Make mine chicken soup

This one doesn't have any typos that I noticed. But the concept was so bizarre that I felt I had to take a picture anyway.

It's for Axe, a "body spray" for men. It's just deodorant, as far as I know, but it has always marketed itself by claiming to be particularly irresistible to women. Their new scent, apparently, is chocolate. Huh?

Yes, I like chocolate as much as anyone else, but this somehow strikes me as... the wrong medium for chocolate. Ladies? Is it just me?

Haveil Havalim #224 - The Fourth of July Weekend Edition

Well, look at me, the longtime lurker, hosting my own edition of Haveil Havalim. I'm a newbie, remember - so please forgive me if I screw anything up too badly :) By the way, if you haven't been here before, do feel free to take a look around while you're here. And now, with no further ado, here's

Haveil Havalim #224 - The Fourth of July Weekend Edition!

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Founded by Soccer Dad, Haveil Havalim is a carnival of Jewish blogs -- a weekly collection of Jewish & Israeli blog highlights, tidbits and points of interest collected from blogs all around the world. It's hosted by different bloggers each week and coordinated by Jack. The term 'Haveil Havalim,' which means "Vanity of Vanities," is from Qoheleth, (Ecclesiastes) which was written by King Solomon. King Solomon built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and later on got all bogged down in materialism and other 'excesses' and realized that it was nothing but 'hevel,' or in English, 'vanity.'
~~~~~

What a lot of categories there are! Let's go in reverse alphabetical, just for fun:

Torah

TRS delves into the laws and customs of saying Tachanun in Tachanun II: Knowledge is Power.

Rabbi neil fleischmann looks at love in the parsha at Turning A Curse Into A Blessing.

Muse examines last week's parshat shavua in Moses and Aaron, Burnt Out Leaders.

Lion of Zion compares ta'amim at Leining Minutiae for Parshat Hukat.

Josh Waxman brings us Galen on the Jews; the Jews on Galen.

Politics

William A. Jacobson looks at the latest case of "racism" in London, at Jewish School Held "Racist" For Preferring Jews.

SnoopyTheGoon found a really bizarre photograph - twice! at The Guardian goat guy and a few questions.

Robert J. Avrech examines America's financial future in Obama's Plan to Bankrupt America in One Easy Lesson.

Cosmic X shares a burning image at בראכ חוסיין אובמה, ימח שמו and another at Cynthia McKinney: We demand that the Israeli government call off their attack dogs!

Personal

TRS presents us with a little piece of (hopefully) fiction in Bel and the detective.

Shtetl Fabulous reflects on her newly unemployed life in Hitting the Snooze on Type A.

Rutimizrachi shows how insightful her soldier son can be, at Old Guys Through Young Eyes and then shares her happy adventures in One of those days. No! I mean the GOOD kind.

RivkA shares some frightening news at Medical Update: Unexpected Diagnosis -- Bad News. RivkA, keep strong - we love you! (I just saw that she has posted two more updates since this one, so check them all out.)

Rickismom gives a great speech at Graduation.

Some of the younger heroes in Raizy's household went to camp in Be Good Be Smart Be Safe Behave.

Muse gave us a whole new definition of sandwich, at How Can I Help From So Far Away?

Mottel gives us a lovely photo-tour of his trip in The Legendary London Trip - Part I.

Judaism

Yechezkel has an intriguing discussion at Curing Cancer the Torah Way.

The Rebbetzin's Husband begins to look into which organizations share their financial information at Transparency in American Orthodox Jewish Institutions.

Schvach Yid presents A Bissele Moslem Shiur. I very much enjoyed the third video, but, to each their own :)

Nitzana has really been planning ahead in Hanukkah in July.

LB pleads with Jews worldwide to keep a strong connection to their language at On the Importance of Hebrew.

Ilana-Davita adds a new post to her Mesorah Project at Mesorah Project II.

Harry-er than them all urges us not to be complacent at Purple Haze.

Child Ish Behavior hopes that you vote wisely at Re-Elect The God of The Universe.

Israel

Rickismom has a good story at My Son the Soldier and the UN bluff.

Rena Chernin gives us an inside view of weddings in Israel at No RSVP Required.

Maya shows us some breathtaking photos at Sunset on the Mediterranean and goes on to give us an impressive quiz at Can you read Hebrish?

LB has an interesting take on the current Shabat crisis at Pro-Shabbat or Anti-State? and then goes on to show us a chilling picture of Israel at Zionist Crime.

Joel Katz presents both Religion and State in Israel - June 29, 2009 (Section 1) and Religion and State in Israel - June 29, 2009 (Section 2).

Jessica wants you to know that lots of information about Jerusalem is now available at a click, at Jerusalem online. She also introduces us to a Tel-Aviv coffeehouse at Cafe Birnbaum.

Jacob Richman shares some inspiring news at Good News from Israel: Israeli Grows World’s Longest Cucumber.

David shares his impressions of graduating high school in Israel, at From high school into the frying pan.

Ben-Yehudah reviews and presents a new film at Israel: Rise of the Right (Updated). He then begins to tell us a very moving personal story at Return To French Hill, part 1.

Humor
Raizy recaps the events of this past week in A Summary Of The News...For Dumb People.

Mrs. S. presents a "funny because it's true" list at Top ten ways you know that summer vacation has arrived.

Lady-Light shows us the fun she's having with her grandkids at Tripping Through Life with Dr. Seuss*.

I found a non-Israeli blooper at So fashionable... almost.

Child Ish Behavior shares this opinion of The Psychology of the Kosher Restaurant Consumer.

History

Lion of Zion seems to have come across some big news at Did A Jew Invent Printing?

Culture

The Rebbetzin's Husband wishes it wasn't the way people talk in It’s just the way people talk, right?

Leora presents JPIX: Spring Review Edition - how nice! Maybe I should try to get onto this carnival... although I may need to take pretty pictures, rather than goofy ones...

