Room for Shadow Wizard and Dan Bron

Shadow Wizard

12:41 PM

@ShadowWizard I'm psychic. Also, stop thinking about me in a bikini, it's weird. — Dan Bron 4 mins ago

lol... but.. what? :D

Also, looks like you were wrong after all, OP replied to Glorfindel.

Dan Bron

Haha, I saw that. Well, the Sight is murky, you know ;)

(And the bikini thing was a joke, in case it didn't land right.)

Shadow Wizard

@DanBron sure it's a joke, just didn't see it coming.... lol

Dan Bron

Of course not, you're not psychic!

Shadow Wizard

12:56 PM

hmm.... now you made me wonder why bikini is called bikini. Does it mean two "kini"? :P

Dan Bron

2:48 PM

It ultimately comes from Mashalese, the language of the polynesian people who inhabited the bikini atoll. They originally called the island "Pikinni" which meant "surface of coconuts". They meant the island was known for having a lot of coconuts all over the ground. But if a bikini the swimsuit isn't a surface for "coconuts", I don't know what is! :)

Also interesting is the guy who named the garment chose "bikini" because that's where the US did an atomic bomb test, an he though the revealing swimsuit would have a similarly "explosive" effect.

Shadow Wizard

@DanBron haha!! lolz... it does have such effect, for sure... :P

Where you quoted that text from?

Dan Bron

Quoted what text? The meaning of "pikini" (the original atoll name)? From this English-Marshallese dictionary:

trussel2.com/MOD/PNP.htm#Pikinni

The history of the word I got from Etymonline (really awesome for quick and colorful etymologies) and Wikipedia.

Shadow Wizard

3:04 PM

@DanBron yeah. Nice find. :)

Where are you from? USA?

Dan Bron

Yeah, New York City. Lived on this tiny island my entire life. How about you?

Shadow Wizard

@DanBron Israel. Lived on this tiny country my entire life. ;)

I was in NY city for a week... 10 years ago.

Dan Bron

I visited Israel once, too. Also for a week :) I saw TV, the dead sea (and that castle over it), and Haifa

Shadow Wizard

What I remember most is the salmon bagel I had every day, in same bakery. :D

Dan Bron

Wait, is Haifa the name of the southern beach? Anyway, that beach area

Shadow Wizard

3:17 PM

@DanBron Masada?

Masada

Masada (Hebrew: מצדה‬ metsada, "fortress") is an ancient fortification in the Southern District of Israel situated on top of an isolated rock plateau, akin to a mesa. It is located on the eastern edge of the Judaean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea 20 km (12 mi) east of Arad. Herod the Great built palaces for himself on the mountain and fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BCE. According to Josephus, the siege of Masada by troops of the Roman Empire at the end of the First Jewish–Roman War ended in the mass suicide of 960 people, the Sicarii rebels and their families hiding there. Masada is one of...

Dan Bron

Hahaha! I remember a bagel I had at the very tip top of Jerusalem, I thought it would be wonderful, but it was terrible!

Yeah, that's it.

Shadow Wizard

@DanBron yeah Israel don't have good bagels. :(

@DanBron Haifa is one of our big cities, in the middle-north of Israel. With a long beach, but not southern.

Dan Bron

I like the giant lamb burrito things. I forget what they're called, but they're heavy and greasy and wonderful. I also had a really good burger at Moses (think it was called Moses). It had several kinds of meat in it.

Hmm. I thought it was south. I know I had to fly there. It had a big boardwalk and lots of fun activities.

Shadow Wizard

Southern beach has several smaller cities near it... Ashdod, Ashkelon, etc.

@DanBron oh... Eilat.

Dan Bron

I may go back soon, I'm applying for a job at an Israeli company.

Yes! Eilat!

Shadow Wizard

3:20 PM

@DanBron yay! Which?

Dan Bron

You also have guidos, like our Jersey Shore.

It's called EverCompliant.

It's a startup, doing anti money laundering (well, anti transaction laundering).

Shadow Wizard

@DanBron never heard of it... but hope you'll get the job. :D

Dan Bron

Really cool tech.

haha, thanks!

Shadow Wizard

@DanBron Shawarma!

