Stories for the last night of Channukah

I should have written this earlier, rather than waiting for the last night of Channukah.

As most readers know, this is the Jewish holiday that lasts for eight days and commemorates one of the world’s greatest stories of energy conservation. No ritual oil has ever had a lower carbon footprint.

I wanted to share this series of new Channukah fiction that was read on NPR. Each of the stories is beautiful and modern. But I was perhaps most drawn to Holiday by Steve Stern, a retelling of the Channukah story in a somewhat dystopian United States in 2015 with chronic energy shortages, economic ruin, and cranky old Jewish stereotypes.

As CatSynth HQ is only beginning to recover from our brief little dystopia, our celebrations were rather quiet this year. But we did connect with family and friends even in the middle of everything. And I suppose that is what really counts.

Weekend Cat Blogging, Festival of Chaos, and more: Toys and Boxes

The theme for this weekend's Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos is “toys or boxes.” And we at CatSynth have both toys and boxes. Luna received a package this week from a friend of ours, conveniently arriving for both her “burfday” last weekend, and Channukah this week. What's inside the box? Well, we have birthday cards:

and of course some fascinating new toys:

You want more boxes? We got more boxes!

Yes we have been packing up things here at “soon to be former CatSynth HQ”, even though we're not entirely sure where it is we are moving to.

Thanks to everyone who wished Luna a happy birthday last weekend. We will pay individual visits to everyone as soon as we can.


The Bad Kitty Cat Festival of Chaos is being hosted this weekend by Samantha and Tigger at Life from a Cat's Perspective. Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted by our friends Upsie and sher at What Did You Eat. Upsie is still working through her diabetes, and we wish her well.

Carnival of the Cats is being hosted by our friends Megan and the Bad Kitty Cats. And of course Friday Ark #168 is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging #81: A CatSynth Channukah

Here at CatSynth we get into the holiday spirit with the traditional lighting of the channukah candles in our not-so-traditional music-inspired menorah:

The astute observer might see Luna in the background of the photo above. She keeps a good distance from the candles, as is appropriate. However, we'd like to remind everyone not to take any chances with candles this holiday season, especially with animal friends. Please make sure all candles are lit on safe, non-flammable surfaces (such as granite) and observed at all times.

For safer holiday kitty fun, Luna got some new toys in the appropriate blue and silver colors:

Not exactly a dreidel, but still fun!

Our family has a tradition in which we try to guess which candle is going to last the longest. In the photo below, the likely candidate is number six (third from the right, the center candle doesn't get numbered).

Sure enough, in the end the sixth candle was the last one alight. Watching the candles go out is fascinating. The flame dims to just a point, then sometimes flares up again in a last push before flickering and going out in a beautiful puff of smoke.

Hmm, this is starting to sound a little depressing, isn't it? Better hop over Tiggy the Tiny Tiger for some more feline holiday cheer!

Gift ideas from CatSynth

Looking for a great holiday gift for that music lover, techno geek and/or pretentious hipster/snob in your life? Why not give them a copy of Aquatic?

If CD's are too old school, you and always gift tracks via iTunes or consider a subscription to emusic, truly the gift that keeps on giving.

Proportional Fish kinda sounds like holiday music, right?