The Important Things

A great deal of wonderful, interesting, frightening, confusing things are happening in the world today.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is once again deciding which of the most popular big budget mainstream Hollywood movies should be deemed the best out of the hundreds of movies released last year. None of the tiny handful of movies are what I would consider the best, but they never seem to ask me.

We are going to have more elections next month. Yet again there are attacks and accusations. Yet again the newspapers are complaining that he said this and she said that. I read an article the other day that, hand to God, could have been about pretty much any election with minor changes in candidate names and dates. The one saving grace is that I do not live in the United States. Those election campaigns are simply juvenile.

Paul McCartney wrote and recorded a few songs with Kanye “bigger than Yeezus” West. This seems like an unusual collaboration on the surface but Mr McCartney is nothing if not a whore for money. Disagree with my assertion? Then explain why “Ou Est le Soleil” was released in no less than 14 000 different versions.

Jordan recently bombed an Isis base after a single Jordanian soldier was murdered. Ironically, there were no United Nations resolutions against Jordan. The International Community did not call Jordan's actions a disproportionate response. There are to the best of my knowledge no serious movements to boycott Jordan. I have yet to hear Jordan accused of committing the greatest crime against humanity for attacking the smaller, less organised terrorist organisation. The western media have not published a string of thinly veiled hate against Jordan's largest religion. On the contrary, many people seem to be praising Jordan for standing up against terrorists. Abdullah must be happy that his country is not full of Jews.

Last week I remembered that I have a blog and thought about whether or not I should add to it. The jury is still out on that one.

But there is something of greater importance to mankind than any of these world events weighing on my mind at present. I am thinking about going back to work. Not so much today but in the near future.

I went on maternity leave in July and my daughter came into the world kicking and screaming in November. There is no job in the world of greater importance or with greater reward than being a mother. But sometimes you want a little peace and quiet away from all the kicking and screaming. Flying combat support for the most successful air force in the world* is far less hectic than raising a child.

Are there risks involved? Of course. There are risks in driving on Ibn Gabirol just before Shabbat. I am far more likely to be killed by a fuming taxi driver who wants to get home than by a feudal Arab who wants my home.

Who will watch the baby if I go to work? A woman's place is in the home, etc. The first part is easy. I have a mother who lives entirely too close and who loves nothing more than to babysit any of her grandchildren. I also have sisters. Most of whom have children of their own. All of whom are fully capable of keeping an eye or two on my spawn. My sister Dara's son is as dysfunctionally young as my daughter. Watching them together is like juggling ten bowling balls instead of eight. If they both get hungry at the same time? That is why women have two breasts and not one giant Russ Meyer mondo tit. [Edit this out of the American version since Americans tend to go apoplectic when it comes to feeding little humans from big human body parts].

The second part is equally easy. A woman's place is wherever she wants to be.

* According to Google. Google knows all.

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I have given some thought about pregnancy and childbirth in the internet age and I have decided that my child will be the first, and likely only, child born in the year 2014 that will not have a Facebook account, Twitter account or have thousands of portraits online before she or he is even old enough to know what a portrait is. I shall indeed photograph the crap out of this child but those images are for people who can see them without a computer.

When my sisters and I were children our parents took pictures of us. But instead of plastering them all over the internet, which would have been quite the feat at the time, those pictures were stored in bulky books we used to call photo albums. When visitors came over they could look at the photo albums or choose not to. Those pictures were never thrust upon anybody. Our parents were somehow able to live full and satisfying lives without illustrating their every thought with pictures of their little angels. Amazingly, against all odds, we survived.

Maybe in 20 years I will do whatever the equivalent of a blog will be then and flood it with 20 years’ worth of zlap files and holograms. But for now this child is going to have some semblance of a private life.

At least until the teen years. Then I will close my eyes and hope for the best.

The Pregnancy Pledge

I, state my name, pledge not to turn this into a pregnancy blog. The only people who find those even the least interesting are other pregnant women. Pregnancy is like climbing Mount Everest. People want to hear that you are doing it and they want to hear the end result. But only those who have also done it want to hear about all the details in between.

