(no longer) The Northernmost Jew

Since it is Christmas Eve, here are two photograhs I took in Jaffa (a suburb of Tel Aviv). The words across Santa Claus say "Happy Holiday" and the words with the drawings say literally "Holiday of the Birth" which means Christmas.

I'm currently in Newark Airport, first class lounge, waiting for my flight to Tel Aviv. (I'm not flying first class, but I got in with some people who are.) Almost everyone here is on a laptop. (There is free wireless access, and the tables have electrical outlets on them.) It just seems strange to look around and see everyone ignoring everyone else on a laptop. (Myself included, I suppose.) The few that are not are reading or talking on cell phones. My daughter is several tables down because we couldn't all find electrical outlets near each other. She says that if I want her I can IM her.

But wait - There is a group of people over there sitting together, and actually TALKING to each other. Three men, two women, a few little kids, all pretty religious looking. They actually look like they enjoy each other's company. Talking - is that allowed in here?

Alaska is the state with the most people who walk to work, 7.4%. This is because of little villages like Deering, where everything is within half a mile of everything else, there are no roads that lead there so it is difficult to get cars, and gas costs like $10/gallon. The national average is 2.5%.

As fat as cities go, Boston was names the "large city" with the most people who walk to work at 12.5%. In case you are curious, New York City has 9.4%. We have villages which are not "large cities" so they don't make the list, but almost 100% of the people walk to work.