Eating jelly donuts is one of the customs that makes Hanukah what it is. My friend related the following story. Bob was seeing some people for the lighting of the first candle. He thought it would be nice to bring donuts. He called and ordered two dozen from the bakery and would pick them up on the way. With a credit card, it was done. A few hours later, he picked up the donuts. Two boxes were waiting with the charge slip attached. The charge was extravagantly-more than he...

Independence Day is one of those few holidays that will always be celebrated on the precise day of its origin —— July 4th. No changes to Monday for the convenience of a long weekend. Most years, however, Independence Day provides a long holiday weekend — either three or four days — to begin Summer. But, by my unscientific calculations, every six years or so (depending on leap years) Independence Day falls on a Wednesday as it did yesterday. And when Independence Day falls...

On this day, there are so many things to be thankful for.... As I sit at our Thanksgiving table, surrounded by family, I expect that my thoughts of thanks will focus on two things: First, having just survived the annual Thanksgiving basketball game, and Second, the two newest members of our family who are celebrating their first Thanksgivng this year. May we all survive many furture basketball games and May our newest family members enjoy many, many Thanksgivings to come.   H...

First, I was just always around to see my Father.   Then I was taken to see my Father. I was then reminded to see my Father. I then remembered to see him on my own. I then looked forward to seeing my Father. I became a Father and they came to see me. And now they are fathers and ...... ...

Last Sunday, I attended the annual Commemoration of the Holocaust at Temple Emanu-El in New York. I watched, as I have for so many years, my Mother light a memorial candle with other survivors. We remembered. During the ceremony, survivors were honored and as I listened to their stories, a theme resonated. The majority recounted how they fled and crossed borders or were hidden by those who risked their lives in doing so. And I wondered again as I so often have wondered ...

I have often written about tradition and I very proudly relate yet one more story. At the Passover Seder (the traditional meal at which the story of the exodus from Egypt is retold), we eat bitter herbs (to remember the bitterness of slavery). For the bitter herbs, my family uses raw horseradish. I remember my father grating the large horseradish root and the pungent, tear-producing, fumes. A task that I now endure as I prepare for the holiday. The burn of the swallowed b...

Its March 30th and I would be remiss to not take this opportunity to wish Fred a very happy birthday. So, Fred, my friend, my best wishes for a Happy Birthday. I still have that early memory--perhaps one of the first times we met -- of you running over the hill of the cross-country course in back of Schreiber High School. It was quite a while ago and yet "we all still look the same". There have been many uphills and downhills since then and the run has been great....and the...

After what has been a most unusual year leading up to the election, we sit down with family and friends to enjoy the ultimate American tradition.

In sharing the day with others, enjoy the food, be thankful, be optimistic, watch football (instead of CNN), and don't talk politics.

 

Happy Thanksgiving.

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Anyone who vacations on Martha's Vineyard when the President is there has a story to tell. Here's mine. Last Sunday, we were walking down Main Street in Edgartown and I saw a black shoulder bag on a bench in front of the liquor store. I poked my head inside the store to let the clerk know about the bag. He told me that he knew about it, but didn't want to touch it since President Obama was having dinner at the restaurant next door. The clerk was waiting for a policeman. We ...

As the family took up the chairs next to me at the pool, I focused on the children. Three of them - ages about four to seven. As I looked over at the parents, they appeared to be a little younger than me. Flo and I had been away for about a week and I missed our grandson, Jackson, and the upcoming birth of another grandson was foremost on my mind as I watched the children in the water. I fantasized about my grandchildren -- perhaps a vacation sometime in the future.  ...