Upgraded to Windows 7 a few weeks ago. I wanted to wake bit before writing about to make sure that I’d had a chance to use it for a while and see how it worked.

Now, I’m no techie.. I’m a user. My interaction with the software is based on being a power user if you will, I use a lot of social networking stuff.. obviously. I use Microsoft Office extensively, lots of Visio, Excel and Access. I’m a reputed “power user” in these applications. Sort of the office resource for support and for producing reports, building databases, that sort of stuff. Other than that, the odd entertainment package, music applications, photo stuff, lots of photo stuff, and that about wraps up what I do.

I’m also a Mac and PC user. My wife and kids have Macs, and given the choice would use the Mac. Personally since I actually work with my computer, and the Mac has neither Visio OR Access, it’s not all that helpful. I’m also a big fan of the Windows Live stuff, not which works on a Mac. I’m not big fan of Apples closed proprietary architecture, which BTW is why Mac will never be business platform, but then again I don’t think they care.

All that aside, I was not one of those who was offended by Vista. Matter of fact, once I got used to the interfaces on the office suite I sort of liked it. I didn’t experience instability with Vista, I wasn’t doing anything that really stretched to operating system, I really didn’t have any complaints.

Why upgrade? I’m a sucker for new technology, early adopter if you will. I made it to a Windows 7 house party, saw some cool things, liked the interface a lot, but to be honest things like shaking windows and running two windows at once side by side.. not something that I’m too excited about, my learning curve on stuff like is reallllly long,

I dove into the 7 pool two weeks ago Friday. Inserted the 7 Ultimate DVD into the PC and followed  instructions. After answering the right questions and inputting the correct serial numbers the process started. Since I was upgrading Vista a complete harddrive reformat was not required; desirable, but not required.  I had backed up my media and personal data just incase, but I did it in a way that was neither efficient or easy to get back,  more later.

After watching the thing clock away and warn me not to turn off the PC for over an hour I went to bed. The next morning I was a bit distressed to see that the PC was still clocking. It had completed file loads and rebooting processes, but the final completion was hanging it up. I waited  a couple hours and when nothing had happened, against advice I turned off the PC and rebooted from the disc drive with a complete reformat. Thanks goodness I’d saved.

The second install went better than the first and actually completed. I logged on, created my account and started installing my office suite. Unfortunately  I had no keyboard, no mouse, no sound and no HP Hot Buttons.. None of the HP drivers were installed. This made the computer a bit of brick to be honest. I hooked up an old external keyboard and for some reason that worked. I made it out the HP website and found the 7 drivers, installed them and was back in business.

Sound card was fixed with Microsofts “FixIt” which to my pleasant surprise actually did fix it. I had sound.. Bad news is, my sound doesn’t last..

iTunes took a couple tries to get installed, and once installed imported my library incorrectly, giving me 4 files for every song I owned, which in my case is a lot of songs. The idea of manually removing them.. not realistic. That problem was corrected with a bit of freeware http://www.digitalvolcano.co.uk/content/index.php, an easy to use duplicate file remover that can go after media files only if desired. Thank goodness it worked.. hand selecting 12,000 files would have taken a while.

My photo back up regimen did NOT include my nested folders for some reason,, user error and that mistake cost me all of my summer of 2009 at the lake pics. My fault, but incredibly annoying none the less.

Other that Mrs Lincoln, the play was fine.

Now that I’ve been using the software, I’d give it a pretty glowing review. It’s certainly easy to understand. The snip it feature alone is cool, like that. Windows Media Player is better than iTunes.. but alas doesn’t sync with an iPod.. so the great functionality is of limited usefulness, since I’m not going open it very often.

The machine certainly boots and shuts down much faster than it did on Vista.. thanks goodness. My only continuing complaint is the sound driver still doesn’t work correctly. About once a day I lose sound and have to reboot to get it back.

