Saturday, June 21, 2008

On a scale of 1 to 5...

Once every few days it seems I get a call from a poll taker. They're not interested in my political opinions. They want to know how I spend my money: what kind of frozen vegetables do I buy, how much cola, did I see the ad featuring the practically nude model selling kosher wine spritzer? They say the poll will only take 10 minutes. Of course that's 10 Israeli minutes for native Hebrew speakers. For me, having to have every question repeated 2 to 7 times, it balloons to the better part of the evening.

I always try to be nice. I respect that this person has a job to do and it's not his/her fault that I've just added the spaghetti to the water. This last time the pollster promised it would only take 1 minute. How could I refuse? True to her word, this poll consisted of only two questions. Did I favor a new coastal road which would cut through the only decent park in the area, or did I prefer upgrading and expanding the existing road? A no-brainer, I thought, fix the road we've already got and keep your grubby mitts off our park. Did I think the head of the municipality should push for this option in Jerusalem? Well yeah, it's about time he did something useful.

Then come the dreaded statistical questions. My age, education and marital status, I don't care who knows. My income? "I'm a kibbutznik." Sometimes the pollster doesn't understand what this means and still wants me to pick a number. "But I'm a kibbutznik. I have no income."

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