My Boss Is In Town

Nathan is in town for a visit. I saw this little cartoon today online and it made me smile since the kids refer to Nathan as my boss and, as it happens, we HAVE been visiting a few restaurants together.

Two malodorous stories

On the same day I run into two newsstories, one right after the other, both dealing with the sense of smell and having to do with the wonderful region we now call home. Both stories are dated January 1 2007. Judge for yourselves:


Yahoo! News
Jordan king complains of Israeli odors

Jordanian King Abdullah II has complained of bovine odors coming from the Israeli side of the frontier along the countries' shared southern border, Israel's environment minister said Monday.

Speaking to Israel Radio, Gideon Ezra said the smells, from a livestock quarantine facility, were blown across the frontier toward the king's palace in the town of Aqaba, on the Red Sea next to the Israeli town of Eilat. Jordanian officials contacted Israel last week and requested the odors be neutralized, Ezra said.

Jordan and Israel, enemies for decades, signed a peace agreement in 1994 and now enjoy close ties.

In response to the Jordanian complaint, Israel has ordered the owners of the facility — where imported livestock is held in quarantine before being released to farmers — to clean up large amounts of animal waste that had built up at the site, Environment Ministry spokesman Sharon Achdut said.

Ezra said that upon receiving the complaint, Israeli officials immediately spread "deodorants" around the site to offset the smell affecting Abdullah's palace, and that a thorough clean-up would begin within days.

"I think that when we get a request from Jordan, just as when we make a request of Jordan, it's one country's duty to do as much as possible for the other," Ezra said.

An official from the Jordanian Royal Palace said the complaint was relayed to the Israeli Environment Ministry through Jordan's ambassador in Tel Aviv.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press.
Copyright © 2007 Yahoo! Inc.

And the second story, this one picked up on Ynet:

14:44 , 01.01.07

Lebanon: 'Divine victory' perfume on sale

'Resistance perfume' celebrating 'Hizbullah divine victory' now on sale in Beirut stores
Yaakov Lappin

A new perfume carrying the "scent of resistance" and celebrating Hizbullah's "divine victory" has been released on the market in Lebanon, according to a report which appeared in the Lebanese Daily Star on Monday.

"If you've ever wondered what resistance smells like, then try a dab of 'Resistance Perfume,' which comes 'exclusively' with a political message and a picture of Hizbullah's secretary general, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah," the Daily Star article said.

"Apparently, the scent of resistance is a strong and musky one that comes with a single pledge – 'a truthful' one," the report added.

A slogan on the perfume box, quoting Nasrallah during a wartime speech made over the summer reads: "You are the truthful promise ... and I have great faith in you and I promise you divine victory."

The Daily Star, which placed quotation marks around every mention of Israel in its report, added that the package comes with "a digitally manipulated picture of a sinking ship, meant to represent the 'Israeli' warship damaged by a Hizbullah missile during the conflict, along with reprints of Nasrallah's speeches and messages from the 'Lebanese prisoners in 'Israeli' prisons.'"

'Hizbullah not a commercial venture'
Mohammad Dekmak, CEO of the Bint Huda chain of stores in the south Beirut area, told the Daily Star: "We thought it was a catchy idea, as now the perfume is more than something that smells nice, it is a political statement."

The report said the perfume's designer initially came by the Beirut store "carrying 40 samples of the perfume in a plastic bag - and sold them all within minutes."

Hizbullah Spokesman Ghassan Darwish was quoted by the Star as saying: "We don't like to encourage people to turn Hizbullah into a commercial venture, but since the perfume is called 'Resistance' and not 'Hizbullah,' we have no right to really prevent it from being sold as resistance is a broad ideology not limited to one party."

Respnding to the perfume, a pro-Hizbullah demonstrator in Beirut told the Lebanese newspaper that he was "content with showering and using plain soap."

Not what nature intended...

