Ever wonder why you can't get a seat in the mall food court?

I will admit this is a clever stunt that took a lot of preparation. While watching it, however, I kept wondering how many camera operators were used and whether it was all done in one take. I doubt it was done just once because, with all the different camera angles displayed you never see another photographer in the video (except, of course, those shooting with their mobile devices and the quality of this video is too good to be shot with a mobile phone.)

Thanks to My Hero for alerting me to this video and, if anyone knows where this took place and especially the name of the choir, please let the rest of us know in the comments section.

Celebrating Hanukkah ... well, almost

Tonight marks the first night of Hanukkah, the first of eight nights in which Jews celebrate a somewhat dubious claim to a battlefield victory and an equally unbelievable tale about oil. Non-Jews who are are familiar with the term "Hanukkah" think it is a far more important holiday to Jews than it really is. Truth is, it's really not that big a deal. Unlike most other Jewish holidays, its traditions don't even come from the Holy Scriptures. In fact, this is a pretty good take on Hanukkah. That being said, however, I do plan to have a nice family meal this evening and light the first candle.

What I have to give thanks for on Thanksgiving 2008

Chance
Grace
Mary
James

Post Valentine's Day romantic advice from the last person in the world who should be handing out romantic advice

Truth of the matter here, I'm really not the one who originated this advice. I'm just the messenger passing it along. It comes courtesy of Marc Hirsch, a contributor to MSNBC.

According to those who know about such things, there are five stages of grief: denial, bargaining, anger, depression and acceptance. So what Mr. Hirsch came up with are five songs that could serve as the theme songs, so to speak, for each of these stages. They are designed for someone who's just broken up with the love of their life. Here they are:

Denial: "And I"m Telling You I'm Not Going" from "Dreamgirls"
Bargaining: "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" by The Temptations
Anger: "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac
Depression: "Without You" by Harry Nilsson (I might have gone with "Guilty" by Randy Newman)
Acceptance: "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" by Bob Dylan (I might prefer Dylan's "If I Had To Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You," which probably proves once again I'm the last person to be handing out advice like this).

The State of the Groundhog

An interesting observation from Pete's Place's South Florida correspondent:

"This is a year where both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address occur in the same week. It is an ironic juxtaposition of events: one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication, while the other involves a groundhog."