In one of the more awkward moments surrounding the disclosure of his Jewish heritage this week, Senator George Allen, Republican of Virginia, volunteered that his background had hardly inspired him to start keeping kosher. “I still had a ham sandwich for lunch,” Mr. Allen told The Richmond Times-Dispatch, referring to rules against eating pork, “and my mother made great pork chops.”
Shana tova.
2 comments:
Oh good lord, I need to get to work. But I just reread my post (narcist much?) and noted the weird wayward mouse problem. Again.
He of course says nothing about whether his mother ate the pork. With virtually any other senator, I'd say Allen's omission was deliberate lawyerspeak aiming to preserve plausible deniability; but Allen, like Stevens and Coburn, is someone who's not quite bright enough to do something so nimble.
Which is not to say that he can't be parsed.
I'm reminded of the Adam of Bristol ritual murder story. The murderer's sister feeds a party of Irish priests, but has to keep her Jewishness secret.
“Quales carnes vultis habere ad edendum?”
Cui sacerdos: “O domina, carnes porcinas.”
Et illa: “Carnes porcine non sunt bone nec sane in hac urba, quia plene sunt lepra et commedunt stercora hominum in plateis. Set dabo vobis carnes bovinas, et .3es. gallinas crassas vobis et nobis.”
“What sort of meat do you wish to have to eat?”
The priests replied, “O mistress, pork.”
She said, “Pork isn't good or healthy in this town, since it is measly/leprous and they {the pigs} eat human excrement in the street. But I will give you beef and three fat chickens for you and your retinue.”
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