I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, keeping the basic tenets of kashrut but not the letter of the law. Columbus had a couple kosher bakeries, one kosher butcher, and usually one kosher restaurant at a time, which would last a few years, close, and we would wait for another to open up.
But I have never heard of a pizza shop offering – with total sincerity – pizza with real cheese and kosher pepperoni. Now I’ve heard of it, and somehow I wish I hadn’t.
The Charleston Gazette, under the headline “Pizza joint cooks it up kosher,” offers the story of Al ”Some people have wanted pepperoni their whole lives and they never have had the option” Qutub, who indeed gives those who’ve always wanted their treyf pizza made with kosher meat the chance. You can read the whole article here, but really just for the laughter. Lines like “It’s also important to use separate utensils, he said, as he cleaned a pizza cutter to slice a kosher pepperoni pizza with banana peppers,” and “When Qutub makes a kosher pizza, he arranges the toppings so that the cheese covers the kosher meat. Pork has more fat than kosher beef so covering the beef with cheese prevents it from drying up during the cooking process, he said,” make the article flow smoothly, like cheddar cheese sauce over brisket.
Occasionally my family likes to fake it: we get fake shrimp for gumbo or fake meat for tacos, etc. We’ve learned that we much prefer tofu-meat with real dairy than real meat and fake dairy. But this community doesn’t get it: the store owner doesn’t get it, the reporter doesn’t get it, and obviously the editors who stuck it in the paper/on the web don’t get it. Like I said on my friend Joshua’s Facebook page (where I saw this link, thanks!): ew, ew, ew – this is going on my blog – ew, ew.
Discussion Topics
February 3, 2012
My parenthood was planned with Planned Parenthood’s help
This week’s news that Susan G. Komen for the Cure is cutting its allocation (earmarked for breast cancer screenings) to Planned Parenthood is upsetting for many across the country. But it’s particularly upsetting to me, as not only am I a supporter of Planned Parenthood, I am also a former client.
Yes, as a teen I was too embarrassed to ask my mom to take me to get The Pill. My father was gone at that point, but trust me: had he been alive there would have been no approaching him either. But I was appropriately paranoid enough to want to prevent a pregnancy: I had already seen how difficult it was for someone close to me to have a child at 18. She loved her child, and she’s an amazing mom to this day – one that I go to for advice – but it was a rough start that I know she has warned her own daughters away from. So one day after school my high school sweetheart drove me to the Planned Parenthood clinic. From then until I graduated from college, I was a patient for my annual exam and to get discounted birth control pills.
As a result, I never got pregnant when I wasn’t expecting to – at least not until after I was married: Big Girl and Skater are just 20 months apart. But at that point we get to call it a surprise, not an accident or mistake. Paraphrasing the great sage Roseanne Barr, an unexpected child is a “surprise,” because a “mistake” you wouldn’t repeat if you could do it over. Having an unexpected pregnancy threw us for a loop, but of course not nearly the loop it would have been if I had gotten pregnant in high school or college.
From Planned Parenthood 2009-10 annual report
The thing of it is, the money that SGK gave was never for abortions, or even birth control; it was to further their own mission of saving women’s lives. As The Atlantic noted, “[I]t was all — roughly $680,000 last year and $580,000 the year before that — used for breast-cancer screening and other breast-health services for low-income, uninsured, and under-insured women.” So after all the pink ribbons and times I’ve supported friends – and my own daughter – in Walks and Runs for the Cure, I’ll be finding a different outlet to support breast cancer research and prevention.
New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has pledged a match up to $250,00 to replace the funding Planned Parenthood is losing. Please donate some tzedakah along with him and me. Join me in supporting girls’ and women’s health and eventual parental happiness.