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Updated 11/20/09 @ 11:30AM EDT
- Canada's opposition Liberal Party is crying foul after the ruling Conservatives mailed out flyers extolling themselves as stronger supporters of Israel.
- Israel arrested five Palestinian Authority intelligence officers in the West Bank.
- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel is conducting secret negotiations with Hamas.
- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was welcomed Thursday in Brazil by a state governor who is Jewish.
- Prominent South African Jewish leader and philanthropist Mendel Kaplan has died at the age of 73.
- Canadian Liberals object after Conservatives say they’re stronger Israel backers
- Israel arrests five P.A. officers
- Abbas: Israel talking to Hamas
- Abbas welcomed by Jewish pol in Brazil
- South African Jewish leader Mendel Kaplan dies
- Israel will send ship to NATO anti-terror force
- Obama: New Iran sanctions coming within weeks
- What should we bring? Thanksgiving foods that travel well
- Female Orthodox scholars helping women talk about sex
- Obama half-brother has Jewish roots
- Lieberman: Fort Hood could be terror attack
- J Street confab shows generational divide on Israel
- What really happened at the Reform biennial in Toronto
- Rubashkin convicted on 86 charges
- Obama shifts to Israel’s corner, but tries not to show it
- Sniffing underwear and other high jinks in satire on intermarriage
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Posted in: Food fodder
11/07/09 04:51 PM
I'm checking out Ben Harris' page on JTA, and though I am not the subject of the comment re being taken to lunch, here are some of my thoughts on this controversy. I never found being taken to breakfast or lunch as a writer so bad. It's kind of like working your way across the water in a ship. You get a few perks as a writer or journalist. I've not been bought off yet for a $10 breakfast or $50 lunch. They come too rarely these days, especially something more than $15. I did an interview with a Baptist Minister recently who took me to lunch. We had a good talk on what it is to give a sermon. I had a hamburger and fries. As Religion Writer for the San Francisco Examiner website, I have to report the hamburger was second rate, but the conversation first rate. Usually, when it comes to tickets to an event I review, I do pay my own. This just happens, as I feel less beholden to write if I change my mind about doing a piece. But if the event is out of my budget, I let them give me a press ticket. Again, I never shake the feeling I'm there on a job, not to entertain myself solely. I'm sure JTA has a policy. As a bank teller, I once got a gift of a bottle of wine for the holidays. I had the job part time. In other jobs, gifts of a modest kind are okay. As a writer, it is a work kind of thing and one doesn't do it for the pay of a lunch or dinner. A friend who is a lawyer also wrote on restaurants, doing reviews. She brought me along for company. I can't remember if it was a gratis deal or she paid. In any event, I didn't. There it probably wasn't as fair, but I was glad for the company and no one complained as it gave another opinion on the food. A subject about which I know little, but what I like. That makes my full confession. Peter Menkin Mill Valley, CA USA (north of San Francisco)
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