Passover 2021 has arrived. I can tell by the festive masks!
This year in quarantine.
Next year in Jerusalem.#UnleavenTheCurve#Passover2020 #Pesach #virtualseder #covid19 #passover #matzah #facemask pic.twitter.com/uFaza8BCQW— Hannah Simpson חנה הייה-לב סימפסון (@hannsimp) April 8, 2020
(This is Ms. Hannah Simpson*. The Instagram with her original and initial post of the image is at this link.)
For those of you who celebrate Passover, as well as for those that don’t, like a lot of Jewish holidays it can be boiled down to: “(Insert name of oppressive ruler or nation here) tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat!”
The longer version can more accurately be distilled down to two key parts. The first is that the ancient Hebrews were enslaved by the Egyptians when a new dynasty came to power, eventually rose up, and, through a successful slave revolt that featured a lot of the hallmarks of what we today think of as irregular and asymmetric warfare, gained their freedom. The second is that the reality, that our religious forebears were enslaved simply for being who they were – a distinct community – has a relevance for all Jews in every generation in terms of both understanding the world and relating to it. While the Passover ritual, the Seder (Hebrew for order), focuses around why this night – the first night of Passover in Israel and the first two nights everywhere else – is different from all other nights, the lesson is that, in truth, this night isn’t all that special. That some three thousand years or so ago, depending on which dating schema one subscribes too, our forebears were enslaved. That we, their spiritual successors should consider ourselves to be in their place; hence the constant use of “we” throughout the Seder. And, as a result, we need to understand that the world of 2021 isn’t all that different from the Egypt that enslaved the ancient Hebrews as there are far too many who are still enslaved discriminated against, and/or subjugated for simply being a distinct community.
The lesson here is one of empathy leading to action. It is recognizing that the inequalities and inequities that our fellow Americans, regardless of faith or ethnicity or race experience, and that non-Americans face every day is exactly the same as what our forebears experienced in Egypt. The ongoing attempts by those who lost the Great Rebellion, now doing business as the Civil War, on the battlefield to win the post war peace by consolidating minoritarian, white Supremacist rule through reimposing and reinforcing the Jim Crow system first created in the 1870s to keep Black Americans functionally enslaved in a legally permissible manner given that slavery was and still is technically illegal and unconstitutional is one example.
The abuse of those non-Americans fleeing tyranny, oppression, and political, criminal, and/or domestic violence to reach the US is another. As was the case with the Hebrews led by Moses into the desert, no one grabs whatever they can carry, takes their children, and flees from danger through danger for shits and giggles. They do it because they have no choice. Because staying put is not a viable option. And, in the case of those fleeing to the United States, because they know if they can make it to the end of their journey, they’ll eventually reach the border and, if they’re seeking asylum, a US government facility flying the American flag. They know that if they can make it to the end of their journey, if they can survive fleeing from danger through danger, they’ll eventually see the American flag, like a pillar of smoke by day or a pillar of fire by night, and they’ll know that they’ve reached safety. Because they believe to the point of knowing that where that flag flies, there is hope and safety and the chance for something better. A modern promised land even if those of us living in it all too often take it for granted and we fail to live up to the ideals that inspire non-Americans to risk everything to join us here.
The intolerance, discrimination, and abuse of LGBTQ Americans, especially the recent shift of focus to discriminating and abusing Americans who are trans, is a third example. Since the political and judicial battle regarding gay marriage has been lost, the same bigots, or simply political and religious hucksters seeking to enrich and empower themselves through the use of a wedge issue, have decided that transgender Americans make a useful target. Exact same type of bigotry with brand new packaging and marketing to continue a grift that puts people lives at risk.
Passover teaches us, in the words of Faulkner, that the past isn’t dead; in fact it really isn’t past. But where Faulkner’s turn of phrase was meant to illuminate the benighted nature of the south that was the Confederacy, for Passover it has, or it should have, a different meaning. Specifically, that because our forebears were slaves then, which has to be understood as we were slaves then, that we cannot forget what it means to not be free, to fight for one’s freedom, and to make sure that we continue to help others do so until everyone is free.
