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Here is the 791st episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on Facebook, Saturday morning, March 27, 2021. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Guests: restaurateur Rob Clement, theater critic David Sheward
Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews deli owner Rob Clement; Today Yesterday trivia quiz (March 27 w/ Rob Clement vs. David Sheward); Greeley Crimes & Old Times; Inside Broadway; My Sick Mind (King Soopers); Colorado Limerick of the Damned (Maybell).
00:00:01 DAVE’S GONE BY w/ Joyce (seder plate, Boulder, bad egg, student transfer) 00:59:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Rob Clement 01:47:30 TODAY/YESTERDAY Trivia Quiz (March 27 w/ Rob Clement vs. David Sheward) 02:41:00 INSIDE BROADWAY 03:06:00 MY SICK MIND (King Soopers) 03:09:30 GREELEY CRIMES & OLD TIMES 03:27:00 Friends of the Daverhood 03:33:00 COLORADO LIMERICK OF THE DAMNED (Maybell, CO) 03:36:00 DAVE GOES OUT
Click above to watch in-studio footage of the entire episode. Click above to listen to the episode.
Here is the 694th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on Facebook Saturday, April 27, 2019.
Host: Dave Lefkowitz
GUESTS: singer Julie Budd, Dave’s wife Joyce
Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with Julie Budd, Greeley Crimes & Old Times, Colorado Limerick of the Damned (Hotchkiss), StoryTime with Rabbi Sol (more Passover rules), Inside Broadway.
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce (matzoh man, MetroCard madness) 00:26:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Julie Budd 01:27:00 GREELEY CRIMES & OLD TIMES 01:53:00 INSIDE BROADWAY (news & review (Hadestown) 02:45:00 Friends of the Daverhood 02:52:30 STORYTIME: The Laws of Pesach, pt. 2 03:04:30 COLORADO LIMERICK OF THE DAMNED – Hotchkiss 03:07:00 DAVE GOES OUT
April 27, 2019 Playlist: “My Shining Hour” (00:25:00), “All the Way” (01:11:30) & “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” (03:10:00; Julie Budd).
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Here is the 693rd episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on Facebook Saturday, April 20, 2019. More info: davesgoneby.com.
Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Chauncey Howell, StoryTime with Rabbi Sol (Passover rules), Greeley Crimes & Old Times, Colorado Limerick of the Damned (Hooper).
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce (Seder time) 00:31:00 GREELEY CRIMES & OLD TIMES 00:45:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Chauncey Howell 01:36:00 INSIDE BROADWAY 02:18:30 STORYTIME: The Laws of Pesach 02:44:00 COLORADO LIMERICK OF THE DAMNED – Hooper 02:46:30 Friends of the Daverhood 02:54:30 DAVE GOES OUT
April 20, 2019 Playlist: “Love is Always Lovely in the End” (02:16:00; The Drowsy Chaperone 2006 Broadway cast w/ Georgia Engel). “Song of the Seder Paraders” (02:59:00; Gladys Gewirtz).
Note: Chauncey Howell passed away Sept. 20, 2020 at age 86.
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Here is the 602nd episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, April 15, 2017. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Host: Dave Lefkowitz Guests: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Kinks guitarist Dave Davies, Dave’s wife Joyce
Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with musician Dave Davies. Plus: Inside Broadway, Greeley Crimes & Old Times, Saturday Segues (Liz Phair, In the News), Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later (taxes).
