Time Flies, and So Do My Buddies; I Just Walk

Sunday was One of Those Special Days...they don't happen often, events just come along like a gust of wind and send you sailing along.

First, I had stayed up way too late obsessively reading blogs until the wee hours (you've never done that, have ya?). I was awakened by the telephone: Ofer from London was in town for a couple of days and wanted to meet for breakfast. That's an Ofer I can never refuse! We agreed to meet at a cafe about half-way between where he's staying and my place...a ten-minute walk for each of us.

By the time we finished breakfast and a bit of gift-shopping, I thought I'd have a chance for a little after lunch nap before the afternoon doctor appointment (nothing wrong, just a regular earwax-cleaning). Once again, e-mail and blogs enticed me away from sleep.

Walking home from the doctor (I walk to my doctor appointment! Aren't you jealous?), I was waiting at a busy corner for a red light to change when a bicycle whizzed around the corner. The rider was wearing a bright blue fleece shirt, just like Neil from Vienna wears. I look up at his face. It is Neil from Vienna! I shout his name, he stops his bike, and we go have a cup of coffee together, to catch up. He's just in town for a couple of days, visiting his mom. Neil works on immigration and refugee rescue matters for HIAS, and has lots of Iranians passing through his office all the time, both Jewish and not.

Walking home from the coffee my cellphone rings. Lisa and Hossein invite me to join them for dinner. I am so pumped with all the socializing and caffeine, so it's easy for me to say "Yes." We walk to and from the restaurant of course.

I realize that the three guys Ofer, Neil, and Hossein, will probably be flying out in their various directions at the same time. We could have a very efficient farewell party at an airport cafe, with me saying goodbye to three birds with one scone.

Little Bear in and out of the closet

Cupboard
Video sent by savtadotty

The video is 37 seconds. I may have to make an emergency visit to this granddaughter before she outgrows this stage.

Thank you, Uncle Sam

I am a dual American-Israeli citizen, and I've duly registered with the American Embassy in Tel Aviv. Today they sent me this e-mail, which is the first one I've ever received from them in the 17 years I've lived in Israel:

Good morning. The Consulate General in Jerusalem has sent out this Warden Message to registered American Citizens in its consular district. Embassy Tel Aviv provides it to you as a courtesy for your information:

The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem warns all American citizens in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza to exercise extreme caution in light of the announcement of results in the January 25, 2006, Palestinian Legislative Council elections. Public reaction to the election results may result in demonstrations that could become violent, and there are significant risks of injury from celebratory gunfire. The Consulate General has no information indicating a specific threat to American citizens or interests, but, as with any major public event, outbreaks of violence or terrorism are possible during the period following announcement of the election results.

We remind American citizens of the current travel warning for Israel, the West Bank and Gaza available at http://travel.state.gov. The Department of State continues to urge U.S. citizens to carefully consider the risks of travel to Israel, to defer unnecessary travel to the West Bank, and to avoid all travel to Gaza. American citizens who choose to remain in these areas despite the warning should maintain a low profile, vary their daily schedules and routines, avoid public gatherings and crowded places, and remain alert for people and objects that appear suspicious or out of place.

As the U.S. Government develops information on any potential security threats to U.S. citizens overseas, it shares credible threat information through its consular information program documents, available on the Internet at http://travel.state.gov. U.S. citizens in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza may contact the Consular Section of the U.S. Consulate General at 27 Nablus Road in Jerusalem. The telephone number is (972)(2) 622-7200. The number only for emergency purposes after normal business hours is (972)(2) 622-7250. U.S. citizens in Israel can contact Embassy Tel Aviv via the Embassy switchboard at 03-519-7551 at any time. The Embassy is located at 71 Hayarkon Street, Tel Aviv, Israel 63903.

For the latest security information, Americans living and traveling abroad should regularly monitor the Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs Internet website at http://travel.state.gov, where the current Worldwide Caution, Public Announcements, and Travel Warnings can be found. Up-to-date information on security can also be obtained by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll free in the U.S., or, for callers outside the U.S. and Canada, a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444. These numbers are available from 8;00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays).

