Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Here is the 560th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, June 4, 2016. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Guests: singer Sam Harris, Dave’s wife Joyce
Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Broadway’s Sam Harris. Plus: Inside Broadway, Greeley Crimes & Old Times, My Sick Mind (Muhammad Ali), Saturday Segue (In the News, Richard Butler), Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later (Portrait of an Empire).
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce (technical difficulties, the Tony show, Lansbury!, Joyce’s book, my dinner with Larry, Iowa Rap) 00:35:30 GREELEY CRIMES & OLD TIMES 01:09:45 INSIDE BROADWAY 01:44:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – Richard Butler 02:10:30 Sponsors 02:13:30 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Sam Harris 03:10:30 Friends 03:20:00 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later (Portrait of an Empire) 03:36:00 MY SICK MIND – Muhammad Ali 03:40:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – In the News 04:08:00 Weather 04:09:30 DAVE GOES OUT
June 4, 2016 Playlist: “Waschmachine” (01:17:00; Das Balaton Combo). “Not a Common Man” (01:39:00; American Psycho 2016 Broadway cast). “The Ghost in You” (01:50:00), “I Don’t Want to Be Your Shadow” (01:58:30) & “Alive (For Once in My Lifetime)” (02:02:30). “Satellites” (01:55:30; Richard Butler). “Use What You Got” (02:13:30; The Life Broadway cast w/ Sam Harris). “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (02:35:00; Sam Harris). “Those Magic Changes” (03:02:00; Grease Broadway cast w/ Sam Harris). “Copper Kettle” (03:24:30), “Never Gonna Be the Same” (03:28:00) & “Belle Isle” (03:31:00; Bob Dylan). “Gorilla, You’re a Desperado” (03:41:30; Warren Zevon). “Muhammad Ali” (03:44:30; George Carlin). “Mama Said Knock You Out” (03:47:00; LL Cool J). “Crazy Man Michael” (03:51:30; Fairport Convention). “You’ll Be Back” (Hamilton 2016 Broadway cast w/ Jonathan Groff).
Click above to listen to the interview (audio only).
Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews actor-singer Sam Harris.
Topics include: cabaret, Broadway
Segment aired June 4, 2016 as part of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio show/podcast 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.
click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Here is the 500th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, March 7, 2015. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Featuring: Dave’s 500th episode: 500 minutes plus 1 hour to grown on! Dave plays classic bits, novelty numbers, interview clips and more from years gone by. Plus: chats with return guests, Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection on Dave’s 500th, musician Christine Lavin, actress Carole Demas, radio legend Dr. Demento, Greeley Crime Beat, visits from UNC Radio general manager Thomas Hoffman, UNC Radio programming director Matthew Davis, UNC Mirror journalist Will Costello, UNC Radio host Alex Kirschner and friends Fred Cleaver and Wendy Highby. Also: Calls from former programming director Sam Wood, singer Carole Demas, Dave’s mom & dad Philip and Brenda Lefkowitz, Dave’s friend Ozer Teitelbaum, and former guest co-host Jeff Goodman
Host: Dave Lefkowitz
Guests: radio host Dr. Demento, musician Christine Lavin, actress Carole Demas, UNC Mirror journalist Will Costello, UNC Radio general manager Thomas Hoffman, UNC Radio programming director Matthew Davis,, UNC Radio former general manager Sam Wood, radio personality Joe Salzone, friends Wendy Highby, Fred Cleaver, Ozer Teitelbaum and Jeff Goodman, Dave’s mom & dad (Philip & Brenda Lefkowitz), Dave’s wife Joyce.
