Sir Alan Sugar had sent the contestants to Marrakech for a variety of items, and Michael Sophocles, told to get a kosher chicken, went to a halal butcher and asked him to bless the poultry.

"In your CV, what's the first thing you wrote on it?" Sugar demanded of Sophocles, Haaretz reports. "What did you say in there, you're a good Jewish boy? Is that right?"

Upon receiving an ambiguous response, Sugar told the contestant: "If you're unsure, you can always pull your trousers down and we can check."

Sophocles didn't know the meaning of l'chaim either, but then admitted to being "only half Jewish."

And, that half apparently didn't get much of a Jewish education.

Greeting from outer space

American astronaut Garrett Reisman recently sent his out-of-this-world greeting to Israel for its 60th birthday.

"Every time the station flies over the state of Israel, I try to find a window, and it never fails to move me when I see the familiar outline of Israel coming toward us from over the horizon," said Reisman, 40, the first Jewish crew member on the international space station.

Is that outline with or without the West Bank?

Listserv sparkles

A Potomac woman and her diamond ring were reunited thanks to a local listserv. A woman found the ring in a shopping center parking mall on Friday and then mentioned it to a friend on Shabbat afternoon, who, the following morning, saw Lynn Morgan's plea for her lost ring on the PotomacJewish listserv. That woman called her friend, who then contacted Morgan.

And, Magen David Sephardic Congregation in Rockville benefited, too. The woman who found the ring is a congregant, and asked Morgan to give the "reward check" to the rabbi's charity fund, Morgan reported on the listserv.

More He'brew shtick

He'brew is at it again. The brewery's latest seasonal ale is Rejewvenator. Beginning this year, the fig juice-infused brew will be an annual harvest-to-harvest release, spanning from Pesach, historically coming after the barley harvest, to the High Holy Days, coming at the time of the second fig harvest of the year.

Whatever you think about the beer itself, those folks at Shmaltz Brewing are good at shtick.

Best in kashrut

That unscientific kosher community survey is back, and the overall winners this year are Pita Plus in College Park for Best Kosher Restaurant, Kosher Pastry Oven in Silver Spring for Best Kosher Bakery and KosherMart's Boiling Brook location in Rockville for Best Kosher Store/Butcher.

This is the third year that the Kosher Community Surveys has conducted a survey of kosher facilities in the D.C. area. More than 575 people responded this year -- all self-selected. If you want to see the whole thing, check out www.kosher-community-surveys.com/resources/DC_07-08_Kosher_Community_Survey_Final_Report.pdf.

My son (or daughter), the techie

My son the lawyer no longer cuts it for Jewish parents. At least not in Israel. In a recent survey by the Mutagim Center for the BizPortal Web site and conducted among 500 Israeli Jews, medicine came in first among the professions at 22 percent, high-tech was second with 16 percent and the law third at 10 percent. Engineering came in fourth and teaching fifth. Politics or modeling was no one's idea of a good profession, with only 1 percent wishing them on their children.

And, the adage about one's daughter marrying a good Jewish doctor has turned into one's daughter becoming a good Jewish doctor. More parents were interested in their daughters becoming doctors (14.7 percent) than their sons (11.5 percent).

-- compiled with reports from JTA News and Features, The Jerusalem Post