{"id":1111,"date":"2009-04-16T11:08:19","date_gmt":"2009-04-16T16:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/?p=1111"},"modified":"2014-04-16T07:06:52","modified_gmt":"2014-04-16T12:06:52","slug":"notta-lotta-matzo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/04\/notta-lotta-matzo\/","title":{"rendered":"Notta Lotta Matzo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Passover ends at sundown today, its eighth day. Just before the festival week of Pesach began, local stores that carry some kosher products year-round — and a few more items come early spring — began running out of unleavened bread. Again.<\/p>\n

Must be those Christians.<\/p>\n

Northwest Arkansas only has a few Jews, who surely are grateful for the number of stores that carry daily foods and ritual ones as well. It should be hard for them to sell out just on us.<\/p>\n

In recent years, increasing numbers of churches hold community seders or encourage congregants to host them at home. That’s the festival dinner celebrated on either the first or second night that showcase foods (a few store-bought, many homemade) for their symbolic value. A seder<\/a><\/span> for them teaches the historic and theologic beginnings of Christianity, the Jewish roots.<\/p>\n

The Gentiles just might like the taste of matzo, too.<\/p>\n

I enjoy store-bought matzo just enough to buy it at this time of year and perhaps one more box in the fall. I prefer making matzo at home<\/a><\/span>, although traditionalists deem that unacceptable for Passover’s extra-kosher standards. Tough. Yet I need boxes of the plain crackers from stores to tide me over the entire eight days, and this year for the first time my house, Shady Hill, has run out. E-mails from friends say they have a few leftover boxes, but I’d rather do without and prove here the market demand.<\/p>\n

It seems a contradiction that for most of this week groceries and even drug stores have displayed discount shelves loaded with extra Easter candy. Every year they overbuy, and every year I take advantage of the post-holiday surplus. This week, egg-shaped Whoppers malted milk balls caught my eye. Often available all the way to the end of the week after Easter are those bland pastel Peeps<\/a><\/span>, odd, given their hype.<\/p>\n

Too many leftover Easter treats and too little unsalted, unleavened crispy flatbreads. Maybe the country is improving its health. We’d like to think that sweets marked down 50 percent also are half the calories, but matzo genuinely is low.<\/p>\n

If you look at their packages, top-brand Easter candies (Hershey, Cadbury, Mars) are everyday kosher with that K or a circle-U printed on the box. Even for Jews like me who do not keep kosher, we appreciate the extra steps that requires.<\/p>\n

The taste of irony is sweet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Passover ends at sundown today, its eighth day. Just before the festival week of Pesach began, local stores that carry some kosher products year-round — and a few more items come early spring — began running out of unleavened bread. Again. Must be those Christians. Northwest Arkansas only has a few Jews, who surely are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brick-bats-reportage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5334,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2016\/03\/onion-whole-foods-emerson\/","url_meta":{"origin":1111,"position":0},"title":"Teen Score and Whole Foods Ago, An Onion","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Shy of a Load A\u00a0longtime Onion fan, I had to see\u00a0Scott Dikkers, an early editor and former, longtime owner of the satiric website. He spoke March 10 at the University of Arkansas. About a hundred people attended the midweek evening lecture, which the sponsoring\u00a0Honors College publicized widely. Also compelling me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Shy of a Load"","block_context":{"text":"Shy of a Load","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/items\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The knobs on the amp of guitarist \"Nigel Tufnel\" go to 11 not 10. 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Pollock","date":"September 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Shy of a Load: Guns, Memoir and Comedy It's been nine days since guns became technically legal at Arkansas colleges and universities (and some other places) when carried by holders of enhanced concealed weapon state permits, and no one's been shot on campus. That includes a major football game. Heck,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Shy of a Load"","block_context":{"text":"Shy of a Load","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/items\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sign on Maple Street in the University of Arkansas, still up after Sept. 1, 2017. Ben Pollock photo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/gun-sign-ua-0917-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":296,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/03\/peanut-tiest-dogs-and-cats\/","url_meta":{"origin":1111,"position":3},"title":"Peanut-tiest Dogs and Cats","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We go around on things like this, My Beloved and I: Consumer Reports likes the Great Value ground decaf. Not the whole bean and not the regular coffee, where the magazine prefers Eight O'Clock whole bean. The Wal-Mart house brand Great Value in other foods seems very much like the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2483,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/11\/lightening-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":1111,"position":4},"title":"Lightening Up","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"On my most recent big trip, I was struck by lightening. Right, not lightning. I walked hours through a city I did not know with my trusty laptop carrier. It was after a daylong conference. Compared to most briefcases, day packs or messenger bags, the canvas Domke Reporter's Satchel is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5740,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2017\/08\/crystal-clear-strategy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1111,"position":5},"title":"Crystal Clear Strategy","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"DATELINE MIRTHOLOGY -- \"All it takes is patience, Ben. When you're right, sooner or later the world sees things your way,\" Crystal Britches said of Fayetteville. I set up an interview to hear what she thought of the football stadium's new clear bag rule. 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