Nostalgia Sunday: You’re Late!

August 26, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Art, History and Culture 

This is a pleasant enough trip down memory lane with Israel Educational Television’s English learning programming. A few notes:

1) Jerry: We know that sometimes a hat is donned to hide certain receding…er…um…attributes. But lose the Tevye the Milkman cap, eh?
2) Susie: Lovely voice.
3) The show producers could’ve given a bit more thought to synching up voice track with video. Anyone remember the old Japanese Godzilla movies?

Heck…enjoy.

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Sheltered Education

August 26, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Life, War 

Sometimes I read a headline and the irony strikes. The irony of a story’s quirkiness or unique nature or, in this case, absurdity.

“New Plan: Sderot Pupils will Attend Classes in Bomb Shelters”

The plan, presented by Israel’s Education Ministry, is an attempt at appeasing distraught Sderot parents who are threatening to boycott the academic year if action isn’t taken to safeguard children against rocket barrages during school hours.

My immediate thought is: Wait. Rockets are still being lobbed from Gaza into Sderot? I know conceptually that it’s been going on for years. But on some other level it’s like: Are you kidding me? This issue is still at the fore and the solution is for kids to attend underground school?

Obviously, extolling criticism from the comfort of my air-conditioned living room is easy. I don’t even pretend to know what the government should do to staunch this ridiculous situation. And I get that the proposal of bomb shelters as learning venues is an “address the here and now” solution.

But on some level, the ridiculousness of the ongoing Sderot situation strikes a chord anew. It’s frustrating, infuriating and I don’t even live it.

Thanks. That was my grandstand of the day.

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Hell, Hitler and a Slice

August 26, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Blogging, Food, Life, Pop Culture 

Edgy advertising? Raunchy and in poor taste?

You decide.

New Zealand’s “Hell Pizza” chose to advertise their product by putting up billboards of the Fuhrer (sorry, can’t find the umlaut function) holding up a slice in a sieg heil fashion.

Unimpressed consumers expressed dissatisfaction and the advertising company behind the brand halted the campaign.

“We thought that people would be able to see a funny side to a guy doing a ’sieg heil’ salute with a piece of pizza in his hand,” Kirk MacGibbon of the Auckland-based Cinderella advertising agency said. “If you laugh at something, you take its power away.” However he added that “there are certain things we are still unable to laugh about” and said there had been a handful of complaints from Jewish residents.

But wait. If Hitler didn’t work then why not go for “the light”? The advertising firm’s latest gimmick is depicting Pope Benedict XVI with a slice of pizza. The tagline: “Hell is real and eternal.”

It is indeed. I’ll take my hell with pepperoni and x-tra cheese, please.

Thanks, Jewlicious. Nice one.

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Give

August 26, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Food, History and Culture, Israeliness 

A few days ago I passed Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square and saw dozens of sealed cardboard boxes awaiting de-construction. The square often plays host to celebrations, public protests, attractions and events so I sorta figured it was just another happening.

A day later, passing again, I glanced and saw a sea of white. Chairs. Must’ve been chairs in the boxes, I thought. Is Rabin’s memorial service coming up?

Yesterday I cut through the square en route to an appointment and discovered that the white sea wasn’t chairs at all. They were hundreds and hundreds of cardboard cut-out stick figure type people, each about 4 feet tall. Ooh, an art installation! I thought.

But on the back of each cardboard figure an insignia was stamped: A million people don’t have enough to eat. A million people are hungry.

This very public awareness campaign is the kick off of Latet (Hebrew: Give) Organization’s food drive to raise money and bring food to the tables of a million people in Israel who otherwise may not have enough to eat during the upcoming holidays. If you understand Hebrew, follow the link to their website and watch the video. It’s heart wrenching.

Ways you can help:

- Make a ten-shekel donation by dialing 1090 from your mobile phone and typing in the number 10.
- Get involved: Offer your services to Latet. Help collect or distribute food packages, answer phones at a call center…Ask what they need and fill in the gap
- Give at your local supermarket collection point. Pick up an extra package of rice or long shelf-life milk or baby formula while shopping and drop it into a collection box on the way out of the supermarket. Boxes go up September 5

If you have enough to eat this Rosh Ha’Shana, make sure someone else does too.

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Knitting One Voice

August 25, 2007 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, Israeliness, Life 

Savta (Hebrew: Grandma) Dotty is a fixture among the transplants-to-Israel/political thinking/philosophical/literary & academically inclined set.

Between time spent prepping soup for “Friday Soup Salon” eat, exchange and debate sessions held in her Tel Aviv apartment, she hosts bloggers from Lebanon and the U.S., travels to knitting conferences in France, visits with family in the U.S., attends twice-weekly dance class sessions and most recently got face time with One Voice – a pro-peace, pro-dialogue organization.

Dotty was chosen to appear in an upcoming One Voice promotional video which meant spending hours outdoors yesterday in the Tel Aviv humid/heat/feels like you’re in a sauna with your clothes on for filming. She blogs about it here.

She withstood the heat, as she writes, to do her part for peace. Amen sister.

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