After the book launch

First, a big "thank you" to everyone who attended and helped make "Ain't Misbehavin'" such a special occasion. It was great to see some old friends and to have the chance to make some new ones too.

Secondly, my attempt to generate a video recording of the presentation was a partial failure. Almost all the video recording is blank. The sound track is still audible but, when the file is trimmed to remove some 20 minutes of redundant material, the sound vanishes completely. I'm working on this problem with the aid of a grandchild and hope to have an audio version for you soon.

I'm making available a fairly full version of the text for anyone who wants to read it, as well as the PowerPoint slideshow. You can access them both here.

On a more serious note, a number of copies of Pirkei Avot: A Users' Manual were sold at the event, but the amount of money taken exceeded the number of copies sold. If you bought a copy on the night, please check your receipt. We are looking for either (i) someone who bought two copies but only picked up one, or (ii) someone who bought one copy but paid for it twice.

Finally, I'd like to reiterate for the benefit of a couple of people who left before the final slide that the bottle from which I was drinking copiously throughout my presentation did NOT contain Aberlour single malt whisky: I was drinking a cold rooibos (redbush) infusion. This was for the purpose of al tistakel bekankan ela bemah sheyesh bo (Rabbi Meir's teaching at Avot 4:27: "don't look at the bottle but at what's inside it") and for Yehoshua ben Perachya's teaching at Avot 1:6 that one should judge others favourably.