Shalom from Jerusalem

THOUGHTS

2012-01-04T09:46:00.000+02:00

Shalom and Happy Sylvester!!! I have no idea why it is called Sylvester. But since New Year in Israel is Rosh HaShanah, I guess Sylvester is as good as anything else. Actually, it has a ring to it. Three syllables, starts with a ssss and ends strongly with er. Yup, Sylvester it is.

I ran out of gas after finishing the alphabet blogs and couldn't figure out what was next. So, after a lengthy talk with myself, and a longing to get back blogging, I figured I would write once a week on things that come to mind.

New Years Resolutions...ahhh same old same old...stick to the diet...save money...write and finish Unveiled already!!! (on my fourth and hopefully final draft).

Lately, I have been putting my own needs on my list of priorities. Biggie for me!!! And the first present I bought myself was an iPhone. My kids talked me into that one!!! Yahoooo. Instant gratification no matter where you are! While I was travelling I could easily and constantly get my email and through Skype I spoke with my family and friends. Actually it was the first trip I didn't miss Israel...how could I? I brought Israel with me!!!

While we are on the subject of iPhone, do you know the terrible game my daughter introduced to me called Temple Run? Don't ask! And while in Windsor, I was reintroduced to Rummikub. On the iPhone it is called TouchRummy, and the computer guy is very good so you have to keep on your toes.

But the best gift I gave myself was a Kindle. At first I thought it was simply being able to buy books for a fraction of the price here in Israel. That, plus the fact that you don't need lots of bookshelves (remember my 40 or so books still unread that I kept compulsively buying cuz you can't leave that good book in the store?). And, finally when I realized that the fifteen or twenty dollar books I was buying only gave me a two dollar return and the used book stores, I knew I needed a Kindle.

Kindle...lightweight...fits into your purse...doesn't hurt to shlep it around...and cheap. I started ordering books. Lots of books. Until I realized that they were always going to be there to buy. Not like in the bookstores where the supply was limited and if you saw it, you grabbed it. So, after purchasing 47 books in six months, I have calmed down. They will be there in a week or a month or a year. I bought thirteen books for the price of three here in Israel. I got a slew of books either for free or for two or three dollars!!! Unheard of here in Israel!

Since July, I have read twenty-three books!!! 23!!!

At first I thought I was just having fun with the Kindle. But slowly I began to realize that for the first time in over forty years, I can read the books I want to read...not just the books that become available here.

Wow!!!

Here are some of my list: E=Excellent G=Good NB=Not Bad DB=Don't Bother
Does the Noise in My Head Hurt You...Steven Tyler...E
The Dovekeepers...Alice Hoffman...E
Portrait of a Spy...Daniel Silva...E
Catherine the Great...Robert K. Massie...E
Kitchen Confidential...Anthony Bourdain...E
Chickens, Mules and Two Fools...Vicoria Twead...E
Threads: The Reincarnation of Anne Bolyn...Nell Gavin...G
Sing You Home...Jodi Picoult...G
In the Land of Invisible Women...Qanta Ahmed...NB
Golan!...Eliyahu Truitt...G
In the Garden of Beasts...Erik Larson...E
The autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb...Melanie Benjamin...E

Now I am reading Stephen King's book 11/22/63 Excellent!!!
Next will either be The Prime Ministers, by Yehuda Avner or The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, or A Game of Thrones ( book one) by George R.R.Martin

Or who knows where my mood might take me?

If you have any books you loved or could recommend, I would be very happy to hear about them.
Books, wool and as the 2000 YEAR OLD MAN says 'A stuffed cabbage' and life is great!

Happy healthy joyous Sylvester!!! from me and mine to you and yours.

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

Z IS FOR ZAFTIG

2011-11-10T13:16:00.000+02:00

Z is for ZAFTIG...a lovely Yiddish word that sounds a hellova lot better than 'plump'!

Plump makes you think of all those blind dates when you were told 'He/She has a great personality.' HA! We get it! Face like a dog and clothes made by Omar the Tentmaker! Zaftig, my ass! Wait! I mean…! Sigh.

Actually, I love the word zaftig. Makes me think of a fluffy pillow or my ideal of what a Bubbie’s chest is supposed to be like. You know the one—you can put your little keppeleh on that chest and all the troubles of the world disappear as she pats your back and sings you a song in a language from another country.

In my day…way back when the air was clean and sex was dirty, women like Marilyn Monroe or Mae West were drop-dead gorgeous. They were also zaftig.

Then the tragedy occurred…Twiggy appeared and all of us became some sloppy model that only a painter like Rubens would look at. Those ladies were takkeh ZAFTIG. But in those days they were perfect specimens of healthy, well-fed, wealthy women.

As a person who has been battling zaftig all her life I want to make my thoughts clear right now. One, round is a shape, and should be number one on the shape list. It is a perfect shape. It is so perfect that it is very difficult to draw freehand. You need to stick a little pin in the eraser end of a pencil and tie a string around the pin and hang on if you want to make a circle. Any damn fool can draw a triangle or a square. But a circle? That takes talent.

Two, I figure that God, in His infinite wisdom, made zaftig on purpose. What that is exactly, I don’t know, but then God doesn’t often consult with me before erecting his pillars of fire. So, once again, I will just take it on blind faith that zaftig is an acceptable, viable, exquisite shape in God’s eyes.

Finally, my prayer: ‘Dear God, in my next life can I please have fat hair and skinny thighs? Thank you. Your friend forever, marallyn.

Well, here we are. We made it through the alphabet. Thank you so much for coming along and sharing my journey. It wouldn’t have been the same without you. Some of you have written that I should turn around, go back to Zero and start all over again, I’ll mull it over during Shabbat. In the meantime…

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

Y IS FOR YAHOOOOOOOOOOOO

2011-11-09T12:44:00.000+02:00

Y is for Yahoooooooooo...you know those moments when, if you still could, you would throw caution to the wind, throw your arms up in the air and jump as high as you can. I love Yahoooo. Actually it is almost as good as 'Get the hell out of here!!!'

The person who makes me say 'Get the hell out of here' is my brother in Colorado. He does stuff and he knows stuff and he fiddles around with stuff that never ceases to amaze me. He can do things on a computer that only my mayven downtown knows how to do. He set up my web page. He made my gorgeous calling cards. Now, you may think that is a simple thing, but as a writer and a person who never leaves the house without an owl pin attached to her shirt, sweater or whatever, I wanted my calling card to have an owl perched on a fountain pen.

Not just any pen...a fountain pen. See, is there anything classier or sexier than a real fountain pen? With real ink inside that you have to either change a cartridge or dip into an ink well.

Gorgeous isn't she? Took hours to get the claws and pen right. And my brother had the patience and the talent to do it. Yahooooooooo.

And from that the callling card emerged.

A little Hebrew...a little English...a lovely owl...a fountain pen...my cup runneth over. It isn't often you get something that is exactly what you want and I have learned that it is the little things that make the biggest impact. Oh, and from that the web page emerged. www.marallyn.com Yahooooooo.

Y can also stand for Yiddish...my favourite language...yenteh...yold...yotz.

Or songs...Yes, We Have No Bananans...Yesterday...Yellow Submarine (would the Beatles have been as successful without Yah, Yah, Yah?)...You Are My Destiny...You Are My Sunshine.

Here is my joke of the day entitled TWO YOLDS AND ONE MICROPHONE
SARKOZY TO OBAMA: I can't stand him any more (Bibi). He's a liar!
OBAMA TO SARKOZY: You may be sick of him, but me, I have to deal with him every day.

As of this writing, I have not heard Bibi's reply. HE is walking away with Yichess...THEY are revealed as Yolds...or words that begin with other letters...sigh.

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

X MARKS THE SPOT

2011-11-08T14:21:00.003+02:00

Did you know that there are a gazillion words that start with ex, and most of them I never heard of? Now I love words. Of course I do...I love talking. I love writing and I love words. I even signed up for ‘a dictionary word in your e-mail every day’. What a waste that was! Did you ever read those words? Here are some

from my trash file…

1.xenogenic---to be completely different from either parent, or from the source of an object’s creation

2. catawampus---off-center, awry

3. kerf---a cut or incision made by a saw, or the like, in a piece of wood

4. panagram---a sentence or verse etc. that uses all the letters of the alphabet

5. torrefy---to subject to fire or extreme heat ( I thought it meant to convert to Judiasm---ps I like mine better).

Now what pompous ass is going to add these words to his vocabulary? And, who do you know talks like that? You do? And you’re still friends?

I think words should roll off your tongue. Like MARSHMALLOWS. Isn’t that a great word? MARSH…MALL...OWS, lovely! Or how about, CUMULONIMBUS. Or, POPCORN? POPcorn…makes you want to go to the movies.

Here is one of my favourite Bubbie Channah stories. My parents used to come to Jerusalem for about a month or so every winter and every afternoon we would all meet in a restaurant downtown. One day when I got there my mother pointed to a sign over the door and asked, “What does that sign say?”

I replied, “It says emergency exit.” The words exploding from her mouth, my mom said, “I knew it!”

My mother was furious. It seems she had lit a cigarette (those were the days when it was ok to do that) and a lady at the next table pointed to that sign and asked her, “Can’t you read?”

When my mom said she couldn’t, the lady explained that the sign said ‘no smoking’, so my mom put out her cigarette.

For those of you who knew Bubbie Channah you have to know that she may have been short, but she was feisty!!! And, trust me she was exasperated, and the expletives that were expelling from her mouth were mere examples of her extraordinary vocabulary. No one messed with Bubbie Channah!!!

I think I’ve gotten to the place where I need to exit.

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

W IS FOR WELL, I'VE BEEN THINKING

2011-11-07T09:24:00.002+02:00

Well, I've been thinking. I know, I know, a dangerous thing. But the truth is I have loved writing these blogs and have been getting wonderful emails telling me that you have too. Thank you!!!

So, the question is: What the hell am I going to do after Z?

At 4:30 this morning...when you get to my age you will understand the early hour...sigh. Where was I? At 4:30 this morning, I figured it out...I'm going to start a series of blogs about my favourite things.

In the next few days I am going to hone my list and begin discussing 'stuff' with you all. Of course, I will be thrilled to hear about your 'stuff' too. (Below, down below you will find a sneak preview.)

W is also for writing. I love writing. When I was a little girl, my Dad A'H told me :'Marallyn, be careful what you write. Everything you put on paper becomes a document.'

OY! Well that stopped me. What was I going to do?

For those of you who know me, you know that I like to talk. Actually, I like to talk a lot. And usually I have a lot to say. And, God blessed me with a sense of humour, so when I sensed my audience was getting drowsy or bored I could just jump in with an anecdote or two.

See, my Dad A'H had turned me into a storyteller!!! How marvelous! Every generation from the beginning of time had a storyteller. Now my favourite storyteller in the Universe is The 2,000 Year Old Man.

I have mentioned him before. In mine humble opinion (as he says) the reason he is so funny is that HE IS SO FUNNY and he doesn't hurt anyone. He doesn't make you squirm in your seat. He's not slapstick nor dirty...he's funny.

Here is my latest best line of his from the book (that my sister-in-law gave me this summer and it is now my best book), The 2,000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000...the book {including how to not die and other good tips}.

"My full name is Benjamin, Ben Aaron, Ben Esau, Ben Solomon, Ben Alvin, Ben Sidney, Ben Lillian (the cross-dresser)---sometimes known as Ben Gay."

Now tell me you didn't laugh out loud! What a mind! What a funny man.

One more.

"Thankfully the method of writing has improved from the days when we used to write on papaya. No, not papyrus. I mean papaya---the fruit. We wrote on them. Not the mushy ones. We used the hard ones. We scratched in the news with a pointy stick. Our motto was, 'All the news that's fit to eat.'

It was not only informative, it was nutritious. We read it and then we ate it.

Before papaya, we tried writing on onion skin.

It's a shame that wasn't sturdy enough because we had a good motto:'Read it and weep!'"

Now, tell me. Would you think twice before inviting him to your dinner table? Wouldn't he get the first invitation and then the rest of your friends would have to fight for a seat?

A good story is a good story. But in order to make it a great story you need a STORYTELLER.

I know a few. My favourite lives in California and is the funniest man I know. I am lucky, he's not only my dearest darling, but he's my brother-in-love. A very very funny man.

So, now I write. After long days of talking and listening and solving problems, it is a joy to just sit alone quietly at the computer using other senses...touch and sight. Sometimes I write and sometimes the little genius otherwise known as my Muse or Spirit Guide pushes my fingers on the keys and whoa!!! What a surprise that is.

For example, in my book about an astrology class, I sat down at the computer and my fingers wrote, 'Baruch waited for the sound of the cars to stop before crossing the street.'

Whoa!!! Who the hell is Baruch? And as I wrote, he became one of my most favourite characters. I love Baruch.

Well, for a person who didn't have a clue what to write today for the letter W, I think I have done a respectable job.

Got to run. Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

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

V IS FOR VEY

2011-11-04T13:35:00.001+02:00

I don't know about you, but I find that being a people-person doesn't make me such a great mechanic. Actually, when stuff gets gebuggered...I mean gebroken...gedamaged...bakaked...I panic.

That's why you need little kids to teach you everything. They aren't afraid to push buttons or hit keys. I'm always afraid I'll screw up everything and then what??? So, I sit there and wait for one of my kids or my computer guy or television server to answer the phone and walk me through the maze I have ended up in.

Before I left for my summer vacation, my printer ran out of ink...my flat screen for my desktop started waving and I knew it was only a matter of time before it betrayed me. The anti-virus on the same computer was telling me my days of surfing were numbered and if I didn't renew immediately, I could get a virus or a worm or something terrible that would eat up my hard disk. My fax/copy machine of fourteen years stopped working and Gestetner told me they didn't have that model any more and there was no way I could get any parts.

VEY and OY VEY!!!

As I wrote the other day, I took my daughter's extra flat screen and the computer works! Even more important the printer now works! And yesterday MSTL went with me to Office Depot and we bought a cheap fax/copy machine. The ink cost more than the machine!!! Never mind. I didn't need the fancy expensive one for two reasons. One, I already have a laser printer and two, I would never figure out how to use the damn thing!

So yesterday I was happy feeling safe. My computer guy put int the anti-virus. MSTL set up the flat screen and the fax/copy machine. Life was good.

But, God does have a sense of humour. Yes, it's true. All of a sudden, my very expensive and very wonderful iPhone stopped ringing. It vibrated like hell, but who could hear if anyone called without the lovely song I have that announces someone is looking for me.

My phone is so gorgeous that I even have different songs so I know by the melody who is calling! The regular song is called MaryLou by Tzvika Pik and I chose that as my ringtone because all the kids and their friends when they were little called me MaryLou. And I love Tzvika Pik and I love the melody of that song.

When my husband calls it rings Summertime which is his favourite song. My oldest son's melody is Shalom Aleichem which we sing every Friday night and since he is religious it suits him. His wife's song is Ana B'Koach another religious song. My daughter's melody is It's My Life...it is her song of the month right now. And MSTL is Let The Sunshine In...cuz he does.

My biggest problem is answering the phone since I get carried away singing along with the melodies and if I wait too long then I have to call them back.

Well, now what was I going to do with no songs? I pushed this and I pushed that and when I got to the Vey Oy Vey stage I phoned a friend who knows everything. Did you know on the iPhone on the left hand side just above the volume buttons is a little chuptchik that you switch to Volume or Silent? Neither did I. But I do now!!! What a wonderful little thing. One little move and Voila I was back in business. Of course, just to be sure I phoned myself a millions times from the house phone to make sure it works.

And, finally I pushed something that turned my TV screen blue. No voices...no picture...no nothing. Just blue. Now, don't get me wrong. Blue is a nice colour. A lovely sky...a pretty lake...nice. But not on the TV!!!

At exactly 6:45 this morning, in a panic I phoned my television server. You know how it works. For Russian push one...for Arabic push two...for English push three...for Amharic push four...for Hebrew stay on the line. Then, after a few minutes the voice of a nice lady comes on and says, "If you want to order movies or channels push one. If you have a technical problem push two." And then you wait. And you wait.

Now, while you are waiting there is a lovely comforting melody that plays in the background. Why is it comforting? Because that way you know you are still in the loop. After eleven minutes a real person got on the phone and then suddenly we were disconnected!!!

Damn!

I called back and pushed all the right numbers. Then, while I was waiting I started pushing all kinds of things on the remote. Strange things happened. But I wasn't worried. I was in the loop and soon someone would come online and get me back to GO.

Suddenly...honest to God...I don't know how...but suddenly after pushing who knows what my TV came back!!! No more blue! Real pictures and sound!!!

Vey Oy Vey became Yahooooooooooooo.

Does this mean I am regressing and becoming a child like old people do? Vey!!! Oy Vey!!!

Wishing you all a very sweet shabbat shalom.

Stay safe...have a great day... and thanks for dropping in.

U IS FOR THE UNITED STATES

2011-11-03T14:44:00.000+02:00

I thought I remembered America. But, when I saw the gorgeous fluffy clouds in Colorado and the double rainbow---have you ever seen a double rainbow? I gasped.

I thought I remembered the trees and grass but after living for nearly forty-two years in the Middle East, I couldn't get over the green...everywhere...the trees, the flowers, the grass growing healthy and lush everywhere.

I thought I remembered the rivers and lakes but after looking at the Intercoastal and the Pacific Ocean and the Detroit River from my hosts' windows I simply stared.

After living in a country that counts drops of water for so long, I had forgotten how lush and rich the United States and Canada are. How blessed. How fortunate.

What I couldn't understand is what happened. How did they get into such debt? What is going on with the educational system? And the scariest of all is the Health Care or lack of.

I met people along the way...family and friends whose place of business closed down and who were still looking for a job nearly a year and a half later. Whose biggest fear is getting sick! America??? People who lost their homes as well as their income or should I say because of the loss of their income.

In Israel we have a fabulous health care system. And, if God forbid you lose your job you still have full health coverage. I can't imagine not having health insurance!!!

I asked people to explain the huge debt...I get it now. I don't understand it fully, but I get it.

I know one thing...there is no country on the planet that comes close to the United States of America...ok Canada...but I mean elsewhere in the world. No place!!!

I know another thing...we need a healthy, strong United States!!! The world will not be the same unless America is strong and can stand strong.

I fear that the snowball is growing too big and the other guys are getting too strong. I wouldn't care that much but 'the other guys' own the debt!!!

I still believe America will stand tall. I just don't know how. And I don't know when the roller-coaster will stop.

I hope it is soon. I pray it is soon. It better be soon.

I took pictures. Lots of pictures. My kids are right...the United States is the Garden of Eden. I wonder what that makes the Holy Land??? We used to be the Land of Milk and Honey. Well, we have cows and bees and the Original Cast. But where you have water and trees we have sand and hot.

Thank you United States for letting me listen to your quiet...for letting me watch your clouds fill the sky...for filling my heart with the sights and smells of your bounty. God bless America!

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

T IS FOR THANK YOU

2011-11-01T11:25:00.001+02:00

Do you remember when you were a kid getting all excited about going back to school? And, then the first thing your teacher did was make you either write or stand up in front of the class and tell all about your summer vacation!

'Well, we went to Jack Miner's Bird Sanctuary and saw all the geese. And, then we went to Saint Louis for a week to visit my Aunt Mina and Uncle Louie. (Yes I did have an Uncle Louie in St. Louie!)'

I know it has been a very long time since I blogged and that my last letter was S...See if I had stopped at R then I could have written S is for my Summer Vacation.

But since I used up S already I have to Tell you all about my summer vacation...and say THANK YOU!!!

I had a hellova great summer vacation!

I went from Florida and the Atlantic Ocean to California and the Pacific to Colorado and the Rocky Mountains and finally Windsor/Detroit and the Tunnel...I mean the Detroit River!

Eight weeks! I was gone from my wonderful Jerusalem for EIGHT WEEKS!

Now, I never can stand being far from Israel for more than ten days...two weeks at the most and here I was the Wandering Jew travelling all over the place for two whole months. Must have gypsy blood in me someplace cuz I did just fine...no I did GREAT!!!

Looking back I realized that I managed to stay away that long without missing Israel because, thanks to my iPhone and Skype and emails and a tricky thing called Viber, I was able to talk and see and connect with my kids and the babies and my friends almost daily! Wadda world!!!

The Theme of this trip was to connect with and be with people from my childhood---people who knew me 'when' and who thought my house was their second home and who knew my parents. People I could re-connect with and talk about those days and about my Mom and Dad A'H.

I needed to Tie up loose ends and Talk with people who could share 'remember when' stories with me. I needed to talk about my mother...Bubbie Channah.

You know how sometimes the 'whole' is bigger than all the pieces? Well, that was my summer vacation. So much happened that filled my heart. I spent time with people I have loved for over fifty years. I reconnected with people who I haven't seen since we were younger than my kids! Some friendships were renewed. Some new ones were made and I hope to stay in touch with some amazing people I met along the way. Some were like we had just been talking and drinking that cup of coffee together a week ago... some were changed...the dream shattered by a new reality. All were worthwhile. And one was ended. An old friend got suddenly ill and passed way within days of my return home!

I am sorry it has taken me so long to write. Between my summer vacation, the death of my friend and then weeks and weeks of holidays...did I mention jet lag? Seven flights...on with the shoes off with the shoes...where's my suitcase? Oh, thank God, there it is! I simply went into 'curl up and regain your strength' mode. I think I'm back. I think I can deal with the loss and the found. And, I am grateful for it all!!!

I am grateful to Florida/California/Colorado/Windsor/Detroit/Toronto...you know who you are and your kindness and generosity and love were beyond amazing. Lucky, lucky me!!!

So, hopefully I'm back and hopefully I'll find the quiet emotional space I need to write and create. Today was Trash day...I threw out bags and bags and sigh yes more bags of stuff that had been accumulating since I got back home. I not only cleared out the room I teach in, but I borrowed my daughter's spare flat screen for my desktop and then I called my computer mayven and he said, 'Push this, push that and NOW DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!' and voila my anti-virus is now updated and the computer AND PRINTER are working!!! Tomorrow MSTL ( my son the lawyer) and I will probably go to Office Depot and buy a new fax/copy machine. See, everything died just before I left on my summer vacation. The laser printer ran out of ink, the flat screen committed suicide, and the fax/copy bit the dust!!! I did my Scarlet O'Hara...'I'll think about it tomorrow' and got on the plane for the Goldeneh Medinah ( the Golden Land). And now I'm back in business again...yahoooooooo!!!

Boy it feels good talking with you. And, hopefully this is just the beginning of a running dialogue. But, since I never caught up with cutting and pasting all your comments in the old blogs, I am now sending you out just the beginning chapter, and the link to the blog. For those of you who would like to comment, I will be thrilled to hear from you.

In the meantime...again THANK you for everything! My summer vacation was the best ever!!!

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

S IS FOR...

2011-06-15T10:51:00.002+03:00

S is for Swimming.

The short version is that about a year and a half ago my orthopedic doctor told me I had to start swimming. My reaction was, "Free Willie?!?"

He had the good grace to chuckle, but I wasn't kidding. I'm Jewish. I go to the beach or pool with my towel wrapped around my polkehs. And after Bubbie Channah passed away I HAD POLKEHS...don't ask. Six Snickers a day plus potato chips...you get the picture. And putting that mass of lovelyness into a bathing suit could have blinded those poor nice people swimming jaunty and jolly in the water!

But, my legs and back were so painful that I decided to give it a try. Somehow I had a suit pushed way back at the end of my shelf and it sort of fitted.

I began scouting pools in the city and found one just up the way from my place, and the price was great. So I hauled myself up there and signed up FOR A YEAR! I figured if I committed to twelve months I would shelp my sorry tuchess to the water.

What I hadn't bargained for is that I LOVE IT! Who knew?

Between the pool and Judy the miracle worker diet lady, I have lost over forty pounds and a gazillion inches off my frame.

Another miracle in the Holy Land, trust me.

So, here's the regime. I swim two lengths and run in place for a count of one hundred. The first time I hung onto the side until I said to myself, "Idiot, you're in water! How far can you fall?" Don't ask!

Now, I'm up to 34 lengths and 3, 400 runs in an hour. Yahooooooo!

I go twice a week because I simply don't have any more free time. Mondays and Wednesdays I'm there. At just before seven in the morning my body is in the water. And off I go.

Let me tell you about the people who swim with me. They all make me look young! Get it? And from 8:15 it is only ladies and that's when the religious ladies arrive. See, they don't swim with men. And they quickly take their hats off and put on the bathing caps. And, some wear long dresses. And others wear undershirts over their suits. I don't know how they don't drown, but these ladies are unbelievable. And they show up every day...well six days...okay maybe five so they can cook and get ready for Shabbat.

I LOVE MY LADIES.

The hardest part is getting out of the pool. See, on the way there you have your suit on under your clothes and all you have to do is strip, put the damn cap on, wrap yourself in the towel and go down the stairs to the pool. But...on the way out you have to face gravity and peel that suit off and shower and dry your hair you shouldn't catch pneumonia from the freezing cold outside and maybe put a little makeup on you shouldn't scare the taxi driver and haul your sorry tuchess into the house where you are now ready to eat breakfast and have a big mug of coffee!

One morning as I walked back into the changing room there was only one little old lady in the room. She was sitting on a green towel and was stark naked except for her little ankle socks! She didn't notice me because she was busy holding up a little mirror as she applied her lipstick! I LOVE MY LADIES.

This week I have to see how long they will freeze my subscription as I'll be away for the summer. Sharon says I can swim in the pool in her building while I'm there and my brother David says I can use his treadmill while I'm in Colorado. And Maeshey says I can swim in the ocean while I'm by him in California.

Who knows? I may break down and buy a new suit. The first one got too big. The next one got too big. And, if I am very careful and, God help me, don't eat myself into hysteria, I may not get into too much trouble the two months I'm in Canada and the States.

Whatever happens, my ladies will be there waiting for me and encouraging me when I get back.

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

R IS FOR...

2011-06-14T14:45:00.000+03:00

R is for Restaurants!!!

Most of you know that I love cooking. I cook all the time. I cook like a crazy fool. And as much as I love cooking I love going to restaurants.

When Bubbie Channah was alive, I would meet her every day for lunch. We went to a little restaurant just down the street from her apartment. It was called Mervad HaKsamim...the Magic Carpet and it had great Yeminite food.

My Dad A'H could never remember the name of the place so he called it Two Steps because you had to climb two steps to get in. My Mom hated the food. Well she didn't hate the food until she moved here. THEN she decided she hated the food. See, it wasn't the food. It was the spices...especially cumin. Me? I love them!!!

Here is my favourite Ma and Pa story from Two Steps. One day I got there late and the folks were already seated and waiting to order.

Ma turned to me and said, "Marallyn, what does that sign say?"
Me: It says Emergency Exit.
Ma: AHA! I KNEW IT!
Me: What did you know?
Ma: Yesterday your father and I came here for coffee. And, while we were waiting, I lit a cigarette (That was in the days when it was acceptable to smoke in restaurants).
Me: So?
Ma: So! A nasty lady turned to me and in a very nasty voice said, 'Can't you read that sign?' I looked to where she was pointing and yes there was a sign but no I couldn't read it. When I admitted that I couldn't read it, the lady informed me that the sign said No Smoking. So I put out my cigarette. THAT'S THE SIGN!!! Emergency Exit. Wait till I get my hands on that lady!!!

I don't have as much time to go to restaurants this year as my teaching schedule is booked solid...tfu tfu tfu. But, I do have a couple of mornings free for breakfast and one afternoon and one evening.

I love restaurants for many reasons. One...I'm not cooking or cleaning or washing up. I'm sitting and being served. Two...I can eat food I would never make at home...like Chinese or Middle Eastern grilled stuff yum yum...or my favourite of all Meurav Yerushalmi...trust me on this one and don't ask too many questions. Three...it is a social time where I can sit with my friends enjoying an evening or morning out. And finally...since I work at home it gets me back among people...my Jerusalemites.

