Chanukah: The fourth night

It's the fourth night of Chanukah and for tonight's virtual gift, I think I'll offer a collection of links to fun and interesting articles about current events related to the holiday.

Historical artifacts demonstrate the historical basis of Chanukah (with thanks to e_bourne for the tip).

The world's first single malt scotch-filled menorah was unveiled and its contents imbibed in London this weekend. (Thanks to kradical for the tip.)

Chief-of-staff Rahm Emmanuel lit the National Menorah this past weekend, the thirtieth anniversary of the first National Menorah lighting in Washington D.C. Link includes pictures.

In the category of "Things I Didn't Know," apparently there's a song traditionally sung while one lights Chanukah candles called Hanerot Hallalu. I'm unfamiliar with this song so this is news to me.

In the categories of "Two Jews, Three Opinions" and "Damned for Good Intentions" comes this article about controversy surrounding the White House Chanukah party. Someone get me some schnapps and sufganyot. There are so many more important things facing the country right now.

Rolling Stone reports that Neil Diamond has recorded Adam Sandler's Chanukah Song. There's a video. My brain officially hurts.

A venting on the behavior of cats

One of the things on today's extensive To Do list (about half of which I completed, which is actually saying something, given the tasks in question) was to give myself an hour to write. Every time I sat down to write, a cat crawled onto me. Removing said cat did not make a difference; the cat would assert its property rights and crawl back on again. This occurred four--count 'em--four times today.

Even now, Spanky is perched upon me, pinning one arm resulting in one-handed typing. He kvetches and bares pointy bits when I attempt to remove him. The baring of pointy bits lessens my compassion for his be-collared state considerably. Just sayin'.

I cannot get writing done when I am set upon by cats! Perhaps it's time to call it day.