As Time Goes By

After almost an hour of watching everyone but me win, with only one white, 25-cent chip of my original $20 stake in front of me, I finally won a hand during last night’s birthday poker game. My friends tried to treat me with rachmanus (pity, compassion), but someone forgot to tell the god of poker to smile on my cards throughout the evening.

For a while I did have a string of good fortune. At one time I was ahead by almost $20. But the last round of seven hands during our three-hour session was not pleasant. By game’s end, I managed to hold onto just $2.75 in winnings. As they used to say about sports contests that ended in a tie, it was like kissing your sister—nice, but not really exciting (at least it’s not supposed to feel exciting).


Today’s mail brought an unexpected present from Jane and Ken G., a copy of a new book edited by Jonathan Safran Foer (author of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close)—New American Haggadah. Imagine my delight then when I turned on a recording of Tuesday night’s Colbert Report and discovered Stephen Colbert’s guest was none other than Jonathan Safran Foer. Here’s a link to the interview: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/410087/march-06-2012/jonathan-safran-foer


Two weeks ago while riding home listening to an NPR report on the Iran nuclear crisis, I learned about SWIFT, The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, a clearinghouse used by most countries and large corporations to expedite foreign transactions. The report said SWIFT was considering expelling Iran, a punishment that could severely cripple its economy even swifter (pun intended) than the economic sanctions already imposed by Western powers seeking to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon. Here’s a background article: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-24/swift-may-expel-iran-s-central-bank-hindering-oil-payments.html.

Short of outright military action, expulsion from SWIFT seems to offer the most powerful means of convincing Iran it is not prudent to continue its nuclear program. There are, of course, consequences, as Avi Jorisch, a former U.S. Treasury official, explained—“We need to choose at this point if we want Iran to get a nuclear bomb or take the chance that oil markets will spike.”

Oil prices already have spiked and will go higher. But that’s a shared sacrifice, not the personal and forever endowment a death or injury would consign to military families who serve our country or any other that would raise arms against Iran. Two weeks later and I’m still waiting for SWIFT action.