Pick a Song

When a famous, admired person (a celebrity) dies, people feel sadness coupled with envy. Sadness -  because  when he/she dies it is  as if a little part of us dies too. Envy, due to the fact that the famous person is going to be remembered and cherished  through his works ( books, songs, paintings etc..) for many generations to come.

Elvis Presley comes immediateky to mind in this category. He was a phenomenon. His songs are unforgettable! His voice and performance - unique!  

His israeli 'counterpart' , Zvika Pick, left us last august at the age of 72.  Pick was not only an iconic pop/rock singer but also a prolific composer. The song 'Diva' composed by Pick (lyrics Yoav Ginai) won first prize at the Eurovision Song Context in 1998.  He also composed songs for other more or less well-known singers and  festival contesters.

'Diva' - Eurovision contest 1998 (youtube)

Pick and his first wife Mirit Shem Or, a talented lyrics writer, have produced together some real music pearls such as Mary Lou, Mala Mala, Beyn haetzbaot, Elef Neshikot etc.. He composed the music, she wrote the lyrics. Very fruitful collaboration, which luckily, didn't end with their divorce in 1995.   

                        Pick and first wife in their younger days. * Web photo

It's interesting to note that  their three adult children are also a success: son a doctor, two daughters that have performed together as the  charming " Pick sisters" singers. (on a sidenote - one of the daughters is married to the american film producer Quentin Tarantino; the other to a 5 star hotel owner). 

                                                Zvika Pick - * web photo

Motion Sickness

Usually, I'm not eager to go  on a cruise, as I might get sea sick . While on a bus or train I refrain from reading, as I might get a feeling of nausea or even dizziness.

Below is  a picture taken  years ago with me  (covered head) and a friend, on a ferry voyage  along the British channel from Dover to Callais.  I had a terrible nausea followed by loss of colour in my face.

seasick in the cabin of the boat.

I've never attempted to get to the bottom of 'motion sickness' or take medicines. I 've just accepted the situation. When feeling unwell, I help myself with doing what seems the right thing to do.  On a boat , I'l go to the deck for fresh air and look forward in the distance. On the bus, I'll look straight ahead or out of the window. A bottle of cold soda water may also prevent or reduce nausea.

I notice , in my case, that with age, there's significant decline in motion sickness, and that makes me glad, of course. Several years ago I went on a boat tour along the river Moskva in Moscow. Had no trouble at all.

boat tour on Moskva river

Recently, I 've incidentally come upon an article on the above subject by James Phillips, a researcher from Washington University. He explains 'motion sickness' as a conflict between senses (visual sense of the eyes,  and audial sense of the  inner ear) that interferes with the brain's processing of the moving information. He calls it 'mismatch'.

As a college student he experienced seasickness ; that made him decide to search it thoroughly and may be find  proper treatment someday. 

In the meantime, people use a variety of  more or less efficient means for preventing or stopping motion sickness, such as accupuncture wrist bands, skin patches behind the ear, herbs like ginger and chamomille, aromatherapy etc...

Security Guard

 

There's a dog statue near the entrance of a Vetcenter in an adjacent town. Whenever I'm around,  I stop to have a look at it. It is a well- made statue , and  it makes me smile ; it seems as if the dog stands there  in the position of a security guard:)

the display window of the Vetcenter

the dog statue "watching" the entrance

Dogs are good for security. The dog is an intelligent animal, capable  to  detect danger, especially due to its extraordinay sense of smell (300 million scent receptors!).  They say that properly trained, any breed can make a good guard.

Despite technology and its gadgets, dog protection of house and property will probably continue to be the favorite option. Barking of a dog may be enough to scare away potential intruders. Sometimes, even the mere presence of a dog might do that.

Here's something for the 'mural hunters':

I don't know what it says or means, but it certainly catches the eye.

"Look For The Woman"

 

She's beautiful, bright (physicist researcher at Weizmann Institute, Israel, and at Cern accelerator project, Switzerland), basketball player (retired after injury), social - political activist, wife and mother.

* web picture

Dr. Shikma Bressler, is one of the leading figures in the recent protests against the government's judicial reform. She has even got arrested like a common criminal (was later released) during a demonstration on 23 March 2023.

In 2020, Shikma along with two of her brothers and two family friends formed what was known as the Black Flag movement protesting against Prime Minister Netanyahu - until the Benet government took over.  Also in 2020,  she appeared in Forbes magazine's list of 50 most influential women in Israel.

