Dec 21, 2025
Latkes and fried chicken
seen from Finland
seen from Czechia
seen from Sweden
seen from China
seen from Philippines
seen from Malaysia
seen from Türkiye
seen from Malaysia
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Slovakia
seen from United States
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seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
Latkes and fried chicken
Chag Sameach!
Me: Ah, it is the first night of Hanukkah! Better check when nightfall is and set an alarm.
Me: *googles*
Me: What the hemispherical nonsense is this
[ID: A screencap of my phone browser showing that I have googled “nightfall today” and that the result for Sunday, December 18th in Chicago is 4:53PM, an obscenely early time for there to be no more sunlight.]
Daf Yomi Week 47: Please Render It Null Inside Your Heart
I admit I laughed a little.
It’s late to say Shabbat Shalom, so I will fall back on the joke that never gets old and declare Shevet Shalom, may the peace of dill be upon you, new readers and old.
Perhaps it’s just that I’ve built up some tolerance from Eruvin (and to some extent Shabbat) but Pesachim has been wonderfully invigorating and interesting so far. I haven’t even minded the endless discussion of searching for leaven. It may be because it’s much easier to picture the search for leaven than the intricate architecture of Eruvin.
We are fast approaching the season of light for many world faiths, or as I like to call it, The Season Of Thinkpieces About Hanukkah. It is a time where we not only can be annoyed at how Christianized culture hypes Chanukah, but at the same time be annoyed that Christmas gets fully one quarter of Target’s merchandising space while Hannukah gets an endcap.
My personal tradition is to buy the cheapest, tackiest Khanukkah merch I can find, then wax my insides with chocolate gelt, almost set fire to the inexplicably wooden menorah my mother gave me, and pretend I’m going to fry things this year. I love to fry things and I am actually extremely good at it, but the holiday season is not a time for constantly wiping oil spatters off the stove and kitchen counter. Also to my shame I have to buy the boxed latke mix because long experience has taught me that making latkes from scratch will lead only to my doom. Still. Might make french fries.
340 weeks to go! I also like to spell Channuka differently every time just to confuse and annoy people. My favorite by far is Xanike.
Guess what time it is
It is a lovely morning in first century BCE Judea, and you are a horrible Maccabee goose.
HAPPY HONKA!