Her Voice

One of the characteristics of old age is the constant feeling that you're living in the future.

Tell Tale Signs

Back in the Seventies, the post-67 wave of immigrants to Israel from the West were trying to adjust to the realities of life in the country. At that time Dry Bones was the star feature of the Jerusalem Post; the paper they all read. And the most popular Dry Bones cartoons were full pagers with Mr. Shuldig that were entitled "You Know You've Been Here Too Long When..."

Those cartoons wryly tracked the little things that we did which were signs of our having gone native ...like calling a grocery store a makolet when speaking English, or smelling the cottage cheese (don't ask!).

We were strangers in a strange, new, exciting, and bewildering land.

Here in the 21st century many of us feel the same way. Like immigrants to a strange new land called the future. I thought about that when I did today's cartoon. Maybe I should start a series called "You Know You're Living In The Future When..."

Sunday Mail: March 30, 2008

Posting a cartoon every weekday leaves no room for me to simply share news, ideas, and other stuff with you, so here's a Dry Bones feature called: 'Sunday Mail: Letters from Dry Bones'.

Item One: "Learning Hebrew".
A number of readers have asked my advice about "learning Hebrew". The trouble is that they almost never say if they want to learn Conversational Hebrew, or Modern Hebrew, or Biblical Hebrew, or if they are looking for a workshop where they can improve their Hebrew.

It's obvious that to learn Hebrew you've got to have a Hebrew-speaking teacher. Not just someone who speaks it better than you do. My advice, if you are serious, is to check out a remote-learning (or "virtual classroom") Hebrew program. No matter where you are in the world, these programs will provide you with real, live, Israeli Hebrew teachers who are in Israel! They have a specific program for your specific needs. Here are the links for
Conversational Hebrew,
Modern Hebrew
Biblical Hebrew
or, to improve your Hebrew check out their
Hebrew workshops for advanced students

Item Two:Israeli Taxis
I don't own a car and often take taxicabs. Where I come from, you can tell when a taxi is empty because its roof light is turned on. When the cab is not available, the light is off. Here in the cities of the Jewish State, the roof light of a taxi is put on to signal that it is nighttime and nothing else. This results in my signalling wildly at the driver of an approaching roof-lit cab and only discovering, at the last minute, that there's a passenger inside. I am then forced to save face by continuing to wave as the cab goes by, pretending that I had not been signalling him, but rather some other driver, in some other cab, somewhere behind his.

Most Israeli cabs have neat GPS map devices on their dashboards. I was in a cab in Tel Aviv the other day, chatting with the driver. He was not happy with his GPS map.

"I know of a neat place online to get some great GPS maps." I said.

"Where?" he asked.

"I don't know" I answered, "I wrote about it on my blog a while ago and I don't remember the URL."

He probably thought "Why does the idiot bring it up when he can't give me the address?!!"

What I thought was "Why does the idiot keep his roof light on when he can't give someone a lift?!!"

By the way, now that I'm back at the computer I checked, found the link to the neat GPS place and discovered that they're having a 50% off sale!! Click here.

Sunday Mail: December 16, 2007

Posting a cartoon every weekday leaves no room for me to simply share news, ideas, and other stuff with you. So welcome to 'Sunday Mail: Letters from Dry Bones', the new, once-a-week Dry Bones feature.

I'm Living In The Future!

The other day I took a cab in Tel Aviv and gave the driver an obscure address in nearby Ramat Gan. "Do you know how to get there?" I asked. "I do not need to know" the driver responded in a lovely Russian-accented baritone voice, "I have GPS map!" There, mounted on his dashboard was a beautiful computer screen which was tracing our position against a local street map.

I've gotten used to the doors that slide open when you approach them (first seen in the original Captain Kirk Star Trek TV show). I'm comfortable carrying a mobile phone which is exactly like a Star Trek Communicator (likewise from Star Trek season one). But this guy's GPS map really got me. It "runs" on his Pocket PC. He flicked on the audio "voice" and the two of us enjoyed the "back seat" driving of a computer entity. "Was it expensive?" I asked. "At first they were, but the price has come way down", he answered.

I had forgotten about it until this morning when a friend in Jerusalem told me that he was ordering a GPS "map set" of Israel and Europe from an online site that he knew and trusted.

I checked it out. It looks really interesting. Part of an Israel-oriented online catalog site. If you feel like checking it out too, just click on Israeli GPS maps

Car Talk

I don't understand it. Here in Israel, guys who wouldn't dream of asking directions are turning on their GPS car navigation systems when they drive to the local grocery store!! I'm not sure what's going on but here's a clue: I don't own a car and I want a talking GPS navigation system too! My son-in-law says that his system can be switched to pedestrian mode!! I wonder if he'd let me take it out for a walk?

Welcome to the future.