Month: December 2008

  • Support from the inside.

    Since motzei Shabbat, I, like everyone else, have been watching as Gaza, the news and – at least my – inbox have exploded. And by inbox, I really mean all forms of electric communication. I’m getting messaged, emailed, SMS’d, tweeted: Help organize food and supplies to Israeli border towns! Host a family from the south!…

  • Israeli Consulate hosting a Twitter Q&A session.

    And now, for something new and different. So… here in Israel, we are more computers than people. And I know I was a bit snobbish when I wrote about the Israeli elections campaigns using internet tech and themes from their American counterparts. But this actually tops all that for real: The Israeli Consulate has its…

  • We are more computers than people.

    Fun stat: Israel has more computers per person than any other country, according to The Economist. Yes, I am surprised, despite knowing that Israelis are very into technology and hi tech is a major industry here. It may be a country of technology, but at times it feels five years behind. That said, they never…

  • Good old fashion chutzpah.

    Looks like Israeli Santa brought me a present this Chanukah, in the form of some tradional and terrible Israeli marketing tactics – one minor and one major. Allow me to share them with you:  Learn how to communicate with your potential customers This morning, I wake up to the buzzing of my phone, a call…

  • Falling in love.

    How do you fall in love with a picture? Back in week 15-16 we had the first of two major ultrasounds done. Going into it, we had already seen the ‘kid’ twice: once as a chulent bean in the beginning and once a few weeks back as something that might have come from a veterinary text book…

  • Israeli election coverage from YouTube and Channel 2.

    Here’s something new and different: Israeli television channel ערוץ 2 and YouTube seem to have teamed up to bring us (Hebrew) coverage of the 2009 Knesset elections campaigns. The campaigns have begun, although they’re obviously not as exciting or inspiring as the American ones this past year. Fair enough. But it is interesting that the…

  • New age doughnuts.

    Happy Chanukah! The kid-oriented yet historically-fascinating holiday has officially begun tonight, and I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t admit I totally didn’t get the memo and thought it started tomorrow. Even with the Hebrew dated agenda book I keep.  I did have some clues that Chanukah was quickly approaching though: sales on candles, this…

  • An *enlightening* discovery.

    They say lightening never strikes twice, but that is simply untrue when it comes to the palms of Oren Zarif’s hands. A while back I brought him up when I discovered the Mizrachi healer’s website. Then, a couple weeks ago, I was walking through Talpiot when from the corner of my eye I spotted the…

  • Bigger.

    I just returned from a week in the States. Flew out for work, but I wasn’t going to let an opportunity like that go by without doing some shopping. What kind of Israeli would I be? What kind of woman would I be? And most importantly, what kind of pregnant Israeli woman – who doesn’t…

  • The British know what they're doing.

    Everyone knows that Israelis can’t drink. I mean, anything classier than vodka-red bulls. Well, they might be able to sip a nice whiskey if they actually tried it once in a while. So how do we expect them to not tax good liquor a million percent, thus reducing any chance of making decent booze affordable…

  • American Pie Pizza. Only, not.

    American-style pizza of true cheesy quality is not as easy to find around Jerusalem as you’d think. Big Apple Pizza (which just opened a new branch on Ben Zakai, my old hood) has done a good enough job, but they’ve grown so much you get that American sold-out feeling. If you want a small, colorful…

  • A late night meeting.

    I’ve been experiencing a crippling muscular pain in my lower back (ahem… very lower back) for a few days now. It just seems to get worse. I sit and stand up, it sharpens. I stand and sit down, it sticks into me. Yesterday I went to the doctor (how many times have I seen doctors…