Covid relief. Con Man Oz. Coyote governors. Nate Cohn. Michael Moore. Punctuation test. Shanda review
Oct 3, 2022. Newsletter #120
LAUGHTER
*I tested positive last week and suffered miserably for three days. Beside Paxlovid, the only thing that made me feel better was this video, a Covid elixir. Watch it whenever you need a dose of unbridled joy.
POLITICS
*Nate Cohn says, “It’s Time to Take Democrats’ Chances in the House Seriously.” Great! Now let’s make sure every Dem can vote (see above), and does so. Info here.
*Marvelous political commercial unmasks wizard of lies: Mehmet Oz. His yellow brick road is slimed with snake oil. Vote John Fetterman for U.S. Senate (PA).
*Michael Moore inveighs against red state Governors shipping asylum-seekers to blue states to overstress progressive social safety nets. How ‘bout let’s cut federal aid to TX and FL in the amount equal to what it costs NY and MA to care for each involuntarily-transferred migrant!?
ABORTION
*But you can overrule The Supremes in the voting booth!
*Majority support for abortion rights rose to 61% in Sept, up 4% since July. Vote, get two more pro-choice voters to the polls, and we’ll win in November! Because we must.
WOMEN/FEMINISM
(Above l-r, Kathy Spillar, current Exec. Ed. of Ms; Gloria Steinem, and me. Credit: Kamila Harris)
*Mary McNamara, L.A. Times culture columnist, wrote a lovely piece about work, feminism, and friendship after attending Ms. mag’s 50th anniversary bash in NYC . Quote: “If you want to gauge how powerful sisterhood remains, gather former (and current) Ms. editors and staff in a room and try to avoid being hugged.”
* Quick -- Punctuate this sentence: “A woman without her man is nothing.” Then read on:
FILM
*You probably recoil at the thought of staring yet again at images of human depravity that boggle the civilized brain. Why revisit the Shoah now? Because that history has never been told before the way Ken Burns tells it in “The U.S. and The Holocaust,” the new PBS 3-part series, which doubles as a searing indictment of U.S. refugee policy.
* One reviewer calls “Four Winters,”the much-heralded film about young Jewish partisans fighting Hitler from the forests of Eastern Europe, “A must-see Holocaust movie. (No, really.) ” Now at Film Forum in NYC (tonight’s screening includes Q&A with filmmaker). Opens in 3 LA theaters Oct 7.
SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION
* Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin’s glowing review of Shanda ends with, “I love this book and I suspect I will be returning to it frequently. You will love it as well — probably because you will see yourself, and your family, and your own complicated narrative in its pages.”
*Yom Kippur begins tomorrow night at sundown. Wishing my fellow Jews, an easy fast and a sweet new year. G’mar tov!