The Political is Personal

Well, well, well. Hamas scored a resounding victory in the Palestininan elections, either despite or because of their terrorist actions. I agree with what She and Don have already written on this subject...most people probably voted to get rid of corruption and improve their daily lives, with the destruction of Israel not so high on their agenda.

Q: Why did the exit polls make the outcome so much closer? A: Either they asked the wrong sample, or people lied.

But I'm wondering whether, with their well-established hawk/terrorist/"freedom fighter" credentials, Hamas wouldn't eventually be able to sell compromise with Israel to their electorate the way Ariel Sharon did to his. As pragmatists. Over time.

In the meantime, I'll be happy if they start revising the hate-filled educational materials. And setting up a transparent accounting system.

Fourses

Dale tagged me, and I am nothing if not dutiful to my blogging colleagues. I even like some of the questions! However, I won't pass it on, so you can relax. If you tag yourself, let me know so I can read what you've written.

Four Jobs I've Had

Camp counsellor at Rackett Lake Girl's Club, a camp in the adirondacks.
I had a bunk of 10-year-old girls, and they were great. My only troubles were when I was assigned to chaperoning the teenagers, because I was only 17 myself, but they didn't know that 'cause I was a College Girl.

Computer programmer for IBM
When I started, IBM provided training, because there were no courses in colleges. I am a dinosaur!

Systems Analysis teacher for a seminar company
I liked being a wandering minstrel, but the travel wore me out.

Usability test facilitator
I really enjoyed it when designers observed real users "think out loud."

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over

Rear Window
Parenthood
An American in Paris
Anything with Judi Dench

Four Places I've Lived

Gunhill Road, The Bronx
I was born there, but we moved away when I was 6 months old

316 East 55 Street, New York City
My first apartment, a studio with a fire escape, and air-conditioning that never worked

910 West End Avenue, New York City
Where I lived when my children were born

Princeton, New Jersey
I blogged about it already

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch
I don't have a TV, so I watch them either on video or DVD

Upstairs, Downstairs
The Sopranos
The West Wing
The 1982 Goldie Hawn Mother's Day Special ('cause Prowesslessnesslessness is in it!)

Four Places I've Been on Vacation
I've travelled a lot, so I thought I'd just pick four places I've been that begin with a "P"

Petra, Jordan
Playa Blanca, Mexico (Club Med, about 30 years ago)
Prague, Czech Republic
Paris, France (I also lived there for a year)

Four Blogs I Visit Daily
I have bloglines, so I visit everyone I subscribe to whenever the RSS feed tells me they've posted

Four of My Favorite Foods
Salad katzutz
(chopped up Israeli cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, with fresh lemon juice - I've tried to make it in the US, even with organic vegs, but it doesn't work there)

Antipasto
Ah, those grilled eggplant slices and peppers and various other tidbits.

Max Brenner's chocolate

Goat cheese

Four Places I'd Rather Be
Can't think of any

Four Albums I Can't Live Without
Kathleen Ferrier
Bach St Matthew Passion
Avenue Q
March of the Falsettos ('cause Prowesslessnesslessness is in it!)

Four vehicles I've owned

1961 Triumph TR-3 sports car
It had two carburetors. I really only needed one. They were both stolen, together with the rest of the car, by "teddy boys" in London after I'd owned it for three months.

1973 Plymouth Duster
It may still be running. The slant-6 engine was a gem. The guy who bought it in 1984 wanted a spare.

1984 Datsun/Nissan
I loved the sunroof.

1989 Peugeot 309 I sold it in 2004 on the Israeli e-bay; the buyer turned out to be a friend of the guy who helped me post my ad!