Here are my favourite places to go to:
Eldad V;Zehu...the owner is not only a friend but a student...one of my wonderful three mentchen...great great food...not expensive...make a reservation.
Zidkiyahu...the owner is another one of my three mentchen and this is where I go for the Middle Eastern grilled stuff...be hungry.
Caffit...coffee shop...humungous salads and a great breakfast
Aroma...coffee shop...great coffee...home made breads come with the meal
Imma's...Kurdi restaurant...my husband is a Kurd...great kubbeh soup
Benny's...fish
Pereg...neighbourhood coffee shop

P.S. Notice that none of these places serve sushi. I ate sushi three times...the first/the last/and one too many! Enough said!

A lot of my favourites have closed over the years...Pfefferbergs...Hepners...LaGondola...the Chinese restaurant that I never could remember the name of...as the 2000 Year Old Man would say...back in the days when they were...now I'm still...but they're not.

I don't go to fancy restaurants. That's not my style. I love amcha...folsky...where the people go. In my little restaurants you can run in to Chaverei Knesset...members of our Parliament...and they will be happy to talk to you or just say hi. You will meet fancy lawyers...they're the guys with the ties. And you will meet the most interesting folk who are happy to tell you the pros and cons of what they ordered...and a quick shake of the head if you order something they don't think is so hotsy-totsy. Ah, my Jerusalemites.

We Jews love to eat. And restaurants are our forte. We know them, we are comfortable in them and we are experts on the portions.

As Jackie Mason said...Where the Jewish couple is busy complaining about the portion of their cake, the Gentile family at the next table is singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUU...

Come visit. I'll make you home made and we'll go check out some of Jerusalem's more interesting places to eat. Try it...you'll like it.

(ps...sorry it has taken me so long to write again. Life and getting ready for my trip and fighting with the cable people and the internet folk has kept me busy. pps. I won with the cable people and the internet folk. I may be short but I'm feisty!)

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

Q IS FOR...

2011-05-24T15:13:00.001+03:00

Q is for ?

I have been thinking for days about what to write for the letter Q.
I could write about the Queen. As a former Canadian and member of the Commonwealth, I have to admit I love the Queen and all the Kings and Queens of England. I read about them, I watch the series about them on TV, I was inside Buckingham Palace!!! You want to talk about fancy-shmancy???

But, no. Q is not for Queen.

Quincunx! I bet you never heard that word before. It's an astrology term referring to a 148-152 degree aspect between two planets. For example my Moon in Pisces is exactly 150 degrees away from my Mars in Leo. AHA, you say! What does that tell you about me? It means that my need for security doesn't jive with my need for excitement and spontaneity. So now you know. I'm touchy and territorial and a rotweiller when it comes to my family especially my babies. And, sometimes people can take advantage of me. I always said that anyone can screw me once, but if they do it a second time it's my fault.

So, if you have a quincunx in your chart, it simply points out stuff you have to work on. You don't know and wanna know...write me, I'll tell you.

Quilt! As you know, I knit, I crochet, and the world is my canvas...aka I talk a lot. But, I've always wanted to make a quilt. Close your eyes and say the word Quilt. What do you see? I see a bunch of ladies sitting around an old table someplace on the Prairies, tired from all the work they had to do that day. Each one has an old thimble on her finger and is busy making a quilt for someone in their community. Quilting is friendly. It is useful. It is warm and comforting. It is real...not like the store-bought down comforter I have.

Now, I don't want you to feel sorry for me. I have a million afghans that both I and Bubbie Channah made. I have summer ones and winter ones and this kind of a pattern one and that kind of a pattern one. We all do. Walk into my kids' rooms and there are Bubbie Blankets! But a Quilt...sigh. My friend Guila makes quilts. She make hu-ha gorgeous quilts. She makes quilts for babies and quilts for beds and quilts for walls and as they say in Hebrew...rir yored li...I salivate with envy at her talent and patience. Bravo!!!

That brings me back to my Question marks. Questions are good. Little kids ask them without end. They ask them just for making conversation and they ask them for information. They ask them without shame and I love their freedom.

Once, when my oldest grandson, Sweetsie Tootsie was about two and a half, I was at their place. It was dark out already and suddenly we heard fireworks. Here is the conversation we had as we ran from window to window looking for the flashes in the sky.

SweetsieTootsie:Bubbie, what's that?
ME: I think it's fireworks.
S.T: Let's look for them. (He grabbed my hand and we ran. But we couldn't see anything.)
S.T:Bubbie, I know exactly what that is. (He said pointing his little finger at me.)
ME: You do?
S.T: Yes! It's a party in the sky for the Rabbi from Lubovitch! (My religious kid was in a Chabbad nursery school. I cried. Tfu in your eye Hitler!)

See, everyone is so busy looking for answers that sometimes we forget the important thing is to know what questions to ask.

So, here's my question for the day: How's by you?

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

P IS FOR...

2011-05-20T15:38:00.001+03:00

Funny how things work out. I had been planning to write: P is for Psalms and tell you the story of how I started reading Tehilim (Psalms).

See, my youngest kid was in the army and he wasn't feeling too great. For those of you who don't know, once a kid goes into the army, the army is responsible for them. Well, maybe not responsible for making them sing Sweet Sue all day long, but as parents we have to take a back seat until they finish their tour of duty.

Not exactly my best place to sit...in the back seat. See, the only reason I bought my kids cell phones was so that I could have instant gratification every time I got nervous about where they were. Ok, so there were days when I was nervous all the time but that is for another blog...Crazy Jewish Mother...oh wait...wait...we did all those letters already PTEW!

So, my kid wasn't feeling great and, not knowing what else to do, I phoned my daughter-in-law. She is from B'nei Brak...religious...married my kid who became religious at the age of twelve. But, I've told you about that already. Anyhow, I phoned her and asked her to please, when she says tehilim to give a prayer for the kid.

And she said... are you ready for this??? And she said, 'You know, of course, that it will be much stronger if that prayer comes from his mother.'

Screwed! I was screwed. Okay, okay tell me where and what. I had a bunch of psalm books all over the place...you know 'just in case' books that you throw into your purse before taking off on a long journey, for example.

I started reading Psalms. And I added more and more. And I started reading the Hebrew side of the page. And I loved it!!!Ten, fifteen minutes a day of quiet Jewish meditation...me, God and David's Psalms.

Then I underlined special psalms that had a special meaning to me and started saying them every day along with whatever portion I was at.

Then, I decided to add a little mystical/shmystical and would close the book, ask a question, open the book randomly and put my finger on a line. And lo and behold, I started getting answers to my questions. And I added those sentences to my daily reading.

Psalms is good. And strong. And special. Try it...you'll like it.

See, I was going to tell you all that, but yesterday I left the house at 8 in the morning and Perle Mesta didn't get home till nearly 11 at night! I had a hellova grand day!!!

Now, let's get back to mystical/shmystical. See, as a person with the wooszh and an astrologer who doesn't believe in coincidence...I was meant NOT to write yesterday.

Why??? Ask me...go ahead. BECAUSE P ALSO STANDS FOR PRESIDENT AND POTUS!!! And yesterday he gave a speech. And yesterday he put Israel, and all of us and then all of you in a very bad place.

Those of you who know me know exactly what I think of the...there are so many words I could write here...and davka in four languages. All of them quite descriptive. All of them quite accurate even though I don't know much about his mother...

Israel is appalled! Furious! And, maybe a little more frightened then usual. What the hell is wrong with that man? I know the answer to that question. Do YOU???

And P also stands for Pharoh. See, there arose a new Pharoh who knew not Joseph. He too was a very bad man.

Some days I feel like Jeremiah and others like Chicken Little screaming THE SKY IS FALLING, THE SKY IS FALLING!!!

Bubbie Channah would simply have said GEVALT!!!

Shabbat shalom.

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

O IS FOR...

2011-05-18T14:21:00.001+03:00

O is for onions!

See, I cook. I cook a lot! And every recipe I make starts with: take a gorgeous onion.

I came to Israel in 1970 with two girlfriends. We all took a year's leave of absence from our places of work and came to the Holy Land for a year...just one year.

Arriving in August, we made plans to stay in Tel Aviv not far from the Sheraton Hotel. After all, since we were now free agents, it was stupid to spend the summer away from the Sea.

Hot! You want to talk about hot? No air conditioning...no ice cubes...no real Coke just something cloyingly sweet called Tempo. No hamburgers. When we got to the point of passing out, we would put on our 'American Tourist' clothes and go sit in the lobby of one of the fancy hotels up the street.

But when September came, we moved into our apartment on HaPalmach Street in Jerusalem. Lovely place. Did I mention we were on the top floor...56 stairs...no elevator? I didn't mention that part, did I. Sigh.

As soon as we settled in, we went up the street to the local supermarket...I think it was Supersol. Now, in 1970 in Israel they didn't have plastic bags...and God forbid they should kill a tree to make paper bags!!! NAY NAY. They had hard plastic bags that only felt good when they were empty. As soon as you put three eggs or one bottle of milk inside, the handle began chopping off your fingers.

But even worse! If you forgot the damn bag, then you had to climb the 56 stairs all over again. We were like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie learning how to milk a cow. Well, we were cute but not that cute and we certainly didn't have a gazillianth of their cash waiting when we got home.

Nope, we had the bags and the stairs and a year in front of us.

Now, at the time, the only languages spoken in the country were Hebrew, Arabic and French. No one admitted to understanding my Canadian French and everyone shuddered when I tried Yiddish. Everything in the supermarket was marked in Hebrew and Arabic. Could have been Chinese or Amharic. If the can didn't have a picture on it then it was an interesting meal we had that night.

Rosh HaShanah came quickly and we decided to make chicken soup and chicken and hamburgers and mashed potatoes. Forty years have passed and I remember that menu. The meat was so salty we couldn't eat it. The chicken soup looked gray and was so salty we couldn't eat it. Kosher food...be careful how you season it when cooking. WELL NO ONE TOLD ME THAT!!!

We ended up eating the Telma packaged instant soup and cried. I wrote Bubbie Channah the following letter...Dear Ma...You remember when I had to clean my plate because of all the starving children in Europe? Well, I never thought I'd be one of them. Love, Marallyn

One day, after the holidays we went to the Old City and in order to get out of the heat entered Select Restaurant next to the Police Station just inside the Jaffa Gate.

We didn't have much money to spend in a restaurant but we ordered something and the waiter brought us all kinds of little dishes with salads. We licked the platter clean!

The owner, Daud came and sat with us. When he heard our plight, he invited us to show up at his place every morning for a week at 7:00 and he taught us how to cook!!! Yahoooo, we're in business!!! A few years later Daud left the Old City and moved to Detroit where he opened another restaurant. I hope he made a million bucks 'cause he sure saved our tushies.

Then, I met my husband and spent my mornings in my mother-in-law's kitchen learning to cook their food. Kurdi food. You want to talk about delicious??? Kubbeh, Yaprach, yum yum.

Now, I cook Kurdi food, Persian (Iranian) food, Moroccan food, a little Italian, a dash of Mexican...and every recipe starts off with a gorgeous onion.

Here's my favorite mejaderah recipe:
2 gorgeous large onions
1 cup rice
1 cup green lentils
1 teaspoon...or more...cumin
1 teaspoon salt or chicken soup powder...more if you want
pepper to taste
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 1/3 cup water for the rice and as much water as you need to cook the lentils

To make the lentils and rice

Cover the lentils with water and cook until tender.

In another pot sauté 1 chopped onion in 1 Tbls of olive oil until translucent then add the rice, cumin, the salt/pepper or chicken soup powder. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer until the rice is cooked through. Once the rice is finished mix in the lentils.

To make the crispy onion garnish.

Slice the remaining onion and heat the remaining olive oil in a sauté pan large enough to accommodate all the slices, adding a little salt as they saute. When the onions go in they should sizzle. Saute the onion on high heat stirring frequently until the slices turn brown, then reduce the heat slightly and continue to cook until they have small dark spots and are crispy

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

N IS FOR...

2011-05-16T16:35:00.000+03:00

N is for Nope...Not Me...I Never Said That...Nuh-Hu.

In the list of things I can't remember ever having said, the first one is:
Boy, I miss track!

When I was growing up, we had to wear those one-piece blue bloomer outfits to gym. Do you have any idea what chubby Jewish polkehs (thighs) look like in those things? Dear God in my next life could I please have thick hair and thin thighs?

And, if God forbid, you had to go to the bathroom, you had to undo all those buttons and sit half naked on the toilet hoping no one would open the stall door by mistake and see you in all your glory.

Now the gentile kids in my class they were heroes. They could jump over a pole, and run around the school and probably climb the outside of the building if the gym teacher wanted. The rest of us descendants of Abraham hopped, skipped and jumped and maybe once in a while we got to the sandy part.

Bubbie Channah went to parent-teacher's day and purposely asked to speak to the gym teacher. Here is the conversation as she told it to me.
SHE: Hello, you are the gym teacher?
HE: Yes.
SHE: Perhaps you could explain to me these low grades my children received in gym?
HE: I...I...
SHE: I sent you two world-class athletes and these are the grades you gave them?
HE: You are Mrs. Pasikov, David and Marallyn's mother, aren't you?
SHE: Yes!
And then she laughed all the way to to the parking lot. No one messed with Bubbie Channah!

Number two:
Where is she stabled?

Horses are nice. Hoppalong Cassidy had one. Gene Autry had one. Calamity Jane had one. I had one once...for a couple of hours one terrible day.

Every summer all the kids who were still in town went to Camp Yomee Day Camp at the Jewish Center. We had a hellova grand time. Every day we met at around nine and did all kinds of great stuff till four when our parents came to pick us up and bring us home.

I started as a camper, then junior counselor, then senior counselor, then assistant camp director. That's where I met Sharon the mystical-shymistical lady we imported from Montreal. Sharon is/was a Registered Nurse and that summer she was Camp Nurse! We met, bonded, fell in love and are still amazed at how lucky we are.

Well, one year, some idiot...I mean camp director, decided to take the camp out for a special day. So off we all went to Yakky Bush HORSE BACK RIDING!

Do you know how tall those things are? Have you any idea how big their teeth are never mind their feet....I mean hooves?

Bad enough to be out in the Bush with all the mosquitoes and rattle snakes and scorpions and vampires...there were horses...lots of horses...just waiting for these chubby Jewish kids to climb up with their Semitic polkehs and ride off into the sunset.

Here's the conversation:
HE: Mrs. Pasikov, how are you?
SHE: What's wrong?
HE: Marallyn needs a change of underwear and slacks.
SHE: She pished in her pants? She's thirteen!
HE: No, but the horse was too broad for her and when she sat down on the saddle she split her pants and underwear!
SHE: Oh, God. I'm on my way!

Number three:
No, thanks, I've had enough chocolate.

My husband and I are Jack and Mrs. Spratt. He hates sweets and I can't get enough of them. When Bubbie Channah was in the hospital dying, I couldn't eat food. All I could eat were potato chips and chocolate.

But, not just any chocolate. NAY NAY. After a lengthy research, I discovered that my chocolate of choice was Snickers. And not one. NAY NAY. It took six of them. One after the other before I had enough caffeine or cocoa or whatever it is that scratched the itch that was driving me crazy.

For any of you who are interested, Snickers is better than everything else except Turtles...nothing is better than Turtles. If they had Turtles in Israel, I betcha I could have eaten six boxes...maybe seven since seven is my newest favourite number.

Here are some of my favourite chocolate expressions:
Every time I say the word 'gym', I rinse my mouth out with chocolate.
Chocolate is better than a psychologist and you don't have to make an appointment.
Chocolate is God's way of compensating for Mondays.
Fourteen out of ten people like chocolate.
If you get melted chocolate on your hands, you are eating too slowly.
If there's no chocolate in heaven, I'm not going.
Save the earth. It's the only planet with chocolate.
Money may talk, but chocolate sings.
Nobody knows the truffles I've seen.

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

M IS FOR...

2011-05-15T12:08:00.003+03:00

M is for 'mystical-shymystical'...what else???
In my family everyone had the whooszh (ESP). Well, everyone but my Dad A'H. He would just shake his head and then stare in amazement when things came true.

I remember when I was about twelve and my Mom A'H bought a raffle ticket from the shul...I think. First prize was a thousand dollars and just what my Dad needed to pay the bank for the mortgage. Summer time was always tough in the house of a furrier.

The day of the raffle, Ma was in a deep conversation with him that went something like this:
SHE: Herbie, go get the thousand dollars.
HE: Leave me alone. You really think you are going to win.
SHE: Herbie, go get dressed, get into the car and get the thousand dollars.
HE: Shortie( I thought that was her real name until I went to high school). We need the money and it would be nice, but I'm not going to the shul and make an ass out of myself.

Before she had a chance to answer, the phone rang and a good friend excitedly told Ma that she had won the first prize...yup the thousand dollars.

My Dad ate crow for about fifteen years on that one.

We all had it. My Bubbie A'H ( she made us look like amateurs), my Mom, my Aunt, my brother and myself. We all just knew stuff.

By the time I was sixteen, I'd learned there was 'family' talk and 'stranger' talk. The family understood exactly and the strangers just give you that look. You know the look.

So what does a teenager living in a rather conservative city do? She finds other friends with the whooszh. First was Maeshey. He lived up the street and was part of our house and lives and love from the age of about seven. Maeshey invented the word wooszh. He still has it big time. As a matter of fact I just got another email from him with his latest...see we share our wooszh's...otherwise it's no fun.

Then there came Sharon. We imported her from Montreal. She has it big time too. And we are still in daily contact and whenever the wooszh comes up it is a normal part of our conversation. Trust me, the lady is good!

Then we discovered the Ouiji Board! We all sat around with that little glass scaring ourselves to death. Dad, on his way to bed always said, 'Again with the glass?' At which time, no matter what the ouiji was saying, it would stop and the message would be 'Good night Herbie!' No one messed with the ouiji.

I stopped the ouiji one day when I figured it must be some miserable soul stuck in there on it's way to a better place and when I go at 120 I don't want one of them to see me passing along and scream out HEY I KNOW THAT ONE...and there I'll be stuck in the glass forever and ever.

I think of the sight as a gift and never abuse it.

When everyone asked me what the hell I was going to do in Israel, I immediately answered, 'I'm going to rent a camel and sell fortunes to the tourists.'

Everyone laughed.

Until the day I got my first check as a published astrologer. As of this writing, I have taught astrology classes, writen seven books and have had a weekly column in both the Hebrew and English newspapers for almost twenty years. The last 13.6 years I have been the astrologer for the Jerusalem Post online and except for Jeruasalem...long story...am in the Friday edition of the paper nationwide.

I don't have a camel yet but I'm selling fotunes to the tourists. Look for me...Starcatcher...and may the force be with you!

Shavuah tov!

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

L IS FOR...

2011-05-12T09:33:00.000+03:00

L is for lists...the older I get the more I rely on them...

L is for lucky...yup I am tfu tfu tfu...

and L is for love...I love you...you love me...lucky us!!!

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

ps thank you for allllll the emails about these blogs...when I have the time I will post them online...means a lot that you are all reading them and enjoying them...a lot!!!

K IS FOR...

2011-05-11T10:58:00.001+03:00

K is for knitting.
You remember about the 47 books? Well, I have about as many bags of wool in cupboards, on shelves...shoved here...stuck up there. Wool.

I need to have books that I haven't read yet, waiting for me, and wool that I don't know what to do with waiting for an idea.

It's all Bubbie Channah's A'H fault. See, when I was seven she told me I couldn't sit with 'laydekeh hent'...empty hands. And she taught me how to knit. I made my first sweater that year and I've been knitting ever since. NOT LIKE BUBBIE CHANNAH who gifted everyone she knew with numerous hand knitted items...afghans/ponchos/sweaters/scarves...

When my oldest went into the army I didn't know how to protect him any more. So I began making kippot...crochet yarmulkahs or skullcaps. I figured, since he was religious ( became religious at the age of 12...nice story...another time), I would put all my hopes and prayers into the little things, and when he wore them, their magic would keep him safe. For those of you who know me, you know that this is normal thinking on my part, and for the rest of you, HELLO :)!

I knew how to crochet...Bubbie Channah again...and I figured out how to make a flat circle, but I didn't have any patterns.

That's when I became a nuisance on the bus. See, sitting in front of me were always religious kids...soldiers, students and each had a kippa. So when I found a pattern that looked gorgeous yet easy enough for me to copy, I would tap the person on the shoulder...knitted kippa people can be tapped...black hat people don't even think of it!!! I'd tell them my problem, they'd laugh and take off the kippa, leaving their heads uncovered for as long as it took me to mark down the pattern on the graph paper I had begun carrying in my purse.

And off I went. I don't want to brag, but I got so good, I was making a kippa a week and then when I got crazy nervous, a kippa a day!

Thank God the kid made it through those three years of being a paratrooper...me? I'm not so sure...and he came home and went to college and got a nice job and met a lovely girl and got married. And was expecting their first child...

And the terrible Intifada broke out and he was called to his base and sent to Shchem...Nablus...a very very bad not nice place---very!

This time, I knew I would need more than just those kippot. This time I needed serious knitting! I knit good. I knit without looking at my hands. I can take knitting to the movies. The only reason I never went to sit in on the Demjanjuk trial was I knew I couldn't sit that long with laydekeh hent and didn't want to do a Jewish version of Madame Defarge!

What could be quick like a kippa yet be knitted and keep me busy? AHA---baby sweaters! But the kid wasn't born yet. Bad luck. 'Not if you don't finish it,' Bubbie Channah said.

And, I had two really good girlfriends whose daughters-in-law were also due the week my baby was. AHA, a captive audience.

I started knitting. And I got Bubbie Channah involved. Her job was to do the invisible joining that she always did so well and to make buttons from the same wool for the sweaters.

Then, she started knitting along with me. Baby blankets...sweaters...matching hats...in neutral colours since we didn't know who was what yet. And always a something was left undone that needed to be finished after the baby was born.

In the month my kid was in the army we made 150 baby sweaters! And blankets! And hats. We had two suitcases full and overflowing!

The three babies were born tfu tfu tfu. All boys. All got knitted stuff. And we still had more. And more.

We started giving them away to anyone who had a baby. How lovely!

I have one more lion sweater Bubbie Channah made. I'm keeping it...just because.

Since then I really haven't had the desire to do much knitting. Here and there a blanket. Maybe soon.

ps. I have just started teaching my six year old granddaughter to knit...cuz you see she can't sit with leydekeh hent. I know. It's a law! Bubbie Cannah said!

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

J IS FOR...

2011-05-09T18:26:00.002+03:00

J is for jokes. I love to laugh. I love funny, clever jokes that don't hurt and are smart. The smartest and funniest man I would love to meet is Mel Brooks. His 2000 Year Old Man and the other albums are my all-time favourites. I can quote them. I can. So can my my nearest and dearest...you know who you are.

Carl Reiner wrote down the questions. Mel Brooks heard them for the first time and invented answers. What a joy.

Okay...here is part one. If you love this as I do, go to youtube and listen to more.

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

J IS FOR...

2011-05-09T18:25:00.003+03:00

J is for jokes.

I IS FOR...

2011-05-09T09:52:00.002+03:00

I is for Israel...of course it is!!!
I didn't mean to live here. I didn't mean to get married and have children here. I didn't mean to step off a plane and know that I was HOME.

But all the pieces were put in place by my family. The Jewish elders in Windsor, my grandfather and his brothers included, decided to establish a Jewish School for their kids so they would know who they were and understand their heritage. In a city with only 750 Jewish families at the time, that was a smart move. So, from the age of about six I went to I.L Peretz Shule--- every day after school. I wanted to be a Brownie, but Bubbie Channah said, "Jewish children go to Peretz Shule." Period. End of discussion. Do not pass GO and do not collect your $200!

So, Mrs, Atkins would be waiting in her station wagon for me at the end of my school days, and off we went to pick up other would-be Brownies or Cub Scouts or Astronauts, or just kids who wanted to go home and play outside with their friends.

I went to Peretz Shule till I graduated at thirteen and returned my first year in College to teach there!!!

So, what does this have to do with Israel? Remember, this was in the early fifties. And every once-in-awhile, on a Sunday we would all fill the main room and watch movies. Little black and white reels of the newly established State of Israel! Men and women in shorts with white shirts , a hoe over one shoulder, a rifle over the other began building settlements and cities and then at night, since these were superhumanwonderful people, they would all dance the hora around a big fire and laugh and be happy. Well, I think they laughed and were happy since there was no sound.

I was fed on this new State of Israel with pride and love and awe. So, when my friend and fellow teacher told me she was going to Greece and asked me if I wanted to come along, I thought for about five seconds and said, 'SURE'. But, added that I couldn't get that close to Israel without going there.

My plan was to get the Israel part over first and then Yassoo Yassoo Yasso. "HaHA!," said God. "I don't think so!"

And, the rest is history.

I want all of you to come here and see my wonderful Israel...my unbelievable Jerusalem!

No one is indifferent to Israel. No one says, "Oh, it was nice." They either love it, or hate it. They either get it, or they don't.

So, here's the plan. Come and see for yourselves. But if you want a front row seat, come for three weeks in April/May. Spend Pessach/Easter with us and the original cast. Then a week later be with us for the twenty-four hours of Yom HaShoah...Holocaust Remembrance Day...then a week later stand with us for Yom HaZikaron...Remembrance Day for the fallen, which culminates in Yom HaAtzmaut...Independence Day.

Those three weeks are who we are. Today is Yom HaZkaron. Last night the country stood in silence remembering our fallen...fallen in war and fallen in terrorist attacks. We remember the Fogel family. We remember every person. Over 22,000! One channel prints their names and dates starting from 1948. It takes the twenty-four hours to go through those names. E very one has a name. Every one is remembered. All you can see on cable TV are either a blank screen or programs remembering.

We remember leaving Egypt. We remember our family who were killed in the camps. We remember our brave men and women who sacrificed all for a little strip of land and a big dream.

At 11:00 this morning there will be a second siren. And again we will stand at attention. One on Holocaust Day and two on Remembrance Day. All cars will stop. People will stand in the streets, in the hallways, in their homes...and we will remember.

And then tonight we go into Independence Day! Israel will go out again into the streets, but this time to party.Tomorrow the country will be filled with the smell of meat cooking on open fires as everyone goes out to mingle with family and friends and bar-b-que and enjoy each other's company.

How smart our forefathers. Only the joy of Independence Day could break the sorrow of Remembrance Day.

So, come. Visit. And maybe you will lose your heart to a little strip of land like I did.

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

H IS FOR...

2011-05-08T12:34:00.000+03:00

H is for humour.
I think one of the most important characteristics a person can have is humour. Without it we're lost. I learned that forty years ago when I moved to Israel. Before that, I knew I was funny and my friends were hysterical, but I hadn't yet learned about God's sense of humour.

I moved to Jerusalem with my two friends...Soril and Linda, and we each packed a huge trunk full of stuff we couldn't live without. At the time that also included toilet paper.

See, the last trip I made the winter before the move, I had stayed with my friend Rachel who was a nurse in Sharrey Zedek Hospital. She was renting a room in a place in Geula, one of the more religious neighbourhoods in Jerusalem. Not only did I learn that winter that in Israel it is colder inside the houses then out, but instead of toilet paper they had old newspapers cut up into squares hanging on a hook!!! If I remember correctly, I cried. And then moved in with Soril who was staying with old friends and they generously let me stay on their couch in the living room!

Well, along with the toilet paper, Soril and I brought kits to frost our hair. They included the bathing caps with the holes in it and the crochet needle used to pull the hair through those holes as well as the bleach and dye.

After a month we were ready to frost our hair. I pulled Soril's through the little holes and shmeared the bleach all over her hair, and she did the same for me.

As we were waiting the necessary time for the bleach to pull the colour out of our hair there was a knock on our door. Standing there was Yossi, the neighbour's son. He looked at us strangely...those crazy Americans...and smiling said,"I wasn't sure if you understood the notice that is on the front door, so I came to tell you that they are turning off the water today at 2:00."

I looked at my watch. Ooppps! At which point I shouted loud enough to be heard in Tel Aviv, "DON'T FLUSH THE TOILETS!"

Somehow we managed to wash our hair, get the colour on and wash that out too. That is my favourite H for Hair Humour story.

Here is another one my daughter posted on Facebook:
A few days ago someone wrote a message on the gate of the Israeli consulate in Manila:
"You are 63 and still eveyrone wants to f*** you. Happy Birthday, Israel!"

