Joseph Zitt's [as if in dreams] 2024-02-14
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...
I try to explain a line from a post a few days ago to my Hebrew teacher: that the people across the border are "caught in the half-step between Bibi and Sisi."
The political references work immediately. The rest doesn't.
My teacher isn't a musician. She doesn't really know what a half-step would be. Also, I use the word for a step on a staircase. That apparently isn't right, but I haven't found out what is.
Also, notes aren't given letters here. People use solfège syllables instead. We figure that out. I tell her that what Israelis call "Ti," Americans call "B," and what Israelis call "Do," Americans call "C." I sing a half-step and a whole-step, and explain that from "Ti" to "Do" is what we call a half-step.
She gets the joke. But at this point, the humor has kind of run dry.
The calendar reminds me that it's Valentine's Day, for those who celebrate. It also says that it's Ash Wednesday. That could lead to some odd combinations of rituals.
The delightful blog no more commas period blog1 reminds me that twenty years ago today, the Mayor of San Francisco issued its first same-sex marriage licenses. One of my favorite singer-songwriters wrote a wonderful song about it, "City Hall."2 She performed at our store in San Francisco around then. While I don't exactly recall it, she probably sang it there.
Valentine's Day was fun at our store. The next day was always a nightmare. Aggrieved customers would line up to return the gifts that showed that their now-exes hadn't loved them sufficiently. And they rarely had gift receipts.
I have seen few mentions of events or sales for Valentine's Day here. Holidays commemorating saints aren't much of a thing. There are other relevant days, though. If I ever stumble into a relationship, I suppose I'll have to remember when they are.
A couple of recent articles look at what's happening with restaurants since the war started. One focuses on the reasons that many have closed or are in trouble.3 There are general problems with the food chain, since many crops come from the evacuated areas near our borders to the north and south. Restaurants in those areas are closed, since there are no customers. Tourism has dried up. And a lot of the workers are fighting in the Reserves.
Another article features some new restaurants that have managed to open recently.4 One looks particularly tempting, and is apparently next door to the Dance Center that I love. I suspect that it's pricey, though, and it would be odd to go to alone.
One curious thing: I notice that only two of the ten fancy restaurants listed are kosher. I get the sense that that's consistent: expensive restaurants often aren't kosher, while the cheaper places that I frequent usually are. That probably speaks to the socio-economic splits here. The big spenders tend not to be religious, and will eat anything. They also read Haaretz. No one else does.
I have been to a few non-kosher places around here. The places that are open on Shabbat aren't, including the place that I used to go to on Shabbat afternoons during the COVID crisis just to be among people, when the House of a Hundred Grandmothers was on lockdown. There's a burger joint that I went to a few times, but I've now found a kosher one in the neighborhood that's better.
After the Hebrew lesson, I get to work at my usual time. A few minutes after I arrive, another worker comes in, singing "Only You."5 I don't know why. It gets stuck in my head, until something reminds me of a track by Ronald Shannon Jackson.6 At least my earworms are eclectic.
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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 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.)
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L'hitraot.