Business as Usual

August 19, 2006 by Allison · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality

Elisheva recounts a conversation:

R: “Aright, don’t worry, everything’s back to normal.”
E: “Why?”
R: “They just reported about Gaza.”

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Star Power

August 18, 2006 by Allison · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality

Israelis have been surprised and impressed by the Hollywood stars who declared their support in the fight against terror and extremism in the form of groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. Usually movie stars, with the exception of Vanessa Redgrave, don’t go near the Middle East conflict with a ten-foot pole.

Dave, the Aussie Israeli is particularly pleased that the biggest name of the list is Nicole Kidman. In the wake of Mel Gibson-gate, he says that it shows that “not all Australians in Hollywood are jerks.”

Gavriel takes note of another star supporter — Adam Sandler

Adam Sandler is doing his part to help Israel following its 34-day war with Lebanon. The 50 First Dates star announced earlier this week he would donate 400 Sony Playstations to Israelis whose homes were damaged in the fighting.

Gavriel’s reaction?

Since it’s not likely Adam Sandler would agree to stop churning out bad movies, this may be the next best thing he could do for world peace.

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Turtle-Watching

August 18, 2006 by Allison · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Holidays

With the ceasefire in place — for now — the summer plans of Israelis are even more focused on what summer is generally about — doing anything possible to keep the kids entertained. Like turtle-watching.

We went yesterday up to a branch of Nahal Alexander to a section called Gesher Ha’Tzavim (Turtle Bridge). Supposedly you can see very large soft shell water turtles swimming around, and if you bring food they even come out of the water to eat.

We have been there on two previous occassions to see these turtles, but we never got them to come out. We have been hearing rumors that because of pollution they have been ddecreasing in numbers and maybe there are so few left that we just don’t see them.

We figured we would try again. We went yesterday. We go out on the platform over the water to watch and we start throwing some bread in the water. It takes a moment, but all of the sudden we start seeing a bunch of nasty looking catfish (I think)and some small turtles attacking every crumb of bread we throw in. It was pretty cool and there were tons of them.

Eventually the big boys showed up. Only a few of them came, but we were not there for very long and by the time they showed up we did not have that much bread left..

It was very exciting to see the big turtles. They look weird (not really much like regular small turtles).

Here is a picture of one..

The kids wanted to grab one and take it home, but I thought that if I reached out to grab this monster he would bite my arm off!! (and this was the smaller of the three we saw!)

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What Are the Odds

August 18, 2006 by Allison · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Holidays

Dave finds you can’t get away from it all, even on vacation in sunny southern California:

Yesterday, we spent the day at Disneyland, as you do when you are visiting California. After spending the first 4 hours accompanying my kids on such rides as Alice in Wonderland, and Pinnochio, I was able to graduate to the roller coasters later on in the day. For what it’s worth, my favorites were Space Mountain and Indiana Jones.

But you know me. I don’t just post such things, even when I am operating on “fluffy” mode. I had a blogworthy experience. There we were, waiting in line for Alice in Wonderland, when I noticed the women in front of us speaking in a mixture of English and Arabic. Nothing particularly interesting or unusual about that, except for the fact that we heard them talking about going back to Lebanon.

Was there cosmic significance to the fact that we were next to some Lebanese women, waiting to enter Wonderland?

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What Makes an Israeli Venture Capitalist Happy….

August 18, 2006 by Allison · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business

When one of the companies that he helped grow from a tiny start-up becomes a household name…

Michael Eisenberg describes the thrill.

Nachas is the Hebrew (or yiddishism) word for joy, proud of or enjoyment. Generally it is used in blessing someone to have nachas, joy or proudness from their children.

Well, in the VC business you can get some Nachas as well aside from selling companies or taking them public. When one of your portfolio companies becomes a clue in the New York Times Crossword puzzle, that is Nachas. My Grandfather, who completed the NYT Crossword puzzle every day, would have had a lot of nachas from this. Check out clue 7 Down!