OK, this one is somewhat of a "niche" posting. There are probably very few people out there who actually own a 6 year old ReplayTV (a TIVO like piece of equipment), but having shipped most of our worldly belongings off to Israel, I realised that there were still a few taped shows on my ReplayTV that I had not yet seen. The problem is the TV that was hooked up to it is now gone. So I had to figure out how to "get to it" as it were. What you see here on this picture is the solution I came up with: I used an S-Video hook-up from the ReplayTV to an EyeTV 200, and from the EyeTV I used a Firewire connection to my MacBook Pro. Not exactly what the manufacturers of al this equipment had originally intended, but as you can see here, it works.

PS: there may have been a way to get an S-Video hook-up directly to the computer, but I don't have the necessary cables or adapters for it.

Spicy

Haven't enjoyed an album this much for a very long time. Also happens to be the Chili Pepper's best work since 1981's "Blood Sugar Sex Magik". And looks as though I'm not the only one saying this: "Stadium Arcadium" has been number 1 two weeks in a row. Not necessarily everyone's speed, but definitely mine.

big apple in the Big Apple

A new tourist attraction in the heart of New York City. A new Mecca for the Mac or iPod enthusiast. Right underneath the plaza in front of FAO Schwarz. Open 24/7/365 and busting with activity whenever you walk in. The new Apple Store on 5th Avenue. Worth the detour whenever you decide to come and visit.

Ganja

While strolling innocently in Amsterdam last week, we ran into this "institution". Of course I let my mind run wild and imagined classes like "Getting High 101" or other equivalents. It also made me wonder what one has to achieve to actually graduate from this establishment. But then I ran into some of the following sites online and I realised that I would never pass a simple vocabulary test at such a "College" if I were ever to take an exam. Feast your eyes at
this Wikipedia page, pot.com, marijuana dictionnary and so many others. Got to love Amsterdam.

Flemish

Last night I rented a Flemish movie at Blockbuster. In English the movie is called "The Memory of a Killer", in Flemish "De Zaak Alzheimer". I was quite impressed with the production values on this movie, and the story, based on a novel by Jef Geeraerts, was actually very good. It seems the budget of the movie was €2,500,000. In Belgian terms it is probably one of the most expensive movies ever made. In the States you would use that amount to convince the co-star to sign on. Assuming you can get your hands on this little gem, I heartily recommend it.

Dimona

Difficult to believe that this video would be released on Israeli TV without government approval, so my interpretation is that it is a government sanctioned pseudo-scoop to be used in some sort of psychological warfare with Iran.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf39qkvwOhU

In Memoriam

I posted a short video on http://www.laurentbiron.com (but you will need the latest version of quicktime and 6 minutes of patience to let the whole thing download in order to watch it).

The Sky Was Crying

The sky was crying early in the morning, as if to tell us that it too was grieving. That it was grieving with us the loss of our friend, our giant. A giant in every sense of the word. Someone who managed to touch our lives in so many ways, sometimes with a word, the turn of a phrase, a joke or an insightful comment. He always spoke his mind, and would never be intimidated. He never tried to sugar-coat his views and would always give it to us in its rawest, purest form, words sometimes bursting out with such passion and intensity, they would never fail to hit their mark. He could describe his cooking to us with such flowery words, such flair, that we could almost taste the words and smell the ingredients so powerful were they. So many moments that come to mind, so many words chocking on their way to the surface, and yet we owe it to ourselves, but more than that, to those he left behind, one of which will only know him through our stories, to remember him as much as we can. To delve into our minds and bring up those moments in which he touched our lives. Moments in which he made us laugh, think, or even sing with him as he engaged in one of the many ballads he so enjoyed. He may have enjoyed the good things in life, but he would always share them with his friends and close ones. He may have enjoyed the good things in life, but he was always rooted in reality, never losing sight of what really mattered.

