The Scribbler

By Paul Cashmere The highlight if my media career was definitely having the chance to interview George Harrison. George was funny, informative and up for a chat. Today marks the 7th anniversary of the death of what we all called `the Quiet Beatle`. Here is a a candid chat with Beatle George. Paul Cashmere: I'm going to start off by talking about movies. I don't know how many times I've see "Monty Python's Life of Brian," in which you have a cameo. I've searched for your part, even on freeze frame. The problem with that movie is that everyone in it looks like George Harrison. Put me out of my misery. Where are you in it? George Harrison: Well if you're looking for me, then everybody's going to look like that. There's just one little shot, it's probably about 12 frames. Do you know the scene where he comes out of the room and there's crowds of people in the house and John Cleese is there saying, "Those people with gifts form a qu...

I was a teaching a non computing class earlier this week. The students and I strayed away from the main topic of conversation (as one does in these types of lessons) and for some reason started talking about Judaism. I can't remember what the catalyst for the conversation was, but I won't forget some of the comments for a long time to come. Some of these kids seemed convinced that all Jews are rich (nothing new there then) and that the reason why Charedim/Hasidim wear large hats is solely because they need somewhere to hide their money under. This is obviously an idea that they will have heard from home or in the media or in their place of worship. I ridiculed this suggestion by taking my kipah (skullcap) off in front of them and shaking it a few times to see if any money would come out. I then put my hands into my hair, ruffled it a little and waited for the notes to fall out. Unfortunately, I wasn't successful. My hair was definitely moneyless. The kids then replied that ...

Those sickening images we are seeing from Mumbai, wending their way through the global telecommunications that we all plug into begs one single question. Why? Why is one human being spending his/her time planning the murder of countless others? Why is this person not working in a decent job, trying to make a living, just like the rest of us? I went to school today, interacted with the kids, showed them that I gave a damn about their futures and came home. This evening, I sat there for three hours, planning lessons, wondering how I would teach them tomorrow and how they might react to my methods. At no single moment did I think about how I could harm them. It didn't occur to me that maybe tomorrow, Heaven forbid, someone would be sitting in a room planning to kill either them, their friends, relatives or neighbours. For me, the amount of time I spend awake is given over to fanning a different sort of fire, the kind that encourages young adults to go out there and make their existenc...

I don't know what my poor little blue Fiesta ever did to hurt anyone because for some reason, it seems to be a constant target for other people's anger/poor driving/aggression. A few months after I got it, some shitty little teenagers decided to go joy-riding down my street and inflicted on my little Fordy what would turn out to be one of the first in a long line of serious attacks. If that weren't enough, another little teenage angel ran his key along the bonnet and driver's side, adding more hurt and shame to this long suffering automobile. I was definitely starting to worry about leaving my Fordy alone in a street or school car park. I really felt her pain (but not enough to shell out money to relieve it). Then, I get to my new school and someone backs into Fordy - again in the car park. If that weren't enough, another little darling took out his anger and smashed the driver's mirror, but a few yards away from the previous misdemeanour. Now you'd think...

I shouldn't find this funny, but I can't help myself. CNN) -- Things didn't go quite according to plan for astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper during her spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Tuesday. Astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper maneuvers by the tail of the docked space shuttle Endeavour. First, a grease gun inside her tool bag leaked, coating everything inside with a film of lubricant. While she was trying to clean it up in the absence of gravity, the whole bag floated away. Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve Bowen were outside the space station on the scheduled six-hour spacewalk, ...

I had a frightening thought this evening. Dana came home with some photos of our, taken when they were babies. Whilst looking through the photos, it occurred to me as to how our little have changed over what is a very short amount of time in my life. Only 8 years ago, my eldest daughter was just three; Talia was 1, Michal was just about something and Shira....well, she wasn't! We live with the same people day in and day out and we don't realise how they've changed over time. A chance look at some photographs suddenly brings it all home. Ten years ago, I remember what was happening to me. The same can't be said about 80% of the people living in this house!

SOCIALISM You have 2 cows. You give one to your neighbour. COMMUNISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk. FASCISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk. NAZISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and shoots you. BUREAUCRATISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away... TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income. SURREALISM You have two female giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons AN AMERICAN CORPORATION You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead. ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, the...

I was delighted to read that Nir Barkat , the secular candidate in the Jerusalem mayoralty race, won the election. He proved that you don't have to be Orthodox or indeed Charedi to love the focal point of our nation. Having been to Jerusalem more times than I can remember, I have seen with deep alacrity the taking over of the city by the Ultra Orthodox Jews - with the result being the flight of moderates like myself and our secular brethren from the city we so adore. I didn't like Teddy Kolleck but respected what he had done over the years. I didn't like Olmert (I still don't) as Mayor and was indifferent to the incumbent, although apparently, he was far less bothersome that I'd imagined. Nir Barkat is a "new" face with a young, fresh approach - a man whom I believe can do a lot of good in the city, if only to re-balance the population and make the city attractive to non- Charedis . We have enough of a problem with the Arabs trying to divide our city...

