Month: May 2007

  • Cracked-out Sesame Street marketing.

    I once wrote about a bizarre and freaky Israeli marketing technique employed by the phone company using a cracked-out bird cartoon for a new campaign. It seems cracked-out Sesame Street marketing is popular around these parts. Call the Bezeq alcoholic parrot the Big Bird approach, if you will. Well, here comes more freakiness – the…

  • The every-day.

    There comes a point – after you move far away from where you grew up – when you realize that you’ve been cut off from the every-day, and even from the once-in-a-while. A few months into the self-induced separation, the happy birthdays and mazal tovs flow; you invite each other to happenings from across the…

  • Same, same but different.

    I saw not one – not two – but three different guys wearing “SAME SAME/BUT DIFFERENT” t-shirts today. When young Israelis finish the army, they collect whatever savings they have and venture off into the wilderness that Southeast Asia has to offer. One of their main stops is Thailand, where everything is cheap and shopping…

  • How to get by these days.

    These are hard times. There’s war in the air. If you’re feeling despair, here’s an exercise to make you feel better: 1. Open a new file or folder in your computer. 2. Name it “Ehud Olmert”. 3. Send it to the trash. 4. Empty the trash. 5. Your computer will ask you, “Do you really…

  • Israeli is to chic peas as Russian is to dentistry.

    Sometimes I’m amazed that I still have new experiences to write about here. I had my first Israeli dental experience today – or should I say Russian dental experience? It seems that to be a dentist here, you have to be Russian, and you also have to be way harsh about poking around in there.…

  • Typical, every day.

    Today is a typical day in Israel. A weekday, a Thursday, a typical day in the State of Israel. And three articles in today’s newspaper brought me to tears in the middle of a bus ride. The first told stories of Ethiopian Jews who died or were killed on the way to Israel. The second…

  • Home center.

    I rag on Jerusalem a lot. Blame it on the love/hate. And the weird rain. But, in honour of Jerusalem Day today, I will make an announcement that is happy; for the city, anyway. We’ve decided to stay in Jerusalem for at least another year. This is not out of charity (that the city really…

  • Another rainy Jerusalem day… in May.

    It’s unnaturally pouring outside. Dark cloudy sky, thunder, lightening, the whole package. It rarely rains like this in the winter, nevermind summer. It’s also not a blessing for it to rain at this time of year. Is God angry at us? Well, he couldn’t have picked a better day to express it. It’s Yom Yerushalayim…

  • There's always that.

    Friend and I discussing how crappy the all-around situation is in Israel right now: Friend: What we need is all my friends in Israel to take over the government. Me: You couldn’t pay me. Government is shit. It’s the thing that exists so that someone else out there can rebel against it and make life…

  • Israeli Pet Peeve #476: The Hebrew Contest.

    This featured pet peeve isn’t limited to being just an Israeli edition; it’s an oleh chadash pet peeve as well and it’s one of my most hated ones of all time. So get ready. I, by nature, am not a competitive person. I think when I was younger I did have a strong competitive streak…

  • Topic diving.

    About 6 months ago the time to start developing a thesis topic arrived. I’m at my fifth idea after four have been rejected by either my overseeing professor or myself. At this point, I’m even minus an overseeing professor and I have no idea where to turn for assistance. I will say, though, that my…

  • Today's Word: מתיחות

    Today’s word is brought to you by my new hip hop class. As mentioned, I started taking dance classes. I learned last Monday that I don’t mix well with organized dance. On Friday I decided to go with something a little bit looser, so I joined a street hip hop class. It was a lot…