Despair on Easter Sunday, mid-Passover. Who ate the goat? Who stole the Stolen?!
Category Archives: Judaism
How much does a banana cost? (And other considerations of imperialism and inhospitable glaciers)
What is the cost of a banana?
I’ll tell you.
The last lecture
I flashed-forward a decade and imagined them strutting around a hospital wards, missing the point as they seemed to miss it now.
Why Israel is not an Apartheid State & a risky date acquisition
Boycott, divest and sanction is,
Antisemitic.
Person-centred care and self-love
I, as a doctor might know all about diabetes or asthma, you as the person with the condition know all about you. What you know about you is always far more than I can know about the dry technicalities of disease, even with a lifetime of experience.
Two or three roads diverged in a yellow wood, now and then.
Had I drowned, the story would have ended.
Where have all the bibles gone? (Can be sung to the melody of ‘Where have all the flowers gone? By Peter, Paul and Mary.)
Where have all the bibles gone? It used to be a thing I saw When staying at Hotels and hostels & similar types of places. In every Bedside drawer There would be a brown or blue Gideon Bible. ‘Look,’ I said to my daughter, ‘In your bedside drawer!’ ‘It’s empty,’ she replied. They seem toContinue reading “Where have all the bibles gone? (Can be sung to the melody of ‘Where have all the flowers gone? By Peter, Paul and Mary.)”
Anxious Jew Redux, Professor Ian Robertson & Blindboy
Doctors are great at diagnosing or assigning diagnoses. It is something that makes many of them very happy. It provides the doctor with certainty, a finite box in which to insert their patient and to focus treatment – antibiotics, pain killers or anti-depressants. (I am sure there is a dopamine release every time a doctor signs a prescription).
Bullying techniques, the lost photography of Vivian Meier, Jew-bugs & etc.
…the bullies themselves are becoming more cunning, the subtlety of the interaction can skew the response…
Today is the day of Elizabeth’s funeral. A rethink.
I keep thinking Land Rovers.
I think Dutchy Organics.
Purveyors of fine foods to HRH.
It’s a jumble.
Slap in the Face / To a Louse
It was a night in Dundee.
A guy whacked me in the face. I have the scar today.
The Queen, the queen is dead. Long live the.
Millennials have a super-sense that goes beyond the establishment’s reach.
The heat, boiling frogs and rampaging Cossacks
And yet, it is very hot.
Well, not as hot as in Yorkshire.
And the irony?
Deceased albatrosses, dog companions and other thoughts and travels.
Michael was a true rambler, born in Russia he migrated to Glasgow then fought in Egypt and Palestine in the First World War then back to Glasgow and then off to Australia via Ceylon.
Too many books, or perhaps it was the pants.
I didn’t take my pants to the charity shop.
Florence Nightingale, Florence Synagogue, Dali and palpitations
‘Diagnosis – Florence Syndrome’
‘Treatment – avoid visiting Florence and/or trips to art galleries. Watch more TV’
Drowning in data, in war.
We fear crazy men who remain in power for too long, who climb to the top ensuring multiple mutually assured mechanisms of destruction for anyone who might threaten them.
The week that was and was not!
Still recovering from IDLES my daughter tested positive for Covid.
Anxious Jew
Rod reflects on the interface between anxiety and a long-line of Jewish ancestors.
Detour into etymology via hell and the NHS.
For all they care we could go to hell, so long as they can keep going.
It’s a bit shit.
#NHS #scapegoating #primarycare @BMA #justtryingtodoourjob
Israel / Sheffield / Palestine & Stone throwing
There are 8.8 million people living in Israel.
That is 0.11% of the world population.
Around 20 per cent of children in the UK’s 68 million are living in poverty.
Consider the involvement of Russia and China in perpetuating the Syrian crisis.
Mystical motor forest
I guess the trees were too closely packed, or, I never found the entrance.
Phone fraud and Mammeloshen*
I remember experiencing a sensation similar to that which a fly must feel as it slips down the throat of a pitcher plant. Suspicion mixed with curiosity.
His left testicle.
My teacher, R’s smile in particular, warm and proud of our academic accomplishments.
Yet, the testicle.
BAME, BME and me
The colour of our skin is various, the shape of our face, head and hair, yet, our eyes, seem a constant.
He has brown eyes doesn’t mean a thing.
Pishers, Michael Rosen, viral illness and the Passover story (timely I know, as it is Easter soon)
Well, talking with my family when I had the distinct need to panic buy and hoard face-masks and rubber gloves the other day, (I didn’t); not only is this deeply rooted in the brains of every one of us, it is (at least I believe) amplified in some groups.
Where you from?