I pledge to only mention my frequency of urination whilst pregnant as much as I did before pregnant.

I pledge not to ever use the phrase “mucus plug”. Other than just now.

I pledge to never tell Cyberia how dilated my cervix is or discuss the goings on of my uterus.

I live in a culture where pregnant women are automatically the centre of attention. I have a mother who has been on me to have children for almost half of my life, and sisters who are desperate for another niece or nephew. I do not need Cyberia for attention.

But I am going to point out just how completely surreal it is to be pregnant. For most of your life, aside from those teenage years, your body is your body. Suddenly it takes on a life of its own. I suppose technically it is the life growing inside that takes over. People who jump from 135kg to 60kg or people who become paraplegic probably know what it all feels like but most of us have relatively consistent bodies. Those of us who stay in shape are accustomed to feeling a certain way and knowing that we can count on our bodies to do whatever it is supposed to do. Pregnancy changes all of that.

Swimming is still in. Swimming is a great way to exercise at every stage of pregnancy. Being the size of a whale is irrelevant under water. In fact, actual whales do much better in water than out.

Rock climbing is out. Minor falls that I would never give a second thought are suddenly cause for concern. My doctor also suggested I not do any skydiving in the immediate future but I have not willingly jumped out of a plane in some time.

Surfing is still ok but my centre of gravity will gradually shift. That will likely make it all far more difficult than it needs to be. Surfers spend a lifetime working on balance. There is probably a reason you never see a nine month pregnant woman on a surfboard.

Running is still in but I am going to have to gradually slow down in the coming months. I suppose now is not the best time to sign up for a marathon.

Now I am supposed to watch my heart rate. Nobody should ever let it get too high but it was never something I paid much attention to before. When I push myself too hard there are usually a million other things that go before my heart.

I probably had more to say but I have to get to the bathroom now.

No Pill’s Gonna Cure My Ill

I have been prone to headaches since my accident in 2002. I rarely talk about it because there is little I find more tedious than when people whinge about minor medical issues. I have received all manner of magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, and even computed axial tomography back when those were popular. The hospital in Alaska was especially thorough, as any hospital should be after such an impact trauma, and assured me that there was nothing wrong with my brain. From the accident, at least. I have been to the best hospitals in Israel and they have all assured me that everything in my head is where it should be. Apparently nobody fully understands the human brain or why it does what it does but mine is not trying to kill me.

Recently the headaches have increased in frequency and duration. So, living in a country where medical treatment is not considered a luxury item, I went in for another round of tests. They put more radiation in my brain and told me that everything looked as it should. Then they moved on to other tests.

During all of these adventures in modern medicine, Dara had her own medical announcement. My sister is pregnant again. They tried for years to get pregnant the first time and assumed that it would likely never happen again. Her second child is due two months before her 41st birthday.

Then the doctors figured out what is making my brain explode. Tests revealed that my body is flooded with human chorionic gonadotropin. The two most likely causes of this are testicular cancer, which the doctors pretty much ruled out straight away, and pregnancy. I seem to have got knocked up.

More tests revealed that I do in fact have a living creature growing inside me. Hopefully not in a John Hurt sense. Either way it will take some getting used to. I am generally only accustomed to having somebody inside me for very limited periods of time. They always consider it a long time, but let’s face it, nine months of something growing in you is far longer than one or two minutes.

The first time in my life that I thought I was pregnant, I was not. This time, pregnancy never crossed my mind. I was too busy trying to keep my head from exploding. Every mother in the world, mine most definitely included, can tell you that children are a headache. This one simply started the process early.

To make life more amusing, Dara and I are due at pretty much the same time. Maybe not the exact day but close enough. I like the idea of cousins growing up together. In theory, at least. I never had any cousins so I have no idea what they are actually like. Yoel, their oldest cousin, will hit 19 just before they are born. Dara’s daughter will be 4 just before her younger sister or brother is born. So we went from a family of only one child for a very long time to a family of three young children all at the same time.

