holiday shopping report

[bronze_ribbons]

Disconcerting: hearing a full-blown operatic rendition of Kol Nidre on the store system.

Delightful: came across The Great Latke Hamantash Debate. Glee, glee, GLEE!

(The year I actually attended the debate, Ellen Harris sang selections from Handel in support of hamentaschen, and Ted Cohen alternated headwear (between a beret and a tricorner hat, if memory serves) depending on which side had the floor.)

Comments

[golfwidow.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to figure out how this is not comparing apples and rice. I consider latkes to be an entrée or side-dish, and hamantashen to be dessert. Why can't they live side-by-side, in peace and harmony, two courses of the same meal?

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

Me, I figure any "debate" in which Kant is cited is not overly troubled by issues of consistency. ;-)

[athenakt.livejournal.com]

I think my brain's just locked up. :)

Operatic rendition of KN? Sounds wicked. Closest I ever heard to that was Neil Diamond's version from his movie.

Latke/Hamantash? What debate could there be? Traditionally I'm used to Latke's for Hanukkah/Winter/side-dish, and Hamantash for Purim/Spring/dessert-snack, like Golfwidow said...

[mechaieh.livejournal.com]

Operatic rendition of KN? Sounds wicked.

Turns out there's a couple available, although the Borders clerk couldn't tell me which one they had on their sound system (apparently it was just plucking selections at random from a database).

My (UU) church performed Samuel Adler's setting during High Holidays this year, which is for baritone, chorus, cello, and keyboard. It hits me right in the gut whether I'm singing or listening to it (which is part of why I went "what the--!?" when I recognized what was coming through the speakers).

As for latkes vs. hamentaschen, arguing over anything just for the fun of it is definitely part of the U of C ethos. I suspect, for a number of people, the best part of the tradition is getting to nosh on both the round and the triangular afterwards. ;-)

See/hear Ted Cohen's "Consolations of the Latke"

[(Anonymous)]

Text and audio of Ted Cohen's defense of the latke (plus some recipes) can be found here: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/100235.html

Dean Blobaum
University of Chicago Press