January 22, 2024

Joseph Zitt's [as if in dreams] 2024-01-21

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. You can also read this email online here. Here we go...

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A crack has opened up in the street, about a block from my office. It's only about an inch wide and an inch deep, but it's enough that cars make a pair of clicks as their wheels, front then rear, roll across it.

Eventually, inevitably, the music from one of the cars will sync perfectly with the clicks. But I only have a moment to stand and listen on my way to work.

Little appears to have changed in the office in the week that I was away, though people tell me that work has been hectic. I have a long email listing things that I have to add to the Release News for several products. OK. I have to ask for clarification on a few, but mostly just have to straighten out the English.

People tell me that I look better than before I went on vacation. I wasn't aware that I had looked bad then. One coworker thinks that I have lost weight, but that may just be due to the new clothes. When I tell him, he tells me that his family, too, shopped at the same store last week.

I have some pauses in the day while I wait for things to update. I check the news that has come in.

Our media claims that the people across the border don't know what has happened in the war because their TV news is hiding it from them.¹ American media claims that we don't know what's happened in the war because our TV news is hiding it from us.²

Our media tells of 'the saddest birthday in the world,' as a baby who had been taken hostage turns one year old.³ Media from across the border shows a brief clip of the birthday of a six-year-old girl among the rubble of homes that have been destroyed.⁴

NPR profiles groups of the mothers of our soldiers.⁵ "The Mothers' Cry" are calling for an end to the war. "Mothers of the Fighters" are calling for more intense fighting, resisting efforts to scale operations down.

Popular singer/rapper Matisyahu performed last night at a rally at Hostage Square.⁶ He also performed at a large concert Wednesday night, with proceeds going to the organization BringThemHomeNow.⁷

A video popped up online last week of him singing his "Jerusalem" along with a goofy puppet.⁸ His son has been also recording and performing. The article claims that he is known to some as "the Jewish Justin Bieber." ⁹ Oy.

I get what I need to get done done by the end of the work day. In the morning, I'll have to try to remember what I was working on before vacation. There will probably be some hints in my email.

Heading out, I stop by the crack in the road, then put in my earbuds and start listening to podcasts. I can't predict how long it will be there. The city has been pretty good at keeping up on these things, especially since the mayor is up for reelection (assuming that the local elections actually happen). On the other hand, the country is short on workers. Those from across the border are being kept out. And many young men are in the Reserves.

Maybe they'll just leave it. The sound is pleasant. And, as Leonard Cohen sang, that's how the light gets in.¹⁰

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Feel free to forward the newsletter to other people who might be interested.

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 at that Las Vegas address, 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.)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

L'hitraot.