Blog/May 2010/May 28th

May 28th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

This week was busy with all kinds of things. Sarah and I had medical appointments. Esther and I were inundated with work. There was a Home Defense drill Wednesday. I released a new version of my software. We visited my cousins and tried a 'new' Indian restaurant. And best of all, Daniela came back home!

Daniela came yesterday, after a long flight which was delayed an hour on departure as well as on arrival; she was pretty tired. But she arrived safely, B"H! and is now torturing her sister. She'll be here until August, so we're pretty happy.

Though she was tired, she accompanied us as we went out with my cousins to try a new (for us) Indian place. Now, all of us (except Sarah) like Indian food. A lot. So we were excited to try a new place, though reviews were mixed. The first Sign of Trouble was that this place was way off the beaten path, and there were no signs pointing to where it was. We asked some people, who just told us to "keep on the road, you'll see signs". Eventually we got to the place, where the second SoT was noticed: we were the only customers. The third SoT was that half the items on the menu were "not available". The fourth SoT was the minor swarm of flies buzzing around the table as we awaited the arrival of the food. The final SoT was that all the flies left when the food arrived! As I said, I really enjoy Indian food -- this was the most pale imitation of Indian cuisine one could imagine. Way under-spiced, oily, and not colorful. We will not be returning there.

I released a new version of Reva this week, with the considerable help of a 'fan'. It even got a good review from a tough customer, so that's encouraging. Next week, we have a wedding to attend on Sunday. On Monday a high-school friend of mine is visiting so we'll be with him and his wife. I think that's all the excitement for next week.

I've mentioned many times why online privacy is broken and that in the modern online environment one can say good-bye to privacy. This week I had an unpleasant experience on Facebook, where I was having a discussion with a friend and a "third party", on my friend's page. The third-party copied my statements and posted them in a public page, taking them far out of context. This is against Facebook's policy -- but I was unable to report the particular problem to FB, because they simply don't have a mechanism to report private copyright infringement. You can report infringement of commercial copyright; but even though you retain copyright to anything you post on FB (according to their policy statement) there is little you can do about it. Feh on Facebook!

Chutspah corner:

In a dazzling display of chutspah (gall, nerve, effrontery), Rahm Emmanuel, who came to Israel to "bar-mitsvah his son", tried to stick Israel with his restaurant bill. Later reports say our government denies he did this. But what they don't deny is that someone who is widely considered as being an observant Jew, was deliberately eating a (very) non-kosher meal, with an Israeli government representative, in public. In an even more astonishing display of chutspah, Obama called the beheading of Daniel Pearl h"yd "one of those moments" that "captures the imagination". Wow. And in even more chutspah, the Muslims in NYC are attempting to build a mosque to replace a building which was damaged by their co-religionists in the 9/11 jihadi attacks. I suppose that "Jews for Jesus" recruiting in Tel Aviv also counts as chutspah. At least their leader left this mortal coil this past week, שם רשעים ירכב!

Odd news:

As Esther stood waiting for her bus into work, she was approached by a woman. This woman asked her where she lived, so Esther told her. Then she said to Esther, "I see your husband takes the bus every morning". I don't know how she knew I am Esther's husband, as we don't go on the same bus -- and I don't know this woman. And furthermore, she lives two streets away from us! We lived in our last house in the US for almost ten years, but we only barely knew the next-door neighbors. Now, only three years after making aliyah it seems like we know (or are known by) all sorts of people we never even heard of. Just struck me as odd, and a bit eerie.

Grab bag:

• Demonstrating love
• South Korea really has cause to be worried, now that the US is 'supporting them'. The US "supports Israel" too ...
• The Red Cross is training the Taliban in first-aid.
• It is not permitted to wear chicken suits at the polls in Nevada.
• My friend Fred thinks it odd that the Talmud mentions chicken heads as a children's toy. Well, think again, Fred; think again!

Daniela's friend is staying with us this shabbat. Though we'll be having shabbat dinner at a friends house, for the rest of the meals we've got: meatballs, rice, eggplant-potato bake, a variety of salatim and homemade ice-cream.

Until next week,
Shabbat shalom !

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