My virus software, Kaspersky doesn’t seem to like Win 7. Added to the trouble Kaspersky the company doesn’t seem to like me. They have no record of the 3 year deal I bought to keep my software current and since I lost the emails with the codes.. I’m screwed. BUT, I’m using Microsoft’s new Security Essentials, free software that’s getting pretty good reviews. So far I’ve been very happy with it. It’s certainly not the resource hog that Norton or McAffee was.

I’ve had zero compatibility issues with Windows 7. Everything I run or have run in the past seems to work great.. no problems there. So all in all, I think Microsoft has a winner on the operating system.. now they need to get more from their mail and browsers to really get the home market nailed.

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Southern Minnesota Farm, originally uploaded by GSankary.

Been asked for permisison to use this shot for a website.. cool stuf. makes about 5 or 6 shots now that have been used out there. Very flattering.

Crazy Season-

Went out and bought me one’a them there Turkey Roasters things. Figured that it’d be really nice to have a turkey cooking on Thanksgiving day somewhere other than in the oven, which I intend to use for other things and as such always have a difficult time trying to put together the oven schedule for the day. My other thought.. the last couple years I’ve used those baking bags for my turkey with outstanding results. Love them.. Now I’ve come to understand that the baking bag is leeching deadly petrochemicals into my food. According to some study I came across down at the healthfood store… I can blame baking bags for my inability to concentrate on mundane subjects for more than 4 minutes.

Disclaimer that NOTHING Mrs Sankary says falls in the category of “mundane”. Ever.

So, last weekend I bought a practice turkey. OK.. crazy this year that Turkeys are approaching “free” at most of the big supermarkets. Trader Joe’s not being one of them BTW. There a turkey is about $50.00. Now that turkey is Kosher, has had a Bar/Bat Mitvah. It has been raised on organic corn and imported pellets. It lived its life in a climate controlled barn. It was allowed to go outside in the yard for daily exercise and sunshine. It’s spent it’s days listening to classical music and Yale Lectures on iTunes, making it the most well educated and pampered bird on the planet.. that knowledge is passed on to you when you eat it apparently. Said turkey was slaughtered kosher style, meaning with an extra sharp knife in a way that it nearly killed itself it was so easy and painless, (a knife BTW that I hope was washed between poultry kills and circumcisions because I’m certain that many slochets (ritual slaughterers) moonlight as moyales, (circumcisers) since the basic skills and tools are the same.)

Still at $3.25 a pound for the fresh bird, killed yesterday vs .36 cents a pound for the frozen bird that was killed in 2006 but put in a deep freeze like Walt Disney, there by keeping him fresh… if it’s good enough for the anti-Semitic head of the Magic Kingdom.. should be good enough for the guest of honor at Thanksgiving.. Covered my bases and bought on of each, used the frozen one for the practice bird, in the new roaster.

Damn good thing I tested the stupid thing. The roaster, while making a perfectly edible turkey that tasted fine.. it was butt ugly. Mrs S proclaimed that this bird was NOT approved for the Thanksgiving table. She was right, it didn’t look very nice.. matter of fact looked like a grandma who has spent to much time in the hot tub down at the spa. Wrinkled skin which was not the appropriate golden brown that we like to see, or nice and crispy for munching on. The meat on the legs had pulled back from the bone a bit… she was pruney to be honest. So back to the bag.. we may wind up stupid or with weird cancers, but on this Thanksgiving.. we’ll be thankful we have an attractive bird. Should all go well.

I did make it over to the health food store to try got pick up some organic produce to use in the cooking. I’m not 100% organic.. I’m like 14.6% at the moment. I have every intention of being so.. but like the turkey.. when the organic cranberries go for .11 cents a piece, your cranberry relish costs more than Royal Dalton Serving dish its sitting on. F-That. Also, my desert heritage just will not allow me to spend $8.00 on an orange, no matter how good it is.

Speaking of practice turkey.. I’m absolutely astounded that, at least this week, you can get a 12 lb turkey cheaper than you can get a 4lb chicken. Amazing. We’re going to have to stock up a bit. Last weekend we purchased a second hand freezer.. to quiet the discontent in the house at having ¾ of a deer in the freezer and refrigerator. Well NOW I gots me some space to store stuff, like a couple frozen birds. What the hell.

