# Purim -- a drunk (but not Irish!) MMP **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** mmp\ **Created:** [March 17, 2008, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632 "2008-03-17T07:11:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/1 "2008-03-17T07:11:23Z")
Everybody loves a carnival. Especially a **drunk** carnival. Everybody loves St. Patrick’s day. You don’t even have to be Irish to love it. Well… almost everybody. Jews have to do everything _different_, you see. I mean, we’ve been around since… well, forever. Finally, somebody got sick and tired of waiting another several hundred years for Paddy to come on the scene! So… like everything else, it seems, we invented it first. The Drunk Carnival Holiday, that is. And we called it [_Purim_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purim). For every other Jewish holiday, the plot is, essentially, “they tried to kill us; they failed; let’s eat!” In this case, the final part is “let’s **drink!!** :D.” The idea behind Purim is a story. Our story starts in Persia, in the court of king [Ahasuerus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahasuerus) (Generally identified as Xerxes.) It is a story of royal politics (and royal beds!) – with the story ultimately ending in the downfall of Haman, who initially was granted the right to kill all the Jews in the Empire, but is foiled by Mordechai and his beautiful niece [Esther](http://media.collegepublisher.com/media/paper1010/stills/436130ae9786f-18-1.jpg)\*. Oops… not _that_ Esther (nice costume though, babe!:)). [Esther](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther), who [del]sleeps her way to the top[/del] wins the king heart and gets him to reverse the decree. Anyway… to make a long story short, one of the exhortations of this holiday is that one should drink on Purim until one can no longer distinguish between the phrases, “Cursed is Haman” (_arur Haman_) and “Blessed is Mordecai” (_baruch Mordechai_). At this point, I **don’t** think you can legally drive home from _schull_… but I digress. So – anybody still want to claim the Irish invented the Drunk Festival? 😛 (\<– Hey, a little Green Guy! Must be a leprechaun… 😃 (\<– Hey, another one!! Looks kind of drunk, too… definitely Irish!)) - Yes, she really has asked to be called “Esther.” [Cite](http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20040617/ai_n12791741). Biyutch be crazy… ---
**Author:** ![kaiwik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaiwik/32/3978_2.png) [@kaiwik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaiwik)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/2 "2008-03-17T07:30:21Z")
Cool OP **Special One**. I am checking your links, but just once I wanted to try for first! ETA: Yay! ---
**Author:** ![Dottygumdrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Dottygumdrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dottygumdrop)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/3 "2008-03-17T07:39:43Z")
w00t!!! New MMP is up - great OP **Nooner**! Drunken holidays are great, but not altogether common in this corner of the Middle East - strange considering the word alcohol is actually Arabic in origin! 😉 Sigh, unfortunately for me, since I had HRH I tend to get really bad histamine reactions every time I drink any kind of alcohol. My ENT surgeon actually told me that, if I’ve been drinking, to just take an anti-histamine before I go to bed! Kinda takes the fun out of it all, though! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![kaiwik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaiwik/32/3978_2.png) [@kaiwik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaiwik)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/4 "2008-03-17T08:18:53Z")
That really is an interesting OP. Following the links I came to a reference to allegories being read into the Book of Esther, which lead to a link to the _Shekinah_. Following that link was also interesting, my parents lobbied quite hard for me to name my first daughter Shekinah, and I didn’t quite understand what the word meant. I appreciate insight on the festivities, both secular and religious, of cultures other than my own, thanks again **lunch**. Too bad about the allergy **dotty** , although if an antihistamine will allow you to indulge, then all is not lost. btw, the last photo I saw of HRH, covered in food, was adorable! My grandaughter is now doing much the same, babies are such fun! (says the woman who is past the baby stage of raising children, :p) It is now three minutes into Monday my time. The kids are on Spring Break, so we will be sleeping in. I didn’t make **FCM** ’s french toast casserole last night, but I am now going to put it together and we will have it in the morning. While I do have some Irish blood I doubt that I will do much drinking tomorrow, but we got lazy today and had leftover chicken for dinner, so it will be corned beef simmered with the addition of an onion, red potatoes, carrots and a small head of cabbage toward the end of the cooking time. If I feel up to baking perhaps there will be soda bead to go with it, but probably not! ---
