Purim Book Discussion and Brainstorming

3:01 AM

I've started the typesetting job. Two Q&As imported so far. @msh210 and @MonicaCellio, If you get to the point that you believe that everything that's going to get in is in one of the calls for submissions, please let me know. If possible, I'd like to try to get the first draft of the doc done tomorrow night, since I'm hoping to have visitors in the house from Thursday night through the weekend.

If I can do that, I think we can ask our first-round proofreaders to try to proofread the first draft by end of Sunday or end of Monday, a day or two ahead of schedule.

... If anyone's inclined to work on a bibliography or glossary, they can do so in parallel with the first round of proofreading, and the backmatter can be added for the second draft.

Monica Cellio

3:31 AM

@IsaacMoses that all sounds good. Thanks for doing the Word-wrangling. I'm happy with the current set of questions that have been done; if somebody comes along and does another one or two that's fine, but we've got a good collection now. I don't feel compelled to do more. (I did look at some of the not-yet-done ones, and ran into "how do I deal with this?" or "what does that mean?" issues on all of them.)

Isaac Moses

3:47 AM

@MonicaCellio OK, then. We'll also see how the pagecount comes out. If we're close to filling out a nice round number of pages, with space for one more question, we can consider adding one then

Baby Seal

3:58 AM

@monicacellio reporting for duty. I am in the thick of a semester at college, but will do what I can!

Monica Cellio

@BabySeal awesome! We had a suggestion to include a glossary after last year's haggadah, but so far nobody's had a chance to look at the questions we're currently including to identify things that ought to be explained. Maybe there aren't any. Would you have any time in the next couple days to propose a list (maybe with definitions)? And/or, do you have any time early next week to proofread?

Baby Seal

@monicacellio Lets start with the glossary, I should have time. Can you send me links to the questions? Should I give you an email address or private chat or what?

Monica Cellio

The questions that have been included are written up as answers to three meta posts, thus:

2

Q: Purim Mi Yodeya call for submissions: part 1 (megillah)

This question will collect questions, formatted for the book, for questions about the megillah. Each answer here should cover one question and its answer(s), following this template. There is no need to cover all answers in your work; choose the subset of content that you think works best for...

2

Q: Purim Mi Yodeya call for submissions: part 2 (mitzvot and customs)

This question will collect questions, formatted for the book, for questions about Purim mitzvot and customs. Each answer here should cover one question and its answer(s), following this template. There is no need to cover all answers in your work; choose the subset of content that you think wor...

discussion mi-yodeya-purim

2

Q: Purim Mi Yodeya call for submissions: part 3 (Purim Torah)

This question will collect questions, formatted for the book, for Purim Torah questions. Each answer here should cover one question and its answer(s), following this template. There is no need to cover all answers in your work; choose the subset of content that you think works best for this pr...

discussion mi-yodeya-purim

There is also a meta post to collect glossary terms; I suggest keeping that open for edit in one tab while you read questions in another, adding terms you think ought to be included as you encounter them. That meta post is:

0

A: Purim Mi Yodeya call for submissions: adjuncts

Glossary (Please try to keep alphabetized.) ...

@BabySeal thanks very much for helping out! (And see ^^^.)

Baby Seal

@monicacellio okey dokey I'll try to do some work on that tomorrow.

Monica Cellio

4:14 AM

@BabySeal wonderful! Much appreciated.

msh210

@IsaacMoses [Just catching up on backread now.] All the Qs listed in the Next Steps post which I can see feasibly including in the Submissions Call posts are there already. (Qs, not index/bibliography/intro.)

Monica Cellio

@msh210 Isaac has a draft intro, and BabySeal has graciously volunteered to look for glossary entries. (I prioritized glossary over bibliography.)

Isaac Moses

4:29 AM

@BabySeal A clap of the flippers to you!

@msh210 OK. Great. Submission-editing is complete 1.5 days ahead of schedule. Thanks!

Monica Cellio

@IsaacMoses for questions, anyway -- intro could still be tweaked and glossary to come.