BTW, freezer and empty fridge aside, honestly if I’ve learned anything in 25 years, there is just no quieting spouses.. regardless of your best intentions. No, Mrs S and all of HER children were very disgruntled this weekend at the head chef. Just for arguments sake, lets call him the Only Chef.. Like lift a damn finger if you don’t like the service, more descriptive of the situation. Anyway the Fam Damily was aghast that I would make a turkey the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Really?

Looking at the blackout dates on the international food calendar I don’t see a blackout on Turkey until Tuesday of this week. Besides, if you weren’t eating turkey you’d be eating chicken and at some level, WHAT IS THE F’N DIFFERENCE. Well, because I cook with love and am always upset to learn about any dissention in the family I took said bird.. chopped it up in to small pieces and baked it with rice and enchilada sauce into a casserole thing that would make my summer camp cooks happy. Code for “sucks”. Everyone ate it and remarked on how great it was and why don’t I make stuff like this more often and waxed on about this and that to the point that I was sick of hearing about it.

It’s always the stupid shit that gets them excited. I spend 15 hours in the kitchen making a Moroccan chicken dish with hard to find hand ground spices, coos coos, fresh veggies.. and everyone picks at it. I make frozen pizza and I’m genius.

There is no accounting for taste..

Sanks been a bit preoccupied lately and hasn’t had time, or energy truth be told, to spend much time blogging. Sorry gang. But, things are looking up and I’m back on the game now.. Basically there was a lot of work things going, and knowing my aversion to merge the world of the blog and the world of the paycheck, why there just wasn’t opportunity to desire to share. Suffice to say peeps that a big old change was thrown my way, and there was a decent chance that there was a decent chance Mr. Sank might find himself looking for something to do..

Needless to say…

These are certainly wild times we’re living in.. I’m thinking that I now fully understand that Chinese curse “may you live in interesting times.” My times, while inherently facinating are slightely less interesting and your old pal Sank can go back to the regularly scheduled program.

Which frankly, would be stupid. I’m not that stupid.

If you don’t learn from the experiences that life throws at you.. I’m reminded of the statement that I see at Holocaust memorials,

Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it

I disagree. I think a better way to say it would be those who forget the past are doomed to experience it, again and again. A subtle difference, sure. What I mean is history never actually repeats itself but the experiences and feelings you have when you react to things that happen, especially when those experiences are negative do reoccur, in cycles it seems. The callenge is how do you break the chain when simular conditions occur and spare oneself the aggrivation of going through it all over and over again.

In this case the lesson learned is that sometimes unexplainable things happen and nothing can be taken for granted. The other lesson for me, and this one that I seem to have an impossible time learning; the worst case scenario rarely happens, matter of fact, the best case scenario typically happens more often.

So, the word of the day is “RESILIENCE”.

This was a chance to spend the weekend with the girl, and her entire class of 6th graders. Anyone who has written off the Jewish people due to declining numbers.. well let me tell you, this class of 6th graders is doing it’s part to reverse the trend, there’s a TON of them.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend, no question about it. Deep discussions about what it means to be an adult, is 13 really an adult (the answer was a solid NO), what are the religious obligations of an adult Jew. We also had some deep discussion about the portion of the Torah our kid is reading for their big day, in our case that day is June 2011. Now, this was a great find.. Lolo’s doing the same portion that I did 33 years ago. Needless to say, I’m better equipped now that I was back then to read and understand scripture and think in an abstract way about the messages therein and apply them to my daily life.

It’s a rewarding experience, if not somewhat lost on my 12 year old daughter. She’s a pretty young 12 to begin with and this abstract thinking sort of escapes her. But it did have the desired effect of prompting some good conversation.

This whole experience really exceeded my expectations. Our Rabbi does a really nice job with these sorts of things, patience being a virtue of his. A really virtue when you consider all the questions that 12 year olds can come up with.. You know, after an explanation of a complicated part of our liturgy, the hands go up, question is the back, he picks the kid and the question is.. “is this going to go the full 2 hours?” or “Where’s the bathroom” or what ever. It’s a mess.

