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Jewish mothers have used fear-based marketing for generations. They have learned the art of making us picture what will happen if in cold weather we don’t...
It turns out there hadn’t been fraud committed on the credit card. It hadn’t been stolen, and we hadn’t been hacked. In spite of my misgivings,...
“No-one,” said my wife, with the conviction of someone who indeed had asked everyone, “writes how much they loved working on their tombstone!” She paused for...
It turns out that there’s a name for them. I hadn’t heard of the concept, but it’s apparently a real thing around the world. And now,...
She looked like a perfectly lovely person. Wearing a long flowery dress with a wide-brimmed straw hat that had a matching pink band around it, she...
It’s time to start issuing passports. Not the ancestral ones like Lithuanian or German or Polish, but from the independent Republic of Glenhazel. It’s time for...
“I’m sorry to have to tell you this,” I said solemnly. “I have something difficult to tell you, and I need you to listen.” My children...
The conversation will often begin with the sentence, “You know who we have to invite back…?” And invariably, I won’t. I won’t know who she’s thinking...
This should probably contain a trigger warning. Sensitive viewers might be offended. But honestly, when did rugby players become such wimps? Such cowards? What happened to...
If you squint your eyes while looking into the sun, you might imagine that the gold reef mine dumps that are dotted around the city are...
It’s a sad situation. Years ago, when you saw a group of men gathered excitedly around a shared cell phone, the likelihood was they were up...
And now for something completely different. Monty Python couldn’t have scripted a week in the life of a South African any better. If the unrelenting heat...
For years, I heard my parents going on about people who went on holiday to the “other side”. As a child prone to wild imaginings, I...
The image of the Durban mayor taking a swim in the ocean to prove that it’s safe to do so was a particularly horrible one. Although...
We all know the story. Cynthia has asked Geoff at least seven times (no exaggeration) to call the plumber to sort out the leaking geyser in...
No one tells you that baby girls will one day turn 12. And that for the next five years, they will love and hate you in...
Much like Padel, summer camp is all the rage. What started when we were young, with parents finding an old “trommel”, throwing in a few odds...
It’s a lie, we’ve been told – the oft repeated notion that the loss of one of our senses heightens and refines the other. Remove my...
When I was 15, I was friendly with a guy by the name of James. We weren’t great friends as he was a bit wild, and...
This is how it ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper. After five children, our youngest has just started to write her matric finals. And...
It’s going to take a while to get COVID-19 out of our systems. And although I would happily forget many aspects of the pandemic, there are...
Across the Jewish world shul committees are anxious. With Rosh Hashanah a few days away, there’s minimal time to complete the shul seating lists. And little...
JoJo tank owners are like vegans. No sooner you meet them, they tell you their storage capacity. Which is why Brian was excited. He had finally...
I could see that the recruit was struggling. The work environment was new to him, and he wasn’t keeping up. “It’s all about the vocab,” I...
If this was an agony aunt letter, I would begin as follows: “Dear Aunt Ruchama, I’m worried that my friend has become a Padel slut. Unable...
I’ve long considered giving marriage lessons. Not because I consider myself an expert on it, but because I find myself perplexed by some of the current...
I try not to take it personally but sometimes, in my darkest moments, I suspect that Naledi Pandor doesn’t love me. It happens in the small...
It has taken the African National Congress (ANC) 14 years to not solve the electricity crises. It has taken it 30 years not to address land...
According to my on-board computer, I have 38km left in the tank and I’m not in a good way. It’s Monday afternoon, and I’m playing “chicken”...
As much as I love my wife, I’m very happy to not sit next to her at shul. And as much as I might like other...
I think I might have scurvy. It’s day number four in the Kruger and I am starting to fantasise about fruit and vegetables. I dreamed last...
Sibongile – Bongi to her friends – is worried about me. Yesterday, she gave me a stern talking to, and in what was clearly an act...
While South Africans are worrying about where their next inverter is coming from, well-heeled Americans are considering the benefits of bladder botox. I kid you not....
Do you lie awake at night waiting for the power to return? Do you feel anxious when the electricity remains on when according the schedule, it’s...
This is a story seldom told. Which is why on Sunday, 19 June, ChaiFM got together with Alex FM for a joint broadcast. For three hours,...
My mask compliance is spotty at best. Sometimes it covers my mouth, sometimes it rests on my chin, and I invariably lower it when I’m unable...
I didn’t know Julie Treger. And I didn’t know her husband, who passed away suddenly three months ago. And yet, the news of her death shook...
“Tell me,” She asked casually, as though inquiring about the time, “Is there a future for our children in South Africa?” I was late for shul...
Fundamental to Jewish thought is the idea that everything was created for a reason. Even seemingly unnecessary and annoying insects have a purpose, and are all...
News that the last kosher butchery in Sydney, Australia, has closed, came as a shock. Not because I will miss its lamb ribs, but because I...