That is my new favourite H for Happy Birthday story.

In a few hours we go into Yom HaZikaron...Remembrance Day and nothing is going to be funny. So, till tomorrow, Let a Smile be Your Umbrella :)

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

G IS FOR...

2011-05-04T11:36:00.001+03:00

G is for grateful.
I'm grateful for so many things.
I'm also superstitious...tfu tfu tfu.
So I'll let Uzi Hittman...of blessed memory speak for me.

TODA

Chorus:
Toda al kol ma shebarata,
Toda al ma sheli natata.

Verse 1
Al or einayim,
Chaver oh shnayim,
Al ma sheyesh li ba'olam.
Al shir kolei'ach
Velev solei'ach
Shebizchutam ani kayam.

Toda al kol ma shebarata,
Toda al ma sheli natata.

Verse 2
Al tzchok shel yeled
Ushmei hat'chelet
Al adama - uvayit cham.
Pina lashevet
Isha ohevet
Shebizchutam ani kayam.

Toda al kol ma shebarata,
Toda al ma sheli natata.

Verse 3
Al yom shel osher,
T'mimut veyosher,
Al yom atzuv shene'elam.
Tshu'ot - alpayim,
V'chapayim,
Shebizchutam ani kayam.

THANK YOU

Chorus:
Thanks for all that You've created,
Thanks for what You've given me.

Verse 1
For our eyesight,
A friend or two,
For what I have in the world.
For the song which flows,
And a forgiving heart -
Because of all this - I exist.

Thanks for all that You've created,
Thanks for what You've given me.

Verse 2
For a child's laughter,
And the blue sky,
For the earth - and a warm home.
A corner to sit in,
A loving woman,
Because of all this - I exist.

Thanks for all that You've created,
Thanks for what You've given me.

Verse 3
For a day of happiness,
Innocence and honesty,
For the sad day - which passed and disappeared.
Two thousand cheers,
and hands clapping.
Because of all this - I exist.

And I'm grateful for you.

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

F IS FOR...

2011-05-04T11:27:00.000+03:00

F is for favourites...I know we shouldn't have them...everything and everyone should be equal...but being human "some pigs are more equal than others". Don't tell Bubbie Channah I said the word 'pig'/

I teach. I am a great teacher...a really great teacher. It's true. Ask anyone. I love teaching. When I was in first grade at Hugh Beaton Public School, my teacher asked me to help the kid next to me. So, from the age of five, I knew what I wanted to be. (Well, I also wanted to be an actress and a lawyer and for a few reckless moments, I even considered being a cowgirl.) And, I wanted to be a mommy and a bubbie and now I want to be a published writer. The list goes on.

What does all this have to do with favourites? Well, this year my students range from the age of six to seventy-seven. And, shhhh I do have a few favourites. I really love two boys who are in junior high...they know who they are. I love my three mentchen...three grandfathers who come together twice a week to learn English...they are amazing and make my day!!! I love a little girl who is in tenth grade who, last summer, cut her hair for the first time. It was long and thick and reached to her waist. She cut it off so that wigs could be made for other little girls who are sick with cancer!!! We all love this little girl. I love a religious lady whose native tongue is Yiddish, and fills my heart with peace. She is a special lady. I guess, I love them all. And since I love them, I think they love me too.

Well, in order to get these people talking, I began discussing favourite things with them. Simple, one word answers. And entire conversations evolved.

Here are some of my favourites:
My favourites:
-day is Friday...Friday afternoon when everything is ready for shabbat and we go have a little shloffie in the afternoon.
-flower...lily of the valley
-writer...Shakespeare...Daniel Silva...Jodi Picault...JJ Robb...and the other 47 authors whose books are on my shelf waiting to be read...sigh (kindle here I come)
-movie...Rocky Horror, Some Like it Hot, Close Encounters of the Third Kind
-TV...I'm a little stuck on reality shows...Survivor...Big Brother...American Idol...and the Israeli versions
...The Good Wife...Breaking Bad
-music...everything BUT jazz
-perfume...Bill Blass...Pleasures by Estee Lauder
-meditation...reading Psalms
-people...people who have a sense of humour...who are kind...who are SMART...you all know who you are
and finally I love clowns...Pagliacci...everyone knows that the clown is the saddest person in the circus

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

E IS FOR...

2011-05-03T08:47:00.000+03:00

E is for 'elderly'. Sigh. I think I'm in the elderly category. I'm not old, I don't think, even though my babies and children sometimes think I'm ancient...over the hill. You know the look they give you that says, 'Motherrrrrr!"

Yup, elderly is good. I've earned it. I worked hard for the title. I have the gray hair and aches and pains that go hand-in-hand with it.

But do not think I am depressed about it. NAY NAY. I love being me! I love the stages I have managed to survive and enjoy...depending on the stage...some were not so hotsey-totsey.

E is also for ElAl...the Israeli airline, for those who don't know. ElAl changed my life. One trans-Atlantic flight and voila a new me was born! But that's for another blog.

There are definitely great advantages of being my age. I don't have to get up in the middle of the night because the baby is crying. I don't have to fight with the teacher at school who isn't smart enough to realize the genius of the child I have put into her safekeeping. I don't have to work for a boss who needs to make me dumb in order for him/her to look smart. The only boss I have these days is 'me' and I'm smart all the time. Well, you know what I mean.

And I'm old enough to get on an airplane and visit family and friends for more than ten days-two weeks max!

Bubbie Channah is gone. Every time I say that my brother looks at me and says, "She is?" You were there kiddo and as you said this Channukah when you came to visit..."You remember how bad it was? Well it was worse."

Now our Mother is with our Father who art in heaven...yup they deserve to be playing klabberjass (pronounced klab-yash---great game---Google it) with the relatives and maybe a few biggies like Moses or Abraham...I don't think Sarah plays cards but then what do I know?

So, my Mom A'H is gone and although I miss her more and more and more, I am free. And, my children, God bless them tfu tfu tfu are all grown up and out of the house. Well, Joe College came back for a few months to study for the Bar. Soon, he will spread his wings again and I'll empty nest again. (Don't tell anyone, but once you get used to it, the empty nest thing ain't so bad at all....shhhhhh.)

So! For the first time ever, I'm not going to be teaching this summer. Nope. Instead I'm taking my tush and putting it in a plane and coming to the States and Canada! For EIGHT WEEKS! I don't remember ever making a trip that long. Yahoo, I'm elderly and my Mom is gone and my kids are out of the house and I can go and have a hellova great time visiting the people I love...like YOU.

Okay. Here's the agenda...second week in July is Florida...four or five days
third week is Los Angeles
next three weeks is Colorado
final three weeks is Windsor/Detroit/Toronto tfu tfu tfu again.

So, if you are in any of those places during those times and want to meet for a hug and/or coffee let me know. I can't wait to see you!

See, I told you elderly is good.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.
ps. thank you all for reading my blogs and for the many many emails you have written...means a lot!!!

D IS FOR...

2011-05-02T09:36:00.000+03:00

D is for a different day...

I thought of so many words for the letter D...daughter...donuts...my brother David fondly known as Dovidle.

But then at 3:30 in the morning it came to me. D is for a Different Day. At three thirty in the morning I still didn't know just how different it would be!!!

Last night at sundown marked the beginning of Yom HaShoah in Israel...Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is a difficult twenty-four hours here. This morning a siren will go off throughout the country and everything will stop as almost six million Jews stand at attention with their heads bowed remembering. Interesting number. Every Jewish child born is a spit in Hitler's face...may his name be erased forever!!!

Traffic stops. People get out of the bus or their cars and stand at attention in the middle of the road with their heads bowed.

I cry. I can't help it. The tears simply flow down my cheeks. They are tears of sadness and tears of pride. I am proud to be an Israeli. I am proud of a people who stand in the middle of the street and remember. Sabras...prickly on the outside but sweet inside.

The television only shows things which are related to the Shoah. Movies such as The Boy in the Striped Pajamas!!! The Courageous Heart of Irene Sendler...that's the one that had me up so late. She saved 2,500 children!!! See these movies if you can. Of course there is also The Paper Clip.There's a new version of The Diary of Anne Frank...I like the old one. Sophie's Choice has haunted me since the first time I saw it. Schindler's List...can you forget the little girl in the red coat? Life is Beautiful...the Benigni film that took my breath away. The Reader. Sarah's Key. The Counterfeiters. The Devil's Arithmetic.

These are just some of the films I have seen and think everyone should see.

D is for Davka!!! He tried to kill us and Davka we survived!
D is for Divine Intervention.

Today is a different day. Today we remember. We remember so that we can never forget! No one should ever forget!!! In Israel we remember good. Our survivors speak out at schools and on television. They live with us.

I remember Goldie. She was a woman in our Ulpan class. Goldie was gorgeous...slim with thick rich hair and skin like Holland butter. One day she came back to our apartment on HaPalmach Street. Soril and I sat and listened to her talk. I don't remember it all. One sentence has stayed with me forty years. She said," I love buying clothes. For so long I had nothing to wear and I love buying clothes. Then I give them away. I can only keep enough to fit into one suitcase."

Goldie...I remember you.

And today is a different day. Today America rid the world of another mamzer...Bin Laden is gone!!! I am glad and I am thrilled that America did it! Yahooo America, YOU DID IT...and the world thanks you.

And finally...D is for DING-DONG...and where he's gone there are no virgins waiting for him.
See...we remember. And we will never forget...not the Shoah not 9/11.

Fitting it happened on Yom HaShoah. There is no such thing as a coincidence.

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

C IS FOR...

2011-04-30T11:40:00.001+03:00

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...

2011-04-29T16:53:00.003+03:00

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...

2011-04-28T16:49:00.002+03:00

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

HIS WAY

2010-12-06T17:21:00.001+02:00

(originally featured on JPost.com Blogs)

Now that the terrible fires are under control, people are once again wishing each other a Happy Channukah.

Last Thursday when I first heard the terrible news, I asked for a Ness Channukah...a Channukah miracle. After all, isn't that what Channukah is all about? I asked for rain, and in order not to be greedy since we haven't had any rain so far, I asked for rain just up north, to put out the fire.

That was Thursday night. We all heard about the terrible tragedy of forty-one dead. Of dunam after dunam of land and trees and houses being destroyed. A little miracle...just some rain up north.

I have to admit that I did get a little scared when Bibi called on the world for help. When has Israel ever asked for help? We are the ones who reach out first to help everyone else. And, between us, when was the last time the world helped the Jews? Not during the pogroms or the Holocaust or or or...

Then Friday morning I turned on the television. There were planes coming to help us! Greece was the first followed by Turkey!!! The story of Channukah is our fight against the Greeks...and lately Turkey has not been friendly at all.

And within hours more countries and more planes. By last night there were thirty-four countries here helping us put out the fire. Russia, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, France, Bulgaria, Britain, Italy, Romania Azerbaijan and on and on.

And each plane that flew overhead dropped water and/or fire extinguishing chemicals on the inferno!

Then we got the mother ship...the Super Tanker from America!!!

My rain. It was raining up north. He heard and did it his way!

No one and nothing can replace the loss of lives of the forty-one people who died so horrifically. Houses and trees can be replaced. People and memories can't.

I tried to think what I would pack if I had to get out in a hurry. My mini laptop, some pictures, a couple of pieces of jewellry I have from my Mother A'H, a plaster cast of my oldest son's hand from when he was two and a half in nursery school. A poem my youngest son wrote me. A Channukiya my daughter made me when she was three. I don't know. I hope I never have to know.

Today it rained in Jerusalem. Wonderful, cold, blessed rain. Yesterday it rained a different rain up north.

They came...they helped...they made it rain.

Another miracle in the Holy Land.

Hag Urim Sameach!

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

WHEN SHALOM MEANS GOODBYE

2010-11-24T16:20:00.003+02:00

(originally featured on JPost.com Blogs)

My friend died yesterday.

She used to be a great friend, and then she wasn't a friend at all anymore. She changed, and changed the parameters of our relationship. And the more she pushed me into a corner, the more I withdrew.

And within a month, a friendship of over twenty years was gone. I always hoped, that one day we would find a bridge which would bring us back together again, but we never did.

Sometimes friendships last forever, and sometimes they last a short period of time. Whatever the duration these little angels pop into our lives and change them forever.

I always say that it is a privilege to live in Israel. It isn't easy. Sometimes it isn't even safe. But it is a privilege.

When I moved to Israel, I knew no one and had no family here. Well, I did have a cousin, Shalom, Ben who lived in Netanya. We always called him Shalom, Ben because when he wrote to my Dad telling him he was moving to Israel in the early 1940's, he signed off Shalom, Ben and it stuck.

Friends and neighbors became family and the dynamics were almost the same. With the neighbors I was always 'correct'. I never took advantage of the close quarters, and if I did have to borrow a cup of sugar or a carrot or two, I always made certain that I quickly replaced them. The only thing my neighbors wouldn't take back were eggs. They said that eggs were a gift and not to be replaced.

I never heard of that before, but since I couldn't replace them, I tried always to have enough eggs in the house.

Slowly I gathered a group of women around me and we became a support system for one another. One lady taught me how to cook Moroccan food, anther lady let me pour my heart out when I thought it would break. The third lady and I discussed our children and how to survive 'the terrible twos' and worse, 'the terrible teens!'

So, friends and frienships have always been extremely important. My friends are my family, and when one is lost, for whatever reason, I mourn.

During the time that this particular woman and I were estranged, I missed the old her. But, the new one was impossible to live with and there was no way to pick up where we left off.

And yesterday she died. I have spent the last twenty-four hours thanking her for years of love and caring and praying that she rests peacefully. I miss her. I'll always miss her.

Maybe one day we will meet again. Now that will be a story!

Back to the Future

2010-11-03T16:05:00.001+02:00

(originally featured on JPost.com Blogs)

My mother was nine months old when her parents decided to leave Russia.

My grandfather had been a soldier in the Russian army, and when he returned home and tried to buy a parcel of land for his new family he was told that 'Jews could not buy any land in Russia.' He turned to my grandmother and announced, "I'm good enough to die for my country but not good enough to live here? Pack up! We are leaving!"

I remember as a little girl sitting and learning the songs of his homeland. I remember hearing the stories about his little village of Sheletz, and how they only had permission to have one cow. When she gave birth to a calf, the authorities came and took it away! My grandfather told me how they brought that cow into their home in the winter so she wouldn't die in the cold.

Every grandchild knew that Sheletz was "tzen viorsts fun Mogilov...ten viorsts from Mogilov" - the capital of Mogilovsky Gubernia! I grew up listening to old records of Caruso and Chaliapin, of Yiddish spoken more than English and an occasional splash of Russian for emphasis.

What is bringing all these memories back to mind right now?

Three days ago my oldest son landed in Moscow for a short work-related trip for five days. He called home and told us he was in Red Square. He was cold! He was at the Kremlin! When I learned that he was about to go to Russia, I ached to pick up the phone and call my Mother and my Zaidi, but neither were alive. So, instead I phoned my Tanti in Florida...my Mother's sister who is eighty-five. So many stories. So many memories. My heart smiled and my eyes teared.

Many people have gone to Russia to visit, but my son is the first in my family since 1924. I never ask anyone to bring me back anything, but this time I needed to touch something that came from there. I don't know what he'll bring, but who cares? It will be just what I needed. I bet my parents and grandparents are smiling right now. I know I am.

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

IF I WAS A RICH MAN YIDDI BIDDI BIDDI

2010-10-27T05:53:00.001+02:00

(originally featured on JPost.com Blogs)

If I had money, I would invest it in tissues. Have you ever noticed how you don't need them until all of a sudden you are buying them by the case?

That's me this week. There I was minding my own business, sitting in the waiting room of my Kupat Cholim (medical service) to do my annual battery of tests. You know the routine...scare yourself for a week and then relax for twelve months.

Someone must have coughed or sneezed or walked by me because within hours my nose turned into Niagara Falls! And just so my nose wouldn't feel like an orphan, my eyes joined in in sympathy.

Within twenty-four hours I knew it wasn't allergies. It was what my Daddy A'H called 'the grut'...named after how you are feeling, I think.

Because this kind of thing can turn into an asthma attack...a gift I was left with after a terrible case of Hong Kong Flu...remember that one?...I phoned my doctor to make an appointment.

Joan, his wonderful secretary, and my dear friend, told me that the doctors are booked solid for the next seven to ten days! Everyone is sick with this thing.

I know why. All this heat and no rain is the reason. Hot and Hotter seems to be the mantra over here.

I am a Canadian! Well, I am Israeli, but when I speak of the Old Country, I am talking of Windsor, Ontario. There we had weather! Thunder storms that would send you hiding to the bathroom where there aren't windows. Snow where you can pretend you are in a fantasy land and marvel at nature. Autumn where you can see God's paintbrush working all over the place.

Here in Jerusalem we have Hot and Hotter. It wasn't like that when I moved here forty years ago...yes forty years! Then you had nice weather. A little hot most of the time. Terrible hot a few days every once in awhile, and at night you could sleep comfortably because Jerusalem cooled off at night.

Not any more! Now we have air conditioners in Jerusalem. That used to be Tel Aviv's answer to the heat and humidity. Now we have them too.

I think this is year seven of the drought! Does that mean that next year begins the seven GOOD years? Don't get me wrong. I am not unhappy with my own past seven years. But, if we are making a list I would ask God for a little more rain.

A nice rain. Lots of rain. Good rain. NO FLOODS, GOD!

We are going to have to do something soon or else we are all going to have to dance naked in the parking lot. Trust me...not a pretty sight!

Okay, I have to go make a cup of tea with lemon, blow my nose again and check the weather report.

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

I DID IT!!!

2010-10-22T15:37:00.001+02:00

(originally featured on JPost.com Blogs)

I love Jerusalem. I love living in the city; I love the fact that my three kids have PLACE OF BIRTH: JERUSALEM written in their passports; and I even love the crazy Jerusalemites. Well, to be honest I don't love them all the time. I love them most of the time. Well, for sure some of the time.

Then my youngest son moved to Tel Aviv to intern in a law firm. Hmmmm. Tel Aviv. For me, Tel Aviv is like leaving Windsor, Ontario and crossing the border into Detroit, Michigan. That's the place to go shopping, to see a ballet or go to the theater. It's also a place for going out to dinner at a special restaurant with friends.

In other words, it's a lovely place to visit, but I don't want to live there.

The humidity in Tel Aviv is criminal. As one of my son's friends said, "Maryloo, if you can learn to like sweating you will love Tel Aviv."

Now, I think if I am going to learn to love something it will be something outstanding...like learning to speak Italian.

I can learn to love air conditioning and room service in a nice hotel. But sweating? Who would want to learn to love shvitzing where your hair looks like some punk rocker and your clothes smell like you haven't bathed in a month. And no matter how much you drink you don't have to you know what because your body is busy sweating it out through every pore it can find.

But!!! Tel Aviv has the Sea...the Mediterranean Sea and five minutes watching the waves and all the troubles in the Universe disappear.

I used to take the bus to Tel Aviv every once in awhile to go sit and watch the waves and drink a cup of coffee and write. And in my heart I yearned to spend three days and two nights in a moderate hotel with a view of the water.

So, I began phoning hotels. Big mistake. One said it had rooms for $350 a night per person!!! Are they nuts??? A second one said they had rooms for $250 a night.

There went my three days and two nights.

But God is good. My son moved to Tel Aviv. And he not only said I could come visit whenever I wanted but gave me my own key!!! Now that is love!

My Mother, Bubbie Channah A'H always said that guests and fish stink after three days. So, I try not to outstay my welcome. And, being a Jewish mother, I cook.

Today I took the 6:30 bus from the central bus station and by 8:15 I was already at the kid's place.

Did I mention that he lives on the fourth floor? Without an elevator? Seventy-something stairs!!!

Today the plan was that we would go grocery shopping later this evening when he got home from work and tomorrow before I went back to Jerusalem, I would cook.

By nine this morning I figured out how to grocery shop myself. I took out my laptop and my change of clothes from my little suitcase on wheels and decided to brave the city on my own. All I had to do was get to Ben Yehudah Street, turn right and walk all the way to Russia!

I did it! I found it! I bought all the things I needed to cook for shabbat and pushed them into the little thing on wheels and reversed my mental map and made it back to the apartment.

Four flights up with that suitcase full of groceries and a nice piece of cake and a baguette later I honestly thought I would never leave that flat again in my life.

I opened the suitcase and began taking everything out. This had to go in the fridge; that had to be in the freezer; those things needed to be put in the pantry. And then I noticed that I didn't have my tomatoes! Where were my tomatoes? How does a person make a salad without tomatoes?

I quickly weighed my options and thought, 'forget the tomatoes!' I'm going to the Sea to rest, relax, write and enjoy the quiet.'

And you thought God didn't have a sense of humor. I hope some nice lady took my tomatoes to make a good salad for her son.

Shabbat shalom.

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

A ROOM WITH A VIEW

2010-07-06T09:30:00.001+03:00

A room with a view

(originally featured on JPost.com Blogs)

It is not by accident that the popular American TV talk show is called "The View." Everyone needs a view, whether it is an opinion or the scene you see when looking out your window. When reserving a room in a hotel, most people want the one with the best view, and are willing to pay the extra fee if necessary. A view is something special, something personal.

I used to have a window with a view. Whether I was sitting at my dining room table, or on one of my black leather couches, it demanded and commanded my attention.

From our sixth floor window, my children and I sat mesmerized as we watched a Hercules transport plane approach. Remember seeing it on TV as it brought the hostages back home from Entebbe thirty-four years ago? It is huge, and it was aimed right at my window! When I could see the pilot in the cockpit, I panicked, but a minute later, the plane began to climb and passed over our building.

Once, when the three story building across the way was about to be demolished, the army and ZAKA, a humanitarian voluntary organization, came in. Stuffed life-size dummies were strategically placed on the different floors and then the building was imploded. For days we watched in awe while the special forces worked through the dangerous rubble as they rushed to rescue the trapped dummies. Ambulances, police and ZAKA were all there working, brushing up their skills as well as instructing and training new people.

They were able to rescue most of the dummies. Working their way through the crumbling debris, they risked their lives to find and save their victims. Men and women gently put their charges on stretchers and snaked their way back down to safety.

It was not long after the building was destroyed that the bulldozers, cranes, tractors and construction crews arrived.

The happiest person in the country was my little grandson. He was in his mad-for-tractors phase, which had just replaced his love for ambulances. Every chance he got, he would come over and press his nose to the window. The kid was in heaven.

However, I was not as happy about it. Dust, noise, more dust - we were now living in the middle of a construction site. Our parking area was destroyed. My neighbors on the lower floors began selling their apartments. Who could blame them? From their windows it was like living directly in front of the Berlin Wall. At first we called it "The Monster", and then other, more colorful adjectives were added.

Its official name is The Holyland Park.

Since then, I have resorted to hanging our laundry between our dining room table and our black leather couches. Our windows are shut until sunset. And, correct me if I am mistaken, but I do not believe that the people in the area have wheeled out the welcome wagon for our new neighbors.

Then, by the grace of God, people started getting arrested. Terrible stories about bribery involving all of Jerusalem's top people began to swirl. Huge sums of money and scandals began to surface, and the building stopped. The noise ceased. The dust... well, what can you do, this is still the Middle East.

My father, may he rest in peace, once told me, "Marallyn, if you are going to steal, steal big - because you most certainly will go to jail." My Daddy was not wrong.

So, even though I have lost my view, I still have one.

See, I am waiting to hear who will end up in prison. They can go directly to jail... they have already collected their two hundred dollars.

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

DRY BONES...BRAVO

2010-07-05T07:14:00.000+03:00

Free Hugs in Sondrio, Italy

2010-06-23T16:38:00.000+03:00

WHAT IF...

2010-06-23T14:09:00.002+03:00

I love aliens. I love everything about them. E-T phoned home. Richard Dreyfuss almost lost his mind making mashed potato mountains in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Princess Leah invented a hair style with two cinnamon buns over her ears. And the bad guys! They were either the C.I.A. or local villains like Darth Vader. Can you hear him breathing?

I even took my two little kids to see Rocky Horror. They were maybe eight and ten. My oldest, who became religious when he was twelve, loved Rocky Horror. You should have seen the look on my Father's face A'H the day my kid belted out 'I'm just a sweet transvestite!' I think his exact words were, 'Voss hot ehr gezogt?' (what did he say???)

It all started when I was in the eighth grade. Windsor, Ontario, Canada...Hugh Beaton School. Mrs. Millar, the Librarian (oh God I think that was her name) handed me two books. One was about a little American girl my age who had a spot on her leg and after many tests was diagnosed with leprosy. LEPROSY??? I thought that went out with the Bible. Guess not. Sigh.

The second book was about travelling in outer space. This was in the days of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, and I loved the idea of a sky with no end--a universe with unbelievable possibilities.

The first book made me a hypochondriac...the second book started me on the road to being an astrologer.

I know people who have really seen space ships. Not crazy druggies...family and close friends. People with goosebump stories. People I trust.

Well, I thought. I can do that. All I have to do is look up into the sky and wait.

I looked. I waited. I scared myself with 'what ifs'. Nothing.

Yesterday I was sitting in a coffee shop with a dear friend and his wife. We were talking about 'the situation'...you know...THEM against US...POTUS and the Jews...the end of days...stuff.

And he said something that shut my mouth, and for one of the few times in my life, I was speechless. He said, 'Well, if there are aliens out there, God is keeping them far away from us!'

'Get out of here!' I quickly jumped in. 'Why?'

'Because they are the ones who didn't eat the apple.'

Delicious, no?

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

THREE WISE MONKEYS... AND A DUCK

2010-06-14T13:20:00.000+03:00

In my family we all have collections. I collect owls.

My daughter collects turtles.

My oldest son collects religious books...well he doesn't but because he became religious at the age of twelve and has a bookshelf full of religious books I decided that was his collection.

My Dad A'H collected the three wise monkeys and when he passed away they came to Israel with my youngest MSTL (my son the lawyer).

You know the three wise monkeys--hear no evil/see no evil/speak no evil.

Here is an article I received in my email today:

Exclusive: UNIFIL chief says situation in Lebanon far more stable now.
www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=178140

UNIFIL has not found any evidence of Hizbullah military activity and
smuggling or the presence of guerilla fighters in its area of operations in
Southern Lebanon, the commander of the multinational peacekeeping force,
Maj.-Gen. Alberto Asarta Cuevas, has told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive
first interview to the Israeli press.

He said the situation in Lebanon today was far more stable than it was
before war broke out in July 2006 and that, contrary to some predictions in
Israel, there was no reason to be concerned that war would break out between
Israel and Hizbullah this summer.

And if you believe that then I have a bridge to sell you. Be'emet! Honestly!

I have been trying to get back to the states for a year, and every time I think 'this is it' something pops up to postpone my trip.

About three or four months ago I called my brother, my Tanti Helen, Maeshey, and Sharon to tell them all that I'm not leaving Israel this summer. Why they all asked. And, I answered them, because I think there is going to be a war here and I don't want to be out of the country.

Get out of here! A war???

Maybe. But too many people were talking Yom HaAtzmaut about how strong we are and how well we can defend ourselves. The first one was the President...no...not POTUS our guy Peres. Then our Prime Minister...Bibi. Then the head of the IDF... Gabi Ashkenazi. And, finally our Foreign Minister our Barak.

If Bubbie Channah were alive...oy I miss her...she would have said, 'Shtinkt'...smells fishy.

To tell you the truth, once I had said it I felt a rush of relief. Then I began to wonder if I had jumped the gun/put the horse before the cart/given us all an ein hora/ayin ha'rah/Evil Eye? Tfu tfu tfu!!!

All I know is that when my pupik talks the rest of me listens. Okay here are a couple of other articles I recieved this week:

The first one is from Judy Laish Balint and I have her permission to pass this on:

Do you Know U.S Firefighters?

Special Message about Firefighters For Israel!
Shalom from Jerusalem,
With the fast developing Iranian threat and the military buildup of the Hezbollah and Hamas, your brothers and sisters in Israeli's Fire and Rescue Services need your help!
Israel has only 1,200 firefighters to protect its 7.5 million people, when the crunch comes – they will need our help to save lives.
The leadership of "Firefighters for Israel " are traveling the United States right now recruiting firefighters who are willing to put their lives on hold, and on the line, to deploy to Israel in times of emergency. We are also looking for concerned individuals and communities who care for Israel and have the will and the means to provide support for these true American heroes who are risking their lives for all of us each day, and volunteering to do so for Israel when they get the call.

