Who knew a mouthful of spit could be worth so much?

Someone got a taxi in Jerusalem. The driver refused to run the meter, despite being obligated to and despite the passenger requesting it. The driver then stopped and picked up an additional passenger. When she asked him again to use the meter, he stopped and told her to get out of the taxi.

pretty cool place in Chicago

After that he thought she didnt shut the door fast enough, while she says he started to drive off before she could shut the door. He stopped the car got out and began screaming at her. Then he spat at her.

She sued. he lost. For her distress he was obligated to pay 4000 NIS to her. In addition, he was hit with a 15,000 NIS fine. On top of that 19,000 NIS, he was obligated to put down 5000 NIS for security to ensure that for the next 3 years he would not commit a similar offense. (source: Globes)

Who knew spitting could be worth so much?

Perhaps the people who were spat upon in Bet Shemesh should gather their evidence (some have it on video, along with witnesses) and sue the spitters. Bankrupting them might be a decent tactic.

Tomorrow is the Tel Aviv Marathon. It is being run as part of the festivities in honor of Tel Aviv celebrating its 100th birthday.

The planning of it was pretty unprofessional, as it is scheduled for the end of April which can be brutally hot weather in Tel Aviv. It turns out that the weather is beautiful, but it could have been brutal. Because of it Tel Aviv was unable to attract the top level runners of both the world, and of Israel. Also the scheduling was problematic from a marathon schedule point of view. Something to do with the schedule of other marathons just run and that will be run soon. This one just did not fit in properly.

Regardless of the real pros not participating, I will be running the 10km race. I did not train for the full marathon, and could not pull it together at the last minute. I kind of feel bad about it now. I just went down to the staging area. I had to pick up my running packet - some paperwork, my number, the GPS chip and my tshirt - so I had to go down there. It is really beautiful. the weather is great, it is right off the beach and looks like it is going to be a wonderful event. I will soak it in for the 10km, and only wish I had motivated myself to push for the full 42km. oh well.

On the way back, I took a taxi back to work. the taxi driver was a bit crazy, tapping on the windows of other cars while sitting at red lights. he got upset at other drivers for their weaving and not paying attention to the road. he banged on the window of one driver who was starting to drift into our lane and then started screaming at her. After that, he was complaining about how bad these drivers are. I am confident that had he been looking at the car we were in, from a different car, he would have screamed about the driver of this taxi (himself really) as well, considering how much he was trying to squeeze in between cars, running lights at the last moment and sitting in the middle of the intersection in traffic, etc.

I just took a taxi and when I got in, the cabbie was listening to the news about the war, as pretty much everyone is right now.

The cabbie groaned and said "war".

I said back to him "Actually, there has been a war for a while. Just now we finally joined it."

(I think it sounds better in the original Hebrew of the conversation rather than in English)

He cracked up, as he said he loved the line and would use it.

Last night I was in a taxi going home from work at 2:30 in the morning. The taxi driver was a talkative one, and while I would have liked to sleep, he preferred to chat.

He told me how he had lived in the US for three years. Over the course of the conversation, he gave me his reasons for moving (back) to Israel. He gave me a reason that one could really break down into two or possibly three separate reasons, but maybe they all come from the same one point, so they kind of blur together.

Here is what Moishe the taxi driver thought about living in the US versus living in Israel.

Moishe the taxi driver told me he worked in the US. He said that while entrepreneurs can do well, employees work very hard for very little return. He said, in the US if someone comes 15 minutes late to a meeting or a scheduled call, he will be out on the street. It is unacceptable, and there are tons of people looking for work. Your position will be filled in a matter of a few hours and life will go on as if you never existed.

In Israel, he says, if you come 15 minutes late to work, your boss offers you coffee, chats for a few minutes and life moves on. You don't get fired for it. It is more easy-going. It is not as easy to find replacement employees in Israel (one has to find someone campatible which might not be easy, train them, etc..), Moishe claimed, so things are more easy-going. And here the entrepreneurs are not much better off than the employees, so everyone has an equal chance.

That is Moishe the taxi drivers reason to prefer living in Israel.