Anyway, after weeks of huge protests against the judicial overhaul intended by the new  government, the re-elected Prime Minister Netanyahu announced  he would postpone the legislation to give him time for broad agreement.

Shikma and her fellow leaders organizing  the protests, say they 'll be 'on the streets' until the overhaul is cancelled.

Shikma, you rock!

My Affair With Kiwi

 

Kiwi is an exotic, tasty fruit, packed with vitamin C and antioxidants. I like the flavor and its texture. The point is it doesn't like me; for some reason it upsets my stomach. 

At first, I suspected its rather high acidity, but then I found out that it does not have as much acid as citrus fruits, and I never had any problem with citrus fruits. No problems with other fruits high in acid either: grapes, tomatoes, blueberries.

* web picture

Its exterior resembles a potatoe, and this has given me the idea to boil it as I do with potatoes, Not bad, but no change  in the feeling of stomach discomfort. 

Anyway, I recently went into reading the info about it on the web. Kiwi has a lot of health benefits (good for heart, eyes, skin; fights diabetes, helps with weight loss), almost no side effects (except it might cause allergies in people allergic to other fruit or plants - and I'm not in that category). I might eat one or two fruits per day or week, so quantity is not an issue here either.

So what's special about Kiwi that prevents me from enjoying eating it?  Well, I don't know and until I do know, I'm sadly, giving it up.

Untitled

Lately, I've been busy with my desktop computer. Its internal DVR wasn't working, so I had to take the whole thing to the Lab.

In one of my previous posts I mentioned that I prefer  desktop computer to  laptop. One of the reasons is that I'm sometimes able to solve problems that arise, by just replacing a cable or by opening the case to clean the fans with a compressed air duster, and check that  pieces are not loose or out of their slot.

Well, I couldn't do that now because of the warranty certificate. How come? If I don't manage to solve the problem of the DVR, and at the Lab they'll notice that I've opened the case and done things by myself, it might result in my warranty losing its validity.

I thought the technician was going to concentrate on fixing the DVR issue only, but he phoned me to ask permission to do a reset first, re-installing the OS . 

Anyway, he was probably so deep in the Reset that he returned the PC with the DVR problem...unsolved. I had to return the PC to the Lab.  In the meantime, I've  made a wrong backup of my blog's theme and lost the layout with its widgets. I felt very sad about it;  my blog ,started in year 2008, was unrecognizable.

 I worked hard on it for a couple of hours and , thank God, managed to restore it to the old theme and layout I'm used to. Still, I have to add and change some components that will enable me to perform certain functions.

As for the DVR, it got fixed at the Lab, but the content of my CD-s, belongs to the days of the XP operating system, and my present Windows 11  Media Player doesn't open them for me. So, I'll  have to work hard again, and try to solve the problem.

Hopefully, no more computer problems in store for me .

Balagan

 

In  Hebrew, the word 'balagan' means mess, chaos, disorder.  There's controversy about the word's origin (Russia? Turkey?...), but I'm not going to go into this.

 It suffices to say that at my age I hate balagan. I can try and control 'balagan' at my home (not always successfully), but not the one outside it .

Since the last general elections we've got constant balagan: protests, strikes, violence (both verbal and physical). It's all too little and too late, as they say, and as I firmly believe - but, who wants to know...   

People constantly ignore things, they live each inside their own bubble, and then act as surprised.  No surprise here at all. As expected, 'demographics' won the elections.  So, all that remains to do is try to make 'a lemonade out of the lemon', IF possible.

One must add to the above political kind of balagan,  the fear caused by the recent earthquakes in the neighboring countries Turkey and Syria. We are not prepared for such a disaster , so blames regarding  apparently faulty structural condition of buildings, are already flying  over our heads, in all directions.

Actually, the big balagan started several years ago with the Light Rail works in major cities -  Jerusalem and Tel Aviv first. The Light Rail has lots of benefits, but I pity those who live close to the stations and rails during long periods of work to be done. What a mess! 

They'll tell you it's all worthy as it raises house value on the market. Maybe, maybe not. In the meantime, one lives near a considerable balagan, and that's hardly quality living. If you've got kids, it could also be dangerous to live close to road /rail works.

Anyway, there seems to be no 'responsible adult' around, so things look  rather bad.