kochleffel

Here’s an interesting story about how two retail managers in the Buffalo airport fed stranded travelers and emergency workers. https://wapo.st/3hSqmWV

The Senior Cat in Charge was the most talkative of mine. He was a large, long-haired cat with the voice and temperament of a Siamese, and he had a lot to say on absolutely any subject. The cat in the painting yesterday was the only one I've seen in Washington.

I was on aNother Cruise Line for an itinerary that included Patmos, but it was just in the evening, after Kusadasi, and I was so tired from Ephesus that I didn’t go ashore. I must have been tired yesterday, too, because I went to bed at 10:00 and slept uninterrupted until 8:00, then made and drank a cup of coffee, went back to bed, and slept until 11:45 a.m. I did get to the National Gallery, hence the Titian of St. John and the Still Life with Fish and Cat by Clara Peeters (Flemish, 17th c.).

Since many here have probably visited Patmos For the Junior Cat

Maybe so. That part of Pennsylvania has two Federal prisons, Lewisburg and Allenwood ("Club Fed"), but only office workers would have the day off.

Yes. It’s why I planned to start the trip yesterday, but it doesn’t explain the severe traffic jams elsewhere.

In Arlington, rather later than planned. Why should there be bumper-to-bumper traffic in Shamokin Dam, PA, pop. 1,647? Or in semi-rural Maryland and yet traffic moved swiftly closer to the I-495 Beltway?

And on a happier note:

Happy Boxing Day, second day of Christmas, first day of Kwanzaa, and eighth (last) day of Hanukkah. It's also "Christmas Day Observed" for government offices and banks. My office is closed, which is handy since I'm headed for Washington, D.C. (well, Arlington) as soon as I can get ready, which is not going to be right away since clothes that I need are still in the dryer. Squash! I have a honeynut squash but will not be cooking it, or anything, today. In general I would like the cocktail even though it would remind me of homemade cough medicine, but shaking anything with ice doesn't feel very attractive despite the heat wave we're having. Yesterday the thermometer fell up to 19° and will reach 22° today. Washington will be warmer, 47° on Wednesday. The loss of life from the storm west of here is at least 17 souls. Yesterday Erie County requested help from volunteers with snowmobiles, sometimes to rescue the rescuers themselves.

The Junior Cat has a new ritual, if that's what it is. She cries almost constantly for canned food, and the v-e-t- wants here to have some, but she will only eat one spoonful out of a can. After that, she continues to cry for it, but won't eat any more unless it's from a freshly opened can. Even opened for 30 minutes is too old.

For others: There is always confusion about this, and about other Jewish holidays. For the other holidays, the confusing part is that calendars list them on the actual days, but the celebration starts the evening before. For Hanukkah, what is most necessary to know is how many candles to light, so that's what Jewish calendars show. Thus, on a Jewish calendar, the space for today reads "8 candles" because that's the number to light tonight, but then it will be tomorrow in Jewish time.

Merry Christmas and happy 7th day of Hanukkah (not 8th). Neither of the meal suggestions works for me, and meals here today will be strange, even more so than usual, because of what needs to be used up. I haven't been to New Zealand, but I have been to Wellington, Ohio. It has a rather noticeable village hall. By Larry Pieniazek, Lar (commons) or User:Lar (primary) - Picture taken by User:Lar, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3714781

There was a Private Zero in the Beetle Bailey comic strip. Naive, rather dimwitted farm boy from Cornpone, Nebraska.

By Jewish time, the day begins at sunset on the evening before the day shown on the calendar, so I'm declaring that it's Christmas Day as of about an hour ago. Merry Christmas and Happy 7th Day of Hanukkah. I went to the synagogue for lighting the BGM after Havdalah, the ceremony that marks the end of the Sabbath. I was standing outside in the snow when the phone rang: the rabbi had canceled the outdoor lighting and phoned because I hadn't replied to a text. I was already hosting it on Zoom, so I let myself into the building while he led Havdalah from home and his children lighted their menorah, then carried the phone back outside to show the lighting of the BGM. I can't host Zoom while wearing gloves, so it was cold, although at 11° it was the warmest it's been all day. It was zero when I went to the synagogue this morning and 9° when I left. I was pleased with my birthday celebrations there, although the total in-person attendance was only 5 at each service including the officiants. I had food for way more than that. On Friday evening the rabbi called me up for a birthday blessing, which he read from a copy of the Rabbi's Manual that his predecessor, now deceased, had used. It requires inserting the recipient's Hebrew name, and he was floored to find mine written in pencil in the margin in his predecessor's handwriting. It's possible that the last time this was done when 11 years ago, on my 60th. (The celebration this year was postponed because at this time last year the synagogue still wasn't allowing food.) News reports say that, in the Buffalo area, the storm is the worst ever recorded. There was a record for snow set just last month; this time the snow is about the same depth, but it's also very cold and very windy. The southern suburbs of Buffalo had the worst of it in November, but this time the wind direction was slightly different and the most snow fell on the city and northern suburbs. There is still a travel ban in effect in several counties, and the Thruway is closed from west of Rochester all the way to the Pennsylvania line. I can imagine people driving from the NYC area heading north and west on the Thruway as usual, getting forced off and then getting lost or stuck on minor roads. In fact, if they were to take I-80, I-81, and I-86, they could avoid all of it--but the Thruway (I-90) is the time-honored route even though the other highways don't have tolls. I plan to drive to Washington, D.C., on Monday, but the most direct route for me is US-15. I hope to stop at a Waffle House or similar to celebrate the last day of Hanukkah the Dutch way, with waffles. This stems from mixing Hebrew and Dutch: in Hebrew, Hanukkah is described as nes va-fele, "a miracle and a wonder," but to the Dutch ear it sounds like "a miracle and waffle." Wednesday of the past week would have been Flory Jagoda's 99th birthday. She grew up in Sarajevo and it's almost solely because of her that Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) music of the Balkans survives. Here's a video of her singing "Ocho Kandelikas" (Eight Little Candles, a Hanukkah song). If you understand any Spanish, it will all be comprehensible.

