Put on Your Yarmulke ...

Once again, Happy Channukah.

Lots of Channukah celebrations of late. Yesterday my mother's side of the family came over for dinner, and today my dad and I drove up to Belmont, MA (about 20 minutes from Boston), picked up my grandma in Newton, and had a holiday meal with several members of his side of the family. Many of them I have only recently met or hadn't met at all up until now, so it was very interesting to say the least since we have never really had a gathering of that side of the family before. I saw fellow former Temple Israel teacher Jacob Baram, and current New York Observer news editor Marcus Baram, among others. And get this, I have a cousin, who I had never met before, whose father owns the rights to the character Zorro. Yep, Zorro, the masked avenger of Spanish legend. And basically his full time job is to manage the usage of the character in movies, TV, books, and any kind of consumer product. Wow, now that's what I call a way to make a living, especially with a sequel to The Mask of Zorro (with Antonio Banderes and Catherine Zeta-Jones) close to release, and poised to rake in the sweet, sweet, cash-money. Hmm, I wonder if any characters are up for sale? I think Popeye is due for a comeback ... The Lone Ranger could be big, what with all these Red States and stuff ... or maybe I should look into purchasing the media rights to legendary 1980's animated icon Bucky O'Hare ... yeah, that's the ticket ...

Got home after a long day just in time for some FOX Sunday night laughter. Too bad Malcolm in the Middle was freakin' preempted by football. Oh well, what can ya do. But I will say that The Simpsons had its BEST EPISODE OF THE YEAR, by far, tonight. No, it wasn't even close to an all time classic or anything, but it had me laughing throughout the entire episode which I haven't done in a while with the show. From the opening gag, where Homer continually goes from horror to relief as Lisa sings the kids' classic "Miss Suzie Had a Steamboat Song," it was hilarious. For a minute, it was 1995 and all was right with the world. Then, weirdly, Arrested Development had easily one of it's worst ever episodes, in my opinion. Sure, it had some great moments, but overall it just seemed dull and un-funny. It's like one of those nights in the NBA when an old-timer like Karl Malone has a 25 point game, like he used to do every night back in the day. Um, kinda.

Tommorow it's back to the grind, of, um, looking for a job. Not too much I can do at the moment with the holiday season at hand but I think I'm going to have another meeting at ESPN either this week or next, and hopefully I'll be able to arrange some stuff in NYC before the new year. Plus I gotta look into apartments in NYC and LA / Burbank so I'm at least somewhat ready if opportunity knocks. Anyone with any suggestions in those areas definitely let me know.

Dentist appointment tommorow. Ouch. I better not have any cavities, because if I do I will not be a happy camper. That's it for now - hopefully this week there'll be some good news to report.