You can see the "Firefighters for Israel" video here: http://www.youtube.com/pundit02

You can read more about "Firefighters for Israel" here: http://www.evp.org.il

On behalf of Israel's Fire & Rescue Services, we thank you in advance!

Dr. Mike Cohen
Lecturer, Bar-Ilan University
Senior Analyst, Galilee Institute
Director, Homeland Security, Firefighters for Israel

Here is the second one I found in my email this morning:

New plan: Soldiers not playing a crucial role during an emergency will leave
the military base to help the home front. The new tasks for those serving in
the headquarters: Helping the elderly, substitute teachers and assisting in
hospitals

Yarden Winter, BaMahane 09 June 2010 , 11:25
http://dover.idf.il/IDF/English/News/today/10/06/0901.htm

A new program created by the IDF Operations Directorate and the Home Front
Command is examining the possibility to assign soldiers who do not play a
crucial role in emergency-related tasks to actually help citizens, such as
substituting teachers who are called into reserve duty in schools and
helping the elderly.
"This project is utilizing to the fullest the IDF's personnel in an
emergency," the Operations Directorate explains. "We want to assist the home
front with the treatment of civilians, and one way to do so is through these
soldiers who aren’t needed in their units during emergencies, and can help
in other missions."

Add to that the fact that I am getting at least three phone calls a day...a day...telling me to get my gas mask kit or whatever erkat ha magen means is not making me feel jaunty, jolly, peppy and optimistic.

Add to that the wrath of the WHOLE WORLD...and for a little spice drop in Ahmadinadoodle.

See, my Dad A'H always said...'If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck...chances are...'

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

FREE WILLIE

2010-06-06T07:51:00.000+03:00

Okay. I have decided to take a day off of politics...well maybe...I still haven't heard any news this morning.

Instead I will tell you about Free Willie. Not a pretty tale.

A few months ago I was having pains in my legs and knees...of course I was. When you are over twelve you get a few pains. But, you know me, I went to the doctor.

He sent me for X-Rays. All quiet on the western front.

So, he then sent me to an orthopedic doctor. Nice man. We talked about Colorado...his wife is a guest lecturer in the University of Denver. I talked about how the deer and antelope play in front of my brother's house in the foothills of the Rockies.

Then he sent me for a bone scan. I drank the stuff. Then the lady said I had to walk for an hour so the stuff would spread all over. I said, "Lady if I could walk for an hour, I wouldn't be here!"

I walked.

Thank God the bone scan came back okay. Nu a little stuff showed in one knee and the shoulders--all those years of shlepping heavy purses and groceries.

Then we did two Cat Scans. Thank God, okay. A little stress here...a little degeneration there.

Then he said it. "Marallyn, I want you to go swimming."

I said, "Free Willie???" trying to play down the horror in my voice.

Well my friends...twice a week I go to the pool. Just up the street. Lovely place. I go at 8:15...that's when the men leave and the ladies swim. I love my ladies. They are older and some are chubbier than I am and we have a hell of a time as we pass each other up and down the lanes.

Some of the ladies just stand and discuss recipes while moving their arms and wait for the lady to come at 9:30 for exercises in the water.

Swimming is the easy part. The hard part is pulling yourself out of the pool as gravity grabs hold and then the hot showers and getting dressed. That isn't fun. They do have hair dryers. Two of them. They are like the hand blowers in the bathrooms. Make noise but not worth much. In the winter it wasn't fun walking out with a semi-wet head of hair under my hat. But I survived.

One day as I walked back into the dressing room there was a little old lady sitting on a towel. Except for her green ankle socks she was stark naked holding a hand mirror putting on her lipstick! I love that lady. She knows what is important.

Naked old ladies are not sexy. I thought I would share that with you in case some of you were thinking of boring holes in the partition between the men's and ladies' dressing rooms. Don't bother. In fact, the sight might damage your eyes.

So I swim. I decided to try two lengths and then run in place for a count of 100.

The good news is that in a half hour I now swim 20 lengths and run for a count of 1, 000.

And I've lost 12 kilo!. That is thanks to the swimming and Judy the dietitian.

Hell, I figured if my knees and legs ache and I'm freeing Willie, I better get some fat off my tuchess. So I did!!

Okay off I go to the pool. Sundays and Thursdays are pool days as those are the days I run to the university to teach Mordechai. He's in a wheelchair and can't make it up to my place because of the steps to get into the building. Stupid architect put int two elevators inside and twenty-two steps to get to the lobby. His mother told him he was an architect!!! But, the good news is that after 23 years our building has decided to add a one-floor, outside elevator which will connect to the lobby and they started working on it last week. Yahoooo.

Shavuah tov!!!

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

WHERE IS DADDY?GRANDPA KILLED HIM

2010-06-05T02:32:00.003+03:00

There is a whole brouhaha in the Knesset that almost led to violence.
And who started it? And why?

On Wednesday, Israeli Arab MK Hanin Zoabi and MK Miri Regev of the Likkud party indulged in a verbal clash during a Knesset plenum...

Zoabi boarded a ship that was part of the flotilla carrying humanitarian goods as well as lethal weapons before the bloody raid broke out on Monday.

In a discussion of Israel’s raid on a Turkish-flagged ship attempting to board the borders of Gaza, Zoabi accused the Israeli government of participating in what she called a “pirate military operation.” She continued to press Israeli ministers on why soldiers were ordered to confiscate media cameras and restrict coverage on the nine people killed on the ship.

As Regev and Zoabi quarrelled in a heated debate, Regev accused Zoabi of being "responsible for a double crime: Joining terrorists, and a moral crime against the state of Israel", according toHa’aretz reports.

Regev continued by mentioning other times when tensions rose between the two MKs, saying: "She sat here over a year ago and pledged allegiance to the state of Israel and its laws." She continued by saying: "I have no intention of stifling free speech, but in the case of MK Zoabi - it is not freedom of speech. The Gaza flotilla was a terrorist flotilla and MK Zoabi needs to be punished. We don't need Trojan horses in the Knesset."

MK Nachman Shai (Kadima) addressed Zoabi in disappointment of the Arab’s participation in what Knesset members have called a sail of terror. He intervened with, "I respect democracy, but an MK cannot participate in such a journey, which is against the law and deifies the country that is mine just as much as it is yours.”

He continued by saying, "I respect your opinions, but it was wrong of you to stand on that ship's deck. It's unacceptable," he added.

Why am I bringing this up now? I watched the whole mess and thought about this woman. What other country would even allow her to be a member of Parliament? What other country would allow her the freedom to feel safe enough to not only do what she did but stand up in the Knesset and voice her poison and not feel any fear of reprisals?

Stupid us. I think she should be tried as a traitor. But, of course she won't and she won't be barred from showing up to work next week and from speaking to the press about how she feared for her life. Bull!

You wanna know who should have feared for their lives? Sadaam's sons-in-law. You remember them? They ran away and spoke to the press. Then, in a moment of insanity decided to believe Sadaam that all was forgiven and that they should come home.

Where'd Daddy, Mama?

Grandpa killed him.

And the world went on.

I guess when you have debts to the Arabs up to here...and you have a President who...never mind.

Ms. Zoabi...you go to your mosque and thank your God that you live here.

Stupid wonderful us.

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

LAND FOR PEACE

2010-06-05T02:27:00.000+03:00

Okay...I get it.

I am oh so ready to give them Gaza and they should leave me in peace.

Of course, that means I don't want to hear about them any more...I don't want to give them jobs any more...they can't come into Israel any more...I won't send in over 10,000 tons of aid every week any more.

You win! You're on your own!!!

But...if you so much as send one missile my way I have the right to blow you all to smithereens.

You keep the damn Strip...I get peace.

What is wrong with that picture? Only one word. Peace is spelled wrong.
They want piece after piece until they have all the pieces and Israel is no more.

America voted against Israel!!!!!!

POTUS...when the dust settles nothing you do will ever clear your name.

God loves me...my Christian friends tell me that Jesus loves me...Allah??? don't get me started on him!!! I know...I know...Allah hu Akbar!!! Just ask any of the gazillion Muslims in the world. Of course, he didn't bring the word from Sinai...he didn't walk on water...but I guess when you have a gazillion believers you don't have to.

Shabbat shalom.

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

Flotilla Choir presents: We Con the World

2010-06-04T02:44:00.000+03:00

ANOTHER MIRACLE IN THE HOLY LAND

2010-06-03T13:12:00.000+03:00

Yesterday, the blogs/twitters.( or is it twits?) and emails were flying as we all dropped everything and vented over the internet.

And miracle of miracles, the bastards have accomplished a monumental feat---the Israelis are united! ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL...

And we are furious!!!

I received interesting comments to my blog yesterday...some were 'you rock girl' 'israel forever' and others were ' you are way off base lady and don't know what you are talking about'.

Interesting.

FYI: Israel delivers up to 15,000 TONS OF AID TO GAZA EVERY WEEK!!! I said EVERY WEEK!!!

We wouldn't have had to check the damn boats, but hey is there anyone out there who really believes they were filled with grain and chocolate bars???

Admit it...you think there was bad stuff in there too.

Now, I may piss you off again, but this is my blog and I can say what I feel, right?
The Republicans are with Israel...the Christians are with Israel...Fox News is with Israel...hmmm now who does that leave???

One brave lad in Los Angeles...a high school kid was amazing yesterday.
Daniel in the Lion's Den http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wOaulsPGBI

Well, it is now 10:45 in the morning. I've finished my stint in the pool...don't ask that is another blog...free Willie! and I'm now in the university Givat Ram campus waiting for my student. He is in a wheelchair and can't come to my place because of the steps so twice a week I swim and twice a week I come to the campus to get him ready for his English matriculation. He's one hell of a great kid.

Finally...POTUS you sided with our enemies...brings to mind the old adage: he who sleeps with dogs should not complain about fleas.

And, Turkey. What a short memory you have. Wasn't it not too long ago that Israel set up hospital tents and cared for all your wounded after pulling out as many as we could from the rubble of your earthquake?
Turkey...you may have forgotten BUT GOD HASN'T.

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

TROUBLED WATERS

2010-06-02T07:36:00.003+03:00

---it is very scary waking up in the morning knowing that you are right...that no one cares...and that you are alone...

---how come there is one rule for israel and another one for the rest of the world...how come i'm talking till i'm blue in the face and everyone thinks i'm nuts...how come the jews abandoned israel...up front i want to apologize to all my family and friends if i am stepping on your toes...BUT BE'EMET!!! REALLY...MASPIK...ENOUGH!!!

---now there arose a new king over Egypt who knew not joseph...

---the stronger POTUS makes the muslims the more dangerous it is for me and mine and for you and yours...TRUST ME ON THIS ONE!!!

---the longer you take to wake up is the less time you will have when you finally see the light...i promise you

---and if GOD FORBID israel falls...what then???

---personally i do not believe that israel will fall...i'm not sure who will be left standing...but we'll know soon...

---i know you care...so where are you...how come no one is out there screaming GEVALT!!!

---your guy and his lady sidekick are too busy standing next to our enemies and condemning us...and why not??? who needs a few million jews when you can have all the arabs in the world???

---i wonder when you are going to wake up...i wonder what kind of a war will it take before you realize your mistake...i wonder who will be left standing...have you checked the numbers???

---scary...

---and that brings me back to how i woke up this morning...

---have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in

---ps as the mother of three soldiers and the aunt of TEN more...and the neighbour and friend of hundreds of more brave marvelous children...to me these kids are HEROES

TO PHONE OR NOT TO PHONE...THAT IS THE QUESTION

2010-03-02T09:54:00.002+02:00

I hope this will be the last in my series of 'poor me, my kid moved out' blogs.

The truth is that there is a great deal to say FOR the empty nest. Last night I didn't stay up waiting for him to come home. I didn't phone to ask what he wanted for supper. And, I wasn't standing in the window looking for him driving in the rain.

Now all I have to figure out is whether or not to phone him. Normally, we would talk at least once a day...coordinating everything. And, just for the fun of talking to each other.

Yesterday, his first day at work, I sat on my hands. I didn't phone in the morning to wish him good luck. I didn't phone him during the morning to see how he was. And, I didn't phone him late afternoon to say all of the above.

I remember my first job interview. I was sitting across from the principal when the secretary came in and said that I had a phone call. Me? With my heart beating and my pulse making strange sounds in my ears, I excused myself and went to the outer office to pick up the phone. It was Bubbie Channah A'H calling to ask if I took my umbrella because it was raining out!!!

I come by it naturally. And all those years I swore I wasn't going to be my mother!!! As the 2,000 Year Old Man says: We mock the things we are to be!

Then at nearly six p.m. HE CALLED ME!!! YAHOOOOO.

For now, my modus vivendi is: sit on my hands and tough it out. The kid is the same age as I was when I moved to Jerusalem and then we didn't even have house phones!!!

Okay My Sweet Son The Lawyer. Have a great day.

Do you think he thinks I don't love him any more? That I don't care because I'm not phoning him? Does he feel abandoned?

As my friend Rena would say, "Get a grip on yourself, girl!"

This isn't easy. There isn't a manual.

You know the old joke about the son who phones his mother and asks how she is? She tells him she's a little weak. Why he asks. And she answers," I didn't eat anything for three days. In case you phoned I didn't want to miss your call."

Even Bubbie Channah A'H didn't think up that one.

Next time I think I'll tell you all about my life as Free Willie!

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

ALL ALONE AM I...SINCE YOU SAID YOUR GOODBYE

2010-02-28T18:47:00.003+02:00

MSTL...my son the lawyer just moved out.

He's on his way with his father and another car load of stuff to Tel Aviv.

He'll be great.

The jury's still out on me.

I'm chickenless in Jerusalem. Actually there are some wonderful, great things about being chickenless in Jerusalem...I just need a few hours to get used to the new me before I remember them.

You'd think I'd be used to this already. It wasn't so long ago that my oldest two moved out. Well, it was about ten years ago...but who's counting.

See, when they abandoned me I still had Joe College.

But...then he had to go into the army. For three long years. During the worst intifada in the universe. Where we were being blown up daily and he still had to get on his bus to go back to his base. And I still had to get on my bus and go downtown into the war zone.

That was fun.

Then he came home. Ptew!!!

Then, he decided he had to go to South America for six months!!! If I remember correctly, I turned to him and said, "With the Nazis and Pirahnna???"

He, smiled his soldier smile and said, "Okay, where do you think I should go?"

To which I quickly said, "Your bedroom would be nice. I'll get cable TV and you can..."

Four months in South America and two months roaming around the wilds of the United States of America...you know places like California, San Fransisco, Boulder, New York!!!

I lived through that. Do you know they have roads called the Roads of Death in South America? I didn't know that till he came home. I also didn't know he was going sky diving until I got the video.

Then he went to law school. Yahoooo. Up the street and back home again hoorah, hoorah!!!

Then, one day he came home and said that he can go to Europe for a semester to study law and he thinks he'll go to Holland.

That's nice, I thought. A few tulips. I can live with that.

So, you see...I should be trained and ready for this move. But, in all those instances, he was coming home.

Now, he has a new home.

But, I made up his bed and put a Bubbie Blanket on...just in case.

Have a great life MSTL!!! You're going to be great.

And, funny enough...I think I am too.

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

SO HOW DID THAT HAPPEN???

2010-02-25T08:13:00.005+02:00

My kid...Joe College is moving out.

Now you must understand, he's only moving to Tel Aviv...not Alaska! But, still...he's moving out.

Don't get me wrong. I am thrilled he's moving out. He needs his life and I need mine. It's just that I am a 'nester' you see. As a sun sign Cancer, I nest...nurture...nudge...that kind of stuff.

It is time that all the chickens leave the nest. But, oh they were such wonderful, cute, amazing chickadees.

The other two are still in Jerusalem. I call occasionally. I see them occasionally...but somehow being in the same city makes them feel closer than the hour ride to Tel Aviv.

Sometimes with the traffic jams and the building THAT IS STILL GOING ON IN THE CITY for the light train it could take an hour to get from my place to theirs...but still.

Joe College is finished law school. Does that make him now My Son the Lawyer??? HMMMM...and he is starting his internship at Goldfarb...the second largest law firm in the country, on Sunday.

I want to pack him a lunch. I want to iron his shirt. I want to kiss him and watch as he makes his way down the street.

Pathetic, no? But you see, I've been conditioned. I've done that since he started kindergarten.

On the other hand...I no longer have to sit up wondering where he is and when he'll be coming home. I no longer have to cook this for him/ that for my husband/the other stuff for me.

So, now what am I going to do with all the money I save on groceries and all the extra time I have for myself???

I don't know. I'll probably keep on doing just what I do...cook, write, teach, meet my friends for coffee, talk to the babies, watch TV, read, plan my trip back to Canada and the States this summer.

And that sounds pretty damn good to me. What do you think?

Toodleedo, Joe College. Hello and have a great life MSTL (my son the lawyer).

Imma loves you!!!

Happy Purim!!!

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

SEE IT ALL STARTED WITH A PHONE CALL

2009-11-02T10:14:00.003+02:00

A little over a week ago, my oldest son phoned and the conversation went something like this:
Him: Hi, Imma. I want to ask you something, but you can say no.
Me: OK
Him: We were thinking of going to Italy for a week.
Me: That's nice.
Him: We'll take the baby.
Me: Uh-hu.
Him: Its only for five days. Would you move in to our place and watch the kids?
Me: I think the answer is yes but give me until tomorrow night. I have to think a second. It means that I have to cancel my students.

Do I want to move in there with the babies for a week? Do I want to cancel my students? OY!

Me: Sure!
Him: You mean it?
Me: Yup!
Him: You mean it?
Me: Yup!
Him: She means it!

I said I'd do if for a gazillion reasons. I don't spend enough time with my babies. When they come home from nursery school and second grade, I'm still teaching and when I'm finished they're in bed.

I think my kids deserve some time off.

I don't want my babies with a babysitter. Too long and too scary. Five days isn't a couple hours while Imma and Abba are out for dinner or at the movies.

I can get away. A mini-vacation all for myself.

So, I cancelled my lessons...packed a little suitcase...took my knitting/ a new book/ the 155 page printout of The Sexy Ward (which is as far as I've gotten so far)/my mini laptop and off I went.

Now, don't think I've taken this lightly. It is a huge responsibility watching over a seven and a four year old. Being in someone else's house isn't a nice suite in a hotel room with room service, air conditioning, a mini bar and a view. This is serious stuff here.

Just so everyone would feel comfy and warm and safe we all piled into the big bed and fell asleep. She woke up in the middle of the night and cried for her mommy. I got her a glass of water. She cried. I told her it was all right but if she wanted to cry real loud she would have to go back to her bedroom so she wouldn't wake up her brother.

That stopped her! Ptew!

Then there is the hysteria of getting dressed and out of the house on time. Because her nursery school is too far away to walk, I have to phone a cab in the morning. Mornings are not great times for cabs. Well they are if it is before seven fifteen. After that you are up to here in traffic as every Israeli gets into his car and plugs the arteries leading to the heart of the country.

He is easy. Whatever you give him is fine. She is not so easy. This skirt isn't exactly what she had in mind. The cocoa isn't warm enough. She doesn't want her lunch in that box she wants it in this one. You get it. She is only four...well five this month. I shudder as I picture down the road ten years from now.

The good news is that he is in school until 2:45 each day. And she is in nursery school until 4.

The bad news is that he walks home all by himself now.

I forgot those days when I stood with my heart klapping in the window watching and waiting for my kids to come into sight after school. I forgot.

I forgot until yesterday. There I was standing in the street, in front of their house looking, praying and hoping that the kid comes home safely. Have you noticed that it is never your kid who comes home first? It is always your kid who is busy taking his time, checking out the world, happily chatting with his friends.

And, then, just when you are about to call in the Mounties...there he is!!! Thank God!!! See, that wasn't so terrible was it?

Then an hour later, there you are, back in the street waiting for the lady who is driving the little one home from the nursery school. Four oh five...four ten...four fifteen. What the hell was that lady's cell number. Thank goodness you wrote it in your cell phone memory bank.

What do you mean there is no answer? LADY PICK UP YOUR PHONE!!! WHERE IS MY BABY???

I phoned twice, and just when I was about to go back into the house to find the number of the nursery school, she called. Don't worry she said...we are on the way.

By the time I got the two of them back inside, I was a nervous wreck.

See, I don't want you to think I'm much better with my own kids. I still stand in the window of my mind worrying about them. But I have two safety valves. One...the cell phone. I call until they pick it up. And two...for those who don't live at home, I never phone in the evening as I know they went to sleep at eight o'clock and don't want to wake them up.

What time is it? Ten thirty? Damn! Too late to phone.

I promised the babies we would go out for dinner. I did that for two reasons. One, to make their first night with me special and two to kill time. Quick out for dinner...fill up the bellies...run home and take a shower...put on pajamas...climb into the big bed...turn on the TV and VOILA asleep!

I'm not certain who fell asleep first...but when the phone rang and I woke up to answer it, he was still watching some action movie on channel five.

Sigh!

Today is day two. Three more to go. Today we made it out and away this morning. I still have four and a half hours before I am back in the street waiting to greet him.

Tonight we are ordering in pizza. The fridge is full of wonderful food my DIL made and left for us. The cupboards are stocked and overflowing with stuff my son put in for us.

But pizza is pizza!

Tomorrow, he finishes at one. The plan for tomorrow is grab a cab, pick him up, go get her, off to the mall for a hamburger and chips, then back to my place where hubby and Joe College can take over for a few hours. We're also going to sleep at my place. Nice change.

That leaves Wednesday and Thursday until the kids get back in the afternoon.

I don't remember being this exhausted and happy in a long time. There is nothing like little arms hugging you and little wet kisses or little people saying 'I love you, Bubbie."

So it is all worth it.

Except. I forgot to mention. There are twenty-two steps from the downstairs to the upstairs. Steps I climbed yesterday a million times. Today I learned to shout, "Hey kids. Whoever wants some hot chocolate, COME AND GET IT!"

And, there are even more stairs to get from the road to the front door. Yesterday I climbed them at least six times. Today, I am staying home...downstairs...with my book, my writing, my knitting, a newspaper and my coffee.

Well, until 2:45 when I take up my post in the street.

Sometimes a Bubbie has to do what a Bubbie has to do. And, this is a win-win situation.

Memories. We build memories. And the truth is that they are delicious. It's just that the old grey mar, she ain't what she used to be. Sigh.

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

S'PLAIN ME LUCY

2009-10-20T08:02:00.006+02:00

The entire country is reeling from the slaughter of the Oshrenko family A'H by some foreign hit man/men. Well, at least I hope they are foreigners. I don't even want to think that these murderers walk amongst us.

Six people were butchered viciously with a knife...
the grandmother/grandfather/mother/father/three year old daughter and four month old son.

I was going to write a blog about that but words escape me. It is just too big to grasp.

Then, we have the water problem...or should I say the LACK of water problem. If it doesn't rain soon and rain a lot we are in deeeeeeep doodoo. The Jerusalem Post today writes that our options include portable desalination plants or importing water from Turkey.

Turkey??? The country we put on the map??? The one we made rich when they opened their doors to Israelis and finally we had a neighbour we could go visit which we did and did and did again. That Turkey? The one when they had that terrible earthquake and we sent in team after team to find the survivors and set up hospital tents to care for the wounded? That Turkey? Or maybe it is the one that is now showing a TV series where IDF soldiers are shooting and killing innocent little Turkish children? We want THEIR WATER?

Do you remember the scene from the movie The Color Purple where Celie is bringing Mister a glass of water? And she spits in it?

No Mister Turkey. I DON'T THINK WE WANT YOUR WATER.

Are they nuts?

Then I was going to write a blog about how I am addicted to chocol...I mean books. I buy them. I store them. I stack them in the spare room waiting to be read.

But, when I opened my email this morning and read a post from my friend s.f.plangerl I know what I was going to blog. Here it is folks. From the Canadian Free Press:

First Lady Requires More Than Twenty Attendants July 7, 2009 Dr. Paul L. Williams
"In my own life, in my own small way, I have tried to give back to this country that has given me so much," she said.
"See, that's why I left a job at a big law firm for a career in public service, " Michelle Obama

No, Michele Obama does not get paid to serve as the First Lady and she doesn't perform any official duties. But this hasn't deterred her from hiring an unprecedented number of staffers to cater to her every whim and to satisfy her every request in the midst of the Great Recession.

Just think Mary Lincoln was taken to task for purchasing china for the White House during the Civil War.

And Mamie Eisenhower had to shell out the salary for her personal secretary. How things have changed!

If you're one of the tens of millions of Americans facing certain destitution, earning less than subsistence wages stocking the shelves at Wal-Mart or serving up McDonald cheeseburgers, prepare to scream and then come to realize that the benefit package for these servants of Miz Michelle are the same as members of the national security and defense departments and the bill for these assorted lackeys is paid by John Q. Public:

1. $172,2000 - Sher, Susan (Chief Of Staff)
2. $140,000 - Frye, Jocelyn C. (Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Policy And Projects For The First Lady)
3. $113,000 - Rogers, Desiree G. (Special Assistant to the President and White House Social Secretary)
4. $102,000 - Johnston, Camille Y. (Special Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the First Lady)
5. $100,000 - Winter, Melissa E. (Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
6. $90,000 - Medina , David S. (Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
7. $84,000 - Lelyveld, Catherine M. (Director and Press Secretary to the First Lady)
8. $75,000 - Starkey, Frances M. (Director of Scheduling and Advance for the First Lady)
9. $70,000 - Sanders, Trooper (Deputy Director of Policy and Projects for the First Lady)
10. $65,000 - Burnough, Erinn J. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary)
11.. $64,000 - Reinstein, Joseph B. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary)
12. $62,000 - Goodman, Jennifer R. (Deputy Director of Scheduling and Events Coordinator For The First Lady)
13. $60,000 - Fitts, Alan O. (Deputy Director of Advance and Trip Director for the First Lady)
14. $57,500 - Lewis, Dana M. (Special Assistant and Personal Aide to the First Lady)
15. $52,500 - Mustaphi, Semonti M.. (Associate Director and Deputy Press Secretary To The First Lady)
16. $50,000 - Jarvis, Kristen E. (Special Assistant for Scheduling and Traveling Aide To The First Lady)
17. $45,000 - Lechtenberg, Tyler A. (Associate Director of Correspondence For The First Lady)
18. $43,000 - Tubman, Samantha (Deputy Associate Director, Social Office)
19. $40,000 - Boswell, Joseph J. (Executive Assistant to the Chief Of Staff to the First Lady) 20. $36,000 - Armbruster, Sally M. (Staff Assistant to the Social Secretary)
21. $35,000 - Bookey, Natalie (Staff Assistant)
22. $35,000 - Jackson, Deilia A. (Deputy Associate Director of Correspondence for the First Lady)
This total damm near $1.6 Million Dollars, that’s just sick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There has NEVER been anyone in the White House at any time who has created such an army of staffers whose sole duties are the facilitation of the First Lady's social life.. One wonders why she needs so much help, at taxpayer expense, when even Hillary, only had three; Jackie Kennedy one; Laura Bush one; and prior to Mamie Eisenhower social help came from the President's own pocket.

Note: This does not include makeup artist Ingrid Grimes-Miles, 49, and "First Hairstylist" Johnny Wright, 31, both of whom traveled aboard Air Force One to Europe .
Copyright 2009 Canada Free Press.Com canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/12652

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

WANNA KNOW WHAT I THINK ABOUT OBAMA GETTING THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE?

2009-10-09T23:48:00.001+02:00

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I'M SPEECHLESS...........

have a great day...stay safe...thanks for dropping in.

HALLELUJAH!!!

2009-10-04T08:09:00.007+02:00

Wanna hear a nice story? I mean a really nice story? Of course you do!

