Purim, Anna Nicole Smith and Eskimos...

Inuit Mask. Photo by Jeff Kelton (Thank you!)

Sunday was Purim... I missed it. It's kind of a Halloween II for Jews and, I like it. Like Halloween, its not so much one of those obligation holidays (Chanukah- gotta buy 8 presents and brave the cooking of the latkes and spattering oil- Passover and Matzoh, the bread of our affliction - the less said here, the better). Purim's about costumes, noisemakers, special cookies and a rabbinical mandate to get so drunk you do not know the good guys from the bad guys (OK, I do not actually NEED to be drunk to have difficulty with this particular distinction).The holiday, in part, focuses on the replacement of the evil queen Vashti who did not come when her husband called- rumor has it she had a zit in an inconvenient place and chose to stay away from the party. After Vashti was killed by her husband for this little error in judgement owing basically to a lack of decent concealer in ancient Persia, he held a beauty contest to find a new wife. And found Esther. This is all true. I looked it up.

Purim masks of Esther always are very... well- Esther seems to be done up for an evening at Studio 54. I date myself but you get the idea. She's a lot of very big blonde hair and very red lips. So I thought of Anna Nicole Smith ( you mean you didn't?)
There has been a huge fluff up about the way she died and the pomp and circus-stance surrounding her death - her flamboyant funeral and even the filmy chiffon that covered her casket. But it suited her- she was overblown and much bigger than life. That did not sit well with most folks idea of a death- or a life.

I thought about it- she was a truck stop waitress, an exotic dancer and an unapologetic, unrepentant bimbo. If you think, and think hard, can you remember the first name of any waitress or stripper whose first name you recall? Would you admit to the stripper if you did? I would be surprised- Add two more names that you can recall and you begin to see, she will be one of the most famous bimbos ever. She never claimed to be anything else. I think that's pretty cool.

At Purim we put on masks- to be a king, or a villain or a blonde haired princess who became a queen. Anna Nicole never put on the mask- there was never one that could cover up who she really was. I think she was a little piece of fabulous- no, a big gooey slice. And that doesn't always sit well with a society that can try and fit you behind a convenient description, or one where success can seem to depend on wearing some convenient disguise that moves comfortably in the worlds we choose- or the ones that choose us.

I, for one, am grateful for having such a wonderful bad example. I hope I can live up to it- at least once in awhile.