Vignettes From a Long Purim Weekend

Overheard Purim night: "Hey, what happened to the rubber chicken in my back pocket?”

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During the reading of the Megillah: “Balailah hahu, nadda shnat hamelech…” ("That night, the King’s sleep was disturbed"), chanted to the tune of Brahms's Lullaby

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Half the people on the bus at 10:00 Purim morning: “I have such a headache!”

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Mournful after hitting the liquor table: “You know the problem with really good scotch? Bad scotch, you drink it and it burns on the way down, so you drink a few shots and you’re done. Good scotch, it goes down so smoothly that you feel like you can just keep drinking it. So I did.”

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“United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama…” (Performance of the Animaniacs' song "Countries of the World," by a student of the rabbi's. Done flawlessly, no doubt because he did it before the drinking started…)

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Political Science major during the walk to synagogue: “We should start a Henry Kissenger fan club on campus.”

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Sung very loudly in the middle of hundreds of people breaking their fast Thursday night: “A-a-a-mazing gra-a-a-ce, how swee-e-e-t the so-o-ound…”

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[Long and heated discussion at lunch on which was less healthy, smoking marijuana or excessive drinking. No conclusion.]

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Delivered in the "movie preview narrator" voice: “From the bestselling author of Genesis (‘A gripping read’) and Exodus (‘It changes you’) comes a book unlike any seen before—Leviticus!”

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A student doing a quick d'var Torah (not exactly a sermon, but close) on the seemingly redundant prohibition against eating or drinking blood:
“…And so, just like you consider blood to be disgusting, so too you should consider all sins to be just as disgusting…”
“I like blood.”
“Well, there goes that d’var Torah.”

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Overheard as a dozen guys tried to find seats on one sofa:
“Oh yeah, why don’t you go throw balls at little kids and say that they enjoy it…”
“But he was smiling!”

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For some reason, I can't remember much else that went on. Must be a short-term memory thing. Oddly enough, I do have a number of Scottish-sounding names running through my head…

I hope everyone had a good and safe Purim, and a good weekend.