What Becomes of Ex-Presidents
Filed under: Business, General, Israeliness, Life, Politics
The may not much like soon to be former President George Bush in the U.S. – or in Iraq – and now that he’s leaving office, he may have a future in Israel – with his name emblazoned in lights on a business!
Most people will remember that Bush received a very high approval rating among Israelis when he came here at the beginning of 2008. Now, with Bush ready to leave office, Israeli commentators will be coming out with articles like this one looking back with nostalgia at the positive relationship between Israel and Bush.
Tough on the outside but sweet on the inside, Israelis are actually very sentimental – and have a good business sense, as well. So the chances of some ingenious Israeli adopting the name “Bush” for their business are good (maybe for a gardening service?). Admittedly, “Coffee Annan,” named after former UN Secretary Kofi Annan, was too obvious not to do something with. But other than having eaten it, Bill Clinton had little if anything to do with pizza – but that didn’t stop this Jerusalem entrepreneur from using the ex-president’s name to promote his slices. And chances are business will improve dramatically now that Hillary is going to be Secretary of State!
Foto Friday – Israel Then and Now
Filed under: A New Reality, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life
In honor of Israel’s 60th anniversary, the World Zionist Organization put together a traveling exhibition of holographic panels about Israeli achievements, past and future.
ISRAEL21c animated the images into a slide show, and while we can’t hope to reproduce the holograms (produced by Israeli innovator MagInk), the overlaid images still convey the powerful message about six decades of Israeli advancements in technology, healthcare, education and democracy.
Nostalgia Sunday
I’ve been thinking a lot about The Blaumilch Canal lately. Maybe it’s the heat, maybe it’s summer ennui, or maybe it’s simply because they showed this classic Israeli film on cable a few weeks ago. I dunno, everything lately seems a bit Blaumilchy and it keeps flashing through my mind.
In the movie, written and directed by the late and very great Ephraim Kishon, a escapee from a lunatic asylum bcomes enamored of a jackhammer and, one bright day, starts digging up Allenby Street. By mid-morning, there’s a big pile of dirt jamming traffic and bothering the neighbors whose complaints spur the municipality into misguided, malicious action. Unwilling to admit they know nothing about the project, two warring city offiicals begin assisting the unplanned project in an ever-escalating show of one-upsmanship, sending in more workers, earth movers and police guards.
Meanwhile, the crazy man with the jackhammer continues steadily onwards toward the beach. When he finally reaches the Mediterranean, the floodgates open, water rushes up Allenby and Tel Aviv is declared “The Venice of the Middle East” at a grand ceremony presided over by a myopic mayor and his self-serving flunkies – who of course take all credit for having planned, overseen and executed the thing. Little do they know that in the meantime, jackhammering has commenced over at Kikar Malchei Yisrael (today’s Rabin Square).
Wikipedia has a nice summary of the movie. It’s also fun to watch because of the mod fashion, groovy soundtrack and arty editing. Check out the opening scenes on YouTube (or watch the full version):
Of course, like all works of satire, Blaumilch is intended as a parable, in this case about bureaucracy and politics. The frightening part is that, even though the movie is almost 40 years old, it still rings true today. And not just in Israel. The film’s international title was “The Big Dig”. As I’m from Boston – home of the 20 year long project of the same name which was supposed to take half that time – I can only shake my head in amazement.
Nostalgia Sunday
Filed under: Food, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture
“I think I’ll write about the Wonder Pot,” I told my office-mate today.
“Wonder Pot? What’s that?” she replied.
How the mighty have fallen. The Wonder Pot, once a staple component in any new immigrant to Israel’s aliya kit, has been relegated to the footnotes of cookery history, with even native Israelis referring to any old bundt pan as a “seer pele”. But any old bunt pan is not a Wonder Pot, as one can plainly see from this picture right here.
Images courtesy of Wikipedia
First of all, it is a lot more unattractive than a bundt pan – and the photos doesn’t show the rusty heat dispersal ring resting between the burner and the pot – really one of the things that put me off using the Wonder Pot for several months when first I arrived in the early 80s. It seemed like a throwback to the 50s, which it was, and not in a good way.
But, in those dark pre-microwave days, other people kept raving about this miraculous stove-top oven that allowed one to bake cakes and casseroles without an oven. In fact, you could bake ding-dang anything in a Wonder Pot, as long as you didn’t mind an entire table laid out with ring after ring of circular fare. And if you weren’t sure what to make, you could always refer to Sybil Zimmerman’s best-seller The Wonders Of a Wonder Pot, a bookshelf standard at the time, along with the Moosewood Cookbook.
More images of the Wonder Pot and other bits of Israeli kitchenalia (yes, there really is such a word) may be found here.
So what happened to the wonderous Wonder Pot? Israelis got baking ovens, says celebrity chef and cookbook author Phyllis Glazer. “As fuel became more available and ovens became more available people realized they could make greater quantities in faster time, instead of slow-cooking on the stove top. And it also became associated with the austerity regime (tzena) and poor people.”
“Personally, I have very fond memories of the Wonder Pot,” Glazer says. “I never saw anything like it before I came to Israel. It was revolutionary for me, coming from the United States. I didn’t see it as primitive! For me, it was a very interesting scientific thing.”
In a recent wonder(pot)ful developlment, a new housewares store called “Seer Pele” has opened in Jerusalem’s Talpiot industrial zone. So the legacy of the Wonder Pot lives on (even though young Israelis think it’s a bundt pan).
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