By Dan Friedman December 16, 2009

The bewildering world of the interTweet gets stranger day-by-day. Tom Cokill, a self-avowed Roman Catholic, followed his twitter post about Leeds United’s glorious victory over Accrington Stanley, with a correction of Stephen Fry’s spelling of Hanukkah.

Herewith the tweet from Stephen Fry, read by millions daily:

Just emerged from fun hannukah party at the Chief Rabbi’s house. Latkes and lox and bagel and blintzes. Hurrah. 12:26 PM Dec 14th from Tweetie

Herewith Tom Cokill’s response, read by tens, at least:

@stephenfry its spelt chanukah, and I’m roman catholic!! 2:39 PM Dec 14th from UberTwitter in reply to stephenfry

Now Jewish things move more slowly in Britain than in America, but you know that the spelling of Hanukkah, Chanukah gag is a bit old, when Robert Siegel on NPR did four years earlier.

Still, it hasn’t stopped people’s delight in transliteration, even at book-length.

Still, when Sir Stephen tells you that there are options, there are options:

@TomCokill Er… you’ve been misinformed. It’s actually Hebrew of course, but there are at least 4 perfectly permissible English versions. 3:09 PM Dec 14th from Tweetie in reply to TomCokill

And Tom, thus corrected, can take solace from watching Leeds United against Carlisle in the final of the Northern section of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.

Worthy mentions to Benjamin Ivry and David Fagin.

It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!

We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.

This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions. 

We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.

As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday! 

Don't just read the Forward - invest in it. Make a gift and our board will match it.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$129 $180 $360 OTHER AMOUNT