STEPHEN FRY

(To the mods: if this thread belongs in General Musings rather than here, feel free to move it.)

I think a thread of book recommendations wouldn't be amiss. Especially if they're vaguely "Fry-ish" books in some way or other. I'll start.

The Great Latke-Hamantash Debate.

Wiki has it that "annually since 1946, a debate is held, mainly between faculty members [of the University of Chicago], not (but nearly) all of whom are Jewish, about the relative merits of latkes and hamantaschen, the Jewish delicacies associated with Hanukkah and Purim, respectively. The lectures are a great opportunity for ordinarily serious scholars to crack jokes in a mock-serious tone."

Having attended a couple of these debates during my undergraduate days, I can add that they occasionally get so esoteric and inside-jokey that the theatre falls into a sort of continuous uncomprehending half-moan half-giggle, while the undergrads and graduate students directly affiliated with the speaker and in on the gags howl with laughter.

If anyone's curiosity has been aroused, click here to listen to my old (now quite, *quite* old) philosophy prof Ted Cohen expound on the relative virtues of latkes vs. hamantaschen back in 1976. (He comes down firmly on the side of latke. )