Blog/January 2010/Jan 22nd

Jan 22nd (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

Personal news first, as promised:

• Esther's doula client gave birth without her. This, after having Esther accompany her to the hospital a day before she needed to go. So she got all the sleep deprivation without actually seeing the baby...
• Sarah went on an interview for sherut leumi this week. She went to Efrat, where there is supposed to be a program to help new English-speaking immigrants. She won't know for some time where she's going to actually end up, however.
• Daniela alerted me to the Great Vowel Shift, which she thought I had made up. Explanation: a number of years ago, I said (jokingly) that the reason Eastern European languages were all consonants was because of the "Great Vowel Movement" of the 1500s. She thought I was just making a bad joke -- well ok, it was a bad joke. But almost true!
• Yesterday one of our neighbors came over and asked Esther if everything was OK, since she hadn't seen our car move for several days. She wanted to know if there was anything she could do to help. Now that's a nice neighbor!
• I was able to make an appointment for physical therapy (for my still-painful shoulder). For mid-March. Apparently a lot of people need PT. The good news is I need to finish off the bottle of Scotch we have before pesach...
• I've been asked to proof-read our synagogue's calendar, published (in Hebrew) around Purim. When you've read the rest of this page, you'll understand why that might be appropriate...

Sometimes people say, "Ron is an anti-Microsoft bigot". OK, that's a fair statement. But even a bigot can be correct: after the recent Google hacking exploits by China, various governments are stopping use of Internet Explorer because it is a major hack-fest. This is true even after the patches Microsoft is providing. Really, people: if you value your data do not use Microsoft products. Remember that I worked in and around MS for over a decade -- I do have some reason for my bigotry!

It was a week to be proud of being an Israeli. Our disproportionate response to the Haitian devastation was truly newsworthy. It was, that is, unless you were the anti-Semitic BBC. They didn't notice the IDF field hospital and emergency response teams? How ... BBC of them.

It was a week of turmoil in the political sphere as well. My relatives in the Democratic camp are undoubtedly wringing their hands along with His Obamaness over the revolution in Massachusetts. Absolutely incredible, that a Republican won "the Kennedy seat" in MA! What's next, flying pigs? People say that it's going to be a rout in November. I say, the Republicans have ten months to screw things up and the Democrats have ten months to mend their ways -- nothing is off the table just yet.

• This is just what I need to combat Jerusalem traffic jams. As long as I can avoid getting shot out of the sky, that is. Maybe it's not a great idea after all...
• Speaking of "not great ideas", this young religious Jew caused a plane to be diverted because the people thought his tefillin were an explosive device. Now, the flight crew should have known what they were -- after all, the plane was coming from New York. On the other hand, the young man should have known that he was exempt from praying in such a situation. After all, how well can you concentrate when Air Marshals are tackling you?

There is an Israeli Government web-site which has an English page. Usually, that page is written in decent English -- but every third or fourth time, the person updating the page is obviously one who flunked English class. This week, I gave the web-site feedback, telling them they should make sure to proof-read their pages -- since it's an embarrassment when an official government site is written so poorly. Yesterday I received an apologetic response written in good English, assuring me they would try to ensure it did not happen again. It was signed, "Beast wishes".

Until next week,
Beast wishes and Shabbat shalom!

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