Supermarket scavenging
Filed under: Business, Food, General, Israeliness
Just back from a food shopping trip, which is an unusual event for me, as I generally dislike supermarket experiences. (Not counting Eden Teva Market.) It’s not just that food shopping in Jerusalem can be a third world experience, but the supermarket on Thursday nights offers a sensation of the world coming to an end, or at the very least, the sense of impending war with Iran, as all shoppers fill their carts to overflowing and checkout lines are long, very long. And that’s without mentioning — although I will — the search for a shopping cart, and then seeing if you have one of the plastic tzuptziks that you need to ‘rent’ the cart, unless you keep a supply of five-shekel coins.
But what is fun about food shopping in Israel, and particularly in the chain stores, is the search for unusual products, ones that you wouldn’t expect to see in your neighborhood Supersol Deal, Rami Levy or Mega Bool. I’m talking about the excitement in sighting ShopRite Brown Rice Crispy Rice cereal, a new Ben & Jerry’s flavor, or a package of Aspen Products Cool Shades paper plates in “4 assorted colors.” It’s finding the Czech beer you like amid all the Goldstar and Tuborg bottles, discovering that scallions can be purple, spotting decent-looking tuna steaks in the frozen foods section and — this is a major one — seeing that American-style brown paper lunch bags are now available.
To those of you from the real western world, these kinds of discoveries are ho-hum, and happen all the time in the local supermarket. But for those of us here, on the Middle Eastern front, it can often be a wondrous occasion, and not one to pass off flippantly. It explains why so many local Israeli papers have a consumer products section, briefing readers about food news. Consider Greer Fay Cashman’s Market Wise column in the Jerusalem Post business section, as well as Eva Ben-David in other sections of the paper. It’s always sort of funny to read those columns, because does one really care if Strauss has a new ice cream flavor? Then again, I always make sure to skim those columns.
It’s not that there aren’t great offerings from the local manufacturing industry. There are. I’d say it’s more about the thrill of the scavenger hunt, finding those unexpected treats during what is often a mundane chore. Happy hunting.
IBA’s Close Up feeds news jones
Filed under: A New Reality, Politics, Pop Culture, War
Earlier this week, the relatively new free daily nationalist tabloid Yisrael Hayom (Hebrew-only informational website viewable here) reported that mainstream Israeli news websites have been experiencing around a 30% spike in traffic since the start of the current Gaza conflict – hardly a surprise, and hardly a trend relegated to the video-heavy, Hebrew-language outlets cited in their stats.
With the thirst for Zionist-friendly war-related information peaking even among English speakers, the Israel Broadcasting Authority has been wise to initiate the launch of a new English news program called Close Up. Airing Wednesdays at 5:25 PM on the IBA’s Channel 33, the live in-depth weekly analysis magazine Close Up premiered this week with a half hour’s worth of content headed by IBA talking heads Steve Leibowitz and Leah Zinder.
The program joins the growing stable of English-language IBA news reports, which includes the ten-minute weekday News Bulletin and the 20-minute daily IBA News, all of which streams over the web on-demand at the IBA’s video mini-site (like most Israeli websites, works best in the Explorer browser).
For the inaugural episode, Zinder and Leibowitz were joined at the news desk by panelists Effi Eitam, a controversial MK from the hawkish religious National Union, and left-of-center David Horovitz, the editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post. Eitam remarked on the high levels of motivation among IDF, proclaiming that “The spirit of confidence will prevail amongst the soldiers, and, I might add, amongst the citizens.” Horovitz commented on pragmatic goals for ceasefire arrangements.
In other segments, Hebrew University’s Dr. Robbie Sabel, a former legal adviser to the Foreign Ministry, spoke about the ethical issues of the war, reporter Leah Stern gave over a timeline for how diplomacy breakdown led to the current battles, and a visit to opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s office yielded a predictably “I told you so”-style statement.
Jpost McCartney coverage is pretty McAwesome
So as I write this over 50,000 people have decent upon HaYarkon Park to hear Paul McCartney perform. I love the Beatles as much as the next guy, I really wish I was there, but alas, I could not justify the absurdly high ticket price. Am I regretting the decision? Yeah, a bit. The 490 NIS (roughly $150) won’t mean anything a year from now but there are still lighting fixtures that need to be installed in our apartment, a mini-fake kitchen I need to build for my daughter, a garden that needs to be tended, etc. You get the idea. There won’t ever be another band like the Beatles, and I won’t be able to tell my kids one day that I saw one of the Beatles perform. Though I did see Brian Wilson perform Pet Sounds in London a few years ago and that was pretty spectacular. So at least I got to see one music legend in my life.
Coverage of this show has been out of control. I think McCartney is getting more coverage than the Pope’s visit to Israel back in 2000.
The Jerusalem Post’s coverage has been enjoyable. It’s had a real giddy tone to it. Editor in chief David Horowitz interview with McCartney was obviously a personal career highlight for him and his uber-excited tone and enthusiasm jumps right off the page. A few of the recent headlines:
• Analyze This: How McCartney could rock Ahmadinejad’s world (actually an excellent opinion piece)
• McCartney’s concert kicks off in TA
My fellow Israelity blogger David even dared to bring up the old myth of Paul McCartney’s death and replacement with an impostor (Paul rebuffed this in yesterday’s press conference, which certainly made David’s day).
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