Looking At The World Through Smoked Meat-Tinted Glasses

This post first appeared as “Jewish Deli-Inspired Sunglasses? All the Stars Are Wearing Them” on The Shmooze blog of the Forward.

Corey Shapiro at the Snowdon Deli

Corey Shapiro likes his food salty and his eyewear sweet. Ever loyal to his roots in the ‘hood, the young personal eyewear consultant to the stars has designed custom shades inspired by his native Montreal’s Snowdon Deli. Big names like Lady Gaga, Cee Lo Green, Snoop Dogg and Perez Hilton may never have eaten the pastrami there, but they owe their hot looks to this Formica palace.

Never again will the Snowdon Deli be considered chopped liver in comparison to Schwartz’s. The latter’s Montreal smoked meat may be world famous, but now everyone knows there is a direct connection between the Snowdon Deli and the celebrity universe.

Click here to read more and watch a video of Cee Lo Green picking out a pair of “Snowdon Deli Edition” sunglasses.

© 2011 Renee Ghert-Zand. All rights reserved.

Give It A Rest Already

This post was first published as “Whatever You Thing About ‘Go the F**k to Sleep,’ Leave the Jews Out of It” on The Shmooze blog of the Forward.

No one is going to get any shut-eye if people don’t give the controversy over Adam Mansbach’s “Go the F**k to Sleep” a rest. But hey, what could be more fun than staying up all night, debating the merits of a brilliant profanity-laced picture book whose popularity is exceeding its author’s wildest dreams?

Now — following coverage of the pages leaked pre-publication, the book’s actual launch and the subsequent release of the audio version by Samuel L. Jackson — comes a flurry of commentary and analysis.

Late last week, we were treated to Deborah Kolben’s takedown of Katie Roiphe’s essay on the book for Slate. Kolben, editor of the Jewish parenting website Kveller.com, took aim at Roiphe’s assertion that the real takeaway from the book is that parents today devote themselves too much to their children, denying their need for adult time and activities together, including — yes — lots more sex. “But if those sweet-faced children, so gorgeously drawn by Ricardo Cortés, could talk back would they say: ‘Put on a fucking dress. Have a fucking drink. Stop hovering over us. Live your own goddamned life,’” Roiphe wrote.

Click here to read more.

© 2011 Renee Ghert-Zand. All rights reserved.

A Shakedown By Shofar

This post first appeared as “An Expensive Option for Israelis Looking for Love” on The Shmooze blog of the Forward.

Rabbi David Batzri

Israel’s Channel 2 News reported yesterday that it’s not just the price of cottage cheese that is high in Israel. Many Israelis are boycotting and going without their favorite dairy food, but going without a spouse is another matter. Desperate single men and women are shelling out the big bucks — or, rather, Shekels.

These lonely hearts parted yesterday with their money to the tune of NIS 2,700 (close to $800), basically for the sound of a shofar. Actually, it was the sound of thousands of shofars blown at the same time Tuesday evening by Yeshiva students under the direction of kabbalist Rabbi David Batzri at Amoka, near Safed in the Galilee. The ceremony took place near the gravesite of Rabbi Yonatan Ben Uziel, who lived during the time of the compilation of the Mishna two millennia ago. Ben Uziel died a bachelor, but single religious Jews ironically come to pray at his grave for luck in finding a mate.

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˙© 2011 Renee Ghert-Zand. All rights reserved.