Clap! Clap!

Two new characters in my Bethlehem display are a boy and a girl, each holding up a kitten, with another kitten at their feet.  I have put them together in the town square with a little sign that reads Free Kittens.  On Sunday one of the ushers said, “Shouldn’t that sign be in Hebrew?  Or Aramaic?”  Inspired, I searched the Internet that afternoon, fruitlessly.  So I went to my Facepage and asked if anyone knew how to write the words.  I got an immediate answer, almost immediately corrected by someone else who pointed out that the Hebrew words meant Free Puppies.   Which would have been hilarious.  But now I’ve got it right (I hope) and have made a little sign I’ll put up later this week:

חתלתולים בחינם

Or, there’s this:

גּוּרִים חִִינָּם

Because someone else piped up and said, no, this one is correct.  I don’t know which is correct, but it’s not desperately important so I’m not fussing about it.  Still, if one of these is right and the other wrong – or if both are correct (or both wrong and I’m the victim of a hoax), let me know.  And by the way, what does the first one sound like?  (I have a description of the second.)

See what happens when you just ask?

Our Christmas tree, an artificial one about four feet tall, sits on a little antique table near the border between our living room and kitchen, about an outlet.  It’s been put there for years, never a problem until lately, when my bad knee and arthritis make it difficult to keep going under that table to plug in and unplug the lights.  There’s been a commercial on television for a product I remember from almost as far back as my first television set: The Clapper.  You plug something into it, plug it into an outlet and clap your hands and it turns on the current.  And three days ago I finally bought one.  I can’t tell you how odd it felt to buy the thing, as if I were finally falling for an old prank.  But by golly, it works.  Clap, clap and the lights come on.  I guess it’s an old peoples’ device, like a cane.  Your hair turns white and you find yourself needing a cane.  And The Clapper.