Reporters on the Job
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Idiosyncrasies of Iraq: Monitor staffer Howard LaFranchi visited Sadr City several times to complete the reporting for Friday's story about efforts to sow grass-roots democracy in Iraq (
see story). One night, afterwards, he got a haircut and a beard trim, that included removing facial hair with a thread. Now back in the US, he finds himself thinking - and chuckling - about some of the other cultural idiosyncrasies of his trip.
"For example, in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Najaf, and elsewhere in Iraq they place a glass or vase with neatly folded tissues on the table - and that' s your napkin. Finger food is common too, so after downing a plate of hummus, or lamb kabob, or even the delicious masgoof (a grilled fish dish), at the end of a meal you see piles of Kleenexes on a table."
And sometimes, you can "grow" a white beard over a meal. "As The Dallas Morning News reporter Tod Robberson pointed out to me one evening - when I was apparently beginning to resemble St. Nick - the tissue tends to come apart and leave little wisps behind when it's rubbed around on an unshaven face at 7 o' clock in the evening."
Howard met plenty of Iraqis who spoke English, if not always perfectly. "Many Iraqis had an endearing way of using 'hello' interchangeably for 'hello' and 'good-bye.' I got used to hearing the greeting as I was leaving someone, but I'm simply unable to erase the mental picture of the kind desk clerk at my hotel waving to me as I departed and saying, 'Hello Mr. Howard, hello!'"
David Clark Scott
World editor
Cultural snapshot
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IT'S 'MISSDELA,' NOT MANDELA:
The $16 doll named after the former South African president has been so popular since it arrived in stores two weeks ago, that even South African lawmakers are ordering their own.
OBED ZILWA/AP
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