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce (tax day, Blind Date in Chennai, musical siblings, crash day, seder song) 00:51:00 GREELEY CRIMES & OLD TIMES 01:22:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – Liz Phair 01:48:00 INSIDE BROADWAY 02:19:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Dave Davies 03:11:30 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later (taxes) 03:37:00 Friends 03:51:30 Sponsors 03:54:00 SATURDAY SEGUE – In the News 04:41:30 Thanks & Weather 04:45:30 DAVE GOES OUT
April 15, 2017 Playlist: “Samba Snails” (00:59:30; Sexton Ming). “6’1” (01:28:00), “Table for One” (01:34:30) & “Never Said” (01:38:30; Liz Phair). “Friend of Mine” (01:31:00; Juliana Hatfield). “I’m not Bessie” & Give Me a Pigfoot” (Linda Hopkins). “Death of a Clown.” “I’m not Bessie (Intro)/Give me a Pigfoot” (02:16:30; Linda Hopkins). “Death of a Clown” (02:19:00), “Party Line” (02:31:00), “You Really Got Me” (02:37:30), “Two Sisters” (02:44:00), “You Don’t Know My Name” (03:09:00) & “Waterloo Sunset” (04:47:30). “World of Our Own” (02:52:00; Dave Davies). “The Levee’s Gonna Break” (03:14:00), “Copper Kettle” (03:19:30) & “Ballad of a Thin Man” ({live – no direction home} 03:23:30; Bob Dylan). “Old King Donald” (03:38:30; Drew Velting). “Out of Egypt” (03:56:00; Nikki Sudden). “The Airplane Part II” (04:01:30; Uncle Bonsai). “Hum Bomb” (04:06:00; Allen Ginsberg). “I Bombed Korea” (04:09:00; CAKE). “Centerfold” (04:11:00; J. Geils Band). “Before Easter” (04:15:00; Tracy Chapman). (pictured: Dave Davies then & now, Liz Phair, Blind Date)
Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of April 24, 2016.
Among the great inventions of mankind are the wheel, the lever, the polio vaccine, and the computer microchip. But let’s not leave out one of my favorite all-time creations. Something so simple yet so perfectly imperfect. Something both great and crummy — pun intended.
You take flour and water, mix them together, roll it flat flat flat—flatter than a ten-year-old’s training bra—poke the dough with tiny holes, and push it into a super-hot, dry oven. After a couple of agonizing minutes, shazam! Matzoh! Somehow, this flour-and-water combo doesn’t turn into pita bread, it doesn’t become olive loaf, it doesn’t blossom into a Pepperidge Farm cookie. It just stays matzoh, and that’s good enough for me. Almost.
See, you can get Streit’s or Horowitz-Margareten or Manischewitz and other commercial brands of matzoh, and they’ll get you through the Passover holiday just fine. You make matzoh brei, where you dip it in egg; you can crumble it and make matzoh-meal pancakes, which iHop would not be remiss in adding to their international breakfasts. Dear God, they make chocolate-covered matzoh, which sounds gross, but hey, if they can do it with crickets and bumble bees, why not the bread of affliction? (Chocolate-covered matzoh is not to be confused, by the way, with chocolate matzoh, which is just a giant chocolate bar made into the shape of a matzoh. In other words, a thousand times better. Chocolate-covered matzoh is to chocolate matzoh as a gold-plated watch is to a Rolex. If you promise your grandchildren chocolate matzoh, but you give them the chocolate covered, don’t expect them to visit you in the nursing home years later.)
But I digress. Matzoh is a tasty, non-nutritional but sustaining food meant to remind us of the bread our ancestors ate when they high-tailed it out of Egypt. `Cuz when you’re leavin’ hasty, you ain’t got time for pastry.
However, my reflection today is not just about matzoh; it’s about a special version of matzoh. The platinum standard, if you will. And I will. When I’m conducting a seder, or kicking back watchin’ baseball during chol hamoed, I want me some shmura matzoh! That’s the stuff! That’s the bread of affection! It’s the same flour and water, the same procedures. But with shmura matzoh, the harvested grain is guarded from the very first second it’s plucked to the moment the Rabbi slides it and its compadres out of the oven.
Shmura matzoh is the ultimate homemade bread. No machines, no slicer cutting the edges into right angles. No opening a box where every piece looks like a ceiling tile in a suburban office. Shmuras are individually mixed, rolled, and baked. And they don’t look beautiful or symmetrical. They’re lumpy, they’re brittle, often overcooked, and the burnt parts are all over the place. In fact, shmura matzohs are so ugly, they could replace Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.
