So last night I attended the annual Latke-Hamentaschen debate held at the college. This has been going for a few years now, and it's a fine tradition. There's a one-dollar cover charge, for which you get pizza, latkes*, and hamentaschen. Then you get to watch professors try to argue the merits of one or the other.

    As the years have gone by, the debate has gotten much more crowded and slightly less funny. This year's crowd was large enough that there was many people standing. And less funny than years past isn't terrible, it's just that years past have seen brilliant speeches, from the latke-communist putsch against the bourgois hamentaschen, to the philosophical reference to the lost dialogue of Plato-- the Shlomo.

    This year, everyone's favorite sarcastic political science professor referenced potatoes in the Constitution and revealed exciting dirt on the moderator. A psych prof countered by giving the MMPI to a latke and a hamentaschen. A biology professor provided a simply ingredient analysis, and an art history prof once again compared the hamentaschen to a certain part of the female anatomy.

    I enjoyed it, but was nostalgic for my senior year of college, when I was asked to be a judge. I remember it vividly because I had an exam scheduled on the same evening. I asked my professor if I could reschedule the exam, because various people had rescheduled for other reasons. He didn't see the debate as a valid reason, perhaps not on the level of familial problems or sporting events. He told me that I could not take the exam at another time, and would just have to figure out what my priorities were.

    So I went to the debate, at which the college president was one of the speakers. I was very entertained, rose at the end to e-jew-dicate humorously and briefly, and then ran out the door to arrive half an hour late for my exam. I knew very well where my priorities were.