And now, if you’ll indulge me, I will put on the emergency tiara, the new grill gloves (rated to 1,427F!), and the frilly apron so I can regale you with the culinary part of Passover 2021.
I just got a new 22 inch Weber Master-Touch Kettle Grill. And I inaugurated it this afternoon by doing an indirect heat roasted boneless leg of lamb and roasted root vegetable medley of multi-color fingerling potatoes and carrots for my Mom and myself for a small, COVID-19 safe Passover meal. I did the reverse sear method. So I brought the lamb up to an internal temperature of 125, removed it from the indirect heat side of the kettle, wrapped it in silver foil, and let it rest for half an hour while my oven warmed up to 500F. Then I reverse seared it for 15 minutes until it was nice and crackling crisp on the outside, removed it, and sliced it. I had the indirect heat side of the grill at a consistent 278 to 283 degrees and the direct heat side around 375 or so. It took around 2 and a 1/2 hours from lighting the charcoal chimney to doing a 20 minute burn off to prepare the grill, to actually roasting the lamb and the vegetables, to resting the lamb, to reverse searing it, to slicing and serving it.
Here’s a picture of when I opened the kettle to put the potatoes and carrots on:
And here’s the finished product ready for serving:
It came out perfect. You could really taste the difference between doing it over coals versus in the oven. I’m sure I’ll be doing steak or chicken on it over the next couple of days, but the next big project for the kettle grill will be to do a hybrid brisket sometime in the next couple of weeks. Basically, this’ll be for my mom who doesn’t really like smoked foods other than pastrami and lox. So while I’ll set the kettle up for an indirect heat as if I was smoking something, the snake method of setting up the coals, I’m not going to add any wood chunks for smoking, just the all natural chunk wood charcoal. And I’m going to prep the brisket like I would for in the oven: trim the hard fat that won’t render, then apply kosher salt and black pepper in a dry brine/rub for 12 to 24 hours prior to cooking to form a pelicule. Then a light wet rub of mustard with a little tomato paste or ketchup and bed it down in a roasting pan on thinly sliced onions with more on top just before roasting time. This will go on the grill and I’ll use the indirect heat to do it low and slow. So not a Texas style smoked brisket, but sort of a hybrid of how I’d do it in the oven with doing it over hot coals. I’ll do a post to let everyone know how it turns out.
Open thread!
PS: Last night when I removed the lamb from the shrink-wrap so I could dry brine it, I managed to splash lamb’s blood all over my face and head. So I’m pretty hopeful that the Angel of Death will definitely be passing over tonight.
* Update 11:30 PM 4 APR 2021: Ms. Simpson reached out and contacted me, via the comments, which, of course got caught in the SPAM filter for a week and would’ve gone completely unnoticed if WaterGirl hadn’t been in there trying to recover a regular commenter’s comment that had been eaten out of there. She wanted to let me know that she was both the creator and the model for the image in the original post and, of course, to be properly acknowledged as such. I’ve updated this post with her tweet of the image and a link to the original image she posted at her Instagram and done a new post giving her explicit credit and apologizing for not attributing the original pic because I had no idea who it was.
Scuffletuffle
Yutsano
Needs moar charoset. :P
Shlomeh Pesach Adam!
Mary G
I am starving and you are a continent away. Anyway, thanks for this. I think one of America’s worse faults is that once something has made a little progress, we forget about the rest of the way we need to go.
Bruuuuce
Chag sameach, Adam and all others celebrating!
Roger Moore
How COVID is just like Passover:
Jerzy Russian
I hope you cooked enough for everyone.
Another Scott
Speaking of Egypt, …
Can you unstuck it?
https://eric-c-wilder.itch.io/suez-canal-bulldozer
I couldn’t. :-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Anonymous At Work
Forget the expensive gas grills. Weber’s still the best charcoal grill out there (assuming you don’t have a $10000 trailer and a vacant lot that used to have a cedar forest handy).
Adam L Silverman
@Scuffletuffle: I cannot speak for former Senator Frist. I suggest you contact him directly regarding your interests.