About a month ago I got an e-mail from a lady named Donna. Now, my very oldest and one of my very best friends is Donna, but she goes by Sydonia. So, it couldn't be her. Besides, the first sentence of the email went something like this: "Hi, Marallyn, my son Lee is coming to Israel..."

God forgive me, but that is where I stopped reading, and thought Oh no! Another teenager on his way for a week or two in the Holy Land and I don't think I even know this kid.

Anyway, I continued to read--and lucky I did. You ready for this? Donna went on to say that her son Lee was being flown into the country to do the sound for the Leonard Cohen concert and was I interested in two tickets if he could get them for me.

Have I got your attention yet?

OHMYGOD! Who is this Donna and how did she find me and is this a prank like 'Guess what Marallyn, this is your lucky day. Your name has been picked from a gazillion people and if you only phone this number in the Netherlands, you will receive a swimming pool filled with money.' You know about those emails. I am ashamed to admit that once I really did phone that number. Sigh.

But, then Donna went on to say that she was really sorry that I couldn't make it a few years ago to the Walkerville Reunion. Walkerville? My high school? I remembered that Guy emailed me from California to tell me about it. And then I remembered that he told me about a 'kid' from his class, Donna somethingorother, who was helping to organize it!

That Donna! Guy's Donna! And she has a kid! And he lives in Nashville ( I forgot to mention that part). And he's being flown in to do the sound for the Leonard Cohen concert in Ramat Gan!

And do I want two tickets? DO I WANT TWO TICKETS?

Let me back up a second. I did not want a ticket to see Madonna...my kid, Joe College went to see her with the cheap ticket of 500 shekels. The Golden Ring tickets went for 2, 500 a seat!!!

I didn't want to see any of those guys. Well, maybe Elton John a few years ago. BUT LEONARD COHEN?

Both my friend Rena and I wanted to go and I did phone the ticket place but was informed that within 24 hours all the tickets were gone.

Friends, we are talking about 50,000 tickets...sold out in 24 hours and now a lady Donna has a son Lee who can get me tickets, if I am interested!!!

I quickly phoned Guy in California and he is still in contact with Donna from ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DAYS...and yes she is real and yes she is an amazing person.

I have not heard her voice in 47 years! Maybe even a year or two longer than that! This is not an old school chum or a family member who I've been in close contact with.

THIS IS A VERY VERY SPECIAL LADY...who, when her son came home to renew his passport and told her where he was going, somehow remembered that she has an old schoolmate who lives in Israel and maybe this woman would be interested in seeing the concert.

I wrote Donna and told her that, whether or not the tickets come through, the gift had already been given. I mean that. I am still breathless from this story.

I phoned Rena and told her to keep Sept. 24th open as we may have tickets to the...You could hear her shout in Tel Aviv!

In the meantime, Donna and I began exchanging emails and bringing each other up-to-date on what has been going on in our lives the past nearly fifty years! She still lives in Windsor, and I am planning to be back this summer. I cannot wait to meet her again in person.

The day before the concert I got an email from Lee that two tickets would be waiting for me and that the concert starts at 7:45 but we should be there a bit early.

Rena and I left at 3 in the afternoon. She has no sense of direction...I have no sense of direction. She called people...I phoned people...and we sort of knew how to get there.

Now you should know it is less than an hour's drive from Jerusalem, but we were going to hit rush hour traffic, get lost, and have to find a place to park along with 49,998 people!

We did get lost. A nice lady said, 'Follow me' and like the Jews wandering around in the desert, her headlights were like a pillar of fire escorting us to the Ramat Gan Stadium.

We got there! Now we had to park. Right next to the stadium is a mall and we started serpentining through the lanes looking for an open space. I didn't know if those parked were already at the stadium or shoppers getting in some last minute shopping before Yom Kippur on Sunday.

Finally we found a space and were about to move in when a lady with a cell phone at her ear informed us that she had this space and was calling her husband to direct him to where she was standing. Then, I noticed a bunch of other women with open cell phones running after people holding keys and walking to their cars. Within moments I saw a family walk to a car in front of us and before I had a chance to say anything to Rena, I jumped out of the car and stood my ground in front of this new space.

Ok. So, now we are in the right place...we have parked the car...we have almost three hours till the concert. The next question was, do we go inside the mall and use the facilities and maybe grab something quick to eat...or do we figure out how to get to the stadium and find our tickets.

Hands down we went to the stadium. I phoned Lee and he sounded like such a nice man. He had little time as they were doing all the last minute things that have to be done before a huge concert like this and the sound is the most important element. He phoned me back a few minutes later and told me where to wait for the tickets.

Just before the performance, the COMPLIMENTARY V.I.P. TICKETS arrived. While we were waiting we saw a sign that was posted informing late comers that there were still a few seats available on the grass from rows 100 till 200 and were going for a thousand shekels a seat!!!

Our tickets came. WE WERE IN ROW 31!!!

We made our way up into the stadium and Lee called to find out if we had the tickets and where we were seated. Ten minutes later there he was!!! What a very handsome, young man with eyes that sparkled and a smile that came from his heart. I couldn't stop hugging him and thanking him. His answer was, 'My pleasure. After all, you're family!'

That was the first time my eyes filled with tears that evening. But, not the last.

I do not know if I have the vocabulary to tell you what happened during the next three and a half hours. Nothing fancy. No fireworks, no people flying through the sky, no tricks.

Just a 75 year old man, wearing a dark suit and a hat. And a voice. And the sound that Lee had perfected which travelled over the 50,000 people in such a way that we could hear every strum of each guitar...every whispered note...as if he was sitting next to us in our living room.

One of the banks, Discount Bank put a zippered bag on each chair. Inside were a pillow and a flare. For the next three and a half hour those flares didn't stop moving. The stadium was alive.

I must stop here for one second, to say that Israeli audiences are wonderful audiences. I've been to many concerts and plays and I've always been amazed at just how receptive, responsive and intelligent the Israeli audience is.

But nothing was like what happened that night. Israel welcomed one if her own back and he thanked us by blessing us...with his voice...his songs...his love...and finally the Priestly Blessing that only a Cohen(priest) can perform.

I will never ever forget that evening. It was perfect. Just simply perfect. And I was lucky enough to be sitting there sharing and participating in one of the most exciting evenings this country has ever witnessed.

All because of a lady who remembered that she once went to school with a girl who now lives in Jerusalem!

The world can't be a bad place if people like Donna and Lee are part of it.

Thank you. Thank you so very very very much.

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

L'CHAIM!!!

2009-07-27T15:49:00.008+03:00

Tomorrow would have been Bubbie Channah's 86th birthday. We both have/had birthdays in July. This is my first July without my mother and my first July without phone calls at seven in the morning wishing each other a great wonderful year.

As I still mourn her death I also celebrate her life. She had a great life.

For those of you who don't know, in my mother's later years she became a junk food junkie! Honest! All those years of making us eat vegetables and balanced meals went right out the window the day she met Ronald.

It was love at first sight. She was seventy-four and I don't know how old he was. He didn't have one grey hair in his head of red curls. He was always smiling and happy to see her. She walked downtown every day to go meet him.

I didn't know if I was happy that they met every day, but the walk was wonderful for her. First she had to go down twenty stairs and then cross Ben Yehudah Street and then walk for between ten and fifteen minutes to get to his place.

After lunch...it was always lunch, she would reverse her path and come home.

She always took her cell phone so I wouldn't worry. She was good about that.

Yes. My mother was addicted to McDonald's!

One day I went with her. Proud as punch, she passed the guard who checked everyone's purse but hers. He knew her, you see.

Then we would say hello to the group of four women who always showed up exactly at 11:00 every day for coffee and a chat. I think they were my mother's age, but they only spoke Hebrew and when they met me we sat for almost a half hour talking as I answered their many questions.
They were wonderful, interesting women who were frustrated that they couldn't sit and talk to Ma.

One day I walked up to the front to get our lunches and an elderly man approached my mother. He spoke with her for a few moments and then walked away.

When I returned to the table she told me that the man had asked her if she was all right. You see, he wasn't used to seeing her sitting there without anything in front of her. He was frightened that she was ill. Somehow she managed to convey to him that her daughter was with her and she was waiting for me.

Usually, when she walked in and approached the counter her food was already waiting for her on a tray. 'But I didn't order yet,' she said. 'Oh, madam. We know exactly what you want. You want a hamburger with the sauce from the Big Mac plus extra chips without salt and diet coke without ice cubes. You want mustard, extra napkins and a knife to cut your hamburger. And sometimes you order a chocolate fudge sundae for desert.

They knew my mom. They loved my mom. My mom was steady income for McDonald's.

I have a photo in my cell phone of Ma sitting in McDonald's happy happy happy.

So, tomorrow, if you don't mind. Go get a hamburger or some chips or a chocolate fudge sundae to toast my mom!

She would love that! Me too.

L'chaim!!!

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

AH SHANDEH

2009-07-26T09:58:00.006+03:00

When I was growing up in Windsor, my parents had a lot of expressions they used when trying to emphasize a point. For example, when my Dad handed me my first set of car keys, he said, 'These keys are like a gun and can kill just as easily.'

That was it! I never went over the speed limit...I never drank and drove ( I don't drink so that one was easy)...I never...I never...

But the biggie was this one from Bubbie Channah A'H. No matter what we did or what we wore or what we said this one loomed over our heads...'Ah Shandeh fahr die goyim!' A shame in front of the gentiles. What gentiles? Our neighbours? The people in school? ALL GOYIM. THE ENTIRE WORLD OF GOYIM...STRANGERS...NOT JEWS.

OY!

I understood where my parents were coming from. And, funnily enough, all my Jewish friends heard their parents say the very same thing. We had to be careful not to shame ourselves in front of strangers.

When Kennedy was killed...ohmygod!!! then, thank God it wasn't a Jew!
When Martin Luther King was killed...ohmygod!!! then, thank God it wasn't a Jew!

Why? Because over the centuries we learned that any spark could cause a riot or pogrom to burst into flames and then came Hitler...yimach sh'mo...may his name be erased forever. Then for sure we learned how to walk close to the buildings and try not to cast a shaddow.

Now, whether this feeling is valid or not doesn't make any difference. Every Jew watches out for ah shandeh fahr die goyim.

And now we have New Jersey! Are they out of their minds? What the hell is that all about? Mayors and Rabbis and important people and New Jersey and Israel and kidneys? Old Rabbis with long beards being hauled away? Rabbis in handcuffs? Are they out of their minds.?!?

Not bad enough we have to live with Madoff now we have the Rabbis? Didn't their mothers warn them about ah shandeh fahr die goyim?

I understand hatred. I live with it every day. Hatred is easy. It is in your face. You can't make a mistake. You know who your enemy is and you learn how to protect yourself.

But anti-Semitism is sneaky. It isn't in your face. You can make a mistake and since you don't know who your enemy is you don't know how to protect yourself.

I experienced two occasions of anti-Semitism in Windsor and didn't stick around for the third. The first was when I was a teen and we were all out canvassing for World Child's Day. A young mother and her little child came up to me where I was standing on Oulette Avenue and came close to my face before she said, 'I don't support anything JEWISH!'

Jewish? World Child's Day? If I remember correctly it was part of a major program from the U.N. We didn't say World Jewish Children's Day....that, thank God, we always took care of privately by ourselves.

The second was even more interesting. Tenth grade. Walkerville High School. We were all gathered in the hall in front of our next class waiting for the bell and Mary Ann turned to me and smiling asked, 'Why do you Jews kill babies to make your bread for Passover?'

WHAT?

The hallway went deadly silent. Thank God, I had heard about the dead babies and blood and matzahs before so I wasn't struck dumb on the spot.

I replied something like are you out of your mind and who told you that stupid thing and why would you even believe something as dumb as that anyway?

The interesting thing was suddenly the football team gathered around me and when the bell rang they walked me into class.

Now you have to realize that that was almost forty years ago. Some things you never forget.

Want to know the best part of the Mary Ann story? Her full name is Mary Ann Martin and she is Paul Martin Sr.'s daughter and Paul Martin Jr.'s sister. And Paul Martin Jr. was Prime Minister of Canada!!! Wonder what other lovly things he learned in that house???

So now the Emperor is Naked. There we are all exposed in front of the world. And I think it is a collective shame. Am I my brother's keeper? I guess I am because I feel sick about this.

I wonder how long it will take before we hear the word Shylock? But, then again, maybe I am just over-reacting.

Bubbie Channah A'H had one more expression that was her litmus paper...'Is it good or bad for the Jews?'

Ma...I think this one is very bad for the Jews. Sorry Ma. Oy!

Shavuah tov...a sweet new week.

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

KHUTZ L'ARETZ...ABROAD

2009-07-23T12:36:00.007+03:00

I love going abroad. I don't do it nearly enough, but whenever I do, I feel like a kid in Disneyland. Everything is so big, and so green, and so wet out there. And the people are all so tall. And they are all strangers. A person can hide well among tall strangers.

Not that I ever wanted to hide...what I mean is I can be annonymous--where you dont' have to talk and smile and be smart all the time. Where you can be alone with your thoughts and just watch mankind pass by and daydream and wonder about the people. Did you ever ride on a train and wonder about the families living in those houses you passed along the tracks? That kind of thing.

I did however want to be tall. All my life I wanted to be tall. Bubbie Channah A'H told me that her father told her that if God wanted people to be tall He would have made them a giraffe or a tree!

Honest! She told me. And when I asked her why my Zaidi would say that, she answered,'What was he going to tell his little daughter who was barely five feet tall? Besides, he wasn't so much taller himself.'

Where was I? Yes, abroad.

Whenever I get the chance to travel, I go 'home'...Canada/USA, where my family is. For me a vacation is the chance to reconnect with relatives and people I love so dearly.

Someplace in my heart I still yearn to get to Italy and Scotland. And I don't want to have to bump everyone off so that I don't feel guilty about not going to see them. Vey!

I wanted to go home this summer. But my DIL is expecting any minute now tfu tfu tfu and I promised I would move in with her and the kids for a week or two. She thinks I'm doing her a favour. The truth is how marvellous to be able to spend a week or two with my babies. We do have the best time.

So, khutz l'aretz got pushed back. I'm aiming for December. I'll let you know.

Why December? First of all I have had it up to here with the hot and hotter weather. I'm a Canadian for heaven's sake! Snow! Thunder storms! The Tunnel restaurant! Sigh.

I had these long conversations with myself trying to find a good time to get away. I thought when Bubbie Channah passed away I would be free to take off at a moment's notice and not have to worry about hurrying back ten days later just to make sure she is ok. (You have no idea how I wish I still had to worry about getting back to see how she is.)

Wanna know a secret? Every time I leave Jerusalem and go to Tel Aviv it is like leaving Windsor and going to Detroit. It's just across the way and a whole new world out there.

I always say that whoever lives in Tel Aviv deserves it! I let them fill in the blanks. But Tel Aviv has a lot going for it. And two days ago I decided to get the hell out of here and go sit on the beach and watch the water and write and relax.

I phoned my good friend Frances, who lives fifteen minutes away from Gordon and HaYarkon Streets on the boardwalk and three steps from the Mediterranean Sea, and made a date to meet her on the corner at 9:00 in the morning.

I left Jerusalem by bus at 7:30 and by the appointed time there I was shviting in the heat and mesmerized by the waves and the sound and the sand and the quiet.

Jerusalem is a tense city. For many reasons we have to be. And Tel Aviv is a whole new world. No one checked my bags...no one was guarding the LaLaLand Cafe...yup that's its name...and no one cared that we took up residence at one of the many tables in the sand.

I took my new MSI Wind mini 10 inch laptop and my external modum and put some extra money in my wallet and was all set for the day.

We sat in the sand on low tables and chairs. I don't remember the last time I dug my feet in the sand. How lovely. The entire area we were in was covered by huge umbrellas so we had the heat but not the direct sun. And there was a marvellous breeze coming off the Mediterranean.

And the sound of the waves and the children laughing and playing. We spent almost five hours sitting side-by-side writing and talking and drinking. And then it was time to leave.

How relaxing it is to watch and listen to the water. What a treat! Almost as good as being khutz l'aretz.

We are talking about doing it again soon. But next time we may go late afternoon and watch the sun set into the sea. And then have a nice dinner before I pack up and come back home to Jerusalem.

I always know when I am approaching Jerusalem. There is a change in the air the closer you get to the city. It is cooler and fresher and so very very welcoming. Ahhh Jerusalem. It is not an easy city to leave but it is sure a pleasure to come back to.

See, a vacation is only good because it is exactly that...a vacation. It has three parts...the planning...the doing...and the talking about it afterwards.

Thanks for letting me talk about it afterwards. If you want to join me just let me know. It's a big free wonderful beach out there. And all ours to be enjoyed.

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

SHVARTZEHS

2009-07-17T15:01:00.005+03:00

When I was growing up, the only word we used to describe Negroes...that was what they were called way back when...was 'shvartzehs'. My parents and grandparents spoke a lot of Yiddish in the home and that was the yiddish word for 'blacks'.

It may not have been politically correct...but it was the only word in their language. Die Veisseh were the white people.

Our world was divided not between black and white...but rather between yidden and goyim...Jews and Gentiles.

July 1967...I was at my parents house in Windsor when the phone call came from my brother, David, in Detroit. 'Pa! Come get me! They're rioting all over the neighbourhood! Detroit is burning!'

Daddy hopped into the car and went to Detroit to rescue David and a couple of his friends and bring them back from their frat house to our place.

I had to get back to Detroit. Long story but I had to get back to Detroit. So, I hopped into my mustang and drove through the tunnel and on to the expressway. The sky was black with smoke. Huge burned pieces of debris and ash fell like wounded birds onto the expressway. It was terrifying.

The black community was rioting. The worse riots in Detroit history. I saw it. I drove through it. I was part of the people who were under curfew. The militia was called in and tanks rolled up and down the streets destroying the roads.

It took five days.

You have your blacks...and we have ours. No, our blacks don't come from Africa...mind you we do have a great community of Jews from that continent.

No, the people I am referring to have chosen to be black by the dress they wear. Black hats...black coats...black suits and shoes. Our shvartzehs are religious Jews and they are rioting.
As if Jerusalem didn't have enough problems!

My wonderful Jerusalem. They don't want a parking lot to be open downtown on Shabbat. They are protesting the arrest of a terrible lady who is suspected of abusing her young child.

So they are out in the street throwing stones and setting tires on fire and causing all sorts of trouble.

I will not discuss here right or wrong. I have my opinion. They have theirs.

But, here's what I think. You don't like something? Talk to your mayor...congressman...a good looking neighbour...the guy who runs the makolet. But, don't take things into your own hands. What the hell is wrong with you?

And, what about live and let live? My biggest problem with the religious community is that they want to be accepted in every way...shabbat...kosher...you name it they have a rule and a comment and a philosophy and a rabbi who can get his entire congregation out into the streets before the ink is dry on the page.

Ok, ok...freedom of speech. But that does not include burning, hurting our police and soldiers and throwing stones.

They're lucky. They're lucky because the rest of us...die veisseh are not amassing and picking up even bigger stones to throw at them from the other side of the street.

You don't want to park your car on Shabbat? Stay home! You don't want to eat in a restaurant? Stay home! You don't want to go the movies on Shabbat? Stay home!

The parking lot...restaurant...movie theatre is not in their neighbourhoods. So, maybe they should butt out of my business? Maybe, on Shabbat they should enjoy their cholent and their families and their day of rest.

I know...I know. Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish homeland. Jerusalem should not be like any other city in the world. Jerusalem does not have public transportation on the sabbath. Jerusalem is Jerusalem just because.

Bubbie Channah had a favourite joke. It went something like this: Bessie went with her beau, Sol to a baseball game for the very first time. All of a sudden the batter missed another pitch and started to walk to first plate. When Bessie asked what was going on, Sol said, 'That's Willie Mays. He got four balls and can walk to first base.' Bessie looked at her boyfriend, and then back at the baseball diamond. Then, standing up, she shouted at the top of her lungs, 'You walk proud Willie Mays! You got four balls! You walk proud!'

Whenever someone did anything spectacular in the family, my mother would get a twinkle in her eye and shout, 'You walk proud Willie Mays!'

I don't think my mother would be proud today of her fellow Jerusalemites. I know I'm not.

In my heart I am cheering for our mayor Nir Barkat. And hope he can juggle enough to keep Jerusalem both secular as well as religious.

Maybe I should Facebook him. 'You walk proud Nir Barkat!'

We'll see. If he manages to pull this white rabbit out of the black hat I just might send him a copy of this blog.

Shabbat shalom.

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

Who? What?

QUICK...TAKE A LOOK BEFORE IT'S GONE

2009-07-08T07:03:00.007+03:00

I don't know who this man is...but what he says scares me a lot.

And as you can guess I agree with everything he says.

And have been saying something like that for a long time.

What is happening to the greatest country in the world baffles me.

Please look at this and let me know what you think...before it is taken off YouTube.

Someone once called George W. Bush Darth Vader...and was told that President Bush may be Darth Vader but who was The Emperor? The answer then was Vice President Cheyney.

Ok...help...if Obama is Darth Vader...who in the world is The Emperor? Someone is running the store and whoever it is is doing exactly what this man says.

(P.S. Thanks C. for sending me this video!)

Please scroll down and read and listen and then let me know what you think.
Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.

"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself." Thomas Paine

Performance Sciences, Inc.
James W. Crafton
President
P.O. Box 190
Evergreen, CO 80437
Direct: 303.445.9062

Importance: High

I thought I better send this before they take this down. He needs to run for
Presdient and I'd definitely go for a rally in Washington, DC

This guy's video on you tube has been so popular that Obama called him
personally. He said that he was very disturbed with the video
and invited him to the White House. Obama also said he wanted the White
House to handle the Press and not to talk about the video or the White House
visit. That's interesting.

Watch it now. This may be the best six minutes invested in your future.
You may have to turn your Sound Control up some.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeYscnFpEyA

MERDE

2009-06-30T08:42:00.003+03:00

Well, there I was getting happy with France for the first time in a very long time. See, the French, since De Gaulle got pissed that we didn't wait to be turned into ashes by our neighbours in 1967, have not been our number one fans.

Actually, they have done a lot of yukky things such as not allowing our boats to leave Cherbourg. Remember that story? Google it...I am sure it is there. Along with capturing Eichman, may his name be erased from memory, and Entebbe...Cherbourg was a humdinger of a story.

I was a tourist in the country the day they pulled into port.

Sacré bleu! The French!

Then along comes Sarkozy! Who, I thought...silly me...was different. Get this my friends.

Sarkozy urges Netanyahu: Get rid of Lieberman
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent Last update - 21:54 29/06/2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1096504.html

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
to "get rid" of hard-line Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Channel Two
reported on Monday.

The Foreign Ministry responded to the report by lambasting the French leader
for his "intolerable intervention in internal Israeli affairs."

Sarkozy spent a good portion of his meeting with Netanyahu last Wednesday
discussing the composition of the Israeli official, according to the report.
The presence of three other Israeli officials at the meeting did not deter
the French leader from expressing his true opinion of the foreign minister,
said Channel Two.

Well! Did you ever? How gauche!

First of all, as Bubbie Channah A'H would say,"It's none of his khazersheh business!"

Wait! Wait! I get it! Now all the heads of countries can move diplomats around like chess pieces on a big board. I don't like Ahmadinadoole...checkmate! Hamas in Gaza? Checkmate! How about that bin Laden? Think he should be mated?

How dare you Mr.French President Nicolas Sarkozy?!?!

I never thought I would say this. Come closer, I may have to whisper...I love Lieberman. There, I said it! Why? because I trust him. I may not like everything he says but he says it out loud...in your face. And, after all the sleezy politicians we have had here lately, that is like a breath of fresh air.

One evening, about a year and a half ago, my friend Rena and I were out for dinner. At the time, we were the only people in that part of the restaurant. All of a sudden a guy walks in with an ear piece like the secret service wear. How do I know? I live in Israel. These guys are everywhere a major politician is. You know the look. White cord comes out the back or side of the guy's collar...has a little curly thing like a miniature phone cord and plugs in to one ear.

He checks out the room and then talks into his watch or something and a few minutes later Lieberman and party entered the room and sat across from us.

The man is not someone you could miss or ignore. The man is surrounded by an aura of strength that is almost palpable. The kind of power that is sexy. Well, you know what I mean.

We smiled at each other...ate our meals...exchanged a few words...wished him good luck...and left.

He was charming. I told you, you can run into the most interesting political people in normal restaurants here.

A few weeks ago I was at the beauty parlor talking to Natalie my miracle worker. I happened to mention Lieberman and how amazed I am that I am beginning to really like him.

Oh, Natalie said. He is wonderful.
You know him? I asked.
Yes. And his wife and daughter are amazing women.

Israel! Dontcha just love it?

Mr. French President. Clean up your own house before you point a finger at mine. And, as my Daddy A'H used to say, "Remember, Marallyn, every time you point a finger at someone, you have three more pointing back at you."

I guess the French President didn't have a daddy like I did.

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

REALITY

2009-06-27T11:23:00.003+03:00

If you check out the map below you will see that the little green one is Israel.
The rest are the Arab countries.
And do you honestly...honestly... think that the settlements are what is stopping the Middle East from having peace?
No, of course you don't!!!
Neither do I.
Now we have to convince POTUS.
Sigh...
He sure set the ball rolling.

Here is what I got in my email today:

Reuters: Mideast Quartet urges Israel to halt settlements.
YnetNews: G8 calls on Israel to freeze settlements.
BBCNews: Israel urged to halt settlements.

HELLO...IS ANYONE HOME??? TAKE A LOOK AT THE MAP BELOW!!!

Ah, hell...what's the sense talking.

It's the elephant and the Jewish problem...all our fault.

But, maybe one day instead of pointing fingers at the Jews...someone will notice that the settlements have been merely a smoke screen and while everyone was busy getting the smoke out of their eyes, the real problem grew into a raging bull.

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

The RUSSIANS are Coming...The RUSSIANS are Coming!!!

2009-06-25T13:16:00.012+03:00

In 1966 a comedy hit the theatres starring Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Allan Arkin and Theodore Bikel. We were all still in the air raid siren drills and wondering where to build fallout shelters. The name of the film was/is The RUSSIANS are Coming the RUSSIANS are Coming. Here is the plot:

When a Soviet submarine captain comes up for a look at America (off the coast of a small island in Massachusetts) he runs aground. He sends his two English speaking crewmen to procure a boat with enough power to pull them off. The 2 English speakers, along with 7 other Russian sailors, don't exactly blend in and the town is convinced that they are being invaded.

All joking aside, the fear of a Russian invasion was real and very scary when I was growing up.

I think I mentioned in a previous blog that the only time I was really frightened...no, I take that back...the only time I was hysterically frightened during the Yom Kippur War was when we were told that the Russian military was on alert and getting ready to sail to the Middle East.

That's it! We're dead!

Since that time, I really haven't been afraid of our Soviet neighbours. We have over a million Russian Jews and maybe not so Jewish new immigrants...I love them! The Soviet Union is no more and the Russian states are now working towards their own independence. Das V'Danyah Comrade!

Then, one day last week, when I was having lunch with a friend in the Botanical Gardens up the road from my place, she asked me what I thought about all the Czars.

Czars? Peter the Great...Ivan the Terrible...Catherine the Great...Alexander...Nicholas??? I started naming Czars.

No, she said. Obama's czars.

Obama has Czars? Our Obama? I mean your Obama?

Then I started reading about the Czars. What the hell is going on? Hello??? Anybody home???

I Googled Czars of Russia and got the St. Petersburg Times(how appropriate...from Florida, not Russia...PolitiFact.Com...2009 Pulitzer Prize Winner) In it I found a whole article about the czars and who they are and how they came to be and what McCain said about Obama having more Czars than the Romanovs who ruled Russia for three centuries!

And you thought McCain didn't have a sense of humour.

I now know that what a Czar is and that Obama is certainly not the first to use them...but it seems that he has more Czars than anyone else including the Romanovs. :)

There was, however, one sentence that made me see RED...ahem.

But to the extent that Obama has created a number of new positions to oversee various issues and to cut through bureaucratic red tape, he seems to have a lot more czars than his predecessors.

OK...POTUS has Czars and they cut through red tape and he isn't the first but he seems to have more than the other guys had. Am I getting it right?

