Made with toondoo

Yes, forgot to mention, I can now be seen pimping my writing to Israel's leading online restaurants site, rest.co.il.
(Hebrew only)
Some examples are here and here.

Being a long-time and proud member of the "Russian Jews United" group on Facebook, I have found the following message waiting in my inbox today:

Single? Need a fresh start?

Try:
http://www.rajeusa.com/rajemate/survey.php

Nice service for nice people.

Gary Linkov

Well, Gary, I don't believe we've met, but that's really...nice. Thank you.

"I am single! I do need a fresh start!", I thought.
Nice people?? That is me!!

With thoughts of beautiful Jewish girls with rich daddies, I immediately clicked on the link and landed on the "RAJE" homepage:



Wow! That's a lot of details just to start. Okay:
RAJE: Last name?
Bitz: Bitz.
R: First name?
B: Pasha.
R: Hebrew Name if any?
B: Hmm, Hebrew name? Mmm, Pasha? No, mm, ahem, I don't know! Please let me date Jewish chicks!!
R: Ethnicity (Ashkenazi / Sephardic / Bucharian / Gorsky)?
B: Woah, that's specific! You're really not for mixing them up, are you? And Bucharian is like a whole category in itself? Do they pray westwards? And what is "Gorsky"? I searched Delver, which is the limit of my knowledge, and didn't find anything. Do you mean to ask whether I'm the dead Soviet spy? Well, I am not!
R: Would like to date only (Doesn't matter / Ashkenazi / Sephardic / Bucharian / Gorsky)?
B: Look, I don't really want to restrict myself. As long as the father is really loaded, I mean. Well, what the hell, I like trying out new stuff. Gorsky!
R: Are you a Cohen?
B: No. Are you a Cohen?
R: Practicing Judaism (High holidays only / Some Shabbats / Kashrus / Other)?
B: Practicing? I don't need to practice baby, I'm already GOOD. But I like the way you American Jews make everything sound cool. Kashrus. Doesn't sound like "can't eat anything" at all!
By the way, RAGE, how come you don't ask me if I'm a boy or a girl? Do you sort of assume I am a horny male? Nice.
R: Would you relocate?
B: Hell yeah!
R: Do you want to move to Israel?
B: Move to Israel?? What? I am marrying you for the Green Card baby! No Israel. I want the dollars!
R: Hair covering after marriage?
B: What? Hair covering? Where? That's a little personal, don't you think?
R: Kipa?
B: Nope.
R: Tzitzit?
B: No. Wait! I have a kipa somewhere! I use it about once a year or so. Though it's usually kind of sad and involves someone dying.
R: Jewish education?
B: Oh yeah! Betzefer Mitzpe!!!
R: Describe in words, your family's religious background if any?
B: In words? Okay. My father is Jewish. My mother is Jewish. Their parents are Jewish too. They say they had to get really good grades in school because back in the USSR they would only let a few Jews into University. I don't remember anything particular about religion. But seriously - your father will LOVE me. I am sure. I'll pretend I like McCain!!!
R: Personality traits:
(Insecure/Nervious) B: Aren't we all? Jewish, remember?
(Argumentative) B: Hmm, not really.
(Intellectual) B: Hell yes, I am a regular Karl-fucking-Marx!
(Low maintenance) B: I see where you're going. Lets say 100K a year from your father will do. I don't need much.
R: Reference (non-family)?
B: Oooh, you're taking this seriously. It's like I am applying for a job. Okay, okay. My army commander, good?

Flixwagon is bloody cool!
Allows to broadcast video directly from your iPhone. The moment you tap "stop" on the iPhone it's up on the web.
Killer.

The Chinese team dominated the 2008 Olympic Games, winning 51 gold medals, 15 more than second-placed USA.
But the Chinese are not the only ones celebrating. Great Britain finished 4th in the medal count, winning 26 total medals, 11 of which gold.
This is the best achievement by the British team since 1912. Impressive. I've decided to find out how exactly did they do in the 1912 Olympics, held in Stockholm, and found out some very interesting stuff.

The football gold medal for Britain required a 7-0 thrashing of Hungary in the second round, a 4-0 victory over Finland in the semis and a 4-2 victory of Denmark in the final. Not very convincing scores in those times as Finland was also defeated by the Netherlands 9-0 in the third-place match and Russia beaten by Germany 16-0 in the consolation tournament.
Finland, by the way, was represented by its own team, without actually being an independent state at the time but rather the Grand Duchy of Finland, part of the Russian Empire. Interestingly, the Finnish team won 26 medals while the Russian won none.

The tennis competition that featured separate (!) events for indoor and outdoor, saw the British win 6 medals total, including a gold and a silver in the mixed doubles indoor event.
The shooting team won another 9 medals, none of which in the “running deer” events, which did not include shooting at actual running deer, but rather at deer-shaped targets with 3 circles on them.

But no medal was as satisfying as the silver medal in the tug of war event. Yes, tug of war.
5 teams signed up for the competition, but the teams from Austria, Bohemia and Luxembourg failed to appear, and so, for the first and only match, Great Britain represented by the City of London Police clashed with the local Stockholm Police. From the Wikipedia article:

The bout consisted of a best-two-of-three contest. The competition was held on July 8, 1912. In the first pull, the Swedish team steadily pulled the British squad across the center mark. After a five-minute break, the second pull was started. In this one, neither team gained the victory through pulling the other across the line, but after a prolonged stalemate a couple of the London men succumbed to exhaustion and sat on the ground, disqualifying them and giving the Swedes the victory.

Tug of war went on to be contested for the last time in the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp.
Those were the days.