israeli politics

This may not be a big deal to you but for the drama was great.  We’d been out a few times today but the puppy (Charlie) was still suffering from a very sensitive bladder and seemed to pee every time a strange dog passed by our window.  So even though it wasn’t time for a walk I took the puppy out to the backyard.  Sure enough, the cat who always greets us when we come home, and joins us at home for dinner, was there and was happy to inform the puppy that cats do not play around.   At that moment Ezi came home and took Charlie around the block while the Cat (PC) came home with me for dinner.   Unfortunately, PC was slower to chew than usual and an overlap threatened.  I was forced to take PC’s remaining dinner outside while Charlie came home.   It will be a great relief when Charlie’s rightful parents pick him up tonight.  He’s a great puppy but we have not created a suitable environment.  

october 8, 2021 – cats and dogs Read Post »

israeli politics

Our neighborhood got funding a few years ago to do whatever they wanted with the park.  So they built a gorgeous little playground, an exercise court, and a dog park.  Now a lot of people around have dogs, but most people also have yards, and the gorgeous dog park is totally unused.  Except when we get the puppy for the weekend.  And then we think we can exhaust him with all the ladders and slides.  But his favorite activity is to sit on the picnic table and wait for something to happen.  Today a little doggie came in and taught him how to play for a few minutes.  But they were on their way to a better dog park a few blocks away, where there were lots of dogs playing and they were all happy and friendly. 

It’s obviously a better neighborhood than ours.  

october 8, 2021 – dog park Read Post »

israeli politics

While I was chatting away about poetry on Zoom, Ezi was in a Zoom in the other room talking about lymphoma and vaccine immunity and the good news was that vaccine immunity can increase 9-12 months after rituximab.  Tonight we celebrated 9 months with Arak and Aperol on the beach. 

Meira, who joins us every week, agreed with us that it was getting too cold and windy for comfortable swims.  So we had some more drinks.  Dinner too.  

As for the vaccine – we’ll find out in 2 weeks…

october 7, 2021 – vaccine possibilities Read Post »

israeli politics

Inheritance/Yerusha is out in Yiddish, and from next week will be available here.  

This is the book I wrote in Yiddish with the encouragement of Daniel Galay and Rivkah Bassman and translated into Hebrew.  It sold out and we decided that we’d make the second edition available to a wider audience, so I translated it to English.  

It’s a little strange – sometimes it sounds to me in English like I translated it like a Yiddish speaker and sometimes the Yiddish sounds like I’m an English speaker – but the message is very authentic.  It always sounds like me. 

october 7, 2021 – new books, old books Read Post »

israeli politics

what makes archeology so fascinating for me?  I certainly don’t know how to ‘read’ a site – to say this is Canaanite or maybe that is Philistine.  But I guess the links to history, to what is said in the bible or the hieroglyphs make more of an emotional connection, and prove the continuity of life.  To conceive the fact that communities existed so long ago, that they lived, created, prayed…  it is quite amazing.  Whoever these people were, they were my ancestors thousands of years ago.

Some people believe that archeology here is important because it proves the events in the bible, but sometimes it seems to contradict some of the time frames.  The details don’t matter too much to me, but they keep the past present.  Whether King Solomon was given Gezer as part of his daughter’s dowry by the king of Egypt, or whether the ruler of Gezer fulfilled the request of a letter from the Pharoah and sent 46 pretty girls to him, the ancient city is a living one.

october 6, 2021 – communing with Ancestors Read Post »

israeli politics

The Tel Gezer archeological site is in all probability the most important place I’ve ever visited.  Even though it’s a mess archeologically because it was dug up in a disorganized years ago, there’s no funding to unravel the mess, and UNESCO and Israel parted ways a few years ago – it’s hands down the most interesting site I’ve seen.  I first heard of Gezer where I saw a plinth in the Cairo Museum at least 3000 years ago that Gezer had been conquered and the entire Israeli seed destroyed.  And it is an enormous, well-fortified site.   You have to see it!!! But you have to know exactly what to look for, and it is not for the faint-hipped.   Lots of climbing and ruins that don’t mean much if you don’t have an archeologist along to explain them.  We’ve seen other sites like this – Megiddo, for example – but nothing matches Tel Gezer in size and complexity.   Start looking for it on Wikipedia here

I 

october 5, 2021 – Tel gezer archeological site Read Post »

israeli politics

For me, it started in 1962 – the French teacher at the university was so charming I decided to stay in the class even though he was speaking French and I was in the wrong room.  He told a story – about how in his year in Paris he went to the post office every day to send a letter home to the US and stood in love and bought a stamp and put the letter in the slot next to the clerk.  There was a stamp machine outside the post office but no one ever used it.  “Why?” he asked one day, and the people in line all answered, “Because if we start using the machine, one day it will break down, and we’ll be so used to it we won’t know what to do.”  

Addiction.  I’ve always tried to avoid it, even though I write in these pages every day and seem to like my nightly pills a little too much…  I try to stay away from relying on any one machine – and now it’s turned out to be the right thing to do….

 

october 4, 2021 – never rely on machines Read Post »