I built my house from barley rice Green pepper walls and water ice Tables of paper wood, windows of light And everything emptying into White . Those lines from the beautiful Cat Stevens song really describe what has been happened at our abode over the last fortnight. When we moved here, nearly a decade ago, we were faced with pepper(mint) green lined walls that frankly looked vile. We lived with these because re-papering/re-painting the walls was out of the question, not least because my DIY skills aren't what they used to be - i.e. they were never too hot and now...they're abysmal - and money wasn't exactly flowing. Fast forward to the last two weeks and, as Dylan puts it, things have changed. Our walls are now a gleaming shade of white and the house has been transformed into a place that I am happy to show off to friends - as well as to come home to after a day at work. The chief architect behind this endeavour was my good lady who found a fantastic decorator, the ...

As I stood in front of my students at 11.00 a.m. observing the two minute silence, I tried to imagine what it must have been like going over the edge of the trench into the barrage of bullets and bombs. What could these poor young men have been thinking, running towards their inevitable deaths? What would have happened if WW1 hadn't taken place? Would the computer I am typing this on exist if Archduke Ferdinand had lived? It is so easy to pass these moments by. You don't have to stand for two minutes channelling your thoughts. You could just ignore the moment and get on with your life in the same manner. No-one forces you to watch the parades, wear the poppies or mourn the dead. Then again, no-one forced people to vote for Hitler. In life, you can be a passive observer and it's probably makes life simpler if you are, but then, what exactly will you have achieved by the time your flame blows itself out? I told my Year 8's that standing there silently for those two minut...

70 years to the day since Kristallnacht, I still hear the haunting sound of a Synagogue burning to the ground. I feel the earth tremble as yet another innocent Jew loses his life . How much has really changed in all those years. How much have we really managed to recover from the night of broken glass?

I believe that Jews, just like everyone else, should be allowed to live where-ever they please. If that means settling land that has always been ours, in places like Hebron or Jerusalem or even Bethlehem for that matter, so be it. Hell, if they even want to live in Gaza, why shouldn't they do so? My belief and support of the Settler movement stems from this idea. There has been a continuous Jewish presence in Hebron since Biblical Times and I don't see any reason for this not to continue, irrespective of whether the wonderful world agrees with us. Frankly, I didn't see the world doing that much to stop the massacre of six million Jews, or for that matter, coming out against one-sided resolutions blaming Israel for every problem in the Middle Easy at the UN (and we're not even going to talk about either Durban I or II), so I don't really care what they think. That said, I have a big problem with the behaviour of some of the Settlers who go out of their way to antagon...

Yes I was wrong. I know. I've spent the entire day wondering how I could salvage any credibility on this blog after backing the wrong horse. One thought though kept on making its way through the inner chambers of my brain. In fact, I vocalised it on the way to the downstairs toilet at about 2 a.m - I stayed up till almost 03:00 to find out how wrong I actually was about who would win the race. The thought was simply - why am I upset? After all, as an orthodox Jew, I believe that G- d's presence lies behind everything that happens i our world. What if He has engineered it so that Obama will be the right president at the right time in the right place? How could I dare to suppose that I had greater understanding than the Supreme Being? I mulled the thought over the next fourteen or so hours, facing the students who teased me with aplomb and grace. Coming home, it suddenly occurred to me that had Chamberlain not fluffed it in the late 1930's with Herr Hitler, the UK would not ...

I know that the following comments will either come back to haunt and humiliate me (i.e I'll be a laughing stock) or show me to be rather prophetic in nature. Here goes. I believe that the election will be won by McCain. How can I say this? How can I be so foolish to assume that all those opinion polls are wrong? Listen to the radio, talk to people and they are walking around saying that Obama's already won. The thing is - he hasn't and everything we hear based on both the opinion polls and people's perception of what the result is going to be. The truth is that we don't know, but at the end of the day, something inside me, some strange feeling tells me that there is going to be a different result and that enough Americans will vote for the older guy to make the difference between winning and losing. As I said, I'll probably be a laughing stock in twelve hours time - but what if I'm right?

Well, here we are. The big day has arrived and the world holds it breath. Will America vote in its first black president? We are, without a doubt at a historic time and not one of us can deny it. The presidential race that has us hooked to our TVs and radios, balancing on the edge of our seats, gasping for breath - is within a hair-breadth of the finish line. It is crunch time. I don't want Barack Obama to win. I have nothing whatsoever against the man and wish him the very best, but I don't want him to win. I don't like his stance on the Middle East. I'm not enamoured by the people he chooses to get advice from and I'm afraid that, although I do sense the sheer wright of the moment, the world needs a leader with experience and most importantly clout. I fear that Obama is too wishy-washy, for want of a better word, for that role. Hate Bush as you might but he stood up to the Arab world and terrorism. He stood up to Iran and Hamas. He stood up to Hezbollah and Syria...

Last night, I watched Sarah Silverman's ad for the "Great Schlep" where the idea is for Jewish grandchildren to go over to Florida and convince their grandparents to vote for Obama. It was a funny skit and Sarah Silverman is a very amusing young lady, but I really wondered whether the whole exercise was not condescending in the extreme - after all, are the people of Florida that stupid that have to rely on their grandchildren to traverse the United States to make their minds up for them. I'm not doubting that the whole exercise is a very clever marketing ploy and granted Florida's ignoble voting record, perfectly understandable. It is also quite flattering that Sarah Silverman believes that Jewish vote is so crucial as to think of the idea in the first place. That said, it could also be seen as a pretty cynical way for the younger generation to manipulate their elders for a stated political agenda - and that's the bit that leaves a bitter taste, certainly i...