And feeling whiny. I shouldn’t complain—working part-time with so many children, most of them aged 9-12, I’m lucky I don’t get sick more often. It still sucks, though!

Being sick has taught me one thing: namely, that I probably need not fear osteoporosis. I am trying to avoid dairy products to help clear my sinuses, and I just can’t. There seems to be almost nothing I like to eat that doesn’t have, either in it or on it, some kind of dairy: milk, cream, cheese, sour cream, cream cheese, yogurt… mmm.

On the bright side, I just got a new (to me) fridge. My dad does home renovations, especially kitchens, and his clients quite often give away fairly new appliances. (Which is why I have a dishwasher, and why I was able to replace the chartreuse stove hood, a relic of the 1970’s, which used to be in my kitchen.) The new fridge is very nice, and about 30 years newer than the old fridge. Also it does not have fake wood handles, always a plus in my opinion!

The London Review of Books has an interesting article about how Israeli journalists use words to manipulate public perception of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The author, Yonatan Mendel, himself a former Israeli reporter, makes some intriguing points:

In most of the articles on the conflict two sides battle it out: the Israel Defence Forces, on the one hand, and the Palestinians, on the other. When a violent incident is reported, the IDF confirms or the army says but the Palestinians claim: ‘The Palestinians claimed that a baby was severely injured in IDF shootings.’ Is this a fib? ‘The Palestinians claim that Israeli settlers threatened them’: but who are the Palestinians? Did the entire Palestinian people, citizens of Israel, inhabitants of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, people living in refugee camps in neighbouring Arab states and those living in the diaspora make the claim? Why is it that a serious article is reporting a claim made by the Palestinians? Why is there so rarely a name, a desk, an organisation or a source of this information? Could it be because that would make it seem more reliable?

Whatever you think of the conflict itself, Mendel presents some great examples of how word choice influences reader opinion. I really wish the article was appropriate for some of my students, because it shows the importance of some of the stuff I’m trying to teach them (namely about how tone, mood, and style can affect what a reader takes away from a piece of writing.)