The BIG Story

Action, Camera, Lights!

Great is eas

Elizabeth Applebaum
AppleTree Editor

I

t may seem at times that the

world is changing so quickly it
leaves your head spinning. Like
- a dreidel.
Well, there's no sign yet of a virtu-
al latke (at least it wouldn't have
any calories) or a cyberspace
menorah. But this year, for the first
time, you can leave that plastic
dreidel behind and start playing
on the computer.
Dave Berry, of San Francisco ;
is the man behind some new
software called DreidelLand. For
a quick spin, take your mouse to:

anc plen -y of photo opportunities
for celebrating Chanukah.

received more attention than we
ever dreamed. It truly has a life of
its own — and best of all, every
year around the holidays our chil-

dren receive checks from strangers
in the mail."

If computer dreidel isn't for you,
never fear. Here are plenty of new
— and easy — ideas to celebroi-,
Chanukah:

"First," he says, "came a story-
board. Then we filmed some drei-
dels across the kitchen floor for the
videos in the game. Then my wife
wrote the dreidel history section.
- My 3-year-old son and I did the
musical passages and I pretty much
made up the game portion by
myself.
"It has lasted much longer and

menorah. Although the end product
can be reduced to almost any size,
you want to work on a fairly large
sheet of paper, no smaller than 8-
1 /2 x 1 1. Your menorah should
include all the candles, but omit
the flames and instead, decorate
vith family photos, one face per

candle. If you have less than the
required number of people in your
family, just fill in the extras with

www.dnai.comRdunda.

Then just click on the picture of the
dreidel, and you and the computer
are in for a dynamic, no-holds-
barred game.
"I was looking for a career
change and got a copy of Macro-
media Directory software„" Berry
says of his creation. "I started by
creating programs around some sto-
ries of existing children's books,
and then decided I wanted some-
thing I could publish. My wife and l
thought about it and somehow
came to the conclusion that we'd
never seen any sort of dreidel soft-
ware. So we went with it.

machine (preferably one that makes
color copies)
Begin by asking the most artistic
member of your family to draw a
menorah. Remember, this does not
have to resemble a Rembrandt; it
just has to be recognizable as a

appropriate drawings, such as a
Star of David or dreidel. After you
have completed your wonderful pro-
ject, photocopy and decorate. You
can really have fun with this; try all
kinds of different materials around
the house. Consider attaching
pieces of foil to the menorah, or

use crumpled-up tissue paper to
make a latke on the side.

Dizzy Dreidels

Picture This

Instead of going to the store and
buying the same, old familiar
Chanukah cards to send to friends,
here's a great one to make yourself.
You will need:
• family photographs that can be
cut up
• scissors
• crayons, markers or colored
pencils
• access to a photocopy

Y,,u played it when you were little.
your children played it. Your grand-
children will play it. Your great-
grandchildren will play it ...
Yes, it's great to have a rousing

evening of that familiar nun, hey,
gimmel, doled game. But can't
somebody come up with something
a little different?
You can.
Challenge family members to cre-
ate a new dreidel game, and let
the winner keep the chocolate gelt.
Here are a few ideas to get you
started:
• Someone spins the dreidel, then
everyone spins himself (little children
will go wild over this). Whoever
can continue spinning as long as
the dreidel does is a winner. (Warn-
ing: Do not play this game too
soon after consuming all those
latkes.)
• Gather all the dreidels in your
home. Now is the time to imagine
you work for the Jewish Psychic
Friends Hotline. Everyone writes
down his guess as to which letter
will appear most frequently when
the dreidels (let each person play-
ing the game spin one) stop.
• Here's a great word game you
can play using Hebrew or English.
Begin by spinning the dreidel.
When it stops, each person must
write down a word (but not nes,
gadol, haya or sham) that begins
with the letter that appears. For
example, if the dreidel stops on gim-
mel, those using Hebrew might write
gay (back), givinah (cheese) or g'li-
dah (ice cream). It would be too
easy to do the same in English, so
make it more fun by having players
come up with words that begin with
"g," but that also contain the same
number of letters as "dreidel" or gim-
mel, such as "garbage" or "gerbil."
• Say it quick: One person spins
his dreidel, and before it stops he

12/11
1998

Detroit Jewish News

75