December 16 - Latkes!

Posted on December 16, 2019

I always associate latkes, which are Jewish potato pancakes, with Hanukkah. Yummm...potatoes and onions fried up with egg and bread crumbs (or matzo meal), served with sour cream or apple sauce! I love me a good latke!

This year, Hanukkah doesn't start until the evening of Dec. 22...

...but tonight is a latke festival in Brooklyn, New York. The 11th Annual Latke Festival is being held at the Brooklyn Museum, and it will feature "the best and most creative" potato pancakes, a panel of celebrity judges, a DJ, and of course loads of good food and drink!

The money people pay for the latke festival goes to a charity that teaches kids in underserved communities how to cook and the importance of eating healthy foods.

Also on this date:

National Day in Bahrain 

Author Jane Austen's birthday

Scientist and author Arthur C. Clarke's birthday

Anniversary of the invention of the transistor

Kazakhstan's Independence Day

Beethoven's Birthday

Margaret Mead's Birthday

Anniversary of Boston Tea Party

Birthday of world's smallest woman, Jyoti Amge

Day of Reconciliation in South Africa

Victory Day in Bangladesh

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest pages on:

• December holidays 
• December birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in December

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

• January holidays 
• January birthdays 
• Historical anniversaries in January
  
  

December 20, 2011 - Hanukkah and Elvis!

First Night of Hanukkah

Here is a short History Channel video on Hanukkah. To learn more about this Jewish holiday, check out this and the second half of this other earlier blog post.

Elvis is drafted into the army!

Have you ever heard of “the draft”? This is a system by which people are selected (often randomly) for compulsory service in the armed forces. When Elvis was in his 20s, young men in good health were expected to be available to “serve their country” in the armed forces, if needed.

In 1957, Elvis Presley—who was already rich and famous, having produced such hits as Hound Dog and Don't Be Cruel—received his draft notice that stated that he had to serve two years in the U.S. Army.

Presley had received a letter ten days before saying that he was up for the draft, and the Army, Navy and Air Force recruiters called to offer him special enlistment opportunities if he signed up before being drafted. Part of the Navy's offer was to create a special “Elvis Presley Company” that would include soldiers from his home area. He could be part of Special Services and sing his way through his service. However, Elvis turned all the offers down, taking a chance with the draft.

And then he received the fateful letter: He was told to report to the Army on the same day he was supposed to start filming a movie!

Elvis ended up serving, by choice, with no special treatment. He went through boot camp, carried his own rifle and gear, went on guard duty—just like anyone else. In the meantime, the record companies released the various songs he had already recorded, one by one, keeping Elvis in the limelight despite the fact that he was overseas in Germany. Many people admired Elvis's grit and patriotism shown by his military service. So, in the long run, being away for two years may have actually helped Elvis's career!

By the way, these days, we have an all-volunteer army and other armed forces.

To learn more about Elvis and the draft, go here. 

Also on this date...

Electricity theme day 

Anniversary of first cantilever bridge over Niagara Falls 

December 11, 2009

First night of Hanukkah (Chanukah)

This evening begins the eight-day Jewish holiday sometimes called the “Festival of Lights.”

Because it is near Christmas, this relatively minor holiday has become more important in the U.S. and some other places in the world; it celebrates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the 2nd Century BCE Maccabean Revolt. Jewish families celebrating Hannukkah light candles in a menorah: one candle the first night, two the second night, and so forth until the last night, when eight candles are lit.

The candles are lit with an extra candle called a shamash, so menorahs always have nine candleholders. Some people use oil lamps instead of candelabra.

Gifts are often exchanged during each night of Hanukkah; also, there are special games and songs.


Here is a menorah to color.

Here are several cute coloring pages. Note that the shamash is often the center candle on a menorah, and it's usually taller than the others.

Play dreidel, which is a Hanukkah top game. Here is a dreidel pattern, and here are the directions for the game.




There are lots of Hanukkah crafts and printable games (scroll down for the latter) here and many other places on the Internet!

Also on this day, in 1882, Max Born was born.

This German-born physicist and mathematician helped to figure out quantum physics. He won a Nobel prize for his work. He was a very good teacher, and his PhD student and six of his assistants went on to win Nobel prizes of their own!

What is quantum physics? It's a mathematical description of the structure and behavior of atomic and subatomic particles and radiation.

Even though some of the things we have figured out about the very-very-very-very-very-very small doesn't make sense to us, quantum theory has been shown to be incredibly accurate in a huge number of different sorts of experiments.

Here's an example of something that doesn't seem to make sense: an electron seems to behave like a teeny-tiny particle of matter AND like a wave of radiation.

At the same time!

And electrons behave differently when we watch them. Even though they are just teensy little particles with no eyes or brains, they seem to “know” when we are watching!

Here is an animated Google video that shows this particular weirdness in more detail.

This is just one example of stuff that doesn't seem like it could be true, but is. There are lots of other strange-seeming facts about the world of the incredibly small. Read about them here.

Physicist Niels Bohr said, "Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it."