...huh?

A friend wrote:

"We are having a Chanukah potluck dinner at our synagogue, is it okay to bring this?"

Response:

"As long as you don't serve cheese with it"

This E-mail made the rounds here in Virginia Beach. Personally, we all thought it was a hilarious joke. Today my catering partner, Vicky, came over to talk about an upcoming event, and mentioned that the above sign was real, and that it came from a very classy grocery store in New York City. I looked it up, and found the article below. I went onto the Balducci website, and found an apology. We were able to laugh at this faux pas -- no one called for the beheading of either the person who made the boo boo or the store manager. We all ought to maintain a sense of humor, dontchathink?

Balducci's offers ham for Chanukah

BY BILL HUTCHINSON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, December 6th 2007, 4:00 AM

Balducci's in Greenwich Village advertises tasty boneless spiral ham as 'Delicious for Chanukah.' Store blamed a clerk for the gaffe.
Oy vey! Pork for Chanukah?

The Greenwich Village gourmet grocery store, Balducci's, has become the butt of the Jewish holiday by advertising its boneless hams as "Delicious for Chanukah."

Manhattan novelist Nancy Kay Shapiro, 46, spotted the kosher faux pas while browsing the meat section Saturday at the chain's outpost at Eighth Ave. and W. 14th St.

When Shapiro went back Sunday, she took photos of the unorthodox display promoting boneless spiral-cut hams for $8.99 a pound, petite smoked hams for $6.99 a pound and boneless smoked hams for $6.29 a pound.

Instead of pointing out the mistake to management, she posted the snapshots on her blog to "amuse others."

"I just thought it was funny," Shapiro, a self-described "unobservant Jew," said. "I wasn't offended in any way. I just thought, here's somebody who knows nothing about what Jews eat."

Shapiro said that when she went back to the store Tuesday, the first night of Chanukah, the signs had vanished.

A Balducci's official was so verklempt* about the error he didn't want to speak on the record. He fessed up that "it was a mistake," blaming it on a stock clerk who normally doesn't work the meat department.

He referred all other questions to the company's marketing department in Connecticut.
whutchinson@nydailynews.com

So after all the Chanukah celebrating is over, the presents put away, the wrapping paper and potato peelings discarded, the candle wax scraped off the top of the buffet, and the grease from eight days of frying potato pancakes has been scrubbed off every kitchen surface, you may wonder what we Jews do until New Years Eve! We watch the news about everyone out running around at the shopping malls, kick back and watch some good TV shows, go out and enjoy the peacefulness at anywhere Christmas presents are not being sold, or watch clever U-Tube videos of what other Jews are doing. Watch this: Chinese Food on Christmas

*verklempt: Extremely emotional. On the verge of tears. (From an online Yiddish dictionary -- "Yiddishkeit")