Shabbat Shalom
posted by Imshin 18:25

Wishing to be hospitable to Lynn, I decided to help her find out what "gobble gobble" was in Hebrew. Not knowing what a turkey says in Hebrew myself, I asked Bish. He didn't know either, so I asked Eldest. She thought it was a joke, as in "I don't know. What does a turkey say?”

Bish asked to point out that a Thanksgiving turkey probably doesn't say very much at all.

Feedback: One reader points out - "It is still gobble gobble. Because turkeys do not speak English or Hebrew. They are turkeys! LOL". Good point, but how come ducks say quack quack in English and ga ga ga in Hebrew? Hebrew speaking dogs say hav hav, by the way. Can't think of any others off hand.

Someone else puts us right - "Because turkeys are indigenous to Mexico, they do not speak Hebrew.
In Spanish, they are Guajolote when living; pavo when dead. Like cattle in the field and beef on the dinner table. While they are still Guajolotes, they say, "Ayudame, Ayudame." When they become pavo, they say nothing."

So there we have it.


posted by Imshin 18:06

I saw it coming, although I didn't really know what it was
In October 1985, I spent my last night on my army base clutching the Uzi submachine gun that was usually chained to a rack in my department room, to be used only for guard duty. In a moment of superstitious hysteria I decided I was never going to get out of the army alive, and this, being my last night, was obviously the night all hell was going to let loose. It didn't happen. But I was right, something was brewing. It just took another couple of years to manifest.

Going to bed with an Uzi was a bit over the top, I know, but not completely out of touch with reality, it seems, with hindsight. You see my base was on a hilltop. The slope of the adjacent hill was completely covered by sprawling houses of an Arab village, a very hostile West Bank Arab village. I saw nothing to stop the villagers from attacking the base. The rather nonchalant guarding routine worried me tremendously, but no on else seemed the least bit bothered.

A few months earlier we had watched as bus after bus of terrorists, freed in the Jibril deal, had rolled into the village amid much jubilation. After that, tension had soured, or had it been gradually increasing beforehand and I just hadn’t noticed? We were no longer allowed to leave the base on foot, and had to wait for a vehicle to take us. A bomb exploding at the nearby bus stop, used by the soldiers of the base, killed no one only because, luckily, the times that the work shifts on the base began and ended had been changed the day before and the stop, which should have been full of soldiers, was empty. We no longer spent our free time roaming the alleyways of the old city of Jerusalem in civilian clothes. Something was definitely in the air.

After that last night on the base, I packed my bags and left. I moved to Tel Aviv where I had enrolled in Tel Aviv University. I didn't see Jerusalem again for about five years. Wild horses wouldn’t have dragged me there. In Tel Aviv I forgot all about the army and Jerusalem, and unfriendly Arabs.

When the Intifada erupted in December 1987, I made no mental connection to the tension I had experienced in Jerusalem. I had blocked it out as part of an unpleasant period of my life.

posted by Imshin 17:47

I'm a bit worried that no one pointed out that Dr. Yossi Beilin is not currently a Knesset member. Maybe I should bring back the comments option just to keep me on my toes? Hmmm... Naaaah.
posted by Imshin 12:23

I'm in big trouble with Bish. He brought me home a new and wonderful keyboard ages ago and, enjoying the unplanned break in cyber life (I've been reading a book and watching TV. We were hooked on Spielberg's "Taken" for a few days), I didn't bother to tell you guys. So now Bish thinks you think he is horrible and cruel. You don't think that at all, do you?

I'd like to thank you all for your advice on what to do about coke in keyboard, especially Lawrence who even helped substantially in keeping my visitor count from plummeting. I don't know why I didn't think of sticking the keyboard under the tap, before it was too late, myself. The dishwasher idea amused me greatly, but since I don't possess one (a dishwasher, not an idea, although...), not very helpful for me.

A few years ago my cell phone fell down the toilet (after I'd been, eeeeuuuuwww) and this is just what I did, washed it under the tap and dried it with a hairdryer. I was pretty amazed when it worked as if nothing had happened. Bish reminds me, however that this technique didn't work a few years before that when I made the fatal mistake of putting a pair of his pants in the washing machine with his brand new electronic phone book in one of the pockets (This was before Palms came out, they're more bulky). Bish had just spent hours entering all his phone numbers (It was quite primitive, didn't synchronize with the computer) and he wasn't very pleased with me, and, as you can see, he won't let me forget it.

So anyway, I've got this shiny, new Rolls Royce of a keyboard, with all interesting keys that no way will I ever remember to use, and this is the first time I'm using it. Mazal Tov to me.

posted by Imshin 10:52

Have spilt Coca Cola into my keyboard. Blogging suspended till Bish comes home with a new one.
posted by Imshin 19:43

So What you think?! This guy advertised himself directly and unashamedly on a post by Allison on ... Appropriate Advertising. Can't not love him.
posted by Imshin 18:05

Guess what I am in Spanish? I'm "una madre de personalidad dividida tratando de dar sentido a lo que pasa en su tierra". So there. Now maybe you'll treat me with more respect!
posted by Imshin 17:48

What do you want from us?
I always think it is both unfair and unwise to make unfavorable and critical comparisons between Israel and old, established Western democracies. Israel is not an old, established Western democracy and cannot be expected to have reached the same levels of development in issues such as human rights in such a relatively short period of time. Think how long it took for the UK to give women the vote (or to give anyone but the landed gentry the vote, for that matter), or for the USA to abolish slavery (or even to award all African Americans their basic civil rights). We're mere infants, in comparison, and, taking that into consideration, we're not doing so badly. Actually, we're doing damn well!

Strangely, many see Israel's being forged as a Western style democracy as a natural development, but when you think of it, it was anything but natural. The Israel we see today was built, in the early days, by Eastern European Jews, most of them born and bred in Orthodox Jewish households, where the Rabbi's word was law and the secular ruler of the land, often a cruel tyrant, was feared and hated. Jewish Pioneers from Western democracies were few and far between in the Land of Israel, and, mostly unsuited for the life of hardship, didn't last it out. There was no tradition of peer rule, no gradual development over the years of a belief in liberalism or in individual freedom, or anything like that. Still, amazingly, these people, joined later by, among others, hundreds of thousands of immigrants from feudal Middle Eastern and North African countries, somehow managed to break away from what they had experienced before, and established a Western-style democratic state (as opposed to a Soviet-style socialist one), long before this was to come to be in any of their countries of origin. Is this not a wonder? Is this not amazing? True, our democracy has its flaws. It is far from perfect (as are all democracies, even old, established ones). But give us time. We're working on it. We have one or two other problems, as well.

I believe the example of Israel can give us hope, because surely it proves that other countries in this region are also capable of functioning as democracies. Ve'yafa sha'a ahat kodem (= and better sooner than later).

posted by Imshin 16:56

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