The story following this reminds me of my ancestors leaving Israel. My great grandfather (who I mentioned in a Macbeth response, way back, about how he died, and I regret the way I found out), my grandmother (who is still with us, but blind), and their immediate family left the middle east on a boat to France. However, they wanted to go to the U.S., so they switched ferries in the middle of the night, as they passed each other. If they hadn't, it turns out that they would've been caught in a war area, whether they went to France or stayed in the east. So that's why I'm alive today.

The use of this word here is interesting. It means, "To manipulate in order to fit in with the Jewish belief," which presumably comes from his Jewish background. However, the part I find interesting is the fact that he uses the idea of fitting as a Jew to describe how he escaped Jewish persecution... Yes, I do overanalyze everything. Why do you ask?

The exact same thing happened to me. My parents tried to put me into Sunday school, but I behaved so badly they kicked me out. It didn't help that I kept on confusing Judaism and Christianity, since I had been raised with elements of both.

Reminds me of Doctor Who. Won't say more.

I like the sound of that name. Don't know why.

Reminds me of that time I went off on too many tangents.

Understatement of the century.

This reminds me of a philosophical problem my father shared with me. A man is put in prison for a crime he didn't commit, and he always protested his innocence. Years later, the case is reopened, and they discover the truth. He is offered a pardon, but he refuses it. According to him, accepting that pardon acknowledges that they had the right to put him in there at all. Substitute the prison system for the system of aristocracy, and it's the exact same problem.

All of these are very annoying, since they both omit information and don't indicate how much time or information they represent the absence of.

Reminds me of a doctor who story I read. Without the main plot of aliens, a boy and his family emigrated from Germany, and although his father had planned and rehearsed a long speech about how he was from a long line of so-and-so's, which would translate to Smith, he forgot every bit of the speech when he went up to the immigration desk from being seasick, and so said the first thing he saw, which was "Heftmaschine," or stapler. That definitely doesn't translate to English, so his whole family is made fun of for their undeniably German name. After the whole plot is resolved, the Doctor says "Well, Mr. Heftmaschine - amazing name, by the way. Never change it. It's time we were off." It is this small line that provides final resolution for the story (there was a motif of "the truth is relative, and rarely true enough for some"), because now the boy can see everything in a better light.