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Happy Hannukah!

Edgy DC Dec 01 2010 10:12 AM

Hannukah = Mets?

soupcan Dec 01 2010 10:21 AM Re: Happy Hannukah!

Bullshit. What are we - the fucking Cubs now? Gimme a break.

metirish Dec 01 2010 10:24 AM Re: Happy Hannukah!

WOW.....fuck you Dave Bry ...asshole....

DocTee Dec 01 2010 10:33 AM Re: Happy Hannukah!

That's insulting on a lot of levels. And not the least bit funny. Pogroms were not a close call. And the Madoff Scandal does not equal the Inquisition. Happy Hanukkah, all.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Dec 01 2010 10:36 AM Re: Happy Hannukah!

Hipster Douchebag Snark. We can't get enough of it.

Edgy DC Dec 01 2010 10:45 AM Re: Happy Hannukah!

Hey, um, happy Festival of Lights anyway! I'm just the... ow! messeng... OW! SHIT! the messenger!

MFS62 Dec 01 2010 05:33 PM Re: Happy Hannukah!

That article was an absolute insult. But thanks for the wishes of the thread title anyhow, Edgy. Later

Edgy DC Dec 01 2010 05:46 PM Re: Happy Hannukah!

Yes, and more importantly, enjoy the festival. And if competition made a major holiday out of a minor one, good.

Kong76 Dec 01 2010 06:03 PM Re: Happy Hannukah!

I think they forgot to put the menora out at work. I usually put on the next light each morning ... someone messed up. I just renewed two prescriptions ... the pharmacy portion of CVS is closed tomorrow? I know them all by name, not a Jew among 'em.

themetfairy Dec 01 2010 06:26 PM Re: Happy Hannukah!

Kong76 wrote: I think they forgot to put the menora out at work. I usually put on the next light each morning ... someone messed up. I just renewed two prescriptions ... the pharmacy portion of CVS is closed tomorrow? I know them all by name, not a Jew among 'em. I don't know why they're closed, but it's not for Chanukah. This is a holiday of minor religious importance; not even the Orthodox take off for it.

themetfairy Dec 01 2010 06:29 PM Re: Happy Hannukah!

Happy Chanukah!

Kong76 Dec 02 2010 08:57 AM Re: Happy Hannukah!

The CVS is indeed open, they didn't fix the computer so that it didn't know that today was Thanksgiving (from last week). Dang machines.

G-Fafif Dec 02 2010 09:35 AM Re: Happy Hannukah!

Spelling is my favorite part of the holiday, per Time. There's only one way to spell Hanukkah. Unfortunately, it's in Hebrew. When translated to English, the word becomes trickier to express. There's actually no way to spell the guttural "hecht" sound used in the traditional Hebrew pronunciation; Ch and H are the closest we can get. And then there's the issue with the double k's, seemingly added to give the final syllable a little more oomph. The phrase can be spelled Hanukkah, Chanukah, Chanukkah or Hanukah. Or you could go the easy route and look it up. I'm a Chanukah man myself, but to each chis or cher own. I've also always been a little dim on why the date darts all over December every year. Now I get it (boy was I not paying attention in Hebrew school). Unlike Christmas, Hanukkah does not fall on the same dates each year because Jewish holidays are based on a lunisolar calendar. Unlike the traditional Gregorian calendar, which is based on the earth's movement around the sun, a lunisolar calendar is regulated by both the sun and moon. Hanukkah always starts on the 25th of Kislev — the month on the Hebrew calendar that generally coincides with November or December. A year on the Hebrew calendar varies from 353 to 385 days, so the timing of the Festival of Lights is always a bit of a guessing game. I knew from Kislev 25th, but I never knew why there was no discernible pattern. The way a year varies from 353 to 385 days...perhaps that's what my mother meant when she referred to events with a squishy start time as beginning on a "Jewish half-hour".

Edgy DC Dec 02 2010 09:53 AM Re: Happy Hannukah!

You know, since so many of the Hebrew, Yiddish, and Arabic words containing that sound are adrift in a sea of multiple unofficial English phonetic spellings, maybe the MLA or somebody should pursue the quesiton at a conference of the best way ot consistent represent that sound. I nominate ckh.

The Second Spitter Dec 06 2010 02:22 AM Re: Happy Hannukah!

G-Fafif wrote: Spelling is my favorite part of the holiday, per Time. There's only one way to spell Hanukkah. Unfortunately, it's in Hebrew. When translated to English, the word becomes trickier to express. There's actually no way to spell the guttural "hecht" sound used in the traditional Hebrew pronunciation; Ch and H are the closest we can get. And then there's the issue with the double k's, seemingly added to give the final syllable a little more oomph. The phrase can be spelled Hanukkah, Chanukah, Chanukkah or Hanukah. Or you could go the easy route and look it up. I'm a Chanukah man myself, but to each chis or cher own. I've also always been a little dim on why the date darts all over December every year. Now I get it (boy was I not paying attention in Hebrew school). The transliteration of the Hebrew letter, heth or ("?"), to the Latin letter "aitch" or ("h") is not a good one. The pronunciation of heth is a derivative of the Greek letter chai or "?", a nod to its use by Ashkenazi Jews in Ancient Greece, and is very different from the Latin or Arabic equivalent. (In the Middle East, particularly in the Israel/Palestine region, the pronunciation of this letter is the giveaway as to your identity.) The sound of heth is a voiceless velar fricative (like trying to pronounce "aitch" while gargling) which is more pronounced in the Hebrew language, whereas aitch is a much softer sound. "Ch" is definitely the correct transliteraton. The problem is that in English "ch" carries a different connotation. And the fact English speakers have trouble reproducing the voiceless velar fricative sound. Incidentally (or coincidentally) the word "Christmas" should actually be pronounced the same way -- derived from ??????? (the Greek word for Christ) uses "?" which is pronounced the same as "?". Except the English language pronunciation is derived from German.

The Second Spitter Dec 06 2010 03:05 AM Re: Happy Hannukah!

Who needs Christmas?! Let the Yankees have Derek Jeter! We'll make our trumped-up holiday a jolly day for every girl and boy! Jews are survivors! Wolverines!!! Or Magnetos even.

Edgy DC Dec 06 2010 07:03 AM Re: Happy Hannukah!

You know, the first time my brother insisted I sit through an episode of 24, a teenage Muslim terrorist named Ahmed refused to listen to the appeals of his friend, saying, "You don't even know how to pronounce my NAME!" Seems his ignorant white teen buddy was doing excactly as described above, saying "AAH-med," instead of "AHCK-med." So this question has life-death consequences.

themetfairy Dec 06 2010 05:28 PM Re: Happy Hannukah!

themetfairy Dec 07 2010 07:29 AM Re: Happy Hannukah!

The Beer Menorah

themetfairy Dec 08 2010 04:37 PM Re: Happy Hannukah!