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Blog/January 2019/Jan 18th

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January 18th Comments or questions? Click here!


The saga continues… Mom was released from hospital on Sunday, with instructions to follow up with her own doctors the next day. They continued her antibiotic regimen for an additional five days, so she’s still taking them. But B”H, her doctors said she’s doing fine, and we just need to give the lungs time to get back to normal.

In the meantime, I got a bad cold — whether from Mom or from the hospital is immaterial. So I’m hacking and coughing, and my voice has lost its “Radio Voice” timbre. When I went to my own doctor after several days of this, he just told me there’s not much to do, it will pass eventually. Thanks a lot, doctor!

So far, Esther has been able to avoid contagion. May her good fortune continue!

Because of all this nonsense, I’ve been unable to do much useful work. Esther’s gone to work, while I’ve moped around the house and cared for Mom as best I can. Sad story, no?

Some things of note:


Thoughts on America…

As my faithful readers know, I spent a lovely two weeks in the USA visiting Daniela, Jeremy, and the twins. Most of the time we were with the twins (after all, they’re incredibly cute). But at times we were exposed to the rest of NY.

I’ll leave off discussion of everything but one specific topic, which I found disturbing. It’s apparent from the news outlets and from online discussions that the “public” is quite polarized in the US. What I didn’t expect was to observe that in real-life, in interactions with real people.

I found that (as I had surmised before) people tend to inhabit social bubbles, within which everyone thinks alike. Having a discussion with someone from an “opposing bubble” is almost impossible, because the polarization is so extreme. I recall in particular one person who honestly believes that America under Trump is on the verge of building concentration-camps. How do you have a reasoned conversation when people don’t listen to reason?

Or more accurately: when people’s filters don’t allow any disputing opinions or facts through.

I found that the concept of “civility in discourse” is almost non-existent, for any contrary opinions. That is not just sad, it’s dangerous, and a real red-flag, and an indicator that “compromise” and “live and let live” are almost gone from civic life in the US. That does not bode well for the Republic. I pray that more reasonable voices begin to prevail, before it’s too late. “Western values” are in serious danger in the West.

In other news: we had a “snow day”. Not that we got any snow in our town, but there was some snowfall in Jerusalem. Rockets can be falling around the country and hardly anyone notices; but a bit of snow throws the citizenry into a panic. I guess the unfamiliar is scary…

One other thing: we’ve had really unreliable “WiFi” in our home, for years. That’s because it’s a concrete and rebar structure, so the signals don’t propagate well, and because all our neighbors also have WiFi so there’s a lot of interference. So I got us a “mesh network” system, and it seems to be much more reliable. In case you’re interested, or have a similar problem.

The weather is warming up and clear, but still cool (high 12/13C) for the next week. No more rain for now.

This shabbat we’ve got guests for dinner, and they and we will enjoy: homemade ḥalla, roast chicken, meatballs and noodles, garlicky green-beans, radish salad, beet salad, roasted eggplant, roasted potatoes, various salatim, and brownies.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!



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