Back to School

Yesterday I heard a (free!) lecture by Professor Bernard Lewis at Tel Aviv University. Wikipedia claims his birth date is 1916, which means he will be 90 years old in May. If a the world expert on Middle East history is almost 90, I don't have much time to prepare to take his place. Hah! But first I have to become literate in Arabic, Turkish, and of course Hebrew. And probably German too. Prof. Lewis was the first to study the Ottomon Empire Archives when they were opened in 1949 for scholarly research, and boy did he learn a lot. Of course, now we have Google, so once I master the languages I can just search over the Internets and find everything he knows. Right? Wrong. I want his filters too, not to mention his lovely dry British delivery. I guess when you've been a professor for 60+ years, you just know how to put on a one-man show on a subject like "Jews and the Ottomon Empire" for exactly 45 minutes, on your feet, with only two sips of water, while keeping an overflow audience enthralled.

School is always fun when you have good teachers!

A Birthday Unfolds

Yesterday wasn't my birthday. Again. But it was my friend Miriam's (the photo is of her pottery studio). We decided to celebrate it with brunch at Gabriel's, a new-ish place on Montefiore Street. Gabriel's reminds me of Serendipity in New York. They serve meals at tables in several small main rooms, and also in a weird combination cocktail-lounge and sunporch in the front, but they sell stuff too, in a shop behind the upper dining garden. Yes, they have a two-tiered dining garden. The stuff is home furnishings like sheets, towels, vases, urns, dishes, and chochkes, mostly imported from Italy and France, and a few unusual wearable items for indulgent grandmothers to get their grandchildren - like matching mother-daughter velour terry robes.

Danny was supposed to join us, but an hour went by and we decided to call him. No answer. Half an hour later he called, confessed to oversleeping, and as we were ordering dessert, he showed up for his morning tea. We talked about this and that, and decided to walk over to Miriam's to see her latest quilt, in its almost-completed state. It was 3PM, on a warm. sunny day. We went via Yavneh Street and came upon a vision: Lucas, a new trattoria at the new Lev Tel Aviv building complex. The sun was glittering on very attractive patio tables, and we unanimously agreed to have a drink in the sun. The place had a luxury-cruise feel to it, so we order luxury-cruise drinks: apricot margarita (Miriam), strawberry daiquiri (Danny), and classic mimosa (me). By this time Danny was ready for a meal, and we toasted him through it. Lucas has been open for just three weeks, and when Danny finished his (perfectly pepared) fish, we were presented with a plate of complimentary petits fours that were truly melt-in-your-mouth.

We walked up Yohanan HaSandlar Street, observing newly-renovated buildings right and left. By the time we got to Miriam's, it was almost 5PM. Her quilt is a masterpiece. She based her design on a painting by Rosenquist Rauschenberg that she likes (I'll try to add a link to it tomorrow [DONE!]). We talked about movies, and went up to Dizengoff Center to get tickets for the 7PM showing of "Brokeback Mountain".

I can see why Heath Ledger is being compared to Marlon Brando...he just was the taciturn cowboy, tormented by locked-up tender feelings; his acting made them palpable. I recently read, for the first time, Larry McMurtry's 1971 masterpiece Lonesome Dove, and the McMurtry knack for writing dry cowboy dialog has not waned. The cowboys have unlimited physical horizons, and limited capacities for verbal expression, mostly wry. In "Brokeback Mountain," just like in "Remains of the Day," nothing much happens except longing and partings, but it wasn't boring.

Miriam enjoyed her birthday, not the least because it just unfolded on its own. It was a potter's birthday.

Savta Dotty's Fridge (Revised) (and Updated)*

It took less than ONE WEEK for my fridge (previously documented here) to break down after I publicly praised my loyal appliances. I seem to have a very clear channel of communication with the Evil Eye. I am now on sort of a camping trip in my own home, using my picnic cooler as a temporary fridge while the repair man orders a replacement motor.

