Blanche does more than write, she also speaks. Quel surprise! On returning from a recent trip to the midwest – Missouri to be exact, she had a very interesting encounter at an airline counter at…4:00 am. Yes dearies, there are flights that depart at the dizguzting hour of 5:30 am and we were privy to be on one of those. But we digress.
The person in question was a young woman who was carrying many backpacks. Many. Plus a very large suitcase. At that hour, there are no formalities and we simply asked why she had this unusual array of luggage. “I’m going to Nepal.” We perked up. “Nepal? They just had a massive earthquake there. It’s dangerous. Where will you shower? Wash your clothing? Eat and sleep? Have a glass of water?”
Marla, a law student was unfazed by my queries. Turns out this was not her first foray to Nepal as an NGO – non-government agency person. She went on to tell me that of the many organizations that claim to collect money for the victims of disasters, there are a handful that are legit, one being the America Nepal Medical Foundation. Her job is logistical. To work with doctors without borders and find out which parts of the country need help, what kind and how much. After we landed in Chicago, the last leg of my flight, the second of hers (Chicago, Dubai, Katmandu), we bade each other farewell and exchanged email addresses. Of course Blanche will send an email, but she may only get it upon her return to the United States, in four long months. What was in those backpacks? Water. There are some really decent people in this world.
In case you were royal watching, you know that Kate and William had a baby girl and named her Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, basically covering all bases. If one was watching the bets beforehand, the name Alice was running very close to Charlotte. Here’s a surprising tidbit about who Alice was:
Princess Alice of Battenberg, is buried in Jerusalem, and was recognized by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial as a “Righteous Among the Nations” and by the British government as a “Hero of the Holocaust.”
During the Nazi occupation of Greece, Alice hid a Jewish woman and two of her children from the Nazis. In October 1994, on a trip that marked the first time that a member of the British royal family had visited the State of Israel, Philip attended a ceremony honoring his mother at Yad Vashem.
Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, met with members of the Cohen family whom his mother hid in her Athens palace for 13 months during the Nazi occupation of Greece.
At the ceremony at Yad Vashem, he accepted the Righteous Among the Nations award that was bestowed posthumously upon his late mother. Beautiful story and too bad they didn’t use the name. Under Israeli election law, Netanyahu must tell President Reuven Rivlin before midnight this Wednesday that he has managed to form a coalition, but he has until next Wednesday to actually get it sworn in by the Knesset, which allows for some wiggle room beyond the ostensible Wednesday-night deadline.
He is facing a huge issue which just materialized. There are 120 seats in the Israeli parliament. He had somewhat of a margin until Monday when Avigdor Liberman announced that he was resigning and that his six-seat-strong Yisrael Beytenu party would sit in the opposition. That basically leaves Netanyahu with a one seat margin. The plot thickens however.
Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett could help Bibi’s majority but is playing hardball with him. In exchange for his seats, Bennett wants the job of foreign minister or defense minister, and the post of justice minister and another substantive ministerial post for his colleagues. You can be sure those involved are not sleeping tonight.
Michelle Obama is back. She made the talk show rounds in New York to push her Healthy Eating initiative and school exercise program. She says she planted a garden at the White House to show how easy it is for you to grow your own food. All you need is water, sunlight and fifty full-time federal employees. She also neglected to mention that a small piece of land would also be advisable, which is not quite available in places like the South Bronx. Michelle Obama has forgotten who she is and where she comes from. Feh.
Not to be obnoxious, but this beauty Michelle really takes the cake or rather takes the money honey. In February she went on a skiing vacation to Aspen Colorado with her two daughters. Of course she took Air Force One at the unsightly price of $7,712 an hour. The total cost of her transportation for two days? $57,000. And this is the same person who is telling students to grow their own food. Nauseating.
It has been 24 days – more than three weeks – since Clinton announced her bid for president, yet she still has not spoken to national media about her campaign or to address the controversies she is facing. She’s certainly off to a clinton start. Keep your cards close to your chest, reveal nothing and when someone asks you a question turn the tables on them. She’s hard to like.