Just how English are you?

 Don’t you love ambiguous sentences? One of my favourites is “The peasants are revolting.” Interpretation often depends on your point of view. Sometimes we even miss the ambiguity. We can roll these linguistic creations around on our tongue and dissect them, right down to their deep structure. I used to love creating and labeling each […]

The Last Supper or Let My People Go

Tradition. This is something a boy growing up in a waspish suburb in Toronto knows little about. We did have our family traditions – excellent roast beef and yorkshire pudding dinners served on mother’s best china every Sunday evening, which were always served and consumed just in time to watch the Walt Disney hour and […]

If Celine Dion only knew Hebrew

“How many languages do you speak?” “Four. But only two when sober.” For some reason they never seem to like this answer. “No, wait. Five,” I added. “Five?” “Yes, I forgot Yiddish.” “You know Yiddish?” “No. But German and Yiddish sound the same after three pints.” I don’t know why people sigh so often when […]

My hockey cup runneth over

They say that hockey is in every Canadian’s blood. Don’t know about that. But it is certainly a part of my beginnings. I have proof of that in the small trophy sitting on my living room shelf, down here in the desert. “David Lloyd – Mite Champion” I won’t include the year.  Not that I […]

Where Ketchup will travel

This morning I found myself putting ketchup on my omelette. Something apparently to be frowned upon, here in the Negev desert, or anywhere else in Israel, for that matter. The last time people looked at me like that was when I put my salt on my watermelon. “Enhances the taste!” I said, to their shocked […]