click above to watch episode #835click above to listen (audio only)
Here is the 835th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on Facebook, Saturday morning, Jan. 29, 2022. more info: davesgoneby.com.
Guests: theater critics David Sheward and Leslie (Hoban) Blake; actress Vicki Quade
Featuring: Colorado Limerick of the Damned (Fort Collins, CO); Today/Yesterday Trivia Quiz (Jan. 29 w/ Leslie (Hoban) Blake, Vicki Quade, David Sheward); Greeley Crimes & Old Times; My Sick Mind (Charlie Brown).
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce (discards, birthday cake, Spotify, phone cord) 00:57:00 GREELEY CRIMES & OLD TIMES 01:14:00 TODAY/YESTERDAY Trivia Quiz (Jan. 29 w/ Leslie (Hoban) Blake, Vicki Quade, David Sheward) 02:55:00 MY SICK MIND (Charlie Brown) 03:04:00 Friends of the Daverhood 03:18:00 COLORADO LIMERICK OF THE DAMNED (Fort Collins) 03:22:00 DAVE GOES OUT
The 23rd Wretched Pun of Destiny segment aired Jan. 31, 2015 as part of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.
Please Note: Segments extracted from “Dave’s Gone By” may have music and other elements removed for timing and media re-posting considerations. For the full interview with all elements, please visit the audio of the complete original broadcast.
All content (c)2015 TotalTheater Productions. More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com * 23. An archaeologist doing research in the Egyptian wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is strolling back from a break when he notices a beautiful docent giving a tour there. He waits till after her lecture and then says hi.
“Not interested,” she sniffs. “I don’t like science types.”
“But you work in the Temple of Dendur,” says the researcher, “and I heard your shpiel; you know everything about Egyptian art, mummies, burial rites — ”
“That’s just my job,” the woman says. “It means nothing to me.”
“But you’re here all day,” presses the archaeologist. “You have to find the process of these ancient kings being preserved and displayed fascinating, no?”
“Look,” says the woman. “I’m sure you’re a nice guy. But we have nothing in common.”
“On the contrary,” says the man, pointing to a sarcophagus. “We have Tut In Common.”
click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Here is the 495th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, Jan. 31, 2015. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with author and activist Valery Orr (“Bar None”). Plus: Rabbi Sol answers his mail, Inside Broadway, Saturday Segues (Lloyd Cole, disappointment), The Wretched Pun of Destiny (Egypt), Dylan – Sooner & Later (aarp), Crime Time.
Guests: author Valery Orr, Dave’s wife, Joyce Weil
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce Weil (bagel dog, ankle dream) 00:26:30 CRIME TIME 00:47:00 SATURDAY SEGUE – Lloyd Cole 01:07:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Valery Orr 02:08:00 Sponsors 02:18:00 INSIDE BROADWAY 02:43:30 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #115 (Letters, I Get Letters) 02:53:00 Friends 03:00:00 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later (AARP) 03:25:30 THE WRETCHED PUN OF DESTINY (Egypt) 03:27:30 SATURDAY SEGUE (Low Expectations) 03:32:00 DAVE GOES OUT
Jan. 31, 2015 Playlist: “Love You So What” (00:48:00), “Undressed” (00:51:00), “You Will Never Be No Good” (00:54:00) & “No More Love Songs” (00:57:00) & “Winter’s Retreat” (01:00:00; Lloyd Cole). “Don’t Be Denied” (02:00:30) & “Mr. Disappointment” (03:39:00; Neil Young). “Mister Snow” (02:40:00; Carousel Broadway cast w/ Audra McDonald). “Foot of Pride” (03:02:30), “Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee” (03:08:00) & “Forever Young” (03:16:00; Bob Dylan). “My Back Pages” (03:13:00; The Byrds). “What a Letdown” (03:35:00; Barenaked Ladies). “I’ve Been Let Down” (03:44:00; Mazzy Star). “No Expectations” (03:47:00; The Rolling Stones). “Joe Franklin Show Theme Song (12th Street Rag)” (04:03:30).
Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of January 19th, 2014.
It is with a sad heart that we bid farewell to Ariel Sharon, the former Prime Minister of Israel who died last Saturday at age 85. The end was a blessing because he’d been in a coma for the past eight years. Imagine, eight years without any kind of physical activity. Sort of like a Jewish marriage.
But seriously, Ariel Sharon was a war hero and a statesman and the kind of leader Israel needed again and again in its battles with the Arab world. In the 1948 war for independence, he was wounded but survived and came back strong. He was aggressive and rude and cocky – honestly, you’d never know he was Jewish. But he sure was, and in the 1950’s, he fought constantly against terrorism – sometimes killing civilians, which isn’t nice, and sometimes killing murderers, which is very nice. In 1967, as a general, Sharon took on Egypt and beat them in a war that lasted all of six days. I can’t get a passport in six days, this guy wins a whole freakin’ war.