There are some who would replace the entire fridge, but I decided to postpone that trauma and extra expense. I'm also afraid they won't be able to get the fridge out of my apt., because it was hoisted in by crane. The Amana fridge has "American proportions," which are shorter and wider than local fridges, just like American letter-size paper is shorter and wider than A4. My building has no elevator, and the crane was there to move the piano in, so the movers took advantage of it for a couple of other large/heavy items.

I'm probably one of the few people wishing for cold weather this week, at least on my balcony. You're invited right away to help me consume the perishables!

*UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE - Amnon fixed the Amana! He installed the new motor this morning (Sunday, Jan 22), and ice cubes are now available chez Dotty. But not much else...must make a grocery run tomorrow.

I've Won! I've Won! (Updated)

Winner of the Spanglemonkey OY! I Live How Far Away? Excellent Grandmothering Award, 2005! "The blogosphere's Bubbie," according to Grace Davis (thank you! thank you!)

Having often tasted the joys of hiding my charms under a bushel (a bushel of what? I always wonder), I am certainly ambivalent about celebrity, because of its concomitant responsibilities to The Adoring Public and the Loss of Privacy. Nevertheless, I find having won a Spanglemonkey award to be a truly gratifying experience (even without mentioning the financial benefits, and the television appearances). First of all, because of the deceptive inclusivity. Anyone who reads Spanglemonkey can win won one. The inclusivity is deceptive, because it excludes pretty much all the people who think they don't have time to read five or seven posts a day even though doing so would be a better use of their time than just about anything I can think of. As if that weren't enough, you only get one if you want it. And finally, you can specify what you want to be recognized for, so you essentially create your own award! This is almost too good to be true.

Here's how the Spanglemonkeys Award Pageant works, from the Pageant Director Herself:

"I will look at your site if you want, and I will grant you words of admiration. Or if you want something specific, just award it! Go ahead! It's all about hedonism!"

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UPDATE!!! UPDATE!!! UPDATE!!!

I just learned that Cousin Lucy's Spoon has also won the coveted Best Blog by Mother of Person Who Actually came to Brooklyn to Meet OTBKB Award! So much glory (fanning self)! Thank you one and all!

Sevenses

Well elswhere (my daughter) tagged me with the Meme of Sevens, so what's a mother to do? I'm flattered that she wants to know stuff about me after all these years.

Seven Books (Or Series) That I Love:
I can't imagine living without at least 100 of my favorite books, so I'll just list the first seven that come to mind today.

Patrimony by Philip Roth

The honesty and love really touched me. Roth is not the best stylist in the world, but he tackles the most important themes and always teaches me something in the best way...through a story I can't put down.

My Voice Will Go With You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson, Sidney Rosen, Ed.

I was fortunate enough to have hypnotherapy with a disciple of Dr. Milton Erickson, and boy was that fun!

Ways of Dying, Zakes Mda

A scrumptious prize-winning fable-type story from South Africa. The title is ironic, but not completely.

Teacher Man by Frank McCourt

Just finished it. Thanks for the gift, Els! Looked for references to my son and found quotes from a student with his name, but I suspect poetic license on the part of the author.

A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz

The honesty reminded me of Roth's Patrimony, but the writing, even translated into English, is much better. Or maybe I should say more to my taste. His descriptions of Jerusalem as a young boy are vivid, and his memories are both funny and melancholy, sometimes at the same time.

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte

The most beautifully-published book I own. It also has the most brain-tickling content for someone both visually and quantitatively communicative. To make this gorgeous book affordable, Tufte in 1983 founded his own publishing house, Graphics Press. They have subsequently published otherbeautiful books, but I'm still most fond of the first one.

The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel

Just reading it is a spiritual experience, whether you're Jewish or not.

Favorite Movies
(I'm skipping this one. I listed some in my Blogger profile).