**Author:** ![Dottygumdrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Dottygumdrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dottygumdrop)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/5 "2008-03-17T08:57:23Z")
**kai** , Tea is truly gorgeous! HRH had a Bumbo (that is what Tea’s sitting in, right?)when she was first learning how to sit up, but she grew out of it sooo quickly, mainly because her chubby little legs grew too, well, chubby to fit in it any more! I have quickly shunned any pretense of work today, other than checking my work emails a couple of times. I am now making a spicy beef tortilla stack for lunch - YUM! Which probably means dinner will be a far more simple endeavour, like grilled spicy turkey sausage and roasted garlic mash, maybe with some caramelised onion gravy! Wow, on re-reading that sounds far more complicated than it will be! Okay, off to assemble my tortilla stack! ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/6 "2008-03-17T09:08:58Z")
[QUOTE=kaiwik] Cool OP **Special One**. [/quote] Thanks 🙂 > [@](#): > > I am checking your links, but just once I wanted to try for first! > > ETA: Yay! Bzzzt… posted while it was still Sunday. _ **Disqualified!!** _ 😛 ---
**Author:** ![kaiwik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaiwik/32/3978_2.png) [@kaiwik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaiwik)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/7 "2008-03-17T09:23:46Z")
Thanks for the compliments on Tea, she looks almost exactly as her mother did when she was a babe. She is a delightful baby, and she is indeed sitting in her Bumbo chair. Her mama said she needed one, so grandma got online and ordered it for her right away. She has been sitting in it since she was three months old, and although she plainly is a chubby baby, she is still fitting it quite well. She was only 7 lb 3 oz when she was born, and has a petite frame, which she also got from her mama, along with her hair color. Now that her hair is coming in we see that she is going to be a blonde as well, although for a bit she looked as if she might be a strawberry blonde, it is coming in platinum. French toast casserole is in the fridge, and I am going to get to bed. A good Monday to everyone! On preview, **lunch** , I may have posted on Sunday, but I _am_ the first poster to the OP, it’s gotta count for something! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/8 "2008-03-17T10:40:06Z")
I’m not posting to the MMP this week, in protest to the random outages. Nope, you won’t find me here. Ever. At all. ---
**Author:** ![swampbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampbear/32/467_2.png) [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/9 "2008-03-17T10:45:38Z")
Jake OP **Special1**! I haven’t followed all the links yet cause I gotta go purtify for work soonish so I don’t have time right now but I will. I know there’s a lot of festivals that [del]revolve around[/del] include a lot of drinking. Maybe we should pursue this and broaden our festivatin’ potential. 😃 Ok, off to work purtify. Y’all have a good day. And… **ERIN GO BRAGH!!!** ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/10 "2008-03-17T10:50:43Z")
Okay, maybe I will post. But please, be quiet in the morning, ---
**Author:** ![gardentraveler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gardentraveler/32/3576_2.png) [@gardentraveler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gardentraveler)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/11 "2008-03-17T10:53:02Z")
Ummmm, **beebs** , dear… I think your boycott may have failed. Good morning everyone! I’m awake! (That’s an accomplishment, right?) Cool OP, **Noonie**. I always like looking at pictures of the Steinhardts making Hamantaschen; that’s pretty much all I can reliably remember about Purim. Maybe now I’ll remember a little bit more… Guess I should go find something green to wear. There are always my little shamrock earrings. Happy Monday! GT ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/12 "2008-03-17T10:54:45Z")
So long as it’s Monday somewhere it counts, right? My first thought was “uh? it ain’t Monday, is it?” Then “D’OH :smack:” Right, only cos I’m off work doesn’t mean it’s the weekend, plus I just came back from a supermarket which most definitely does not open on Sundays, plus if it was Sunday I would have been to Mass. So it definitely isn’t Sunday 😛 I just got a call from my agent, the dudes from the Big Consulting Firm that kept shuffling me back and forth have decided to stop. Works for me, I mean, I know many people who think I’m crazy, but I’d rather be at home and do spring cleaning than be at work with nothing to do but think of spring cleaning. Gosh, my language teacher would’a loved giving us that previous sentence to analyze. The agent is going to see if he can “sell” me to a firm that needs several people to spend 2 years hopping between Bilbao and Glasgow. Gee, I always wanted to go to Scotland! My childhood’s best friend had an unusual two-word name. In Spanish there is something called “nombres compuestos”, something like “complex firstnames”. They’re names where you need all the words to mean the specific name. A Xavier is always by default a Francis, because the saint is Francis Xavier; a woman called Lupe is actually a María de Guadalupe. OTOH a Francis can be “plain Francis.” My friend’s name wasn’t one of these, but we always called her by both words. Her name is Blanca Esther. “White Esther” - the Blanca is… c’mon take a guess… also Nieves or “Snow”, for “Our Lady of Snow,” “the White Lady,” of which her maternal grandparent was very devout. Yeah, Hispanic women are called Mary even when they aren’t 😛 The Esther was because her mother looked up the saints of the day when Blanca was born, and one of them was St Esther (the same one of Purim), which she liked in combination with the Blanca. Her feast, and my friend’s birthday: March 23. So I can forget the approximate time of other jewish festivals but never, never this one 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tarragon918](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@tarragon918](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tarragon918)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/13 "2008-03-17T11:09:31Z")
**HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!!!** Up and caffeinating, running late this morning, though. Very nice OP, **SpecialOne** ; I enjoy Purim and especially hamentasen (sp?). Nice to know part of the story of Esther. And happy Monday too! 🙂 Off to work … ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/14 "2008-03-17T12:09:48Z")
Morning! Err, happy Purim/St Pat’s! ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/15 "2008-03-17T12:10:46Z")
**Top O’ Th’ Marnin’ To Ye** and the rest o’ the day t’ meself. 😉 **Echod**! You forgot to mention the magilla! Our temple had our own Purim song, written by our cantor (actually, he’d passed away long before I was of participatory age, but the song is still sung by the junior choir every year. If I can locate a recording of it, I will share) ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/16 "2008-03-17T12:27:41Z")
Mornin’ y’all. Caffeine and brekkie down… Ready for another fire tale? this one is short, but not sweet… **What _IS_ that smell?!?.. March 2008** It was late Saturday night/Sunday morning. I was in bed, and my mind became dimly aware of a fowl odor of something burning. Aware, just enough, to know that it wasn’t right, but not enough to get my lazy ass out of bed to investigate. The internal dialog went something like this: “Is my house on fire?” “Can’t be. I just serviced the smoke detectors, and they’re not going off. Besides, the dogs would be frantic.” “Is Fred’s house on fire?” “Nah. Can’t be. The dogs would be frantic.” “OK, I guess I’ll go back to sleep.” I rolled over to get myself adjusted for more shuteye. **DEEEEE duuuuh BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP** [pause] [other tones] **DEEEEE duuuuh BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP…** my pager was going off. \*“Station 20 (mine, Mayberry), Station 50 (Pixley), Station 80 (rescue). Check in for traffic. Report of a chicken house on fire on Harrell Church Road…” \* So I wasn’t imagining it. I know the chicken houses well. They’re about a mile away on a direct path to the northeast, but about a mile and a half by road. I felt bad for not getting up to check on Fred, but also relieved that neither of our houses were burning. I also learned my lesson at the big forest fire. I’ll be damned if I’m running rescue when there’s red stuff that needs application of the wet stuff… When my truck got there, the first task was to take a line from my engine and add it to one already stretched so it could reach the back end of the building, which was maybe 400 feet long. Our preconnect lines are 250 feet, and only got midway. The chicken house was already gone, and there was nothing to save. Put out the embers to keep it from spreading, and keep the propane tank cool. It was a long night of grunt work either with the hose, or pulling apart sheet metal to get to fire underneath. I hate corrugated siding and roofing. We battled our way to the far end, and ran out of hose once more. Added on, and the other guys took over while I took a break because I’d been on the line for an hour already. When I got back to the line, it had made the far end, and I ran into an extremely bad odor, far worse than the burning pig shit from the pig barn fire. A quick look with a flashlight confirmed my suspicion: a carpet of burned feathers, connected to their owners. Unlike the empty pig barn from a year ago, this chicken house had 24,000 6 week old hens. The fire apparently started in the middle, where I got on the line, and the birds piled up on both ends trying to get away. They didn’t make it. It has to be a bad way to go, even for a dumb bird that was otherwise destined to wind up on someone’s dinner table. I hope the farmer has a crew there today to tear the rest down and bury the birds, 'cuz I’m downwind. It may be awhile before I do chicken on the grill, too. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/17 "2008-03-17T12:27:48Z")
Hey, any holiday that involves drinking, I can get behind. But why is it already Monday? I must protest! ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/18 "2008-03-17T12:45:14Z")
[QUOTE=Noone Special] For every other Jewish holiday, the plot is, essentially, “they tried to kill us; they failed; let’s eat!” In this case, the final part is “let’s **drink!!** :D.” [/QUOTE] _snerk_ So practical! I love it! Y’know I had completely forgotten that today was **Sint Paddy’s** day. By a remarkable coinkydink I pulled my green sweater out of the closet. No pinches for Spaz today! I’m not doing my observation this morning. Too much stress. (Not the classes I’m watching, they’re great. It’s the…well, I bitched about all that in the last MMP.) It’s chilly out, but the azaleas, pear trees, and cherry trees are all blooming. You would think this would make it feel warmer. The flowers are all white, so it doesn’t. Still, azaleas mean Spring Has Sproinged. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/19 "2008-03-17T12:46:57Z")
Why is the thread suddenly in Comic Sans? Who forgot to close the tag? What are we, fonting the whole board? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2008, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632/20 "2008-03-17T12:48:22Z")
Trying to fix the open font tag… ETA: Boo. No good. Will have to report… ETA2: Reported Tarra’s post – hopefully the font will go away presently. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purim-a-drunk-but-not-irish-mmp/441632.md?page=2)