Hanukkah Hodge-Podge. Daveed Diggs. Adam Sandler. Fun Sculptures. The Year Thus Far.
LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN NEWSLETTER #95 DECEMBER 10, 2020
For Jews, Hanukkah begins tonight, the first of eight nights of lighting candles and overeating potato latkes. (Email me if you need a recipe.) A HANUKKAH HODGE-PODGE
VIDEOS
* Don't miss this delight: Daveed Diggs, of 'Hamilton fame" released "Puppy for Hanukkah, a happy, hip-hoppy, Klezmer composition sung by three adorable little kids . Far and away the best Hanukkah song since Adam Sandler's classic. “My mom is a white Jewish lady and my dad is black,” Diggs told Broadway.com in 2015. “The cultures never seemed separate — I had a lot of mixed friends. When I was young, I identified with being Jewish, but I embraced my dad’s side, too.”
* Adam Sandler has updated his Hanukkah song twice since the originl and all three versions are pretty funny. Here's the first and second and here's the third which he performed on SNL.
* Fair warning: this is an in-your face, patently offensive, video.about Hanukkah. But I laughed anyway. Don't watch it if stereotypes and out-and-out crudeness gross you out. In episode two, they gangsta guys, one Black, one LatinX, decorate their Hanukkah bush.
* From the profane to the sublime: A Hamilton Hanukkah at the White House with an intro by Obama. "Just you wait!"
if you eat latkes for 100 years you will live a long time
ART DETOUR
* 23 weird and whimsical sculptures to take your mind off the world's woes.
COVID VACCINE ALERT
* Courtesy of the Jews of France
* Use this NYTimes site to find out where you stand on the vaccine timeline.
MEMES TO USHER TRUMP OFF STAGE (or is that an impossible dream?)
PERFECT SUMMARY OF THE YEAR AS IT COMES TO A CLOSE
* The collapse of one letter in this holiday display captures where we're at. .
* Ed Norton's Epic Twitter Thread
CALL TRUMP'S BLUFF "I’m no political pundit but I grew up with a dad who was a federal prosecutor, and he taught me a lot. I’ve also sat at a fair amount of poker tables with serious players, and l’ll say this: I do not think Trump is trying to ‘make his base happy’ or ‘laying the groundwork for his own network’ or that ‘chaos is what he loves’. The core of it is that he knows he’s in deep, multi-dimensional legal jeopardy, and this defines his every action. We’re seeing 1) a tactical delay of the transition to buy time for a coverup and evidence suppression 2) above all, a desperate endgame, which is to create enough chaos and anxiety about a peaceful transfer of power, and fear of irreparable damage to the system, that he can cut a Nixon-style deal in exchange for finally conceding. But he doesn’t have the cards. His bluff after ‘the flop’ has been called in court. His ‘turn card’ bluff will be an escalation and his ‘river card’ bluff could be really ugly. But they have to be called. We cannot let this mobster bully the USA into a deal to save his ass by threatening our democracy. THAT is his play. But he’s got junk in his hand. So call him. I will allow that he’s also a whiny, sulky, petulant, Grinchy, vindictive little 10-ply-super-soft bitch, who no doubt is just throwing a wicked pout fest and trying to give a tiny-hand middle finger to the whole country for pure spite, without a single thought for the dead and dying. But his contemptible, treasonous, seditious assault on the stability of our political compact isn’t about 2024, personal enrichment or anything else other than trying to use chaos and threats to the foundation of the system as leverage to trade for a safe exit. Call. His. Bluff. Faith in the strength of our sacred institutions and founding principles is severely stretched, but they will hold. They will. He’s leaving, gracelessly and in infamy. But if we trade for it, give him some brokered settlement, we’ll be vulnerable to his return. We can’t flinch."
Amen and Happy Hanukkah. May the Festival of Lights illuminate the best in us & increase the light.
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