The previous Rebbe was such a force, it's impossible for anyone to replace him, so you end up with multiplication of Rebbes

The current Bostoner Rebbe in Boston (there are also Rebbes in Brooklyn and Har Nof) is not as musical as the rest of the family, but they usually get reinforcements from NYC for yom tov, so if your eldest is going to try it out, I'd recommend waiting for that

Shockingly, "ludic" is not an acceptable response in today's NYT Spelling Bee

Just remembered a good one: 1st yr graduate school I submitted a paper to a prof who will remain nameless. Got an A-, with the comment "good, creative" on top. All the comments throughout the paper were critical, pointing out lack of evidence. It became clear that "creative" meant "unfounded"

when i moved from the midwest to the east coast, i had to get used to the fact that "that's interesting" was not necessarily an insult

when we first got married, my spouse and i had to figure out that for one of us, "i see that" was affirming and "i hear that" was subtly dismissive, and for the other it was reversed. i guess we've been married long enough now that i no longer remember which was which, though

only eight and a half more months (it's a leap year)