Independence Day from the Air

Kristi and I recently returned from a trip to Boise for my niece’s bat mitzvah. As this event took place over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, we had the pleasure of experiencing fireworks they way they do them in the great state of Idaho. You might think fireworks are fireworks, but it ain’t necessarily so. When I was a little kid growing up in the San Fernando Valley, we were able to purchase fireworks from a variety of places and set them off in the street. At some point, most fireworks sales to the public were outlawed — something about kids inadvertently losing fingers and eyes, I think. The nanny state strikes again. Today in most parts of Orange County, you can neither purchase fireworks or legally set them off. I can understand...

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Married!

Hello there. Yeah — you. The one who thought I was MIA/AWOL/just plain dead. I will be the first to admit that I’ve been remiss in keeping my site up to date. As a former professional web developer, the kiss of death for any site in my bookmark list was always when a site was no longer updated on a timely basis. Sort of the way this one has been of late. After all, why should I pay more attention to a site than the owner does? So who knows what sort of readership I still have left for the House of Rapp — if any. In my defense, however, I’ve got a great excuse. I went from being unattached to dating to engaged to married in a little over a year. If you know anything about me, you’ll know I’m very methodical about...

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Mazel Tov

There’s a rueful old saying which reminds us that while you can pick your friends, you can’t pick your family. Although that’s generally true, a wedding tends to puts the kibosh on that logic. In modern society, at least, you certainly can pick your spouse. And that’s exactly what my nephew Mike did yesterday. I’ve been to many Jewish weddings, but this was my first orthodox ceremony, and I have to say it was one of the livliest and most joyful marriages I’ve witnessed. There’s something wonderful about five thousand years of history that hangs over the chupah without holding the procedings down, a criticism I’ve had of large Christian weddings where the ceremony can become so theatrical that you almost feel the...

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Michael Rapp, Man of the Year

Time Magazine has chosen the American soldier as the 2003 Person of the Year. I’ll give that the House of Rapp seal of approval. I hope they print extra copies of the issue and send ‘em to the boys in Iraq. Sometimes I wonder if those who are deployed know how much support they have from everyone back home. Between email and satellite phones, you’d think there would be no doubt. But you never know how geopolitical news plays on the other side of the world. Anyway, I bring up the Time article because my nephew Micheal just returned to the States from an extended deployment to Iraq. Don’t be fooled by the “nephew” part–he’s nearly my age. He’s currently a loadmaster on the C-130 for the Air Force and was...

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