I Just Can’t (Or Don’t Wanna) Stop
Blogging
Reading
Eating salad for breakfast, usually tomato, cucumber, red onion, and avocado
Drinking café hafuch (latte) in Tel Aviv
Thinking about my kids
Thinking about my mother
Living

Things to Do Before I Die
Attend my grandchildren's weddings
Sort and organize all those photos
Read a published novel by my daughter
Knit a moebius strip
Get a video of the 1982 Goldie Hawn TV special "Goldie and the Kids" that my son appeared in
See just a tiny bit of definition to my abdominal muscles
Make peace in the Middle East (see below, Seven Impractical Things…)

Things to Do After I Die (I added this category...and why not?)
Blog
Watch over my children and grandchildren
Hang out with my parents, brother, cousin, aunts and uncles
Sleep late
Sing
Dance
Meet new interesting people
Bring peace to the Middle East

Things That Attracted Me to Blogging:
A way to find out how my daughter is doing on her novel (who's nagging?)
A way to find out what my granddaughter is up to
A chance to tell my children of their legacy
Redemption for having squanderedspent so many years working in the computer industry
The feedback, the feedback, the feedback!
A way to show callow youth that old people can be interesting (as if any of my readers were callow youth. Hah!)
Meeting new interesting people.

Seven Things I Say Most Often
You are the best dog ever!
Wanna go out for walkies?
Wanna treat?
Let's meet for coffee.
Send me pictures! Please!
Ya never know…
Without me?

Seven Impractical Things I Think Would Be Really Cool Anyway
Teleportation
Seeing my family at regular Friday night dinners (see teleportation)
A pied a terre on the Upper West Side. Or midtown. Or in the Flatiron district
A personal chauffeur
A personal maid (she could be married to the chauffeur)
Visiting the USA by ocean liner instead of airplane
Middle East peace

Seven People to Tag
Don't want to.

Socks, Finished

Socks, Finished
Originally uploaded by savtadotty.

After a walk in the rain with the dog, dry warm socks are really the best! The keenly observant viewer will see that I ran out of main color on the second sock, creating a more fanciful pair than one usually finds in shops.

Tell Me Us About Your Piano

I was reading Tamar's blogaversary post recently (congratulations are in order.) When I saw her piano so soon after posting about my piano, I got to thinking. How many of you bloggers have pianos? If you do, why not tell us when and why you got yours, who plays it now, who used to play it, etc. etc. I'm all ears. And for photos, I'm all eyes. (This makes me very interesting to the ophtalmologist and the otolaryngologist.)

Paeans of Praise for Appliances and Appliance-Related Services

Cousin Lucy's Spoon's sitemeter shows an amazing spike this week, probably thanks to links from adloyada and moleskiners. Welcome, newbies! For you, I've been more energetic than usual in linking to (barely) related previous posts.

Sixteen years ago, at the end of January 1990, I moved into my present home and received my shipping container of furniture and appliances. (If you want to know why I moved to Israel in the first place, my series on that subject is here, here, here, and here.)

Now it seems to be Awards Season in the blogosphere, so I would like to give a few awards of my own. By writing this I suppose I am tempting the Fates, but given that the items mentioned are still in working order (tfu, tfu, tfu) I would like to publicly thank the following:

Aryeh at ABC Trading Company on Canal Street in Manhattan, who calmly advised me for several hours, even as his dragon-mother snarled in the background. Aryeh had previously performed a stand-up comedy routine about Israeli electricity, water systems and the wonders of transformers to a group of us wanna-be immigrants that convinced me he had been born too late: the Catskills in the 1940's should have been his pathway to Hollywood. Only one surprise: why did the portable radio turn out to be red?

Amana for making a boring and dependable refrigerator/freezer that stolidly keeps everything cold and makes hefty American-size ice cubes, even though its rear end was too fat for the trapezoidal space in my kitchen that I naively thought was a rectangle (silly me for assuming right angles on any wall in my apartment.) After chipping away some beautiful tiles to free up about 1/8 inch of wall space, we were able to squeeze the fridge into place. I wonder what the floor behind it looks like after 16 years?

