Parshat Ha-Man and Misc

• A few years ago, I wrote about a more venerable segulah for parnassah than even saying Parshat ha-Man on the Tuesday of Beshalach (a post that I'm quite proud of, and that was subsequently ripped off). Keep it in mind tomorrow.
• I do not think that the Haitians whose lives were saved by Israelis care a whit whether or not the motivation was genuine or a PR stunt.
• There's an adage about miracle stories, attributed to the Kotzker, that if you believe them you're a fool and if you don't you're a heretic (or some variation thereof). It's a great line because it seems to leave no way out - one is either a fool or a heretic. It's a zero-sum game. I saw in a shul rag this week that the line was quoted as "If you believe the miracle stories of the tzadikim, you're a fool, but if you believe that the tzadik could not have wrought the miracles attributed to him, you're a heretic. This paraphrase completely neutralizes the tension of the original saying and also plays into the personality cult of this particular rag. Bad on both counts.
• In the middle of watching Season 1 of Srugim - loving it. In the middle of reading Sabato's Bo'ee ha-Ru'ach - really loving it.