Neither Dara nor I know if they will be boys or girls. We do not want to know and it is too soon to tell anyway. They are currently sexless blobs. Not unlike many members of Congress. I hope they each have more common sense.

Now I have to read a bunch of pregnancy and baby books. Have you ever read any of these things? They are not the most exciting reads. On the plus side, I do not have to deal with itchy balls.

Catching Up

I was out of town for a bit. I am back.

What happened while I was gone?

On the international stage Syria and Egypt were in the midst of civil wars, terrorist organisations were playing their part, Zimbabwe was looking forward to some illegal election antics, Iran was denying building nuclear weapons while increasing their production of nuclear weapons, the American president was under fire for taking a holiday while his people were complaining about drone attacks.

If you look at a newspaper from the day I left and another from the day I returned, you would see very little difference.

Domestically, the UN is “warning” Israel not to undermine “peace talks”. Why do they never send such warnings to Palestine? Ask Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman.

Far more interesting, but with little to no coverage from CNN, my mother was married in a quiet little ceremony in Jerusalem. She married her rabbi, whom she had been dating for only a few months. Much can be said about their brief courtship but I think at their age there is very little point in taking your time about things. They were both previously married to people with whom they thought they would live for the rest of their lives. But not everybody lives the same amount of time.

Somebody told me that it was amusing that my mother married before I did. That seems pretty normal to me. The point is supposed to be that I have been dating my intended off and on for about seven years whilst my mother and her new husband probably only hit the sheets on their wedding night. As far as I know.

I have no problem with my mother being married. She was married throughout my entire childhood. It is a different man with whom my sisters and I have a completely different relationship but she is still a mother, daughter and wife.

We’ve yet to set a date for my wedding. We are still looking at locations and where we do it will determine when. Our families vote for Jerusalem. The city is full of history and culture and is very important to our people. It is also centrally located and easy for everybody to get to. The groom votes for Tel Aviv. There are plenty of parks, beaches and five star hotels that would work and the Mediterranean is an excellent backdrop. I vote for Yam HaMelach. It is one of my favourite places and significant to our relationship. Time will tell.

In sadder news, my beloved sister crashed my beloved car. She was not injured but the car was destroyed. The cause of the accident was the simple fact that Israelis drive like idiots. The effect is that my beautiful black Chevrolet Corvette C5 Z06 is no more. I bought it in America when I moved to Israel and had it shipped at great pain and expense. It was a fine automobile that did everything I asked of it and provided years of comfort, style and serious horsepower.

The future husband suggests I get a more family orientated car. With any luck and a great deal of practise we should have children in the near future. He thinks said children should not ride around in a sports car. I think any biological children of mine would loathe a Volvo V70.




2004-2013
RIP dear friend

Mother Superior Jumped the Gun

So a rabbi and my mother walk into a bar.

My mother has just announced that she and her rabbi are dating. Nobody is more surprised than I. Or my sisters. Or my grandmother. Or everybody who knows my mother.

I’m sure somebody knew about it, but I was completely in the dark. I have never heard my mother talk about him other than in a rabbinical context. She always had nice things to say about him but she is not the sort to say bad things about her rabbi anyway.

For anybody unfamiliar with arayot, there is nothing untoward about a person such as my mother dating a person such as her rabbi. His wife died several years ago. Her husband died 10 years ago. There are no halachic restrictions on their dating, hitting the sheets, shacking up or even being married. A rabbi is generally considered a good catch and more than a few mothers have been known to hit great lengths to have their daughters marry amongst the rabbanim.

We are all supposed to be married at a younger age and remain married until both partners die hand in hand of old age in their bed. But that does not always happen. It probably rarely happens. People live a lot longer than they did a few thousand years ago and not everybody can stick around as long as everybody else. My father was 59 years old when he died and my mother was only 53. She could theoretically live another 40 years and it is unrealistic to assume that she would remain unmarried for the rest of her life.