Adam L Silverman
@Anonymous At Work: That’s my working theory too!
Ohio Mom
I have been to many seders over my lifetime, some very traditional, others um, more “creative”, and never once has anyone stopped to describe the events leading up to the Jews’ liberation as “what we think of today as irregular and asymmetric warfare.” That is a definite Silverman touch.
We had an abbreviated Zoom seder, a step up from last year’s guestless one. It was cute.
Adam L Silverman
@Ohio Mom: I don’t get invited anywhere, including a Seder, twice… With the exception of being invited somewhere a second time so I can apologize for whatever I said and/or did the first time…//
dmsilev
Yom Kippur being the notable exception here.
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: And Tish B’Av, which is sort of a combo of the former with Yom Kippur.
Dahlia
Chag sameach!
Adam L Silverman
@Dahlia: Autocorrect keeps trying to make that “Chug Sumbitch”…//
Adam L Silverman
@Ohio Mom: More seriously, there’s a lot of the Passover narrative, both in Exodus and in the Haggadah, that only makes sense in terms of irregular and asymmetric warfare:
Another Scott
And another thing!
I was trying to think of this a few days ago, when one of (many) topic in a thread was various language ambiguities/difficulties.
Don’t use ‘this, if not that’.
It must be on the final in Broderism 101.
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
My friend Sol sums up Jewish holidays the same way.
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott: I’m glad you’ve gotten it out of your system so you can now sleep tonight.
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks.
This truly is a full-service blog.
:-)
Happy holiday! Enjoy your feast!!
Cheers,
Scott.
marklar
!חַג שָׂמֵחַ, אדם ולכולם
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott: I had an ear worm about three weeks ago. Except it was like one phrase from the chorus. It was driving me nuts. Not even my keyword fu was helping. So at 3 AM I sent an email to a very close friend who is a musician – we teach martial arts together or would if it wasn’t a pandemic – explained the problem, indicated when I thought the song came out and where I was hearing it in rotation, described what both the song was about and some imagery from the video that I could remember, and sent the email. Two minutes later it dawned on me that down by the river, which is what I was focusing on as the snippet of lyric and was a musical rabbit hole, was actually down by the water’s edge. Which led me right to Seven Mary Three’s Water’s Edge. So I sent a follow up email with “Read this first!!!!” in the subject line, explained I’d figured it out, and went right to sleep after watching the video/listening to the song on YouTube. Why it got stuck in my head I have no idea.
Dahlia
A somewhat inaccurate and irreverent telling of the Passover Story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34atu3WGUgc
Ken
@Adam L Silverman: Interesting, but would this be the only instance in history where the irregulars literally had the ultimate superiority in forces, i.e. the L-rd G-d?
Ohio Mom
Back to the subject of the post, every time I hear about unaccompanied minors at the boarder, I think, a hundred or so years ago, that was three of my four grandparents — my paternal grandfather came over with his mother but the other three came over as young teens.
dmsilev
@Ohio Mom: Early in T****’s term, my mom participated in several vigils/protests outside of an immigration detention center, carrying a sign with a photograph of her mother as a girl and the caption ‘Refugee, 1920’ (escaping the post-WWI wars in Poland). She was 13.
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
It would have been enough.
Good Yontov!
scav
@Ken: But is the L-rd G-d such a reliable ally? I’m not sure “inscrutable” and “mysterious” are tier one qualities for the job description.
Uncle Omar
Adam, if you’re planning on a brisket in your Weber, http://www.cookscountry.com/recipes has a specific Brisket-on-a-Weber. They did it on one of their shows last year and it worked just like the $10,000.00 Dodge Ram towed SuperSmoker.
Benw
@Dahlia: Awesome!
A somewhat metal version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAOMEqMXiXI
:)
Ken
@scav: Point, especially later in the Biblical narrative. But in Exodus, G-d is both active and firmly on the side of the Hebrews. It wasn’t human irregulars that killed all the firstborn of Egypt.
Dahlia
@Benw: Wow! Now that would liven up any Seder.
Adam L Silverman
@Uncle Omar: Thanks, I’ll give it a look.
rikyrah
Thank you for the information.
