Prolonged Work Week

Spring is generally a busy time of year at the office. While the accounts remain steady, there are a variety of events and shows that take place in the Philadelphia area. Friday night was one of those events. While I had managed to stay away from the city earlier in the week, the final event was something that I could not avoid. So with the entire office heading into the city, we all cleared out and got on the road a little early to get together beforehand.

Well, that was the plan and I attempted to carry out that plan but ended up making the long trek through North Philadelphia via route 1 all the way over to the Wynnewood train station where I hoped on the R5 into the city. It is not a very long or complicated story, in fact it has happened a few times before, but I will save that for another post. In the end, I am glad that we all decided to leave a bit early because even with the long delay/detour I was still able to make it to the Comcast Center with a few minutes to spare.

The Philly Tech Week Signature Event is something that we attended last year so we expected the large crowd crammed into the lobby of the office building. While it can be challenging to get from one place to another, the interesting part of the night is stopping by all the booths to see what kinds of companies are there and the different technologies that are being developed. Scattered among the larger companies like Comcast and Microsoft are other, smaller, ventures that really puts the Philly tech scene in perspective.

There were companies present that offered a new way for businesses to track employee expenses, personal DNA testing kits (to test for illnesses), 3D printing companies making portraits of attendees, and brain training glasses designed to increase focus and performance. Of course, this is just a small sampling of the different people with whom I spoke. It was quite the variety and I am interested to see where all of these companies go over the next year.

With the music having gone silent and the bars closed, we all gathered near the door and went our separate ways for the overdue weekend. It was a long night and a long journey home but thankfully there was a lot to think about during that extended commute. If only things had gone so smoothly… but you will have to read more about that tomorrow.

When The Mayor Takes Action

Now this is definitely something that I couldn’t see Mayor Nutter doing in the streets of Philadelphia. In fact, I don’t know if I could see any mayor in a major city in the United States doing this in their respective streets. I guess this is one of those situations that demonstrates the clear difference between Israel and the United States and Israelis and Americans in particular.

Last month I was skimming through my news feed and came across an article in Haaretz that immediately got my attention. As it turns out, the Mayor of Jerusalem (a city and a place close to my heart), Nir Barkat, was driving down the road when he suddenly asked his bodyguard to stop the car. He had seen a Palestinian terrorist (and that is what he is) stabbing a Jewish man at Tzahal Square. In the end, the bodyguard pulled his gun causing the teenager to drop the knife and the Mayor wrestled the madman to the ground, subdued him, and offered aid to the victim until police arrived on the scene.

As I stated above, the thing that struck me the most when I came across this article is just how different this kind of story is to someone reading it in the United States. I couldn’t see a mayor from a major city in the states taking action in the same way. Additionally, even if they would simply make a call having seen a similar attack, the need to promote their actions would be quite evident. There would be a much more grandiose gesture following the incident not a simple reflection such as the one Barkat gave in the Haaretz article:

"My bodyguard and I jumped straight out of the car, he drew his weapon and together we caught the terrorist until police arrived, and we took care of the wounded, who, happily, was only lightly wounded."  

Barkat said that when he and his bodyguards faced the assailant, he threw down his knife.

"This too is part of our life in Jerusalem. It's clear that if he would have looked to continue stabbing he wouldn't have been alive now. But he threw the knife away," Barkat said. 

The second half of that quote is particularly striking… “This too is part of life in Jerusalem.” Unfortunately, that is a reality in the holy city and one that continues to be a pervasive certainty in the streets throughout Israel. Terrorism is still a reality and the cause of such incidents continues to be muddled in the pages and reports that are disseminated around the world. It is a crisis that needs to be addressed with more than just talks and 10 year plans.

The means by which the State of Israel is portrayed continues to be inaccurate which has perpetuated protests and attacks throughout the world. Israel as a whole and Jerusalem in particular are a place of peace in a region obsessed with war and Jihad. Until the world accepts the reality that Israel is a peaceful state, terrorism will continue to taint that reality in the streets of Jerusalem.

Thankfully, the Israeli people are some of the most resilient that the world has ever known. They are the reason that Israel remains strong in the face of international accusations and terrorism in the streets. To those leaders, IDF soldiers, and all those who live in the holy land I end this post with two simple words… Thank you!

Snow Falling Short

Um... No!

So far the season has been as mild as we could have hoped for with little snow and reasonable temperatures. There have been a few questionable days when the ice caught everyone off guard but nothing in comparison to the frozen deluges that we experienced last year. This has been the story of the season up to this point.

However, beginning late last week the story that dominated the nightly news has been that of the storm that was making its way across the country set to veer northward as if in a sudden drunken rage. We all knew that the dry time that we have been enjoying would have to come to an end at some point but it is still an unwelcome shift in the seasonal demeanor. Of course, that is a rather mild summary of the predictions that dominate the television, internet, and radio.

Just like every other instance of any significant precipitation, it is cast as though Armageddon will be bearing down on us. The stores were bombarded yesterday leaving my wife and me to change our plans and head to an alternative place to shop. Snow removal supplies were dwindling all across the region. It was the usual effect stemming from the worst case scenarios that have been promoted for days.

Because of the ominous sky and the preacher-like warnings broadcast throughout the previous evening and early morning, the roads were a little lighter than usual allowing me to make good time to the office in the morning. During the day we heard much of the same from the various media outlets with an additional suggestion to purchase supplies for the specific purpose of making life sustaining French toast. An interesting suggestion given the warnings of possible power outages.

I managed to leave the office a little earlier than usual but still later than most. We put off plans and appointments earlier in the day so I was able to get on the highway and enjoy the sparse traffic all the way home. There were a few slightly slick spots along the course of my commute and the snow picked up here and there but nothing like the blizzard conditions that were being called for.  

By the time my wife headed off to bed this evening the snow had nearly stopped with a little more than a dusting falling from the sky less intense than Ally Sheedy’s artistic flair in The Breakfast Club. As I finish this post the night is nearly clear with a forecast now predicting nothing more than cold air and a white landscape. I guess Armageddon isn’t that bad after all.