Things that interest me (9/12)

This is old but still amusing. "One of the primary reasons cat flaps are called cat flaps is that they're flaps specifically designed for cats, as opposed to dogs, or giraffes, or humans." (Hat tip: Mrs. Attila)

Iraqi soldiers donate to Katrina relief: "I am Colonel Abbas Fadhil; Tadji Military Base Commander,” Abbas wrote. “On behalf of myself and all the People of Tadji Military Base; I would like to console the American People and Government for getting this horrible disaster. So we would like to donate 1.000.000 Iraqi Dinars to help the government and the People also I would like to console all the ASTs who helped us rebuilding our country and our Army. We appreciate the American's help and support. Thank you." (Hat tip: fee simple)

Read this: A Surgeon Caught Up in the Flooding Tells of a Week of Chaos, Peril and Heroism (N.Y. Times): "The 68-year-old surgeon's last nights at his post would be spent sleeping in a red garbage bag, of the kind normally used to hold infectious waste, on the roof of Tulane University Hospital's parking garage, his head cradled on a pile of diapers, hiding with his staff from marauders below as security guards and a lone Marine sniper stood sentry." Also read the story of the caterer who took food matters into his own hands, Moved to Help Evacuees, Caterer Grabbed a Spoon (N.Y. Times): "Before the storm, Mr. Ford, a tall, panther-slim man, was known here as a golf-course owner, caterer and role model for young African-American entrepreneurs. That résumé began to take on a new dimension the day the hurricane arrived, when the Fords returned to the coliseum with their two teenagers and Joe Fulton, superintendent of the golf course, loaded down with food from their company's freezer. They cooked all day for the swelling crowd, even as winds knocked out power throughout the city. When provisions ran short, Mr. Ford appeared on local television to plead for donations." (Hat tips: Mrs. A)

The newest Jewish immigrants, Russians, tend to become Republicans, and the liberal Jewish establishment can't deal with it. From Friday's Wall Street Journal.

My first post ever on this blog, "Jew in America," began this way: "The United States has been the most hospitable country for Jews in the entire two-thousand-year history of the Jewish diaspora. Any suggestion to the contrary is sheer lunacy." So what does the historical advisor to an exhibit on 350 years of Jewish history in America think? "She wanted her exhibit to be more 'edgy,' less 'ethnocentric.' Rather than appreciating what Jews did for America, she notes, we should see how Jews 'benefited from being white' and how the exhibit would have benefited from more funding." Also from Friday's Wall Street Journal.

Michael Barone wonders whether the different tracks taken by New York after 9/11 and New Orleans after Katrina reflect the different cultures of the two cities -- Dutch (New York) vs. French (New Orleans). Hmmmmmmm.