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce (#500!, Purim narwhal) 00:24:30 GREELEY CRIME BEAT, pt. 1 00:27:00 GUESTS: Fred Cleaver & Wendy Highby (new!) 00:52:00 GREELEY CRIME BEAT, pt. 2 w/ Will Costello 00:58:00 GUESTS: Will Costello 01:04:00 GREELEY CRIME BEAT, pt 3 01:14:30 GUESTS: Will Costello, Alex Kirshner, Thomas Hoffman (new!) 01:36:00 DAVE GOES FURTHER IN 01:51:00 GUEST: Bonnie Franklin (aired 10/1/11) 02:00:30 SKIT: The Giving Chimp (aired 11/3/02) 02:07:30 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #3: Taco Bell (aired 1/29/11) 02:21:00 WRETCHED PUN OF DESTINY #26: Autopsy (aired 2/21/15) 02:23:00 SONG: Take Your Underoos Down (aired 7/19/14) 02:32:30 GUEST: Karinna Kittles-Karsten (aired 2/11/07) 02:50:30 SONG: Jeopardy Ken (aired 10/14/04) 02:53:30 Sponsors 03:01:30 GUEST: Joe Franklin (aired 4/1/07) 03:06:30 SKIT: Pre-Tampered Yummies (aired 10/27/02) 03:12:00 GUEST: Tom Paxton (aired 9/2/04) 03:20:00 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’s RABBINICAL REFLECTION #11: Circumcisions (aired 4/2/11) 03:31:30 WRETCHED PUN OF DESTINY #23: Screenwriter (aired 2/7/15) 03:37:30 More Sponsors 03:40:30 GUEST: Jill Sobule (aired 9/22/05) 03:52:00 SKIT: Blarney O’Bunions (aired 3/12/06) 03:57:30 GUEST: Christine Lavin (new!) 04:39:00 GUEST: Al Aronowitz (aired 1/20/05) 04:46:00 GUEST: Dr. Demento (new!) 05:14:00 WRETCHED PUN OF DESTINY #20: Beatles (aired 1/10/15) 05:11:00 Emails & Epistles 05:21:00 SKIT: Handyman Yoni (aired 7/29/04) 05:26:30 GUESTS: Brenda & Philip Lefkowitz (new!) 05:44:30 GUEST: Joe Salzone (new!) 05:56:30 GUEST: Carole Demas (new!) 06:15:30 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION: Jewish GPS (aired 1/27/12) 06:20:30 GUEST: Sam Wood (new!) 06:48:30 GUEST: Gilbert Gottfried (aired 12/17/11) 06:59:00 SONG: A Dingo Ate My Baby (aired 1/26/03) 07:00:00 GUEST: Matthew Davis (new!) 07:16:00 More Emails & Epistles 07:22:00 Excerpt: First Show – opening (aired 10/6/02) 07:32:30 GUEST: Ozer Teitelbaum (new!) 07:34:30 SONG: Undies (aired 8/24/13) 07:59:00 SKIT: Buttboink Mountain w/ Peter Fitzgerald (aired 1/22/06) 08:06:00 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #119: Dave’s 500th (new!) 08:15:30 Thanks 08:18:30 GUEST: Jeff Goodman, pt. 1 08:42:30 A Call from Joyce 08:46:00 Sponsors 08:47:30 SKIT: Bob Dylan for WaxVac 08:49:00 Excerpt: First Show – closing (aired 10/6/02) 08:54:00 GUEST: Jeff Goodman, pt. 2 09:19:00 DAVE GOES OUT
March 7, 2015 Playlist: “Buckets of Rain” (01:44:00; Bob Dylan). “Take Your Underoos Down” (02:23:00), “Jeopardy Ken” (02:50:30) & “A Dingo Ate My Baby” (06:59:00; Dave). “I Hold Your Hand in Mine” (02:26:00; Tom Lehrer). “Don’t You Let Nobody Turn You `Round” (03:17:30; Tom Paxton). “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” (03:33:30; The Rolling Stones). (03:49:00; Jill Sobule). “Never Go Back” (04:28:00; Christine Lavin). “Shaving Cream” (05:11:00; Benny Bell). “Have a Peanut Butter Sandwich” (06:43:00; Art Paul Schlosser). “Across the Universe” (08:50:00; The Beatles). “`Heroes'” (09:22:00; David Bowie).
Fred Cleaver
Wendy Highby
Christine Lavin
Dr. DementoDave & Philip LefkowitzJoe SalzoneCarole DemasSam WoodOzer TeitelbaumJeff GoodmanMatthew Davis
Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of January 12th, 2014.
Where does free speech cross into hate speech? This is an issue I deal with all the time, or at least other people tell me I do. At what point does expressing an unpopular opinion become something you have to censor and censure?