We are now all the ones he left behind, all of us left pondering on the seeming injustice of what appears to be such a senseless departure. All of us feeling the pain, the anger sometimes, and like one of us expressed yesterday, hoping and praying, that he will be up there fighting for his loved ones, his family, protecting them for all that may come.

My heart is broken in a thousand pieces. And one day, when I manage to put it all back together again, there will still be one piece missing......one piece missing forever.

In one of his messages to me, when I told him we were moving to Israel, he wrote the following words:

---
From: Laurent Biron
Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2005 15:45:55 +0200
To: Jehuda Saar
Subject: Re: tiftah rak kesheata levad.


Can't wait to sip an ice tea in your garden !!!!

Laurent.
---

We will meet again, my friend, but it will be in your garden instead.






Matis - Yahoo

This must be the biggest Jewish cross-over act in he history of modern music. In its first week after being released, Matisyahu's new album "Youth" reached 4th place in the Billboard album chart. We've never had anything like this before.
To be perfectly honest I find the album to be somewhat uneven. It would seem that the success, for now, is mainly due to the novelty, the "gimmick" if you want. I assume that at some point this will wear-off, and hopefully by then he will have honed-up his act and will keep the success chiefly based on his talent and achievement. There is no denying that the guy is very good at what he does.

To see some of the clips check out the video section on this site.

Woke Up This Morning - Got Yourself A Gun

They're back...and boy did they rock tonight. They started with a bang, and what a BANG !!! Of course with the kind of ending we had tonight, there were no previews of next week's episode. So now we are left guessing till next week. I am not going to spoil it for anyone who has not seen this episode of the Sopranos yet, but suffice it to say that you get your money's worth.

Finally some support for terrorists

Now isn't it nice of the people at Atataturk Airport. Such tolerance towards terrorists. This is the sign that greets you as you enter the airport. Nice to know that you "may" actually use your electorinic equipments for bombs. Not every airport is that understanding.

Turkish Delight - FONETIK

I ran into this guy again, this time at the Kempinski Ciragan Palace in Istanbul. The hotel is worth visiting, even if you don't necessarily stay there.

What is interesting about the Turkish language is how phonetic it is, maybe the most phonetic of all languages I have come across todate. I had the "pleasure" of visiting a hospital today. Some of the signs can be read no matter where one comes from.

Molvania

For those of you out there who have not yet discovered the pleasures of "Molvania - A Land Untouched By Modern Dentistry", the travel guide to the fictional country that, while hilarious, will ring true to anyone who has had the pleasure of travelling in Eastern Europe in the early 90s (and I'm guessing is still true in some countries today), I was happy to find out that there is now a second guide, this time to the fictional country of Phaic Tän (as in "fake tan"). The writers have also created a website that gives you an idea about some of the funny stuff you will find in the books. Definitely worth looking into and always good for a laugh.

Lingua Franca

A little something I saw minutes before boarding the flight out of Israel. Thought it was cute.
Some of the anouncements heard on EL AL (to be pronounced with a HEAVY Israeli accent):
"Please remain seating and fast your seat belt."
"We appreciate your corporation".

The Hat Brigade

Another New York - Tel Aviv flight with EL AL, and once again some singular experiences. Once again the percentage of "chasidim" on this flight was high, but this time it was the "hat-activity" which was phenomenal. Every three minutes they're checking out their hats, moving them from one overhead compartment to another, shifting luggage around to get them better positioned... It was BUSY to say the least. And having conducted my own informal poll, it would appear that the most popular movie among the חרדי community on this flight was the June and Johnny Cash biopic "Walk The Line". Not sure what it is about this movie, but maybe it has something to do with the fact that Johnny Cash always liked to wear black.

Blizzard of '06

There's no going anywhere today. This is what the front and back of the house look like at the moment. Pretty...but not very practical.

