C IS FOR...

C is for Canada---my home and native land.
I love Canada. I do. So why, you may ask, did I pick myself up and abandon her in 1970?

As Allan King once said: A man can love two women...one is his mother the other his wife. (thank you Maeshey!)
Now, for me I would have to say two men...but that makes Canada the Fatherland and that brings to mind Nazi Germany and that is a whole other story that I don't want to get in to. But you get what I mean.

I loved Canada. I was happy there. When I was growing up in Windsor, Ontario, it was a GREAT place to be. The streets were safe; everyone knew everyone and one helped their neighbour; the educational system was wonderful; I had the best family and the most marvelous friends.

Until one summer afternoon when my El Al plane landed in Ben Gurion Airport...known at the time as Lod.
The second my feel touched the ground, I lost my heart and was never happy any place else.

So, I live in Jerusalem...yahoooooo...and I remember Canada.

I remember The Dairy Queen on Tecumseh Street. I remember Sunday mornings at the Windsor Jewish Community Center where everybody knew my name.I remember pizza at Mario's. I remember Jack Miner's Bird Sanctuary. I remember driving to Essex for ice cream. I remember 'the old farshtunkeneh bear'; who was stuck in a cage along the road someplace.  I remember the sound of dry leaves crunching under my feet and the brilliance of God's paintbrush in the fall. I remember the snow. I remember driving along Riverside Drive looking at all the fancy houses and the Detroit skyline across the river. I remember the ribs at the Tunnel. I remember butter tarts and pecan pie. I remember Friday night dances at Walkerville. I remember Day Camp.

I remembered so much that I'm coming home for a couple of weeks this summer. Was going to stay for a week but my best friend, the Guv said to make it three weeks.

I asked her how long I could stay before she would send me to Niagara Falls. She laughed. It was a standing joke in our family that when company came and overstayed their welcome, my mom, Bubbie Channah would begin describing the wonders of Niagara Falls. Within minutes she had them salivating and off they went. See everyone knows that fish and company begin to smell after three days.And, nobody messed with da Bub!

But, the Guv said I had to stay three weeks and could stay for three months but NOT three years.

So, if you're going to be in the area the last three weeks in August give me a call and maybe we'll go try out the ribs or grab a cup of coffee and some pecan pie.

I'll never be thin...I'll never be thin...oh hell, I'll diet tomorrow!!!

Ah, Canada.

Here are some quotes from a little book called Eh Canada? by Eliakim Katz:
1. A Canadian is an unarmed American with a health plan...Brad Green
2. Inuit have many words for snow but no word for camel...John MacDonald, government official
3.British Columbia is a large body of land entirely surrounded by envy...Eric Nicol
4.Toronto is a kind of New York operated by the Swiss...Peter Ustinov
5. Remember, you are not living in sin. You are living in Ottawa. Sin is across the river...anonymous
6. Canada is a very nice place, and we intend to keep it that way...J.P.Morgan

ps. And it is still the best passport in the world!!!

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

B IS FOR...

B is for books. I thought at first I'd say 'bagels'...or 'babies'...or 'baco...' quick erase that one!!!

Nope, b has to be for books. I love them. I love reading them; I love looking at them; I love talking about them; I love writing them.

It has gotten so bad that I now have 44 books on my shelf waiting to be read...no wait make that 47...I picked up three more this morning when I was in the mall. Sigh...I'm hopeless. I'm like those people you see on television who need an expert to come in and clean up their house because they have collected 135 cats, 722 stuffed animals, old magazines from the time when Time was TIME MAGAZINE.

That's me with books...and with wool but we'll leave that one for another letter.

Here are some of the books I've enjoyed in the past year.
1. Wolf Hall...about Tudor England...the Cromwell's, Cranmers, Katherine the first one, Anne the first one...you know the cast.
2. A Book of Love...about the Borgia's...Lucrecia and Cesare and a little Jewish girl named Esther.
3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...and the other two in the trilogy. Yahoo.
4. Philippa Gregory...all her books...historical fiction...again Henry that devil.
5. Jodi Picoult...any of them.
6. Daniel Silva...any of them!!!
7. The Little Book...Seldon Edwards
8. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society...Juliet Ashton
9.The Help...Katherine Stockett
10. Water for Elephants and Ape House...Sarah Gruen
11.A Thousand Splendid Suns...Khaled Hossieni...I did not like The Kite Runner :)
12.and the list goes on...
Here are some of the books on my shelf waiting to be read:
Where the Crow Flies
Pirate Latitiudes...Michael Crichton
The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet...Colleen McCullough
Drood...Dan Simmons
Minding Frankie...Maeve Binchy
Eat Pray Love...Elizabeth Gilbert
The Last Dickens...Matthew Pearl
The Gate House...Nelson DeMille
New York...Edward Rutherfurd

The list does go on. So, guess what? I'm going to break down and buy a Kindle when I'm in the States this summer.
I'm going to buy a Kindle for a few reasons.
one: I don't have room for all these books already
two: I am paying a fortune to buy them and get bubkehs (HMMM another B) when I take them to the Used Book Stores. (Now that's a store I'm sorry I didn't invent)
three: there is no three.
I am going to miss holding my nice books and feeling the pages and using the bookmarks I have saved over the years to mark my place. I am going to miss turning pages and marking them with felt markers when I feel the need to remember something special that is written.

Before Pessach, I brought in a girl to help me clean. Took her an hour in the kitchen to clean out all the cupboards and four hours to go through the books I had in my bedroom, the hall closet, the little porch off my room known in Hebrew as a mirpesset. Four hours!!! Why was I keeping all those old books???

Why? Because I couldn't bear to part with them. Well, guess what? There are only so many sardines that will fit into a can and my cup was running over, so to speak.
ps. if you like you can send me a list of your favourite books. I'd love to hear what you're reading.

Maybe they should have called it a Bindle so I could have at least kept my B.

Shabbat shalom...didn'tcha just love the wedding? I'm such a pushover for the Royals.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

A IS FOR...

I know it has been a long time since I blogged...but honestly I have been so busy teaching and being a mom and bubbie that time just slipped by.

This morning I ran around doing things in the city and met my friend Miriam for coffee. She told me about a blog project she just completed and I said, "I love that!"

Every day you take a letter from the alphabet and write a blog.

So, today is 'A'.

When I was a teenager still living in Windsor, my Dad used to take the laundry on Suindays and then he'd go get stuff. Great stuff! Depending on the season, he'd bring home corn on the cob from the Jolly Green Giant and pears or apples from the farmers. Lox and cream cheese and fresh rye bread from the bakery. Great stuff.

That morning, my Dad asked my Mom what she wanted him to bring home. She said she wanted everything that began with 'a'.

"A?" he asked.
"Yup," she answered. "A loaf of bread, a bottle of milk, a few cans of tuna...you know. Stuff that begins with 'a'."

So 'a' is for a really fond memory from way back when.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in