Happy Passover.
The meal looks delicious ?
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: You’re welcome and it was!
Adam L Silverman
I’m going to watch the rest of the first half of this rugby match and then rack out. Catch everyone on the flip.
Steeplejack
@Uncle Omar, @Adam L Silverman:
That link is just to the general recipe section, and some people may not have a subscription. (I don’t know whether the brisket piece is behind the paywall.) So here’s a YouTube link to the Texas brisket on a charcoal grill episode.
Origuy
Remember Walter, the dog that was left in the house John bought? Meet Storm.
He was found in a house in Camden, UK, by the cleaner hired by the landlord after the occupants moved out.
Adam L Silverman
@Steeplejack: Here’s Texas Monthly’s write up on that recipe that is paywalled:
https://www.texasmonthly.com/bbq/weber-grill-brisket/
Adam L Silverman
I’m serious this time, I’m off to watch rugby and then rack out!
cthulhu
Did a seder tonight at the request of my 16-year old daughter. Not exactly my bailiwick as an atheist but there are reasons. Her older brother (currently away at college) is Jewish though not all that serious about it. But via my first marriage to his mom, I spent plenty of time in temple and even took History of Judaism courses at UJ in LA. Oh and when my own mother remarried while I was in college, she converted to Judaism. So I have had plenty of insider experience. I got a copy of Kopman’s 30 minute Seder and all the needed supplies (went with chicken drumstick over lamb shank) and did my best to recall how all the Hebrew words are supposed to sound. In the end, I think she got the educational experience she was looking for and, having not attended a seder in some time, it was kinda fun going through the ritual.
Steeplejack
@Adam L Silverman:
That’s interesting feedback. I saw the original episode and thought the technique looked very promising, but I have never tried it out. Good to know that apparently it wasn’t oversold.
Alison Rose
I haven’t been to a seder in years and I miss them. Also too, the best thing about Passover is the Kosher for Passover matzo in the store. I swear they taste different than the regular ones. I don’t know what kind of Jewdoo is in them, but I like it.
Steeplejack
@cthulhu:
Sounds like a good holiday.
Bruuuuce
Found this spinning through YouTube. It’s definitely the Seder theme for 2020 and 2021. Next year in the flesh (no, not In The Flesh)
NotMax
Ketchup? On lamb? Oy vey iz mir.
Bruuuuce
@NotMax: I’ve been watching too much Food Network. First thing I thought was that I’d want to try a yuzu-fig glaze on lamb to complement its flavor.
As a kid, though, I ate ketchup on everything, including the lamb chops that were then a staple and now are an expensive treat.
Gretchen
@Bruuuuce: I’ve thought lamb chops must have been much cheaper in the 1960s because we had them all the time and my parents were very frugal.
Steeplejack (phone)
@NotMax:
The ketchup is for his proposed “hybrid brisket,” not the lamb.
NotMax
Prefer my lamb done with much less pink (YMMV), so if grilling I butterfly the boneless leg.
Zoom seder earlier today. Step-brother is into it, the rest of the (few) relatives attending could not care less about the mumbo jumbo. Thankfully the readings were edited down to a half hour version. Even at that could see others suppressing yawns. Wasn’t going to bother with it at all but Mom called and whined that she wanted to see my puss; pulled out the “I want to see you one more time before I die” card.
Bruuuuce
@Gretchen: I suspect you’re right. We also had them pretty much weekly, but now when we do, it’s at most once a month
Adam L Silverman
@Steeplejack: I think they’re using far too long of a charcoal snake, which explains why they indicated they have a lot of unused coals. They’re also trying to do this as a medium to hot smoke and get the same results as a lower, slower smoke. If you set the snake up correctly in the kettle – so basically along the back half, not 2/3rds to 3/4 of the ways around, the picture in the article is almost 90% around the kettle – and get the temperature to a constant 250 or so on the indirect side, and just put your brisket in on the indirect heat side directly below the lid vent with the lid vent wide open and the bottom vents open just enough to make sure the charcoal will burn and the heat is constant on the indirect side, you just forget about it. None of the take it out, wrap it in foil, put it back in. Then take it out again, wrap it in butcher paper, and let it cook over in a cooler. If you do it low and slow all the way through you don’t get the rendering problem described in the article.
