"Lock the doors and close the blinds -- we're going for a ride..."

Okay, all. I'm sleepy and exhausted and will be getting to bed really soon. I'll post more tomorrow. Promise.

But before I do: Tonight began the Jewish holiday of Purim, a day which chronicles the events as written in the Biblical Book (Scroll) of Esther The synopsis: About 2500 years ago the Persian King Achashverosh, overcome with impulse, drunkenness and horniness, banished his queen (Vashti) for not participating in Half-Nekkid Thursday in front of his friends. He produces a reality show to find the most beautiful woman in the land to be his new queen -- and it turns out to be a Jewish chick named Esther. Her uncle, a bloke called Mordechai, tells her to keep the Jewish thing a secret. Meanwhile, The King's #2 guy is a pompous ass called "Haman." He has a run-in with Mordechai one day and, because Mordechai refuses to bow down to him, he sets a decree to kill all the Jews on, drawn by lottery, the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Adar (today). There's more of a story to it, but the climax is that Esther reveals her true identity to the king and pleads to spare the life of the Jews, and Haman and his family were hung on a tree instead.

So -- as you can surmise it's a great holiday for the kiddies.

It's as close as one can get to a Jewish Halloween: kids (and adults) dress up in costumes. I'll post pictures of myself and the kid in our homemade costumes. His was far better than mine: he was Buzz Lightyear in a costume designed and sewn by the lovely socKs. I was the "Can you hear me now? Good!"guy from the Verizon wireless commercials.

It's also a holiday where it's traditional to get extremely drunk -- prescribed to the extent that one not be able to distinguish good from evil (more literally, distinguish between the evil Haman and the hero, Mordechai). I'm zonked after ... oh, zero to drink this evening. I'm getting old...

Two videos if you're interested -- both are raps. The first one was animated by Ben Baruch, who created the Shabot6000 online cartoon. Great stuff. the second one is new this year and... just make sure to watch the first one, k?