Here is El Yenta Man with yours truly, after getting wet at the Tybee Island Polar Bear Plunge on New Year’s Day. It wasn’t exactly a mikveh, but fully immersing in the cold Atlantic with a few hundred other meshuggenehs was deeply cleansing experience.

As for the tattoos, the symbol is a mogen david with intersecting hearts, and made my mother faint the first time she saw it. The short story is that I got mine in my wee 20’s way before I ever thought I’d be wifely material, and he got his before our wedding, his idea. He figured that I was taking his name, so he should make a similar offering to the marriage. I do my best to remember this gesture whenever I want to smack him over the head with a frying pan.

The long story will have to come at a later time, since all the relatives have just left, there’s a veritable Mount Moriah of dirty laundry to do and the children don’t go back to school until Thursday. But if you want to know more about where the symbol comes from, you can check out this trippy stuff.

Look! It’s me and the Divine Ms. Esther Kustanowitz, a.k.a. My Urban Kvetch. She breezed through San Francisco on her way to the Jewlicious at the Beach conference in L.A., and though I would have loved to host an afternoon hike in my neighborhood, I had to settle for one short hour over Thai food.

Continuing the conversation we started at Zabar’s, we covered Jewish singlehood, Jewish marriage, my in-laws, her dating prospects, what “looking Jewish” means, how much we hope Ruth Andrew Elleson will publish (us in) a second volume of “The Modern Jewish Girls Guide To Guilt” and how darn cute her nephew is.

As always, I was deeply impressed by Esther’s intellect and sense of humor in person — her blog “persona” is genuine, just in case any of single, smart, funny observant Jewish men care to know. I don’t know if I dare call myself a contemporary of Esther’s, but she certainly is good company.

Beats blogging through my lunch hour with a Luna bar and a yogurt any day.

The Jmerica staff would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! We are going to continue the growth and expansion of our websites based on your input and ideas. Jmerica is home to a vibrant and active Jewish community involved not only in dating but business networking and friendship building. Check out our preview page for our next version of Jmerica.com. This is the fruit of countless emails from Jmerica users and hours of labor by our staff to make your ideas come to life. Be on the lookout as we upload more pictures from the successful 2005 Eve Party. In this new year Jmerica.com and YoYenta.com will only get better with your help. Thanks again for another wonderful year.

-The Jmerica Staff