How Bulgarians Welcome the Month of March

Walking the streets of Sofia during the month of February you come across stands selling an assortment of small items, all of them red and white in color. Looking closely, you see packets containing pieces of string, tassels, intermingled red and white yarn. Small woolen dolls – a male and a female. Souvenirs? Good luck trinkets?

Pedestrians quickly make their purchases and hurry on their way. Everything is in preparation for the month of March, and for the holiday that hopefully heralds the arrival of spring.

Romantic Weekend in Israel’s other Walled Old City

We lift our glasses of champagne to toast the setting sun. The Mediterranean is golden, nearly wave free as evening falls. Framing our view are white roofs topped with solar panels and satellite dishes. We hear vendors’ cries from the alleyway below and the muezzin’s call from a nearby mosque. We drink our champagne as the sun dips into the magnificent sea.

We are in Acre (Akko in Hebrew), a small city located across the bay from Haifa. Our sunset view is from the rooftop of two ancient houses beautifully preserved, restored, and merged into the boutique Efendi Hotel. We are at the start of a romantic weekend, a gift in honor of our special birthdays this year from our family. We are eager to explore the wonders of this colorful old city.

Review of The Man Who Wanted to Know Everything

A middle-aged woman has been brutally murdered in her home and Inspector Avraham Avraham is called to the scene. Two clues present themselves to the inspector. The woman was the victim of a rape that he had investigated years before, and a policeman was seen leaving her building on the day of the murder.

We meet Inspector Avraham Avraham for the third time in The Man Who Wanted to Know Everything by D.A. Mishani, translated by Todd Hasak-Lowy (Harper Paperbacks, November 2016). We previously followed his investigations in The Missing File and A Possibility of Violence. Things are a bit different for the Holon Police officer this time around. He now serves as commander of investigations and this is his first murder case.