One of the worst menorahs I've ever seen reminds me of another connotation-fail menorah idea.

Some recent discussion of Pinterest led me to log on for the first time in months. The first thing I saw was this awful menorah made of old Yiddish books - "with their covers removed, giving a nice neutral vintage paper look."

This is disturbing in so many ways. A giant connotation fail. Just what we love: defacing and/or burning Jewish books. The death of a culture - its books, now readable by few, tied together with strings, their covers removed, now reduced to a cute "vintage" object. The authors of these books: turning over in their graves.

Here is another one that makes me crazy in a "what were they thinking?" way: the Noah's arc menorah. All the rest of the world destroyed except this one crowded boat, and look how happy the animals are.

I call this "tone-deaf to yiddishkeit" (jewish culture). My son says, it's tone-deaf to books.