A last word about "Munich"... maybe

This little blurb appeared in yesterday's New York Times and does not require any commentary:

Israel Reacts to 'Munich'
After months of furor over its political message, the Steven Spielberg film "Munich" encountered something perhaps worse when it opened in Israel over the weekend: bored critics, Reuters reported. Hostile reviews focused more on cinematic technique than on the question of sympathy toward the Palestinians who killed Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. The conservative Jerusalem Post called the film "muddled, inept, offensive — and boring to boot." The liberal Haaretz said, "There is something slovenly about the way in which Spielberg constructs the film, a slovenliness that leaks into the directing style itself." Shirit Gal, the publicist in Israel for "Munich," said yesterday that about 25,000 tickets had been sold. She called the number "good," although Hollywood blockbusters have drawn as many as 35,000 people on an opening weekend in Israel.

BHL

Every once in a while I run to one of the Barnes & Noble "Meet The Writer" sessions. This time was definitely worth it. BHL himself was there to present and speak about his new book, American Vertigo. I'll save you the synopsis (which you can check out at Amazon.com if you feel like it) but let's just say it made the cover of the New York Times book review, and to say that Garrison Keillor, who reviewed the book, did not like it, would be an understatement.

Having said that, BHL in person is always a good show. The man knows how to entertain an audience. Since the book deals at length with the things that make America (and actually when BHL says America, he means the USA) unique, most of the discussion and Q and A dealt with that uniqueness. At a certain point BHL made a comment that raised quite some eyebrows, but one that I definitely appreciated. He said that there was one thing that was very unique to America, one thing that only one country in the world had done. He then stopped and said: no, sorry, two countries in the world share that uniqueness. He said there were two countries in the world that were formed not on the basis of a common birthplace or language, not on the bases of a common skin-colour or background, but based on a belief in a text, and he added, not necessarily religious. Those two countries are America...and Israel.

Scrap That !

In my eternal quest to find new and innovative ways to operate a scrap business, I think I have finally come across the "right" way to do it. Certainly the most original way. Check out this site.

Coming to America

20 years ago this week, I left Antwerp and moved to the States. Where am I celebrating the anniversary of this momentous event ? In Antwerp of course. Here for the celebration of the 80th birthday of our “Pater Familias”. And of course the pictures I decide to share with you are of a culinary nature. Just some of the things we were lucky enough to be able to dig in to during the party. I didn’t get a shot of the main course or dessert, but let me just say it was supercalifragilisticexpialidelicious.

Gadget 2

Every once in a while I get so excited about a piece of technology, I just have to share it with everyone. Here's another one of these things. Some of you know that I am nuts about watching certain TV shows. I can't miss an episode. This product is called iSee and it turns an iPod into a video recorder. I am always amazed when people break barriers and combine things in new and innovative ways. Check this out.



You can use pretty much anything as a source, as shown in this diagram.

Muenchen

Nice to see a couple of much more eloquent individuals, both of whom are very much "in the know" when it comes to the subject matter, pretty much agree with my last post (incidentally Zvi Zamir is actually portrayed in the movie by an Israeli actor):

'Munich' on their minds Jewish Standard Published 12/30/2005 Opinion Editorial

Don't confuse us with the facts.
Yossi Melman and Steven Hartov

In 1984, the blood of the Israeli intelligence hunters and the Palestinian terrorists hunted in "the war of the spooks" was still congealing in the back alleys of Europe, when a young Israeli national named Yuval Aviv teamed up in a writing venture with a budding Canadian journalist named George Jonas. Aviv claimed to be a freshly defrocked Mossad assassin with a true tale to tell, and thus the game began.

The resulting best-seller was called "Vengeance," a detailed account of Israel's response to the Munich Olympic massacre of 1972. Seen through the eyes of Aviv's undercover persona,
"Avner," the tale seemed to marry well with the factual newspaper accounts of how Israel systematically eliminated the Black September killers of her athletes. At last, the book was made into a successful HBO film called "Sword of Gideon." Both Jonas and Aviv reaped substantial rewards for their "scoop."

