The Lull, part 3

Germany gets dainty: "Germans are unwilling to put themselves in a position where German armed soldiers might have to face, or even shoot, an Israeli soldier," says Shimon Stein, our Ambassador to Germany. But never fear; it looks like we'll have U-boats patrolling the coastline... There is no question that the problem is complex. As a country, we do an enormous amount of trade and business with Germany; as an individual, I have business contacts and colleagues there, and have presented papers and seminars at their technical conferences. But the truth is that while I can intellectually separate the modern German from his fascist past, there is a purely visceral reaction that I cannot control when I see someone of a certain age and wonder, what he was doing 65 years ago? Shoah is a horror too monumental to ever fade from our cultural consciousness.

Estonia gets dusted: Yes, yes, YES! OK, the only goal scored was from our player Roberto Coalutti, who is actually Argentinian, and only got permission to play for us about 20 minutes ago, but hey, blue-and-white is blue-and-white, and we couldn't be happier.

Burston gets bitter: Bradley Burston's column, A Special Place in Hell, is definitely hot this week.

Leah gets SoaPed: We head out last night to see SoaP (Snakes on a Plane, for those of you who have been living in a cave for the past three months). Hey, I'm married to a guy, OK? He still doesn't know which is the salad fork or why certain color combinations produce an instant gag reflex in anyone who isn't fashion-challenged, and if given the choice between a movie where people sit around in restaurants and discuss the meaning of life or a movie where a lot of thing get blown up, he'll pick the latter. I myself am quite partial to movies where animals have a nosh or two. So there we were. With snakes. And Samuel L. Jackson. On a plane. Not much more of a plot and not much acting (a few of the snakes show a better range of emotions than the humans), but if you can manage to check your brain at the door (or at least the rational part that keeps pointing out all the technical inaccuracies and illogical bits), then you can enjoy some insane, unabashed cinematic junk-food. This movie is utter trash, but it knows it, so it spends a lot of time winking and nudging you in the ribs as if to say, "Isn't this appallingly over-the-top? Hey, wanna see something even grosser?" If you are already afraid of flying and scared of snakes, this is definitely the movie for you.

Nadine waddles into my office and sprawls out on a pile of paperwork. SoaP has allowed me to see her with new eyes: she's not just our spoiled pet—she's a potential appetizer. Actually, due to the differences in vowel sounds in the two languages, it is difficult for Hebrew-speakers to distinguish between the hard a in date and the soft a in pack, which means that Gill refers to the movie as Snacks on a Plane. Hmmm. I like it. Maybe someone should talk to New Line Cinema...