Is Lady Luck Jewish? A couple of San Francisco Giants relief pitchers seem to think so. Scott Eyre and Wayne Franklin told J. that their custom black-and-orange cleats embroidered with the word “mazel” began as a dugout mantra “mazel, mazel,” which they’ve mistakenly interpreted to mean “good things.”
We caught the Giants getting their tushes shined by the A’s a couple weeks back, so we’re recommending these boys get some Yiddish lessons.

Don’t we feel smug. Jewsweek’s Yada blog posted this today:
“We can all say Shalom to Shalom Harlow, the Jewish actress who was part of the ensemble cast of Fox’s The Jury. After disappointing ratings, Fox has stopped production on the courtroom drama after just 10 episodes. Like we needed another courtroom drama anyway.”
For the last damn time, bro, there’s no such thing as a Jewish supermodel. Or supermodel/actress, whatever.

Remember the Jdater who billed his companion for her share of dinner? Well, the most clueless guy of the year has a fan site. Save Andrew Goldberg champions “any guy that’s ever paid for a dinner date and never got another call” and is founded on “the stereotypical principles of Jewish frugality and financial know-how”. This raised our hackles a bit, since we suspected that this site was not created by someone Jewish, but we don’t like to be oversensitive.
Under Fan/Hate Mail, they’ve posted a terribly misspelled e-mail from someone who felt the same way. The response is “Blame the parties involved in this incident if you believe it promotes Jewish stereotypes.”
On one hand, it’s just a silly site and f’ ’em if they can’t take a joke, right? On the other hand, humor about your tribe feels different when it’s coming from someone else. Much like African-Americans can bat around the “N” word because shared experience makes an insult into a familiarity, we enjoy lampooning the hell out of JDate and the particularities of being Jewish. But we don’t need some goy stealing our thunder about it.
Thoughts?

We were checking out Rebbe Soul‘s “Change the World With A Sound” last week, digging on his pan-Judaic rock n’ roll swirling guitar thing. Delightful stuff. Then a few days later, we got to chatting with one of the djembe drummers at an African dance class out in the boonies. Turns out he’s Rebbe Soul’s percussionist and will be touring with him later this year.
A small coincidence, yes, but Jmerican nonetheless.

Some enterprising tailors may be giving Victoria’s Secret a run for their money: Yes, that’s a bra made from good old-fashioned, “I Went To My Arnie Katz’ Bar Mitzvah And All I Got Was This Pink Satin Beanie” yarmulkes. It’s no hoax, either; you can buy them in three lovely styles, the Bat-mitzvah, Boobooshka (shown here) and Sports (in spite of its name, it doesn’t look like it would offer much support at the gym.)
Now, how long will it be before Madonna gets her boobies in one?

Rabbi Avi Shafran’s essay in Jewsweek on the rise in Jewish McMysticism bites hard at the L.A. Kabbalah crew, saying “the Kabbalah Centre has about the same relationship to the true Jewish mystical tradition as Barney has to Tyrannosaurus Rex.”
Watch for Barney bracelets on a celebrity near you!

We think it’s pretty cool that University of Arizona’s summer league that includes NBA stars Damon Stoudamire, Jason Terry and many others play at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. We are also huge fans of former player, coaching prodigy and mensch Josh Pastner. Or maybe we are just looking for an excuse to blog our beloved Wildcats…

We can’t figure out when Tattoo Jew, a documentary- *ahem* – exposing the cultural paradoxes of inked Jews gets released, but we’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, who out there has been under the needle? One of Jmerica’s staffers has a Star of David etched for eternity on her back; her mother almost fainted when she saw it for the first time. Now Mom’s just grateful it ain’t a bullring.

We saw Princess Superstar on MTV a few weeks back and only now realized she’s MOT. This diva has turned out four albums, started her own record label and has opened for acts such as Bubba Sparks and N.E.R.D. Damn… a smokin’ hot, foul-mouthed Jewish rapper chick? Where do we sign up?

Congrats to Kathleen Reiter, the 15 year-old winner of the first-ever “Jewish Idol” competition, held in Montreal June 27. She won a photography portfolio to boost her publicity packet, as well as a demo CD from Junited Records. We hope Kathleen will inspire other Jewish boys and girls to keep singing, and may she never become as notorious as American Idol’s posternerd William Hung.