Jeremy's Weblog

I recently graduated from Harvard Law School. This is my weblog. It tries to be funny. E-mail me if you like it. For an index of what's lurking in the archives, sorted by category, click here.

Friday, December 10, 2004

Belated Hanukkah Wishes

Okay, we need to settle on a spelling of this holiday. I don't know how many K's, how many N's, whether there's a C at the beginning, or whether there's an H on the end. Leaving me with 16 choices. Hanuka, Hanukah, Hanukka, Hanukkah, Chanuka, Chanukah, Chanukka, or Chanukkah, and all 8 of those with two N's instead of just one. Some are clearly more popular than others. As a public service, I've googled all of them. Revealing, in order from most popular to least:

Hanukkah
2,300,000 results
including the History Channel and the Jewish Outreach Institute

Chanukah
1,240,000 results
including the Jewish World Review and Torah.org

Hanukah
300,000 results
including EverythingJewish.com and the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation

Hannukah
191,000 results
including a press release from the International Society for Sephardic Progress and a page called "Fun Social Studies"

Chanuka
86,400 results
including "Jewish Children International" and "IsraeliNationalNews.com"

Chanukkah
75,300 results
including Beth-El Shaddai Messianic Synagogue and JewishSource.com

Hanuka
52,800 results
including the Woody Guthrie Foundation (yes, I'm stretching now) and Netanyahu.org, the website for supporters of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Chanukka
41,100 results
including the Jewish Learning Initiative at Yale and the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies

Channukah
26,900 results
including NewHampshire.com (that bastion of Jewishness) and "Jews in Green: The Ultimate Resource for Jewish Service Members"

Hanukka
24,600 results
including the American Israel Numismatic Association (how many members you think?) and the Society for Humanistic Judaism

Hannukkah
9,110 results
including the Waldorf School in Lexington, MA and "Shalom Village" in Canada

Hannuka
7,960 results
including Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, CA and some guy's personal web site at the University of Connecticut

Channuka
3,120 results
including pretty much no site that doesn't also spell it one of the more popular ways somewhere else on the page

Channukkah
1,950 results
including on a free sewing pattern and the neonteen.com message boards (inspires confidence this is the right one, doesn't it?)

Hannukka
1,690 results
including a site called, appropriately enough, Home4Christmas.com and a Temple in Connecticut selling "hand-dipped" candles for the holiday.

Channukka
264 results, making it less popular than a search for "eating mold" (really -- that came in at 326)
including a toddler's photo album and a bunch of German sites

Since the Internet is, well, the Internet, there's also 27 results for Hanuuka, 13 results for Chanuqa, and 2 results for Chanukkkkkka.

Can you tell I don't want to be writing a paper this evening? :)