And where are you from, laddie?

“Where are you from?” is a question I was often asked in Scotland.How do I answer that? Canada? Israel? Does it really matter what I choose? For so long, my only  travelling was short visits to Canada and back, where both Canada and Israel stake their claim to who I am. But here, in Scotland, […]

Why Edinburgh doesn’t like Wi-Fi

Sixteen years ago, I travelled through the United Kingdom for two weeks with my youngest son, Noam. This summer, I travelled with my elder son, Edan, for close to three weeks throughout Scotland. Many things were different in the space of 16 years, but perhaps the greatest difference of all was the ready presence of […]

The book’s the thing

There are still books out there. Many, many books. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Books have been here for… well, not forever, but for a very long time. More than I can remember, at least, but that’s not saying much.The thing is: the book is quite a clever concept. A bundle of knowledge, strapped […]

You’re so vain, you probably think this blog is about you

People annoy me. What can I say. I don’t even remember when it started. I have a vague memory of the doctor slapping me when I came out of my mother’s womb…Not all people annoy me. Or at least, not all of the people all of the time. “You can be very annoying,” you say.“Yes,” […]

Ideally Speaking

Vivian Rakoff, in “Ideally Speaking” says: “Idealism in a way is a manifestation of a generalized human desire to have a sense-making model or paradigm of the world. There are those who just accept what is given to them implicitly without it being explicit and there are those who try to make it explicit and […]

The Bearded Wonder

Why do men have beards? There are a multitude of explanations, I’m sure. Freud must have devoted a chapter to it, somewhere. I can only speak for myself, and even then, I am on shaky ground.I think I decided to “sprout” a beard as soon as I was able to grow one. Most likely, even […]

Time according to Facebook

Last week I discovered that I got married in 2007. Which sort of turned my world upside down. How do you suddenly explain to your kids that they were born out of wedlock? And how do I explain the discrepancy between the young man that appears in my wedding photos and the aging soul that […]

Taking the “new” out of New Years

We are already into the third week of the new year and I am waiting for something wondrous to happen. You see, I have this fascination for new years. Somewhat of a childlike expectation. As if something different is supposed to happen simply because of the way we artificially separate time. I can’t help myself. […]

If airplanes were meant to fly

When our first child was three, we took him with us on a trip to Canada.“We are going on an airplane!” we told him, much to his delight.At that time, a bus took us from the old terminal building at Ben Gurion airport and drove us to the foot of the plane, where we climbed […]

Discussions with a Muse

“She never married, you know.”The room was quiet, darker than usual, the only light coming from the glow of the screen. I stopped writing and squinted into the darkness.“Who?” I asked.“S…  You remember S. Your first love?”I remembered. Some things you can’t forget.“Are we using initials now?”“You never know who’s listening,” she answered.“And I thought […]