Who is sad today?

Not only is today Christmas Eve, but tonight is the first night of Hanukkah! That should make most Americans happy, right?

Maybe not.

It was always said to me by Jewish friends that Christmas was a great time for them to go to the movies and eat Chinese food. The Atlantic calls the Chinese food a "full-fledged ritual."

But what happens if no one goes out because a Jewish holiday falls on the same day?

I don't worry about the movie theaters. They'll get traffic. Plenty of teens from all denominations and sects whine so much about going out with their friends on Christmas Eve and even Christmas Day that eventually their parents turn them loose just so they don't have to hear it. Personally, my mother would have slain me in my chair if I'd tried it, but I had cousins who would walk right out of Christmas Eve, family I saw a handful of times a year, to go out with their friends, leaving me with the adults. We never did have a lot of family feeling with that crowd.

So the theater owners will make their money. But teenagers don't abandon the house to go eat pork lo mein.

All I can say is, for the sake of the Chinese restaurateurs, the Bumpus hounds had better be really hungry tonight.

Happy holidays to you and yours from Fredland! We'll have something tomorrow. We never sleep.