Al Ha veDa על הא ודא

What do you call this symbol (assuming you have a font that shows it): ✡?

In England it’s usually called a Star of David (which is also the Unicode name for the character), and here in Israel it’s a Magen David (מגן דוד), which literally means Shield of David. In America, people seem to call it a Jewish star (though it has only been a distinctly Jewish symbol for 100 years or so), and in Arabic there’s a generation shift to Khatam Suleiman (خاتم سليمان), Solomon’s Seal.

And now, Google translator has found a new name for it: stomach David.

(Hat-tip to James Davila)

I’m very fond of David Bogner and Treppenwitz, and this post is inspired partly by his weekly “Photo Friday” feature (before I knew that he had a culinary theme this week too), and partly by the comments on this post a few months back about the ingredients of my hamin.

Here is everything which went into the hamin yesterday (not including water and spices. Oh, and only six of those eggs ended up going in). Fourth from the left in the row of vegetables is the lefet which I usually use, which I decided earlier was a turnip, and third from the left is something that I have never seen before which appeared in the supermarket, calling itself a tzenon yarok (צנון ירוק). Is this a rutabaga?

A warm welcome to everyone redirected here from my old blog, and also to any new readers. Feel free to add comments and let me know who is reading and where you come from.

RSS feed is now at http://www.smontagu.org/blog/wp-rss2.php, and I will do my best to make sure it stays there.

Holy crap, it is just as I feared. The RSS feed has changed its name yet again to http://mountainsmog.blogspot.com/rss/mountainsmog.xml. So anyone reading me by RSS will never know when the blog moves (which will be extremely soon — I’m fed up with this). Goodbye, dear readers, it was nice knowing you.

That’s כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ, the refrain of Psalm 136 in Luganda, as sung by the Abayudaya community of Uganda. (Thanks to Danya (Jerusalem Syndrome) posting at JewSchool, via Rachel (Velveteen Rabbi)). I have to get this disc!

I finished the first draft of the book proposal I’m translating today. I’m glad it’s being translated, because it’s something I’d love to read, and I would never fight my way all through it in Hebrew.