Holidays

To all of our Jewish readers, Hag Hanukkah Sameach. This is the first night of Chanukkah, that minor holiday that got blown out of proportion due to marketing. Since Christmas got marketed to kids' greed, Chanukkah had to be so marketed as well.

Fundamentally, Chanukkah is a historical holiday. Although the clebration commemorates a supposed miracle (the use of one day's worth of oil for a full 8 days needed to purify the Temple) the underlying meaning is historical.

The ancient nations of Israel and Judah (probably never originally one nation despite what the bible says...though this is not definitively proven) had long ago been destroyed by Assyria and Babylon. They had been violently wiped from existence. Israel had believed in a multitude of shrines, the original Jewish way of worshipping, supposedly dating back to Abraham. But once Israel was destroyed, Judah did its best to centralize all worship in the Jeruselum Temple. So when Babylon razed that Temple and exiled the eleite of Judah, it was possibly the most traumatic experience in Jewish history at least up to that date. Though in the long and frequently traumatic history of the Jews, that may just be a matter of how the media spun the event.

Bottom line was, Judaism was slated for extinction by the Babylonian government. Arguably, Judaism was saved by the take over of Babylon by Persia. Babylon was the more brutal conqueror. Persia, despite the bad press it got from the Greeks who hated them, was among the most tolerant empires of history. They basically let local populations do whatever they wanted as long as they paid their taxes and provided troops for the army. To the jews this was liberation. They were given free reign, allowed to return from exile and allowed to rebuild their Temple. Persia was the good guy in much of the Eastern Medeterranean. Their religion, Zoroastrianism, didn't require conquered populations to adhere, so people could basically believe what they want and do what they want...as long as the Emperor got all the resources he needed to do what HE wanted.

Years ago I was proud to have contributed to an upstart young Latina Democrat in one of the most conservative corners of the nation, Orange County California, defeating an incumbent right wing nut case Republican named Bob "B-2" Dornan. I donated to Loretta Sanchez's original campaign where she defeated Dornan, and I contributed to her first re-election which finally convinced Dornan that a hispanic woman Democrat really did defeat him. Now Loretta is solidly established in Congress and I never regretted supporting her. I even supported her sister, Linda Sanchez, when she successfully ran for Congress in another district in California.

This past year may be my most political year yet. I have thus wound up, due to various donations, connections, blogging, etc., wound up receiving dozens of holiday cards from politicians all around the nation. I think Loretta Sanchez's card was my favorite and one of the funniest. Gotta love someone who can break the stuffy mold of Congress:

Why I got nothing for Christmas?

Well, because I don’t want anything. Really. No I haven’t achieved some late in life mystical alternative state of reality or anything I just don’t want anything. I have a roof over my head, enough (too much?) to eat, few future goals I have real passion for and too many toys I don’t use now.

My Car is a 1991 Mercedes 300TE Station wagon thatb runs well enough and when I’m forced to travel all the rentals make me wish I were back driving mine instead of the 06, mitsufordhonda SUV that I bang my head getting into and handles and drives like a dump truck. Oh yeah, my car gets 24 MPG which is better than the average new car. I don’t care to get into the neighborhood competitive holiday gifting by having them observe what shiny new piece of multi-national assembly sits by my curb with a big red bow on the roof even if it’s in my favorite color and I even did ask for anything shiny this year. Oh BTW, singing the most dreadful song from the worst musical ever produced about a bunch of singing Bavarian elite refugees doesn’t motivate me to obtain a car named after a lunch meat in Korea. So forget cars.

I own may favorite guitars already. One a 57 reissue strat can quack which is all anyone can ask from a Fender and I’ve already modified so it doesn’t hum like a Theremin (I knew that BSEE degree would come in handy some day) and set it up with Roland guitar Synth. My Gibson ES 347 (like BB Kings Lucille with simpler electronics and much hotter pick ups) is one that companies most underestimated axes and is simply way too hot for the desires of most humbucker users who are searching for that muddy sound they so love. My 1973 Guild D44 was made from a pear tree whose wood has long ago been consumed for production leaving only mine and the few lost equals in the universe with a sound quality that defeats that of other acoustic guitars I’ve played with price tag 10 times what I laid out. I searched for an acoustic like that for twenty five friggin years with that sound. You get that guitar from my cold dead hand. A couple of others fill in the gaps for old timey sounds etc but those are my triumvirate. Add on a decent Yamaha keyboard and a project studio I built and my instrument cup runneth over.