The question has been bedeviling the whimsically named Arts & Entertainment Network owing to their smash-hit program, “Duck Dynasty.” It’s all about this Louisiana backwoods family that has spent the past 25 years hand-making products for duck hunters. They apparently created the world’s most effective bird call, the so-called “duck commander” – and from this, they got rich. But they didn’t let money go their heads; they still live like Swamp Thing. But thanks to the reality show, these hirsute hillbillies are squatting on an $80 million empire.
Everywhere you go, there’s “Duck Dynasty” t-shirts, Halloween masks, posters, body spray – and more power to them. If you can just be your crazy self and get the whole world to watch, that’s the secret to fame in the 21st Century. If you’re lucky and have huge tits, you’re Kim Kardashian; if you not so lucky and have a penis, you’re Jon Gosselin. If you have huge tits AND a penis, you’re Big Ang.
Essentially, the Robertson family is a hick version of “Jersey Shore.” Instead of Italian goombas who do Gym/Tan/Laundry, you got smelly Bayou bozos who do Guns/Tattoos/Lard. And all of this was adorable in a post-Civil War, “let’s-make-fun-of-the-South” kind of way, until the patriarch of the clan, Phil Robertson, turned his private prejudice into public pronouncements. In an interview with GQ Magazine – because, of course, the Robertson clan are everyone’s idea of GQ material – grampa Phil Robertson shared his religious thoughts on sin. Without much prompting, foolish Phil said, quote, “Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” etcetera.
Phil Robertson parroted the same drivel spouted by every religious homophobe with just enough literacy to read the King James Bible. Leviticus says, “It’s an abomination when two men shtup each other.” Oddly enough, the bible says nothing about two women shtupping each other. This proves God is merciful because it spares us from having to edit out the fourth scene in every good porno movie.
But I digress. Phil Robertson views queerness as a disgusting sin – something even more loathsome to him than bathing or shaving. In his defense, grumpy grampy says he doesn’t advocate hatred or hate crimes against gays. Just being repulsed by them is enough. As Jesus says, turn the other cheek, just don’t spread those cheeks for a hunky apostle.
Faced with these comments in GQ and mounting pressure from gay groups – and if you’ve ever felt mounting pressure from gays, you know how painful that can be – A&E, which broadcasts Douche Dinosaurs, had to make a decision: Cancel the show? Keep the show but jettison its most popular star? Do nothing and just hold out until the next Miley Cyrus controversy takes everyone’s mind off things?
In the end, Arts & Entertainment Network – which in recent years has become as artful and entertaining as a children’s party clown performing knee surgery – A&E did a little of everything. They suspended Robertson, then they immediately reinstated him. They apologized for grampa’s stupidity, but then said, “Hey, he’s family. What can you do?” You can be richer than Croesus and still be a cretin.
And A&E has a point. We’re talking about “Duck Dynasty” not “Malcolm Gladwell Presents.” Just like the Jersey Shore kids and the Honey Boo-Boo brood, we’re watching a clan who, combined, don’t have sufficient I.Q. to spell “I.Q.” We expect the Phil Robertsons of this world to say off-the-wall things, and we’d get bored if he didn’t. We expect his thoughts to be either dead wrong or right but expressed in a goofy way.
All these reality shows are sort of the opposite of Fox News. Fox is dangerous because the hosts express themselves beautifully and are thus able to spin partisan factoids into a credible semblance of reality. “Duck Dynasty” is about folks who could star in the sequel to “Deliverance.” That the Robertsons can form sentences at all marks astonishing progress up the evolutionary ladder.
The point is, you can’t make a silk purse out of a duck’s ass. If we put someone on TV for being a laughable putz, we shouldn’t be shocked when he goes medieval on our ears. And if we penalize grandpa Phil for expressing his honest feelings about fags, what do we do when Jay Leno makes an Asian joke about North Korea? What do we do when a celebrity who’s had lipo makes fat people feel bad? As with so many things, there’s a slippery slope. And a fat person on a slippery slope is quite hilarious to watch.