And then in 1973, when the Jews were attacked on Yom Kippur – our holiest day of the year (if you don’t count Barbra Streisand concerts) – with Egypt’s Third Army massing against us, Ariel Sharon led 5,000 tanks over the Suez Canal and turned the tide of the war. Ariel Sharon was our Patton, our Sherman, our sword of vengeance and great protector.
Yes, he was a hawk, but kicking Egypt’s ass on Yom Kipper helped bring on the Sadat peace talks. And Sharon was willing to compromise for peace a lot more than other hawks around him. For years, he encouraged Jewish settlements in the so-called “occupied territories” – and why not? Gaza, the West Bank – those are places that Israel won, fair and square, in wars. What’s the point of conquering enemy territory if you’re not gonna build a Starbucks on it?
However, when Israel began negotiating with the Palestinians – or at least tried to – and settlements were standing in the way of progress, Ariel Sharon went in there and started pulling Jewish families out of their homes. Their land was then given over to Palestinian rule, and the Arabs were so grateful, they started sending rockets over with little red bows and thank-you notes. Oh well. The whole land-for-peace thing is a crock, but you can’t say Sharon didn’t try.
Now, no question, this man had blood on his hands. One time, he blew up an Arab village that he swore he thought was abandoned. It wasn’t. Well, it was when he got through with it. Another time, Sharon had the army surround a refugee camp and then allowed the Lebanese Christian militia to go in and look for terrorists. They may have found some, but it’s hard to tell, since the Phalangists wound up slaughtering all the refugees. So much for Christian charity.
But if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a trillion times: Israel is a safety net for the Jewish people. New York is over-crowded, and Miami has too many flying bugs, so Jews need the teeny-tiny country of Israel as their homeland. Arabs have all the rest of the Middle East and North Africa to call their own. All you need is a turban and a Koran, and you have eight-and-a-half million miles at your disposal. By comparison, Israel is the size of a King Soopers – and not even one of those big King Soopers that has furniture and garden supplies.
Ariel Sharon was our security guard. He was so feared and hated by our enemy that his mere visit to the Temple Mount set off a wave of Arab riots. I haven’t seen that kind of negative reaction to a personal appearance since John Tesh played Bonnaroo.
A big man with big appetites, Sharon paid for his high living with a stroke that put him on life support for nearly a decade. No one knows if he saw, heard or understood anything that was going on around him. Kind of like Chris Christie. But if those tragic eight years – plus the deaths of two wives and his only son – were payback for the bad things Ariel Sharon did, let the next thousand millennia in heaven reward him for his courage, his tenacity, and his devotion to Eretz Yisroel. Thank you, bulldozer.
RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #75 (9/1/2013): Egypt Again
Aired August 31, 2013 on Dave’s Gone By. Youtube clip: http://youtu.be/6jZy0FXcg1E
Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of September 1st, 2013.
Oy, Egypt, Egypt, Egypt. Doesn’t it figure that the one country in the Arab world that seemed stable, the one place that wasn’t a scary mess of Islamic Jihad and anti-West anti-Semitism, Egypt, would collapse into chaos?
Forty years ago, Anwar Sadat made a brilliantly savvy political move – albeit a lousy personal one since it got him shot – but for the good of Egypt, he signed a peace treaty with Israel. And against all odds, it lasted! It was real. There was peace, there was economic and cultural exchange, there was falafel everywhere. Israel had a million things to worry about in the Middle East, but Egypt, which had been our worst military enemy, wasn’t one of them.
And Egypt took a Western approach to its politics. So Western, that they ended up copying our own runaway corruption. Hasni Mubarak, who succeeded Anwar Sadat – about the only thing he succeeded in – ran the country for 30 years until being deposed by the military. And then, for his replacement, they hold democratic elections. Great, right?
Not so great; the winner is Mohamed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood. Which is basically Al Qaeda Lite. Young Egyptians hate this, because with radical Muslims in charge, Egypt is destined to slide into the same soul-crushing totalitarianism that made Afghanistan and Iran such glorious vacation hotspots. So what happens? There’s an uprising, the people protest and riot, and the Egyptian military pulls Morsi out of office and takes over.
This does not sit well with the Muslim Brotherhood, so they show their brotherly love by rioting, pillaging and forcing the army to crack down and make a police state. Meanwhile, the military are busy trying to drum up some kind of revised constitution and figuring out how to hold elections before the whole country implodes. In Egypt, every day is like the night the Steelers win the Super Bowl; if you weren’t in the car when they were overturning it and setting it on fire, you’re ahead of the game.
