Archive for June 2007
The Hamas has taken over Gaza and the Rafiah border control station between it and Egypt and took the time to stage one for a comic relief (or not):
(Reuters, source)
Yesterday, 84 year-old Shimon Peres was elected as the 9th president of Israel. He well deserves it (and so does Israel!), unlike his rapist predecessor, Moshe Katsav; a worthless imbecile who brought Israel only shame. Peres lost many of his political duels during his 65-year career as a politician, but he always kept on going, despite appearing pitiful; people commonly called him a “perpetual looser”. What’s better though, a person with an overly developed sense of pride, or someone who doesn’t give up fighting for what he believes?
Peres was always undervalued in Israel because intellect is not exactly seen as a pre-requisite for politicians there (and in many other places). Yossi Verter tells a joke about Peres:
So Shimon Peres comes out of a visit with the King of Thailand, according to the joke, and he goes to the local market and buys some elegant fabric. He takes it to a Thai tailor and asks him to make him a suit from it. The tailor looks at the fabric and says to him: I’m sorry – It’s only enough for a pair of pants, if that.
The next day he flies to London. He takes the fabric from Thailand to a top tailor. It’s enough for a sleeve at most, the tailor tells him.
That evening he’s in Paris and goes to see another tailor. Maybe I’ll be able to sew you a sock, the tailor says. Disappointed, Peres returns to Israel. On his way to party headquarters, he stops by his usual tailor on Lilienblum Street. Can you do something with this fabric, Peres asks. I’ll make you two suits, says the tailor. And an extra pair of pants.
Stupefied, Peres asks: How is it that abroad the fabric is hardly enough for anything while here you can sew me half a wardrobe out of it? That’s easy, replies the tailor, laughing. Abroad, you’re a giant.
So true.
I remembered a story from my undergraduate days… one of those things you recall and can’t imagine doing again. I took a mandatory “technical writing” class in my junior year. I absolutely hated the professor (Tara M.), who seemed to hate anyone of my gender and was not afraid to show it by preferential treatment. The first words out of her mouth in the first day of class were “I am god, and you will do as I say.” “Yeah, that’s going to go well,” I remember thinking.
Towards the end of the term we had to give a 5 minute presentation on any topic we chose. This is peace-lovin’, hippie, lovey-dovey Santa Cruz, remember. I decided to give a presentation on types of hand grenades, how to throw them, and what to do if a fragmentation kind comes flying your way. I’m sure she (and possibly others) didn’t like me any better after that, but I was satisfied ;) I got a ‘B’ for the class and some respect from gamers. But I think that I learned the most from writing a three page formal complaint to the head of the department about her skills as a teacher. I’m not sure if that had anything to do with her leaving UCSC a couple of years later; google doesn’t show her teaching elsewhere. I suppose that “god” retired from teaching.
Some of the readers of this weblog can vouch for the accuracy of this story (some proof-read my letter ;) Now I am going to see if I still have it and the presentation somewhere.
