COMMENTARY ON THE EVENTS OF THE TIMES

And once again a pretty picture to take your mind off it.  This was taken in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

I snagged this from Natalie's blog today and am putting it here just to show you how nicely my family cleans up.  Natalie, of course, always looks good but the guys ...

Son Ken, grandkids Natalie and Stephen. 

Disclaimer:  The apostrophe in "thanks" is not my fault.

And this one just because it's so pretty.

LOOK WHO'S BACK!

Toby the Highly Dignified Cat - here to spend the holidays while his people, once again, have fun in foreign lands without him.

A HEARTWARMING STORY FOR THE CHRISTMAS SEASON 

As a bagpiper, I play many gigs.  Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper's cemetery in the Kentucky back country.  As I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost and, being a typical man, I didn't stop for directions.
 
I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch. I felt bad and apologized to the men for being late. I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place.  I didn't know what else to do, so I started to play.
 
The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. I played like I've never played before for this homeless man. And as I played “Amazing Grace,” the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all wept together.  When I finished I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car.  Though my head hung low, my heart was full.

As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, "I never seen nothin' like that before and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."
 
Apparently I'm still lost ...

Don't worry about the fiscal cliff.  It's not a problem.  The Obama family leaves for a $4 million taxpayer-paid vacation in Hawaii on December 17 and will return January 6.  If the fiscal cliff was a problem, they wouldn't be doing that, would they? 

Some of you know that I have semi-annual bouts of "what is all this stuff and what is it doing in my house" syndrome.  It usually hits in January and September, but it arrived early this year.  This time I turned my attention to paperwork.  We had years of various monthly reports and statements in a file drawer.  I hauled it all out, fired up the shredder and ended up with five 13-gallon trash bags full of little paper triangles.  There's just something so satisfying about shredding stuff.  (Cindy calls Faron Sir Shreds-a-lot because he loves it too.)  We now can get rid of a two-drawer file cabinet because we don't need it any more.  Shazam!

As is usual with my schemes, I got Sam involved in the madness, and he's been going through his paperwork and getting rid of a lot.  He's really good about that.  A while back I noticed he had 24 golf shirts.  That's way too many, especially since he wears the same three all the time.  He stopped everything and tried on all 24.  He got the supply down to 10 and the rest went to the Salvation Army.  My second most favorite thing is getting stuff out of my house and into someone else's or to the Salvation Army.  Love seeing those boxes full and outta here.

WHY I DON'T READ BOOKS WRITTEN BY WOMEN

I like mysteries.  I usually don't guess the villain ahead of time, no matter how many clues are strewn in my path.  It's always a minor character who shows up early on and doesn't appear again until the final bloodbath, and then I slap my forehead and say, "Of course!  How could I have been so stupid! He showed up for a page and a half back at the beginning!  Of course he's the bad guy!" 

Anyway, I've found that women mystery writers usually have to put in a dumb romance to clutter up the storyline.  And it's always the same romance:  fantastically beautiful and stunningly shapely woman meets world-class handsome and amazingly well-built man.  They have a reason not to like each other from the start and yet are strangely drawn to each other.  After a hundred pages of fighting off their feelings, they draw close.  But then one of them does something which the other misinterprets and the feud is on again.  Then there's another hundred pages of hurt feelings, arguments and misunderstandings.  You know darn well it's going to have a happy ending (for them), but in the meantime it takes attention away from finding out who this particular serial killer is.

Men authors tend to stick to the blood and gore at hand and make women minor distractions.  I like that in an author.

LETTER FROM ISRAEL

Marsha tells us about a fascinating tour of Jerusalem.  Be sure to check the beautiful pictures at the end. 

Dear Lois,

We've been home for almost a month after our U.S.A.-Canada trip. Cadillac Mountain was enveloped in fog, but we enjoyed the hike in Acadia, even in the rain. The cruise included Halifax, Saint John, Bar Harbor, Boston, and Newport. We 　loved the week in Philadelphia, and enjoyed our time in the Poconos and in Hershey.

Somehow I forgot to continue our Jerusalem narrative. The first day having been devoted to old neighborhoods outside the Old City walls, the 2^nd and 3^rd were spent in the Old City. On the 2^nd day we entered through the Zion Gate. When I lived in a divided Jerusalem in 1961, this gate was the closest Jews could get to the Old City. One could ascend to the roof of the Church for a peek before the Jordanian soldier atop the opposite building would threaten with his rifle.

