Purim is coming, and once again everyone wants to know "what's our theme?" Being as close to Springfield as we are, the inevitable and eventual choice had to be The Simpsons. It is time to dust off your tower of blue hair, saxophone, red cap and disappearing thong and prepare for our annual revelry.

Purim occurs on March 6, after Shabbat, through March 7. Our services will begin at 7:00 pm, and the megillah will be read at morning minyan as well. Elsewhere you will find information about Sisterhood's Purim Carnival for kids and their escorts.

With Purim on Saturday night, we have a little more time to enjoy ourselves. And enjoy ourselves we will. If you would like to be a presenter between chapters of a skit, song or appropriate (for Purim) observation, please contact me by February 27. Auditions will not be necessary, but I may do a little editing for time and family values.

And the question arises, of course, why The Simpsons? Is there anyone more Achashveroshic than Homer? Was there ever anyone so Vashti as Marge? Is the malevolence in Bart not Hamanish? And who more Estherial than Lisa? With Maggie as the one who knows not how to ask. Wait, that's Pesach. D 'oh!

Do you need to dress up as someone from the show? Of course not. Maybe you are not Moe or Apu or Ned Flanders or Krusty. Maybe Mr. Burns and Smithers are not your cup of tea. And maybe your parents won't let you out of the house dressed as Duff Man. Be creative! Maybe you know what state Springfield is in. Maybe you were Seymour Skinner's university professor. Maybe you made the mistake of eating at the Kwikee Mart.

But Purim is a day to forget our woes and remember someone else's woes. It is a day to eat hamentashen (mmmmm... hamentashen) and recite the famous mantra of Purim: I didn't do it. No, wait, that's for Tisha B 'av, but now I am out of space to finish the ... D 'oh!