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Iris Ruth Pastor

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Category: Blog

Nothing in Moderation – EVER

April 25, 2025April 25, 2025 Iris Ruth Pastor

I never do anything in moderation. What is the fun of that???? Monday, April 22, 2025 6:20 pm I start my “little” clean-up project while watching national news. It entails removing the two towering piles of newspapers from under the rattan table, plopping them on the floor in front of the big TV in my family room Continue reading

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Clutter is King

April 18, 2025April 18, 2025 Iris Ruth Pastor

My husband hates dirt and I hate clutter so we usually function pretty efficiently in the housekeeping arena. But I have noticed that the longer we live in our house, the more I am accumulating and the less I am giving away. Thus, I am producing the clutter I abhor. I am not alone. In Continue reading

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The “Gift” That Keeps on Giving

April 11, 2025April 11, 2025 Iris Ruth Pastor

On April 14, 1975, I made a fateful decision. I decided to forego telling my very, very, very best friend that I was having a boob lift as an outpatient the very next day. Why? Because she had quite a yappy mouth. My boobs, after two pregnancis and a decade of wearing strechy, non-supportive bras, Continue reading

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The Pitfalls of Everything

April 4, 2025April 4, 2025 Iris Ruth Pastor

Pick up a newspaper and you can be assured that it will it be filled with things to be avoided and things to brush-up on so that – G-d forbid – your quality of life will not suffer. Take the subject or Retirement: There seems to be a pervasive fear that those of us who Continue reading

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Bonding Over Baseball

March 28, 2025March 28, 2025 Iris Ruth Pastor

Traditions are special to me.Traditions that involve my family are even more special to me.Not surprisingly, I loosely assume that is the case for most of us. Traditions are established or customary patterns of practices, customs, values and/or actions passed from generation to generation and usually not written down. The one I am focused on Continue reading

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Wardrobe Woes and Other First World Problems

March 21, 2025March 21, 2025 Iris Ruth Pastor

Her name was Kara and she totally intimidated me. She was my roommate when I transferred to University of Florida as a broken-hearted sophomore. (That’s a whole other column!)  She was from Atlanta, an only child, seemingly spoiled rotten. I gauged this assumption based on the frequency and size of the care packages that arrived Continue reading

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I Hate Everything

March 14, 2025March 14, 2025 Iris Ruth Pastor

Just like Alexander in the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible No Good, Very Bad Day, I am not having a good day. And I hate everything. I hate that this country is so divided.I hate that anti-Semitism is rising exponentially. I hate that all media outlets are biased.  I hate that my printer malfunctions and can only be replaced Continue reading

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Keeping the Family Together In Spite of Distance

March 7, 2025March 6, 2025 Iris Ruth Pastor

My mom and dad kept the family together by hosting weekly dinners at their house on Sunday evenings during the years my husband and I were raising our kids. The menu didn’t vary much – the mainstay was grilled filet mignon steaks. A huge favorite for my kids was the “free samples” they got from my Continue reading

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The Best Anecdote to Aging

February 28, 2025February 28, 2025 Iris Ruth Pastor

Okay.I’m 77 years old. I’m finally coming to terms with things I will never be good at:AccountingGiving bloodBallet On the other hand, I’m cultivating and enhancing things I’m already partially skilled at – taking them to a new level. Like having FUN! Yes, I’m taking time for frivolity.  We in Tampa have a Mardi Gras type celebration in the Continue reading

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I’m Ashamed of Myself

February 21, 2025February 21, 2025 Iris Ruth Pastor

I’m ashamed of myself. This month my book club elected to read a book on the NYT Best Seller List: James – a reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I ordered it from Amazon and when it arrived – without reading much about it – I casually glanced at the opening pages and was startled to see a very unfamiliar Continue reading

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Incidentally, Iris

For the past ten years, Iris’s “Incidentally Iris” column has appeared in The American Israelite, a weekly newspaper for Cincinnati’s Jewish community and the American Jewish community. Founded as The Israelite on July 15,1854, by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the paper today is the oldest English-Jewish weekly in America and the second oldest in the world. (The London Jewish Chronicle was founded in 1841.) Read Incidentally, Iris columns on The American Israelite
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