mangal

Tuesday night- Chatzkal, Resnick, Levi and I met at Chatzkal's apartment, for a barbecue that Resnick had planned. (Last year he had done nothing on the independence day and was depressed by it and so he declared that he was throwing a picnic.) I was the first to arrive. We discussed the tanach quiz that chatzkal had seen, in which the son of Netanyahu came in 3rd (he said second, or sgan). He said that the kid seemed a little strange and I said that i had heard autism and we compromised on asperger's. which was a useful point of reference because the fifth person who arrived with a car was someone called avraham who was weird. (a former member of the sds, he now wants to burn down the supreme court and thus burning something down, whether rotc or supreme court seems to be the essence.) we piled into the car, with food and paper utensil, israeli charcoal and lighter fluid, a table and a chair, a barbecue. 3 in the back seat and two in front. first we went to buy some beer. I don't drink beer, i drink wine. what kind of wine. thunderbird and night train. (to levi) we got going and finally found the part of the park that we wanted. chatzkal knew where he was going. turns out avraham had no idea how to park, but finally gave the wheel to levi who parked the car. wouldn't have passed the new york state driver's test, but it was good enough.
we moved the stuff to the hill and then lit the fire. posed the riddle, a boat, a cigarette pack but no matches. throw one overboard, then the boat becomes one cigarette lighter. avraham liked that one. i noshed and resnick who told me not to talk to avraham while he was parking (he's not normal) which pissed me, but i controlled it. told me not to eat, because i would lose my appetite, very mothering, but so it goes. rugelach while the men drank beer. and me missing my reefer. and potato chips and cole slaw and potato salad and kababs and burgers and hot dogs, but no bread for me. and chicken wings which hurt my teeth. then rocky showed up with his son and resnick went into mothering overtime. nice to see rocky. avraham spoke out against obama and other things. (with ari shavit in today's haaretz, i think obama might indeed be trouble.) and rocky danced (reminded me of steve martin in the jerk) and he brought two gloves and a baseball and shmuel, rocky's kid had rollerblades. and i told the "i don't have to outrun the bear, i only have to outrun you" joke. and some charedim came and we davened mincha. and i did not eat marshmallows, which for some reason i keep calling mushrooms. (old age creeps in, but i will survive). and we sang shir ha'maalot. but i did not eat bread, so i couldn't bensch. i ate salad with my hands. the first burger was burnt, i had no pickle, but i had cucumber salad. and there was a moshava reunion that day, but this was better and chatzkal felt complimented. levi asked where we knew each other from and he was jealous of the long friendship. I only know resnick since simchat torah of 76, but chatzkal from 66 and rocky from 67. i mentioned the beverly mayersdorf there's a whale who wants three days lodging. simi rothner comes to mind right now. last night on the phone with rocky about locking me into the closet, baruch green came to mind. and rocky lost his footing when we walked downhill. celery and raisins on rosh hashana for a raise in salary. and lots of cola including pepsi max and coca cola. a mild suggestion that we sing "biladi" but no one objected. we drove and dropped levi off. he is living in safed. then to chatzkal's. i told the that's one, two, three shoot the horse joke and then that's one to the newlywed wife. and they thought it was reminiscent of the joke, which joke, the bear joke. and then to resnick's. he told me that steve klitsner doesn't believe in pru u'rvu regarding shiduchin and so i offered my aryeh connection. and i tried to download les diabolique and blade runner downloaded five percent. and i read him shlomo avineri and yossi alpher. beforehand i asked him whether he understands why palestinians are pissed, but now he amended it to say, they are pissed because they are brainwashed muslims (not his words, but his essence.) and we are dafuk. i taught him how to use his can opener, which reminded me of michele's father and i added a thanksgiving section of liberty maze.