Golem

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G is for Golem.
No, not the famous Golem of Prague (but DO see a fascinating summary of the legend here).
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Jerusalem's "Golem" was created in 1973 in the Kiryat Hayovel neighborhood by sculptress Niki de Saint Phalle as a gift to the children of Jerusalem.
A UC San Diego website says that de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) "is best known for her oversized figures which embrace contradictory qualities such as good and evil, modern and primitive, sacred and profane, play and terror."

But no one calls it Golem.
We call it HaMifletset, Hebrew for "the monster."
It is a landmark.
So you can hear "Driver, does this bus reach the monster?" or "Go straight-straight then turn right at the monster."
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A certain guide would always quip to his tourists that, because of its many frightening tongues, it is nicknamed "The Mother-in-Law."
Not true.
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The sheer size of the cavernous slide can be frightening the first time a little boy sees it.
But a few weeks into his visit in Israel my brave grandson asked to stop at this park again and to go up the stairs you see here above and then slide down the steep slide.
Yay Dean!
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In July signs go up in the neighborhood inviting folks to a birthday party for the Mifletset.
Don't you love that idea?!

Hope you will visit other bloggers showing off their Gs today at ABC Wednesday
and especially my friend at her wondrous From a Thin Place.
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