The amount of Hello Kitty religious tat on the market is not limited to the unofficial, it seems. For example, here is a Hello Kitty Cross Rosary pendant for sale on a Japanese Sanrio web site. The cross is about 3.0 x 3.2 cm in size and is made of sterling silver with a rhodium finish. Four cubic zirconia stones are placed in the centre of the flowers. It comes with a 50cm chain, and costs a mere ¥9,800 (approximately £45).
But that's not all. Look what Hello Kitty Hell found: a blinged out Hello Kitty cross, with diamante everywhere and a Kitty head that swings in front. No news on whether it sings Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, but it ought to.
But Kitty's for everyone, not just Christians. Again, unlikely to be official product is this Hello Kitty yarmulke:
Red Wolf mailed me a most interesting link over the weekend, highlighting a pair of iPhone apps of interest to observant Jews with a food fetish.
iBlessing ... shows a plate filled with food--no traif, of course. Clicking on the meat, fruit, bread, wine, etc., brings up the blessing you should say over the item in question. The app has additionalbonus blessingsas well, for events like hand washing and the after meal grace.
The other application is of no use to vegan Jews whatsoever, being to do with the prohibition on eating meat and dairy together.
ParveOMeter, counts down the amount of time until you can eat dairy after meat and vice versa. The milk to meat setting is customisable depending on how kosher you are (zero minutes to an hour), but the meat to milk timer keeps ticking for six whole hours. The app keeps you on track too, since there is no easy way to manually stop the timer.
But there's others, that Gizmodo chose not to highlight! KosherMe is
... a beautiful Bentscher for your iPhone. It puts the Blessings ("Brachot") you should say before and after eating something (including Birkat Hamazon) right at your fingertips.
Additionally KosherMe contains a (growing) number of wonderful prayers and blessings, e.g. the Complete Bedtime Shma, Tfillat Haderech and other useful blessings.
Then there's Siddur:
Take your weekday siddur with you with this feature-packed Jewish prayer book. You'll get Ashkenaz, Sfrard and Sefarad Mizrachi versions of davening, including weekday Shacharis, Mincha, Maariv, standard Brachos and more. Real time Zmanim will give you the prayer times for each day based on your location determined with the iPhone's GPS. A Minyanim database will help you find nearest shul. A Luach or Jewish Calendar will aid you in your prayer services.
... and Tehilim, which is a mobile version of the Psalms. Just remember to not use any of these between sunset Friday and sunset Saturday.
iBlessing and ParveOMeter iPhone Apps Make You a Kosher Keeping Mensch—Gizmodo Australia, 18th August 2008.
Want to celebrate both your Jewish religious heritage and your Scottishness, both at once? Well, never fear, for Official Jewish Tartan is here.
The official Jewish Tartan is an authentic Scottish tartan created by Heritage Experts and Rabbis...
Initiated by Rabbi Mendel Jacobs (pictured above) - the only Scottish born Rabbi living in Scotland, it's 100% Kosher - being a non wool-linen mix, and as it incorporates many aspects of Scottish-Jewish cultural and religious history, it is the perfect representation of our heritage.
If your heritage
is based on mixing up religious and national identities merrily, that is.
In the tartan design we have blue and white the colours of both the Israeli and Scottish flags with the central gold line representing the gold from the Ark in the Biblical Tabernacle and the many ceremonial vessels. The silver is to represent the silver that adorns the Scroll of the Law and the colour red is for the traditional red Kiddush wine.
Tonight is the first night of Chanukah, so it's too late to buy any of this year's delightful items from JewishSource. Here are the Prattle's favourites, though.
Stunning crystal draydel has pewter accents and is etched with the four Hebrew letters traditionally used during the game of draydel. Unscrewing the draydels top reveals a dauber and a small cavity in which perfume can be stored.
Inflatable lawn display can be used indoors or out. Colorful menorah exclaims ''Happy Chanukkah'' to all who can see it.... Display is illuminated internally for nighttime light shows.I'm afraid this one looks like it's giving your neighbours the finger.
Celebrate Chanukkah with Mickey Mouse and his friends.
The chanukkiah depicts Mickey and Minnie playing the traditional draydel game.
Oh, lighten up! Okay, maybe it's a little over-the-top, but we think it adds to the fun of the holiday.
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about special religious models of phones, and I have to say that I sympathise with the rabbi who requested a phone suitable for Ultra-Orthodox Jews:
Cellphone companies, at the time, had started to load their products with entertainment features, and the rabbi wanted none of it. He was in search of a phone without Internet capabilities or text messaging. He didn't want cameras, music downloading, or anything else that coulddistractthe pious. He was looking for a device that could make and receive calls. Period.
The article goes on to discuss Christian ringtones, and other tacky services aimed at Christians, then onto phones which include features useful to Muslims:
Dubai-based Ilkone Mobile Telecommunication in 2005 launched a phone in the Middle East with an internal compass that tells users the direction of Mecca, where Muslims face when they pray. Ilkone, which comes from the Arabic word for "universe," also equips its phones with a Hijri, the Gregorian calendar, and alerts users to prayer times with an alarm that features an actual muezzin's voice. It also has a complete version of the Quran, with an English translation.
Me, I want a phone which can be used anywhere in the world, is good at phoning and texting, with the ability to store lots of numbers, has no camera, no Microsoft and no other extraneous crap. Is this too much to ask? Oh yes, and a loop from which to hang Hello Kitty dangly things.
New Cellphone Services Put God on the Line—Wall Street Journal, March 26th 2006. (Thanks, Fluff the Plush Cthulhu)