Eliyahu Fink thinks that our celebrities don't have to be our role models in his Obligatory Michael Jackson Post.

DovBear hosts E. Fink (yep, that E on the line above) who ponders Anonymous vs. Onymous Blogging.

Daled Amos found an intriguing new game show at From Turkey: A Game Show Featuring A Rabbi, A Muslim Imam, A Greek Orthodox Priest, And A Buddhist Monk.

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Well, that was fun! Shavua tov to all, and to all a good night.

Please send your posts for the next edition of the Haveil Havalim Blog Carnival via the Blog Carnival Submission Form. The method is very helpful in organizing your posts this week. If you're interested in hosting or receiving more information about the carnival, please contact Jack at talktojacknow-at-sbcglobal-dot-net.

So fashionable... almost

Here's a Microsoft blooper that my hubby Dave happened upon yesterday. He emailed me the screenshot, and I said, "in a timely fashion? Is that the joke?" I mean, "in a timely fashion" is kind of an archaic way to talk, but it's not that funny. And then he pointed out that it doesn't actually say "timely fashion." Almost... but not quite.


So really, this feels good, in a way. Good in the same way that I find quiet, deep pleasure when seeing other people's children misbehaving in the supermarket, or other people being criticized at work. Look - it's not only us dumb Israelis messing up the English language! Turns out we're in pretty good company!

From my correspondent's correspondent

You all remember Mirj, right? She's brought us marvelous signs from all over, as seen here, here and here. Well, it turns out that her friend Aviva was leading a Canadian University Fellowship trip to Israel not long ago, and came across this whopper (sorry - I couldn't help it) while touring near the Dead Sea:


I think that thanking us for our understanding may be premature. Thanks, Aviva and Mirj - this is a work of art!

No, it doesn't really say that...

I can't begin to tell you how many times I come to work in the morning, and within half an hour am approached by someone relatively important with an English grammar question. I am by no means an English grammar expert, but fortunately, these are not generally very difficult questions. In the beginning I felt important: "wow, good thing I came in today, or he never would have known that designed and designated aren't the same word." Then I started to take the kindly, motherly approach: "no, I can see how you might have thought so, but type is not actually an abbreviation for typical."

But time went on, and as I've continued trying to explain the rules, I've truly been getting more and more fed up with the English language. There are just too many nuances, too many obstacles. How can anyone who isn't a native speaker really be expected to understand why sometimes you might say "in accordance with" and sometimes "according to" but that any other combination, such as "in according with " will make you sound like an absolute idiot? Sure, I know when it's correct - whenever it sounds right - but that's hardly helpful advice to anyone else. Here and there I try to fix small things, in the hope that I'm making the world a better place. It's scrap, not scrop. You're trying to say powered, not energized - we're not in a Star Trek movie. That LED is blinking, not winking. And on and on.

But the fact is, when my well-meaning friends at work write any documentation, it's generally destined to be filed away somewhere, unread. And if it is read, it's likely to be read by another non-native English speaker who won't even notice the grammar blunders. So why do I even care? Why does it even matter?

This is a long introduction, I know. I was shopping this evening when I came across this:

These guys clearly do not have the same excuse that I can grant my colleagues - this is on the shelf in a major supermarket, not filed away in a drawer somewhere. But this is exactly the kind of thing they would have asked me...

48% puppy-dogs' tails

So there I was at the pharmacy a few days ago, when this came tumbling out of my wallet. I know I'm not one of those big-time bloggers who has thousands of fans all over the globe on watch for information, but I am very blessed with a few good friends who immediately think of me upon encountering the absurd. I think that that's a compliment... Anyway, this one was given to me by our good friend Ricky when we visited him months ago, and is simply so small that I forgot all about it. He found it in his Kosher meal on an airplane, and thoughtfully saved it for me:


So not to kvetch, but I don't like how the potassium and the sorbate don't line up - it gives me a small headache. I'm also not a great fan of the ingredients casually becoming comments: "colored with beta carotene" does not, in my mind, belong in the same list as "soybean oil." But those are small potatoes compared to the whopper in the middle, right?

I mean, I vaguely recall some law from way back when that if an ingredient comprised less than 2% of a product, it didn't need to be listed. That may or may not still be true. But 48%? This isn't claiming 52% fat free, or 52% natural, or 52% butter, or whatever. This is claiming 52% spread - ostensibly the end product! What the heck else is in there?

Oh, unless maybe the other 48% is unwhipped? I think we may just have to call up the folks at Mehadrin and find out...

Anyone need a steticist?

Here's a quickie - forwarded to me from the "Efrat Chat" email list:

Wow. There's plenty to comment on here (and feel free to do so) but what made me laugh the most is that the price for waxing is per leg. Come on, is there a very serious market for doing only one?

As for "steticist," I wasn't sure what that was. I googled it, and discovered that although it doesn't seem to be a word in English, about 195 non-native English speakers seem to think it is. I then put my advanced Googler on the job, and the verdict is: maybe they're trying to say Esthetician?

Have a great weekend, everybody!