Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Memo to Salam ( Reflections )

Dear Salam:

This is the first time that I'm commenting on your blog, please don't take my subsequent observation as criticism, or at least if you do think about it as criticism, think like it is a constructive criticism. You need to start hitting the space bar each and every time you use a punctuation mark, for instance if you use a comma-hit the space bar, if use a semi colon-hit the space bar afterwards, if you use a period-hit the space bar, and so on and so forth. By doing so your text will be much clearer for the reader to read, the text will even have a better over all appearance. I read your blog all the time and now that you have settled in your new home you probably have more time to write in a slower pace and hit the space bar after each punctuation mark. Good luck and happy space bar hitting-----Peace.


Here is how your text will look like when the space bar is hit.


Abu Mhammad is the nice old man who works in the parking lot next to my office. He is such a sweet person and his genuine greetings always make my day. "Good morning bash mohandiseh , ya3teeki el 3afieh!" always with a sincere cheerful tone. I have been working in the same place for around 11 years now, I left for around a year and half, during which we lived abroad and during which I had my daughter. A couple of years ago, after having my son and returning from my maternity leave, he congratulated me on having a baby boy, he kept repeating how glad he was that it's a boy, and it was all very sweet of him. Every few days he'd ask me again, how is "the boy" doing , and never ask about "the girl". I used to think it's all very natural since this is the latest, most recent,event that happened to me and he's checking on him alone for that reason only. After two years of the same routine,where he only asked about Zaid and never Raya, I started wondering if he knew I had another child. I was puzzled and wanted to know if this was the case , or is it because he is an old man , who comes from somewhere where your mother's name is the best -well -kept secret in your life, where your wife is never referred to by her name but is called (el 3aileh-the family)or (el jama3a-the group)and where daughters are always called by the same term,even on their wedding invitations, the name is always (kareematoho-his daughter)written below the fathers name!. My curiosity took the better of me and I had to ask him:

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOOOL! you do have a point, but please don't take offense in me getting a kick out of this memo ..but I find it hilarious!

LOOL!

Hatem Abunimeh said...

Iman,
Why should I take offense! thanks for stopping by my blog! I read your fresh air all the time, I'll be commenting on it real soon.

Oula said...

God i also found this very hilarious... hehehe... reminds me of school days for some reason!

Anonymous said...

Inspite of the fact that you are really rubbing it in, and in spite of the fact that you are really making fun of my skills, I still need to thank you for dedicating a whole post to my blog.Do you notice my space bar hitting?
And, by the way, I have moved to my new house ages ago, BUT I have still not settled down. I hope that by next year I will be able to afford 7 more seconds each post to make sure I hit the space bar more often!

Hatem Abunimeh said...

Salam,
I'm really sorry that you think that I'm rubbing it in because I'm not, I'm also not making fun or anything like that. Believe me I did it for your own good and it didn't come out whimsically, I had to think about it for months, I was hoping that you would notice it on your own or somone other than my self would mention it to you, but it didn't happen and I finally gathered enough courage to say it. I was hoping that it gets posted on your blog but when the day was drawing near the end of it and I still didn't see it getting posted , I went a head and turned it into a post of my own. But whatever you think please don't think that the intent was to make fun of it because that isn't true at all. Thank you for hitting the space bar though.

Hatem Abunimeh said...

oula,
O' please Stay out of it, you are already a journalist and we are still journalists wanna be after a quarter of century of writing. Can you see our plight, it is turning into blight.Kkkkkk55555555555555. :)----

Anonymous said...

Hatem,I did not publish it immediately because I check my mail from my mobile and can't use it in Jeeran to publish comments.I have no internet or phone at home..so anyways..advice is well taken, thank you!

Hatem Abunimeh said...

Salam,
You are welcome. Now that I have a little more time to review the whole episode, I could have sent you a private email but I was afraid that it is going to be misconstrued as something personal when in reality it is not. That is why I did it out in the open-- Any way I hope that it is Safi ya laban now. Again, there was no malicious intent of any kind, none whatsoever. On the contrary, I do enjoy reading through your blog. Regards.

Anonymous said...

Hatem you have been tagged :
http://halataha.jeeran.com/archive/2006/12/126854.html