Blog/December 2008/Dec 26th

December 26th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

Lots of stuff... where do I begin?

Plumbing -- we have a love/hate relationship with it. On the one hand, it's convenient and useful. On the other hand, when it "backs up" -- whoa! -- you don't want to be near it. This week we finally got our sewage system fixed (thank God!). At first, we called the contractor we had used to redo our internal plumbing. He said he would send out his plumber... which he did, after five days of nagging. The (Arab) plumber showed up without any actual tools, and after poking about ineffectually with a rubber tube told us he would have to order a biuvit -- which is a sewage-sucking truck. My neighbor (who is also a plumber) said, "ma pitom!" (Hebrew for, "what are you, stupid?"), "you only need a blickibobberheim". I didn't know what that was, but he recommended some other plumber (a Jew) who lives locally. So we got him to come over the next day and he fixed the problem, without a sewage-sucking truck (it turns out the blickibobberheim [not its actual name] is simply a set of mating rods with a spiral cutting thing on the end, which are fed into the muck and pushed in until they hit an obstruction. Low-tech, but effective.

Speaking of plumbing, I've mentioned before that people seem to feel it is OK to urinate in public here. It's as though they think they are wearing an invisibility cloak. Some jokers put up signs in an English city claiming it was legal to relieve oneself publicly there. In India it may be fatal. And in Pakistan it's apparently just part of the scenery.

This past shabbat we hosted two very nice seminary girls. My daughters told me "please don't be weird". Wasn't that nice of them? Anyway, we had a very pleasant shabbat and I think we'll join the program they were part of so we can host more often.

Hanukkah is here! The festival of lights. The celebration of religious fanatics' intolerance for assimilationists. The holiday of the sufganiyah. I never did like sufganiyot, but once a year I have one or two. And that suffices to confirm to me why I don't like them. On the other hand, it's also the holiday of the latke (levivot, or potato pancake) -- and B"H, Esther's latkes are absolutely the best I've ever had, even if she says so herself! We also have the obligatory meal of falafel, and today I'm having malawaH for breakfast -- so I think we've fulfilled the custom of eating oily foods during Hanukkah, to the fullest extent possible...

Esther decided to get us a "family Hanukkah present". We were excited, the anticipation building until she unveiled... Boggle ... in Hebrew, no less! Those of you who know my lovely wife, are probably aware that despite her being a non-native English speaker, she consistently beat all of us (by a large margin) in Boggle. So Sarah and I were understandably apprehensive at the arrival of this latest "gift". However, to be honest, Hebrew is a great equalizer. All three of us stink at it, and since we all learned Hebrew in different ways, we come up with completely different lists of words. So it's not so bad after all... but next year, she should look for something more neutral, like dueling pistols or something.

The run for the national elections is heating up. Next week we'll know exactly which lists are running and who is on them. For now, it seems there are a record number of lists contending for our votes (in February). After Netanyahu's dirty tactics vis-a-vis Feiglin, the more right-leaning public is shying away from Likud. We'll see how it goes after we know who's actually in the running.

Work has calmed down a little; probably more because the year-end holidays mean there is no-one to talk to in India right now. But I was also able to get my portion of the project under control. Now we have to finish getting things cleaned up, and make the customer happy.

Just a bit more about the "astronomy club" I mentioned several weeks ago: I haven't heard anything more about it. However, there is a pre-military high-school here in Maale Adummim, which is geared toward producing Air Force officers. Among other things, they have some really nice telescopes there and one of the people associated with the school (I'm not sure in what capacity) is organizing an "astronomy club".

We've got nice cold weather now; about 10C (50F) during the day, which by Israeli standards is freezing. People are out in their parkas. It rained nicely yesterday, the Kinneret has risen 4 or 5 cm in the past several days. Let's hope it continues to rise!

Until next week,
Shabbat shalom!

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