Etc.

Update on Shackling and Hoisting
On April 14, I blogged about PETA's latest investigation of a kosher slaughterhouse that practices shackling and hoisting. On Thursday, YNet reported that the office of Israeli Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger responded to the investigation by saying, "The Rabbinate recently convened all the meat importers in Israel and notified them that they will no longer be allowed to import meat slaughtered using this method, and that the plants must switch to the boxing method, which minimizes animal suffering. Currently, following a period of adjustment in which the slaughterhouses made arrangements to carry out the new orders, the Rabbinate is prepared to enforce the new directive."

As I just wrote in a post about this matter on The Jew & The Carrot, "This new statement seems encouraging, but then again, so did the one in 2008."

Veggie Conquest Follow-Up
Last week, I wrote about Veggie Conquest 4, in which my friend Sherri competed. Both Sherri and I are featured in Our Hen House's 19-minute video about the event. I told Our Hen House, "I'm here at Veggie Conquest 4, and I made Swedish-Style Charoset at Veggie Conquest 3. I really wanted to attend last time, but it was all sold out and the only way to get in was to be a chef. So I looked for inspiration to my favorite chef, Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show; dressed up as him; and made a Passover dish Swedish (really not doing anything different to it) and had by far the worst dish there. But I got in for free and got to eat some amazing food, so it was all worth it."

Vegan Dance If You Want To featured a firsthand account from one of the other contestants. Veggie Conquest's blog featured a wrap-up post as well as recipes for the winning dish and the runner-up.

Matthue Roth's 1/20
In January, heebnvegan featured an interview with Matthue Roth. He discussed the film 1/20, for which he wrote the screenplay.

Last week, Roth opened up about the movie on his blog. He said, "It's not Jewish -- well, not flagrantly. None of the main characters are -- all the characters are collaborations between me and the director and the actors, and I think we all squeezed a lot of our spirituality/religion/punkitude into them. Ayako, who plays the lead character, is the kind of brilliant that shatters glass from miles away when she's angry, and spreads love pheromones to people two counties away. ... It's pretty flagrantly punk, though. You'll see as soon as I'm allowed to show the movie poster -- Ayako's hair is an art piece. An art piece that's 18 inches tall."