Ultimately this is a difference between two different regions of Texas in regards to how to smoke a brisket: low and slow or medium hot to hot and fast. But the reality is if you’re still taking 10 hours to do a full brisket on medium hot to hot, then you’re not saving any real time over taking up 10 hours to just go low and slow.
If you want a really good video showing the medium hot to hot method, this is a good one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKDxItjB9Tw
And here’s a slightly different take:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57pDaaEGAR8&t=1s
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: The only thing on the lamb is a dry rub/brine of kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. The only wet rub I’d even consider for lamb would be greek yogurt mixed with garlic and ground cucumber. Basically a tzatziki or lubnah marinade depending on whether you’re speaking Greek or Arabic.
The wet rub is for the brisket.
And it is, to be honest, the only cut of meat I use a wet rub on. I’m a big fan of letting the meat’s flavor shine. So whether I’m doing steaks, a standing rib roast, a lamb roast, beef short ribs, chicken, even fish and seafood, I just use a dry rub/brine of kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Though, of course, I may add lemon to my fish or seafood. And I will marinate both chicken breasts and thighs in various marinades before cooking, whether I’m grilling or pan searing. But my philosophy on seasoning beef, bison, lamb, fish, seafood, and whole chickens and whole turkeys is less is more. Let the meat, poultry, or seafood speak for itself.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: The internal temperature, after cook over time and the reverse sear in the thickest part of the lamb roast was 141 and change.
Adam L Silverman
I’m to bed.
Please try actually reading the post I wrote, not the one you think I wrote that is in your head, before commenting. I know that is a major break with tradition, but it can, on occasion, be helpful.
Ian R
@Ken: In Exodus, though, He’s still presented as more of a lowish-tier trickster god than the all-powerful type of later beliefs. (Which is why the first few plagues are things that the Egyptian magicians are able to reproduce.)
Thus the need for asymmetric warfare in the first place.
Mel
@Adam L Silverman: i’ll trade you my sweet potato cheesecake recipe for a crack at wearing that tiara!
smike
@Gretchen:
I think lamb chops were still cheap several years ago. Though I hardly ever eat lamb, I used to pick a few up occasionally to throw on the grill (cheap, quick, easy and tasty), at a local store. I was surprised last year when I found that the price had soared beyond my interest level.
NotMax
FYI.
Basic Instant Pot Leg of Lamb
3 to 4 lb boneless leg of lamb
Salt and pepper
2 tbl. oil
2 cups water or broth
4 cloves garlic crushed
2 tbl. rosemary (or more to taste)
1 medium onion, cut in quarters or eighths
(Optional) Replace half cup of the liquid with dry white wine or dry sherry.
Instructions
1. Pat the lamb very dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper.
2. Set the Instant Pot to sauté and add the oil. Once the oil is hot, brown the lamb all over. Remove the lamb.
3. Turn off saute function, pour quarter cup water or broth in and deglaze the bottom of the pot. Place onion chunks in pot. Spread the top and sides of lamb with garlic and rosemary.
4. Insert the rack on top of the onion. Pour in remaining water or broth. Place the lamb on the rack . Cook 30 to 36 minutes, depending on how rare you want it (30 minutes for medium rare on a 4lb leg of lamb). Let the pressure release naturally before removing the lid. Remove lamb and let rest 10 minutes under a foil tent before slicing.
(Optional) 5. Preheat the broiler. Set the lamb on a broiling pan and broil 6 inches from the heat for about 2 minutes, to brown the top. Remove and let rest 10 minutes before slicing.
(Optional) Gravy: pour all of the liquid from the pressure cooker pot into a bowl. Remove any large pieces of onion with slotted spoon. Let the fat rise to the top and skim off the fat. Measure out 2 cups of liquid and discard the rest.
Select the sauté mode on the pressure cooker for medium heat. When hot, add 2 tbl. butter and stir until melted.
