Tag: places

Are we there yet?

Aside

Hamas must be defeated.

The hostages must be released.

But Netanyahu cannot be trusted to wage a just war in a just way. Let us not forget that almost the entire country turned out, in the weeks before Oct. 7, to demonstrate against his would-be ironfisted dictatorship.

I am heartsick and soul-sore that too many innocents have died, are dying, and will die. Meanwhile, the world’s ravening Jew-hatred continues unabated. It’s getting worse, in fact.

Also meanwhile, I can hear my spirit hardening, like cement patching a broken sidewalk. And it scares me.

At what point do we raise our voices in protest? Where? To whom?

And — what good would it do?

Me and Mr. Jones

OUR TALE BEGINS SOME YEARS ago at my then-girlfriend’s folks’ house, specifically at their “hutch” — a giant, glass-shelved cabinet filled with such sentimental knickknacks and keepsakes as a commemorative Shirley Temple mug, souvenir spoons, porcelain bells, and the “good…

Sales Experience Necessary

IT HAS LONG BEEN PROPOSED in some circles that, in order to build a better class of citizens, we need some sort of national-service program along the lines of an in-house Peace Corps or revamped Works Progress Administration. “Give people…

Wish List

I want the rockets and bombings to stop. I want Hamas to surrender. I want the hostages released. I want civilians to stop dying. I want a two-state solution. I want to live without fear. I want to live without…

Five More Thoughts

1. ANOTHER SERVICE, ANOTHER ARMED GUARD. After making cordial introductions — as one of the service leaders, I was the first to arrive this morning — he informed me that an access-grate was askew below the sanctuary. One of our…

Five Thoughts

1. WE HAD A WELL-ARMED GUARD at our synagogue service this morning. (In the United States. IN SONOMA. Which, as you may imagine, made/makes me feel both glad and sad.) 2. When our rabbi asked those visiting for the first…

Why I Love: KSVY

IT’S SONOMA VALLEY’S HIDDEN JEWEL. It’s Bill Stallings’ “Tasty Nuggets,” a decades-spanning flashback every Friday morning. (It’s also his prog-rock “Rocks Files Radio” on Saturday nights and every-hourly :20 weather forecast.) It’s Tuesday night’s “Big Fish,” surveying and promoting the…

Stellar Blues

do the stars know the names by which we call them? we, the hubristic and temporary, label the unthinkably ancient with quick mouth sounds and fading pen-scratches. will they mourn when we are gone? would they say: “nice try, two-legs;…