We got back from the retreat about 1:00 on Sunday, refreshed spiritually and exhausted physically thanks to a night on a shitty bed. We happened to be sharing the camp with a Lutheran Youth Group, for dinner pizza was on the menu. Looking over plates of cheese pizza the parents, at least the less observant ones, or even better then ones who didn’t really know better, were wondering why it was that our group got cheese when the Lutherans across the aisle were enjoying pepperoni.

On arrival at home it was time to start working on the house again. New carpets are coming this week, so I had to replace the trim, tear down the fish tank.. stuff like that. Next week at this time.. Thanksgiving.

I was out working with my crabby little dog the other night. He’s actually pretty good at the old obedience game, at least when I’m the one yanking the his chain. My wife stuck her head out the front door.. “Sank”, “what the hell are you doing out there?” 

“I’m working with the dog”. “why ya doing that?”

This has been a another hell’uv’a week to be honest. Work can only be described as challenging at the moment. I’m pretty damn grumpy. I’ve had computer problems at home, carpet problems… just lots of stuff.

“I like training him” I replied, then in a low voice “gives me something I can control for change for. I’m feeling like I have no control at the moment.

“You need to come in, I wanna show you something”.

See what mean!

“well ol’ giggs, you can’t win around here.. “ and in we went.

As you regular reads know we’ve some uh.. water issues around here. Raw sewage and such.. and now we’re getting new carpet.

She had four swatches laid out on the floor. “Pick one” she commanded.

I looked down at them, looked at her.. closed my eyes and shook my head.

“No”.

“NO? Sheez Sank pick one. Which one do you like best?”

“it doesn’t matter”

She looked at me.. “I know, but humor me and pick a stinking swatch”.

I gave her my best puppy dog eyes and replied… “no”.

“I WANT YOU TO PICK ONE..”

She was getting agitated.

“Why? You already picked the one we’re getting, don’t need me..”

“I know dear, but I want to see if we’re on the same page on this. Ok, pick the one that you THINK I would like”.

“No”.

I mean really what is the point? She knows what she wants, and I don’t want to be wrong. I stared at her.. “I don’t care and I’m not going to validate that you and I are on the same page dear. Not gonna!”

Which pissed her off. Go figga.

Why I blog?

This has become a bit of an issue of late, why do it? Why expose the minutiae of your life to the denizens of cyberspace? Why do I spend several hours a week writing stuff to publish on a site that’s read by 20 of the smartest, best read and way above average people I know?

Do we write for our own gratification and if that’s the case, does that make us self-centered egomaniacs? Do we write for others as we’re supposed to? And, in this new world where everyone with a computer and the internet can put shit out there for others to read.. what are proper credentials for one to call ones self a writer? I’m thinking getting paid in some way might be a criteria.

Personally, I write for the release. I write because everyone once a while I see something, observe something that strikes me as funny and, I loves ta tell me a funny story, just ask anyone I work with. I like the fact that I can find humorous stuff in just about any situation thanks to my deeply cultivated personal sarcasm. I also like that I’m pretty quick on my feet when it comes to being funny.

I also write for therapeutic reasons. Write stuff down, express feelings.

Nah.. not really. Deep thoughts I keep to myself, especially the more intimate ones like why haven’t spoken to my parents in 10 years, or job related stuff that gets me really upset, or my wonderings about what exactly Mrs S all day long with two kids left at home.

On the otherhand.. I can, on occasion have less of filter on this space that I should and have on a couple occasions gotten myself into trouble, or created trouble with out intending too. Great example.. friend of mine, who was a regular reader of this space assumed that some criticism I wrote about a family party was directed at him. Which, it wasn’t. And despite my pleading otherwise refused to believe me, and now is a former friend. Lesson there? Tone down the blog? Not really. It was good lesson in human nature, if you’re looking to be offended you can always find offense. If you refuse to accept explanations or apologies, you’re going to become pretty isolated in time. Again, ask my folks about that.