Shawarma

Shawarma (; Arabic: شاورما‎), also shaurma and other spellings, is a Middle Eastern meat preparation based on the doner kebab of Ottoman Turkey. Originally made of lamb or mutton, today's shawarma may also be chicken, turkey, beef, or veal, cut in thin slices and stacked in a cone-like shape on a vertical rotisserie. Thin slices are shaved off the cooked surface as it continuously rotates. Shawarma is one of the world's most popular street foods, especially in the countries of the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula. == History == Grilling a vertical spit of stacked meat slices, and cutting it off...

Dan Bron

It's shwarma but wrapped in a flat bread.

Shadow Wizard

3:21 PM

And yes, Moses is one of the best, used to eat there a lot. :)

Dan Bron

We have great shwarma here in NYC. But I can't find the burrito things, because I forget the name. Begins with an L. Let me google.

Shadow Wizard

@DanBron yup, the bread is lafa:

Taboon bread

Taboon bread (Arabic: خبز طابون‎) or Lafah/Lafa (Arabic: لفة‎) is a Middle Eastern flatbread. In Israel it is also called láfa (Hebrew: לאפה‎) or Iraqi pita (Hebrew: פיתה עיראקית‎), and in Jerusalem sometimes esh-tanur (Hebrew: אַשתנוּר‎).It is used as a wrap used in many cuisines. This type of flatbread is traditionally baked in a Tabun oven and eaten with different fillings.Taboon bread is sold as street food, stuffed with hummus, falafel or shaved meat. Taboon bread is a staple of Middle Eastern cuisine worldwide. == Variations == Lafah or Lafa (Arabic: لفة‎) is an Iraqi pita that is of medium...

If you were able to eat whole lafa with Shawarma then kudos, it's huge dish with LOTS of meat... ;)

Dan Bron

oh yes, that's it!

and yes, I was full for what felt like days.

Shadow Wizard

lol

What were you doing in Israel for a week then? @Dan

I was in the USA for three weeks with my girlfriend, who became my wife year later. :)

We spent one week in national parks in the west side of USA, another full week in Vegas then ended with a shopping week in NYC. ;)

Dan Bron

Haha! Nice. The Western parks are amazing. I love them. I did enough time in Vegas that now I never want to go back. Too much of a good thing...

I was in Israel for a friend's wedding. It was on Purim so everyone was wearing costumes, and the groom was held aloft by a dinosaur, pirate, etc. Super duper fun.

I worked at a company once with a bunch of Israelis who then I became very close friends with for a long time. I learned more about the US from them in 10 years than I did in the entire rest of my life, because they were only here for a short time and wanted to do everything American.

Some of my best memories are from Burning Man with that crowd.

Shadow Wizard

3:37 PM

@DanBron lol... nice!! Jewish friend who decided to make "aliya"? (the act of going to live in Israel for good)

Dan Bron

No, other way around. Israelis who came here for work (tech startup) to make money, but then when they had families etc they wanted to move back to TLV to be closer to parents and family.

Shadow Wizard

@DanBron oh... I see. Disregard previous message. ;)

@DanBron yup, that's pretty common. :)

Dan Bron

I grew up in a very Jewish neighborhood, but not Israeli jewish, NY jewish. Plenty of people went on birthright, but only one or two stayed permanently.

What was the most different/strange thing you found about America when you came here?

What seemed super weird to you?

For me in Israel, it was being stuck in traffic behind an actual tank.

Shadow Wizard

@DanBron that's... priceless! :D (and no, it's not common... though happened to me too... ;))

@DanBron to be honest... nothing! That's the nice thing. USA and Israel have very similar cultures, i.e. Israel feels like copy&paste of USA in many ways, just with different people to decorate that culture. :)

Maybe the driving which is opposite side... but that's just technical. :)

Also, I knew in advance what was coming, reading about USA, chatting with people from USA.... we met someone I knew from a forum there, for example. :)

In a small town near San Francisco, I think.

He was 70 years old back then, retired but still worked almost for free for some educational place, and he played some big organ for us. Lovely person... he passed away couple of years later though. :(

Going to buy some groceries in the supermarket now, wish me luck! :D

Dan Bron

3:58 PM

Good luck! Nice chatting with you.

Shadow Wizard

4:29 PM

status-shopping-completed-successfully

:)

Transcript for

Room for Shadow Wizard and Dan Bron