Now, the Egypt situation is more complicated than others in the Middle East because they were getting along with America and Israel. Mubarak was no great shakes as a leader, but he held to the treaties and kept things on an even keel. I’ve been on an uneven keel, and let me tell you, I got so nauseous, I almost keeled over. Of course, in those situations, it’s keel or be keeled, but I digress.
Egypt holds free and democratic elections, and the last guy in the world America wants in there wins. So, we’re happy when the army discards him, but at the same time, what kind of democracy is it when the people elect a leader, and a year later, the army says, “Ehhhh, Do over, do over!”
I mean, imagine if in this country, we have an election, the popular vote goes to one candidate, but there are problems and miscounts and shenanigans, so the Supreme Court takes over and appoints the president based on the judges’ political leanings rather than the actual voting. Thank God, something like that could never happen here.
So both America and Israel are mired in wait-and-see limbo when it comes to Egypt. If we support the army, that means we rejected the election process. If we support the Morsi Muslims, well, we might as well just send over pilot-training manuals so they can get started on the next 9/11. We’re shtupped either way.
Whatever happened to the good old days when the CIA would muscle into a country, assassinate the dictator, and prop up some crooked but pro-Western puppet with billions of our tax dollars? What’s the point of being a Superpower if you can’t be superpowerful? We used to look out for number one. Now all these countries submerge us in number two.
That said, I do really wish the Egyptians well, and I hope – against all hope – that they can somehow form a coalition government. One that puts modernized moderates in charge but allows right-wingers a voice and the freedom to worship as they please – which, since it’s the exact opposite of what they allow, will cause their heads to explode. Hey, a guy can dream.
Until then, we would do best to recall that twice the Egyptians have done the impossible: they built the pyramids, and they stunned the rest of the Arab world by making nice-nice with Israel. So is it too much to ask for another miracle? Oh wait, I’m still hoping for that one about the Jets winning another Super Bowl. Quel dommage.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York.
Here is the 436th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, Aug. 31, 2013. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Featuring: Dave’s chat with silent-film accompanist Ben Model. Also: Inside Broadway, Saturday Segues (Loudon Wainwright III & Van Morrison), Rabbi Sol Solomon on Egypt, Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later (another self portrait) & more!
Host: Dave Lefkowitz
Guests: silent-film enthusiast & accompanist Ben Model, Dave’s wife Joyce.
00:00:01 Pre-Show w/ Joyce 00:02:30 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce 00:26:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – Loudon Wainwright III 00:48:30 INSIDE BROADWAY 01:08:30 GUEST: Ben Model 02:02:00 Sponsors & Weather 02:05:30 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later (another self portrait) 02:25:30 Friends 02:31:30 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #75 – Egypt Again 02:37:00 SATURDAY SEGUE – Van Morrison 02:45:30 DAVE GOES OUT
Aug. 31, 2013 Playlist: “The Swimming Song” (00:27:00), “B-Side” (00:29:30), “Whatever Happened to Us” (00:32:00), “Westchester County” (00:34:00), “Carmine Street” (00:37:00), “No Knees” (00:40:00) & “You Can’t Fail Me Now” (00:42:00; Loudon Wainwright III). “Alone with Me” (01:04:00; Hands on a Hardbody 2013 Bway cast w/ Mary Gordon Murray & Keith Carradine). “Untitled” (00:01:07 & 01:33:00; Ben Model). “Allegro Agitato” (01:50:00) & “Gaiety” (01:58:30; Arthur Kleiner). “Went to See the Gypsy (Demo)” (02:08:30), “Annie’s Going to Sing her Song” (02:11:30), “This Evening So Soon” (02:14:00), “Pretty Saro” (02:18:30) & “Time Passes Slowly #1” (02:21:00; Bob Dylan). “Youth of 1000 Summers” (02:37:00) & “Redwood Tree” (02:41:00).
Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Here is the 342nd episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio Feb. 12, 2011. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Host: Dave Lefkowitz
Guest: entertainer Jim Caruso
Featuring: Dave chats with entertainer Jim Caruso (“Cast Party”). Plus: Dave Says Bye to Mary Cleere Haran. Also: Inside Broadway (Lombardi, Mistakes were Made), Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection on Egypt, and Bob Dylan: “Sooner & Later.”