So I plug on and continue to write and post and one day find a point to all this. Maybe, one day write something good and become a “real writer”. Until then, thank you for bearing with me.

Spent the weekend 20 feet off the ground in a tree stand, watching for Bambi and his family. There’s really nothing like sitting in the woods and watching the process of the dawn of a new day. Watching as darkness turns to grey, shadows appear as the horizon begins to illuminate a bit, starting with dark purple and then deep magof usenta and orange.

As the dawn continued in its progression you could hear the sound of geese starting fly from their night time roosts to the fields where they feed during the day. As the shadows continued to take on more definition and shape the familiar images of trees and bushes, and about 100 yards into the woods I could just make out the some unnatural movement. Squinting I could see three does picking their way along the edge of the field ahead of me. I was in a tree, back in the woods watching and waiting.

Shooting starts in Minnesota 1/2 hour before sunrise. Surely, with that many eligible gals in the woods, some dude would be coming around soon to, you know.. looking for Mr Goodbar thing. Well, in case you didn’t know exactly when shooting hours started, at exactly 6:35, or 1/2 hour before sunrise, on queue, it was like the opening barrage from the last day of Gettysburg, the entire countryside exploded into a din of gunshots. The deer I saw immediately ran off to safer ground as the sound of riles came from all directions. Highpowered rifles make a racket that can carry a long way away. Most of these guns were a mile to the north or south of us.

About 8:00, suffering from a sore ass and not paying that close attention, I happened to look up and learned a great lesson about deer hunting. It’s a lot like fishing. The game, in this case a very large buck, with a not so large rack, tend to appear when you’re not paying attention. The harder the you concentrate the less chance you’ll have of seeing an animal. However, should you be texting and listening to your iPod and otherwise screwing around, there is an excellent chance that you’ll be rewarded with a deer, or a fish or what  ever you’re in pursuit of. And, so it went for deer.

At the end of our two days in the woods we took 5 deer, three bucks and two does. The area we were hunting, a friends property, is in an “intensive harvest” area, meaning kill a lot of deer. 5 per hunter are allowed. He’s got a 350 acre lot of land and the deer are everywhere. However, winter feed in that area is very poor and the are many more than the land can sustain and winter starvation is a big issue. Hence the liberal limits.

As expected however, the real thrill of the hunt is the time in camp, eating and drinking and hanging out.

Estimates are that 800,000 armed men and women will invade the woods and fields of the Gopher State tomorrow. Only eclipsed by the Fishing Opener in May, the annual Deer Opener is one of Minnesota’s great outdoor traditions. I didn’t grow up in a family that did any hunting what so ever. My Dad rarely spent time in the outdoors, he didn’t fish, we never ever camped as family. My love of outdoor sports, according to my wife, must have some genetic tie to my biological family.

So this weekend I’ll with the rest of the hunters, sitting in tree, trying to be invisible.. Of course with the advances of technology I’ll be warm, and not just because it’s going to be warm this weekend. I’ll be listening to an audio book on my iPod, and I’ll be well fed thanks to my pot of chili I made. I was told that should wash my clothes in some fancy no-smell soap.. but that’s only for people who actually want to shoot something. I hope a see a lot of deer, maybe some big ones, lots of them, and I hope that just about the time they get into rifle range, the catch a wiff of my aftershave and turn tail and run.

For me the big fun of this whole experience is deer camp. Chance to hang out in the woods, eating camp food, drinking beer, maybe some scotch, snacking on summer sausage and crackers, swapping stories, playing guitar at night. But if I get one… deer sausage and venison roast.

Today is my mother’s birthday. The actually number of years is a pretty closely held family secret, one that even her only kid doesn’t have direct knowledge of. I’m going to write a bit about her story, or our family history. It’s pretty fascinating and I think a nice tribute to her. Warning, it might jus take a few days to get through it all.

