SNL Flashback: Bruce Springsteen Visits Weekend Update for Thanksgiving

Not to be unkind, but Adam Sandler and Kevin Nealon fall near the very bottom of my list of favorite Saturday Night Live cast members. Nealon's tenure as host of SNL's Weekend Update was just plain awful, and the fact that Sandler can command between $20 and $40 million per picture tells me all I need to know about just how morally bankrupt the entertainment industry has become. But the pair did manage to score with the following Thanksgiving-themed sketch, which aired on November 20, 1993, and featured a holiday visit from Bruce Springsteen:


NBC will air a special episode of Saturday Night Live tonight at 9 PM (8:00 Central) featuring some of the show's best Thanksgiving-related sketches of the past 40 years. Sounds like fun.

Four Tunes for the Last Night of Hanukkah

Tonight marks the final evening of Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem following the Maccabean Revolt in the Second Century BC. In honor of the holiday and all who observe it, this post features several Hanukkah-related songs for your listening (and viewing) pleasure. The first is "Miracle," the latest holiday song from Yeshiva University's all-male a cappella group, the Maccabeats. Their song "Candlelight," which was featured as Track 17 on my latest holiday CD, tells the story of the Maccabees, who were instrumental in the events that Hanukkah celebrates. I posted a little background on that issue on December 12 (see HERE). From the feedback I've received to date, "Candlelight" appears to be the most popular song on this year's CD! I think "Miracle" is equally terrific:



The next song is by Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart from last year's Grammy-winning A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!

Next, here's a clip of Adam Sandler singing his popular "Hanukkah Song":

And finally, while one doesn't necessarily identify comedian Sandra Bernhard with movingly beautiful religious-based pleas for peace, she wrote and performed one such song, "Miracle of Lights," which I featured on my 2008 CD, Home for the Holidays.  You can hear that song HERE. 

Best wishes to all who celebrate the Festival of Lights, and to all who value, pray and work for peace.