An interesting point here is that if they are to marry, when will this happen? Weddings are a pretty big deal in my family and right now everybody is talking about mine. I’m finally marrying. Everybody always puts the finally in there. Will my own mother’s wedding steal some of my spotlight? That’s probably not something most people think about.

Not that I mind. I like the idea of taking some of the focus off of me and letting everybody ask her a million questions every day. I have absolutely no objection if she wants to marry before me, after me or even on the same day. Though a double wedding with my own mother might be a little more than I can tolerate.

Of course, they are only dating. Talk of marriage might be premature. But people like my mother who are my mother’s age do not date lightly. To her mind the sole purpose of dating is to check the horse’s teeth before you buy it. I would be very surprised if she simply rides him around the stables a few times only to mount another steed.

Which brings us to sex. Are they getting any? I’ve no idea. But I am morbidly fascinated with the idea. My mother has been celibate for the last 10 years. To the best of my knowledge. She was something of a hellion in her younger days but she likes to pretend that was a lifetime ago. Given her frequently vocal disapproval of my loose morals it would be hypocritical of her to sleep around like a TV doctor.

What is it like to get some after a 10 year drought? I hope I never find out first hand. They say the longer you go without the easier it is to go without. I have found that the longer I go without the hornier I get and more willing I am to do things I just might regret later. Fortunately I’m recently engaged. This is probably the most sex I will ever have in my entire life. I am happy to report that I’m starting to walk funny. Everybody who has ever been married in the entire history of the world will tell you that there is far less sex after marriage. Entire movies, sitcoms, comedy routines revolve around this concept.

Should my future husband die far earlier than I do, I can’t say that I would ever be married again. But I can’t imagine I would deny myself the fleshly needs of human contact. It took me 31 years to find the first man I wanted to marry. How old would I be by the time I found the second? Or do you lower your standards with age? At 20 I had a very wide selection from which to choose. At 80 just finding a man who can breathe on his own is a plus.

My sisters and I are very happy for our mother. Her rabbi seems to be a nice enough man. My older sisters know him far better than I do and they approve. Our grandmother is more relieved than anything else. She thought her daughter was going to remain alone for the rest of her life.

It’s supposed to be a serious adjustment for children when one of their parents remarry. But we are all very much adults and our father has been gone for a long time. We have no fear of any man replacing him. We know that he was the love of our mother’s life and you certainly can’t accuse her of not observing a respectful mourning period. We also know that a companion for the rest of her life would be a positive thing and no future husband can ever make her forget about our father.

My future husband joked that at least she can’t have another child. That would just freak me out.

Happy New Year

The funny thing about significant others is that they have families too. During festivals where one normally spends time with family, which family does one choose? This has always been an easy choice for my older sisters. Since they cannot bear to leave my mother and grandmother alone they spend family festivals with them rather than their husband’s families. While I agree with that in principle, my boyfriend is rather close to his family. He does not want to be away from them any more than I want to be away from mine.

How to Meet Your Bashert

We waited a few weeks before we started dating. There was all that defending the homeland from genocide going on. He was doing the defending. I mostly watched. What I still talk about is how he never cared that I outranked him. Too many men are intimidated by women who have more power. Or at least the perception of more power. Up until last year his job was always more important than mine. Now I would say we both do equally important work on opposite ends of the spectrum. But I still outrank him. I was always attracted to the fact that it never meant anything to him.

Burn Into Your Memory Cells

Fair point. I don’t know if he will still be around. And I can see one of my sisters showing me the picture ten years from now and wondering what ever happened to that guy.

“He is now a billionaire from inventing the next big thing,” I say.

“Too bad you dumped him the day before he invented it,” she reminds me.

“Had I not dumped him he would never have invented it,” I remind her.

This is where she quickly learns not to even try getting the better of me in my own imaginary future conversation. And I’m in great shape and look pretty while she is old and has gained weight. And I have more magical powers.