In order to shorten this blog post, I erased the list of the 28 Czars and their Czar title and their not so sexy real title.

That's a whole lot of people reporting to the President who don't have to get any congressional approval before they get the job. That's a whole lof of people reporting to the President period.

The big deal seems to be the Car Czar...and his assistant. And what the hell do they know about the automobile industry at all? But who cares? They got the job...they owe their boss...they report what they can and everyone is happy.

I'm not happy. The only time I did not vote for Bibi was when I thought he was taking too much power onto his own shoulders and I was worried about our/my freedom. So I voted for someone else. I wasn't sorry then and I am not sorry now.

Now, I voted for him. Now, I trust him. And as the days go by I wish him strength. See, the only thing in the universe that is stopping world peace is our settlements. If we didn't have settlements there would be joy throughout the land and people would be dancing in the streets.

The Iranian people are being shot like sitting ducks in the street and the big deal is our settlements.

Have you any idea how many of our soldiers were wounded and killed because WE did not shoot down any of the demonstrators or people throwing stones and boulders at us during not one but two intifadas?

WE can stand proud and hold our heads high!

But, no I guess we can't. We want the people living in the settlements to have babies and get married and have more babies and have a place for them to live and sleep and eat and play with their friends.

BAD ISRAEL!!! SHAME ON US!!!

Two articles online about Israel caught my attention today. One...Israel has now invented a fridge that converts to an oven on Shabbat so our religious soldiers can eat hot meals.

And, two:
IAF helicopter evacuates Palestinian who fell from cliff
Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 25 June 2009

IMRA has learned from official IDF sources that on Wednesday afternoon a
Palestinian came to the Lamed Heh passage in the Etzion Bloc south west of
Bethlehem yesterday and reported to the IDF reserve force stationed there
that his friend fell from a cliff in the Wadi Etziona area near the passage.

Medical forces from the Etzion Brigade cane to the site but because of
conditions in the area an IAF rescue helicopter was dispatched and the
wounded Palestinian was evacuated to an Israeli hospital for treatment.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il

For free regular subscription:
Subscribe at no charge: imra-subscribe@imra.org.il

That is who WE are. When we walked into Ramallah a few years ago by mistake THEY butchered us and threw us out the window. Remember? Maybe some of you still do.

How much do you want to bet that neither of these articles hit the waves.

I know what is going to hit the air waves. Obama's Health Care Plan. He gets to put his plan in front of the world all by himself and ABC is giving him the stage...for an hour.

But, what I hear is that ABC is not letting the other team say anything.

When I was growing up each side had to have equal time. Remember?

But, maybe some pigs are more equal than others.

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

YOU TELL 'EM LADY!!!

2009-06-22T08:56:00.003+03:00

I received this as an e-mail from my friend Rosaline this morning. I read it and I loved it. So, I decided to share it.

Enjoy.

This is something we should all read at least once a week! Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio

To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.

It is the most requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion...
Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25 No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

27 Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

42. The best is yet to come.

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.(that's why it is called The Present...mbm)

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

JUST ANOTHER LITTLE OLD ISRAELI...HERO

2009-06-20T10:04:00.005+03:00

I just got this site from my cousin Shelley in Toronto. I opened it and immediately recognized the little old man who was talking. Thanks, Shelley! But...I never knew this story.

There are so many stories in Israel...and everywhere in fact. That is why I love talking to old people...well people who are older than me. :)

They have stories and if we are patient enough and quiet enough we will always walk away smarter and filled with awe.

Meet Shlomo Hillel and then, please go see this youtube. They walk among us.

Shlomo Hillel immigrated to Palestine with his family in 1934 at the age of
eleven. [1] After graduating from the Herzliya Hebrew High School in Tel Aviv,
he underwent agricultural training in Kibbutz Degania Alef, and later Pardes
Hana.
Hillel was secretary of a Hebrew Scouts group which later established
Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael.
In 1945, Hillel and his colleagues worked at a Haganah
munitions factory disguised as a laundry facility in the basement of the Ayalon
Institute in Rehovot.[2][3]
He studied political science, economics and public administration at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Shlomo and Temima Hillel have two children, a son and a daughter. [1] They live in Jerusalem's Ramat Denya neighborhood.
In 1952-1959, Hillel was a member of the 2nd and 3rd Knesset, representing Mapai.
He then joined the Israeli foreign service, and was appointed Israeli ambassador to Guinea (1959-1961), and Côte d'Ivoire, Dahomey, Republic of Upper Volta, and Niger (1961-1963).
In 1963-1967, Hillel was a member of the Israeli Delegation to the United Nations, He returned to Israel to serve as the Deputy Director of the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry (1967-1969).[4]
In 1969, Hillel was re-elected to the Knesset on the Alignment
list. He served consecutively from the 7th Knesset until the 12th Knesset. He
was Minister of Police in 1969-1977 and Interior Minister in 1974 and 1977. In
1984 he was elected Speaker of the 11th Knesset.[4]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQNw5MA3DII

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

SOMETIMES YOU JUST GODDA SHARE

2009-06-17T19:33:00.003+03:00

For those of you who don't know him...and for those of you who have never visited his site...meet my brother David...the best of the Pasikovs.

http://www.psychotherapistboulder.com/

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

THE TRUTH...THE WHOLE TRUTH...AND...

2009-06-15T09:30:00.005+03:00

Last night...at a little after eight o'clock, everyone I knew was sitting in front of their televisions waiting to hear our Prime Minister deliver his long-awaited speech.

I cancelled students. I grabbed a bottle of water and my chicken salad and made myself comfortable.

From every window of my house, all that could be heard was Bibi talking. None of my neighbours had any other channel on...just Bibi.

Before we go any further, I should state that I am a card carrying member of the Likud party. I get to vote in their internal elections as well as in the national elections. I have voted for Bibi more than once. And once I did not vote for him.

From the moment he began to speak until his final word I was breathless. Finally! Somebody said it out loud. How many people would be alive today if somebody had said it when our leaders at the time ran to embrace Oslo?

So many things he said amazed me. But here is one that made me listen even closer:

"In order to bring an end to the conflict, we must give an honest and
forthright answer to the question: What is the root of the conflict?

In his speech to the first Zionist Conference in Basel, the founder of the
Zionist movement, Theodore Herzl, said about the Jewish national home "This
idea is so big that we must speak of it only in the simplest terms." Today,
I will speak about the immense challenge of peace in the simplest words
possible."

How simple. How elequant. How absolutely correct! And then he went on to say it. He said it out loud....

"Even as we look toward the horizon, we must be firmly connected to reality,to the truth. And the simple truth is that the root of the conflict was, and
remains, the refusal to recognize the right of the Jewish people to a state
of their own, in their historic homeland."

Bingo!!!

I always said, I can love you like mad...buy you expensive gifts...give you anything you want...put your needs above my own....

I can do all that. But I can't make you love me! Either you do...or you don't. And all my fine gestures and all my wonderful, expensive gifts won't make you love me if you don't.

And, when did any of us think, for just one second, that our neighbours love us? Who was it that said, 'Arafat never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity."?

When is the world going to wake up and realize that we are a splinter in their backside...we are the speck of dust on their pristine carpet...that THEY DO NOT WANT PEACE.

Simple, no?

Thank you Mr. Prime Minister! For the first time in a very long time, I think I can sleep at night knowing that someone is honestly and truely at the helm of our very little ship that is floating in a very big and dangerous sea.

And then, this morning just as I was feeling safe, I read something else. I read an article stating that Obama was happy with Bibi's speech. That's good.

BUT THEN...get this my friends...the article from Haaretz newspaper went on to say:
"At the time of the speech, Haaretz learned, Obama was playing golf."

He what?!!!?

Well...I guess that shows us! I mean exercise is important. And as President of the United States, Mr. Obama must not get enough exercise. And, the speech was around eight at night making it around noon...one o'clock his time. Is mid afternoon a good time to go out in the sun and play golf? I guess it must be. And, if it is good enough for POTUS, then, hell, maybe the rest of the world should have made other plans instead of listening to our Prime Minister.

Hell, it's only Israel. Who cares?

So, if no one cares, then why are we on the front page of everyone's agenda?

He was out playing golf!!!

Here is anther fishbone that remains stuck in my throat. When Bibi and Sarah Netanyahu were in the States a few weeks ago, Mrs. Obama didn't meet with our Prime Minister's wife. She had tickets to a concert...or the theatre, I think it was the theatre. She did ask her husband what to do and Mr. President told her not to change her plans...to go to the theatre.

Mr. Obama, Sir. If it was Mrs. First Lady from Canada...or Germany...or Russia...or Great Britain...or the European Union...or Palestine (is there a first lady...or any lady?)...would you have told your wife the same thing? OF COURSE NOT!!! That would have been an insult. And you wouldn't want to insult any of THEM.

What is POTUS telling Israel? And what message is he sending out to the world about how he feels about Israel?

If golf is more important and going to the theatre is more important to Mr. and Mrs. President of the United States of America...then what is the little anti-Semitic guy going to think...or the Arabs...or the EU?

Me? I take it as a great insult! A slap in the face!

The whole world was waiting for Bibi's speech. He spoke his heart out. He gave the world enough time. He picked an hour that was convenient to everyone.

I guess he didn't know what a lover of golf Obama is. I mean Jackie Mason said it so well. "Me? If I get a splinter in my finger, I run around and take myself into Sinai Hospital and see a doctor. You? If you fall into an open manhole and die...what do I care?"

You think I'll get into a lot of trouble if I say, "Shame on you Mr. President."? Maybe I better not. But as President Carter...also not a great lover of Israel once said..."I have sinned in my heart."

And we are supposed to be great friends. I guess with friends like these, Israel dosen't need any...you fill in the rest.

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

DEAR MR. 2000 YEAR OLD MAN

2009-06-14T15:09:00.002+03:00

Do any of you remember Mel Brooks as the 2000 year old man? I love him. Mel Brooks. I love smart. Especially when smart doesn't hurt or make fun of anyone.

For those of you who haven't yet had the joy of listening to the 2000 year old man...don't wait...get the tapes...borrow the old records...talk to someone like me who can quote them verbatum. Sit back and enjoy the brilliance of Mel Brooks.

Carl Reiner had a list of questions...Mel Brooks didn't see them in advance. Carl asked...and Mel answered...and the rest is fireworks.

Carl: You must have had many wives.
2000 YOM: Hundreds and hundreds of wives. (all spoken in a yiddish accent as he...naturally...well you get it...2000 years ago)
Carl: Do you remember all of them?
2000YOM: I remember the third one...Shoiley...a redhead!

Carl: Did you know Paul Revere?
2000 YOM: I knew him and I hated him...anti-Semetic bastard.
Carl: What?
2000YOM: He ran around shouting, 'The Yiddish are coming! The Yiddish are coming!"
Carl: BRITISH...The BRITISH are coming.
2000YOM: Oy, and I didn't send his wife a card or anything.

And on and on and on the joy goes.

Those of us who know the skits talk them in our daily conversations. For example when I am about to hang up the phone with my brother David or my almost brother Maeshey, I'll say...'Ok. You go save France.' and the other will add, 'And I'll wash up.'

Nope. I'm not going to explain. Go...Go my children. Meet the 2000 Year Old Man.

So, why am I writing all this you may ask. One of the many bon mots of wisdom that came out of his mouth was this sentence: "WE MOCK THE THINGS WE ARE TO BE".

And today, I am ashamed to admit, that applies to me. How? Go ahead...ask me.

You know those guys who quit smoking. The ones who smoke their last cigarette and that's it. No more. Finished! Not me Bertram! I'm done Murray!

And then they begin smoking YOURS! Ahhhh. You know those guys.

Well, no I haven't started smoking again. I quit on October 4, 1994. Gained a person along the way, but I don't smoke.

Last week, I decided to quit Diet Coke. Cold turkey. No more Coke. Not for me. Instead, I am drinking water. Don't ask. Me? Water? Fish pish in there. Oy.

Now, if I would have kept my big mouth shut I would have been just fine. But, when have you ever heard of me keeping my mouth shut? I told everyone in the house that I am a new person! Saving the money...watching my health...Coke eats rust...water is wonderful...puhleeze!

In the middle of the night, I began to need a couple of swallows. Not a lot. Just a couple. I could have snuck a bottle into the house and hidden it in my room. But there is nothing more disgusting than warm Diet Coke. Trust me on this one.

I started buying seltzer. Nice. Clear. You can see through it. It does have bubbles but they don't have the right taste.

So I became one of those cigarette guys. I now only drink Diet Coke when I go out with my friends. There I drink Coke with my meal.

I think it is something like having a kosher house but eating treif in a restaurant. My house is kosher...my stomach isn't. I always thought that if my daughter-in-law knew what I ate she'd never let me kiss the babies again. Oy!

My next step is to drink water in the restaurants too. So far I've failed the restaurant test.

But, don't give up on me. There is hope yet. Every time I fill my little empty Coke bottle with water I feel righteous. As I drink and pish I feel thin.

Ah Mr. 2000 Year Old Man. How did you get so smart?

Shavuah tov.

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

IT'S HARD TO BE A GOOD DAUGHTER...OY

2009-06-11T08:28:00.005+03:00

I tried to be a good daughter to Bubbie Channah. I did. And it was only after she passed away that I thought of all the things I could have done...should have done...might have done.

But nothing compares to the daughter in yesterday's news here in Israel. All she wanted to do was something nice for her old mother. So she bought her a new mattress. Read on:

June 10, 2009
Woman throws away million-dollar mattress
Philippe Naughton

An Israeli woman who bought her elderly mother a new mattress threw out the old one unaware that it had $1 million hidden inside it.

Israeli newspapers reported today that the woman was left scrabbling through landfill sites in an, as yet, fruitless search for the mattress which contained her mother's life savings.

The woman, identified only as Anat, a resident of Tel Aviv, told Army Radio that she bought the mattress on Monday as a surprise for her mother and got rid of the other one without telling her.

When she realised her mistake she rushed outside to look for the mattress but found it had already been taken by the rubbish collectors. Subsequent searches at three different landfill sites turned up nothing.

The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot published a picture of the woman searching through refuse at a dump in southern Israel.

Yitzhak Borba, the dump manager, told the radio station that his staff was helping the woman, saying she appeared “totally desperate”, but the mattress was hard to find among the 2,500 tonnes of rubbish arriving at the site every day.

Mr Borba said that he increased security at the site to keep would-be treasure hunters at bay. For her part, Anat is displaying an admirable stoicism. “People have to take everything in proportion and thank God for the good and the bad,” she said.

Oy!!! Am I glad I'm not that lady!!! And you thought you had troubles???
I'm hypervenilating and I don't even know these people. Thank you God...Thank you God...

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

TIME OUT FOR FUN :)

2009-06-09T11:15:00.014+03:00

I'M GREEN!!! I just came back from the makolet...like a 7/11 up the street. Since I only needed a few things, I took my handy green DON'T USE PLASTIC BAGS bag.

I love my bag. I love it so much I bought four of them. I feel so righteous when I fill it up and tell the people at the cash registers, "No, thanks. I'm green!"

Of course we will not discuss how much stuff can fit into those bags and just how heavy they become. Nope. I fill my bag and bending down, ease my arm through the loops, adjust the two straps onto my shoulder, lock my knees and wabble home.

There are just some things you do that make you feel good. My green bags are one...saving water is another.

Coming from a country rich in water, it took me quite some time go get used to the shortages we have in the Middle East, and this year is the worst it has been in a long time.

It is so bad that there are commercials on TV. Famous people tell us we have to cut back on water and save the Kinneret...the Sea of Galilee. As they are talking their faces begin to crack like dry mud in the desert. Very effective.

I now dampen my dishes...turn off the water...soap them and clean with the spongee thing...turn the water back on and rinse. I do the same in the shower...well without the spongee thing.

So, now I have green bags and watch my water consumption. We have plastic bottles in the toilet tanks so that controls the amount of water in the tanks.

I don't buy syrofoam anything...that clogs the environment like shmaltz in your arteries.

I throw away my plastic bottles in the special bin set up next to the makolet.

I don't know why I'm telling you all this, except I thought we would take a break from the OHMYGOD WHATTHEHELL ISGOINGON emails I have been sending lately.

I think that is known as comic relief. (Between us, I always felt the saddest person in the circus was the clown...ahhhhh Pagliacci.)

When I graduated from Wayne State, I moved into a lovely apartment in Royal Oak, Michigan with a girlfriend. There were three apartments on each floor and we were on the ground level. It was a great place...great.

On our floor were two bachelors...David, a young Chrysler exec, and Maynor, a salesman from Lubbock, Texas.

After three weeks, Maynor came up to me one day and said, "Darlin', you are so green if you stand on a mountain, no one will ever find you."

OY!

That was the first time I went from being a greenhorn to just being green!

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

ps. In my last post is a terrible typo...Uzi Landau...not Uri...vey.

COME ON OVER FOR COFFEE...I'LL BRING ROGELACH

2009-06-07T09:13:00.003+03:00

I was told by a friend who I really love and respect that I should stop reading stuff and stop listening to the news and enjoy my life.

What a great idea. But, see I don't live in a place where that is really possible. I live in a place where we were once warned not to go around with headphones as we walked in the street so we could hear the terrorists shout Allah hu Akbar before they knifed us from behind. I am serious. Deadly serious.

I live in a place where during the last intifada, I didn't know for months who would be coming home alive and/or well every evening. And, I had to send my children to school and my husband to work and my Mom to the grocery store and myself into town where my learning center was located...and hit twice by two suicide bombers.

I live in a place where talking to God is a local call. I live in a place where Kings walked. I live in a place where old olive trees watched two Temples being destroyed...well, I'm not sure about that one but it sounds good and it could be true. :)

I live in a place where Jesus was born...lived...and died. Come here I'll show you where he walked.

I live in a place where a champion tennis player's mother lived upstairs from me. Where Ehud Barak's brother lived down the hall from me. I live in a place where I can see AND TALK TO our chaveri Knesset...our members of parliament... in any restaurant in town. I have seen them and I have talked to them. And they were kind and gracious and lovely. Two were at my neice's wedding...Uzi Landau and Limor Livnat.

I live in a place where politicians are family, where policemen are relatives, where doctors are related to the man who owns the little store down the street and asks to be remembererd to the owner.

I live in a place where if I am ever, God forbid, in trouble, the people who come to my rescue are family.

I live in a place where I am surrounded by people who want me dead. I live in a place where my cousins spell PEACE P-I-E-C-E. I live in a place where they won't be satisfied until they own all the pieces. Down to the last grain of sand.

I live in a place where God told Moses He wanted his people to live. And prosper.

I live in a place that God gave the Jews.

And there is room for everyone. Every peace loving person.

I just don't recognize them or know who they are. I see them in my shopping centers and my streets and my hospitals. They are free to come and go.

If I go near any of their places I have been warned that I may not come back alive.

How come they can and I can't?

Maybe it is because I live in a place that sees them as people...that is happy and willing to share everything we have with them.

It used to be that American leaders talked about that great country as a free home for Christians and Jews. Have any of you noticed we have been shoved into third place? Lost our silver and have to be content with bronze. I don't know why but every time I hear him say 'Christians...Muslims...and Jews' it rankles.

That is not true. You and I both know why...but I am tired of doing my imitation of Chicken Little screaming The Sky is Falling!!! The Sky is Falling!!!

But, I won't stop until I am certain that the things that really are falling from the skies over Israel are not things which will hurt us, kill us, or, God forbid erase us from the map.

I know they want to...I know they'd like to...I just don't know if they are brave enought to try to.

But, I do know that helping them get braver is not good for any of us. I loved reading that Hillary said there would be great repercussions if Iran bombed us. Did that make you feel better? What exactly does that mean? And how is that going to be good or bad for the Jews, as Bubbie Channah would ask. I mean, if we are now toast what the hell would we care about repercussions?

I would have felt a lot better if she had said that if they even THINK of bombing us etc. etc. etc. Sigh...

What do you think?

Thank you for all your emails...for those who disagree with me and for those who see things as I do. I am thrilled to hear from you all.

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

SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO A SMART PARENT

2009-06-05T02:34:00.007+03:00

I have been getting a lot of emails concerning my blogs. One group says 'You Rock Girl'...well you know what I mean.

The other group says 'You Should be Ashamed of Yourself'.

So. Please. If you wish to be taken off this list please email me and I will do so immediately. marallyn@gmail.com

When I was growing up in Windsor, my mother had one saying. It was her litmus paper. No matter what news I had or what I wanted to share with her, she would say, "Is it good or bad for the Jews."

When I wanted to be a Brownie in second or third grade, she informed me that Jewish Girls do not go to Brownies...they go to the I.L.Peretz Jewish School instead. End of discussion.

When I wanted to go to Frank Walton's party on one Friday night, my mother told me that Frank wasn't Jewish and that she was certain I would have a great time. But, then what. Jewish girls do not go to gentile boys high school parties. They go to the Jewish Center and mingle with boys that they can date. End of discussion.

I did explain it to Frank and we remained great friends. I have often wondered where he is and what he is doing. He was a nice boy.

I miss my mother. More and more every day I miss my mother. She was interesting, funny, very clever, and intelligent.

I wonder what she would have to say about Obama's speech. If it was good or bad for the Jews. Personally, I think it was terrible for us. Israel for sure. And at one point I think he gave away my Jerusalem!

I didn't know it was his to give away.

I loved listening to him. His voice and words were soft as honey. He spoke of a world all of us would love to live in. If he could deliver that world we would all be safer and happier and better and the lion will lie down with the lamb.

But so far the lions are hungry and the lambs look like easy pickings.

When I was thirteen a new Rabbi came to town. And he opened the first Temple in the city. One evening he called for all the teenagers to come to a meeting. I was one of them. He was amazing. His words filled us with enthusiasm and we were chomping at the bit to get on his bandwagon.

When I got home, I ran to tell my parents all about the Rabbi and his plans for the city. He needs me, I told my parents.

My father A'H, who was always a quiet man. A man well-loved and respected in the community. A man who felt keenly his obligations as a husband, a father and a Jew living in Windsor, said, "Marallyn. It isn't important if he needs you. Of course he needs you. What you have to decide, is whether you need him. Who is he? What is he? Are you certain that you wish to have your name associated with his policies and his ideals."

After carefully checking him out, I realized that I didn't. My Daddy was right.

But, if he would have let me be carried away by words, I would have followed him, supported him and been associated with him.

He wasn't a bad man. He wasn't the strange radical man he turned out to be in later years. But the more time went by, the happier I was that I walked away way back then.

My Daddy taught me a good lesson. He didn't forbid me from getting involved in the youth group the Rabbi was trying to establish. He made me think. And I trusted him. And I respected him. And I thought.

Who am I to tell any of you what to do? And as my friends so aptly put it, my views are coloured by the fact that I live where I live and have lived what I have lived.

But, along with that, because of the above two sentences, I know what I know.

As an astrologer, I learned very quickly the power of air. Not fire. Not earth. And not water. Air. Air carries the pollen that fertilizes the flowers. It carries a kiss blown from one loved one to another. But it also carries disease. And words.

Remember the old saying, 'Sticks and Stones can break your bones...but names will never harm you.' Not true.

During World War II there arose a man who spoke words. Before he died millions were killed. I am not going to elaborate. I am not waving the holocaust flag. But that man...may his name be erased forever...is the only example I have from my own lifetime. Words are scary.

A word spoken in haste can take a lifetime to retract. The big one in my life was being called a Damn Jew. Twice that happened in my wonderful city of Windsor. And I didn't stick around for the third time. I moved where no one could call me that again. There is a huge difference between hatred and anti-Semitism. Well, for me there is.

One other thing my father told me. He said, 'Marallyn, be careful what you put down on paper. Once it is on paper it becomes a document.'

That sentence kept me from being a writer. I became a storyteller instead. Until, a few years ago I had such a burning desire to write that I looked for three years until I found my mentor and friend, David Brauner who taught me how to get my words on paper. Bless him.

I listened to President Obama's speech. Carefully. I listened to what was said and what was left out. Sometimes the spaces are more important than the words. You all know those pictures that come into your emails where you have to look carefully to discover the two faces instead of the vase.

And half truths are even more scary. They sound good and are quickly adopted as fact.

BTW---Mr. President...Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world. - Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 4:8 (37a)
The Jerusalem Talmud dates back to the third century C.E. -- Mohammed was not even born until about 570.

Shavuah tov.

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

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

2009-06-05T02:14:00.002+03:00

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

HALEVAI

2009-06-04T15:28:00.004+03:00

I listened very closely to THE SPEECH. The words flowed like a spring breeze over the airlines and I couldn't help thinking...wow the man can talk. But we all know that.
Today I am going to give him a break. And wait twenty-four hours and listen to all the talking heads both on TV and my friends the bloggers.

And maybe wishes do come true.
Buckwheat wished he had a watermelon.
Bubbie Channah A'H wished she would win the lottery.
I wish everyone sleeps soundly in their own beds.
From my heart Mr. President...AHLEVAI!!!

Halevai is a Yiddish word that means...'if only'...'don't I wish'

Halevai - We Wish
Lyrics: Ehud Manor
Music and singing: Boaz Sharabi

We wish
That from the cloud a rainbow will come down
We wish
That this world will be better some day

We wish
That a new day will come out of the storm
We wish
That the present will last forever

We wish
That grass will grow in the desert
We wish
That we will be able to live in the shade of the fig tree again.

We wish not to hurt
And one will love another
We wish
That the gates of heaven will reopen

We wish
for East and West to join together
We wish
To be able to live like in the old days.

We wish
That one nation will not fight against another
We wish
To never stop hoping

We wish
For man to be passionate till evening
We wish
To have another chance with love

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

A RIVER IN EGYPT

2009-06-03T07:41:00.003+03:00

Well, I cheated. Instead of running down the six flights of stairs to my fallout shelter yesterday, I listened to that little voice that has been talking to me since I can remember. You know the one. It said,"Fool! You want to be part of the exercise? Take the elevator down five minutes before the siren goes off!"

Brilliant!!! Such a smart little voice I have. And that is exactly what I did. I took the elevator down and waited for the rest of my neighbours to join me in the shelter.

A few showed up. We were not happy campers. I asked some important questions like: "Does anyone know how to close and open the metal door?" And, then I went to try. A sinch!

Next question: "How do we know when the hell to get out of here?"

Now that was a little trickier. We all had our cell phones. Of course we did! But none of them worked in the shelter. Duh!

So the plan is that we all buy really good flashlights. We all look to see if we have a radio that runs on both electric and battery power...not such an easy thing these days with iPods etc. And I thought someone should check the big tank of water and the toilets. Well, it is important.

Some of you remember the days when we were getting the sealed room ready and I shlepped my friend Rena with me to the Mall. We happily made our way into the pet shop to buy kitty litter.

Shalom ladies, the man said. What kind of kitty litter are you looking for? Scented, unscented? Is a five kilo bag enough? What kind of a cat do you own?

I looked at him and brazenly informed him that we do not own cats...we have no idea about the different kinds of kitty litter...and that I am certain that one kilo each would be sufficient.

He looked at me strangely.

I explained: You see. We are all getting the sealed room ready. My room does not include a bathroom and from my experience from the last time, as soon as the siren goes off, everyone has to go to the toilet. I bought a huge garbage pail and sturdy garbage bags. Now all I need is the kitty litter to well...you know...

I thought the poor man was going to have an attack he laughed so hard. Hysterical. Rena and I had made the man's day.

Actually, I thought it was a brilliant idea.

We did buy the kitty litter...one kilo each. We did set it all up. We didn't, thank God have to use it. And we found nice neighbours who had cats and donated our unopened bags to them after the all clear.

Today I am not in the kitty litter buying stage...although it did cross my mind. I am in the flashlight and radio buying stage.

I wonder why Israel is such a big part of everyone's agenda? I wonder if Obama is going to bow to Mubarak. Wait! Wait! He didn't bow. It was a mistake.

And everyone is in that river in Egypt.
And I am beginning to fear that Mr. Emanuel is a city in Egypt.

(1. denial...2 Putz ah Yid (port said))

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

JOE BTFSPLK

2009-06-02T06:17:00.011+03:00

Now that has to be a name you haven't heard of in a long time. Or for you youngsters a name you never heard of.