AEG for my workhorse front-loading washing machine that takes 2-3 HOURS to plod its way through a rather small load. The lethargic pace is because, as Aryeh explained with eye-rolling, it heats its own water, and that takes time, depending upon how hot you want your washing water to be. This machine was designed to give a full-time laundress something to do now that her scrubbing chores have been automated: manual control switches must be operated in real time or the rinse cycle won't happen, the draining of rinse water won't happen, and the child-safety door lock won't open. But the clothes get really clean. They have to.

Philips for my stackable workhorse clothes dryer, which unlike its AEG washing machine-cum-pedestal has exactly ONE control: a timer. When you close this dryer's front door and set its timer for anything other than zero minutes, it starts to dry! The Philips people obviously wanted to give some dignity back to the children humiliated by being locked out of the AEG described above but installed below.

Grundig for my multi-system sort-of color TV that accompanied me to my first home: the immigrant dormitory/hostel I arrived at long before I found my apartment. My few remaining TV-loving friends enjoy laughing the size of its screen, which is only slightly smaller than my (standard) desktop computer screen. As it ages, the picture tube has developed a cataract-friendly fuzziness, accelerating its imminent demise. Ever since I jettisoned cable service, it has served as a DVD/VCR monitor. I am hoping Internet Video improves before the Grundig becomes terminal (ha, ha…that's kind of a pun).

Kenwood for my all-purpose kitchen motor: it's a mixer, a kneader, an egg-white whipper, a blender, a food processor, and a juice-squeezer. It also has a meat-grinding attachment that I confess I've never used, but if the day comes that I want to make my own stuffed derma I am sure the grinder would help. And the whole thing fits into the magic disappearing elevator drawer built by my predecessor.

Note: During these years I have replaced my original computer three times.

Doctor, My Brain Hurts

If you have to have brain surgery, don't you want your surgeon to look like this? At first I thought. "So young, how can he have enough experience?" Then I, like everyone here, became an instant expert in brain surgery and realized how many hours of concentration and focus just one operation takes. And Sharon has had three. In three days. So I thought, "Only a young surgeon has the stamina for it." Whatever happens to Ariel Sharon, hooray for Jose Cohen and his team at Hadassah Hospital! The Jerusalem Post wrote Jose's mini-biography. Unmarried? Not for long now.

The World is Too Much With Us

I never thought of Ariel Sharon as someone I would like to know personally, but I've noticed that many effective politicians are people I don't like. On the other hand, the few nice people I know who tried careers in politics have not been successful, even after they won elections. That all seems beside the point when you're talking about World Leaders. Having the responsibility for the security of millions of people is not a job I would want, and I was counting on Sharon to do it. I was counting on what seemed to be his evolving understanding of the uses of power. I was counting on his ushering in a new beginning. Now it's past tense, and I'm deeply concerned. And sad.

Elasticity in the Middle East

One of the Things They Never Tell You When You Move to Israel is what happens to elastic in the local dry, hot climate. After a few years, elastic may still stretch but it won't snap back. This happens to rubber bands, elastic waistbands, and even that lovely little Secret Handshake Item of Precious Writers Everywhere, the Moleskine. (The one on the left is how it looks when it's new. The one on the right is mine.)

A related problem is what happens to glue…things you never knew were glued together in the first place just come apart in your hands: eyeglass frames, wooden boxes, picture frames.

But most disturbing of all is the combined effects of climate (hot and dry, as previous noted) and the local composition of walls (mostly sand, masquerading as concrete I suspect) on stuff suspended therefrom: several years ago a friend and I experienced The Night Of Falling Things when we were each awakened in the wee hours by crashing thuds in our apartments, about ½ mile apart. My heavy framed bedroom mirror fell from the wall the same night her kitchen cabinets did. Both had been installed by "professionals," but the forces of nature proved stronger than hooks, nails, glue, and construction engineering.

I know we will all eventually return to dust, but couldn't we be reminded of it in a more profound way than the crashing of shattered glass and crockery, and the feeling of underpants sliding down our legs?