What is Turkish cuisine?

Mostly very, very close to Greek, though both Greeks and Turks will loudly and furiously deny any resemblance.

And, like Greek, very very tasty. If they want to have thousands of years of wars over that fact, they're just being silly.

Calli, it's your birthday, you can do whatever you want! Or should, anyway.

Allyson, the only food I know that has the word Turkish in front of it is "turkish delight" from "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe", so even if that will be what's for dessert, I'm afraid I can't help you with anything else.

an Iftar dinner (breaking the fast after Ramadan)

When I was returning home after staying with my uncle for Rosh Hashana a couple of weeks ago, I sat in the bus beside a group of very nice Muslim teenagers. They were breaking the fast with cookies and Coca-Cola (and insisted I share them with them, no matter how much I explained that I just finished two days with lots of very large meals). We exchanged fast stories and rules, I explained about the fast on the day after Rosh-Hashana, we compared the beginning-and-ending schedules, stuff like that.

Mostly very, very close to Greek, though both Greeks and Turks will loudly and furiously deny any resemblance.

This is true.

JZ, I've been thinking of you lately because in the class action pro bono case I've been working on, we're calling one of the plaintiffs "J.Z."

When I was returning home after staying with my uncle for Rosh Hashana a couple of weeks ago, I sat in the bus beside a group of very nice Muslim teenagers. They were breaking the fast with cookies and Coca-Cola (and insisted I share them with them, no matter how much I explained that I just finished two days with lots of very large meals). We exchanged fast stories and rules, I explained about the fast on the day after Rosh-Hashana, we compared the beginning-and-ending schedules, stuff like that.

Nilly!

This gives me hope. Why doesn't the media report this kind of stuff once in a while?

bon, hee! Can I expect a sizeable settlement anytime soon?

t /deusional

JZ, if you're a non-citizen that's been wrongfully denied welfare benefits from the NYC HRA administration, Come On Down! You've just made tens or even dozens of dollars!

MFNlaw! You married woman! Hey! Have you posted any pictures or ceremony descriptions anywhere for this skipper to look for?

how is Sukkot celebrated? I realized I know virtually nothing about it, other than the huts.

Well, the 'huts' (which are called 'sukkot', or sukkah in singular) are one of the two main rules of the holiday. You're supposed to practically live in one for the whole week: eat, sleep, read - conduct your day there. The rule binds men, not women, so I frankly never slept in the sukkah, but on the day of the holiday, yesterday, my whole family was with relatives, and my uncle built a bsukkah big enough for all 19 people who were there to eat inside (and all the adult boys who wanted to could sleep in it). Lots of fun.

The second rule is the "four species" ("arba'a minim") - four kinds of plants who are taken in the hands with a certain blessing during the morning prayer.

The holiday of Sukkot lasts 7 days, and the last day is called "Hosha'ana Raba" and is like the very final day of determining the fates of people, the last in the process that mostly was 'written' in Rosh Hashana and 'signed' on Yom-Kippur. It's like a special date for late-commers or something like that. Many, therefore, study (Judaism-related studies, of course) all night on that night.

The 8th day is "Simkhat Torah" or the "joy of the Torah". During each Saturday of the year, a certain portion of the 5 books of the Torah is being read. The beginning and ending is on that day, which is why it's the Torah's joy on it. On the evening prayers the Torah-scrolls in the synagogue are being taken out of their special cupboard and the men dance with them to express that joy. And, of course, on the morning of that day [Edit: which is, in the general way of talking about days, the following morning, since Judaism starts a day from the previous evening], the very ending of the 5th book and the very beginning of the 1st are being read.

Homeland security secretary's statements in front of Congress:

"I'm not a hurricane expert," Chertoff said several times in responding to criticisms from members of a special House panel set up to investigate the dismal federal response to Katrina, which killed more than 1,200 people, flooded New Orleans and forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands.

Turns out Scotty was right, and there is transparent aluminum.

the only food I know that has the word Turkish in front of it is "turkish delight"

The word for Turkish delight candy in Romanian is "rahat," which, not coincidentally, is a slang term for "shit."

Turkish food is (mostly) teh YUM! Go, enjoy!