Thanks, matteo! The Purim story is one of may favorites, and I loved baking hamantashen with my mom when I was a kid. Maybe I'll get her to make one of these recipes with me when I visit next week.

"israeli wackiness"

Purim is a great story--there's a graphic novel about Esther too--Megilat Esther--i detest hamantashen tho--and i was always told it was his hat, not his ears.

this is a really good story, too: Whistleblowing in Washington

yeah, amberglow, I wanted to post that on MeFi, but then, you know, one doesn't want to be "shrill"...

and Purim is indeed very awesome -- especially today, celebrating the defeat of a genocidal Iranian Persian tyrant: as a ignorant Goy I must say I regret its status as a sort of relatively minor holiday for Judaism -- theology aside, Esther's story is amazing. also, you must love the balls of a writer who omits God from his Book and it ends up in Tanakh anyway

re: holidays. even Hanukkah, with its proud "we won't Hellenize" story, is for me an awesome, awesome holiday

so, yay for Purim. and Hamantashen are indeed a work of genius.

not that I wouldn't appreciate if somebody else posted Radak's story on MeFi...
;)

There's an overarching theme among Jewish holidays: "They tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat!"

we do have pretty good holiday stories---i think Hindus have the best tho--more gods to do stuff (you left out yom kippur, amro--we survived another year, let's fast!)

: >

Oh, today, we'll merry, merry be/And nosh some hamentaschen!

(I learned slightly different words to this song in Hebrew School.)

ugh, this thread is giving me a bloodlust for poppy hamentaschen and a huge pile of guilt for being so out of touch with my dang religion these days. thanks!

Many universities have annual Latke-Hamentaschen debates, but I don't see how there can be any contest.

Latkes p\/\/n hamentaschen. Easy. Potatoes>poppies or prunes.