SWCAMBORNE

“Pray for the speedy return of common sense.”

Kim Klein, GIFT

Happy New Year!

Jewish New Year that is.

“love” in Hebrew

 5772 to be exact.  It starts tonight at sundown with, of course, a festive meal followed by services.

L’Shanah Tovah means “for a good year.”

L’Shanah Tovah is a shortening of “L’shanah tovah tikatev v’taihatem” and it means “May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.”

pronunciation guide: shanah tovah, like hanna with a sh and tovah with a soft t rhymes with shanah.

And finally a link to a very Happy New Year greeting sent to me by one of my friends from the Prager Israel trip Gil C.

Forwarding positive messages about Judaism is the way of our people.

 “Thoughts become things.”

Albert Einstein 

“Supremely Comfortable”

Simon  

The New Bridge

We had a great trip to Israel and I finally got the album posted on Flickr.
For those of you who aren’t interested enough to see all 100 pictures here are three of my favorites:

The Roman Aqueduct at Caesarea.

The Bahai Temple in Haifa

Nurit and I near the old city of Jerusalem wall at sunset.

What a lucky man I am.

The hundredth anniversary of the launching and sinking of the Titanic are next year and I just read a book about it: How to Survive the Titanic by Frances Wilson.  My review of the book is on Amazon.

My favorite quote from the book: 

“A marvelous achievement, is not necessarily interesting.”

Joseph Conrad writing about steam ships vs sailing ships

My maternal grandfather is an Ismay so I am distantly related to Bruce Ismay who was the builder of the Titanic.

“In Canadian Schools, unlike in the United States, they teach a class called “Moral and Religious Education.”

Quote is from Rachel Korazim a holocaust educator who spoke to our Israel Tour group in preparation for our visit to Yad Vashem.  The newly rebuilt Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.  Her talk was brilliant and the memorial is a gut wrenching emotional experience.

Superlatives are claims to the highest, fastest, largest, oldest etc.

We have had a joke for many years about a Bronze Buddha.  If you define the group sharply enough anything is the best at something.  I am “Pasadena’s oldest man born in Coventry, England who had a factory in Mexico.

On our recent trip to Israel we noticed that most superlatives about spiritual things don’t work with the “est” suffix.  You have to use “most”.  For instance “most spiritual” is correct not “spiritualest”.  “Jewishest” is wrong “most Jewish” is right.

By the way who is the worlds most spiritual man? Hint: see picture above.

“What this country needs is more unemployed politicians.”

Variously attributed to

Edward Langley and Angela Davis

Yes there is an atomic bomb museum in Los Alamos, NM. 

Is it a good idea?

Visiting the Bomb Museum

All the happiness in the world can’t buy you money.

Toby Keith

American Country Music Songwriter