‘Identical twins, Roselle, N.J.,’

“A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know.”

Diane Arbus

trying to coin a new phrase for the following feeling, i shall call it ‘confusionism’. Are you familiar with it?:

there are a set of twins somewhere in your family or in a close group of friends.

when they were babies, you could hardly tell them apart. once in a while you would find a way to differentiate, but next time you saw them, it did not work anymore. it was temporary.

over the next few years, you meet them every 3 months or so in some family function or friends get together. you try to find something that differentiates them, but it escapes you. the next time you see them they start talking. from now on, every time y0u see them, you try to find out something different in their clothing, then ask them for their names. for the rest of the evening, or afternoon, depending on the function, you can tell them apart if you can hold on to that thought, do not drink too much wine, or are not pre-occupied in your own thoughts. as they years go by, and they grow older. every time you talk to them you are under pressure.

‘who am i speaking to?’

‘ dani or rani?’, ‘zili or gili?’

should not these feeling have a word?

do you know what i am talking about?

in our home, this issue comes up as well:

my oldest daughter, and her brother, 6 years her young, have the same voice over the phone.

boy, it is really tough to tell them apart.

every time i call home, i am worried what if one of them answers and i get it wrong?

please send suggestions for how to name this feeling

identical mirage?

gemini spin?

confusionism!    (for now)

not talking about wine.

saw four funerals and a wedding late at night with my daughter and her boyfriend.

what a setup…

enjoyed. perhaps more than the first time.

here are 4 reasons to see it, and one not to:

ONE richard curtis does a wonderful job with the script. love, missed love, bad timing, hopeless love, funny at the tough spots. british, yet not.

TWO surprisingly one of the most touching moments for me was the funeral.

good acting. sad. to the heart. “ this is what i wanted to say“

THREE Andie MacDowell or Kristine Scott Thomas? who adds more to this film?  Andie, in this flick, is about as sexy as any woman can be – easy! can not find a greater beauty. still, i think Kristine come out full of character. because it is tough to be a good number 2, the supporting actress, with out challenging or stealing the show from the top actress. and because of this. no competition

it is not Charlie and Lola.

it is about love

about how once you love someone, you can not love someone else until this one goes away (i actually disagree, but know the feeling).

about when love finally happens, (a strange thing), a moment of magic that will never go away.

FOUR because the plan, the script, is simple. when asked a question say ‘i do’.

i like it when the truth comes out.

who speaks when told ’speak now or forever hold your peace?’ no one. and who keeps it to themselves?

and  a reason not to see the movie

rowan atkinson. so what if he is friends with Richard Curtis?

W. H. Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

an option you do not intend to use, but you still see value in getting it, rather than dropping it.

Q: “want to go to a movie Friday night?”

A: “i usually stay home and watch tv, but lets discuss Friday eve”

as human beings, we know it ain’t going to happen, but we still want to obtain the droption, not realizing its value may be close to zero, and usually negative

VCs are a prime example of people obtaining and using droptions. especially not getting to back to a company with a ‘no’ early. they think that by waiting a week to a month something good will happen

as part of the new words series:

tactually

tactics to change reality.

e.g today is the first day of the rest of my life.

our family watches survival/survivor “השרדות” avidly.

realities are good for all ages and all levels of interest.

my 4 year old, Tal, is facinated if she knows/recoginizes the names of contenstens and something about them or their character.

what i like, is the family discussion about the characters and the plots contirved in the social dynamics.

this season of the Israeli Survivor is wonderful. the characters are fun, especially after Ziv is out.

and there is plenty of room for surprises as there is no Trinity or Iron Axis.

therefore,  IMNSHO, in my (not so humble) opinion, now is a great time to starting a contest for guesses about who the final 3 contestants will be.

if you agree that now is a great time to make the guess, please read on.

i doubt that i will be able to guess, but it would be fun to try.

my initial Key is that a strong threesome can make it to the final.

why?

a bit of backwards induction.

the final 3 can be an alliance of 3 out of the final 5.

the final 5 can be a dominant alliance of 8. (not 9 because of veto)

so, a strong 3 (with 2 others) can dominate a tribal counsel of 8 even without the powerful Veto power.

since that 3 with 2 others can make it to the final 5, IF (and this is a big IF), they keep their alliance they are in the final.

note there is some game theory involved. human emotions. psychological scratches. behavioralism. this is fun (and very hard to predict).

note that at this point, the fibonacci series is highly significant, and 2,3,5,8 are dominant numbers to some degree on how alliances can unfold.

this final 3, especially in order to survive the final 5,  is composed of  a strategist,  a capable person (usually wins a hasinot/immunity – not just for physical abilities),  and a cute person who tags along (this rule is an attempt to find order in chous and i do not think it will hold water over time).

dan mano, naama, noam,

arik, nata-li (atam meshaker, meshaker), and mirit.

talco, shai, and liad?

i have a lot of doubt about this, but think it would be fun to discuss. if there are enough comments, i will try and introduce other theories

The name “Google” is an accidental misspelling of the word googol which was invented by a 9 year old boy, Milton Sirotta (who does not have a wikipedia entry – so much for words, coining them,  and fame).

A googol is the large number 10¹⁰⁰, that is, the digit 1 followed by one hundred zeros.

Columbia University Mathematics Professor,Edward Kasner is perhaps best remembered today for introducing the term “googol” in or about 1920^[2]. In order to pique the interest of children, Kasner sought a name for a very large number: one followed by a hundred zeros.

On a walk in the New Jersey Palisades with his nephews, Milton and Edwin Sirotta, Kasner asked for their ideas. Nine-year-old Milton suggested “googol.”

Kasner popularized the concept in his book Mathematics and the Imagination (1940). A googol is of the same order of magnitude as the factorial of 70 (70! being approximately 1.198 googol, or 10 to the power 100.0784). In binary it would take up 333 bits. A googol has no particular significance in mathematics, but is useful when comparing with other very large quantities such as the number of subatomic particles in the visible universe or the number of possible chess games. Edward Kasner created it to illustrate the difference between an unimaginably large number and infinity, and in this role it is sometimes used in teaching mathematics.

Lately i am fascinated by words.

it is remarkable to me that we actually understand each other.

usually, when we talk, we understand each other quite well.

despite the fact that our brains and souls are very individual.

my appeal to you is let’s invent new words.

comments and suggestions are highly welcome. perhaps we can make some words really popular?

if i understand correctly, ‘quiz’ was invented in the University of Chicago in the 60s.

Wikipedia adds this note:

There is a well-known myth about the word “quiz”, which says that in 1791 a Dublin theater owner named James Daly made a bet that he could introduce a word into the language within twenty-four hours. He then went out and hired a group of street urchins to write the word “quiz”, which was a nonsense word, on walls around the city of Dublin. Within a day, the word was common currency and had acquired a meaning (since no one knew what it meant, everyone thought it was some sort of test) and Daly had some extra cash in his pocket. However, there is no evidence to support the story, and the term was already in use before the alleged bet in 1791.^[1]

my new word for this post is:

‘News it’.

what does it mean? ‘

news it! – something you say to someone who just bought a new item. ‘תתחדש’ in hebrew

perhaps the salespeople at Banana Republic will great you on the way out with ‘News it’,  instead of ‘have a nice day’ or ‘thanks for shopping with us’

below is a one-line note i got one friday afternoon from a friendly entrepreneur who wanted advice over the weekend:

“Is it hard when people love you for your money ?”