Hammy Hanukkah

New York City is, of course, a city of immigrants and is quite proud of its wide range of ethnicities. Apparently, the proprietors of a posh New York food store are immigrants from outer space. Because they labeled their display of various hams, "Delicious for Chanukah."

The non-kosher labelling was spotted at the weekend by Manhattan novelist Nancy Kay Shapiro, 46, who decided instead of alerting management to take a picture of the unorthodox sign and post it on the Internet.

"I just thought it was funny," Shapiro, who described herself as an unobservant Jew, told the New York Post. "I wasn't offended in any way. I just thought, here's somebody who knows nothing about what Jews eat."

By the time Shapiro returned to the store on Tuesday, the first night of Hanukkah, the signs had vanished, the newspaper reported.

Shapiro's website has the pictures and her take on the whole thing:

Personae: Me, shopping for low-carb food.
Action: I'm sort of staring at the meat display, lots of salamis and sausages, and then various hams. And the hams' price signs have all been tagged with festive PERFECT FOR CHANUKAH banners. Which I blinked at for a couple of secs, trying to decide if this was an example of truly monumental cluelessness or … nah. It's just the Department of Monumental Cluelessness, Well-Meaning Division.

The signs now read, "Perfect for the holidays." Note the good humor displayed by the author and contrast that with some other behaviors out there today.