The story of Moses, now with a twist ending and a special guest star! Or, a theatrical review.

My 11-year-old son attends our local Catholic school. He's doing quite well academically, if I do say so myself, and he really likes it. This year, they're covering ancient civilizations in social studies and the field trip was to Sight and Sound Theater in Lancaster to see their production of the story of Moses and the Exodus. S&S make no bones about the fact that they're about evangelism, so I knew what I was getting into when I signed up to chaperone. But my son asked me to do it, and I'd never been there before, so I figured why not.

I wasn't disappointed. Since I'm Jewish, the story is familiar enough because I've celebrated Passover since, well, birth. I've seen The Ten Commandments a zillion times and The Prince of Egypt a few times. I know the whole magillah inside and out.

Overall, the production was well done. Real animals are involved; Egyptian soldiers rode majestic horses up and down the aisles, donkeys schlepped straw for the Hebrews, and camels were involved because, well, Egypt. The sets were massive and, aside from the beginning of the second act, worked well. The special effects were especially grand. The Angel of Death descended onto the stage, her wings flowing about her body as she killed the firstborn male in every Egyptian household while sparing the Hebrews. The Red Sea parted perfectly, allowing the Hebrews to escape while engulfing the evil Egyptians. The Ten Commandments were expertly carved on the tablets with fire. It was a beautiful, visually stunning production. The only problem I had was with the stage lighting. At one point, a light went right into my eyes, and now I've got a migraine. You try to have a cogent conversation with your son's principal when the scotoma is at its peak. It's hard.

The acting was OK. They're professionals, so the dialogue was fluent and acceptable. Not great; I don't think I'd nominate the cast for any Tony awards, but not bad, either.

Now, call me crazy, but as I said, I'm pretty familiar with the book of Exodus, and I'm also pretty familiar with Jewish tradition, and I'm pretty sure that the Hebrews didn't go around singing the Shema during the Tenth Plague, as they did in the show. (The Shema, for those not of the Jewish persuasion, is the central prayer, the first prayer that every Jewish child learns and the last one he says when he dies. It is biblical, but it's Deuteronomy 6:4. In other words, considerably after the Exodus.)

Ah, yes. The twist ending and the Special Guest Star. The play ends with Moses getting the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. Moses mentions that these will be a tough sell, and God says that while he wrote the Commandments on stone, he'll send his son to write them on men's hearts. Then Jesus showed up. I'm pretty sure that Jesus, who was born at least 1300 years after the events of the Exodus, wasn't in Egypt. I've also never before been to a professional theatrical production that had an altar call.

I know that I'm not in their target demographic, but I still enjoyed Moses immensely. Sometimes, you have to put art aside and just go for pure spectacle, and as spectacle, this did not disappoint.

Much geekiness contained herein

Some years back, I became interested in radio. I read a lot about it, I listen to it in all of its forms, and I spent four years behind a mike in college. (Shout out to WSYC-FM!)

Anyway, part of this love is I wanted to get my amateur radio license. There were only two problems, the dot and the dash. Until 2007, you see, the FCC required all license holders to learn Morse code. I couldn't learn Morse to save my life. But since that's no longer an issue, I studied for my license. I spent a lot of time on this and one fine Saturday, I drove to Reisterstown, Maryland to take the exam. Less than an hour later, I went home with a shiny new certificate, and about a week later, the official piece of paper with my call sign and everything showed up from the FCC in Gettysburg. I became KC3CEK.

The technician exam isn't all that difficult, especially if you have a little bit of experience with electronics and a little bit of common sense. But while technician is a good start, and it will allow you to get on the air and find people to talk to (not that I have; I'm shy and afraid of screwing up), but general will allow me to use all of the bands. So I've been doing that all weekend. So far, it's going smoothly, but antenna theory is kicking my ass. I understand the basic idea, but the specifics don't make a lot of sense to me.

And, since I'm a total overachiever, I found out which FEMA courses will allow me to get into emergency communication, and I've taken and passed both of those, as well as the basic public information officer course. I think I'm going to do more of the PIO stuff. They're free, so why not?

So what does this even mean?

Some years back, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission had a campaign encouraging people not to drive like assholes on the Turnpike. The theme was a 60s-ish thing with tie-dye, crazy daisies and that annoying balloon font that is supposed to evoke concert posters for the Fillmore West. Since my husband's family lives in Pittsburgh, and since we were going out there on a regular basis, the campaign turned into a running joke between me and my husband. I'd say the phrase "Peace, Love, and Turnpike, baby!" and he'd respond with a Black Power salute.

Now that I've explained the title, let me explain what the blog is about, or more accurately, NOT about. It's not about the Turnpike. You will not find geeky posts with information about this venerable American superhighway. You will not find scans of old photos gleaned from historical society archives, and you will not find memories from trips past.

The truth is, I have no idea what this blog is about. I have hobbies and opinions and whatnot, and this seems like a good place to share them. I don't care if you agree with me or not, because I'm an intellectual lightweight in many areas, and not only do I not have any answers, half the time, I'm not even sure what the questions really are. I will also give fair warning: I occasionally use swear words and may post about subjects that some people may find offensive. If such language or such content makes your ears bleed, then look elsewhere.

The only rule for this blog is "Don't be an asshole." Like I said, I don't care if you agree with me, but you don't have to be nasty about it. Just make a good argument based on credible facts, and I may consider it.

Sit back and enjoy the ride!