Sunday, February 21, 2021

This week I'm looking forward to Purim! Purim celebrates Jews' triumph over Haman, the Persian empire official who wanted to ... as usual on these holidays ... destroy us.

During Purim, we make noise to drown out the name of the story's villain. This year, Ted Cruz might be Texas' Haman.

Purim is also basically the Jewish Halloween because we dress up, so I'm sharing a doodle from October about my best DIY costumes. I also drew Ted Cruz the family man enjoying his escape ... I mean vacation ... in Mexico. And I have a doodle about my hair journey, inspired by Gen Z's declaration that side parts are out and what my mom used to say about my hair.

Plus, I've got some custom birthday doodles.

Enjoy!

Purim pre-game: Some of my best costumes

I'll take any excuse to re-share this doodle about my favorite DIY Halloween costumes (see the blog post with the real pics here). I could have drawn a Purim doodle, but I'd rather bake real Hamantashan (the Purim cookie) than draw them ... To make this a little more Purimy, below I also included a cute picture of my sister and me dressed up as Esther (the holiday heroine!) for Purim as kids.

Ted Cruz the blundering family man 

Ted Cruz took his family to Mexico as his state of Texas experienced a natural disaster. I did not realize he was such a family man, and what an interesting and appropriate time to prioritize quality time with his daughters. The family quarantine is probably a bit awkward now that he has blamed the tone-deaf trip on them. Wishing them luck.

My first version of the doodle compared a recent Brody trip to Syracuse, which was modest and drivable and we all did work there, to the Cruz trip. But it was a little complicated, so I took us out and made it just about Cruz. He did enough to warrant the doodle spotlight. (He made it into a previous doodle about Robinhood here.)

How should I part my hair?

This might need a little context. A Gen Zer on TikTok declared that everyone looks good with a middle part, and now, apparently, side parts are over. (Gen Z also said skinny jeans are out).

This is bad news to me and likely many other women because a) we were made to believe that side parts look better and b) we've already told our hairdressers which side we part our hair on, so our hair is now designed for a side part. We're all going to need a bit more warning if middle parts really are the future.

Anyway, for me, and I'd think many other people, my part/hair has been a journey that my mother has been vocal about. I went through lots of pictures from my past to help this doodle, so it's screaming for a video, which I'll share next week. For now, see the doodle below. 

Snow birthday card!

Every so often I'll remind you that I sell cards. I'm sharing this one since it snowed this week. And, I whipped out a marker to transform and older version of this card for my friend Tara's birthday. Happy birthday, Tara!

A custom doodle for a one-of-a-kind birthday girl

My family friend Vicki has been an early doodle fan. I'd wanted to make her a doodle for a while, and figured her birthday was the perfect occasion. As you can tell from the picture, she has a lot of personality, she bikes all over NYC, and she even drums. See more custom work here. 

Thanks for reading! See you next week. Please share the newsletter with friends! Happy Purim if you celebrate!

Meanwhile, I'll be playing with my hair part in the mirror and shopping for new jeans...

xo

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