I loved Hanukkah as a child. The presents I found were the traditional ones (draidals, chocolate money, etc.) and ones based on a theme (paper, pencils, pencil sharpeners, erasers, etc.). It's clear to me looking back on it now that they were chosen by my favorite aunt who was assigned the role at birth as the standard bearer of the faith. Also, did you know the menorah was the ancient symbol of Judaism? The "star of David" as we know it wasn't at all unique to Judaism. It became its most recognizable symbol much more recently. I loved lighting the candles for Hanukkah and on the anniversaries of the deaths of the ancestors. I still think it's a beautiful tradition.

Lol!

@Steve-Miller said in The ‘Gary Bears’ has a nice ring to it: Don’t let them fool you. Football stadiums operate at a huge loss and don’t generate much revenue No kidding. Which is why I've been against the Bears moving here since they bought Arlington Park. But our Village Board has bought the story hook, line, and sinker. I just want them to go anywhere else, preferably to another state.

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More details about the study: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/09/study-instacart-ai-pricing-cost-of-groceries.html

I told you so. Link to video Only need to watch for 3 minutes.

@CHAS said in The Great Chicago Tune-Off (from 1997): I think he is 80. Yikes! How is his hearing? I had a tuner when we lived in the South, before I found the ex-S&S tuner (who was excellent!) and he was quite elderly and very hard of hearing! He used an ETA. And of course, back then that was when I had the rickety old Baldwin upright, so it was more than good enough!

Key reasons that you’re missing that I’m in favor of this exception: my father worked his entire career with the Union Oil Corporation Union oil was purchased by Chevron in 2005.. so I still own some chevron stock… see, there’s two sides to every argument.

OMG, I find myself in agreement with Bernard again.

DONE

@dolmansaxlil That was a lovely, lovely book!

Any economic historian in the house know what the "capital investment vs. labor investment" ratio was when our ancestors adopted steam engines?

Yeah, this is a big difference between Western democracies and the Asian countries. India and China are very big on going all-electric for every day commerce, but (at least for China) there is always suspicion that they go all-electronic to tighten controls by the government.

@wtg said in My. God.: President Donald Trump doubled down on his criticism of Rob Reiner, asserting today the slain Hollywood director was “a deranged person.” “I wasn’t a fan of his at all,” Trump said from the Oval Office, less than a day after Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead in what is being investigated as a homicide. “He became like a deranged person – ‘Trump derangement syndrome.’ So, I was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all in any way, shape or form. I thought he was very bad for our country,” he said. The irony is this level of narcissism meets the definition of deranged 100x over.

Princess Bride… or maybe Stand By Me. But it’s amazing how many classics he was involved with.

It was Gene Hackman who died, after his wife Betsy Arakawa died of hanta virus. So sad.

I cooked a couple of squashes yesterday, one delicata and the other a kabocha. Both were splittable with a big chef's knife without pre-cooking. In my experience, butternut squash is in a whole 'nother category...

Got me thinking what that process would look like in 3D if it were in a weightless environment. Unfortunately I couldn't find a video for this with a quick Google search.