The Romans designated February as a month of "Spring cleaning" and purification. In most of the world, especially in the US, the greeting card and candy industries hijacked the month for the Valentine's Day holiday. But here at Jewcy, we're kicking off February with a gastronomical twist.  Sheila Lukins, author of Ten: All the Foods We Love, Ten Recipes for Each is spending this week guest blogging in Jewcy's Book Club.  As part of her week on Jewcy, we're giving away five copies of her book!  It's easy to participate: All you have to do is comment on one of her posts.  At the end of the week, we'll pick the best five comments and contact the commenters to let them know they've won.  That's it!  Just leave a comment, get a book!  Have a look at today's post on vegetable soup, and keep checking Jewcy, or Sheila's profile, for her most recent post.

Lukins is a graduate of Le Courdon Bleu and founded the well-known New York gourmet food shop, The Silver Palate.  She also co-authored the famous "Silver Palate" book series.  Her book is a collection of recipes featuring ten variations on some of our favorite dishes.  

Jewcy received an urgent message from Jonathan Kesselman of World Wide Media Conspiracy about the horrors of a second Holocaust:

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. There are 7 - 8 films in current release that deal with the atrocities of the Holocaust. One of them deals with Defiant Jews in the woods and stars an Aryan man from England... so, just ignore that one for now.  This film is different. The short video you are about to see will shock you. There is a Genocide happening right now that you are most likely not aware of, and it is affects us all.

Please help! Watch the film and get involved. 

Now, take a look at how infamous Holocaust denier Bishop Richard Williamson has just been reinstated by the Pope. Remember, those trees died for Jesus.

Peter Manseau, author of Songs for the Butcher's Daughter, spent the past week guest blogging on Jewcy. He began by telling us how the son of a priest and a nun won a Jewish book award.  Then he told us why, "I'm not a Jew," is a phrase rarely uttered in Yiddish.  He informed us on how missionaries appealed to our fellow Yids by speaking our old language.  And finally, he explained why he went from writing a real memoir to writing a fake one.  Need more from this goy incognito?  Buy his book!

Lia Romeo, co-author of 11,002 Things to Be Miserable About, spent the past week guest blogging on Jewcy.  She shared all sorts of misery with us, including the miserable beginning to her book deal, the misery of being at the inauguration ceremonies, the misery we come into contact with every day, the misery in history, and, last but by all means not least, the misery of New York.  Not quite on Xanax yet?  Buy the book!

In this historic year, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day uncannily falls on the day before we inaugurate America's first African-American president.  On August 28, 1963, Dr. King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.  In another interesting twist of fate, on the same exact day 45 years later, the Democratic Party officially became the first major American political party to nominate an African-American (or anyone with a minority background, for that matter) candidate for President. And on November 4, 2008, in what many called a realization of Dr. King's dream, Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States.

Below are videos to show how America had its dream, and arrived at "Yes We Can."