(I saw some typos in the intro but wasn't sure if we were ready for copy-editing. Are there bigger changes you wanted to make first?)

Isaac Moses

4:44 AM

@MonicaCellio :) Notice that those are separate items on the schedule, and how I artfully elbowed them out of the critical path, above.

Well, the glossary, anyway.

Monica Cellio

@IsaacMoses oh! Yes you are correct. I am sorry for not having noticed your careful planning.

Isaac Moses

@MonicaCellio Please go ahead and fix them. I'm not sure if we'll be making bigger edits soon or not, but what I know about inertia and about collective action tell me that a full-on rewrite is unlikely to happen. So, we might as well improve the raw material as we go.

Monica Cellio

@IsaacMoses ok, I'll plan to do that tomorrow (about to drop off for the night).

Isaac Moses

@MonicaCellio OK; thanks

msh210

Anyone: Should "g'mara"/"Esther"/"Megilla" (which can be either g'mara or Esther) be in the glossary or the bibliography?

Isaac Moses

4:51 AM

@msh210 I think the glossary is probably a more important product. We don't have that many citations that aren't to basic texts, so putting the full citation for those in the notes on location seems sufficient. Given that, putting the names of the basic texts into a glossary sounds like it'd be useful for novices.

msh210

@IsaacMoses So we should skip the bibliography altogether?

Isaac Moses

@msh210 I think that's what I'm suggesting. But we could fold some bibliographic information about basic texts into the glossary

... so that every citation either has a note on location or has a relevant glossary entry

msh210

@IsaacMoses Sounds good to me. cc @BabySeal -- see above. (Summary: If you're writing the glossary, could you include an explanation of "Megilla" & "Gemara", please?)

In that case, I'll give up trying to find Rabbi Landy's DOB.

(My bibliography thus far:

##Bibliography##

*(Please try to keep sorted in some meaningful way, whatever that is.)*

Epstein, R. Baruch (1860–1942). תורה תמימה (_Tora T'mima_). 1904. http://hebrewbooks.org/14019

Landy, R. Yehuda. Purim and the Persian Empire. 2010. http://worldcat.org/oclc/502030030

Sasson, R. Mordechai (1747–1830). דבר בעתו (_Davar B'ito_). 1862. http://www.hebrewbooks.org/21627

But I'm not saving that post.)

Isaac Moses

@msh210 I think such information should be there in the Sources notes under each question. You already put most of it there, I think

msh210

@IsaacMoses Some. Not for Tora T'mima or Midrash Raba e.g. but yes for Rabbi Landy.

Isaac Moses

5:05 AM

@msh210 OK. Well, I think that procuring bibliographic information for every citation is something we should do, but that we don't need a page entitled "Bibliography"

msh210

@IsaacMoses Excluding Bavli but including Midrash Raba?

Isaac Moses

@msh210 Hmmm. Not sure anymore.

What do you think?

msh210

@IsaacMoses Short answer: I don't know.

I think including a Chicago-style (or whatever-style) bibliographic reference for Midrash Raba is a waste of energy. Maybe just linking to hebrewbooks? But then perhaps all the cites should just be links to hebrewbooks. But no: Landy can't be. (Try saying that ten times fast.)

Isaac Moses

@msh210 I think we should try to do what's most useful. In a paper pub, that's not a link. For Midrash Raba, e.g., a description of what it is and maybe where to find a copy would be most useful.

Same thing for Talmud and Tanach

msh210

@IsaacMoses Where to find a copy? What do you mean? ("See your local synagogue or Jewish bookstore." looks odd.)

Isaac Moses

5:19 AM

@msh210 Maybe just a description of what it is, then. We're in the uncomfortable situation of producing a paper pub whose authors were writing and sourcing for an Internet repository

... so we don't have a particular paper edition to point to, necessarily.

... and in the age of Google, all people really need are sufficiently specific search terms, along with the knowledge of what's relevant

OK, I must turn my attention elsewhere for a while or stuff that has to get done won't. TZTFN

msh210

@IsaacMoses TZT

Transcript for

Purim Book Discussion and Brainstorming