Only in Israel

Peekaboo, Peekabar

September 15, 2006

The area around the old train station in Jerusalem has been bustling with activity in the last year or so. New restaurants, bars and clubs have all sprung up, sharing the space that once was the end of the line for the Tel-Aviv Jerusalem train built over 100 years ago by the Turks and finished […]

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The Cat Lady

September 7, 2006

I had just started my morning run on what was shaping up to be a scorcher of a summer day when I spied Ora, the Cat Lady, hobbling with a cane towards our apartment building. I hadn’t seen Ora in ages, so I decided to slow down and stop for a chat. I pulled my […]

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BlumsCurb.com

June 30, 2006

Last week, the web’s leading free advertising listing site, Craigslist.org, solidified its position as the big mother of the online classified industry by announcing it was adding over 100 new cities, bringing the total number of locations served to more than 300. On Craigslist and on Craigslist contenders with cute names like Oodle and Kijiji, […]

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“Not My Problem”

June 12, 2006

We finally moved last week. After months of renovations that I began chronicling in the post Ka-Ching, by the time you read this we will be firmly – if not entirely comfortably – ensconced in our new home. The process went remarkably smoothly. For the amount of work we had done on our new apartment, […]

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Shabbat Afternoon Hatikva

May 25, 2006

We were sitting on our third floor terrace on a warm Shabbat afternoon. It was one of the perfect Jerusalem days – not uncomfortably hot, not borderline cold; the air just lapping lightly at your skin with no unwelcome humidity to mar the moment. My wife Jody and I were reading the paper, eight-year-old Aviv […]

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License to Camp

May 11, 2006

Every year come May we’re amazed. One day it’s cold and rainy and the next, summer is upon us with temperatures in the mid-80s Fahrenheit. Sweaters get packed away, shorts and sandals come out. May also signifies the start of camping season. Which got me thinking about our last camping experience in Israel. “We’re going […]

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Ka-Ching

March 24, 2006

It’s common wisdom that you always spend 20-30 percent more on a home renovation than you originally planned. Jody and I were going to be different. After all, Jody’s whole business is about helping people make and stay on a budget. With the right project planning in advance, we figured, there’s no reason we should […]

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Dental Dichotomy

March 10, 2006

I hadn’t been to the dentist for almost a year. It wasn’t because I was afraid. Rather it was the opposite. The last time I went, there wasn’t enough pain. Now before you accuse me of emulating the masochistic patient who begs for more from dentist in disguise Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors, let […]

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Drilling for Identity

January 20, 2006

There was nothing I could do about it. I knew that. Still, no one enjoys living next door to a construction site. Especially when the two dwellings in question share a common wall and the noise is so loud you literally have to go into the stairwell to make a phone call. When the drilling […]

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10 Reasons I Still Love Jerusalem

December 6, 2005

Israelis love to get down on Jerusalem. Every time new statistics are published, pundits bemoan the steady decline of the city and how much better other cities in the country are – particularly those in the Greater Tel Aviv area.   The latest depressing numbers come from the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies (JIIS) in […]

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