Tying up the loose end for anyone reading this thread now. Effective November 14 2022, travel authorizations will no longer be required to enter Bermuda. Visitors (arriving by air or yacht) travelling to Bermuda from November 14 onwards do not need to apply for a travel authorization. In its place, the Bermuda Tourism Authority (BTA) will reinstate the Bermuda Arrival Card, a digital form for visitors only, which was in place before the onset of the pandemic. Cruise visitors are not required to complete any entry form. https://www.gov.bm/coronavirus-travellers-visitors

We're not supposed to see much more snow, but the temperature is already down to 8°. Outdoor menorah lighting is cancelled (as a group, I mean; someone will do it quickly). Me, to the Junior Cat: "Are you hungry or are you getting ready to throw up?" (It was the latter.) At leasat we don't have to watch for falling iguanas.

It's still raining, but that will change to snow in the next hour or so and then the temperature will drop all day. The meal suggestion would be OK with me, but dinner will likely be salmon. I wouldn't mind having Pfeffernüsse but the cookies I baked are chocolate chip. @RedneckBob Shouldn't the key lime pie be battered and fried before the chocolate coating goes on? For my birthday (today) I started a fund-raiser on "Spacenook" for the International Rescue Committee. I don't have very many actual friends there--more are professional contacts--but it was fully subscribed within an hour.

The sizes vary, but typically 30 to 40 pounds. The difficulty for me is keeping hold of them by the bottom rollers.

Really important news. I'm glad to know that the U.S. Space Force is keeping track of this. While much of the United States braces for an arctic blast set to bring widespread severe weather this holiday weekend, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) wants to reassure citizens that Santa’s voyage will not be impacted by the storm. “He’s ready to make his rounds,” Master Sgt. Ben Wiseman said in a phone interview from Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs. “They’re prepared. They’re protected. They’re used to this weather.”

Thanks. It appears that my booking will allow Canaletto, but it includes only two specialty dinners in 14 nights. In contrast, my booking on aNother Cruise Line to Bermuda will have four specialty dinners in five nights: two as part of a promotion, and two for platinum status. (I have no status on HAL.)

It snowed most of the afternoon, although the accumulation was only an inch. By the time I was leaving work, it had changed to rain, and when I went to the synagogue for the lighting of the BGM at 6:00, it was still raining. We're planning to hold multi-access services (in-person and Zoom) as usual unless something changes. I'm still unhappy with the news media, which seem to be positively eager for the weather to be a disaster, and it may well be in much of the country. We're not expecting much except that it will be cold tomorrow night and Saturday morning. I remembered as I was driving home that the remote control for the garage door needed a new battery. I had bought one but wasn't sure where it was; found it in my coat pocket. I got the cookies baked, but I don't think they came out quite right. Our rabbi keeps mentioning that it's also Shabbat Festivus, and I keep reminding him that there is to be no airing of grievances. There will be feats of strength, not because of Festivus, but because there are readings from three Torah scrolls this week and after each one, the scroll is raised overhead, partly open so that everyone can see the part that was read. I hope not to be called for that, because while I can lift the scrolls readily enough, arthritis in my hands makes it hard to keep hold.

I'm sure that many Dailyites have visited Pompeii during Mediterranean cruises. In recent years, the vast archaeological park of Pompeii, a city buried alive by the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, has turned to high-tech options to maintain its excavated ruins. A surveillance drone makes a monthly flight over the site’s roughly 10,000 exhumed rooms. Artificial intelligence programs analyze aerial images for new cracks, fallen stones and other signs of erosion. But to prevent the third of the park that remains hidden under pumice and meters of earth from becoming overgrown with thorn bushes, wild hedges and trees, Pompeii has found a more appropriately ancient, and inexpensive, solution in hungry sheep. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/22/world/europe/pompeii-sheep-mount-vesuvius.html

If I get put into the brig, will someone bring me a cake with a file in it?