But oy my God, are they delicious! There’s something so real and so pure about them. Everything else you get in the store is machine-pressed, dye-cut, flushed with preservatives, and so far away from actual food, you’re not even sure what the hell you’re eating. With shmura matzoh you taste three things: flour, water, and Rabbi sweat.
Now there’s all sorts of hoo-ha/doo-dah rules about using shmura matzohs. You’re supposed to eat them only at the seder and no other time — not even the rest of the holiday. I’m sorry, but at $17 a box with six pieces of bread in it, I’ll eat it on Christmas if I want to. Also, since the matzoh is utilized during the seder ceremony — including breaking it for the afikomen, the bread has to be complete, unbroken. You think it was tough for the Jews to cross the Nile out of Egypt? Try getting a one-millimeter cracker from a Brooklyn factory to a Staten Island dinner table without having a few oopsies.
Still, it’s worth it because shmura matzohs are the bomb. Yes, they’re impossible to butter, and they don’t actually break in half; they splinter — leaving shards of crumbs everywhere you look. But I don’t care; their deliciousness trumps all. I mean, on Passover, we have to eat raw horseradish, and then we have to take yummy charoset and ruin it by mixing it with horseradish, and then for eight days: no pizza, no pretzels, no ravioli, no danish, no muffins, no waffles, no wafers, no hoagies, no heroes, no oatmeal, no beer. So if I want a piece of homecooked unleavened bread that looks like a manhole cover but tastes like Judaism, I will seek no further than shmura matzohs. Mmm mmm flavorless — and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches, in Great Neck, New York. A zissen Pesach to ya.
RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #121 (4/5/2015): Passover
(aired April 5, 2015 on Dave’s Gone By. https://davesgoneby.net/?p=27305. Youtube clip: http://youtu.be/P5iBQJD75tg)
Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of April 5, 2015.
Friends, are you constipated? I certainly hope so, because that would mean you are eating your matzah, the traditional food of the Passover holiday, which we are in the midst of celebrating as we speak. Well, as I speak; you’re just listening.
But yes, Passover is one of the most important Jewish holidays—certainly the most labor intensive. Other holidays, you cook a meal, you make a blessing, maybe you don’t eat for a day—boom, you’re done. Okay, Sukkos, you have to build a little house, which is a pain in the ass, but you get to use it for a week, and you can make believe it’s a gazebo or a cozy shed. And if you’re too lazy to build, you can always go to the local shul and stay in theirs. Just make sure to use the guest towels.
But Pesach? Oy, what a production. You have to clean the whole house, top to bottom, of every crumb, every last bit of leavened bread. You have to sell everything in your fridge and cupboards to your local Rabbi–because what Rabbi doesn’t want to be responsible for two-week-old meatloaf? You gotta change all your dishes and cutlery, because a fork that touched pizza is somehow satanic for a week. And then, throughout Passover, you can eat only foods that are approved for holiday use. Wheat and beans and whole-grain products are verboten, and everything you reach for has to be certified Kosher L’Pesach. Which means a bottle of ketchup that’s $2 the rest of the year now costs $7.50. Why? Because some mashgiach was there to make sure that no tomato came into contact with a pretzel. HaShem forbid.
It’s a lot of nonsense, of course, but like all religious rituals, the doing of them forces us to remember who we are and the legacy to which we are tied. God doesn’t give a rat’s tushie if we hide the Afikomen or not; but my great, great, great grandfather hid the Afikomen—probably from the Cossacks—and my 21 ½ children will hide the Afikomen from my (god willing) 150 grandchildren. It’s not the activity; it’s the legacy.
Or, on Passover, it’s leprosy. And blood and frogs and boils and murrain and darkness and death of the first born and all the things usually caused by Comcast/Xfinity. We remember the 10 Plagues God visited upon the Egyptians as payback for subjugating the Hebrews. And when Moses visited Pharaoh and told him, “Look, we’re leaving. Can we get a severance check and a few weeks of interim health insurance?”, Pharaoh said no, so God made him suffer. Actually, Pharaoh didn’t say no. I mean, at first he did, when Moses was turning water into blood and making frogs jump out of underwear drawers. Pharaoh saw a bunch of magic tricks and said, “Copperfield does them better.”
