Three-cornered pi

The copy of the writing, to be given out for a decree in every province, was to be published unto all peoples, that they should be ready against that day.

--Esther 3:14

This year had the amazing confluence of Purim and Pi Day, not to be seen again until 2033, when Erev Purim is Pi Day, so they'll overlap for a few hours. (Pi Day 2025, 19 years from now, will be Purim Katan.)

Last night, in honor of this confluence, a group of us dressed up as various forms of pi. I was cow pi, and others were American pi, sweetie pi, pi in the sky, pea-can pi, and the pied piper (accompanied by a pi rat). Unused ideas included pumpkin pi, kidney pi, shepherd's pi, humble pi, honey pi, and wild honey pi.

[UPDATE: Ruby K blogs about it too.]

[UPDATE 2: Here's a picture!]

This time around, people had less trouble figuring out what my costume was. Last year, Purim fell on Good Friday, so I dressed up as Jesus. Since I'm already a Jewish dude with long hair and a beard, this costume took little additional effort; I wore a white sheet and a halo. And people at the dar couldn't figure out who I was supposed to be!!! The halo threw them off. "Are you an angel?" "It's Good Friday and we're in the basement of a Catholic church; who do you think I am?!". They didn't know that Jesus is represented with a halo in art from the Middle Ages to South Park. I blame day-school education. Frustrated, I borrowed someone's lipstick and made stigmata and other Gibsonesque wounds. Someone said "You've gone from Protestant Jesus to Catholic Jesus." In contrast, on the subway going downtown afterwards, no one was unclear about who I was. But on the Upper West Side, people are more familiar with cow pi.

In addition to the usual mangled nusach and inside jokes, maariv included the Sesame Street theme, "Layla" (to Maariv Aravim, with the word "Layla" set to the word "layla" each time), "Particle Man", "Like a Prayer" (the one crowd pleaser that stays around from year to year like the etrog), "I Know What I Know", "We Are the World", "Pinball Wizard", and the Looney Tunes theme ("That's all, folks" at the end).

I followed along with the megillah reading from JT Waldman's Megillat Esther graphic novel.

This morning, the students brought in six pies.