Rebecca's Galactic Goodies

What's the first "big news story" you remember from when you were a kid?

It's something I love to ask mixed-aged groups sometimes because I think it's really interesting to see the responses. I've gotten answers from the Olympics of [whatever year] to Watergate to more recent stuff from my niblings.

Since it was placed earlier this week, community members have expressed anger about the Lake Theater and Cafe’s marquee advertising screenings of Christopher Nolan’s new film “The Odyssey.”

The south-facing marquee reads “Before there were the Jews, there was… The Odyssey.”

The reference has concerned many in the local Jewish community, specifically because of the current political environment in which the Jewish community faces heightened criticism — and bigotry — following escalating violence in occupied Gaza, and many feel that the marquee is antisemetic and ahistorical.

Bob Horenstein, The Jewish Federation of Greater Portland chief community relations and public affairs officer, said the federation has received dozens of messages from concerned community members. The Review also received many emails expressing concerns and many people have posted on social media about it.

“There’s drawing attention, and then there’s being offensive … What I wrote to (Lake Theater) yesterday was, we’d received over three dozen (email and calls) at least that members of our community feel very unsettled by the sign and I said we do not know the reason behind the choice of language, nor are we suggesting that there is necessarily any ill intent,” he said. “But to understand that, given the current climate of rising anti-Semitism, any reference to ‘the Jews’ is immediately suspected, rightly or wrongly, of having nefarious intentions, and that we would respectfully urge you to remove the current language and simply promote the movie.”

Jordan Perry, the general manager of the Lake Theater, said the marquee text would be taken down.

In a text message, he said the point of the remark was to push back on what is constituted as antisemitism and said he was surprised by the negative reaction it has received.

“My intention is never to influence opinion or fan flames, but to say: it’s okay to raise eyebrows, though I hope my messages reflect a depth of understanding others find in themselves but not always in the world around them,” said Perry by text message. “Through the media I consume, I believe modern-day antisemitism is exaggerated, mostly as a defense for Israel’s actions in the Middle East and its involvement in our politics, and my intention in referencing Jewish people on the marquee was to prod at everything being seemingly antisemitic with a statement that couldn’t possibly be construed as antisemitic.”

He added: “My intention was not to offend anyone, but rather to push back culturally back on what constitutes antisemitism, to signal, in solidarity, that it’s not about ‘the Jews,’ that it’s about Israel, and Palestine, and Lebanon, and Iran, and AIPAC. This is my ‘humor,’ this was the point, intentionally subtle, of what I put on the marquee.”

Perry added that the marquees reflect his personal views, not those of the business, and are “meant to connect with open-minded members of the community on a personal level, not as a business, and anyone coming to the business should only expect good food and drink, a relaxing environment, friendly staff, with a sort-of cynical guy sometimes behind the register who also runs food and cleans toilets.”

Rabbi Eve Posen, of Congregation Nevah Shalom, connected the marquee with accusations by members of the U.S. Congress that Israel is committing genocide in Palestine and said that a member of the community’s car was recently vandalized with swastikas.

“None of the individual moments, taken on their own, would necessarily warrant a public reflection. We live in a world where people disagree. We debate policy. We challenge history. We confront acts of hatred. But when these moments come one after another, layering upon one another in the span of a single day, they tell a story that is impossible to ignore,” Posen wrote via social media.

She also felt that there was no good reason for the Lake Theater to bring up the Jewish community while advertising the new film.

“The statement is historically false. More importantly, it raises a painful question: why invoke Jews at all? A clever movie promotion could have celebrated one of the oldest stories ever told without unnecessarily positioning Judaism as an afterthought or a comparison. In a moment when antisemitism is already at historic levels, casually inserting Jews into a narrative where we do not belong doesn’t feel harmless. It feels like another reminder that our story is somehow expendable, that our history can be rewritten or diminished for the sake of a punchline,” she wrote.

The north-facing marquee also referenced the new movie with the message, “Do you watch TV w/ subtitles? We’ve got The Odyssey w/ subtitles! (Not always, but sometimes).”

Many people commented that the story of The Odyssey – Homer’s original Greek epic passed down through an oral tradition – isn’t definitively older than evidence of Israelite tribes in ancient Canaan.

He's literally facing prison in the not-so-distant future for his criminal acts of corruption.

Netanyahu has been indited and faced multiples charges of fraud, breach of public trust, bribery and other corruption charges. This has been extensively covered in the Israeli press. He is wildly unpopular - both for his corruption as well as for many other bad policies and views that are unpopular. It's why there have been mass protests against him (a much bigger percent of Israel's population protests him than the percent of the US population that has shown up to protest Trump) and why he is so unpopular (his approval rating in Israel is way lower than Trump's in the US, but he is able to remain in power because Israel has a more complex, more European style electoral system than the US has).

In fact, had Hamas, the terrorist dictatorship that controls Gaza, not invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, slaughtered and raped thousands of Israelis men, women and children, and started a ruinous war, Netanyahu would probably already be in jail. He has been involved in corruption scandals for years and would have lost power and been in prison by now, but the horrific attack and mass murder and subsequent war put everything on hold.

Of course, the charges that he is facing are just what they've been able to get him for so far, just like in the case of Trump or other corrupt politicians, a lot of times there are more criminal acts than the ones that there is enough evidence to prosecute for.

New Jersey Turnpike, New Jersey, USA

17jr sat down in front of the BFL cam -- she is so fluffy!!

Panel 1: A figure is turned away from the viewer and text around them says "Sometimes, I think I'm hard to love. My body doesn't work like it's supposed to"

Panel 2: Three sections. In the first the figure is looking at a chart confused and upset, labelled "I forget things". In the second they are walking using the cane and looking tired, labelled "I move slow". In the third, they are bending down with back pain to pick up a pencil and it is labelled "It hurts to do things most people do easily".

Panel 3: The cat is looking at the viewer, labelled "My cat's body also doesn't work like it's supposed to"

Panel 4: A similar 3-section layout. The cat is looking away from its food bowl, confused, labelled "He doesn't remember things". The cat then jumps and lands face-first, labelled "He's clumsy". Finally, he is stretching up to a window but can't reach it and it says "He can't do things that other cats can do".

Panel 5: The figure is holding the cat with their foreheads together and a heart above them, labelled "And I love him so much"

Panel 6: The cat is asleep on the figure's lap as they pet him, looking down at him considering and unsure. It is labelled "So maybe it's not too hard to love me".

this is not life-threatening, but also who wants weeks of diarrhea and a fucking parasite in them lol. if you suspect you've already had this and it's passed, i would see a doctor. you might need an antiparasitic anyway. if you're actively sick, see a doctor and they might be able to prescribe medication to help you get over it faster.

try to avoid eating raw vegetables, scrub fruit with a produce brush and rinse thoroughly with water. again, don't bother with premade greens or bagged salads. if you buy lettuce, remove the outer 2-3 layers of leaves.

Only high temperatures will kill cyclospora. It resides in what is like a shell, which is highly resistant to water and most cleaning chemicals. The substance it uses to cling to food is so strong we don't even fully know what its limits are. It may be best to avoid fruits and veggies you can't cook. Scrubbing only works if done hard enough and on foods with no hiding places (Like cucumbers and grapes). Peeling the skin off is your best bet at avoiding it however, scrubbing is not guaranteed.

the comment is the most succinct explanation as to why this conflict has caused such an explosion of antisemitism in Ireland and how badly misinterpreted the history is.