Double standard? Perhaps. Do we go easy on Phil Robertson because he merely picked on gays – as opposed to saying that Jews killed Jesus or Negroes were more fun when they were slaves? But even then…we’re talking about a man who spent his life figuring out how to make noises that sexually arouse ducks. Let’s all be clear about that. And let’s keep Phil Robertson on “Duck Dynasty” until we either get bored with him – which should should come in another two minutes out of his allotted 15 – or viewers simply realize, “Hey, television doesn’t always have to be this shitty.” In the meantime, all A&E has to do is put up a disclaimer: “The views expressed in the following program do not represent the opinions of this network, this station, or this century. If Phil Robertson uses the bible to say something offensive and ignorant, well, just look at him. What the duck did you expect?”
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York.
Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of March 30th, 2014.
The most hated man in America – well, besides me – is dead. Fred Phelps, the founding pastor of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, passed away of natural causes on March 19th. Somehow, he made it to 84 years old without enemies taking a bat to his head or sprinkling anthrax in his undershorts.
Now, we can’t expect right-wing Christians to be forward-thinking or even moderate about such issues as abortion, gay rights and Lady Gaga. Bible thumpers aren’t wired like that, and if they wanna tie a straitjacket around the Old Testament and interpret it the way Muslim extremists bungle the Koran, that’s their business. The reason Freddy Phelps was so loathed is that he went out of his way to spread hatred, and he targeted people who were guilty of nothing more than living their lives differently from what he thought the bible recommended. Fred Phelps was not a live-and-let-live kinda guy. He was more a “hurt and disrupt” sort of person.
He didn’t start out that way. In 1954, on the day Brown beat the Board of Education, Phelps, who had a law degree, took it upon himself to fight civil-rights cases. I mean, on the black side – really! Really! Of course, a few years later, he was disbarred for corruption, but there was something righteous in the guy before he turned self-righteous. Back in the early `90s, he ran for governor, senator and mayor – on the democratic ticket. He lost and lost and lost, and maybe that’s what set him off on the path of bitterness and bile.
Whatever goodie points Phelps racked up defending schvartzes in Kansas have long been pissed away in his tirades and protests against homosexuals. To preach in a sermon against the sin of being a buttmuncher is one thing. To send your followers out in public on streetcorners with signs that read “God Hates Fags” is another thing. But to bus your parishioners to funerals… that takes balls the size of planets. These Westboro wackos would send – or threaten to send – protesters to everything from the Boston Marathon bombing funerals to school-shooting victim burials, warning everyone that God Hates America, which is why He kills people so randomly.
On the web, these Baptist boneheads post gleeful messages anytime an American soldier gets killed overseas. “You see?” they say. “That’s God showing how much he hates gays and lesbians.” This has about as much logic as a guy tripping over a curb and thinking, “Hmm, I know why this happened. Somewhere in the south of France, a farmer is raising too many geese.”
Here’s the truth, Fred Phelps, wherever you are down there. God does not hate fags. Well, maybe Perez Hilton, but otherwise, no. If he’s mean to them, it’s because he’s mean to everyone because he’s the Old Testament fire-and-brimstone rageaholic we all know and love. And as far as God hating lesbians, well, if man is made God’s image, that means God is a lot like man. And let me tell you: men love lesbians. Case closed.
Do I have a personal vendetta against the WBC? Well, it’s not enough they hate gays; they hate Jews, too, saying we stole Israel and killed their favorite Jew – the one on the cross with the big mouth and the death wish. Westboro put up videos calling us filthy Jews and Christ killers and fag enablers. All the way back in 1996, Phelps led a protest against the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC – possibly the only decent institution in Washington DC – writing, and I quote, “American taxpayers are financing this unholy monument to Jewish mendacity and greed and to filthy fag lust. Jews, thus perverted, out of all proportion to their numbers energize the militant sodomite agenda… Jews are the real Nazis.” And that was just his warm-up joke.
But seriously, now that Fred Phelps is becoming fertilizer instead of spewing it, the question is, how do we react? I ask this because Passover is coming in a couple of weeks, and during the Seder, we spill ten drops of wine when talking about the Egyptians, because we’re not supposed to be a hundred percent happy when our enemy is vanquished. Even though the Egyptians enslaved us, treated us like cattle, turned us into fifth-class citizens in a country where we’d been welcomed just a few Pharaohs earlier. Even though we were overjoyed to escape and watch the slave owners get what was coming to them…still, death of the first born is a heavy price, and they are God’s creatures, too, so…hold off on the noisemakers a bissel. Fireworks and disco dancing – no problem, but in moderation.