But as the plagues turned nastier, Pharaoh was ready to be done with the Jews and let our people go. Until HaShem hardened his heart–I guess with some kind of aortic Viagra–and forced Pharoah to make ruinous choices, essentially robbing the king of Egypt of his free will.
I admit, I’ve always found something unsettling in that story. It’s one thing if Pharaoh is so evil, or so moronic, that he invites torture upon his empire through his own pig-headedness. But the Torah makes it clear that God is pulling the strings. He’s like the schoolyard bully that grabs your fists and makes you sock yourself in the face, all the while saying, “Stop hitting yourself. Why are you hitting yourself?” In the Pesach story, God puts Pharaoh through ten rounds with Mike Tyson, and then a bonus round with Muhammad Ali. The Jews finally hit the road, Pharaoh sends soldiers after them—presumably all second-born sons–and what happens? They all drown. God is nothing if not thorough.
So what do we learn from that gruesome fable? First, that if you mess with the Jews long enough, you get payback of biblical proportions (pun intended). After all, the Hebrews served as Egyptian slaves for generations before the big rescue. Stopping the punishment at flies or even flaming hail just wouldn’t send the same message as mass murder.
The second thing we learn is a rational reason why we spill drops of wine during the Passover seder. The Haggadah explains that even though Pesach is a happy holiday, and we’re delighted to recall the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, we’re not supposed to celebrate a hundred percent. We diminish our wine glass literally and our joy metaphorically, because even though our enemy treated us worse than the worst Jennifer Lopez movie, they are still human beings. They are still God’s children being destroyed.
Personally, I don’t spill a whole lotta wine on Passover—and not just because we have to use the same tablecloth for two nights. I rejoice freely when my enemy falls. When the Navy Seals took out bin Laden, I tore off my clothes and started dancing naked around the house. Which caused some problems because I was outside. But oh boy, did I shake my tailfeather! Miley Cyrus could have studied my tuchas for twerking lessons. And if I’d been alive in 1945 to witness V-E Day, I would have kissed a girl for every German that got a bullet through his eye or a bayonet through his heart. (You could probably call it VD Day…) I still would do this, so if any young girls want to stand in the street and let me kiss them, drop me an email, and I’ll get my sailor suit out of the cleaners.
Don’t get me wrong; I like the idea of being a good sport when my adversary is vanquished, but in reality, the misery and death of my enemies gives me less pause than a skip on my CD player. (For those of you under 30 who don’t know what that is, a CD player is like Spotify on a pancake.)
Anyhoo, my point in all this is however you celebrate Passover—if you follow all the rules, some of the rules, or if you serve bacon croissants during the Seder—and however you feel about Passover—whether you’re there just for family or you’re looking for a greater spiritual purpose in choking to death on horse radish—enjoy the holiday, appreciate the history, and take comfort that you don’t have to fast and no one gets circumcised.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York. Dai-Dai-enu.
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Here is the 504th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio April 4, 2015. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with life coach Dr. Greg Marcus. Plus: Rabbi Sol’s Rabbinical Reflection on Passover’s Plagues, Inside Broadway, Saturday Segues (Muddy Waters, in the news), Dylan – Sooner & Later (Nashville Skyline), Wretched Pun of Destiny (chess match), Greeley Crimes & Old Times.