Sprinkle 2 tbl. flour on top of the melted butter. Stir together for a minute.
Gradually pour in reserved 2 cups of liquid as you stir together. Continue stirring until it thickens to your desired gravy consistency, about 5 or so minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
@Gretchen
Definite ditto.
NotMax
@Bruuuuce
In the Flesh was a mostly good series. Went off the rails in the latter part of the second season though, which was a minor disappointment.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Wait 20 or 30 years and see if you can keep the specific details of anything quickly read in order then.
;)
sab
@NotMax: My grandmother’s ancient Joy of Cooking said lamb should be well done to prevent trichinosis. I don’t know how lambs could get trichinosis, being vegetarians, but we always cooked it very done for that reason.
Bruuuuce
@NotMax: Never saw it. I was thinking the Pink Floyd song (that I linked), mainly because Wish You Were Here, my first link, was related. Thanks for the rec/review
NotMax
@Bruuuuce
The preview trailer. Would give the first season an A-. the second season a B.
sab
Re : Rombauer. She was amazing. Not a good cook who decided to write a cookbook. Her kids were skeptical since she couldn’t cook.
Since she couldn’t cook ,she asked a lot of questions. Questions good cooks would have learned from their mothers. That bad cooks wouldn’t ask. So she asked.
Every older cookbook that saod cook until done, Rombauer asked wjen is it done.
She is as much a national treasure as John Adams. Not so much Hamilton.
bemused senior
@Ohio Mom: My grandfather too. He was 14, came by himself from Croatia, and then worked to bring over his sister’s and mom.
sab
@sab: I l think Hamilton was a national treasure. Just on a larger platform. Natinal currency etc. John Adams thought smaller and more locally.
Major jump in logic and knowledge to leap into a national currency as a feasible idea.
sab
67 years old. Short hair for years until pandemic. Hair long enough for ponytails etc. I hate it. I do not want to go back to long hair. That is for young idiots, Feminists.: Men have short hair. Women are bullied into long hair. What part of this are you missing.
frosty
Is verklempt what I’m feeling? If that’s not it, why are my eyes all wet?
frosty
@Adam L Silverman:
Too long for a rotating tag, but if that isn’t the essence of Balloon Juice I don’t know what is! Imma submit it anyway.
lurker
seems like you (adam) could serve as a doorpost – unless you washed up…
; – )
lurker
had a weber satellite dish for ages as our (charcoal) grill. no idea the model, they all look pretty similar to me, and this one was a common size for our area. i could start the charcoal, my boss (spouse) never really got the hang of it. a while back, we got a relatively inexpensive gas grill (~$150, probably discounted a little from there) at spouse’s insistence, so I did not have to be involved when grilling for dinner. i still do some grilling, but we have not opened the weber since getting that gas grill. i keep thinking about doing some sort of a longer slow cook/smoke – some combination of laziness and my kids talking about how we are leaving greenhouse gases to them as a legacy are the two things slowing me down.
glad it worked out, you have me thinking about grilling tomorrow…
also glad the angel passed your door
Geminid
@frosty: Ms. Cracker had a shorter version: “Read the bloody post!”
lurker
@Geminid: thought i had killed this thread … good point though
Geminid
@Adam L Silverman: I’ve mentioned this before, but one antidote to an earworm can be a less intrusive counter-worm. The violin solo that introduces Fiddler on the Roofworks for me.
Pete Mack
Wait wut? I am pretty sure Passover ritual does not include being Washed in the Blood of the Lamb.
Kudos on your mad grilling skillz. I use the grill for smoking–the extreme was 5 hours for 3 racks of back ribs at 225F. It isn’t actually difficult–the only work is moving the ribs around as the fuse burns around the perimeter, and occasionally checking temperature. What you describe is way more involved.
Booger
@sab: Trichina (IIRC) have a very complex lifecycle, part of which involves cysts being passed in the feces of a host, then laying dormant in the grasses of pastureland. Good sheep culture requires rotating the flock off pasture and leaving it fallow for a year to reduce the parasite load. Doesn’t require eating meat to pass on to the next host.
