You will have to consult your favorite astrologer to completely determine what "born under the sign of Scorpio" means. We consulted Wikipedia - and quite frankly we could have used Wikileaks and ended up as confused - and best we can note is that Scorpio is the eighth of the 12 astrological signs and generally is in effect from Oct 22 through Nov 21st and therefore anyone having a birthday during that time span is a Scorpion. In the Philadelphia area it sometimes seems like the entire population has been born under this sign so the Homage to Scorpio event is a celebration on the lives of many Israeli dancers. We assume this would include Marc for him to have this incentive to celebrate. We present several logos ascribed to the Scorpio astrological sign including several that depict the arachnid whose sting is very poisonous and one outlining the Scorpio constellation.
Since Scorpios are claimed to be ruled by Mars - whatever that means - scorpion colors are red (for the red planet) and violet. This script acclimates to this by randomly using these colors. Assuming the laws of probability win out, one would assume that at least 8 percent of the population is Scorpio and that there would be an appropriate number of famous people that were born under this sign. Given the recent election the top tier of photographs in this montage tries to show one side of this - Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Megyn Kelley and Theodore Roosevelt - and the lower tier, just to be fair, has Ivanka Trump and Marla Maples.
Scorpio is supposedly the most powerful of the astrological signs. Therefore, scorpios as people are considered astrologically to be powerful individuals although this website's experience casts much doubt on this. It is alleged that their outward placid look and supposedly innocuous exterior hides a seething interior. Supposedly as a group they make difficult - but interesting - partners although one assumes there are many exceptions. It is easy to scan the internet and find appropriate poetry celebrating scorps and their proclivities. Marc Rauer, himself being a scorpio, likes the poem presented here and it was this poem that was copied and used to highlight the festivities as you will see
Having set the colors, the poem and the concept of the Homage to Scorpio party, it should be clear that there is another problem to overcome, one that has been an occurring source of concern for anywhere between 3000 to 3500 years since Moses received the 10 commandments. What is kosher? Since these celebrations occur within the confines of Synagogues questions arise about observing Jewish dietary laws. This website is not prepared to delve into this except to say that the laws clearly prohibit the simultaneous serving of dairy and meat. The Homage to Sorpio events are strictly dairy featuring ice cream and cookies/cakes regardless of the weather. Fruits are considered kosher. Nuts that are natural and not processed in oil also are considered as such. Per the cookies, Marc is looking for the designation U and D on the label as indicated at left in this montage. Another symbol shown to the right, a variation of the Hebrew letter Kaf, has to be checked out on a case by case basis generally and this can be done by emailing the baking company. The question always is whether the company has decided on its own that its products are kosher or have they really had the experts in to ascertain such.
Of course, this now brings us to the central pieces of this celebration, the cartons of ice cream. For Marc, as a native Philadelphian, there is only one ice cream that will do. This is a Philadelphia favorite, the one and only Breyers. When Marc was growing up in South Philadelphia ice cream shops abounded and most served what would also become Marc's favorite, Breyers. It was said that a milk shake or sundae full of Breyer's ice cream was the stuff dreams were made of. This montage shows several of the Breyer's logo and their modern carton packaging.
The story of Breyers ice cream itself is also the stuff that dreams are made of. Shortly after the American civil war William Breyer starts to make, sell and distribute by horsecart his own own brand of ice cream that he would make daily in his family shop in Frankford, a section of Philadelphia. Supposedly Breyer had five ice cream shops in Philadelphia to add to his daily distribution by the time of his death in 1882. His wife, Louisa, and sons, Frederick and Henry, would further expand the company's production by creating several plants in order to expand distribution up and down the East Coast although by 1926 the company had been sold to a company that would eventually become a subsidiary of the Dutch company Unilever. One of the plants, at 43rd and Woodland in the Spruce Hill (below University City) area of Philadelphia, is well remembered. Using the then new fangled theories that we would recognize now as air conditioning, the 43rd and Woodland plant churned out the many flavors of Breyers which would be quickly distributed as this plant was situated on the main line of the Pennsylvania railroad. Today that same plant is the McNeil lab building of the University Of the Sciences of Philadelphia. This montage shows the few pictures we could find of the plant while it was producing ice cream and rightmost is the McNeil labs when dedicated in 2006.
In closing about Ice Cream, Marc reports that you can never go wrong getting chocolate based treats when catering for a mostly female group such as the Germantown Sunday Israeli dance session. So, as far as ice cream flavors are concerned, Marc this Sunday brought three cartons of Breyers: Chocolate, Rocky Road and Chocolate truffle.
The Sunday morning session on November 20th, 2016 was scheduled for the Tenin canteen room at the Germantown facility. Over the last few months, Germantown has instituted a monthly birthday festivity. For the week selected for that month to celebrate birthdays, the session begins at 9:45 instead of the regularly scheduled opening at 10AM. Marc merged the homage to scorpio event with the November birthday celebration and he arrived at the center about 9:30 to lay out all the goodies. These pictures were taken about that time showing the boxes brought in and the early preparation. Please note that the facility provided the coffee and percolator.
As we understand, Marc sets to work unpacking and arranging. Decisions must be made such as how many cartons of ice cream should be put out at one time?. Slowly but surely the table is arranged in concentric circles with the fruit, nuts, and cookies arranged around the ice cream. These two picture show what awaited the dancers as they arrived that morning. And, by the way, someone told us that this day was officially Marc's birthday.
Notice the documentation. This montage shows that this was nothing more than what was shown above: several Scorpio logos from the internet and the poem we revealed above.
Unknown to Marc there was to be an additional food source brought in by Eli and Lucy. Eli celebrated his birthday on Nov 18th, two days before the session and the couple brought a ton of bagels and multiple cartons of cream cheese for the dancers. Here we see him arranging these first under the tutelage of Sylvia and then next to Susanna as she samples the ice cream. We should note that Susanna took several of the pictures that will be shown below.
Officially the session should have started at 10AM. Unofficially everyone was enjoying the food - ice cream, bagels and coffee - so much that the music didn't start to play until about 10:15. No one complained. The first of these pictures show Wendy with what the Europeans call "sexy coffee": A scoop of ice cream in a cup of coffee. She certainly seems to be enjoying this. We also see Eli helping himself to a bagel and the right most picture in this montage shows that even the maintenance staff - notice the ladder - took a break to enjoy all the treats on the table.
About 10:15 Grant revved up his equipment and began the Nov 20th, Sunday morning session. Israeli dancers love to dance and our photographers took multiple pictures throughout the morning. Here we present many of them in this montage.
And, thanks to Susanna's initiative, we have pictures of the three people responsible for the food and treats. From left to right: Marc, Lucy and Eli. And, we finally finish this script by wishing a belated birthday to both Eli and Marc and to all the scorpios in our lives. Happy Birthday, Scorpios!!