That can be a hard principle to accept, however, in modern times. On May 8th, 1945, don’t tell me every surviving Jew in the world didn’t want to drown every last German in the Danube. When bin Laden bought it, I danced a hora in the living room and flushed a Koran down the toilet. I admit it: I was flooded with emotion, and then just flooded – it’s a thick book in a very old toilet. But the point is, I understand the desire to rejoice at the finish of Phelps. He’s not having a funeral, but if he were, what release and elation to show up where they’re shoving him in the ground and jeer at his inbred followers. Curse at them, mock them, drown them out with glam rock, have gays and lesbians kiss and roll around – especially the lesbians…yeah – find the triggers for these ludicrous people and pull those triggers till they go off.
A bigger man than I would say we must take the high road, lead by example, and don’t sink to the Westboro level by stooping to their tactics. But that would be a bigger man than I. I’m a small, angry Jew, and I hate these fucking people. If you find where they’re burying Phelps, or holding one of their protests, go with a rainbow banner in one hand and a spray can of piss in the other. But most of all – and I wish I had written this so I could take credit, but blessed be the man or woman who wrote: “Live your life in such a way that the Wetsboro Baptist Church will want to picket your funeral.” Isn’t that great? And then, during shiva, bend them all over and show them exactly what you can do with a yahrtzeit candle.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York.
RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #35 (1 22/2012): Gay Tel Aviv
Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of January 22nd, 2012.
It is rare for the traditionally downtrodden and fearful Jewish people to have a gay old time. But if they want an old gay time, guess where they should go? Not Christopher Street, not Miami, not Madrid – believe it or not the answer is Tel Aviv.
In a worldwide survey by GayCities.com, Tel Aviv, Israel, was voted the best gay travel destination of 2011. Unfortunately, 2011 is over, so…they kind of missed the boat on promoting it, but still – what a feather in the beret for Israel as a place of tolerance, empathy and, one imagines, musical theater.
Now, I’m sure not all Jews are thrilled about this. The Orthodox Rabbinate is probably wringing their beards over the moral destruction of the holy land whenever two men wanna hold hands and cross pukels. But the rest of us know: live and let live. Just like New York, Tel Aviv has a giant annual Pride Parade, where, just like New York, all the Jews on the sidewalk are too short and can’t see anything. 61 percent – higher than anywhere else in the world – 61 percent of the Israeli population supports gay marriage. As the joke goes, why should straight people be the only ones allowed to be miserable? Gay people even serve openly in the Israeli armed forces. This is not surprising, since a soldier never leaves his buddies’ behind.
But seriously, Israel takes a lot of lumps from Palestinian apologists, self-hating Jewish liberals, anti-Semites and people who look for any excuse to question why America supports Yisroel with money and military hardware. Here is your partial answer: Do you think Syria would make the gay cities list? How about Lebanon? Saudi Arabia? Iran? The so-called new Egypt?
Try being a homosexual in any one of these places and see where it gets you. I’ll tell you where it gets you: pummeled with stones and hanging from a tent with your shmeckel cut off. Granted, some homosexuals may enjoy this, but most would not. Most would prefer the freedom to be what they wanna be in Tel Aviv.
Now, I myself am not gay, but some of my best friends take it up the Hitler hole. And just as Israel itself is a sanctuary for Jews just in case, someday, nowhere else in the world will accept and protect them. Perhaps Tel Aviv can stand as that place for people of the GLBTQAFRZN13Y persuasion. And maybe Haifa will one day be a refuge for the retarded, and quadriplegics will romp in Ramat Gan, and stutterers will hold conventions in Petach Tikvah. Let Israel be the foreign legion: the place where good people with the odds against them can thrive and be winners.
May Tel Aviv stand as a lesson, a goal, a model of how life could be for all of us. Open, free, supportive, and decorated fabulously.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches.
Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Here is the 373rd episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, Jan. 21, 2012. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Featuring: Dave chats with Oscar-winning actor George Chakiris. Also: Inside Broadway, Saturday Segue (Dave’s faves), Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later (Dave’s faves) and Dave celebrates his upcoming birthday by chatting with his aunt, Esther Brower, and his oldest friend, Ozer Teitelbaum. Plus: Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection on gay Tel Aviv.
Host: Dave Lefkowitz
Guests: actor George Chakiris, Ozer Teitelbaum, Esther Brower
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN 00:14:00 SATURDAY SEGUE – Dave’s Faves 00:31:00 GUEST: Ozer Teitelbaum 00:58:30 GUEST: George Chakiris 01:43:30 Sponsors 01:48:00 Inside Broadway: news 01:58:00 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later: Dave’s Faves 02:20:30 Weather 02:22:00 GUEST: Esther Brower 00:53:30 Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #35: Gay Tel Aviv 03:01:30 Friends 03:05:00 DAVE GOES OUT
Jan. 21, 2012 Playlist: “Sway” (00:14:30; The Rolling Stones). “Scattered” (00:18:30; Neil Young). “Coming Up Close” (00:22:30; `Til Tuesday). “Old Friends” (00:54:30; Simon & Garfunkel). “What I Did for Love” (00:57:30; George Chakiris). “America” (01:36:30; “West Side Story,” film soundtrack). “In Search of Peter Pan” (01:52:00; Kate Bush). “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” (01:59:30), “Seven Days” (02:04:00), “She’s Your Lover Now” (02:08:00) & “One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later) (02:14:00; Bob Dylan). “Families” (02:50:00; Lou Reed). “Willie and the Hand Jive” (02:58:00; Johnny Otis). “Don’t Cry” (03:08:30; Etta James).
George ChakirisOzer TeitelbaumEsther Browergay Tel Aviv
Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #22 (8/28/2011): REB LEVIN
Aired Aug. 27, 2011 on Dave’s Gone By. watch on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItywotfPBcg
Shalom, Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon, with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of August 28th, 2011.
My friends, there are so many wonderful Jews who have contributed so much to the world: Jonas Salk, Albert Einstein, Irving Berlin, me… And yet, every once in awhile, we’re confronted with a yiddle, who doesn’t know his tush from his middle. Jews who are evil or ignorant or who merely seem to deny the existence of soap and deodorant.
And so, for every hundred Baruch Spinozas, we get a Bernie Madoff. For every thousand Bob Dylans, we get a Kenny G. So now it pains me to say there’s a Jewish leader going viral on the internet with a homophobic rant. Rabbi Yehuda Levin – and I use the word “Rabbi” loosely, like the way I use the phrase, “I’ll pay you next week,” Rabbi Levin took to the web a few days ago, specifically the day an earthquake struck northern Virginia, and shockwaves were felt all the way up to Manhattan. Loony Levin took this as a sign that HaShem was punishing New York for legalizing gay marriage.
Don’t take my word for it – here’s the Flatbush flake himself:
(transcript of audio) “There’s a direct connection between earthquakes and homosexuality.”
Really? So the Japanese are all gay? The Chinese in 1976? San Francisco in 1906? All right, San Francisco I get, but Peru? India? Portugal – well, it happened in Lisbon, so maybe God got confused and thought they said “Lesbian.”
Rabbi Levin goes on to say:
(transcript of audio) “In New York City and State, where they opened especially on Sunday early after they passed the homosexual marriage law. They couldn’t wait until the regular Monday, but all the county clerks had to open early to service the homosexual couples who wanted to get married.”
Hey, you should be happy. At least they didn’t open Saturday. And that is an interesting choice of words. The clerks had to “service” these homosexual couples. That’s not marriage, that’s a threesome.
The Rabbi goes on to draw a spurious comparison between the new marriage laws and the story of Sodom, where strangers threatened to rape Lot’s family. To Reb Levin, the intruders weren’t wicked because they terrorized the family with sex and violence. No, the wicked part was that their targets were buttholes instead of mouths and twats.
We then get that old saw about natural disasters being God’s response to sinners. Usually, this claptrap comes out of the mouths of born-again goyim on Sunday morning TV. Shameful! Not so much for being delusional, but for pre-empting Matlock.
