I've been taking in the latest from the media's new economic darling, Simon Johnson (http://bottomlinescenario.com/), who seems to be getting out a lot since he moved from the IMF to MIT. His recent article in the Atlantic Monthly (http://www.theatlantic.com/) compares the current situation in the U.S. with what he saw in banana republics when he was the IMF's chief economist; economies that were dysfunctional because monied interests were intent on skimming off the top of whatever was being produced, and cited the banks, AIG, big oil, big pharma, etc., as our own home-grown "oligarchs." That's his term. Thought-provoking.

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Did two days this past week on a NYU student film, made some friends and will, in the fullness of time, see a few bucks. Fun stuff. More on that over Chol HaMoed. Time and patience are in short supply right now, and the internet connection I'm reduced to these days is unreliable.

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Pesach's comin' on, the 'hood's more psychotic than usual and, in the absence of the final halachic updates I was able to bring on the radio (insert scream here), there is a dim recollection of a seasonally appropriate Big Ending:

"B'nei Yirael went out of Mitzrayim with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm," we read from the Chumash this holiday. And from an obscure Midrash comes the following:

B'nei Yisrael at this time were approximately 600,000 men of "military age (20-50)," according to the commentaries. When we add in the wives, old folks, kids, girlfriends, and assorted hangers-on, the estimate goes up to about 3,000,000 mighty hands and outstretched arms.

That's a lot of mighty hands.

But B'nei Yisrael were an industrious lot, and found what to occupy all those mighty hands: A Banner. Appropriate to a large group on the march.

This was, we remember, the generation who would, seven short weeks hence, receive the Torah at Sinai. This was an industrious group with the gift to see more than what a normal person could, and they could see the colors of the respective banners of their respective tribes, all of which added into the collection of colors on this banner. The twelve colors were displayed, according to this Midrash in a way which reads suspiciously like the description of a twelve-color tie-die.

So now we have roughly three million mighty hands on three million outstretched arms, carrying a massive, twelve-color tie-dyed banner - rockin' out of Mitzrayim.

And, of course, there was lettering on this massive twelve-color tie-dyed banner; and it read, of course:

Golus Sucks! Moshiach Now!

Freilichen Pesach, y'all.