The Great Latke-Hamantash Debate

Take four zany professors, each from a different discipline, one moderator, a controversial food topic and add a generous dose of UChicago humor. What do you get? The Great Latke-Hamantash Debate, of course.

The debates, which originated in 1946 by Rabbi Maurice Pekarsky, was originally meant to foster a sense of community between Jewish students and faculty members. However, 62 years later, the debates have emerged as a way for intellectuals and tenured professors to put their spin on the age-old story: which Jewish holiday food is better - latkes (fried potato pancakes) or hamantashen (triangle-shaped filled cookies) ?

I got wildly excited about the debates (seeing as it was my first one, ever) and so decided to write up a post-debate blog entry. The entry contains a brief history of the latke and hamantash, and has a very rough summary of each argument. I also took notes, which I may post at a later date.

This was meant for my original blog, but I converted it to a webpage so people could go look at it. Commenting, however, should be done on this blog entry.

To see what I mean, read here.

Thanksgiving

We love Thanksgiving around our house. Who doesn't? I mean it's the universal American holiday. The religious holidays always get messy, especially with families that bring together different ethnic traditions. I know a family that celebrates Kwanzukkah every year. They spend the entire month of December lighting candles. Some nights they accidentally activate the emergency sprinkler system in their apartment.

And the Thanksgiving story is a feel good story. The Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians sitting down for a meal. It's a lot like Hooverlove, if you think about it. C'mon! We'll meet in the lounge! I'll bring the fowle, you'll bring the deere! I'll wear my hat with the buckle! You can wear your breechclouts!

One of our family traditions each year is to sing the Indian Dog and Pilgrim Cat song. It goes like this:

Indian Dog and Pilgrim Cat.
Indian Dog and Pilgrim Cat.
Indian Dooooooog! And Pilgrim Cat!

Hooverlove: Birthday edition

Two massive cakes, a lounge full of college students, streamers and stars and decorations from election day, and a big brother who wants to hurry things along so we can get to the cake-eating part of the evening. How lucky is Ellie?

Well, here's how lucky: she got to celebrate her first birthday with Hoover. She also got to eat cake for the first time in her life. Think about that. When was the last time you did something you never did before? It's a great feeling isn't it? Okay, I guess it matters what we're talking about. Your first "C" doesn't feel so good. But, come on, that class is dumb. Who cares about astrophysics. What, were you planning on being a rocket scientist? Oh. Sorry. You were? Look, we already walked on the moon. What else is there? Forget space. Nanotechnology is where it's at. You can take that next quarter. Get a fresh start.