Fleischmanns and talking mano a mano

There is a town in the Catskills called Fleischmanns, which, loosely translated, means:  meat man.  Likely those with the root "fleisch" in their last name (Fleischer included) were, in the old country, butchers.

1/4/10 *edited to add*:  Why we didn't mention Ari Fleischer is beyond us.  I guess we're just not the politcal type.

And how it is that we just came to learn of the film Zombieland, directed by Ruben Fleischer, isn't too far fetched.  We love Abigail Breslin...as family pholks, we recently watched her in American Girl:  Kit Kittredge.  Joan Cusack was, as usual, superbly entertaining.  No neck brace ala Sixteen Candles, no water fountain, but all of her spunk and pizazz still there.

Back to the Fleisch...

For those of us who grew up Kosher, we are all familiar with Fleischmann's margarine, which as educated consumers now, we believe to be not working towards a positive goal...aside from margarine's proven track record as being bad for the body, they are owned by the corporate conglomerate ConAgra.  Not big fans of corporate food industrialization.  But that's for another day.  Or at least for discussion with the Jew and Carrot folks.

Fleisch = Meat

There is also Fleischmann's Yeast, also owned by a large food conglomerate, albeit smaller-sounding and British-based.

Today we met quite an erudite, helpful man, a real landsman, who grew up in the '40s outside of the town of Fleischmanns.  He is of the JTS-ilk, totally old school seminary style.  Though he said he would never want to go back (he lives comfortably in Manhattan), his upbringing there helped him form solid memories of a good life.  Phone calls were made via picking up their old rotary and connecting to an operator who would then make the connection to a call down in the city.

We were talking about computers that run automobile dashboards.
How they often fail.
How a manual car, with a 6 speed engine and no computer behind it, can run smooth as a whistle for years.
But we need the computers.   We are, indeed, in a digital age, there is no denying that.
But going back to a time when we just connect face to face.

Real, live interactions with our peeps.


Talking about fleisch and meat, did you catch the multi-ethnic Meatstick at MSG on 12/31/10?
Now, *that* is fun stuff!