Reader’s request

Thanks to Rahel, who gave me some topics for the dull, dull times.

What do you plan to do for Hanukkah with your students?

We already did it. The kids are on their winter break, so we had an official Hanukkah party on Sunday, where the kids got dreidels, chocolate gelt, donuts, and potato chips (the closest I could get to latkes). They enjoyed it. On Tuesday, the last day of class, I gave them a pretty light day. Sort of had to–they knew it was the last day before break and were a bit, shall we say, rowdy. I started class with a snack–the leftover grape and apple juice from Sunday, and crackers–and ended it with a break. Oh. They started singing the Dreidel song, and one of them tried to use a fellow students’ name in place of the “I made it out of X” and got stuck. So I supplied a rhyme, and rather quickly had six of them standing in front of me yelling, “Me next! Me!” So I made rhymes for them all. Then it was time to leave, and I got a few hugs and “I’ll really miss you, Ms. Yourish!” from the girls. Nine-year-olds are a great age to teach.

What does the Incredible Hulk do when he has a slow day at work — or shouldn’t I ask?

Hulk not have job. Job is stupid. Banner have job. Hulk not know what Banner do, but it stupid, too. Banner wears stupid white coat. Hulk not like men in white coats. Hulk not like men in green coats. Men in green coats always try to shoot Hulk. Hulk smash men in green! Smash them! Bah! Puny humans! Only puny humans have jobs. Hulk not work! Hulk smash!

Which side are you on in the great latkes vs. hamentaschen debate? (Or do you prefer sufganiyot to latkes?)

I believe the fried potato is God’s second-greatest gift to mankind (the Torah being number one). There is no question in my mind: Given a plate of latkes vs. a plate of donuts or hamentaschen, you will find the donuts and hamenstaschen will remain untouched. Well, maybe a couple of donuts as a dessert after the latkes.

Is Tig still sleeping on the bed? And how does Gracie feel about it?

As a matter of fact, Mr. Tig was bumped up against me this morning, forcing my left arm up and causing more than a little stiffness this morning until I made Mr. Tig move his fat, furry butt. He mrowed indignantly for a moment and went back to sleep.

Gracie is back on the bottom corner of the bed, but the minute I’m out of bed, she takes her spot dead-center. And this morning, as I was heading downstairs to leave for work, she looked at me with the “Just one more skritch?” look, and I said, “Okay. I’ll give you one more skritch for Rahel.” She got a good long skritch and was purring when I left.

And yes, it is just as deathly dull today as it was yesterday, so thank you, Rahel.