been a long month or so, as Jewish and Israeli blogs battled it out, some through amity and others through enmity, in competi...

Friday, February 11, 2005

A VERY BRADY NIP/TUCK

There's nothing like keeping romance all in the family. There's not a soul my age who's unaware of the famous "Barry Willia...

GANDOLFINI'S WEAPON OF CHOICE: CARBS

For those of you who always knew James Gandolfini--and carbohydrates--were dangerous... Apparently, the Sopranos pater familias decided that...

Thursday, February 10, 2005

THEORETICALLY

You know that kid on the playground? The one who called you a stupid-head, or a kaka-brain, or who was more than gleeful to be able to tell ...

SHOW ME YOUR, AHEM, TALENT

At last--karaoke singers can bare their souls without the pesky restrictions of clothing. BERLIN, Conn. Feb 9, 2005 — After a yearlong fi...

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

JIB FINALS UPDATE: LET'S JUST SAY I'M NOT WINNING...

I hate to say it, but I'm losing this competition. Who knew the race for JIB greatness would create carnage the likes of which have been...

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

SINGLE FOR VALENTINE'S DAY?

Yup. Me too. But as this article at GenerationJ.com tells you, this holiday isn't about bemoaning your singlehood, it's about celebr...

INDIANA JEWS AND THE TEMPLE MOUNT DIRT

Grab your brown fedoras, your whips and your Zionism--the three must-have fashion items of the new century for all budding Jewish archaeolog...

SUCKS TO BE JEW: CIRCUMCISION ABSTRACT

Since everyone’s been captivated by the Tale of the Mohel and the Herpes (a messed-up fairy tale title if e’er there was one), when I found ...

Monday, February 07, 2005

RESISTANCE TO SJP IS FUTILE

So, last year, as we may recall, I interviewed Average Joe's Adam Mesh over lunch with his parents, and his mother made some very intere...

"CAGE"-MATCH

Dear Nicolas Cage, I was perusing my morning copy of New Kerala when I saw the news item about your enjoyment for karaoke. Apparently, on...

DATE-A-KATE

Getchyour Kate Dates, right here! Kate #1, currently up for dates , was THE reason that supermodels (and real people) didn't eat in t...

FOR HARDCORE BUFFY FANS ONLY 3

Thanks to Dawn Summers , the Key, for this alternate script for the Buffy finale . I have to say that I cried at the end. Also, she raise...

MIRVIS RESPONDS TO SHALIT

I'm definitely starting her book today. But in the interim, here's Tova Mirvis's response to last week's Wendy Shalit piece....

WWJB? (WHAT WOULD JEEVES BLOG?)

Ask Jeeves just bought Bloglines . Just thought y'all would want to know. They have a new Ask Jeeves blog , which one hopes will become ...

Sunday, February 06, 2005

RED (string) BULL, or DRINK'D

Ashton Kutcher in talks to hawk Kabbalah energy drink ? “We’re going after the Red Bull market,” spokesman Darin Ezra told The Scoop. “Bu...

Friday, February 04, 2005

'OBSERVANT READER' RESPONSE: CHAPTER 4

"Write What You Know": The Role of Jewish Education Growing up, I received a modern, co-ed, Orthodox day school education and ...

'OBSERVANT READER' RESPONSE: CHAPTER 3

"Ortho-Bashers" From Sandee Brawarsky’s column in this week's New York Jewish Week: When asked to comment on criticism ...

'OBSERVANT READER' RESPONSE: CHAPTER 2

The Role of Religion Religion, and the degree to which one is religiously observant, can be a major obstacle to relationships of all sor...

'OBSERVANT READER' RESPONSE: CHAPTER 1

Not to Generalize…But Generalizations become generalizations because they contain a substantial element of truth. So do stereotypes; in ...

'OBSERVANT READER' RESPONSE: AUTHOR'S NOTE

This may not surprise any of my regular readers, but it turns out that my response is running so extremely long that I'm breaking it up ...

'OBSERVANT READER': INTRODUCTION/RECAP

This is the fourth time I'm trying this through Blogger. Damn it. Keeps trashing my posts even after I've saved them as drafts. The ...

Thursday, February 03, 2005

TODAY'S LESSON: PUT THE BLOG FIRST

Before career. Before paycheck. Before social life.* Before all those things, I must prioritize the blog. The blog is good. The blog, for...

PRELUDE TO A RESPONSE

I’ve been trying to piece together a coherent response to Wendy Shalit’s piece on "The Observant Reader " in the Sunday NY Times, ...

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

THE DRAMA OF DATING

My new article, " The Drama of Dating ," is now online at the Jewish Week website. (NY Jewish Week, 02/04/05) And oh, how I wi...

AMERICAN IDOLATRY

(Note to J.J. Abrams: As soon as Lost comes back with a new ep, I'm yours again, baby. But till then, I'm all about the Idol. A stra...

STEWART SEEKS 'APPRENTICE'

Finally a show worth watching . What's that? Martha Stewart? Oh. Yawn. Someone wake me when Jon Stewart seeks his 'Apprentice...

WEIGHT I CAN GAIN JUST BY LOOKING AT THEM...

I hesitate to share this link, as I might be enabling all sorts of unhealthy eating habits by disseminating this information. Blame the Urba...

I'D LIKE A BRIS-KIT ON WRY

I don't even know where to start with this story from the Daily News: City health officials are investigating whether a baby boy die...

NOT ON REID'S LIST: "SMART"

Tara Reid wants you to be her boyfriend. (Well, not YOU. But maybe "one of yous".) The 29-year-old voiced her need for a man in...

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

GREAT NEWS FOR KOSHER SICK PEOPLE

According to this report in the JTA , Triaminic has now been declared kosher: Getting healthy with God A cough syrup was declared koshe...

SO MUCH FOR THIS YAHOO...

Remember Lucius Yahoo Dragoman ? Well, the story was a hoax . On January 24, Reuters reported: A Romanian tabloid says it has fired a ...

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