I gave this guy, who to me appeared to be of Greek or Turkish origin himself (with the assumption that I would answer him, ‘From Ankara…’) the response I used last week
Spiral (4)
It became us versus them; a competition for resources, doctors, nurses, pathways and investment.
Evil thoughts
Inside out,
upside down,
toho and boho.
It is a spinach shakshuka
Here is the guide: Take spinach, perhaps fifty or a hundred leaves, Wilt in the microwave For a minute or so. Glass bowl, Pyrex. And with this, In a pot, Prepare the roux. Yes, flour and butter and pre-warmed milk, Nice and creamy; Perhaps, some crushed pepper and A spoonfulContinue reading “It is a spinach shakshuka”
Memory
I remember the first time I visited Jerusalem. We entered via the Jaffa gate, my brother and me. He had some business related to psychology, I was just tagging-along. Eged bus, then foot. The spices more a phenomenon than the last time I went. Zaatar. Which is hyssop sprinkled on just-cooked bread. At the timeContinue reading “Memory”
What makes us human?
And Lot’s wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human.
Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
Rag and bone
Alte-zachen They used to shout. It was father and son Who had come across from Qalquilia To facilitate early-days recycling. Ambushing Yiddish And Hebrew, Transmogrified Into Arabic. Their donkey was close to its end; staggering in the heat. Melting Tarmac And Heat haze Wavering. No one was quite sure how toContinue reading “Rag and bone”
Attack!
I guess we need those people who can take a beating and come back for more, who can’t ignore their beliefs or principles.
Jeremy
I have been battling with my brother for the past six months or so on the Corbyn situation. Essentially, he sees him as an outspoken critic of Israel, Anti-Semitic and representing all that is bad in relation to the left-wing of British politics. I always quite liked him (JC) – in his stance against ApartheidContinue reading “Jeremy”
Babies
Baby born, Entirety Of all knowledge Past, present and future Nestled in their consciousness; Overwhelmed With knowing With seeing & Understanding. Blown away By Possibility. Options, opportunities and ideas How Where Why What Let me see; It is all forgotten in a Kabbalistic moment. Alas, alack, Thank goodness!
Vos Machst du?
We had a patient in the ward recently. I won’t say exactly where she came from, but suffice it to say, she originated in one of the Baltic states – that is, a country neighbouring the Baltic Sea. I have always found the Baltic the funniest sea, mainly because of its use in Glasgow slang…Continue reading “Vos Machst du?”
Do I look Yemenite in this?
This evening I had one of those encounters; We were out for a meal at the local Indian restaurant. Head Waiter: You from Yemen? RK: Glasgow. HW: Glasgow? RK: Glasgow. WH: Oh. I get this in various iterations, usually when I meet someone from a different culture, often an immigrant to the UK – folkContinue reading “Do I look Yemenite in this?”
Death plans…
Do you have a death plan? What should happen if you die? I ask these questions as I facilitated a table at the Yorkshire and Humber Dementia Network event on Thursday about ‘Dying Well with Dementia’ The table could just have been ‘dying well’ as what kills you doesn’t really matter – when you’re deadContinue reading “Death plans…”
Shtetl (2)
Your dad offered me 10 Zlotys then he changed his mind and offered me eight. I took the eight.
Mind-wandering
My mind wanders Like Papa-fly Stuttering across a Window. Stop- Start. Unpredictable Meandering. Illogical Connections That tie one moment To the next. Psychic Tag. When I was a kid They used to play Jew-bug; This meant That you would infect person A with person B’s bug. Anti-Semitic Contagion. Continue reading “Mind-wandering”
Shtetl
I have just watched Marian Marzynski’s Shtetl on Vimeo; here is the link. He documents his journey to the village of Brańsk in Poland in 1996, with Nathan Kaplan – a 70-year-old American who is researching his family’s history – aided by an anomalous moustachioed Polish man called Zbigniew Romaniuk. I found it fascinating andContinue reading “Shtetl”
Eye contact
There was a strange moment; it must have lasted all of half a second; walking through Green Park in London, watching the cherry blossom fall, the pigeons peck. A man in his late thirties, trim, short, cropped hair, he shouts as his daughter, ‘Come here, this minute!’ only, he is talking in Hebrew. You see,Continue reading “Eye contact”
Lamassu
The Lamassu Winged god Protector of the city of Nineveh; Destroyed/looted/defaced In Iraq as consequence of the chaos following the fall of SH; I met him/her yesterday. (not SH, rather, the god) Installation On the 4th plinth at Trafalgar Square In all his/her/its glory made from Flattened cans of date syrup. Earlier, weContinue reading “Lamassu”
Dr Rod’s Odd Blog (almondemotion) 