Still, Rabbi Levin saves his best line about homosexuality till near the end – no pun intended.
(transcript of audio) “You have your shaken your male member in a place where it does not belong.”
Learn this phrase now, because you will no doubt be hearing it on Jimmy Kimmel, Tosh O., The Soup, and, strangely enough, “Bob the Builder.”
(transcript of audio) “You have your shaken your male member in a place where it does not belong.”
Let me tell you something. If you ever had to take a pee in the Port Authority men’s room, you have shaken your male member in a place where it does not belong.
Look, I am not gay, but some of my best friends have acquaintances who know people who are gay. So why can’t people live and let live? The only good thing this Jewish jughead says in the whole video is, “We do not hate homosexuals.” He feels bad for them. Well, so do I. Now that they can get married, they’ll be as miserable as the rest of us.
As for Rabbi Levin, his greatest worry is that legalized homosexuality is just another rung on society’s downward spiral. Or, as he puts it:
(transcript of audio) “We want everyone to understand that if these kinds of activities, and continuing to legislate it, until the moral fiber of this country is forced down the throats of the religious people…”
Leaving aside that that sentence has the grammatical clarity of a Thomas Pynchon novel, what an interesting choice of words the Rabbi uses: “Moral fiber forced down the throats of religious people.” By any chance, Rabbi, would that moral fiber be pink, swollen, blue-veined and have hairy balls underneath it? And if it does, would that be your lucky day?
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches. (transcript of audio) “You have your shaken your male member in a place where it does not belong.” Never gets old.
Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Here is the 345th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, March 5, 2011. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Host: Dave Lefkowitz
Guests: Elliot Tiber and Jeff Goodman
Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with author Elliot Tiber (“Taking Woodstock”). Also: Saturday Segue (Woodstock), Dylan – Sooner & Later (Suze Songs), Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection on The Pope, and Inside Broadway (The Wizard of Oz, Riders in the sky).
Note: Elliot Tiber passed away 8/3/16.
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN 00:14:00 SATURDAY SEGUE: Woodstock 00:26:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with Elliot Tiber 01:24:30 DAVE – Sponsors & Weather 01:47:30 INSIDE BROADWAY: (01:47:30; The Wizard of Oz) & ((01:56:30) Riders in the Sky) 02:06:00 Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later: Suze Songs 02:42:00 Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection: The Pope 02:49:30 Friends of the Daverhood 02:55:00 GUEST – Jeff Goodman 03:17:30 DAVE GOES OUT
March 5, 2011 Playlist: “I Had a Dream” (00:14:00; John Sebastian), “Beautiful People” (00:17:00); “The Kids are All Right” (The Who, 00:20:00), “Woodstock” (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young); “Zing Went the Strings of My Heart” (Judy Garland, 01:21:00); “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (Judy Garland, 01:43:30). “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” (02:09:30), “Tomorrow is a Long Time” (02:14:00), “Boots of Spanish Leather” (02:17:30), “Ballad in Plain D” (02:23:00), “Suze (The Cough Song)” (02:31:00) & “Forever Young” (02:33:00) (Bob Dylan).
Here is the 304th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired Feb. 15, 2009. Info: davesgoneby.com.
host: Dave Lefkowitz guest caller: Stagebuddy technical director Jessica Tooma
Featuring: Dave tells of his trip to Fargo, North Dakota. Plus: Stagebuddy.com’s Jessica Tooma. Inside Broadway (Speed-the-Plow) and skits about the economic stimulus.
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN 00:04:00 GUEST: Jessica Tooma 00:11:00 DAVE GOES FURTHER IN 00:15:00 SKIT: Stimulus I w/ Hermann Glogauer 00:18:00 DAVE GOES OFF on Fargo, ND 00:33:00 SKIT: Stimulus II w/ Eustus Roosevelt 00:37:00 INSIDE BROADWAY – News (37:00) & Speed-The-Plow (42:00) 00:46:00 SKIT: Stimulus III w/ Peter Fitzgerald 00:49:00 DAVE GOES OUT
February 15, 2009 Playlist: “North Dakota” (Lyle Lovett).
