Great Moments in Time

1. I was mercilessly mocked earlier today for not having shaved in over a month. What sort of barbs were people hurling at me you ask? Well, basically it came down to me starting to look like a Muslim extremist. It is becoming an oddly common occurrence for me to walk down the street and have a group of dudes point at me, make a fake beard motion with their hands around their chin, and then laugh uncontrollably. Yes, that's right, Muslims are making fun of me for looking like an Islamist. Clearly these people have never heard of no-shave November.

2. Recently, while visiting one of my favorite families, the resident eight-year old boy decided to gleefully explain the entirety of the 3id AdHa festivities to me while acting out all of its intricacies. As I watched, it seemed spectacularly similar to kids that age back in the states, overcome with joy at the thought of Christmas. The only minor difference, of course, was that instead of being pumped about presents, this little bro was wielding imaginary cutlasses and slicing sheep throats left and right. Then came the Tarantinoesque depiction of blood pouring out of the thing's neck and splashing all over the butcher and any unlucky bystanders. The show, however, did not end there. Interpretations of involuntary spasms and organ harvesting were still on the young thespian's agenda. As is often the case with people here once they discover something which makes me laugh, the stunt was repeated ad infinitum throughout the meal we were having. On the plus side, he did pretend to wash his hands before reaching in for the invisible animal's fresh flesh. And that, my friend's, is what I call youth development.