William's soldiers wanted to stay in England to marry the young peasants they met but William had no interest in declaring beautiful French as the official language in the Isles. He allowed the existing Anglo-Saxon language to remain and be invaded, linguistically, with French. Hence, the English language has over 600,000 words compared to the 250,000 words that make up French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and most other languages. Many of our monosyllabic words are Anglo-Saxon; many of our polysyllabic words are French. I learned this from Dr.  Elliot Engel when he spoke at Town Hall recently. He has written several books on the English language, inter alia, which I intend to read after the 10 books in my queue.

     Easter was particularly meaningful this year because last year we traced Jesus' footsteps. Of all the places we visited throughout Israel, Jerusalem remains the most perplexing: a paradoxical vortex of contrasts. A young female Israeli soldier in tight pants walked nonchalantly with her Uzi machine gun across a lavender street covered with blossoms from Jacaranda trees. Massive white stones weighing several tons the Romans used to build their fortresses in 20 B.C. remain near tiny colorful mosaic tiles-hundreds of thousands of them-adorning walls and floors everywhere.

     Jerusalem, the city of faith for Jews, Christians, and Muslims, the holiest of holy for all three religions, continues to be a hotbed of dissension, eluding peace for most of its 5,000 year history. Jerusalem's signature symbol: the spectacular glistening gold-leaf dome built by Muslims on top of Mount Moriah, site of the Abraham/Isaac story and the Jewish First and Second Temples-the foundations of Christianity.

Books, Movies, Trivia~
     I've been reading a book lately that has more hyperboles than any book I've ever read. There are stories of people living 900 years, octogenarians having babies, and King Saul requiring David to deliver as a dowry for his daughter Michal: 100 Philistine foreskins. (David presented 200!) My theory on the Old Testament is that the writers used all those hyperboles so that we would remember the stories. I'll never forget them. I haven't finished the O.T. but it is YBD.

YBD- Your Bounden Duty    PYE- Part of Your Education (acronyms à la Archibald Edwards)  MNH- you Might Need a Handkerchief (à la LA)