The Scribbler

Teacher:  Good morning.  Your parents. . .  invited me today. . . to give you a private lesson in Israeli  . . .        citizenship. Pupil:  Yeah, we made Aliah  from Vancouver last month and I 'm missing a lot of material in the Ezrahoot ('citizenship') course, though I did try to follow the news before we came. Teacher: Not to worry.  Today we'll talk about,  'how the Israeli electoral system works." Pupil:       That's great.  I'm really confused by what I read in the papers and blogs. Teacher: Let's start with the results of last week's . . . elections.  Pupil:     OK.  Who got the most votes? Teacher: Tsipi Livni, head of the Kadima (=forward) party, with 28 seats. Pupil:       So Ms. Livni won, right? Teacher:  No, she lost.  It doesn't look like she'll be able to get enough partners to form a majority government. Pupil:      What about Bibi Netanyahu? Teacher: He got 27 seats.  As the leader of the right, he may for...

Over the last few days, we have been regaled by the deaths of two very well known individuals, both in tragic circumstances. Natasha Richardson, in all honesty, should have been waking up today, looking at the blue sky and hugging her two teenage children. Jade Goody, at 27 years of age, would of course do exactly the same. Instead, they are both looking down longingly on their lovers and offspring, wondering why life has dealt them such a cruel blow. I'm not one of these people who buys into the "celebrity" circus. I do admit to getting starry eyed when I see a famous person, which isn't something I'm that used to doing - but I refuse to buy into the vapid and in my opinion time-wasting experience that is all the rage these days. I did watch a couple of episodes of Big Brother but soon became bored with the whole concept. The only show I do follow religiously is The Apprentice and only because I see it as a fascinating insight into the way professional people wor...

You know what it's like. You think you've seen everything and then an event occurs, the likes of which you didn't think was possible. A case in point. Last night I was putting the kids to bed after a pretty stressful day. As I walked into the living room, I was greeted with the shocking sight of a goldfish lying on the parquet floor, obviously as dead as a dodo. How the fish (one of two) had managed to get out of its bowl, atop of the piano, was pretty mysterious, but not as shocking as the realisation that it was still alive, despite having been on the floor for an unknown amount of time. Having scooped the poor thing up with the dust pan and brush, ready for the inevitable toilet flushing, I moved quickly to the kitchen and put the poor thing in a bowl of water. My first worry was that it had lost a fin, but this proved unfounded as the second side fin suddenly reappeared and the goldfish came out of shock. I changed the water in the fish bowl and put it back in. Soon eno...

I know that 25th February is probably more recent than it sounds, granted that March started four days later, but I felt that it was time to re-engage my blogging-brain and update this site. I actually blame my wife who complained that my blog was turning into a repository for other people's articles. She has a point, even though I still maintain that the purpose of this site is to inform, entertain and maybe even get someone thinking, irrespective of who is responsible for the content therein. Her comment jolted me a little and although I could see her point of view, I decided that I'd take a little break from posting. So here I am, back and raring to go. In fact, I've been a little coy with you. About a month ago, I saw an advertisement in the Jewish Chronicle for a new teaching post in a Jewish secondary school. After a little hesitation, I decided to go for the post, filled in the application form, went for the interview/observation and to my delight, got the job. I wil...