The Hundredth Post

Hard to believe, but I've managed to reach the milestone of my 100th post on this site. Thanks to Blogger, I'm able to track these things and indulge my neuroses at the same time. Like a tv sitcom doing a flashback episode to celebrate an arbitrary goal, I've decided to mark my centennial with 10 sets of Top 10 lists. Consider it the Pilates way to celebrate... or accept that I just couldn't come up with 100 of anything. Enjoy.

Top 10 Reasons to Blog
1. Shameless self promotion
2. It’s what people do in their 20s
3. Something in common with David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell
4. Unedited creative outlet for all my rants
5. Practice for my future career as a travel/food/dating/race/religion writer
6. Cheap way to entertain myself ad nauseum
7. Telling people I’m a writer sounds much more interesting
8. Chance to meet new people, virtually
9. Otherwise wasted journalism degree
10. How else would I have been nominated for the Hot Blogger Calendar?

Top 10 Countries of Origin for Visitors to Shtetl Fabulous (in ascending order)
1. Japan
2. Belgium
3. Romania
4. Germany
5. Italy
6. Israel
7. Australia
8. United Kingdom
9. Canada
10. United States

Top 10 Things I Think Should be Outlawed
1. Those damn shirts that make me look pregnant and are still in stores!
2. Cute bartenders having girlfriends
3. Any employer policy that gives people fewer than 3 weeks of vacation
4. Astroturf and the designated hitter rule (Jared, are you reading this?)
5. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
6. Really bad movies
7. The electoral college
8. Shoes not universally coming in wide widths
9. People who dress up their pets
10. Using the word “nigger,” oh wait – the NAACP already did that

Top 10 Adjectives People Use to Describe this Blog
1. Awesome
2. Hip
3. Sage observations
4. Love your blog! (not an adjective, but oh well)
5. Sassy
6. Cynical
7. 100% kosher
8. Great
9. Totally rocks
10. Hysterical

Top 10 Favorite Keyword Searches that Led People to My Blog
1. “Recycle code safety today show.” This person spent more than 6 minutes on the site
2. “29 and pregnant” OR “29 with student debt pregnant and alone”
3. Chocolate living room
4. “Shtetl fabulous,” “shtetl Passover,” “Jewish food shtetl,” “shtetl hunter,” “shtetl wedding,” or my personal favorite, “wig shtetl.”
5. “Stop being monolingual.”
6. “I choose my choice.” Some version of this Sex and the City quote brought me more viewers than I ever could have imagined.
7. “Schmaschmortion clinic.”
8. “Eating lamb and heartburn.”
9. “Esther versus Vashti.”
10. “Fabulous fuckers.” You knew that would be the best, right!

Top 10 Blogs I’ve Discovered Through Blogging (not including friends’ blogs)
1. Ima Shalom
2. Frum Satire
3. Blognut
4. Shpilkes
5. Stuff White People Like
6. The Jew and the Carrot
7. Superfluous Juxtaposition
8. My Urban Kvetch
9. Jewcy
10. Random Babbles (OK, so I know this guy, but what can you do?)

Top 10 Places I’ve Eaten
1. Chola (NYC)
2. Tin Shed Café (Portland, OR)
3. Kumanets (it’s that traditional Ukrainian place we went to in Odessa)
4. Beyond Bread (Tucson)
5. 8 ½ (NYC)
6. Tie: Mamoun’s (NYC) and any falafel place in Jerusalem
7. Plaza Café (Santa Fe)
8. Pix Patisserie (Portland, OR)
9. Zemam’s Ethiopian (Tucson)
10. The Helmand (Baltimore)

Top 10 Comments on My Posts (thanks for making it this far!)
1. “A fantastically clear statement about the blatant lobbying against abortion.” From Subtle Mother Fuckers on December 3, 2007
2. “I've always operated under the impression that a bite of someone else's food doesn't count, calorie-wise.” From Food Magic on May 27, 2008
3. “Shameless self promotion is the only way to get hits.” From Shameless Self Promotion on April 25, 2008
4. “Wait, it’s not about Mitt Romney? Damn!” From Stormin’ Mormon – Believe the Hype! on February 9, 2008
5. “I get a huge kick out of reading the columns in Cosmo about what guys really think.” From When Harry Met Sally it was Love Actually…on October 23, 2007
6. “I am sure you get a kick out of the fact that I wrote in your yearbook that you had BETTER go to the reunions and now I'm not going!” From It’s the Final Countdown on June 1, 2008
7. “You sound like the Jewish Carrie Bradshaw...Sex in Morris County.” From A Year in the Life on July 11, 2007
8. “True, but it can also be a blessing to keeping friends in other areas up to date on your life.” From What I’ve Learned After 28 Years on Earth on January 8, 2008
9. “It's like the female version of Adam Goldberg's character in ‘The Hebrew Hammer.’" From What Shtetl Fabulous Looks Like on July 15, 2008
10. “If I am on a date I throw them 5 bucks, other wise they get a dollar- I just remove my yarmulke so I don’t start a pogrom.” From It’s Not Easy Being (Without) Green on May 13, 2008

Top 10 Comedies of All Time (but it could totally change in 5 minutes)
1. Bull Durham
2. The Philadelphia Story
3. 40 Year Old Virgin
4. Best in Show
5. Rushmore
6. Some Like it Hot
7. Juno
8. Little Miss Sunshine
9. Moonstruck
10. Blazing Saddles

Top 10 Challenges of Writing a Blog
1. Coming up with shit to write about
2. Risking your mom knowing too much about your sex life
3. Worrying that your mom is your only reader
4. Getting mobbed by legions of adoring fans and the paparazzi
5. (If I had a laptop) Becoming one of those people at Starbucks
6. Coming up with shit to write about
7. Losing some of your anonymity
8. Forgoing sleep to write a blog that does not provide any income
9. Debating how much to reveal about friends, dates, family
10. Writing ten different top 10 lists without going cross-eyed