Source: I have eaten lamb before.
evodevo
@Booger: Uh, no…trichinella encyst in the muscle tissue of a host, and said tissue has to be consumed/digested away by the next host to free the larvae, who then burrow through the intestinal wall and mature into adults. These then breed and release a new larval generation who burrow through the intestinal wall into the blood vessels and are carried throughout the body where they encyst. They are not passed on unless the host’s tissues are eaten by the subsequent host….the larvae cannot survive long in the outside world, so unlikely to be passed along in soil or on grass. You would have to purposefully feed it to sheep in feed to infect them… you might be thinking of strongyles or flukes
Villago Delenda Est
This has been a delightful thread. Was busy with SWTOR so didn’t see it live. Happy holiday out there! It’s always great to celebrate by watching Anne Baxter shamelessly throwing herself at Charlton Heston.
Villago Delenda Est
@NotMax: Can’t you just imagine TFG ruining a lamb chop like he ruins a steak?
Miss Bianca
Adam,
I like the inspirational part of your post. Thank you.
Also, the photo of the lamb and the mixed root vegetables is making me drool like Roxy at the dinner table, anticipating my pizza crusts.
Also, too, still cracking up over “Jewdoo.”
That is all.
Adam L Silverman
@Villago Delenda Est: What the hell are you talking about?
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: You’re welcome.
Sister Golden Bear
There’s a lovely essay on the value of Pride celebrations that ends with a conscious riffs on that joke:
“They wish we were invisible.
We’re not.
Let’s dance.”
Which is obviously applicable to more than just LGBTQ folks.
Speaking of discriminating and abusing Americans who are trans, Wednesday is the annual Transgender Day of Visibility, which is dedicated to celebrating transgender people and raising awareness of discrimination faced by transgender people worldwide, as well as a celebration of their contributions to society.
If you know a trans person, it’s a good day to show them some love, cause things are hella hard and scary for us right now. As has been said of the voter suppression efforts, even if the efforts to eradicate (a word I don’t use lightly) trans people from public life don’t succeed, they’re intended to intimidate us and tie up our time energy fighting them.
way2blue
Wait. You can grill vegetables in a glass casserole dish! I am today years old when I learned this. Thank you Alan, for your broader description of Passover. My daughter married into a family which celebrates Jewish holidays, so I welcome learning more about the origins of these holidays.
Adam L Silverman
@way2blue: That’s pyrex and you have to be careful on the grill. In the oven, it is no problem at all. I really should have done it in an aluminum foil pan.
Nutmeg again
Yummy! and, Happy Passover to All!
Hannah Simpson
Hi Adam Silverman,
This is actually me, my selfie. Here is the original link, in fact:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-dLXzyHvy1/?igshid=145ozedtcttt5
I’m a Jewish and transgender comedian who regularly writes and speaks on the intersections of queer identity, our faith, and modern life in general. Since the pandemic, I have also been working in Covid19 ICUs, morgues, vaccine sites, and as a contact tracer because I wanted to step up and serve my community (New York City). You can find lots more of my writing including about Passover by googling my name and Passover. I also run an Etsy shop selling Jewish Pride pins and jewelry at ChangedMe.etsy.com.
The hashtag and title for the photograph is #UnleavenTheCurve.
I hope you will promptly please properly attribute the image to me by editing this post immediately. As your blog is monetized, that’s a separate conversation to be had. I ask that you add my full name and clickable hyperlinks to my Instagram.com/hsimpso and/or Twitter.com/hannsimp accounts to drive followers to me. I also highly recommend that you consider using readily available “reverse image searches” before posting pictures because this information would have come up, and exposure without attribution is plagiarism. Saying you are not sure where something came from, if no due diligence was taken, does not suffice.
Thank you for addressing this promptly.
Hannah Simpson
@Sister Golden Bear: Ironic the post talks about this, but the woman in the cover photo of this blog post is herself transgender. It’s me, and this is my photo that I have not yet been properly attributed for. It’s proper title is #UnleavenTheCurve and it belongs to and features Hannah Simpson.
https://instagram.com/p/B-dLXzyHvy1/