Joe Btfsplk was a cartoon character from the Li'l Abner comics. Everyone loved poor Joe. Why 'poor Joe'? See, he was always drawn walking under a cloud with little drops of rain just about to land on him.

That is how I feel today in Israel...well, not only today but especially today. See, today we are having a massive air raid drill throughout the entire country. At 11:00 the air raid siren will shrill and everyone has to rush to their fallout shelter or secure room, if they have one in their homes. We don't. Our flat was built before they became a mandatory feature in each apartment. Imagine! A mandatory feature...

I will be home when the siren goes off. My shelter is six floors down in the basement. Jerusalem is lucky. They tell us we have three minutes to get to the shelter. Other places in the country have seconds.

Don't get me wrong. I am glad we are having this drill. I remember growing up in Windsor, Ontario and having fire drills and air raid drills in school where we either had to walk out...single file and slowly...from the building, or dash under our desks and put our hands over our heads.

Then the 'bad guy' was Russia and Russia was farrrrrrrrr away. The fear was real at the time, but the threat was as nebulous as Joe's cloud.

This fear is real and right across the street. And I do not believe this is just an 'exercise'. It is too massive and too serious and too real for just an exercise. I am sorry my babies are going to be rushing into their shelters at school and nursery school today. But I am thrilled they will be with people they trust who will help them understand what is going on in a language they will understand.

The Big Bad Wolf is knocking at the door. And we little ahem 'Pigs' have to build a house of bricks.

I read two articles this morning when I got up. The first was from The Washington Post and I quote:

Obama Says U.S. Must Be More 'Honest' With Israel
By Michael D. Shear
On the eve of his trip to the Middle East, President Obama promised today a dose of tough love for a new Israeli government that has signaled significant disagreement with his administration's policy for the region.

"Part of being a good friend is being honest," Obama told National Public Radio in an interview taped this afternoon. "And I think there have been times where we are not as honest as we should be about the fact that the current direction, the current trajectory, in the region is profoundly negative, not only for Israeli interests but also U.S. interests. And that's part of a new dialogue that I'd like to see encouraged in the region."

Mr. President, Sir, Part of being a good friend is understanding and accepting, if and when, your friend has a view different than yours. Part of being a good friend, is standing solidly beside your friend in public and, if all forms of dialogue still have you with different viewpoints, then accepting that your friend has the right to think differently than you do. Part of being a friend, is not being friendly with your friend's enemies...with people who have hurt your friend or are planning to wipe him off the face of the earth. Part of being a friend is just that...being a friend. Not a 'fairweatherfriend' when things are going smoothly. But, a real friend, who understands the other guy's fear and pain and will stand beside him when the bully is knocking at his door.

But, my dear readers, I have never thought that President Obama is my friend. Mr. President, walk a mile in my shoes. You don't get it. I know you don't get it. What scares the bejezzus out of me is the thought that by the time you do get it,it will be too late.

After reading the entire article from the Post this morning, I read another article, and I quote: The speaker is Steven Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada.

Toronto (JTA)By Ron Csillag · June 1, 2009
"This week in parliament, we will introduce legislation that will give victims of terrorism the power to obtain just compensation from those responsible for their suffering," Harper said. The bill "will allow victims to sue perpetrators and sponsors of terrorist acts, including foreign states, in Canadian courts."

The measure, Harper said, aims to send a "clear message that our government will hold the sponsors and perpetrators of terrorism accountable for their crimes."

"We remain among the world's most vocal in opposition to not only the nuclear program of the government of Iran but also to its malevolent anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish declarations," Harper said.

"It is all too common nowadays for politicians to claim to support Israel and the Jewish people. Yet when Israel is attacked for the umpteenth time, because its enemies refuse to accept the right of the Jewish state to exist, these same politicians are quick to condemn Israel, to accuse it of war crimes and to demand that it unilaterally suspend its right to self-defense,” he said. "You will not hear that kind of double-speak from our government -- ever."

Back to our friend Joe.One storyline in the early 1970s features him trapping his cloud in a special anti-pollutant jar. Joe becomes romantically involved with a gal for the first time—until her crazed ex-boyfriend shows up to kill him! Joe reluctantly opens the jar and releases his cloud in order to take care of the boyfriend, and wistfully realizes that he wasn't meant for any other kind of life. As he returns to his normal, loner existence, his cloud once again in tow, he is for the moment satisfied to be who he really is.

That is how I feel today in Israel...well, not only today but especially today. Do we, in Israel have to accept as normal a loner existence? I thought the world learned a lesson. But maybe I was wrong. And, if so...then I guess Israel is going to have to tread softly but carry a big stick.

May you and yours never have to do what me and mine are doing today. But, my dear friends, I honestly do believe that if the world doesn't stop the black cloud that is growing over our heads, then all of us are going to run into shelters sooner than you think. So, maybe instead of rhetoric and olive branches we have to shake some sabers and...I was going to say 'call a spade a spade', but I don't want in anyway to be thought of as racist, so, instead I will use a Hebrew expression:l'kroh et ha yeled b'shmoh...to call the child by it's rightful name.

Stay safe. Always.

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

TRUST ME...THIS ONE IS TO DIE FOR!!!

2009-05-28T07:33:00.003+03:00

Tonight Jews all over the world begin celebrating the holiday Shavuot. Shavuot means weeks in Hebrew and marks the seven weeks from our Exodus from Egypt to the giving of the Ten Commandments by G-d to Moses. It also is connected to the grain harvest. This is one of the fun holidays. Not the THEY TRIED TO KILL US...WE WON...LET'S EAT...ones. Well, that too. The eating, I mean.

The 'minhag' or tradition is that we only eat dairy meals on Shavot. No one seems to know why so I looked it up...of course I did! So, it says that since we were wandering in the desert and didn't have the laws yet concerning ritual slaughter they ate dairy. Another explanation is from King Solomon...(Song of Songs 4:11) where he portrayed the Torah as HONEY AND MILK ARE UNDER YOUR TONGUE.

After living in Jerusalem now for almost forty years, I am not sure about the land of milk and honey. Sometimes it seems more like the land of rocks and terrorists, but I am optimistic.

So, what am I making for this holiday? I made an eggplant/zucchini/red pepper/feta cheese delight and if any of you are interested then please email me and I will be thrilled to send you the recipe.

I am about to make canelloni stuffed with ricotta and parmesian cheese and baked on a bed of crushed tomatoes seasoned with garlic cloves and oregano and olive oil then covered in more parmesian cheese and bunged into the oven...yahooo.

Then I am making a baked eggplant and mozarella maychle with cherry tomatoes/penne noodles/cheeses and spices and also baked in the oven.

I am contemplating making a quiche with sweet potatoes/leeks/onions/pumpkin/cottage cheese/sour cream and condiments. Ok, sounds good. I'll make that one too.

BUT...AND ARE YOU READY???

I made my sister-in-law's TO DIE FOR CHEESE CAKE!!!

After Bubbie Channah passed away in January and I finally had the time and space to collapse, my husband came home one day carrying a covered cake dish. When asked what it was, he told me that his sister had baked me a cheese cake for Shabbat and hoped I would like it.

LIKE IT??? It is one of those cakes that never gets to a plate...you know the kind. Where everyone walks by with a fork or knife and is 'just evening out the line a little'. See, there are absolutely NO calories if you do that. Honest. Would I lie to you?

OK...GET READY...HERE IS THE RECIPE FOR THE BEST CHEESE CAKE YOU EVER ATE IN YOUR LIVES!!!

150 grams of crushed cookies
150 grams of melted butter
100 grams of grated halva (see I told you!!!)
MIX ALL THESE TOGETHER AND PAT INTO A GREASED PYREX OR SPRING PAN BAKING DISH
(I put it in the oven for a few minutes to set)

400 grams of sweet cream
2/3 cup of sugar
1 package of instant vanilla pudding
a dash of vanilla
BEAT WELL TILL STIFF

500 grams of 5% spreadable white cheese
250 grams of cream cheese
MIX WELL AND ADD TO THE PUDDING MIXTURE

PLACE THE CHEESE ON TOP OF THE COOKIES AND PUT IN FRIDGE FOR AT LEAST FOUR HOURS

1/2 cup of sweet cream
100 grams of bittersweet chocolate
HEAT THE SWEET CREAM AND ADD THE CHOCOLATE. MIX UNTIL THE CHOCOLATE IS MELTED AND SMOOTH. POUR OVER THE CAKE AND PUT BACK INTO THE FRIDGE.

That is it my dear family and friends. Forget the diet and enjoy. Sunday we can all go back to eating cabbage soup. Sigh. The story of my life.

Chag Shavuot Sameach!!!

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

NO THANKS ALL THE SAME

2009-04-28T13:29:00.002+03:00

Today Israel is mourning our dead...soldiers...terrorist victims. Last night the siren went off for one minute and the country came to a halt as one and all stood at attention to remember lost friends and family and strangers who became family.

There are no movie theatres open on Yom HaZikon. The restaurants are closed. There is only a country remembering. And what a country!!!

As I stood at the window watching the traffic come to a halt as people got out of their cars to pay their respect and thank the fallen for the terrible price they paid for us, I cried. And prayed. And cried again.

Then there was the opening ceremony at the Kotel. Peres spoke...the Rabbis spoke...the head of the IDF spoke...all to the point...all eloquently. Yizkor was sung by the Head Hazan from the army. A young man with the voice of an angel brought even more tears to our hearts. Israel mourns her dead and does not take one life for granted.

This morning the siren went off again for another two minutes. But this time as I was standing at attention...for the first time...I realized that my four year old and six year old grandchildren were standing at attention too. That thought took my breath away. Israel is a marvellous country.

If you want to know what Israel really is like come here for two weeks. Start out with Yom HaShoah where we mourn our lost brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, mothers and fathers who were butchered in the Holocaust. Then just a week later we have Yom HaZikaron...today...where...well you know...and tonight we go into Yom HaAtzmaut...Independance Day. Only Independance Day can break the belt of sorrow that clamps around our heart. They were smart, whoever they were, who figured that out.

All the streets around my house are blocked. I live five minutes away from Har Herzel...Mount Herzel and next to it is the military cemetary. All of Jerusalem has gone to visit their fallen loved ones.

That is one club I never want to join. Thank you God for all my blessings. Please watch over Israel. May we know no more sorrow.

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

I'M LEAVING ON A JET PLANE

2009-04-18T10:06:00.002+03:00

Well...it has been so long since I wrote...but the truth is it has taken me this long to come to terms with Bubbie Channah's passing.

It isn't so much that she is gone...and that is really hard. It's just the way she went and the trauma involved.

My brother David says it is the price of the ticket. I think it was a very high price. In my opinion, the elderly...oy I am the elderly...wait...wait...the old people should just be allowed to pass over in their sleep.

That brings me to Pessach or Passover. Tricky,no? What a strange holiday it was this year. First of all I love Pessach. But, this year I wasn't ready for it. Wasn't ready for the excitement of the family gathering...for the work involved changing over the house...for anything. I didn't think I had the energy to even be nice.

You know that's true. Sometimes it takes all your strength to smile and pay attention when people are talking.

But our seder was lovely. The immediate family all gathered at my oldest son's house. And for the first time Sweetsie Tootsie read from the Hagaddah! He's in first grade now you see and can read. Our kids have a great advantage as they understand what they are reading. Big help!

Then the middle portion of the holiday or hol ah moed was only two days instead of a week. Why? Because right after seder we went into shabbat...and the second part of the holiday was the following Tuesday and Wednesday...then again shabbat. Seems like a whole lot of work and before you turn around it is over.

I miss my Mom. I still can't erase her phone numbers from my phones. I still want to call her and share things and tell her stuff. I miss her love and gentleness and intelligence.

So...my youngest...Joe College and I are going back to our roots...Windsor/Colorado/Florida!!!

When? Well between all our busy schedules we can't seem to manage getting away until September. The only problem with that is that Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur are the last two weeks of that month this year. But we're still going. We'll be with the Guv in Windsor...my brother and sister-in-law in Boulder...and my Aunt and Uncle and cousins in Miami! Family. Is there anything more important than family? I don't think so.

My heart is lighter knowing that we are going. I need to be with these people. And add to the mix Maeshey and Donna and everyone we know in those three cities and yahoooo LOVE IS IN THE AIR!!!

I will try to write more...and last night the devil made me join Twitter. Don't ask... now I can jot down all my ramblings in little sentences...my new diary. If you want to come visit I am marallyn or I think @marallyn...but what do I know...I just pushed this and pushed that and there I was!

I'd love to hear from you either here or there.

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

BOOKS, BOOKS, AND MORE BOOKS

2009-03-02T09:21:00.003+02:00

Since my Mom Z'L passed away on January 14th I have become obsessed with owning books. Well, even more obsessed since I always have a bag of wool and a pile of books waiting 'just in case'.

But this time I even bought NEW books! For full price! Imagine!

I got so many emails back on my last post I decided to share some of my books with you. I hope you like them.

MY FATHER'S PARADISE---Ariel Sabar (a son's search for his Jewish past in Kurdish Iraq. My husband was born in Kurdistan in a place called Zakho as is the author's family. I am certain they made aliya together in 1953 and once I get my mind back, I'm going to write to the author and see if they know each other. I asked my brother David to bring the book when he came the first time to be with Ma in the hospital. I wanted to read up about my husband's home and I think it is important for the kids and babies.)

THE MINISTRY OF SPECIAL CASES---Nathan Englander ( Argentina...missing children! I thought this is not for me. But, when I opened the book to scan it and read the names OF some of the characters, I was hooked. The hero is Kaddish Poznan and he hangs around with people named: Talmud Harry, Shlomo the Pin, Hezzi Two-Blades, Coconut Burstein, Hayim-Moshe 'One-Eye' Weiss, Henya the Mute and Bryna the Vagina. How could I leave it on the shelf?)

ONE THOUSAND WHITE WOMEN The Journals of May Dodd---Jim Fergus (brilliant...Guy see who has the rights to this one!!!)

THE SECRET OF LOST THINGS---Sheridan Hay

CHANGE OF HEART---Jodi Picoult ( I read anything she writes)

THE RABBI'S DAUGHTER---Reva Mann (the cover said a true story of sex drugs and orthodoxy...Would you leave it on the shelf?)

MILK GLASS MOON---Adriana Trigiani (I found it for fifty cents in a thrift shop and it said 'buy me, buy me')

THE SUMMER GARDEN---Paullina Simons (looked good...was on sale...buy one get the other at half price...I'll let you know)

THE SPOILS OF TIME TRILOGY---Penny Vincenzi (lovely lovely lovely chick flick books and since both Rena and I buy books by the weight...we read so much that a skinny book is like a bologny sandwich on two slices of white bread...if you get my drift...well these three books are about 900 pages each and a person could gain five kilos while reading them...ahhhh)

THE AFFAIR OF THE NECKLACE---Elizabeth Hand (on sale and I love historical fiction)

THE LAST TESTIMENT---Sam Bourne (on sale Iraqi's, Israeli's, Palestinian's...yahooo)

THE VENETIAN BETRAYAL---Steve Berry ( was 2/3 off and the blurb read: Cotton Malone is back and the stakes were never higher: a deadly virus that could wipe out civilisation as we know it--and a cure that lies buried in the past...yahoooo a cure!)

THE BIRTH OF VENUS---Sarah Dunant (ehhh...not bad)

SOUL SOUNDS---Mary Summer Rain (my kind of book I think...it says it is her own story about her extraordinary life from her childhood to her recent meetings with some very interesting Starborn friends...yahoooo...)

THE YIDDISH POLICEMAN'S UNION---Michael Chabon ( i can't seem to get into this one yet)

ANYTHING BY JOHN LESCROART---(don't we love Dismas Hardy and Lieutenant Abe Glistsky?)

THE SUNDAY PHILOSOPHY CLUB---Alexander McCall Smith (he's the guy who wrote THE NO.1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY)

As you can see, I love books. I love touching them...browsing through them...reading them...and writing them.

As a parent and teacher, I have always pushed books on my children and taught them to love them and respect them. Gone With the Wind...Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn...Little Women...The House on Garibaldi Street...and on and on...

I have real, honest to goodness great friends (you know who you are!)...I have the friends I've met in the novels I've read all my life...and I have my imaginary playmates (the charachters in my own novel)...how absolutely lovely!!! And no one thinks I'm crazy...well everyone thinks I'm crazy but cute.

If you have any books that you've loved along the way, I would love to hear about them.

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

I GOT 45

2009-02-26T13:18:00.003+02:00

I ahem borrowed this from my friend Val's facebook site. I love books. I love reading them, talking about them, writing them, holding them, thinking about them. A good book is a friend.

How did you do?

ps...Since my Mom passed away one of the great comforts I have had as I am trying to heal is reading. I just bought six books a couple of hours ago from the used book store. Yahoooooooo.

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

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.
3) Tally your total at the bottom.

Then tag 20 people and read their responses:

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien x+
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte x
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling x+
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible - x (parts of it)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte x
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell x
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens x
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcottx+
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller x
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare x+
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien x+
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger x
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchel x+
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy x+
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams x
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky x
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck x
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll x+
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame x
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy x+
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens x
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini x
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres x
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden x
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne x
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell x+
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown x
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery x
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert x
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens x
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley x
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck x
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas x
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville x
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens x
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett x
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath x
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens x
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker x+
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert x
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White x
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle x
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery x
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams x
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas x+
98 Beloved - Toni Morrison
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl x
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo x

GOOD NIGHT MRS. KALABASH...

2009-01-30T15:15:00.004+02:00

Have you ever put something away...in a safe place...and then forgotten where you put it? That's how I feel this afternoon about Bubbie Channah Z'L.

I know she's somewhere...I just can't find her. Sigh.

It has been such a very long journey. Six weeks of running to doctors...eight weeks in the hospital...one week of Shiva (mourning)...and then today I finally finished a week of clearing out her apartment. Sigh again.

I find myself running to the phone to tell her something. I find myself running to answer the phone thinking it is her.

Silly for a sixty-four year old woman to need her Mommy so much. But, see...we weren't just mother and daughter. We were friends. We were great friends. And we spoke on the phone at least a thousand times a day.

'Marallyn, I'm off to Hamashbir to get groceries.'
'Marallyn, I'm back. Want to know what I bought?'

'Marallyn, I'm going to MacDonald's.'
'Hi,Marallyn, I'm back. I splurged and got the ice cream sundae.'

'I'm calling to tell you I'm going to throw out the garbage.'
'I'm home.'

And on and on the days went. Until they became dotted with other phone calls. Phone calls crying for help. Phone calls in the middle of the night. I hated those phone calls. But, I rushed to her aid and did what I could.

Today it is done. She is gone. She is buried. My brother and I sat Shiva. Her apartment is cleared out, cleaned up, and ready for new tennants. I handed over the keys.

My brother David taught me how to take back my energy from the house. But he hadn't reckoned with Bubbie Channah.

She talks to me. Don't ask. We now won't have to worry about phone bills. The first time she contacted me was right after we came back from the cemetary after getting up from Shiva.

David and I were beyond exhausted and decided to take a break and grab a little nap. I no sooner closed my eyes when I heard her saying:'Don't be sad about leaving this place. I'm coming back to your house with you. And tell David, I'll come visit.'

Yahoooooo! Ma is talking to me! Yahooooooooo! I don't have to be sad. Yahooooooooooo she's what??? Coming back to my place???

Don't laugh. My place is now filled with her. Her samovar that is a family treasure. Her pictures that she painted. Her brass candlesticks. Her raincoat that I couldn't bear to part with.

Everywhere I go there she is!!!

I just can't find her. See I put her in a safe place. Bye Bubbie Channah. Talk to you soon!!!

Oh, I forgot. About a week and a half before she passed away I called just as shabbat was coming in. We used to phone each other every shabbat and wish each other a gutt shabbess. That Friday, out of habit, I phoned her cell phone and she was lucid enough to answer. We spoke for a few minutes and she did the best thing ever. She asked me to bentch licht...light candles...for her. Wow!!! Finally something I could do for her. I told her I would bentch for her forever.

Now, it's over a month later and I no longer get hysterical about not being able to wish her a gutt shabbess. Now we bentch licht together. Thanks Ma. Oh, by the way in case you forgot...I love you!

Shabbat shalom.

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

JUST A SAD NOTE

2009-01-23T20:18:00.004+02:00

Shalom. It has been much too long since I last blogged, but our Mom...Bubbie Channah got sick and I was spending all of my time taking care of her. The last week of November, she was admitted to Hadassah Hospital with...are you ready for this??? PEMPHIGUS VULGARIS!!! Google it...oyoyoyoyoy!!!

It is an awful disease and without massive doses of steroids no one survives. When the doctors started her treatment...100 mg of predisone a day...I asked if she would survive the cure. They said that they thought she would.

She fought bravely. It was a horrendous journey which she lost last Wednesday at 22:45. I went daily to the hospital and after a month, my brother David, joined me from Boulder, Colorado. It was terrible. Together we spent every day in the hospital. Together we watched our mother fight to conquer this disease. The doctors were still optimistic and after four weeks David left on a Friday to go home. Four days later our mother, Bubbie Channah passed away.

David came back and was here with me for the week of shiva...mourning. I could not have done it without him...without my husband...without my children...without my best friend Rena...and without the unconditional love and support of my family and friends.

Bubbie Channah is finally at peace. She was amazing. I am numb, sad, healing and still running to the phone to call her and tell her something.

To all of you who came to the hospital, to the shiva house, who phoned, who emailed...I will never forget you.

I am preparing an email to send to Hadassah New York telling them about the unbelievable care and love our mother got for eight weeks on the fifth floor of Hadassah Ein Kerem from absolutely everyone in the Dermatology Department. How they fought to save the life of an eighty-five year old woman is a story that needs to be told. I'm working on it now.

I'll write more soon.

Shabbat shalom.

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

QUOTE OF THE DAY

2008-11-09T16:16:00.002+02:00

"The financial situation is so bad...

That Jewish women are marrying for love!"

Hahaha...the Devil made me do it. Sorry, made me laugh out loud and just had to share.

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

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

2008-11-07T15:20:00.003+02:00

I have been getting so much email over the past few weeks telling me why Obama is the best thing since sliced bread and whenever I voiced my concern I was told not to believe the 'hate mongers'...not to be 'paranoic'...not to be 'racist'.

I have a whole list of what I shouldn't be whenever I said how I felt about the man and his wife and most of their friends who have been mentioned and ignored along the way. You know who I mean. The man is TEFLON and nothing sticks to him.

I do not trust him...not with your country and certainly not with mine. I will not mention his wife...oh why the hell not. Anyone who denies their children birthday and Christmas presents is a woman I sure as hell don't want for a Mama!

But...guess what??? The little girls get to have a puppy when they move into the NEW White House. What was wrong with the old one? And it was such a huge thing in the Obama household that Daddy had to mention it on live TV. Yahooo the kids get a dog!!!
Well, if it is good enough for the President Elect, then maybe other families should get their kids a dog. Oh wait...they do!

Have I mentioned along the way how very disappointed I am in our girl Oprah? I mean where would she be without the women of America? And as soon as she had the chance to pay some of them back she picked the guy who happened to share her skin colour. You blew it Oprah. But then, I stopped watching you when I read in your magazine "O" all about the poor suicide bomber girls who just had to blow themselves up because bad, mean Israel made their lives a terror. Wait...wrong word. Not all the Muslims are terrorists, but lately all the terrorists are... You know the rest. I don't want to be labled paraniod or racist again. Walk a mile in my shoes and then let's talk.

I have absolutely no idea why anyone voted for the man. Well, the college kids didn't want Iraq and Afghanistan. The Jews...vey very vey stayed true to their party.

Now we will see what Mr. President Elect Obama does.

Oh yes! His first piece of business was to ask Rohm Emanuel to be his Chief of Staff. How lovely.

My poor email was clogged and choked up with family and friends rushing to tell me about Rohm. See. You over there in Israel don't have anything to worry about. Now since when does the Chief of Staff decide foreign policy? Would have been a lot lovlier if he'd have asked him to be Secretary of State. Now that would have been a real important job.

Sorry all of you. I'm going to sit back and hope and pray that I was wrong and that you are right. In the meantime you lost your credibility when the media became so very one-sided. You lost your freedom when one guy got over 600million dollars to spend on the media. Oh, once again the media. I forgot. Good ol' CNN.

Ok. I think you get it. I didn't want McCain. But I sure would have slept better knowing he was at the helm when the you-know-what hits the fan.

Is Obama the guy they talk about who comes before the Rapture? Now there is a scary thought.

Shabbat shalom.

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

MEET MY PEOPLE

2008-11-03T15:55:00.003+02:00

This article was published in 2007, but I just saw it today. At first I thought I'd send it off to my email list. But, then, I thought it would be better here...where anyone and everyone could see it.

Made me cry.

Then I googled it and it is the real McCoy. Meet meineh mentchen. Bless them.

This took place during the "Israeli Defense Forces and the Second Lebanon War"

When the news came that we were receiving a day off, our hearts soared. We suffered so much stress and hardship. Where would we go? How should we take full advantage of this gift?

Rumors begin to circulate that we were going to some school in Migdal Ha'Emek. "This must be a joke! Who ordered ten buses to bring us to some yeshiva with some Rabbi who is just going to try and brainwash us?"

Then, a few of the guys remembered. "Rabbi Grossman, that's the Disco Rabbi right? The guys all give him great respect." But what do they know? He is still some rabbi.

Tired and emotionally drained, we got off the buses and stood face to face with an old-world looking Jew, complete with a white beard, side locks and long jacket. "So here it comes," I thought, "the push to put on tefillin or to say prayers together. Some day off."

"Boys," the rabbi's words thundered, "I suggest that first thing you do is take a dip in the pool and freshen up. In the meantime, we will make you something to eat."

In amazing simplicity, Rabbi Grossman heard in passing that the brigade was looking for a home for a day, and he immediately volunteered his campus. "What's the problem? 600 soldiers? They should all come, of course we have room!"

With the echoes of war from the battlefield still in our ears, it seemed like a mirage or hallucination. Soft music came from everywhere and flowing water and greenery surrounded us. Within minutes, the tables were set with cold refreshing watermelon, cakes, and beverages, followed by cheeses, fresh vegetables, and soft rolls.

Then we heard, "Out of the pool, get dressed and eat something." We saw piles of new undergarments. 600 new undershirts and underwear appeared as if out of nowhere, laid out on tables for our choosing.

Rabbi Grossman sat with us and laughed, "Have a good time boys! Have a great time! This evening, I will put on the most spectacular performance you have ever seen."

I am not a religious person by any means, but I can't help but envision the first Jew, Avraham, standing and personally serving his guests perfectly naturally and without the slightest hint of condescension. He respected each individual and cared for all their needs. Like Avraham, Rabbi Grossman saw in this an obvious act of kindness, a mission of a Mitzvah that had fallen into his hands. As the evening continued, we learned quickly that this was the essence of who Rabbi Grossman is and what he is all about. He loves everyone and accepts everyone as they are with all his heart and soul.

"Tell me friends," Rabbi Grossman said, "I heard you are lacking different pieces of equipment. Do me a favor. Here is a pencil and paper, just write down everything you are missing and leave the paper on the table." That night, we enjoyed the entertainment and afterwards, slept in soft beds and air-conditioned rooms.

Like in a fairytale, we awoke in the morning and could not believe our eyes. Mounds of gear which we so desperately needed had arrived at Migdal Ohr. Attached was a small note from Rabbi Grossman, "To my dear solders, from all my heart!"

Rabbi Grossman personally and immediately raised over $60,000 worth of equipment from friends literally overnight! The essential equipment included ceramic bulletproof vests, helmets, canteens, knee pads, backpack water canteens, night vision goggles, toothbrushes, socks and more.

Interestingly, a few months before the war broke out, a special friend of Rabbi Grossman from France was interested in donating a new Torah scroll to the main Migdal Ohr Beit Midrash (study hall). For some reason, Rabbi Grossman requested to postpone the event until an unspecified later date.

"Now is the right time!" Rabbi Grossman realized. He immediately made arrangements and in an early evening ceremony, we participated in the completion of writing the Torah. While the scroll was carefully laid on the table next to a special pen and ink, Rabbi Grossman addressed the soldiers.