And, there will be no names, the writing will at times, be a bit more vague that you might like.

Cairo Egypt, November 1934. The only daughter and the youngest of four kids, mom was born at her home in Cairo’s Jewish Quarter. Cairo of 1934 was a cosmopolitan place, at the crossroads of the Middle East and Europe, the city was home to British and French nationals, there was a thriving Jewish community here, estimated to be at 75,000 people. It is one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities and, with Alexandria, it is a center of Jewish learning and life in the Middle East. Cairo is also home to several Christian communities, including the native church of Egypt, the Coptic Church, this is the original church in Egypt. It is one of the oldest Christian churches in the world, and interestingly the liturgical language of the Coptic Church is directly descended from the last native Egyptian language, it dates to earliest days of the Church. In the 600’s the invasions from the Arabian Peninsula ushered in the Islamic era and brought Arabic and Islam to Egypt, and Christians and Jews became second citizens. An interesting fact about the Copts, their liturgical language, is the former spoken language of Egypt, predating Arabic it is the last language to have been written in hieroglyphics during the time of Ptolomys. And of course there are also the majority of people in Egypt, the Muslims.

Egypt at the time was ruled by King Farouk, a British puppet and the last of the Muhammed Ali dynasty which had ruled Egypt for 10 generations. He was supported by the British with an occupation force in order to look after the interests of the Suez Canal. Farouk lived an extravagant lifestyle at Egypt’s expense, many palaces, lots of estates and land, expensive European shopping trips, and a string mistresses, for the British, French and the other foreigners living in Egypt at the time, he looked a lot like the British Royal family and life for them was good. For the Arab public, he was despised.

Cairo at that time, according my family sources was a beautiful city, it’s teeming slums wouldn’t come until Egypt’s rapid urbanization of the 60’s and later. My mother’s family was not native to Egypt. Her father was from an old southern French family who had settled in Tunisia in the 1700’s, Tunis at the time was also a center of Jewish life in the Arab world. Her mother was from Beirut, descended from a family of Russian Jews who immigrated to Palestine at the end of the 1800’s and had wound up settling in French Beirut. Not coincidentally, my father’s mother was from the same family line and also from Beirut. His father however was from Damascus, once the oldest Jewish community in the world, dating back the second Temple period. Again, another story.

My Mothers Dad was successful merchant in Egypt. The family had a general store and sold goods to the British and the French contractors who were in Egypt at the time working for the Suez Canal Company. They would spend the height of the Egyptian summer at the Mediterranean at a house in Ras El Bar, where the Nile flows into the sea. They would take day trips to Alexandria to see the sights. Occasionally the would take the coastal train from Port Said to Beirut to visit with the family in Lebanon, passing through Palestine on the way north, a route that hasn’t been used since 1949. In Lebanon they were fond of the beach and enjoyed making trips to the Shouf Mountains to escape the heat of the summer.

They lived a pretty good life in Egypt the 30’s. Hollywood movies, family time, vacations in the Nile Delta. This all came to an end with the death of my Grandfather in 1939 and the onset of World War II. My grandfather’s death meant Mom’s three older brothers would have to start working. Her oldest brother entered into Banking and supported the family as best he could. His young wife was also from Beirut and the split their time between there and Egypt. Her youngest brother was a competitive swimmer who swam long distance, open water events around the Middle East and wasn’t around to much. Her middle brother took a job working for the British Army in Egypt. At the time, the best schools in Egypt were either French or British; you had your choice of a British style boarding school, mostly for boys, or a Catholic French school where you could be taught by Nuns. Moms’ mother chose the latter for her.

