Foiled Again?

Given that the Red Sox are in the world series for the second time since I've made aliyah, nobody should be surprised that at least one blog post was devoted to the olde towne team. I was recently discussing with a friend the difference between the Red Sox championship run in 2004 and their current campaign. Our conversation mainly revolved around the impact of the curse being broken, a topic that was also touched upon in this Boston Globe editorial. Don't get me wrong. I'm thrilled that the Sox won in 2004 and wouldn't have it any other way - especially how they came back from being down three games to none against the Yankees. But I wonder to what extent the identity of Red Sox Nation was lost when the curse was broken. For years (86 of them) generations of Red Sox fans were united by their shared agony. In years past, when the fans had their collective hearts broken, they at least were secure in the knowledge that they were apart of something bigger than themselves. In that way, the curse served to unite Sox fans and gave them a chance to be a part of something bigger than themselves. In a way, it was a kind of group masochism where you were bonded to your fellow fan through the shared experience of dashed hopes. Now that we are the fullfilling our pre-season playoff expectations we can appreciate the excellent play of the team, but if the quality of play slips will the Nation dissipate without it's previously unifying force now removed? Worse yet, if the Red Sox continue to win, will fans become spoiled and expect a world series every year? Could we become the Yankees of the 21st century?

I guess we'll just have to win and find out.

To Everything There is a Season

Just like the holiday season in America, as soon as the fall holidays end the Israeli marketing machine moves on to the winter festivities. That means that as soon as Sukkot ended sufganiyot (jelly donuts) began appearing in bakeries and supermarkets - tasty treats are affiliated with Chanukah. However, that isn't the only change that comes after Sukkot. Traditionally, Israel has two seasons, Summer and Winter. It's easy to tell the difference. In the winter it rains. In the summer it doesn't. Also the summer is hot. Yesterday formally marked the beginning of winter as we had the first rain of the year. In a country known for its "issues" with safe driving, the first rain is an especially dangerous occasion. That's because dust accumulates on the roads all Summer until the first rain turns it into a slick oil-like substance. As you can imagine, bad driving conditions combined with bad Israeli drivers leads to chaos of the highest degree. Sometimes it's nice not having a car.

Safe-ty First

Today I walked down to the post office to check my work's post office box. This is not an uncommon occurrence as I regularly deal with invoices and receiving payment. What made this afternoon's trip "special" was that in addition to the regular mail, we received a package. We hadn't ordered anything so I was quite surprised when I was asked to sign for a heavy, medium sized box.

Playing around with unknown packages from unrecognized senders is not widely considered "intelligent" in Israeli circles but I figured that since the unibomber is out of circulation, the chances of a terrorist targeting a small web design business were highly unlikely.

Upon returning to the office I opened the package with my boss, who was similarly baffled by the unexpected package. Inside we discovered a mini-electric wall safe. The kind you would find in a hotel room closet. After verifying that nobody in the company had ordered the safe, we called the distributor for some clarification.

Turns out that the safe was a gift from our ISP. We had just ordered a new firewall from them, and despite the fact that we subsequently canceled the order, they wanted to help us stay "safe" in the real world too. It was a nice, albeit corny, gesture.