Some Things Should Not Change

You know I'm typically all for change and progress in this miserable world of ours. But, some things should remain as they are. Bwo came home with these hexagonal pitot yesterday.  What is the world coming to! What's next? square tomatoes! oval postage stamps! round soccer fields! Some changes are just unnecessary.

Phish

It is a well known fact that blacknephewo is a Phish freak. he follows them around like seagulls do a fishing boat. Now he lives back in the great US of A, he has all the more access - they do not seem to be interested in visiting the Holy Land. He sent me this link to their concert video page. It is well worth going to check out what musicians that care about their audience can put together.


By the way, bno was in row 5 for video #7, Possum. Nice.

Kitten

We miss the kitten.  By all reports she is doing great at bsister-in-lawo's, still we miss her. She lived in the bedroom with us for more than a month.  She was perfectly cute and lovable. Now that she's bigger, her constant attacking on feet got a little old and her boisterousness before bedtime got quite annoying, still she just stole our hearts. Fearless is what best describes her. Even though she is tiny, she had no problem walking up to the giant (fat) Syd and demanding he play with her. No matter how much he hissed and batted at her, she would never give up. She wanted to play. I am sure she will just thrive on the little kid's attention.

We now have three more kittens living in the shed out front. This in addition to the four siblings of our cutie out back. So it is pretty much kitten heaven out there. I think the pet shop (zoo-erez-zoo) plant these furry bundles here. They are making a killing.

RIP Big Man

Johnny really loved Springsteen. Lon and I put up with it.  At some point the record store got copies of the year end Old Grey Whistle Test must have been around 80, 81. We watched these so many times the video tape (VHS) must have stretched. There was this live Springsteen performance, I think it must have been from his English tour in the late 70s. It was brilliant. I remember him collapsing on stage at some point, crying "I can't go on, I can't go on" and just letting the audience's energy and Clarence's sax lift him. I was converted.

Big Man Clarence Clemons died today. He was the consummate side man. His sax wailed for my generation. He will be missed. I cannot find that original clip of Bruce in England on the OGWT, but I found this.  It is just excellent.

What I've been doing.

Well, I certainly have not been blogging for the last week or so. I have been watching this:

Michael Sadel's Harvard University's course on Justice.

Watch it. It is worth the time. It's excellence in action. Tell me, aren't universities necessary?

600 years of time

This is rather amazing.The 600 years anniversary of the astronomical tower clock situated at Old Town Square in center of Prague.

Security

On Thursday I had to motor up to Jerusalem on squint related business to meet someone  at the HTIA conference. So there I was. I arrived at Binyanai HaOmah with plenty of time to spare. I parked in the underground parking and walked for miles being directed from door to door, until I found the entrance for the conference (which was actually the main entrance of Binyanai HaOmah). I did notice that there seemed to be a lot of security, more than usual, but this is an important conference and I figured they were just protecting the captains of industry from harm (and beggars). I got to the front door and was questioned by a young lady in rent-a-cop uniform as to my goals and aspirations for the day. I passed first scrutiny and then headed through the "real" security (complete with fake metal detector, it was not even plugged in). I gave the guard my backpack, and emptied my pockets. He looked at my cell and then saw my Swiss-Army knife. "You can't take that in!" he stated officiously. "But, Why?" I shrugged trying to look Israeli. "Orders!" he said. I just frowned. He called the girl outside to discuss. This went on for a while. She called her superior on her cell and I was ordered to "wait right here!". So I waited. About five minutes later the superior showed up. He did not look all that superior to me, but looks can be deceiving. He looked at my Swarmy. "Why do you need this?" He asked. "It's perfect, and it has a set of Torx screwdrivers, Come On" I answered. He looked confused and so he too called his superior on his cell. I hear his side of the conversions. "He has a pocket knife", he told her. "No he looks O.K.", "He's a new immigrant (obvious from my accent) and he is wearing black". "Tov, I will ask him".

So he turned to me and asked "You don't plan to stab anyone with this, do you?". "Definitely not" I replied. Handing me back my Swarmy, he said "O.K. You can go in, just don't stab anyone or else I will get fired".

Once inside I found out the reason for the tight security (besides the free lunch for attendees). It seems our Prime Minister Bibi was giving a speech to the conference an hour after my meeting. Now I bet you in the States no amount of talking would have got me in with my Swarmy knife.