The Scribbler

1. I'll be entering my fifth decade, nuff said about that one. 2. Twenty year olds will look at me mockingly. 3. I'll be the same age as John Lennon - when he was shot. 4. Next year, I'll be nine years away from 50. 5. Prostate problems. Need I expand on that one? 6. I'll never be able to put a 3 before my age. Depressing or what? 7. My friends who aren't yet 40 will have a good laugh at my expense. 8. My middle age spread will keep on heading east. 9. My wife and children won't let me forget my age, even if I try. 10. 50 year olds will tell me how lucky I am to be only 40, which sounds like a compliment but isn't one. 11. My libido will face new challenges. 12. I can forget having any fantasies about gorgeous young models. I might be 40, but I don't want to be a "dirty old man" 13. I'll start having to care about my pension. 14. I'll start longing for the 80's. which is frankly embarrassing. 15. My hair is black right now - but for...

Israel beat Russia 2-1 in the Euro 2008 qualifier. Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssss!

In 2000, France2, a highly respected news organisation broadcast the infamous footage of 12 years old Mohammed al-Dura, a Palestinian child, being supposedly shot dead by Israel as he cowered next to his father. It had been shot by a Palestinian cameraman. The footage was of course seen around the world and Israel was, as usual, blamed for this "act of barbarity" against Palestinian children. Case closed. As a result of this incident, countless Israelis were butchered in numerous suicide attacks. Mohammed Al-Dura became a THE icon of the second intifada. His "martyrdom" was burned into the minds of little Palestinian children, who were told that Mohammed Al-Dura was a symbol of Israeli brutality. However, it wasn't that clear-cut. An independant and thorough investigation was launched by the Israelis, which includee a ballistics check and it was found that the boy could not have been killed by the Israelis. If he had been killed at all. Fast forward seven years ...

Dassi has managed to do it again. She scored 92% in her maths test and she's absolutely bowled me over in the pride stakes. As someone who just about managed to scrape a "C" at 'O' Level arithmetic (and that was with a lot of help), I can only quiver in admiration and respect at her astounding score. As the proper Jewish thing to do, with a result like that, I'm writing this blog to let everyone to know that she's my daughter - not that I had anything to do with her maths chromosome. Blame her mother for that.

NEW DELHI (AP) -- A man in southern India married a female dog in a traditional Hindu ceremony in a bid to atone for stoning two dogs to death, a newspaper reported Tuesday. P Selvakumar, left, garlands his "bride," Selvi. The 33-year-old man married the sari-draped dog at a temple in the southern state of Tamil Nadu on Sunday after an astrologer said it was the only way to cure himself of a disability, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported. P. Selvakumar told the paper that he had been suffering since he stoned two dogs to death and strung them up in a tree 15 years ago. "After that my legs and hands got paralyzed and I lost hearing in one ear," the paper quoted him as saying. Family ...

Reading the news today, between the shooting in a Finnish school and Iran about to go nuclear (not forgetting the bloodbath in Afghanistan ), one can understand that there isn't much to smile about. Whereas I am just as glum as the next person (and I really am), there is only one piece of news that makes me even more depressed than any of the above. In less than a month, I am going to be forty years old. OH MY G-D. To make things worse, by an almost sadistic twist of fate, both my Hebrew and Gregorian birthdays fall on exactly the same day of the week that I was born - Shabbat . I was born on Friday night, 1st December, corresponding with the 29 th day of the month of Cheshvan , which just happens to fall tomorrow night. If that weren't bad enough, my birthday will fall this year on Saturday/ Shabbat . Do you think the good Lord is trying to give me a message here? I am depressed. How the hell did I find myself on the threshold of my fifth decade? I mean, sod it, according to ...

My experience of Facebook has to date been only positive. Every now and again I am contacted (or find) a person (usually a school friend) with whom I haven't been in touch with for ages, sometimes even decades. Living inside your own little bubble that is your life, one tends to forget that everyone else is also inhabiting their CO2 universe, merrily bubbling along the timeline of their existence. People change. We all do but we often forget that others are still around, eking out their existence in totally different circumstances than your own. Yes, there are similarities as many have gone through university, got married and taken on the parental roles that we now all seem to wonder how we ever lived without. Others have chosen different paths, but still we are all the same age as you, facing many of the same challenges that life seems to enjoy throwing your way. Before you realise it, it is twenty years since you saw so-and-so and that he or she didn't stay the same, as thou...