Monday, November 13, 2006

The Mystery of the Magic Cards

Our synagogue held a clothing swap: bring lots of clothes and 20 NIS, take what you want and whatever is left gets donated. The money goes to the synagogue.

We came late. Apparently word hadn't gotten out, and there hadn't been much attendance. People had brought lots of clothes, but very few actually took any. Everyone had enough clothes. Everyone had too many clothes. They just wanted to donate.

We brought a basket full, and we left with most of a basket full (different than what we had brought). My theory is: I don't care what I wear on my T-shirts, but I like some variety. So I brought lots of them and picked up some others. Most of our outgrown clothes had already been given away.

After we were done, it was time to help bag and box the remaining clothes. We also helped return a few folding tables to the basement of one of the members who lived near the synagogue.

So away we went, into the dark recesses of the neighbor's downstairs storage room. We opened the door and turned on the lights. Rachel and Sarah (the organizer) didn't seem to notice anything unusual about the room. There were some shelves, a pool table, a Ping Pong table, a bicycle and some boxes. The usual.

There were also several posters about Magic pre-release tournaments neatly hung on the wall. Several. There were Magic cards on the pool table. There were thousands more on the shelves. There were boxes of card protectors.

I have played Magic for several years, and I have never been to a tournament. The tournaments in Israel, so far as I knew, occurred infrequently and were held at the local mall; or so I had thought. I have never seen a card protector. I had never seen most of these cards.

Gah.

This guy ... or this guy's son, undoubtedly ... lives a block from my house.

Yehuda

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