Kaluach is environment safe – only the choicest recycled electrons were used – no CFCs, flourocarbons, or MSG added.

Uhh, Kaluach was written in my living room?

OK. In order to choreograph the movement of the electrons so that we end up with Kaluach, I used Microsoft Visual C++ (with classic 70’s rock in the background). Much of the date/time/holiday engine of Kaluach was implemented in C++ classes. The user interface is implemented in a delicate combination of C++ classes, plain vanilla C, and other herbs and spices. Now aren’t you glad you asked? (And yes, I must have been. Dropped as a child, that is.)

I think that’s 2 questions, but who’s counting? I find that I’m most productive with the following: Eric Clapton (solo, Cream, Derek and the Dominos, etc), Leslie West / Mountain, Jethro Tull, Rolling Stones, CSN&Y, AC/DC, and Lynyrd Skynryd (No Broccoli Spears or Back Street Noise for me). Some of the new(er) rock is OK, but hey – it’s not classic. Also, I used to like Arutz 7 in the background until they took it off the air due to politics. On the other hand, when my son plays Zohar Argov, I can’t even function, let alone work on Kaluach.

From the two Hebrew words: kal – meaning easy, and luach – meaning board (well OK, it also means calendar)

Yep. Now, ask me if I care.

Nope. I think the name Kaluach sounds pretty snappy. LuachKal, or some such variant doesn’t sound as good (at least to me). And besides, I’m originally an American, and Americans hate grammar (I’m also anti-semantic). Hey – I even found a precedent for the name in Masechet Shekalim mishna 1:6. The tana kama asks who is obligated to give a “kalbon” (when giving the half-shekel trumah to the mikdash). This isn’t a candy treat, rather it’s a small coin (variously designated as either 1/24 or 1/48 of sela), that was charged as either a handling fee when dealing with coins not exactly a half shekel, or as a way to properly fix the value of the “donation”. This has been greatly simplified. I’ll leave it as an exercise to the reader (I hated when my teachers did that) to delve into the mishna for the proper explanation. The Bartenura explains that “kalbon” comes from the phrase “kal bon” – which I guess would be loosely translate as “small change” or “small money”. Grammatically, it would probably be more correct to say “bon kal”, however I’m fairly certain that the Bartenura’s grasp of grammar was significantly greater than mine. And if it was OK with him, it’s OK with me.