In the late 30’s Jews from Europe were starting to arrive Cairo as refugees with stories of Nazism and the persecution that was going in Germany and it’s occupied countries. In 1939 Libya was an Italian colony. When Mussolini joined the Axis powers, the Italians began to move out of Tripoli in their bid to expand the Duce’s empire. Italian troops in Africa were woefully under matched in equipment to their British foes and the war did not go well for the Fascist Italian forces. Hitler was determined on opening a second front in the war, and distract the British war effort and seize the Suez Canal. In early 1941 to support the failing Italians, the Afrika Corps under General Erwin Rommel landed in Tunisia and began to push across North Africa towards the British and Canal in Egypt. Cairo’s Jews were in a panic with reports of the advances by the Germans. In Egypt proper, behind British lines there were acts of sabotage against the British and foreign targets around Egypt, perpetrated by the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood was established in Egypt in 1928 by teachers and workers on the canal as a reaction to Westernization of Egypt and what they perceived as an abandonment of fundamental Islam. By 1938 there were 200,000 members of the Brotherhood in Egypt and they were perceived as a threat by the British, a fifth column should the Germans make it to Cairo. My uncle, Mom’s middle brother was recruited by the British Army to infiltrate the Brotherhood in Cairo. Fluent in street vernacular Arabic, he looked like a typical fedayeen (Egyptian) and was able to successfully join a cell in Cairo. Obviously his contact with his family ended during this time.

My mother was sent to a camp for Jewish children in Alexandria, the camp was sponsored by Hashomar Ha’Tzaier a Zionist organization with youth camps in Europe and the Middle East who were training the kids in farming and scouting in order for them to one day move to Palestine and help build the future Jewish State. Both of the circumstances would come into play later.

By the summer of 1942 the Germans had advanced to with in 70 miles of Alexandria to a small town on the Mediterranean coast, El Alamein, a name that would go down in military history. In July of that that year the British and Commonwealth troops stopped the Nazi’s for the first time in the war. El Alamein was the high water mark of the Axis. The first battle, that July, was fought to a stalemate, and lines were drawn, literally in the sand. In October of that year the British under General Montgomery had amassed over 200,000 troops and 1100 tanks, the famous Eighth Army. By late September they were poised and ready to counter attack the Germans and drive them back to Libya. The Germans, after 3 months in desert with extended supply lines and fuel shortages were vulnerable.

On the night of October 25, 1942 at 9:40 almost 900 artillery pieces of the Commonwealth opened fire at the same time. The plan was to have their shells fall all over the 40 mile front to confuse the Germans. After the initial bombardment they were to focus in on specific targets, minefields and positions for the actual infantry and armor attack. The plan was brilliant and the Afrika Corps were crushed at El Alamein By the November the Germans and the Italians were in full retreat and the threat to Egypt was over.

My Grandmother recalled to me on several occasions the near constant vigils of prayer and fasting that were going on the Egyptian Jewish community during the battle. For her Montgomery was a savoir, a modern Mordicahi who delivered her personally from Hitler. For the family, after the battle the war became less of an issue. Cairo was bombed several times by German and Italian planes, these raids stopped. The fear that the Brotherhood would link up with the Germans became less of a concern, however since Mom’s brother had be placed in an active cell, he was a valuable asset for the British and was left in place.

After the war ended, life in Egypt was never the same. The British were now an occupying force. The Canal a symbol of Western imperialism was seen as insult to Egyptian nationalism, King Farouk was an agent of the west. In Palestine meanwhile the Yishuv, the Jewish quasi-government who, during the war had cooperated with the British and supported the war effort against the Nazi’s were now in rebellion, terrorizing British interests in the country. Millions of displaced persons were in camps across Europe, many the survivors from concentration camps now found themselves in new displaced persons camps. The Jewish Agency was attempting to bring them into Palestine. The Arabs in Palestine petitioned the British to stop what they saw as illegal immigration. This influx of a million Jewish refugees would dramatically upset the balance of power in Palestine and the Arabs were going to do everything in their power to stop it.

The British, caught in the middle, were doing their part to see that open warfare didn’t break out between Jewish and Arab Palestinians, they completely halted Jewish immigration to the country in 1946 in a reaction to Arab demands. For the Jews in the country this was a declaration of war. Several Jewish militias began to attack the British troops with bombings and assinations, in the meantime the Brotherhood had setup in the Arab villages in Palestine and began attacking the Jewish settlements, the Jews would attack Arab villages and the entire region was a powder keg about the explode. This violence spilled over into Egypt where the Brotherhood engaged in attacks on Jewish and British institutions and businesses. By 1948 the British wanted out of the whole affair.

