Nothing should stand between a girl and her Chanukah brisket, especially not the crappy, axle-cracking condition of Charles River Drive in Watertown, a grumpy Mels grumps.

I live across the street from the Stop n' Shop on Harvard Street in Brookline and yesterday around 8 pm witnessed the strangest thing! There was a white SUV cruising around the parking lot with what appeared to be a menorah (with 2 lit candles) mounted on its roof and what I suspect was Hanukuah/Hebrew music blaring from some speakers.

Did anyone else see this? It was quite the automotive display of holiday spirit!

Matthew got one of those dreidels that plays "The Dreidel Song" when it spins. So of course, he promptly hacked it by taking it apart and replacing the sound chip with one that plays Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries."

... Now, like most people, I'm ambivalent about Wagner - I mean, nice music and all, but oy vey, Richard, always with the anti-Semitism - and I'm not above giving the man a bit of a karmic wedgie when the opportunity presents itself. ...

Complete with video of the Wagner-playing dreidel.

Headline note: It's yet another bad pun, people - from Yiddish, even.

Jim Sullivan recounts that his grandfather delivered milk in Mattapan back in the days when it was heavily Jewish. People would ask him his name, he'd say "Sullivan" but they'd hear "Solomon" and assume he was a landsman. Came to a head one day:

... Anyway, one day while he was doing his route, some of the older Jewish men called for him to come down off of his wagon so that he could help them meet the required numbers for a minyan; that is, so that they could have enough for prayer service, which required at least 10 men.

They yelled to him, "Solomon! We need another for a minyan! You got time maybe?" ...

So don't make the same mistake Lyss did.