I was telling my wife about an interesting story about R' Yonason Eibschutz (great story, for another time). The story involves a man who was sincerely pious, but then got upset when he got r'vi'i (the fourth aliyah) on Yom Kippur. At that point my wife stopped me and asked, in all innocence and sincerity, "What's is there to get upset about? Any aliyah is chashuv! Every word of Torah is chashuv." (That's the problem with my wife, she listens to what I say and reminds me at the most inopportune times...) I started to explain how some aliyahs are considered more chashuv than others, and how he felt slighted, and... and.... My voice sort of trailed off as I realized she was absolutely right. I couldn't explain why the man got upset precisely because there was no cause at all for him to be upset. In fact, he should have been thrilled beyond words to have been called up the to torah on Yom Kippur for any aliyah. In fact, we Jewish men should be thrilled beyond words just because we can get aliyos, daven from the amud, and even be counted in the requisite quorum to allow the recital of d'varim sh'b'k'dusha! It took my wife, who does not have those opportunities (she has others, of course), to remind me of what I can be. Thank you, honey; I'll daven a little better tomorrow because of you.
Many years ago (in fact, more than two decades ago), I called R' Fuerst from my desk at work as I sat down to lunch. I had a piece of (quite delicious) homemade pizza for lunch. I nearly always eat at my desk as I am working (or writing TftD...), so my lunch at work cannot in any way be considered as sitting down to a formal meal; aka קביעת סעודה. That being the case, I wasn't sure whether to wash, say ha'motzi, and bentch; or was the pizza downgraded to a m'zonos. He told if it was a snack, then it's m'zonos; if a meal the ha'motzi. Which what I have always done since then. I recently found out how/why that works. The Shulchan Aruch, 168:17 discusses פשטיד''א, which is describes as a baked dough with meat or fish or cheese. In other words: pizza. Note: while the dough doesn't not need to be baked together with the meat/fish/cheese, it is required that they dough was baked with the intention of making this concoction. ...
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