Joseph Zitt's [as if in dreams] 2023-11-27
Hi. I'm Joseph Zitt. I moved from the US to Israel in 2017. This is my newsletter about more-or-less daily life in my city in the shadow of war. You can select these links to subscribe or unsubscribe. There are more links at the bottom. Here we go...
The first grapefruit of the season have fallen in our backyard. They aren't ripe yet. The storm knocked them off their branches.
I'm told that the tree in the courtyard at the House of a Hundred Grandmothers has sprouted its first ripe kumquats. I haven't seen them yet.
The grocery stores have lots of clementines, but they're still green. As I understand it, they don't ripen if picked early, and they're inedible until they do. I don't know why they're in the shops.
The first fruits are running late, from what I recall of other years. It's been warm throughout the autumn. I have only needed to wear sweatshirts for the past few days.
Meanwhile, much of the produce that is ready to pick is ripening and rotting in the fields near the border. Many of the farmworkers there have been evacuated, kidnapped, or killed.
Volunteers are going to the fields to handle some of the harvest, but not enough to cover everything. Much of the work is strenuous. People who aren't used to it can only do a bit each day.
Little news jumps out at me. Our Prime Minister and an oligarch had a chat online today. I haven't checked what they said. Each has mastered the craft of sticking both feet in his mouth, then talking out of both sides of it.
More hostages have been freed, without many surprises. It looks like the truce will last an added two days, with more hostages and prisoners released.
I see an effective patriotic video, made by the army. One of our popular singers, now in his 80s, backed by soldiers and others, sings "You Will Not Defeat Me."1
Most of the commercials before videos have patriotic themes, and say "Together we will be victorious." I even catch a rousing ad from Depend.{^DEP-WEB] I can't understand what it's saying, even with the mandatory subtitles. Maybe it's suggesting that they could come in handy if we're stuck in our bomb shelters for a long time.
At work, I think that I should have picked up some of the fallen grapefruit. When I get home, I see that they're gone. The landlord has probably put them somewhere to mulch. I don't think he likes them (and I recall that grapefruit conflicts with some medicines), so he often sets the ripe ones out on a table for me.
When our guavas fall from their tree, they inevitably smash on the ground. It may be an effective way for them to spread their seeds. When we find them in our paths or on my steps, we pick up those that we can and place them in large flowerpots with tree plantings. They quickly disappear, either from being nibbled into nonexistence by bugs and other critters, or by sinking into the dirt.
We also toss fallen oranges into the corners of the yard. When I first moved here, the landlord made sure to tell me that they were too bitter to eat.
Late in the evening, I remember that I still have some of the kalamansi in the refrigerator that I picked on Yom Kippur. I check. Most are still good. I juice a couple of them and add honey for tea. I take the glass back to my desk. Maybe I'll actually be able to edit and post this before midnight.
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Here’s an archive of past newsletters.
You can find me via email, Bluesky, Mastodon, Facebook, and, just out of inertia, X/Twitter. There's more about me and my books, music, and films at josephzitt.com.
The newsletter’s official mailing address is 304 S. Jones Blvd #3567, Las Vegas NV 89107. (I’m in Israel, but if physical mail comes to me there, it’ll get scanned and emailed. I don’t expect that to happen much. If you want to send me physical mail, ask me for a real address.)
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L'hitraot.