Ashkelon Beach, funky hat, scraggly beard, outdated glasses, pasty white skin? What could be better? I'm so un-hip, I'm hip!

So... Why Ashkelon? A little break in the action in south-central Israel, where I have directed the computer aspect of an archaeology dig for 6 of the past 8 years. Not this summer, but probably next summer. Oh, the dig is called Zeitah, and it has generated a bunch of interest in the global press as a result of a rare find: a 10th century B.C. Hebrew abecedary.
More on all that later.