8 | DECEMBER 10 • 2020 

for openers
Now You’re Cooking 
W

e have come a long 
way from open 
hearth cooking. 
Stirring a large cauldron over 
the roaring fire or in a huge 
fireplace is now 
a thing of peri-
od-piece movies. 
Before you start 
to suggest your 
favorite cooking 
utensil manufac-
turer, let me ask 
you to consider 
the frequency of certain terms 
in our everyday speech: pot 
(and kettle) and pan.
Our country’s leaders like to 
remind the world of our diver-
sity, thus the prevalence of the 
idea of an ethnic melting pot.
It is said that a watched pot 
never boils. Well, it does; but 

it does seem to take forever, 
which is the root of the saying.
Have you been forgetting 
your exercises and ignoring 
the state of your wardrobe? If 
so, an observer might say you 
have gone to pot. (That pot 
belly may be a contributing 
factor.) If such observations 
come from someone who is in 
much the same circumstances, 
it may be a case of the pot call-
ing the kettle black. 
Looking to make your mark 
in the world? Be sure that you 
are not hoping to find the pot of 
gold at the end of the rainbow. 
(And we all know that it is there 
but closely guarded by a pack of 
leprechauns!)
Candidates for office used to 
promise a chicken in every pot, 
but that did not woo the vege-

tarians.
If you have gone to an every-
one-bring-something-to-eat-
and-share gathering, you know 
it is referred to as a pot-luck 
dinner. This is not the same as 
asking someone to sweeten the 
pot or just put something in the 
pot as you might do as you ante 
up in a card game.
If things in your life go from 
bad to worse, then you have 
gone from the frying pan into 
the fire. If happenings are short 
lived, however, they may be 

seen as a flashes in the pan.
Should you go to Alaska, you 
may want to join an expedition 
to pan for gold. I hope your 
search pans out for you. If it 
does, then you may be on TV 
or have a movie made of your 
life and the camera would pan 
across the wilderness to focus in 
on you and your strike.
A different kettle of fish may 
be heard in the caution to feel 
sorry for the poor, homeless 
snake who did not have a pit to 
hiss in. 

VIEWS

Sy Manello 
Editorial 
Assistant

editor’s note
Our Chanukah Present
I

’ve just spent the better part of two 
days meticulously photographing 
and scanning 133 different children’s 
drawings for the JN’s annual Chanukah 
cover art contest. Does that sound 
tedious? It didn’t feel that 
way; it felt utterly joyous. 
With every wonder-
ful full-color image of 
menorahs, Maccabis and 
sufganiyot, I was reminded 
anew of the creative pas-
sions and exuberant won-
ders of our local Jewish 
community, even during such difficult 
times. I saw the amazing talents of Metro 
Detroit’s Jewish children, the ones who 
will decide our future, and I became 
hopeful for that future. And I’m grateful 
the JN can be a part of it.
It’s fitting, then, that as our families 

prepare for another Chanukah, we at the 
JN have a present of our own to share. 
No, not socks. We have been selected to 
be a host newsroom for the nonprofit 
Report For America for its upcoming 
2021-2022 fellowship year. 
This organization is responding to the 
crisis in local news reporting by placing 
professional journalists with local news 
outlets across the country for year-long 
fellowship corps programs, much like 
Teach For America or City Year. It’s a tre-
mendous honor that RFA has agreed to 
help us in our mission to unite the Metro 
Detroit Jewish community by telling all 
your stories.
RFA will grant us $15,000, half the 
salary toward the hiring of a full-time 
JN reporter, who will be an experienced 
journalist focusing on stories about gen-
erational and other demographic changes 

Andrew 
Lapin
Editor

NATHAN VICAR/JEWISH NEWS

Judging the children’s 

Chanukah art contest.

continued on page 10

