A view West over Jerusalem, not East toward it

Update: in Andrew Zolnai Private Blog, two mid-2026 posts on Middle-Eastern religious regimes compared here, and Climate Change and the Old Testament here.

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Having a pinched shoulder nerve forced me off both mobiles and socials... so I read a book "Le défi de Jerusalem" (Google books) by French author E-M Schmitt. On his tour of the Holy Land, this second volume follows "Nuit de feu", where he embraced his faith at Foucault's retreat near Tamanrasset in North Africa. This book was given to me by my Mum, who welcomed me back to the Catholic fold after 50 years. 

White House Correspondants Association annual dinner

Watched it on ABC News Live, here are my notes. This is a rare show of genuine journalistic ambition in the post-truth era. It slots in with previous posts on Language & Mores here.

Solar eclipse 2024

 Chatting w a friend I looked up how Eid Al Fitr (end of Ramadan) was determined: this is what Al Jazeera English said, paraphrasing: beginning & end of Ramadan depend on sighting the new moon; that varies by location or may not happen due to cloud cover. And this week it followed the solar eclipse: in the new moon, the lit face is away from earth when it's before the sun.

I followed the solar eclipse on YouTube via WFAA TV in Ennis TX, snap dab in the middle if the solar eclipse path, as well as NASA livestream.  Here are a series of screen grabs that show the corona and solar flares in all their magnificence. Click all to enlarge:

Language and mores, Part VIII

 Part VII caps the economic, ethnic and social aspects of the gradual transition from earlier tribal merit-based to later rational principles-based systems, with older aspects still lingering today. Having lived and worked on three continents, and spent three decades recovering my identities of origin and now my spirituality — largely via rc.org summarised in an excellent précis here (private use only) no small thanks to my ex— let me share some pointers in my very personal experience of all of the above. Follow on Part IX here.

Language and mores, Part VII

Update: follow Part VIII here.

 I recapped in my previous post (here) the first five parts ending w how tribal mores persist today. Having mentioned im/migration  in Part III (here), my stay in the family home led to discuss how we relate to our parents. Note that I was born on the way out so to speak - born in Vienna en route from Budapest to Paris as my parents fled the Hungarian Uprising on New Years Eve 1957 -  whereas my sibs were born 15 yrs later in Pau, SW FR, where my parents settled - that time interval isn't germane here - but it helps explain the generation gap. Here is what I said in French:

... We skipped a generation as privileged immigrants: in fact I was the 1st transit  generation, and [my sibs ] were the 2nd landed generation.  Mom and Dad were "entre deux eaux" [1],  in between waterflows and never found their feet on the ground...