With the establishment of the State of Israel in 1949, the situation for Jews in Egypt began to deteriorate. Attacks against Jews in Cairo became common, riots broke out, Egyptians attacked the Jewish neighborhood in Cairo breaking shop windows and beating people. Because of his involvement with British Intelligence her brother had to leave Egypt pronto. He was evacuated with most of the British Army and wound up moving to London and doing cold war assignments in Europe. Mom’s oldest brother departed Egypt for Beirut with his wife about this time leaving my Mother and her Mother in Cairo. The situation continued to get worse. By the early 50’s a new nationalism was taking hold in Egypt, the British were despised for their role in the creation of the State of Israel and for their control of the Suez Canal.

In 1951 after an incident with British Troops at the canal that left 41 Egyptians dead anti-Western riots engulfed the country. In Cairo British and French interests were attacked as were the last remaining Jewish Department stores and companies in Egypt. In July of 1952 officers in the Egyptian military staged a coup which overthrew King Farouk. General Gammal Abdul Nasser was the new president of Egypt. Under the banner of Egyptian nationalism Nasser sized control of the Suez Canal and broke off all treaties with the British.

In 1956 French, British and Israeli forces attacked Egypt and retook the canal. For my mother, this was a double whammy. At the time Mom held a French passport, she also had attended a Zionist youth camp as kid. A few weeks after the end of the hostilities, Egypt was again engulfed in riots. The French embassy in Cairo was burned and in a show of Pan-Arab nationalism at the same time the newly independent country of Tunisia opened their embassy in Cairo. .

A few weeks after the Suez crisis, my mother left the apartment and headed to work at the department store where she was a clerk. As she arrived at the store, she saw her boss talking to some unknown men. As she made eye contact with the boss, he very subtly nodded at her, the message, “don’t stop”. As she walked passed she pretended to be another customer. When she left the store she called home from a payphone to check on her mother. They didn’t have a phone in her apartment so she had to call the neighbor. According to her neighbor, a Coptic woman, there had been men at the apartment looking for her, she had been identified as a French Zionist and there was a warrant for her arrest. Egypt was rounding up Jews at this time for deportation, Mom was on their list.

Mom asked the neighbor to tell her Mother to take a one bag, all the money they had and to meet her at the Cairo train station at a certain time. Hanging up she tore up her identity papers and her French passport. She headed for the new Tunisian Embassy in Cairo, on the grounds of what was the French Embassy. Crowds of people were celebrating the destruction of the French and British Embassies, the chaos would work in her favor. Pulling herself together she went into the Tunisian embassy and asked for a passport. She told the new officials that her father was a Tunisian, (true) and that she and her mother considered themselves to be Tunisian Citizens (untrue). Mom is fluent in Arabic of course and must have made up a great story. Her passport was issued, as well as one for her infirm Mother.

Later that day she met her Mother at the train station and with the little bit of money they had in with them they bought two tickets to Alexandria. Once they arrived in Alexandria they were able to find a ferry to Beirut and, with only the items they had with them, a suitcase and a Persian rug, they boarded the boat and left Egypt for the last time, leaving everything behind them.

Beirut in 1956 was literally the Paris of the Middle East. The country was stable then, the city was known for it’s boulevards, high standard of living and tolerance. In Beirut she was able to recover her French passport, live with family and get her affairs in order. She quickly moved to Paris, where for several years she was a phone operator. She made a trip to Texas where she went to meet her second cousin, my other Grandmother. This was supposed to be a quick trip, passing through to Montreal where her three brothers had settled. Plans change however, she arrived on a Monday, met my father that afternoon and got married that Friday. I was adopted a few years later and so it goes. I still have a hard time imagining my 35 year old father, after weekend starting Monday single no girlfriends and being married by that Friday.

The rest as they say.. is history.