Guest: author Greg Marcus, Dave’s wife Joyce
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce (supervisor, critics in NOLA, broken rimshot, psychotic break) 00:27:30 GREELEY CRIMES & OLD TIMES 01:02:00 DAVE GOES FURTHER IN 01:10:00 Sponsors 01:16:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – Muddy Waters 01:39:30 INSIDE BROADWAY 02:08:30 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Greg Marcus 02:51:30 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later: Nashville Skyline 03:08:30 WRETCHED PUN OF DESTINY #31 (Chess Match) 03:10:30 Friends 03:25:00 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINicAL REFLECTION #121 – Passover’s Plagues 03:37:00 Weather 03:38:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – In the News 03:56:00 DAVE GOES OUT
April 4, 2015 Playlist: “Rollin’ Stone” (01:21:00), “Mannish Boy” (01:24:30), “Walkin’ Thru the Park” (01:27:00) & “The Blues had a Baby and they Named it Rock and Roll” (01:30:30; Muddy Waters). “You Made the Wait Worthwhile” (Honeymoon in Vegas w/ Tony Danza & Brynn O’Malley). “Don’t Talk to Me About Work” (02:48:00; Lou Reed). “Lay Lady Lay” (02:55:00), “Tell Me that it isn’t True” (02:58:00), “I Threw it All Away” ({Alternate Version} 03:00:30) & “One More Night” (03:03:00; Bob Dylan). “Indiana” (03:39:00; Kate Jacobs). “Nuclear” (03:42:30; Ryan Adams). “A Case of You” (03:46:00; Joni Mitchell). “Not Fade Away” (03:50:00; The Rolling Stones). “Seder Dance” (04:09:30; Don Byron).
Segment aired April 4, 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
The 11th Wretched Pun of Destiny segment aired Nov. 8, 2014 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)2014 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
* 11. Legendary newscaster Edward R. Murrow stops at his favorite New York diner for dinner. He asks the waiter if there are any specials.
“Well,” says the old man, “it’s Passover, so we’re serving items tailored to our Jewish customers.”
“Like what?”
“Our most popular is matzoh brei, served with an entrée of roast chicken.”
“Sounds good,” says Murrow. “I’ll have it.”
After the Kosher meal, Murrow lays his payment and tip on the table, silently gets up and heads towards the door.
“Mr. Murrow,” the waiter calls after him. “I know you’re a man of few words, but don’t you have anything at all to say about your food?”
The newscaster thinks for a moment. Then, on his way out the door, he says, “good brei and good cluck.”
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Here is the 465th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio April 12, 2014. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Featuring: Dave chats with theater journalist Joel Markowitz. Plus: Inside Broadway, Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later (Plagues, pt. 1), Saturday Segues (Tiny Tim, John Pinette).
Guest: theater journalist Joel Markowitz, Dave’s wife Joyce.
Note: Joel Markowitz passed in November 2017 at age 60.
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce (theater season, bum knee, Holocaust Week, drug-sniffing bunny, Joyce’s center book, fire and ice, El Touchy) 01:05:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – Tiny Tim 01:21:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – Jesse Winchester 01:38:00 Sponsors 01:43:00 INSIDE BROADWAY (news (01:43:30); review (Don’t Wake Me; 01:59:00) 02:08:30 DAVE SAYS BYE – Mickey Rooney 02:21:30 GUEST: Joel Markowitz 03:19:00 Sponsors 03:22:00 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later (Plagues, pt. 1) 03:52:00 Friends 03:57:00 SATURDAY SEGUE – John Pinette 04:17:30 Thanks 04:22:00 Weather 04:23:30 Upcoming 04:25:00 DAVE GOES OUT
April 12, 2014 Playlist: “Touch of the Pharaohs” (01:01:00; Luie Luie). “The Name Song” (01:09:00), “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” (01:10:30), “Fill Your Heart” (01:12:30), “Just a Gigolo” (01:15:30) & “Aren’t You Glad You’re You” (01:18:00; Tiny Tim). “The Brand New Tennessee Waltz” (01:25:00), “I Wave Bye Bye” (01:28:00) & “Snow” (04:26:00). “Biloxi” (01:31:30; Ted Hawkins). “Judy” (02:17:30) & “Nothing Can Stop Me Now ” (02:19:30). “Gonna Change My Way of Thinking” ({live} 03:24:30), “On the Road Again” (03:30:00), “Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum” (03:32:30), “The Ballad of Hollis Brown” ({live}, 03:37:30) & “Day of the Locusts” (03:43:00; Bob Dylan). “Musical Theater” (03:59:30), “Extreme Sports” (04:03:00), “The Toaster” (04:09:00), “A Gas Problem” (04:12:00) & “Toilet Paper” (04:14:30; John Pinette).
