Photo taken from the roof of Mt. Sinai Hospital. (No I was not threatening to jump; I was a medical resident there.) Looking west across Central Park. I love this photo, if I do say so myself. By Paul Goldfinger. © Click left for full view.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger. Posted originally in 2013.
It was February 1969, and this blizzard buried the Big Apple in 15 inches of snow. The city was paralyzed for 3 days, but in the park, the kids were having a great time. The politicians were being attacked for their poor performance in getting the city back to normal, especially Mayor John Lindsay who was so traumatized that he switched from the elephants to the donkeys.
So, while we are on the subject of wintry events, today is the start of Hanukkah in Ocean Grove and elsewhere as well. It is a tradition to eat latkes (potato pancakes fried in oil) and then to drink some ritual Maalox as it is written in the Old Testament.
So the next holiday before Kwanzaa is Christmas. And it is Christmas all around us (as a recent commenter pointed out), so what’s wrong with saying “Merry Christmas” to everyone?
You don’t have to be a Christian to enjoy this holiday and its messages of peace and good will (as well as great cookies, music and parties.)
MORMON TABERNACLE CHOIR. With the Philadelphia Brass Ensemble and Percussion . The album is called Rock of Ages.
Reblogged this on Blogfinger and commented:
A word about Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and a blizzard in Central Park from 1969.
OK, Paul. With due respect to your exactitude, I agree with your thoughts of asking the Calvary volunteers to erect a giant menorah near the Great Auditorium.
We had our latkes Wed night so, a bit early according to your cited tradition but I am afraid that was not the only rule “broken”. You see, we are not Jewish and we served them on Christmas plates (yikes!) However, our dinner guest was Jewish and the recipe authentic – from an accountant friend of ours -Marty from Metuchen. Pegi learned how to cook them because her friend who introduced us to latkes, cooked them well but never enough for my son and I let alone the rest of the family. So, history may show that Pegi invented Italian, Catholic latkes. She cooks a lot of them and they are delicious but I’ve often wondered if they taste good the next day as I have never seen a leftover latke. Never.
Thanks for sharing the special Hannukah song.
I’ve been to Sephardic bar mitzvahs (heck, I had a Sephardic bar mitzvah), and I’ve never heard a Jewish song in Spanish before (now Jewish songs in Arabic, those I’ve heard a lot of). And as I may have mentioned before, Mt. Sinai hospital in 1969 is a spot near and dear to my heart, and the rest of me. Thanks for the post.