Our first stop in the Jewish Quarter was a cluster of four rebuilt Sephardic synagogues which were blown up by the Jordanians after the War of Independence in 1948. (They were not destroyed during the battles, but by deliberate explosions set by Jordanian soldiers afterwards.) The most famous is the Hurva. Originally designed by a Viennese architect, it has been beautifully restored after the 　plans were found in the office in Vienna.

From there we saw an exhibit of photos taken on the day the Jewish Quarter surrendered in 1948. (Surviving defenders were taken prisoner and held in　 Jordan for 18 months until the signing of the Armistice Agreements in 1949.)  From there we walked to the Western Wall to go through the Western Wall Tunnels … long, and not for the claustrophobic. (These tunnels are not under the Western Wall itself; they are a continuation of the Wall, but underground.) After these hours of walking some took taxis to the hotel. Due to a lack of public seating in this area, some (including us) had to stand around while a few sat in the tiny cafes. Then we walked 　along the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount 　to hear the history and see the beautiful view of the Mount of  Olives from there. We had signed up to continue on to tour　the Israel Museum and eat there, but all but 　8 went back to the hotel. 　We exited the Old City through the Dung Gate. After a rest Fridel and I decided to take a walk after all, where we saw others from our group refreshed and strolling about. We ate in a neighborhood café and "people watched."

On the 3^rd day we entered the Old City through the Jaffa Gate to tour the Christian Quarter and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Church is divided, with prayer times and areas allotted to different groups, (Coptic, Ethiopian, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox, Marronite, etc.) The groups are always quarreling among themselves. Sometimes blows are exchanged, and 　the Israel police are called 　in to calm things down. In a church!! From there we walked to the Roman Cardo in the Jewish Quarter to meet our bus at the Zion Gate and continue on to Yad Veshem, the Holocaust Memorial Site and Museum. A visit there is always sobering, now more so than ever because of the growth of anti-Semitism in the world and the attempts to de-legitimize Israel. After lunch we drove to Mt. Hertzl for an interactive exhibit on the life of Theodore Hertzl, the Viennese journalist who was the founder of modern Zionism. (Jews had returned, both as individuals and in organized groups, during the entire period since the expulsion by the Romans, but the movement was neither named nor organized internationally.) From there we went to Ammunition Hill, the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Six Days War of 1967. There was also a model of Jerusalem and a lighted explanation of the battle for the city, much like the model we saw at Gettysburg. After a rest at the hotel we had a festive dinner at a restaurant and then headed for the　Sound & Light Show at the Citadel, also erroneously known as the Tower of David. This show depicts the history of Jerusalem against the background of the ancient stone of the site. There is no narrative - only music and lights – spectacular and impressive.

On the last day we were in the "new" city again. We visited Mamilla, a neighborhood rebuilt in the area that was known as "nomansland", demilitarized between May, 1948 and June, 1967. In 1961 it was all rubble and giant rolls of barbed wire. Then we walked to the Russian Compound, used by the British as a prison for political prisoners, and also saw the beautiful Russian Church. A walk down the Street of the Prophets 　and Ethiopia Street brought us near the hotel and the end of the study vacation.

Love,

Marsha

Inside Hurva Synagogue

View from top of Hurva

View from Dormition, other churches, and a mosque

Street in rebuilt Jewish Quarter

New fresco showing the Cardo as it was in Roman times

Place where the 1948 battle of Jerusalem ended and Jewish defenders surrendered.  Note the damaged building with the arches.

The building today, restored, an elementary school

Inside the tunnel

Corner of the southern wall of the Temple Mount

Cemetery on the Mount of Olives as seen from the southern wall

As you long-timers know, we have had an annual family reunion almost every year since the first grandchildren were born.  We've missed two years in the last twenty.  Over the past few months, I made an album of pictures of every year's reunion and had copies made.  Saturday when we had our Christmas with Ken and family, we gave them out - one to each grandchild and couple. 

They were a big hit with the older grandchildren, and they spent a lot of time looking through the book and laughing.  Sam and I had a ball watching their reactions as they paged through the books and remembered the good times they've had together.

I have some great videos of the young people looking at the albums, but I can't figure out how to upload them.  It used to be so easy but Xanga has changed things.  Do any of you Xanga people know how to do it?