'Tis been the season of home-made, gluten-free and cow-dairy-free goodies like kashkaval and manouri cheese pizza, vegetarian lasagna with chevre, virgin mojitos, soy nog, pumpkin cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and chocolate sprinkle butter cookies.

'Tis been the season of 10 hours straight of Halo, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2, Happy Gilmore followed by Monster House, a round of Life game a-la Pirates of the Caribbean, new digital cameras, a scooter, Bionicles, felt reindeers and my son learning how to knit with needles.

'Tis been the season for the guys first shopping experience for me wherein they wisely chose a "Hello Kitty" bathrobe because I'd look cute in it (and they know I like all things Hello Kitty).

'Tis been also the season of explaning to the kids why we enjoy so much the mythology of Jesus even though we don't believe in the christian concept of god.

All in all, 'tis been a good, calm, quiet season (but for Tara's story, crickey).

I guess it helps that I've given my kids the biggest gift of all ... mommy without a computer on her lap for more than 48 hours ... and home-made goodies.

So my plan for a shortcut backfired a bit.

It's now my third year buying kosher turkeys for Thanksgiving. The best birds of any kind you can buy are kosher because "koshering" is the closest thing to brining. Kosher meats are usually plump and succelent.

They are also salty if you include salt in your season. Of course, I totally forgot that little detail this year.

Let's say, I will be retaining a lot of water for the next couple of weeks.

Oh well.

Yet, given the sage-thyme-rosemary-oregano-garlic butter I slathered therein said bird, may I say my salty bird totally kicked ass.

Oh. Yes. Indeed.

My imagination was captivated when I came across someone's account of a quite civil "luncheon" strategy, the notion of inviting famously opposed partisans to sit together for a few hours across a social (not bargaining) table with their charming hostess, and make not only eye contact but real conversation.

The point wasn't to resolve major controversy or hit any other measurable outcome target per se, just to create a context conducive to a civil (if not cordial) relationship, from which future conversations and constructive ideas might spring.

I don't even remember now who the opponents were in the column I happened to see, or its author, but it inspired me last summer as the Fourth of July approached and public education tempers were once again hotter than blazes.

Oh, and "MisEducation" was an author's alter ego I created from desperation years ago and patterned on Judith Martin's Miss Manners persona, when I couldn't find anyone to HAVE a civil and creative conversation with me about education cultures, much less actually go to lunch!

MisEducation's Mind Field of the Moment:
Fourth of July Lessons of Freedom

Liza gave us little plastic bricks rather than edible eggs and peeps for Easter, but now the Pastafarians present (entirely in Legos) the amazing Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster!

Thus edible faith has now been rendered in the true building blocks of the universe, Legos, which although not edible, do multiply miraculously like the symbolic foods of the faithful -- Legos are limitless fishes and loaves in every room of OUR house, how about yours?

I've always had transcendent faith in food as holy, in chefs and chocolatiers as divine. My own most enduring ritual of faith is devouring human creativity in any form it presents itself. I'm not such an omnivore as Anthony Bourdain and his extreme cuisine -- his favorite eggs are the eggs of sea urchins, not exactly conducive to the traditional holiday rituals I know! -- but I do enjoy a variety of foods and well-rendered cultural infusions and combinations, and as you'd expect now that you're getting to know me, I especially savor the stories BEHIND the food.

[via The Brick Testament]
It's the Bible on LEGOS.

That's right. Reenactments of the Bible using LEGOS building blocks. A total drug-free trip. Totally whacked out and awesome.

So just who was this "Moses?" What kind of name is "Moses?" And just who are his "people?" Well, it seems that "Moses" may be a pseudonym or, really, just half a name, the rest having been suppressed. Yes, suppressed because of some dark secret! His people seem to have been a rag-tag bunch of dispossesed ne'er do wells who may have heard about the idea of "one god to rule them all" from a heretic Egyptian king whose memory was being suppressed at the time that someone like Moses might have existed. And the Exodus? It may not have been so voluntary. Maybe they were trouble makers kicked out for subversive beliefs! So just what is this Passover thing anyway?

Passover celebrates, supposedly, the escape of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. This escape is considered one of the defining moments in Judaism, perhaps the most important defining moment. Into this event is placed the entirety of the ancient Jewish identity, supposedly divided into “12 tribes,