"My holy ones! I am going to bestow upon you the merit of a holy mitzvah, which can be considered a once in a life time opportunity. Each one of you will complete a letter in the Torah scroll. While you are executing this holy task, each one of you should pray the prayer of his heart and request from G-d that the merit of the letter he has completed will protect him in battle. Holy sparks will emanate from these sacred letters and disperse around you, creating a protective shield which will keep you safe and bring you home safely."

Those moments were the most exciting and emotional ones in my life. Shaking from the intensity of the immeasurable experience, still not believing, we held the edges of the Torah scroll while are hearts beat rapidly. There was complete silence all around. One after the other, we dipped the quill in the ink and completed a letter in the Torah scroll.

A bystander would have seen a breathtaking scene of incredible elation and spiritual exuberance. The world seemed as if shrouded in silence. The strings of our heart felt strummed and the tears flowed freely down our cheeks.

"Mother!" cried one of the soldiers into his cell phone, "you won't believe what I have done! I have written a letter in a Torah scroll! Mother, are you there? Can you hear?! Me, a Shmutznik (a member of a non-religious Kibbutz), who can't differentiate between Shabbat and the rest of the week, who has not seen tzizit (ritual garment) in my life. Me, I wrote a letter in a Torah scroll! I can't believe it. I can't believe it."

After the completion of the Torah, the ceremony continued. Leading the procession was a decorated car with multi-colored lights strung all over it and with a crown of lights spinning around on its roof. Following the car, bearers of a decorated canopy marched while people danced around it. Under the canopy, others held the Torah scroll, which was clothed in white and crimson with a silver crown at its top.

600 soldiers and thousands of the town residents marched and danced in the procession, a loud speaker accompanying them, playing traditional Jewish music.

As the ceremony came to a close, Rabbi Grossman approached every soldier and kissed him while placing a half-shekel coin in his hand and said "shliach mitzvah aino nezok," messengers of a mitzvah are not harmed. Rabbi Grossman concluded, "When you return, G-d willing, healthy and unharmed, you will fulfill this mission I am placing upon you, and you will donate this money to charity."

The night came. Twelve buses made their way atop the Galilee Mountains. Heavy darkness engulfed us, yet behind, in the growing distance, a bright flame pierced the night sky. In the midst of war and violence, we found love and unending human compassion at Migdal Ohr, the educational center established in Migdal Ha'Emek by Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman.

Rabbi Grossman speaks

"This was an immense "Kiddush Hashem." For a long period of time, I cried and was very emotional." Thus Rabbi Grossman recalled the moment when he first read the words above written by First Lieutenant M.

Rabbi Grossman has what to add to the end of this exciting memoir. "A moment before they returned to Lebanon, I told the soldiers, 'in the merit that you said "shema" and put on tefillin, wrote a letter in the Torah, and are messengers of a mitzvah, I promise you, that you will all return safe and sound. None of you will be wounded or killed.'"

"Wasn't the Rabbi scared to commit to 600 soldiers that they would return home safe and sound?" asked Shula Weissfer, a journalist. "That is what came out of my mouth word for word," he replied. "This was a moment of exuberance."

"I continued and told them," Rabbi Grossman relates, "if this does actually happen that you come back safely, the first place you must come back to - before you go home - is Migdal Ohr. We will thank G-d together and from there we will say goodbye." I told them, "think of this as an emergency call-up. Do you accept?" The commanding officer replied in the affirmative.

Two weeks later, around midnight, Rabbi Grossman received a phone call. "Rabbi, your blessing has come true!" exclaimed the commander over the phone. "Everyone is safe and we are on our way to you. We will be there by two o'clock in the morning"

Rabbi Grossman immediately contacted the kitchen staff and asked them to prepare a meal while he worked to organize a band. People asked him 'You need a band at 2 a.m.? Is Moshiach here?'"

At 2:30 a.m. the soldiers disembarked from the buses, each one carrying 60 kilo of equipment on his back. The band started playing music and the soldiers approached Rabbi Grossman, each one lovingly received with a hug and a kiss. This continued for two hours. "I felt as I had never felt before," recalls Rabbi Grossman. "Each one told me his personal miracle."

One soldier, a kibbutznik and a lawyer in civilian life, relayed an incredible miracle. A group of soldiers were gathered in an empty house in a Lebanese village when one of them forgetfully lit a cigarette.

Hezbollah terrorists immediately noticed the light and fired an anti-tank missile at the house. Coincidentally, two horses from the village ran in front of the house and were hit and killed. The missile, deflected by the horses, veered away from the house, landing elsewhere. Incredibly, the horses miraculously saved the soldiers inside the house.

After the warm reception, the soldiers recited "birkat hagomel," and together with Rabbi Grossman, sang and danced until daybreak. "To this day," says Rabbi Grossman, "we maintain contact with each soldier and have thus become one family."

Rabbi Grossman is a recipient of the "Award of Recognition for his Actions on Behalf of Soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces and the Second Lebanon War"

Original article written by Shula Weissfer

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

JUST WONDERING

2008-11-01T18:09:00.003+02:00

Have you ever fallen asleep in the afternoon and woken up a few hours later thinking it's tomorrow morning? And, what a feeling of relief, when you find out it isn't?

You have? Me too! As a matter of fact that just happened a half hour ago. See, I love shabbat. I love everything about shabbat. But the thing I love the MOST about shabbat is the little afternoon nap we all indulge in.

You don't have to be old...you don't have to be a little kid...everyone loves a little shloffie shabbat afternoon. Actually, I think it is a law.

It is finally cold enough now in Jerusalem that I had to pull down my feather comfortor...the big one. I love that blanket. Weighs nothing. Is a mountain tall. And warm...ahhhhhhhh. Sometimes, I even put a hot water bottle down under the blanket to get the sheets warm before I climb in.

Does it make me sound like some old biddy saying I have a hot water bottle? My friend Rena has an electric sheet. I tried that once, and as soon as my bones hit that heat I fell into a blissful sleep until I woke up sweating and thinking I'd been sent to Hell!

With a hot water bottle, if you get too hot and are sleeping because 'as soon as your bones...' you get it...well, you just push it away with a hand or foot and continue sleeping like a baby. Happy, warm, contented. Lovely.

Where was I? Oh. Lost between today and tomorrow.

There are moments when I wish it was tomorrow already. And even some moments when I wish it was yesterday. Those don't last long as I know if I go back in time I'll have to go through the bad as well as the good and I don't want to do that a second time. Nope...I'm betting on tomorrow.

Sixty-four has it's blessings. But you have to have a great sense of humour. It all happened because I love turkey necks. I love them in soup. I love them cooked. And I decided to try baking them in the oven. Came out gorgeous, but a little tough.

There I was biting and chewing and having one hell of a grand time when I felt something hard in my mouth. Thinking it was a piece of bone, I gingerly picked it out and upon examination I realized I'd popped out one of the teeth from my bottom partial. (There are no secrets between us, right?) Appalled, I ran to the mirror and sure enough...horrors of horrors...oy vey oy vey there was a hole in my mouth where the little tooth used to be.

I immediately called my cousin Sheldon the dentist who said I could come in the next day. I thought when you pulled teeth you were done...don't you believe it. Sigh. Well, I had made plans to go sleep over at my babies that night and tooth or no tooth I was going to the pajama party.

Sweetsie Tootsie, who is now six and in first grade...Did I tell you that the second day of school, he turned to the kid next to him and said, "I get it. It's boring here. I'm going home." And together those two pagromchiks picked themselves up, walked out of class, out of the school, out the school yard and crossed two big streets and walked home! The short version is, he won't do that again. :)

Back to my story. My daughter-in-law and the two babies came to pick me up and Sweetsie Tootsie, who has lost two bottom teeth already, took one look at me and said, "Bubbie! Did the Tooth Fairy give you twenty shekels too?"

Wouldn't it be nice if it was that simple?

OK. Godda run. Big Brother, Israeli version is on soon. I know, I know, but I'm hooked. Pitiful isn't it? Hope I don't fall asleep as soon as my tush hits the blanket.

Shavuah tov!!!

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

THE MEN IN MY LIFE

2008-10-26T23:45:00.002+02:00

I just wrote the Guv that I spoke to three of the men in my life tonight. My son, Joe College who is studying for a semester in Holland. Hebrew U. Law School (you notice how I tossed that in?) has an exchange program this year and he was accepted in Rotterdam.

What a great opportunity for anyone. To spend three, four months in a European city, studying and living like a native. And Europe...Brussels is a two hour train trip away. My son met his/my cousins Romie and Larissa who spent an entire day wining and dining him and a good friend, who was accepted for a semester in Belgium. How do you thank someone for loving your child like they did? And the feeling was mutual. My kid loves them. My heart is filled with awe.

My Dad AH came back from WWII, the Big One, with glowing stories of Belgium and Holland. He always wanted to go back and now there is my son making the trip for him. How marvellous.

Then I spoke to my two brothers...Dovidle who was born with the same biological parents as I have and Maeshey who lived up the street and became one of us when he was seven, I think.
Well, Maeshey is in Colorado for the weekend working with Dovidle on a project that is exciting to all of us and when I can I will tell you all about it. The only bad thing is that they are there and I am here. When I was in Boulder last month, Maeshey and his wonderful daughter came for a few days and it was an amazing amazing experience. Never mind that it had been almost fifty years since the three of us were together in the same room. All of a sudden it was as if they were eight and ten again and telling secrets. I'll tell you about it one day.

There are three other men in my life...my husband, my oldest son, and sweetsie tootsie the six year old. They are 'my at home, men' and fill my life with everyday kind of wonders. Did I tell you that sweetsie tootsie started first grade this year? Yes, my baby is a big boy. On day two he turned to a new friend and said, "I get it. It's boring. I'm going home." The other kid thought that was a grand idea and together these two pagromchiks walked out of class, walked out of the school, and after crossing two big streets, walked home! Thank God they are all right. The final word is that they aren't going to do that again. My son and his wife (this is a post about men) took care of that.

I love being the daughter of...the wife of...the sister of...the sisterinlove of...the mother of...the bubbie of...the friend of...I like that a lot.

I have to go now. I just remembered something I have to share with the guys. Off I go to phone the States. Yahoooooo.

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

WITH ALL GOOD INTENTIONS

2008-10-25T09:40:00.003+02:00

As much as I have tried to keep my blog up-to-date, I just seem to get bogged down with family issues and life in general. So my New Year's resolution...Rosh Ha Shanah :)...is that I will try better.

It isn't, God forbid, that I don't have what to say. Moi??? Never!!!

So, here we go. My thoughts for today are these:
Thank you France...I never thought I'd say that...for getting a letter to Gilad Schalit, our soldier captured by Hamas 28 months ago. Other than being allowed his glasses from home, this is the first letter he's received.

I am on a final...for the time being...polishing up of my novel 'Emma Shelby is No More' and the plan is that it will be done by January when off she goes to California.

I am almost finished my next novel 'Jerusalem Stones' which started out to tell one story and ended up telling another. And, the whole is bigger and better than the sum of the parts. Well, I think so, anyways.

I don't understand how anyone could vote for Barak Obama. I know, I know...I have my friends and family in the States sending me gazillion emails telling me where I am way off base. But 'splain me Lucy. Why? All I can come up with is that Hillary paid for people not liking her husband and the rest want to get rid of the Republicans at any and all costs. But, as I keep asking my fine family and friends...what if I am right and you are wrong? What is the plan? I asked the same of my left-wing friends who insisted that leaving Lebanon and the Gaza Strip would bring Valahlla. I asked them...what if you are wrong? What is the plan? They, as the Obama folk, just say nothing. See, they don't have a plan. And we all know what happened here in Israel. So I think instead of getting Valhalla we are going to get Oy Vey instead. Time will tell.

I am finally over the jet-lag from my trip to the States. Let me tell you that was the very best trip I have had ever ever ever. What a treat! Thank you--you know who you are.

Bubbie Channah is still pulling herself together after her terrible bout with shingles and then her fall. Slowly but surely she is climbing back out of the months of pain and misery. Poor Bubbie Channah. Not fair!

Dovidle and Maeshey are together in Colorado this weekend. I want to play too.

And, finally. Guess what I discovered...never mind I'll tell you. Turtle Dairy Queens. If you are lucky enough to live in a place where they have them run, don't walk, to your nearest branch and order a big one. And take a bite...no fifty, for me!
Ambrosia!

The holidays are over and tomorrow we go back to work and school and life. Yahooo. Loved the holidays and love getting back into my old routine. It rained yesterday. I love the rain and it's supposed to rain again this week. Yahoooo.

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

SHANA TOVA AND GMAR HATIMA TOVA!!!

2008-10-07T20:27:00.002+02:00

I know...I know...it has been forever since I last wrote...but I do have a reason.
See, my mom has not been well these past six months. Nothing serious, but awful just the same. And as her caretaker I sort of fell apart from the responsibility and the worry.

So, my husband, God bless him, decided to send me to the states for three weeks. To my brother Dovidle and his wife. Yahoooooo.

Three weeks in the Rocky Mountains where the only noise you hear out your window is...nothing. No noise. My brother and his wife also have hybrid cars and they don't make any noise either.

Actually a person can go nuts from all that quiet. I mean, I'm Israeli. We shout and holler and wave our hands and that's only to say 'Hi, How are you?'

See, my plan was to go there with my laptop for three weeks and just sit quietly and write.

You know that expression, Mahn tracht, un God lacht...man makes plans and God laughs.

It was a great grand wonderful hoot of a time. As soon as I arrived my brother and his partner were hosting a seminar on stress management. Dovidle asked me if I thought that was something I could be interested in and then fell down laughing.

It was brilliant! And I made two new wonderful friends...Mary Alice and Mary Jean...wow new friends!!!

Then my brotherinlove Maeshey and his daughter Nikki arrived for four days and we ran and talked and hugged and hugged some more and filled our hearts with joy. The last time Maeshey and Dovidle and I were in the same room together was close to fifty years ago!!! We just picked up like it was yesterday and the umbilical cord is stronger than ever. How lucky are we???

Then Annie...my sisterinlaw's mom and sister arrived. I love them. A whole big fat lot I love them.

And finally I made two more dear dear friends...Barbara and Lovey (Carol but everyone calls her Lovey and it is a perfect name for her).

Have you ever met someone for the first time and known you love them??? That's Barbara and Lovey.

Ok. Now I'm back where I belong in Jerusalem. Remind me sometime to tell you about my flight home. That was a story!!!

I wish you all a sweet, healthy happy blessed peaceful shana tovah! I wish you all gmar hatima tova...and may you all be enscribed for a wonderful year. I hope you have an easy fast.

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

SCARED TO DEATH

2008-08-24T09:55:00.002+03:00

Sometimes even the best ideas can turn into a nightmare. Friday night, my daughter phoned and asked to speak to her father.

'Sure,'I said and handed the phone over to my husband.

After speaking with her for a few moments he gave me back the phone.

'Hi, honey, how was the beach?'I asked as she and my youngest took off for the afternoon to the beach in Herzliya.

See, my youngest, Joe College is leaving on Thursday for four months study at Erasmus College in Rotterdam, Holland. The Hebrew U. Law School opened this program to third year students and he was accepted. Actually, he wanted Belgium and was next on the list but Holland is great too. Three kids are off to Holland, my kid and two girls he knows and together they have rented a place for the semester. Very expensive in Europe these days.

So, my kids, who are very close, decided to spend a few hours out of Jerusalem having fun and talking and just spending time together. They were always doing that as children, and how marvellous they still want to do that as young adults.

Anyway, after telling me what a marvellous time they had my daughter asked, 'Imma, did you put a birthday gift for me in my house this afternoon?'

'No.Besides, you gave my key to your neighbour, remember?'
'Oh,yes.'
'Why?'
'When I got home I found a stuffed animal and an incense burner next to my TV. Abba says it wasn't him. Who could it be from? And who got into my flat?'

That was the end of sleep for the weekend! She called everyone. No one had any idea. I already was ready to call out the police/vigilantes/bring her home to live...anything to keep her safe.

Every time I phoned her I made her a nervous wreck. Isn't that what mom's are supposed to do?

This morning she phoned.
'Imma, we found out who it was. It was Yossi, the guy who works for Abba. He couldn't
come paint my flat on Friday, and knew it was my birthday last week, so he bought me a gift and stuck it through the window.'

'I'll kill him!'Actually, that is what I thought but not what I said. What I said was something like 'Thank God!!!! How did you find out? What is the matter with him?'stuff like that.

Poor Yossi meant well. He wanted to give her something for her birthday and when he found she wasn't home, instead of waiting till Sunday...a regular working day here in Israel...he shoved it through the window. Now, Yossi cannot be the brightest light in the box, since he didn't think maybe it would be nice if he added a little note. Something simple like 'I am not a serial killer and I don't have a key to your flat.'

Would that have been too difficult?

At this point I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart the following people who helped me get through this weekend: my brother Dovidle and his wife, Maeshey, Rena, Bubbie Channah, and Marianne. If I didn't have a heart attack or stand guard in front of her door for two days with a broom or something in my hand, it is due to your love, support and calmness. Well, all except for Rena...she is as nuts as I am. Sigh.

All's well that ends well. Hey that is a good title for a...

Shavuah tov...a sweet week.

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

MY DOCTOR'S WIFE SAID

2008-08-21T08:30:00.003+03:00

My doctor and I have a great realationship. I trust him with my life and he thinks I'm the funniest thing since Roseanne Barr. I look forward to seeing him and getting the answers to 'what is wrong, please let it be nothing!' and he looks forward to hear what is new in my ahem boring life.

See, we like each other. And he is one of the good guys.

Once, a few years ago he told me that his wife finally revealed what the most wonderful feeling in the world was to her and he wanted to share it with me. He said, "She said, 'The feeling my tush feels when it is in the seat of a plane!'"

I never forgot it. And Mrs.Dr.R. is absolutely correct. There are some things that can't be replaced for decadent wonderfulness. Like serious chocolate...or fresh crisp sheets...or a great cup of tea when your throat is sore...or taking off your shoes (used to be girdle but no one wears THEM any more) and putting on your old fluffy slippers. And maybe a hot bath or shower when you just need to feel refreshed.

Ever time I fly I think of my doctor's wife. And I smile.

When you're right...you're right!

I have not had a pleasure vacation in a very long time. The last two trips I made were for business and although they were wonderful there was a stress and tension added to the sweetness. This trip is mine...all mine. And every one who has decided to camp out at my brother's place to see me.

It was supposed to be my brother and his wife and I just roaming around and chilling out and doing our things. I was/am bringing my laptop and intended to use the time to heal from the five hysetrical months of caring for Bubbie Channah and write. Sigh...ahhhhh....the things that dreams are made of.

Then my brotherinlove said he could join us and was bringing his daughter who I absolutely adore. The pleasure was now notched up at least a thousand rungs. I am counting the minutes till we are all together again. The last time that Maeshey and my brother and I were in the same room together was in the 60's before I left for Israel. Maeshey moved to California, Dovidle moved to Coloradao and although we have met individually, we haven't...you get it. So we are on big-time excitement here!!!

And, my sister-in-law's mother and sister said they could come from Springfield, Illinois! Yahoooo. I love her family!!! Shove up that pleasure thermometer, froggy!

And, when my cousin Allan found out I was coming to Colorado, he wanted to come visit from Las Vegas!!! Yahoooooo again!!!

So, I figure I will have maybe five minutes to write on my laptop and three weeks of joy and love. How good is that?!?

Btw...if you want to join us in Boulder, I think we have a day or two where there will be an extra bed! But, shhhhh, don't tell my sister-in-law...she is being a brick about the whole thing!!! Me? I would be having a serious neverous breakdown. The Queen of the Summer is definitely Annie, who has opened her heart and home to me and the Russian Army!!!

Yahooooooooo. Glad to be back. Have missed you and this!!!

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

HIIIIIIIIIII HONEY I'M HOME

2008-08-19T11:27:00.004+03:00

Well...the truth is I thought I'd be back here a long time ago, but then life took over. You know that old expression, "Life is what happens when you are busy making plans."

My Mom, Bubbie Channah is now 85 bless her...like one of the million doctors we have gone to in the past five months said, "You should live and be well until 137." A hundred and thirty-seven? Not a hundred and twenty? "Yes," he said, "including V.A.T" :)))

Ma has had a bunch of little things go wrong and then on July 1st was the biggie! Bubbie Channah got shingles. For those of you who are lucky enough not to know about shingles let me give you the shortened version. Shingles is the virus that causes Chicken Pox...remember the one where you were warned NOT TO SCRATCH? So, this vicious virus attcks people when they aren't looking and causes the worst pain and the most horrible rash I have ever seen in my life. Honest, I thought my mother had leprosy...scurvy...stuff you only read about. Huge mushroom like things in a row!!!

Then we started the business whith what pills to take and how to get her out of pain. The short version is it took two months of which I spent at least three or four days a week with her.

The good news is that a few weeks ago Prince Valiant aka my husband came to my rescue with a ticket to go visit my brother and his wife in Boulder, Colorado for three weeks in September.

Not only am I going, but knowing that I had a ticket helped me get over the really rough patches with my mom.

So, here I am again and I think I can finally get back to blogging and visiting with you all.

Emma!!! Emma has been rewritten and my mentor/friend/brotherinlove/dearest darling in California is not only waiting to get his hands on her again BUT will be joining me at my brother's (he is officially our other brother since we adopted him when we were about twelve/eight and he was ten) and he is bringing his daughter who will be leaving the week later for a year at Oxford!!! Yahoooo.

It was not easy rewriting Emma and finding the original excitement and enthusiasm, but it's done. Probably will need a new rewrite but at least now all the pieces are in place. I will let you know.

OK. Bubbie Channah just called and is having lunch in Mervad HaKsamim which we lovingly call Two Steps...probably lentil soup. Go Bubbie!

I have done all the ironing/made a salad/chicken burgers and am waiting for my student. Then off to meet Rena for dinner. A belated birthday dinner for me and an early one for her. Any excues to party!!!

Hope all is well with you and yours.

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

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

2008-05-31T09:54:00.002+03:00

No, this time it isn't about food...but about prayer.

I say Tehilim, Psalms, every morning. For a few minutes every day the world is blocked out and I sit and talk with God. Now, God and I have had a running conversation going for since forever, but this is different.

This isn't the 'That's cute God' kind of conversation when the egg or oil spills on the floor and I have to figure out how to get it up so no one slips and does themselves a damage.

No, this is serious, in Hebrew, talking. Between us, sometimes I hate putting what I need aside to daven, but the moment the first page is opened a peace fills me and I'm glad I'm taking the time.

Then, a few days ago I got an email from a friend in the States. We have never met. She is one of the wonderful list of people who found me and have been praying for me and mine and Israel. I love these new friends. And, in my heart, I feel that their prayers are like an umbrella. How wonderful, no?

Well. What I received was an email titled Five Finger Prayer.

The truth is that at first I thought, 'Oh no. Another one of those 'send this off to your list or else' emails. But I love this woman and opened it and read it.

Now, after I have added this to my davening. It is so simple and makes so much sense. \\

So, I decided to share it with all of you.

1. YOUR THUMB-is nearest to you. So begin your prayers by praying for those closest to you. They are the easiest to remember. To pray for our loved ones, is, as C.S.Lewis once said, 'a sweet duty'.

2. THE POINTING FINGER is next. Pray for those who tack, instruct and heal. This includes teachers, doctors, and religious leaders. They need support and wisdom in pointing others in the right direction. Keep them in your prayers.

3. THE TALLEST FINGER. It reminds us of our leaders. Pray for the leaders of our countries, leaders in business and industry, and administrtors. These people shape our nations and guide public opinion. They need God's guidance.

4. THE RING FINGER. Surprising to many is the fact that this is our weakest finger, as any pioan teacher will testify.l it should remind us to pray for those who are weak, in trouble or in pain. They need our prayers and we can't pray too much for them.

5. THE LITTLE FINGER. The smallest finger of all which is where we should remember to think about ourselves. By the time you ahve prayed for the other four groups, your own needs will be put into proper perspective and you will be able to pray for yourself more effectively.

My fingers remind me of all the people I want to remember and sometimes forget.

Anyhow, I just thought you might like to see this.

Thanks for praying for me and wanting me and mine to be safe. I want you and yours to be safe too.

Shabbat shalom.

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

SCATTERGORIES

2008-05-24T14:14:00.003+03:00

Well, I could take the time to write about our Prime Minister...is he nuts?

And since I wrote about my feelings about Obama, I got lots of mail...pro and con.

So, instead I'm going to send you out a list I got from Chavaleh.

I had fun with this. A lot more fun that talking about our Prime Minister. Does he really think that the Syrians are going to give up terror and be nice guys? Maybe I should sell him a bridge. No, where he's going, he needs a saw. Sigh.

No more Prime Minister.

This is alllllllllllll about me.

Called SCATTERGORIES – it’s harder than it looks, but oh such fun.
Use the first letter of your first name to answer each of the following.
They have to be real places, names, things - nothing made up. You
can not use your own name for the boy/girl names.
yahooooo!!!!

If you'd like you can send me your answers via my email. marallyn@gmail.com

1. What is your name? marallyn
2. A 4 letter word: mind
3. A vehicle: mustang
4. A city: melasurej…ok, moscow
5. A boy's name: merlin
6. A girl's name: morgan
7. Alcoholic drink: manhattan
8. An occupation: musician
9. Something you wear: moccasins
10. A celebrity: marilyn monroe
11. A food: marshmallows
12. Something found in a bathroom: misty mirrors
13. Reason for being late: missed the bus
14. Something you shout: merde!
15. An animal: monkey
16. A body part: muscles
17. Word to describe yourself: mystical

Shabbat shalom

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

ANOTHER MIRACLE IN THE HOLY LAND

2008-05-17T09:38:00.002+03:00

Well President Bush and Laura and all the fancy people have gone home after a week of meetings and ceremonies celebrating Israel's 60th.

I listened carefully to what everyone said. I watched the body language and smiles and tears. And, I cried along with them.

But, the man who stood out for me was our Presidnt Shimon Peres.

Now, I am, and never have been, a fan of our President. My wariness of him goes back a long way.

But...let me tell you he is brilliant in this job. Brilliant.

I recently watched a YouTube clip where he spoke to a graduating high school class. It was held in the school's gym and was very informal. The only sign of importance was that there were security men in the background.

Peres spoke softly to these kids. He told them not to listen to their parents or teachers or friends. That this group of people found fault, looked for what was lacking, or was simply jealous.

Instead, the kids should look into their own hearts and see how special they all are. Even more special then they, themselves knew.

He told them not to pay attention to history! That history was in the past and dead. But, instead, to look towards the future. To dare...to trust themselves...to dream and not worry if anyone was laughing at them.

He spoke of the future revolving around technology, water, and nanotechnology. And what their role would be in shaping the world.

I was spellbound. Me! Peres!!!

Then I watched him this week and listened to his speeches.

The truth is that only Shimon Peres could have attracted this amazing group of people to come here for the President's Conference. You know who they were. You read the articles in your newspapers and watched TV.

And I listened and watched President Bush. He was touched and he touched me.

And I listened to Bibi...our Leader of the Opposition. Great speeches.
And Dalia Itzik...our Speaker of the Knesset. She used to be my neighbour and she is not a woman to be taken lightly. But, she gave some great speeches. Strong words. So, I'm watching her carefully too.

And then Obama tried to steal the limelight and point a finger at President Bush. My Daddy, AH used to say, 'Marallyn, every time you point a finger at someone, remember that you are pointing three more back at yourself.'

Since when is the American election so personal and how come everyone is pussyfooting around this terrible man? I still have absolutely NO idea why anyone would vote for him. Can you explain this to me? Ok, I get the idea about CHANGE...but has he said what change? The man is surrounded by bad guys. The man and his wife are scary.

And for the cherry on the ice cream...Hamas LOVES OBAMA!

Sigh.

Ok, back to my miracle. I think I fell in love with Shimon Peres this week. I guess the old Yiddish expression...Ahz mehn lebt, derlebt mehn is right. If you live long enough you can experience everything.

Shabbat shalom to you all.

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