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN 00:10:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – Valentine’s Day Songs 00:34:30 GUEST: Jim Caruso 01:31:00 DAVE SAYS BYE – Mary Cleere Haran 01:36:00 Dave – Sponsors 01:48:30 INSIDE BROADWAY, part 1 (Lombardi) 02:01:00 Weather 02:02:30 Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later (Valentine’s Day) 02:36:00 INSIDE BROADWAY, part 2 (Mistakes were Made) 02:44:30 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION (Egypt) 02:56:00 DAVE GOES OUT
Feb. 12, 2011 Playlist: “Heart’s Desire” (00:10:30), “Just Squeeze Me” (00:29:00) & “The Doodlin’ Song” (01:22:00) (Jim Caruso); “Lovers of Today” (00:13:30; The Pretenders); “Blue Valentines” (00:18:30; Tom Waits); “Love is Just Around the Corner” (00:24:00; Mary Cleere Haran); “Radio Sweetheart” (00:27:00; Elvis Costello). (part two): “I’m in the Mood for Love” (01:25:30) & “For Now” (01:31:30) (Mary Cleere Haran); “The Wonderful World of Disney” (01:58:00) & “The Wonderful World of Color” (01:59:00) (Walt Disney TV show), “I Wanna Be Your Lover” (02:03:00), “Is Your Love in Vain” (live, 02:06:30), “Watered-Down Love” (02:10:30), “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” (live, 02:15:00), “True Love Tends to Forget” (02:19:00), “Make You Feel My Love” (02:23:00), “I Want You” (live, 02:26:00) & “Love Sick” (02:29:00; Bob Dylan); “Valentine’s Day” (02:50:30; Bruce Springsteen).
Shalom Dammit, this is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of February 13, 2011.
Well, it’s been a quiet week in the Middle East . . . nothing much going on there. (laugh) Is there ever quiet in the Middle East? In the Arab world, quiet is when they send only two missiles a day into Israel instead of the usual five.
But of course, these past three weeks, the world has been watching Egypt with a mixture of excitement, hope, fear and “oy, is gas four dollars yet?”
Doesn’t it figure that the one country Israel gets along with, the one country that has been a stable, peaceful neighbor for 30 years is the one that goes tohu-va-voho crazy? Does Iran go berserk, does Libya? No. Egypt is where they riot in the streets.
And they got what they wanted; Hosni Mubarak stepped down. One day before he quit, he sneaked away to a fancy resort. Got himself a massage, maybe a nice pedicure, calls Al Jazeera and says, “Okay, I’m done. I was gonna leave in a couple of weeks anyway. Help you guys transition to…whatever it is you’re transitioning to. But the people have spoken, and the regime is broken.” He’s probably shopping for a condo in Fort Lauderdale as we speak.
But of course, the big question is: what’s next? Mubarak’s vice president is trying to hold power – good luck on that. And as we ideally interpret the situation in the Western World, we hear the chant: “Democracy! Democracy! A democratic government by and for the people.” Crap, we don’t even have that here!
But do ya think they’ll even get that there? If and when Egypt does hold an election, the top candidate is gonna be backed by an outfit called the Muslim Brotherhood. I don’t mind the Brotherhood much, it’s the Muslim I’m worried about.
The Muslim Brotherhood is an organization across the Arab world that supports Muslim Sharia law as the law of the land. Supposedly, they’re non-violent, as opposed to Hamas, or Al Qaeda, or your typical Irish soccer fan. If we believe their press releases, they are a harmless, moderate, political group – like Shriners with different turbans. If we believe history, they’re anti-West, anti-Israel, ultra-religious – and just waiting for their day in the sun.
The question is not, “will Egypt become a Muslim state?” but “When they’re a Muslim state, will they march into Czechoslovakia?”
Now, I hate to sound pessimistic because I am, by nature, such a fun-loving goddamn bon vivant. So I will say this: when Anwar Sadat first came to the peace talks all those years ago, I didn’t trust him one bit. After all, 1979 was only six years after the Yom Kippur War, when Egypt and Syria picked the holiest Jewish day of the year to sneak-attack Israel. We kicked their asses, of course, but what were we to make of Sadat suddenly cramming an olive branch between his teeth? How do you trust the untrustable?
Except, of course, and to his everlasting credit, he kept his word. Egypt stopped attacking Israel. And Israel kept its word, too. We didn’t attack Egypt. Well, we weren’t attacking Egypt to begin with, but such is the unbalanced balance that passes for fairness in the Middle East.
My point, though, is that Mubarak also kept Sadat’s word. Maybe he was a dictator, maybe his economics didn’t trickle down to the people, maybe he was a western puppet. All I know is, now that the strings are cut, we’d love to see this puppet replaced by Jerry Mahoney, King Friday, even Kukla.
So why does my gut tell me we’ll end up with Chucky?
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection by Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York.
