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NOTEBOOK

Fixated On Food

here have been many arti-
cles of late that stress the
obesity of our citizenry,
with a strong finger pointed at
our youth.
However, in all the analyses
that have been made, no one
seems to have given any
thought (until now) to what I
consider an insidious influence:
nursery rhymes.
Subliminally, we are turning
the thoughts of our youth to the
importance of food and eating
and their impact on our actions
as early as the playgroup.
Consider that we stress the
importance of having enough
to eat when we encounter
Mother Hubbard who did not

T

even have a bone to offer her
poor dog.
Of course, if you were rich, all
you had to do was ask. King
Cole sent for his "bowl," which,
considering that he was a king
would have been filled with all
sorts of goodies. I doubt that it
was plain old cooked cereal.
If children didn't behave, they
would be deprived of food.
Remember the old woman who
lived in a shoe? When the kids
acted up, she gave them some
broth, no bread, and then beat
them and sent them to bed.
Bread is staple in many
rhymes, which is the foreshad-
owing of the peanut butter and
jelly sandwich, I'm positive.

Peace Activist Visits

Special guest, Diane Balser, chief executive officer of Brit Tzedek
v'Shalom, the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace, spoke last
week at the weekly Birmingham Temple
forum in Farmington Hills.
Always supportive of the two-state solution,
Balser said the real question is: "Can Israel live
without a Palestinian state
She said the Oslo Peace Accords was a posi-
tive step for Israel because it showed that a
majority wanted a two-state solution; it start-
ed the disengagement plan; people around the
world saw Israel reverse a bad decision and
caused the United Nations to have a more
Dianne Balser
positive view of Israel.
"I found it very interesting, and I agree partially with her argu-
ments, but I also feel it was a stretch:' said Fred Stein of West
Bloomfield. "I hope there will be a two-state solution, but I don't
know if I'll live long enough to see it happen."

— Harry Kirsbaum, staff writer

WSU Honors

Of course, being a dessert-
aholic, I was always concentrat-
ed on screaming for ice cream,
Kookaburra's gumdrops, and
Jack Horner's plum pie while I
ran around the mulberry bush.
The only image that comes to
mind to deter eating was hav-
ing a dish run away with a
spoon -L.-. but that just encour-
ages eating with one's hands,
doesn't it?
Let me end with a rhyme that
sort of sums it all up:
Mary had a little lamb,
t little toast, a little jam,
An ice cream soda topped
with fizz
And oh, how sick our
Mary is!

❑

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— Keri Guten Cohen, story development editor

The late Mort Zieve, his wife Mary Lou, and the Workmen's Circle
were among seven organizations and individuals honored as
Community Peacemakers on Nov. 11 by the Wayne State
University Center for Peace & Conflict Studies.
Workmen's Circle was cited for its work on
immigration policy reform. The Zieves were hon-
ored for "bringing media and marketing expertise
to social and community problems."
Mort Zieve was chairman of Simons Michelson
Zieve advertising agency in Troy when he died in
August. He and Mary Lou were longtime support-
ers of the 40-year-old Center for Peace & Conflict
Mort Zieve
Studies. Zieve earned a theater degree at Wayne
and was a WSU Humanity in Arts Award winner.

— Alan Hitsky, associate editor

November 17 2005

spinach isn't a bad
There is the rhyme that
choice, have them think
asks us to ponder what
about having "four and
it would be like if "all
20 blackbirds baked in
the trees were bread
a pie" (a "dainty" dish?)
and cheese"; the one in
or eating "curds and
which a queen is eating
whey," which only spi-
"bread and honey;" the
ders seem to be enam-
same rhyme that has a
ored of.
"pocketful of rye" —
Sy M anetlo
Images of food
definitely on its way to
Edit orial
preparation
abound.
a bakery somewhere,
Assi stant
Humpty Dumpty was
no doubt.
the precursor to the
If you want to sug-
scrambled egg; Polly put the
gest limiting food intake, then
kettle on for tea; and some ran
do not consider Jack Spratt
up and down market places
who, with his wife, managed to
lick the platter clean despite the with "green cheese and yellow
laces." (Someone must have
fact that one ate no fat and the
been looking in the back of the
other, no lean.
fridge.)
If you want to show kids that

Name
Dropping

We want to share the ultimate
in Jewish geography with you.
The Jewish News is on the look-
out for Detroiters with
"famous" relatives.
If you have a family member
who is a well-known sports fig-
ure, celebrity — or maybe
even royalty, contact Shelli
Liebman Dorfman by Monday,
Nov. 21 at (248) 351-5141 or
sdorfman@thejewishnews.com .

SLEMET 'cha Don't Know

Which former University of Michigan football
player's entry into the Canadian Football
League doubled that league's Jewish contin-
gent this year?

—Goldfein

slneuoalv mum' out Joi sAejd
s! u!alsd3
Jolueo geoN pue sowpis3 uoluowp3 out
'130 out u! &Weld qs!mar aniloe onAl /quo jo puooas
out sl i olenPa0
zooz e iinalsd3 uapiteH Aatautf

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