Nice Day for a White Wedding

Ria wore a latte off the shoulder, cap sleeve A-line Italian silk organza gown with tulle netting and antique embroidery. Hava wore an ivory ruched taffeta V-neck halter with beaded straps and lace up back, side bustle, flowered and bubble hem. I only know what half of that means and I was there. But they both looked incredible. Picture two families of beauty, grace and dignity joining together. I was there too.


This picture was taken a few years ago
but it is pretty much the view from the wedding.
More or less.

All is Forgiven

The Yamim Noraim have once again come and gone. And nobody got hurt. My sins of the past year have mostly been pretty minor. I did not kill anybody. I did not covet my neighbour’s house or wife. I’ve not worshipped any false idols or made graven images. I did not commit adultery. At least not by my definition. At most it was more avone than pesha. It is all a bit of a grey area.

Decent Exposure

Once we made our way from civilisation to nature we set up camp and Yoel and I put our clothes in bags where they belong. Yoel’s girlfriend was noticeably nervous so we decided to head straight for the water. Sometimes people need an excuse to strip off and swimming is as good as any. It is funny how people get when they are getting naked in front of others for the first time. It reminds me of watching people go off to war. Except that nudity is far less serious and almost never gets you killed. And war is a horribly unnatural invention of man. Also unlike war, we never pressured Yoel’s girlfriend into anything. She was free to remain as clothed as she wanted for as long as she wanted. She wanted to join us. She just needed the swimming excuse to help her along.

The Big News Stories

On the stranger side of the news, some kind of weird glitch in blogger made it impossible to post. Any time I tried I got this error message: “Illegal post time (format is: hh:mm AM/PM)” even though I always had it set to the proper 24 hour format and not that am/pm nonsense. Changing the time manually and setting it to am/pm did nothing. Then somebody told me that if your language is set to South African English this happens. Even though it has never happened to me before. Changing it to UK English has solved the problem. I’m sure there is some kind of international conspiracy afoot but I haven’t the time just now.

A Girl Can Get Burnt Playing with Matches

My favourite aspect of the shidduch is that I can completely avoid all the messy parts of dating. I am not very good at rejecting people. I’ve never perfected a good “that was fun but I would rather never see your face again” speech. The shidduch takes care of all that. After the first date you are supposed to tell the shadchan whether you want a second date or not. He then tells the other person. All of that when will he call me, why didn’t he call me bullshit is gone. The shadchan lets everybody know where they stand and nobody has to deal with any confrontations. I used to call it dating for cowards. The shadchan remains the intermediary until both people mutually decide that he is no longer needed. Usually a proposal soon follows since the goal of Jewish dating is marriage. Supposedly.

The Bravery of Being Out of Range

I did not want to get married for a long time. I wanted to be married but always in some distant future. I’ve thrown away several possibly rewarding relationships because they were too serious for what I wanted at the time. I wanted to experience as much of life as I could before I settled down to washing dishes and changing nappies. It took me a long time to fully realise that having a husband and children are a major life experience. And there is no law that says I can’t travel to exotic places with children or have wild uninhibited sex with a husband. It just takes more effort.


With immodest shoulders.


Swimming naked as the day is short.


I would marry me.

New Year’s Resolution

But this year I’m making a resolution. I will meet my future husband. Not necessarily get married. I know that it takes time to develop real relationships. It is unlikely that I will meet somebody tomorrow and be ready to marry by the end of the year. Especially with my schedule. And I’ve reason to believe that my sister might get married this year. I don’t want to take anything away from her. I have no tangible evidence to back up my claim. It is more a suspicion than anything else. But I am willing to put money on it. Any takers?

Another Decade Over and a New One Just Begun

2001
Zhang Xueliang (100), Anne Morrow Lindbergh (94), Balthus (92), Stanley Kramer (87). Laurent-Désiré Kabila (61), King Birendra of Nepal (55), Queen Aiswarya (51) were all assassinated. Prince Dipendra (29) killed himself after murdering his family. Sabiha Gökçen (88) and Douglas Adams (49) had heart attacks. Aaliyah (22) died in a plane crash.

