Monday, January 14, 2008
THE AMERICANS HAVE GONE THE AMERICANS HAVE GONE....
That was the week that was. Bush and his entourage were here and threw our city into an absolute mess. Now they're gone - BUT - he has promised to return to help us celebrate Israel's 60th Anniversary. Anything but that (the whip the whip - does anyone remember that old joke?)!!
Downtown was like a ghost town - so I heard. There was no way of getting from here to there. The people who had to get downtown to work managed - with great difficulty. Although a friend who works opposite the King David Hotel was turned back by the police. Restaurants were empty. Shops were empty. No one did any business. When I finally went downtown yesterday to get my hair done, my parking lot guy told me he simply closed the lot and went home - no cars.
So - what was the purpose of Bush's visit? He's certainly not running for re-election. But - he wants to go down in history as having done something - anything. So the two incompetents - the two failed leaders - met. And Bush told us to "keep Olmert - take care of him" - because he's a "good man". If that's not sticking his nose into Israeli politics - I don't know what it is. How dare he?
But there were some fun aspects to his visit. We couldn't get anywhere - so we didn't go anywhere. I did a lot of work at my desk. I did several laundries. I cooked - experimented with new recipes. Had an afternoon nap - almost unheard of. I went into the Moshava (the German Colony - in the other direction from downtown) and went to the post office and did some banking for the Va'ad (the building committee) and people were saying how nice and uncrowded the area was - there was lots of parking and space in all the cafes - because people couldn't get from there to here.
And I had time to begin a major translating job - translating pages and pages of menus for events to be held at the Regency Hotel - from Hebrew into English. Don't ask. I finally finished the job today....with the telephone assistance of Ros and Marallyn. (That's the nice thing about the three of us - we're always there to help each other.) So I managed to make them crazy too.
There are certain words that just aren't translatable - for instance kubbe hamusta - if you don't know what it is you can't know what it is. Well - kubbe in that case are dumplings filled with meat from the Kurdish cuisine - but hamusta - ain't no way. What about basar rosh - head meat - what's that? And what about a chef who has on his menu "tortillas" (Mexican, you will note) stuffed with meat Thailandi style? Or Thailandi beef stir-fried Szechuan-style? I can't wait to meet that chef.
And then there are pargiot. Pargiot are small chickens - like Cornish Hens - BUT - they are also boneless thighs from the pargit (singular of pargiot). And the chef doesn't make clear whether he is talking about pargiot or pargiot. See what I mean?
Enough already - now I'm getting hungry.
Yalla, Bye.
Downtown was like a ghost town - so I heard. There was no way of getting from here to there. The people who had to get downtown to work managed - with great difficulty. Although a friend who works opposite the King David Hotel was turned back by the police. Restaurants were empty. Shops were empty. No one did any business. When I finally went downtown yesterday to get my hair done, my parking lot guy told me he simply closed the lot and went home - no cars.
So - what was the purpose of Bush's visit? He's certainly not running for re-election. But - he wants to go down in history as having done something - anything. So the two incompetents - the two failed leaders - met. And Bush told us to "keep Olmert - take care of him" - because he's a "good man". If that's not sticking his nose into Israeli politics - I don't know what it is. How dare he?
But there were some fun aspects to his visit. We couldn't get anywhere - so we didn't go anywhere. I did a lot of work at my desk. I did several laundries. I cooked - experimented with new recipes. Had an afternoon nap - almost unheard of. I went into the Moshava (the German Colony - in the other direction from downtown) and went to the post office and did some banking for the Va'ad (the building committee) and people were saying how nice and uncrowded the area was - there was lots of parking and space in all the cafes - because people couldn't get from there to here.
And I had time to begin a major translating job - translating pages and pages of menus for events to be held at the Regency Hotel - from Hebrew into English. Don't ask. I finally finished the job today....with the telephone assistance of Ros and Marallyn. (That's the nice thing about the three of us - we're always there to help each other.) So I managed to make them crazy too.
There are certain words that just aren't translatable - for instance kubbe hamusta - if you don't know what it is you can't know what it is. Well - kubbe in that case are dumplings filled with meat from the Kurdish cuisine - but hamusta - ain't no way. What about basar rosh - head meat - what's that? And what about a chef who has on his menu "tortillas" (Mexican, you will note) stuffed with meat Thailandi style? Or Thailandi beef stir-fried Szechuan-style? I can't wait to meet that chef.
And then there are pargiot. Pargiot are small chickens - like Cornish Hens - BUT - they are also boneless thighs from the pargit (singular of pargiot). And the chef doesn't make clear whether he is talking about pargiot or pargiot. See what I mean?
Enough already - now I'm getting hungry.
Yalla, Bye.
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What would I do without the "EREZ Linguistic Irregulars"? I actually used the word "sour" in the menu translation - but in English a sour soup doesn't sound so great. Even better - the woman I did the translations for wanted to use the word "pargit" as the translation for "pargit"!!!!! Go figure.
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