Some years later, however, the truth about "Vengeance" was revealed in a Manhattan courtroom as Yuval Aviv was sued by a third party over royalties for the HBO film. From court documents and our own investigation, Aviv had never served in the Mossad, or in any other Israeli intelligence organization. He had failed early on during his basic training as an IDF commando, and his nearest approximation to "spy work" had been as a lowly gate guard for El Al airlines in New York in the early '70s. The tale he had woven for George Jonas was apparently nothing more than a Walter Mitty fabrication.

How then, did Steven Spielberg and his producer, Kathleen Kennedy, choose to once again bless Jonas and Aviv's tale by optioning it as the credited source for "Munich"?

Numerous offers to provide the production team with facts of the case were rebuffed. More than 30 years had passed since those early days of deadly cat and mouse (events that now seem quaint in comparison to the daily horrors of global war on terror), and participants on both sides were ready to talk. Yet the men who held the secrets were never approached. The phone never rang at the house of Zvi Zamir, who, as the former chief of Mossad, could have clarified the myths in a modest hour. Mike Harari, the former head of the Mossad department of operations who supervised Israel's hit teams at the time, did not receive a single inquiry from the Spielberg team. The families of the 11 murdered Israeli athletes were disappointed because they were not approached by the Spielberg people. Even Mohammed Daoud, the former Black September chief widely accepted as one of the Munich massacre masterminds, was dismayed that no one wanted to speak to him.

So far, the reactions to "Munich" have been predictable and essentially emotional. Some find it balanced, while others view it as overly sympathetic to one side or the other. Yet what we find most disturbing is that it is substantially a fiction that, given the influence of Hollywood cinema, may soon be regarded as a definitive historical account. The troubling question is whether there is an obligation to historical truth in a work of art that portrays real-life figures such as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, using documentary footage to support its thesis. We believe that the answer is "yes."

Steven Spielberg is a man of great artistic power, and with that power comes responsibility. For a director who delivered such historical works as "Schindler's List," his behavior in this case resembles that of a cub journalist with a great story in hand, who chooses to run it rather than confuse us with the truth and facts.

Yossi Melman, a journalist specializing in intelligence affairs for the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, is co-author of the New York Times best-seller "Every Spy a Prince." Steven Hartov, the editor-in-chief of the quarterly Special Operations Report, is co-author of the New York Times best-seller "In the Company of Heroes.

Flashback No.6

June 27, 2000. We had just completed a visit to our supplier in Montreal, Canada, and decided to make our way to the airport. Expecting our supplier to order us a taxi, he surprised us by putting us on the company helicopter and getting us to the airport by air. If you click on the picture and look carefully you can see the Montreal Olympic Stadium in the background.