Anthony Quinn (86), Harry Secombe (79), Jack Lemmon (76), Poul Anderson (74), Donald Woods (67), George Harrison (58), Joey Ramone (49) all died of cancer.

2002
Margaret Booth (104), Billy Wilder (95), Stanley Unwin (90). Spike Milligan (83) liver failure, George Roy Hill (81) Parkinson’s disease, Ian MacNaughton (76) car accident, John Frankenheimer (74) stroke, Dudley Moore (66) progressive supranuclear palsy, Linda Lovelace (53) car accident, Nozomi Momoi (24), stabbed and immolated. Chuck Jones (89), Antonio Margheriti (72), Lonnie Donegan (71), Erachaim ben Eliyahu (59), John Entwistle (57) all had heart attacks.

Milton Berle (93), Thor Heyerdahl (87), Rosemary Clooney (74), Richard Harris (72), Stephen Jay Gould (60) all died of cancer.

2003
Bob Hope (100), Katharine Hepburn (96), Elia Kazan (94), Wendy Hiller (91), Gregory Peck (87), Art Carney (85). Leon Uris (78) and Idi Amin (78) died of kidney failure, Noel Redding (57) liver failure, Maurice Gibb (53) bowel obstruction, Howie Epstein (47) drug overdose, Carlo Urbani, the doctor who discovered SARS (46) SARS, Elliott Smith (34) stabbed, Rachel Corrie (23) crushed by a bulldozer, Dolly (6) euthanized. John Schlesinger (77) and Michael Kamen (55) had heart attacks.

Leni Riefenstahl (101), Hume Cronyn (91), Conrad Hall (76), Alan Bates (69), Gregory Hines (57) all died of cancer.

Colonel Rick Husband (45), Commander William McCool (41), Lt Colonel Michael Anderson (43), Lt Ilan Ramon (48), Captain David Brown (46), Captain Laurel Clark (41), Kalpana Chawla (40) exploded on American space shuttle Columbia.

2004
Fay Wray (96), Donald Trumbull (95), Henri Cartier-Bresson (95), Ronald Reagan (93), Julia Child (91), Uta Hagen (84). Robert Lees (91) decapitated, William Manchester (82) stroke, Peter Ustinov (82) heart attack, Marlon Brando (80) heart attack from pulmonary fibrosis and cancer, Janet Leigh (77) vasculitis and peripheral neuropathy, Hans Gmür (77) surgical complications, Yasser Arafat (75) liver failure, Spalding Gray (62) suicide, Christopher Reeve (52) heart failure from septicemia, Neal Fredericks (35) drowned in plane crash while filming.

Elmer Bernstein (82), Jerry Goldsmith (75), Naomi Shemer (73), Ray Charles (73), Jerry Orbach (69), Johnny Ramone (55) all died of cancer.

2005
Simon Wiesenthal (96), Efraim Reuytenberg (91), Geraldine Fitzgerald (91), Saul Bellow (89), Ernest Lehman (89). Peter Malkin (77) stroke, Ismail Merchant (68) surgical complications, Hunter S Thompson (67) suicide. Robert Wise (91), Arthur Miller (89), Karol Wojtyła (John Paul II) (84), Dalene Matthee (67), Richard Pryor (65) all had heart attacks.

Anne Bancroft (73), Bob Denver (70), Cyril K Harris (68), Debra Hill (54) all died of cancer.

2006
Gerald Ford (93), Augusto Pinochet (91), Glenn Ford (90), Pieter Willem Botha (90), Richard Fleischer (89), Betty Friedan (85), Shoshana Damari (82). Maureen Stapleton (80) obstructive pulmonary disease, Saddam Hussein (69) hanged. Jeane Kirkpatrick (80), James Brown (73), Slobodan Milošević (64) all had heart attacks.

Robert Altman (81), Peter Boyle (71), Masumi Okada (70), Syd Barrett (60) all died of cancer.

