holy festivals coincide, light up a phatty, eat matzoh ball soup / Next year may we be in Amsterdam

Oh yes, certainly, please click.

By an astonishing astronomical coincidence that occurs only once or twice every 100,000 years, two of the world's holiest and most beloved festivals coincide this year:

* Passover, which celebrates the Jews' exodus from slavery in Egypt, and

* 4/20, the world celebration of smoking marijuana (not for its amazing medical and health properties, but for the most forbidden of all things: Fun)

Though Passover / Pesach began at Sundown last night, it's celebrated as a dinner feast in the home, with tons of delicious traditional food. So when these two marvelous holidays coincide, the Great Rabbis of the Talmud recommend that first you light up a gigantic phatty, and as soon as The Munchies kick in bigtime, park your tuchas at the table and dig in. Passover is NOT a celebration for Supermodels who daintily gnaw on a stalk of celery.

In searching for images appropriate for 4/20 I came across the travel blog of this Hungarian young woman, and her photo sitting at The Grasshopper in the center of Amsterdam's tourist district. I filched her smile, and left a poem behind on her blog. I hope she likes it.

The girl at the Grasshopper
(a poem for 4/20)

How wide her smile

How I wish I was
across the table from her
in the Land of Spinoza

in the city with 28 Mosques
and a Mayor named Cohen

Where pleasure and joy
are not crimes

where beauty in tile
in piano hooks
leaps into the eyes
in every doorway
over every bridge
over every gracht

their fortunes
in tulips
and cooking spices

where dreaming
is a respected profession

Look for the old American tourist
with the other wide smile
next 4/20
at your table
at the Grasshopper