Iraqis go nuts (& other toppings) for ice cream (USA TODAY)

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Iraqis go nuts (& other toppings) for ice cream
Updated 6/1/2006 9:34 PM ET

By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY


By Zaid Sabah, USA TODAY

Ahmed Riyadh, left, serves ice cream cups and sundaes at the Hassan ice cream shop in Baghdad. Ice cream vendors such as the Hassan shop expect to do a brisk business as temperatures climb during summer.

BAGHDAD — A few things are inevitable as Iraq moves from the mild heat of winter into the stifling heat of summer: It will be hot. Electrical grids will whine under the increased demand of millions of air conditioners and air coolers. And Iraqis will eat ice cream.

Baghdad's neighborhoods are peppered with ice cream shops, most of which have outdoor tables or benches for its customers. Clients purchase their cones and cups at the windows, then loiter in the front patios to eat their ice cream. As temperatures climb, the shops fill.

More than just a way to keep cool, ice cream is indulged by Iraqis in the capital as a social exercise, a brief family getaway in a country where violence and chaos keep families indoors for a good part of the day.

"Our children are deprived of most everything else," says Khidei al-Zubari, 35, as he shared a cup of strawberry ice cream with his 3-year-old daughter, Shahad, at the Foqmat ice cream shop in central Baghdad. "The least we could give them is ice cream."


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http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-06-01-ice-cream_x.htm

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Those are some tough, hard ass people.

[rman]

2. chocolate rations are up. nt

[tenshi816]

3. Of course you know that

the wingnuts will take this as a sign that everything's going really well in Iraq. "Look! They've even got ice cream!"

[Art_from_Ark]

4. Is that photo really from Iraq?

Or is it another one of those "everything's fine" photos from Istanbul?