2007
Michelangelo Antonioni (94), Avraham Shapira (93), Ingmar Bergman (89), Kurt Waldheim (88), Fernando Fernán Gómez (86), Norman Mailer (84), Marcel Marceau (84), László Kovács (74). Deborah Kerr (86) Parkinson’s disease, Kurt Vonnegut (84) brain injuries from a fall, Benazir Bhutto (54) assassinated.

Luciano Pavarotti (71), Michael Brecker (57), Dan Fogelberg (56) died of cancer.

2008
Richard Widmark (93), Kon Ichikawa (92), Jerry Wexler (91), Arthur C Clarke (90), Mel Ferrer (90), Edmund Hillary (88), Suharto (86), Cyd Charisse (86), Charlton Heston (84). Isaac Hayes (65) stroke, Bobby Fischer (64) kidney failure. Miriam Makeba (76) and George Carlin (71) had heart attacks.

Paul Newman (83), Harold Pinter (78), Sydney Pollack (73), Neil Aspinall (66), Michael Crichton (66), Dith Pran (65), Richard Wright (65), Stan Winston (62), Anthony Minghella (54), Jeff Healey (41) all died of cancer.

2009
Karl Malden (97), Jack Cardiff (94), Les Paul (94), Walter Cronkite (92), Helen Suzman (91). Allen Klein (77) Alzheimer's disease, Claude Berri (74) stroke, David Carradine (72) autoerotic asphyxiation, John Hughes (59) heart attack, Marilyn Chambers (56) cerebral hemorrhage, Michael Jackson (50) drug overdose, Natasha Richardson (45) skiing accident, Brittany Murphy (32) pneumonia and anaemia.

James Whitmore (87), Bea Arthur (86), Ted Kennedy (77), John Updike (76), Corazon Aquino (76), Dom DeLuise (75), Farrah Fawcett (62), Ron Silver (62), Patrick Swayze (57) all died of cancer.

2010
Hizkiah ben Nachum (93), Lena Horne (92), JD Salinger (91), Dino De Laurentiis (91), Éric Rohmer (89), Luis García Berlanga (89), Arthur Penn (88), Blake Edwards (88). Tony Curtis (85) heart attack, Claude Chabrol (80) anaemia, Qian Yunhui (53) crushed by a truck.

Patricia Neal (84), Jean Simmons (80), Dennis Hopper (74), Lynn Redgrave (67), Jamie Gillis (66) all died of cancer.

Imagine No Imagination

My parents enjoyed talking to their children. We were not seen as a distraction. But I’m sure we were more than annoying from time to time. There was a period of what seemed like forever when Ellie and Dara did nothing but argue. Dara’s voice especially could get very high when agitated. When I was old enough they would gang up on me. But from what I remember I always held my own. I was born with the ability to laugh at people who tried to insult me. This is almost never the reaction people hope for. Eventually Ria and I reached the stage where we argued a lot but our arguments were always silent so they never had any effect on whoever was driving.

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement and arguably the most important day on the Hebrew calendar. Some say it is Shabbat but I personally disagree. I am firmly in the Yom Kippur camp. It is the day we ask for God’s forgiveness for everything we have done against him and each other. Some of us do more harm to God than to man. I have been told that we are the worst people but I think it is the opposite. God can handle whatever I do to him. People are much less resilient.

My New Niece

Dara and Shirah are both resting comfortably. Coming to life seems to take a lot out of a person. Giving life does not seem like much of a picnic either. When people announce births they always mention how much the baby weighed and how many inches she was. I have never really understood that. Does anybody need to know how many inches any baby is? I think as long as she is healthy and has all the right parts that is what matters. So you will get no baby inch report from me. Sorry. Quite frankly I could not say. I have no idea. I could ask her mother but she is probably asleep right now. I could phone her father but he is probably asleep right now. I could ask Shirah’s grandmother. I know she knows that sort of thing. But she is probably asleep right now. We seem to sleep a lot in my family. Especially in the middle of the night.