That stadium brings up a whole lot of memories, some of them quite relevant today. The Montreal Summer Olympic Games took place in 1976, mere weeks after the Israeli raid on Entebbe to free the hijacked passengers of Air France flight 139. Like pretty much every Summer before that, I spent my entire school vacation, essentially two months, in Israel. That Summer though, the last one before my Bar-Mitzvah, was very different. There was a certain euphoria over what had just happened in Entebbe. Soldiers who appeared in uniform to any movie theatre got their tickets for free. Falafel stands did the same with their wares. You could feel it in the air: people were happy, proud. The nations of the world had nothing but praise for Israel (well, for a couple of weeks at least). These Olympic Games were also the first Summer games since the Munich massacre of 1972. So on the day of the opening ceremonies I was sitting in front of our old black and white TV watching every country march into this Olympic Stadium, and then it happened. The Israeli team walked in. All the athletes were wearing white hats. As soon as the banner with the word "Israel" appeared, the entire stadium got up and started applauding. It was definitely spontaneous. It was also one of the most moving moments I can ever remember. It was clear that there was both admiration for Entebbe and respect for Munich ‘72 behind this, but even at 12 years old I sensed that I was witnessing something very significant. Then the announcer’s voice called out the word “Israel”, and at that precise moment the entire Israeli team took off their white hats in a synchronized move, to salute the public. The applause intensified even more. I remember tears streaming down my eyes. I also remember the Israeli TV announcers getting all chocked-up at what they were witnessing.
Which brings us to last night. Dani and I went out to see Steven Spielberg’s “Munich”. I am not going to get into the whole debate over whether this movie is “good for the Jews” or not. That’s not my place. What surprises me is that the man decided to make this movie to begin with. The movie is based on a book by George Jonas which I remember reading back in 1984. In French it was entitled “La Vengeance d’Ephraim”, in English plain “Vengeance”. It was pretty controversial back then for the same reasons that the movie is. The book then served as inspiration for the 1986 TV movie “The Sword of Gideon”. The role of Avner played by Eric Bana in Spielber’s version, was portrayed by Steven Bauer, and Golda Meir by Colleen Dewhurst. My point is that the story had already been told. Maybe it did not have Spielberg’s flair for drama and gravitas, but it’s been done before. The source material had been denounced and debunked back then already, so why base a movie so many years later on the same, seemingly unreliable material ? Spielberg has said in interviews that he found other sources and only loosely based his movie on that book. But having just seen the movie I can assure you that almost the entire book was in there. There are maybe three things he added in his movie which might redeem (in his eyes at least) the entire project. First and foremost he does show us the entire 1972 attack in all its ugliness. Of course some people will object to the fact that the final moments, the most heart-wrenching in fact, showing the terrorists eliminating the last hostages still alive, are shown mixed with Avner making love to his wife. You can’t please everyone, but the point is, apart from the 1976 TV movie “21 Hours At Munich”, (which I highly recommend seeing, by the way, assuming one can still rent it somewhere), I don’t believe the Munich massacre was ever dwelt upon in any movie and it certainly deserves this attention. It afforded me the ability to discuss these events with Dani, so as an educational tool it has value.
The second addition (and the one causing most of the controversy), is the fictional (assuming the rest of the story isn’t, of course) conversation Avner has with a Palestinian terrorist in Athens about the chances of survival of the State of Israel and Palestinian national aspirations. This is the Hollywood political-correctness bull that this movie did not need, but I’ll leave my opinion out of that debate.
Finally there is an interesting scene with Ehud Barak dressing as a woman in Beirut in 1973 in a daring raid to execute a terrorist (a story now made famous from Barak’s own biographies). Chances are the movie will be nominated for some Oscars, and maybe Spielberg may even get his hands on some, but it sure ain’t no “Schindler’s List”.

Stern

Howard leaving terrestrial radio...on my birthday. Figured I'd mark the day, the event, right here on the blog. Back home just in time to hear the farewell broadcast.

USA and Israel

When checking in to my Lufthansa flight in Frankfurt a couple of hours ago, I noticed something interesting. All flights to the USA from Frankfurt have a special check-in desk. That desk is marked "USA and Israel". This brought to mind the famous story from the late 60's or early 70's (which I just told over lunch at Rafi's house on Shabat). In it, Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan are talking to each other about what they could do to solve the economic problems Israel had in those days. Moshe Dayan then proposed: "I got it ! This is what we do: we launch an attack on the United States. They beat us. We are annexed as the 51st State. The dollar becomes our official currency. All our problems are solved !"
"Ingenious !" exclaims Ben-Gurion. But then, pensive, he adds: "But what if we win ?"

This post was entered courtesy of the "Connexion" service by Boeing, allowing me to access the internet from my flight at 10,000 feet.

Announcement made over the PA-system

Velkom laydies und gentleman
Ve are happy to haf you onboard dis Lufthansa Airlines flight
Please be seated
Lift up your tablet und secure it
Put your seat in the upright posishen
FasTen your zeat-belt
AND I VANT TO HEAR ONE CLICK !!!

Zum Befehl !

Ve haf ze meanz to make you go to ze vashroom vitout ze zigaret !

Back To School

Faces of children in Israeli schools.