Random stuff

It started snowing Friday around 1 P.M. (conveniently timed for lots of people to start their weekend early), and hasn't really stopped yet, though it slowed for a while last night. Cambridge is on its second snow emergency of the weekend. I'm not sure exactly how much snow we've gotten, but it's around a foot, minimum: winter's starting with a bang. Unfortunately, the weather sites are predicting rain later, as well as high winds, so there may be a shiny layer of ice over everything by tomorrow's morning ocmmute. And there's more precipitation in the longer-range forecast, too. Fun times.

Someone worked on an old Onion article to see how much came true during the Bush II administration. It's a bit eerie.

A couple of alternates to hotels when traveling: Servas, couch surfing, and Airbed and Breakfast.

Bread and Puppet is going to be in Boston January 26 to February 1:

The Sourdough Philosophy Spectacle is about the need for human fermentation. Human fermentation concerns those parts of the human body that are not governed by the government, like the guts and the gutsy parts of the brain. In a democracy which teases citizens with the possibility of democracy citizens are raised like military apple orchards, pruned down to their predictable minimums, yielding controlled fruits that lack the ecstasy of nature. Fermented citizens are corrupted by the ecstasy of nature and from that corruption derive strength to corrupt military-orchard citizens.

My kind of adventure travel: Chocolate Week in Belize. There's a 10% discount if you mention the Taza Chocolate Open House, even.

Arrr! Avast, ye mateys! Here's the treasure map. At least, someone's treasure: it's the map of this year's piracy (including attempts).

Realized yet again: erev chag isn't just for Jews. Not only Xmas Eve, but all those leave early Fridays before a holiday weekend, and the day before Thanksgiving, and so on.

Hanukah* starts tonight. I'm pondering latkes for later in the week (I can makes ones that are wholly local!), and hoping to continue my tradition from my second year in Israel, of playing Boggle for the half hour that the candles are lit :-)

* Known aliases include Hanuka, Hanukka, Hannukah, Chanuka, Chanukah, Chanukkah, and Fred. M.O. includes copious use of grease and flames.

Lamed Vavnikim

I read Jonathon Keats' The Book of the Unknown: Tales of the Thirty-Six recently. It's a twist on the usual idea of the Lamed Vavnikim, with stories of 12 who were far from obviously in that elect group, including an idiot, a liar, a gambler, a thief, a cheat, a gambler, a clown, and a murderer among their number. ( spoiler potential within )

Happy Hanukkah!

It's the first night of Hanukah. I lit the first candle, watching it burn in the usual window, but on my desk rather than a filing cabinet. It's going to take a little while to get used to this reconfiguration, however glad I am to have done it.

And once the candle burned out, it was time to go to the Hanukkah party chez Howard and Ethan. I always feel very lucky to be invited to their gathering, seeing people I recognize from previous years' parties (though always forgetting names; I am so horrible about names). This year was no exception, with a fair number of familiar faces that I couldn't put names to. There was still enough to chat about that I didn't meet any of the people I didn't know... maybe I'll meet them next year. I heard about parenting three boys (the oldest of them lit the menorah partway through the evening), how people misuse business cell phones, how bar mitzvot do not have to be a loot fest, stories from a trip to Prague, and how one couple got a farm share this year based on conversation with me at last year's party! They were very happy with their share (which happened to be Red Fire Farm, even); such nachas for me!

As always, the food was excellent: I got to have homemade latkes without heating the oil myself :-), plus the now-traditional sfratti (yes, they're supposed to be for Rosh Hashanah; I'll take them whenever they're offered :-), a variety of excellent cheeses, homemade gravlax, and a quiche-like object with a thin yeasted crust and an interesting filling including egg, spinach, saffron, and pine nuts. Oh, plus homemade baklava (which I managed to eat only one small piece of, amazingly enough).

I walked home, reveling in seeing stars in the dark blue of the night sky, after something like 55 hours of snow.

Bonus Hanukkah track: today's Bent Objects