Chutzpah. Puns. Fatalities. Realities. Survival. Bolero. Ballet. Banksy. Music. Mimes. Comic Relief.
LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN // NEWSLETTER #74 // MAY 7, 2020
This week I'm focused on both the horror and all the creative things people are doing to get through it
WHERE I COME FROM WE CALL THIS CHUTZPAH
* Jared Kushner declares the federal government's response to the coronavirus outbreak "a great success story” as cases topped 1 million and U.S. death toll passed 60,000 -- more Americans than were killed in the entire Vietnam War -- and about one in every 325 of us has been infected. [WashPost]
* Trump Administration self-celebrates its response to the pandemic. Coin above is currently being sold in the White House gift shop. Note know-nothing POTUS & VP are in CAPS, The experts in tiny type.
Someone just invented the perfect campaign slogan for the Prez:
APRIL WAS THE CRUELEST MONTH
WHAT WE'RE DOING TO GET THROUGH THIS TERRIBLE TIME
Washing Our Hands
Seeking Beauty
* The tenacity of trees: gorgeous photos show nature's adaptability, showiness, and will to survive.
"The Art of Isolation," chronicles what emptiness looks like around the world. Sad yet beautiful.
Singing/ Dancing/ Making Music
* 100+ socially-distanced Julliard students and superstar alumni offer an extraordinary, ebullient, adorable, uplifting Bolero Julliard. Read how this amazing video was created.
* One of Sotheby's most prominent auctioneers, Helena Newman and her family have presented Sunday concerts for their neighbors in their Bayswater yard since the lockdown began. Above: Newman (viola), husband Rafael Todes (violin), daughter Isabella (second violin), and son Max (cello),
* "Nobody does it better," croons Carly Simon, summing up "Jews in Music, 8-minutes of the pride of the tribe including Leonard Cohen, Carole King, Martha Argerich, Evgeny Kissin, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, Drake, Yves Montand, Lenny Kravitz, Julio Iglesias. But how could they leave out Jolson, Bernstein, Gershwin, Rogers, Hart, Hammerstein, Sondheim, Previn, Perlman, Stern, Ax, Beverly Sills, Sophie Tucker, Dinah Shore, Harold Arlen, Burt Bacharach, Sammy Cahn, Dinah Shore, Jerome Kern, Carole Bayer Sager, etc? Isn't it time for somebody to make us a full-length documentary?
* Puccini's "Nessum Dorma" as inspiration: The Italian Air Force salutes the Italian people to Pavarotti's version. Tenor Maurizio Marchini sings the aria to Florence from his balcony. Daniel Emmett updates Puccini.
* Fun. Quirky. Beautiful. Even glorious. Don't miss this absolutely amazing video of quarantined Paris Opera ballet dancers improvising to Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet"
Barbra sang it after 9/11 and now that more Americans have died in the pandemic than did at the WTC, she does it again: "You'll Never Walk Alone, this time for victims of the virus and workers on the frontline.
Making Art
* New drawing by Banksky. Trust the elusive English artist/activist to make the perfect 2020 Superhero doll.
Watching Videos
* 21st century teens try to figure out how to work a rotary phone.
* Smart grandma fulminates fabulously about Trump, telling it like it is.
* Law student outwits his professor. Why didn't the rest of us think of this?
* Cool old guy in yellow convertible tries to pick up young women. Ageist yet charming.
Reading New Books
* Congratulations to dear friends Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue on their 40th anniversary, and the publication of their new book. "What Makes a Marriage Last!" Bert and I are thrilled among the 40 couples interviewed in this wise & joyful compendium, the perfect gift for newlyweds or long marrieds, or anyone curious about long-term togetherness.
In her touching memoir, "Funny You Don't Look Like a Rabbi," my Jewish feminist friend, Lynnda Targan describes how she became a rabbi at 55 after juggling work, family and intense study, and triumphing over her shaky confidence, other people's sexism & ageism, institutional resistance, and personal loss.
Making Memes
Sharing Puns
The fattest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.
She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.
A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.
No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.
A dog gave birth to puppies at the side of the road and was cited for littering.
Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
A hole was found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.
Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
Two hats were hanging in the hallway. One said to the other: 'You stay here; I'll go on a head.’
The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large
A backward poet writes inverse.
When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
In a democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your Count that votes.
If you jumped off the bridge in Paris, you'd be in Seine
Vulture boards a plane with 2 dead raccoons. Flight attendant says, 'Sorry, only one carrion per passenger"
Two people in a kayak were chilly so they lit a fire. The craft sank, proving yet again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too
Two hydrogen atoms meet. 'I've lost my electron.' says one. 'Are you sure? asks the other.' ' I'm positive.'
A Buddhist refuses Novocain during a root canal. His goal: transcend dental medication.
A woman sent out 10 puns hoping at least one would make people laugh. No pun in ten did.
Working to defeat the Orange Menace & make America blue
* Not sure where to direct your political donations? Mind The Gap is a strategic, data-driven project that identifies races where our money can have the greatest impact. Learn more at MTG's upcoming 1-hour webinars on donations, mobilization and how to Get Out The Vote:
Tomorrow, Friday, May 8 at 5pm EDT, 2pm PDT Sign Up Here
Thursday, May 14 at 1pm EDT, 10am PDT/ Sign Up Here
NYers sheltering elsewhere: If you're registered to vote, click here for absentee ballot for 6/23 primary.
Clutching at Kindness & Hope
* A child survivor recalls the power of a piece of chocolate in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
* Watch 4 minutes of The Great Realization bedtime story and you may sleep better tonight. Thanks to UK's "Tomfoolery" for giving us the optimism born of hindsight 2020.
Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay home -- Letty
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