How we behave in empty spaces — and then how we behave in those same spaces when others join us — has always been a fascination of mine. There’s an “Elevator Dice Theory” arguing that people fill up that confined space in a predictable pattern that models a die face. One person stands in the center. Two people take opposing corners. Three people stand in a diagonal row, and so on.
Continue reading → No Dice When it Comes to Elevator Etiquette
As I am new to Portugal, and as I do not speak the language apart from a few basics, I had expected that there would be times when I would feel lost or be at a loss as to how to approach certain things.
I had also anticipated a fair amount of anonymity and had certain expectations — false ones it turns out — about how I would be able to live my life in and around my house and how I would be able to carry out my everyday business and chores such as shopping, banking and other vital necessities.
Two and a half years ago, when my former office moved locations from midtown Manhattan to the DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) area of Brooklyn — which increased the length of my commute from about twenty five minutes to nearly an hour — I had to find a new place to pray in the morning so that I would make it to the office on time.
Continue reading → Morning Inspiration from a Holocaust Survivor
As you can imagine, living in a multicultural household where several languages are spoken there are a lot of opportunities for misunderstandings to occur over the silliest of things. This gets even more complicated when one party — me — is slower at languages. I try to think in Portuguese as this — I am told — is the easiest way to learn the language. I find myself saying “obrigada” which is thank you when I visit England and France — it always takes me a couple of days to adjust — normally a couple of hours before the return trip home!
Continue reading → My Christmas Cake is Now Halfway to Toulouse
I am convinced that my father was born with a newspaper in one tiny hand and a neck tie instead of an umbilical cord. I mean this in the most complimentary way possible; the man has a work ethic that can make any zealous overachiever feel lazy. As a kid, I hardly appreciated or even noticed how tirelessly he worked to support my family and me.
Continue reading → From Barbie to Borrowing: Hanging Out with Dad
When a company does you a disservice, they most often if they are a decent company offer an apology and then try to do something to correct the error. When Elizabeth, Chaim Yosef and I were in Florida recently, we encountered a sort of bad customer service that just kept on compounding itself until I had to stare at the offending party and think to myself, “How is it possible that this person was given a job like this?”
Continue reading → When Bad Customer Service Stares You in the Face
The red-splattered tiles spoke for themselves — this was definitely a crime scene — one worthy of the best CSI investigators. In fact, I am sure that at first glance that anyone would have concluded that Dexter had recently paid a visit. I could see them pouring over the “blood splatters, speculating on the weapons used, the angles of entry and most of all the absence of the body.
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