Pizza For You a Bargain!

When you think about language as much as I do, there’s lots to ponder and chuckle at. For me, this is especially true in Israel, where I know the language, but always break the words down as I read, into roots and structures, discerning the meaning behind the meaning. And I love Israeli slang, idiom and phraseology. I just love it to the point of shiga’on.

And then I came across this, what I consider to be the best name for a pizza joint anywhere.

Pizza kim’at chinam (translation: “almost free pizza”). That is such cultural perfection that I don’t even know how to stop talking about how much I love it. It takes the “for you, a bargain!” sensibility of shopping in the shuk and applies it to pizza. I pictured the pitch meeting in my head.

Israeli #1: How do we convey that our product is affordable?
Israeli #2: We could give it away on the street…
Israeli #3: Tembel! We’re not giving anything away! We need people to buy it!
Israeli #1: Right…but maybe we could make them think about free stuff by saying it’s almost free.
Israeli #2: You mean like calling it “almost free pizza”?
Israeli #3: No, I’ve got it! We’ll call it “almost free pizza!”
Israeli #1: That’s genius…that way people will think about pizza and think about things that are almost free!
Israeli #2: Sigh.

I’ve never been inside to taste the pizza paradise, because that would ruin the magic. It’s like admiring something from afar and never doing anything about it, which I totally support as a lifestyle choice.

I do genuinely enjoy being in Israel. But let’s just say it’s the little things like this that make me fall in love.

*Click on thumbnail for full-sized image. 

Zabaj on the Radio

Tune in at around 2:00AM tonight to hear an interview with a Zabaj writer on גלי צהל!

Thanks again to Dana from Nana.co.il for a great write up and keeping the Zabaj momentum going.

After You, Ludacris?

This one comes straight from Zabajist-at-Large Ilia who spotted this gem in a Ludacris video. Turns out he’s got a lot of pride in his Tzanchanim (click pic to watch video. His “training” for the big masa kumta begins at 1:41):

I don’t know either. Maybe MTV is being secretly infiltrated by elite Israeli paratroopers?

Fun Times @ EEEKea

Ikea, that is.*

Is the cafeteria that good? I’m used to waiting in Soviet breadlines for most things around here, but should it really extend to the g-damn mediocre Ikea cafeteria? Observe:

Even the guys in the poster on the wall seem to be impatiently waiting to get some hummus flavored Jello. Jeez.

One good thing I gotta mention about Ikea in Israel tho:

At least I can get drunk and furnish my apartment for what should be cheaper furniture as I remember it being in N. America but is just expensive cheap crap.

*Language police disclaimer: yes I know that it’s probably pronounced EEkea in Sweden and in Israel it’s pronounced more correct than in America blah blah blah. It’s just funny to hear it called EEkea, okay?