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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/23308/full/23308/88-year-old-bubby-doles-out-advice-on-her-own-web-blog/ <br /><br /> <b>88-year-old Bubby doles out advice on her own Web blog</b> <br /> Friday, July 30, 2004 | by <p>melissa radler </p> <br /><br /><p><b>new york |</b>  Last October, an advice-seeker named Patti had a question that only a Jewish grandmother could answer. <br /><br /> “Dear Bubby,” Patti e-mailed Help Me Bubby! — an aptly named` new online blog. “How do I properly defrost a chicken before consumption?” <br /><br /> The answer, perhaps penned by the World Wide Web’s oldest daily blogger, was short and sweet. <br /><br /> “Before you freeze your chicken you must make sure it is dead,” Bubby advised. <br /><br /> A few days later, Bubby’s relationship advice to Manless in Manhattan was equally matter-of-fact: “If you want to meet a marriageable young man you should go to a country ho-down,” she wrote. “You’ll find a lot of men eager to dance with the city girls — either to teach them a few tricks or learn a few themselves. The Big Apple [Manhattan] has a big worm inside so be careful.” <br /><br /> Bubby, known offline as Lillian Tashlik, is an 88-year-old, American-born great-grandmother. She began her career as an award-winning blogger eight months ago at the behest of her granddaughters. <br /><br /> “Whether she’s reminding us that boyfriends do not substitute for warm jackets in the winter, or that it’s better to receive a compliment than a brick, she’s always got something to say to her granddaughters,” write granddaughters Naava and Alona Katz on the home page of Bubby’s Web site, <a href="http://www.helpmebubby.blogspot.com">www.helpmebubby.blogspot.com</a>. <br /><br /> “Now with this new Web site, Bubby can finally share her wisdom with the rest of the world. And she’s excited about it! Which confuses us, because she used to say we were all she needed.” <br /><br /> A quick-witted, well-spoken grandmother of five and great-grandmother of three, Bubby, a widow, is the quintessential Jewish grandmother with a twist. A sweet old lady who wears comfortable shoes and fills her home with family photos, Bubby is also a technologically savvy cyber innovator who learned the art of online surfing in her 80s — a new pastime, she is quick to note, that hasn’t taken away from her involvement in myriad Jewish and Israeli organizations and part-time work at a law firm. <br /><br /> “I think every retired person should work,” said Bubby — who has the tendency, at least in interviews, to affix life lessons to ordinary travails with astounding frequency. <br /><br /> “It’s very stimulating, it’s very satisfying,” she said during a recent visit to her Queens, N.Y., home. “You get up in the morning, you know where you’re going, you know what you’re going to do.” <br /><br /> Nearby, Naava, who was visiting for the weekend from Boston, beamed at her grandmother’s wisdom. <br /><br /> Blogs, short for Web logs or online diaries, have become increasingly popular in recent years. While political blogs currently enjoy the greatest popularity and renown, blogs on topics ranging from religion to gardening to movies enjoy followings ranging from a few dozen to several million. <br /><br /> According to a survey released last fall by Perseus Development Corp., an estimated 4.12 million blogs currently exist, of which 92 percent were created by people under the age of 30. (The oldest age category was 60-69.) The survey, which noted that the average blog has a four-month life span and that less than 50,000 blogs are updated daily, estimated that the total number of blogs will have jumped to 10 million by the end of 2004.<br /><br /> “Blogging is many things, yet the typical blog is written by a teenage girl who uses it twice a month to update her friends and classmates on happenings in her life,” wrote Perseus COO Jeffrey Henning. <br /><br /> Bubby’s blog, in fact, had its roots in Naava and Alona’s decision to launch their own online journal. <br /><br /> “We thought maybe we could have a blog of two sisters writing together, but we were bored by our own lives,” said Naava, 28, a Web designer, and Alona, 25, an investigator. <br /><br /> Any site’s success is dependent on its content, and with Bubby’s letters in their inboxes, Naava and Alona realized they had the makings of a good blog. <br /><br /> “She writes every day anyway over e-mail, and her letters are fantastic. They’re full of advice, they’re full of witty stories, and we thought, well, we’re not just going to put her letters to us on the Web, but why don’t we actually involve her and make this a cross-generational project,” Naava said. <br /><br /> Bubby’s take differs somewhat: “Naava and Alona thought I didn’t have enough to do,” she laughed. <br /><br /> At first, Naava and Alona had their friends e-mail questions, but the site began attracting outside attention when it was featured on the homepage of blogger.com. Currently, it receives about 700 page views a day. Daily advice, plus the occasional follow-up from advice-seekers, is posted Mondays through Fridays. The site has also won accolades across cyberspace including JewsWeek’s Jewriffic Award and a USA Today Hot Sites designation, listed just behind Harry Potter, but Bubby insists it hasn’t affected her self-image. <br /><br /> “It hasn’t changed my personality,” she said. <br /><br /> The site is run by Naava and Alona, who choose an appropriate question — “no dirty words or you’ll only get one matzah ball,” the site warns — then post Bubby’s counsel online. The site may be for entertainment only, but Bubby has a unique qualification: When she was a student at Rider University in New Jersey, where she was one of only two women pursing a degree, Bubby worked as secretary to the head of the psychology department. <br /><br /> “You keep your eyes and ears open and you listen,” she said. <br /><br /> While the identities — and religions — of Bubby’s callers are unknown, the idea of having an online Jewish grandmother seems to have struck a cord among e-mailers, many of whom are young people looking for direction or approval, Naava said. <br /><br /> “People seem like they really, really want to talk to a grandmother. They want that grandmotherly love that a lot of people don’t seem to have, and she gives it online,” she said. <br /><br /> “If there’s a stereotype for Jewish grandmothers, it’s one of the few stereotypes that’s actually a compliment.” <br /><br /> With her 89th birthday approaching, Bubby enjoys a hectic schedule of work and volunteering that is perhaps the secret to her youth, serving as treasurer of both the local Conservative synagogue and the Bayside chapter of Hadassah, teaching Bible class and participating in the local Jewish-Catholic relations council. <br /><br /> “I think people should mix with one another but they should always remember they are Jews,” she advised.<br /><br /> So what’s the best advice Bubby has ever given her granddaughters? <br /><br /> “It’s the way she talks to us about marriage. She speaks so adoringly about her husband,” Naava said. <br /><br /> And there’s one more: “She’s given us great advice on how to make the perfect hospital corners when you make your bed.”</p> <p> </p>

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