In a wonderful confluence of happy coincidences, today I discovered that I was born in the Year of the Chopped Liver. What, you didn’t know there’s a Jewish Zodiac? Well, let me tell you: there is. And it’s awesome.

Let’s set the Wayback Machine all the way back to this morning, when I glanced at Metafilter and saw this post pointing to this excellent blog post by Michael Doret. Now, I grew up in LA and have been to Canter’s a few times, but it occupies a place in my consciousness (and, I suspect, that of many other Angelenos from the last 50+ years) that is far beyond the frequency with which I’ve visited. So when I saw the lede of the MeFi post, I was basically bound by my history to click through and read the story. I was not disappointed, and neither will you be; it’s a great story.

I wrote Michael a note (pointing out a couple of minor typos and telling him how much I enjoyed the tale), and he and I exchanged a few emails throughout the day, including one in which he very astutely surmised that I might enjoy this other thing that he designed, The Jewish Zodiac. As his page clearly states, the Zodiac concept was created and written by Seth Front, and after I told Michael how much I liked THAT project, he forwarded my comments on to Seth, with whom I exchanged a few more emails. (Honestly, I really did get a lot of work done today, too. Really.)

It was on my second, more attentive viewing of the JewZo that I noticed that there were years attached to each sign just like in the Chinese Zodiac restaurant placemats Michael mentioned in his intro. And then I quickly found that I was born in the Year of the Chopped Liver, which explains a lot about me (not the least being why I love liver so much and, not coincidentally, why I have to watch my cholesterol).

Want to know what your Jewish Zodiac sign is? Of course you do! Go to JewZo.com, choose your birth year right there at the top under “What’s my sign?” and buy a placemat (their most popular item, of course, and worth it for the border taglines alone) or a t-shirt or mug or something. Maybe you have a little knish baking or fresh out of the oven? JewZo’s got you covered. And mazal tov!

…and because I”m a geek, I completely agree with the description of this item. Feast your eyes on the Best. Flowchart. Ever.

I am planning on finding time to upgrade my WordPress installation shortly, and to thereafter utilize that brand spankin’ shiny new install to actually blog. Like, really write stuff. On a regular basis. Seriously.