This year’s dreidel tournament was perfect for Hanukkah. Why? it was lit.
Happy Hanukkah! Families across the world are lighting candles, sharing latkes and playing dreidel, which can be a low-key game of chance if you like… or it can also be a sport that’s as intense as any the world has to offer.
That’s the idea behind Major League Dreidel, which takes the classic game and turns the intensity way, way up.
Its inventor is Eric Pavony, who also once set up a competitive Skee-Ball league, if you want to know where he’s coming from.
He said he was playing dreidel with his dad at a family Hanukkah party and realized the game could use a kind of gritty reboot to appeal to adults.
He set up new contests, like who could keep their dreidel spinning the longest inside a tabletop Dreidel arena – and he started organizing annual tournaments at his bar in Brooklyn, under the slogan “No Gelt No Glory.”
This year’s tournament happened over the weekend. There were 32 competitors, lots of prizes, and plenty of excitement. And no, it’s not too early to start practicing for next year.
By the way, Pavony crowdfunded the arena the Major League Dreidel competitors use for their face-offs, which is perfect. It’s called the Spinagogue.
There are so many ads out there in this busiest shopping season of the year.
A creative agency in Nova Scotia decided we could all use a break, so they bought ad space on billboards, newspapers, the sides of buses, and so forth with nothing in or on them. They’re just blank white spaces.
The radio non-ads did have a little narration in them to avoid dead air.
But in this often loud and busy season, it’s good to have a little quiet, right?
Competitive Dreidel-Spinning Is a Thing. Here’s How Major League Dreidel Got Started. (Civilized)
Creative agency buys $10k of blank ad space to give everyone a break from ads (It’s Nice That)
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Photo: 2010 dreidel tournament by Contemporary Jewish Museum via Flickr/Creative Commons
