Cartoons for chaotic times, also jokes, videos, music, and unsolicited advice.
LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN // NEWSLETTER #69 // APRIL 3, 2020
No need for a preamble except to say that I hope these gleanings provide a bit of comic diversion from our tragic reality. Thanks to all who've sent suggestions and links -- Letty
START THE DAY RIGHT
* Delightful! Mom, dad, and kids perform a parody of "One Day More." The British family gets my vote for sheer energy (love when the kids tell Dad, "That's a little bit sexist"). The American family is endearing, too. (Adore the little girl's expressive face.)
* Double delightful. Watch Zubin Mehta's teeny-tiny grandson conducting a symphony; can't confirm his identity but based on his preternatural talent, it's more than plausible. In any event, I can't stop watching this glorious child.
TRUER WORDS WERE NEVER PAINTED
AGEISM IS OUT; ELDER PRIVILEGE IS IN
THOUGHTFUL GIFTS
OBSERVANT JEWS TAKE NOTE
GRAB BAG
* Two cartoons kindly contributed by my friend, Mort Gerberg, the New Yorker cartoonist
* Homophobia squared. Two nut jobs; two religious extremists: Orthodox rabbi in Israelblames the virus on LGBT parades. (Take that CDC!) Evangelical pastor inTampa encourages parishioners to shake hands because they're not "pansies." Would someone please keep track of how many victims from his church end up in local hospitals because of his macho show-boating.
* How do people think this stuff up?
* A number of friends forwarded some version of this story:
(Pictured above: Poll results for America's top 10 presidents)
One night, Donald Trump is visited by three ghosts
Early in the night, the ghost of FDR appears.
Trump asks him, "How can I make America great again?"
FDR says, "Think only of the people; don't promote hate & bigotry.
Trump sneers and goes back to sleep.
A few hours later, he is awakened by George Washington’s ghost
Trump asks, “How can I make America great again?”
Washington replies, “Never tell a lie.”
Trump laughs and goes back to sleep.
At 3 in the morning, he is visited by the ghost of Abraham Lincoln.
Again, Trump asks, “How can I make America great again?”
Lincoln responds, “Go to the theatre."
BODILY FUNCTIONS
GETTING SERIOUS: HELP HOSPITAL WORKERS ON THE FRONT LINES
* From writer Ayelet Waldman: "EastBayFeedER is taking care of our community by ordering meals from 35 restaurants every day, paying full price, and delivering them to the ER and ICU of 5 hospitals. It started as me picking up take out from a favorite restaurant and driving it to the ER. Now, 2 weeks later, we are delivering 1820 meals a week, feeding 260 people a day at five different hospitals. I'd love it if you would give us a shout out. We are at 125K and we need 500K to do this until the end of the pandemic crisis." Please donate here.
* Ellyn Cohen writes from Piermont, NY. Our civic association has organized a fundraiser where we send in hot meals to our hospital workers. This is a great way of saying thanks to those on the front lines, while also supporting our local restaurants, who are struggling to survive. I wonder if you'd like to disseminate this idea? Let's start a movement! We could/should be saying thanks to medical personnel, delivery people, supermarket workers, first responders and others. ( My husband and I just sent in 10 pizzas to the ER at St. Luke's hospital in Newburgh NY where our son is an Emergency Room doctor.) VIDEOS
* POTUS vs. GOD. A few of you said this failed to open in a previous Newsletter so here's a new link to this spot-on imitation of recent Trumpery (Webster: "trumpery" means "to deceive")
* A bit of a hodge-podge but this mix of song and video is worth it for shots of Dr. Fauci trying to keep a straight face while listening to his lunatic boss.
* "Do re mi" from Sound of Music. Corona-revised lyrics are good -- and veddy, veddy British (WFT is "whinge" and "blob?"-- though the pictures contradict the social distance message.
* Dr. David Price talks straight to his family and friends. You've probably seen this by now; if not, he seems to have become everyone's favorite explainer. Leisurely but super-thorough.
WHY WILL THIS NIGHT BE DIFFERENT?
Thanks to Rabbi Burt Visotzky for translation: "Anyone who has not said these three things has not fulfilled his/her obligation.”(quote from Rabban Gamaliel who says this about the Paschal lamb, Matzo, and maror). Burt, my teacher, quotes his teacher, Miriam Lorie in London: "This will not be the first Passover Jews have had to shelter in place on Seder night. They did so at God’s command on the original Passover in Egypt, so that the angel of death would pass over Jewish houses, that we not die from the plague." To which Burt adds: "May it be God’s will for this Passover, too.
* Abigail Pogrebin, our family's resident expert on all Jewish holidays, asked 6 rabbis why this Passover is different from any other in this piece she wrote for The Forward. The rabbis are: Lizzi Heydemann, Mishkan Chicago; Elazar Muskin, Young Israel of Century City, LA ; Erin Leib Smokler, Yeshivat Maharat; Jeffrey Sirkman, Larchmont Temple, N.Y; Chaim Steinmetz, Kehilat Jeshurun, Manhattan; Sarah Messinger, Congregation Shireinu, Philadelphia. So much wisdom here!
* A panel Zoomed together by The Forward considers The 11th Plague: Passover in a Pandemic: Archie Gottesman, co-founder of JewBelong; cookbook author Joan Nathan; Abigail Pogrebin, journalist and author of My Jewish Year, in which she observes 18 holidays; and Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. You'll get some great ideas and useful information from this varied, lively, illuminating discussion.
* Dr. Seuss'seder message
Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay home -- Shabbat shalom, Letty