Shmini Atzeret & Simchat Torah (weekend overview)

The last weekend of Jewish Holiday Time. As usual, I am ready to have a weekend again. Sometimes I wish the holidays were more spaced out than this; I wonder how much more attention I'd have for the boothy festival if it weren't the rush rush rush to get everything done in the few days after Yom Kippur...

Warning: I got wordy in this.
( Shmini Atzeret )

( Simchat Torah night )

( Simchat Torah morning services; pretty much a rant )

( Rest of Simchat Torah )

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Baby artichokes

A misnomer, apparently, since every artichoke plant puts out one big artichoke and a bunch of smaller ones that never do grow bigger.

Friday I couldn't resist buying some at the supermarket, and they're great. They're much smaller, so more approachable as a vegetable (rather than a course unto itself), or a snack. There are fewer outer leaves, and the inner leaves are wholly edible, except perhaps the very tips. And the choke hasn't developed, so there's not the nuisance of scraping it out, and the mouthful of artichoke heart goodness is there, a tingling on the tongue and a bit of sweet aftertaste.

I don't know how many were in the 2-pound package, but I just finished the last of them now (Hrafn had a couple, but I think I ate the rest, except for one I shared). Yum.

Puppet Slam

I just found out that there's a puppet theater in Newton that has a couple of puppet slams per year (description). This is designated puppet shows for adults, so doesn't have just goatherders or Cinderella...

The next one is December 7. Is anyone interested?
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