Only one night away from a double whammy - the first night of Hannukah and my 37th birthday.

As a friend of ours on our Queens synagogue's listserv has posted: A friend of Rabbi Kalman Packouz tells him that as he grows older he experiences a personal miracle on Chanukah. He eats one potato latka - and it burns for eight days.

Two points to make here:

• I don't cook latkes in that much oil - at least, I do my best not to.
• I'm not that old...not yet anyway.

Anyhow, if Adrastos can highlight everyone's favorite holiday brick of a treat, I can certainly find some paeans to potato pancakes that'll sit like clay in your gut.



The following is one my husband and I like the least of all of Jewish singer/songwriter Debbie Friedman's songs. It reminds me of how old I'm getting as well - seems like ages ago when she was my music teacher in my Jewish day school deep near the coast of Texas. Now she plays concerts that demand upwards of $50-plus for tickets. She got to Carnegie Hall, even...by practicing and teaching all us kids now-classic original music of hers as well as the occasional inclusion of "Mairzy Doats" and its like. I still wanna scream NO WAY! whenever I hear "A kid'll eat ivy, too, wouldn't you?"

But I hear the following, and I just wanna scream, period.



Sorry, Debbie.