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3 days ago | 
medium.com | Philip Mann-Montreal |Smillew Rahcuef
I’ve gotten into the habit of reading non-fiction, mostly because I can tell by the title what I’m getting. If I buy a fiction, I may get bored/ disenchanted/ turned off by one reason or another, and the tome, some writer`s grand opus, will sit unloved and unread on my bookshelves. But there are some crossovers, not quite fact and not really fiction that straddle the line.
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5 days ago | 
medium.com | Philip Mann-Montreal |Smillew Rahcuef
When you have something to write but no one wants to read itFollow publication“We don’t get to meet often enough. Here, share a drink with me.”“Sorry, I don’t drink. You must have been told that before.”“Of course, but a host must always be gracious. So tell me, what are your plans?”“I have a lot of plans, all sorts of plans. I guess you mean, the plans that may come against yours, right?”“They may. They are, right now. My opponent could not last one week, one day without your country.
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1 week ago | 
medium.com | Philip Mann-Montreal |Smillew Rahcuef
I’ll be seventy in a few months, and I still drive carpool for children`s daycares, including my wife`s. (Technically I’m part owner, but the kids know who`s who). It takes up about three hours of the working day, and I had started on my old line of selling promotional stuff in the down hours, but life got in the way.
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2 weeks ago | 
medium.com | Philip Mann-Montreal |Smillew Rahcuef
We went to a hotel for Pesach, the same one we attended for for the past three years. It’s become a high point of the year, with the chance to meet new people ( oh, how I need that) and listen to presentations about Jewish history. I met some of the regulars, and some new people, but my son was there along with is wife, and that was worth anything. It was gold. The sheer amount of people did get on my nerves.
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1 month ago | 
medium.com | Philip Mann-Montreal |Smillew Rahcuef
Philip Mann-Montreal·FollowPublished inThe Pub·3 min read·--Photo by Rod Long on UnsplashSo we’re in elections here in Canada. April 28 is when we get to vote, after a mercifully short campaign. Call it the two-minute drill, or sudden death overtime. It causes both sides to focus, because the runway is so very short. And since you asked, here are my impressions. Carney and the Liberals have bridged the gap in weeks.
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2 months ago | 
medium.com | Philip Mann-Montreal |Smillew Rahcuef
Philip Mann-Montreal·FollowPublished inThe Pub·8 min read·--Photo by Patrick Hendry on UnsplashI read a few Jewish writers here. Reuben Salsa, who, among other themes, adapts stories and commentaries from the Midrash and puts them in a modern context ( I’m pretty sure Hershy was not a common name three thousand years ago.)Ruchama has a gentle touch and an eye for human frailties. And Charles R. Lightner has learned views on the Torah and the weekly reading, as well as stuff on Crypto. Me?
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2 months ago | 
medium.com | Philip Mann-Montreal |Smillew Rahcuef
Philip Mann-Montreal·FollowPublished inThe Pub·3 min read·--Photo by Alex Patrick on UnsplashThis is a response of sorts to a fascinating article by Charles R. Lightner, about what can only be described as an oracle mentioned briefly in the Torah, and then more extensively and tragically in the book of Shoftim ( Judges). Then oracle in question, the urim v’Tumim, is mentioned in the middle of the (over) detailed description of the clothing worn by the priests and the High Priest.
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2 months ago | 
medium.com | Philip Mann-Montreal |Smillew Rahcuef
Philip Mann-Montreal·FollowPublished inThe Pub·4 min read·--Photo by Mohammed Ibrahim on UnsplashRussia has a land mass of over sixteen million square kilometers. The “over” part is four hundred thousand. It spans eleven time zones, and I flew over about four of them when I went to pick up my adopted son many years ago. He flew about the same amount, coming from the eastern part of that country.
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2 months ago | 
medium.com | Philip Mann-Montreal |Smillew Rahcuef
Philip Mann-Montreal·FollowPublished inThe Pub·4 min read·--Photo by Claire Anderson on UnsplashMy dad was a communist, at least in his youth. Born in 1914, and coming of age during the Great depression, this was common at the time. One quarter of the people were unemployed at the peak, and capitalism seemed truly broken, not just bent out of shape. I remember seeing the film Oppenheimer a couple of years ago, and Marxism was on the upswing.
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2 months ago | 
medium.com | Philip Mann-Montreal |Smillew Rahcuef
Philip Mann-Montreal·FollowPublished inThe Pub·3 min read·--Photo by Colin Lloyd on UnsplashAccording to weather reports, Montreal has received forty percent of its average annual snow inside of four days. Seventy-five centimeters, or about thirty inches of snow have dumped on the city from ,last Thursday until the sometime late this morning. Combine that with ferocious winds and typically cold days, and you have thoroughly nasty going. I went out twice today, on foot.
