palestine – notes from a chair

This is what happens when you leave for just a little while. When you return, everything is a mess.

Of course, I blame no one but myself. Certainly not any of you. For the last month or so my other half and I have been furiously working day and night to meet a deadline on an update to a book he first wrote about the history of Saturday Night Live ten years ago.

Oh, you want to know what it’s called?

Sure!

Saturday Night Live FAQ: Everything Left To Know About Television’s Longest Running Comedy.

Actually, it’s part history, part academic, part fan-based nostalgia, a lot of reliving of outstanding and controversial moments, a TON about how they cover politics (especially in the last 20 years) and hopefully all fun and informative.

And it will be coming out Fall 2024.

But meanwhile, what the what with the world??????

This Jewish, gay man of a certain age wants to know. Or do I?

Let’s not get too heavy this first week back, though it’s a little difficult to even broach the subject of being Jewish these days with a sense of humor while saying anything relevant.

On the other hand — um — FRAN DRESCHER!!!!

Yeah, you didn’t think she’d get the SAG strike settled to almost everyone’s satisfaction AND do anything about A.I. and streaming residuals.

See, like Fran, I grew up in Flushing so I know what we’re capable of when we put our minds to it. You want to make fun of her for bringing a plushy heart to a negotiation with Bob Iger or speaking with a NY (nee Jewish) accent? Go ahead.

It only makes her/us stronger.

Fran’s body language says “f*ck around and find out”

See New York Jews tend to thrive when the chips are down. Which is not to say we are the only ethnicity or cultural people this applies to. Far from it. It is also not to say we Jews, as a whole, are always right about everything, despite what our tone and manner might suggest.

However, what I can’t wrap my mind around is the knee-jerk anti-Jewish sentiment (Note: It used to be called anti-Semitism) that has suddenly blazed across the country and world, especially among the academic community, like wildfire. It makes one suspect it was always there.

Here’s a link to an article in The NY Times this weekend about what’s going on in college campuses across the country.

The bottom line for me is that it is possible to hold two or more thoughts in your head at the same time.

You can be appalled at the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel that killed hundreds of Israelis of all ages, took hundreds of hostages of all ages and was joyfully celebrated by its perpetrators of all ages.

You can also be horrified at the brutal decimation of the Gaza Strip and the deaths of many more hundreds of innocent Palestinians by Israel in an attempt to retaliate, protect itself and get its people back.

It’s ALL appalling and horrifying.

But to blame Jews for being, well, practicing Jews and protective of its people, or Muslims for feeling and advocating for Palestinians while practicing their faith is two awful sides of the same coin.

I have no sense yet of what the answer is to a many centuries old issue but it isn’t reveling in what about-isms like who was here first and who did what to whom when.

And it’s certainly not about threats and name-calling — veiled or not so veiled. It’s about trying to turn down the temperature a little and to then, slowly, begin to talk – or at least communicate.

This seems strange coming from a citizen of a country that elected Donald Trump president (Note: Ugh, saying his name, feel free to turn away) and may do so again. Though I, for one, do not think that will happen. It’s clear to me that Never Trumpers far, far outnumber those foolish enough to vote for the four times indicted, twice impeached huckster sociopath from Queens (Note: Yeah, we gave you Fran but we also gave you Him) again. Mark my words, he will lose any kind of national vote anywhere and anytime despite what any one snapshot in time poll number might now be saying.

None of which says anything about being Jewish anywhere, especially in the U.S. and most especially on a college campus, from 2023 on.

The only thing to remember is to be wary of ANYONE spouting racist, anti-Semitic, anti-democratic or virulently non-factual, pro-nativist dogma. Giving voice to, reproducing or energizing their platforms of hate in any way is how we got into this mess in the first place.

SNL – A Thanksgiving Miracle (Adele)

There are thousands of stories and images in Israel that this Jewish American feels he must watch, read about and view.

Images of babies, young people, middle aged people and old people burned, shot and beheaded at the hands of Jew-hating terrorists.

The stories about hostages of all ages ripped out of their homes or kidnapped as they danced at a celebratory music festival that are told to us by anxious, worried and waiting relatives hoping for their return but fearing, well, the worst.

Not to mention the decimation of nearby Gaza to piles of concrete rubble, leaving homeless tens of thousands of Palestinians being used as human shields by the terrorists who have ruled over the territory for far too long.

And yet, life somehow goes on.

Said Jewish American, aka The Chair, is on deadline for a book he’s co-writing with his husband, Stephen Tropiano – a detailed and complete update to the latter’s Saturday Night Live FAQ: Everything Left to Know About Television’s Longest-Running Comedy.

Talk about being at odds with oneself and one’s tasks.

Or perhaps not.

Saturday Night Live returned this week for its 49^th season, after a more than five-month hiatus due to the writers’ strike, with the unenviable task of making us laugh.

And as if that wasn’t challenging enough, former cast member Pete Davidson, a guy whose mental health you can’t help worrying just a little bit about each time he appears live onstage, or even out in public, was tapped as the season’s first host.

What could possibly go right?

Well, his short opening segment did.

Referencing the destruction and trauma in both Israel and Gaza resulting from a terrorist attack, Davidson recalled the trauma he experienced as a 7-year old boy when his own father, NYC fireman Scott Davidson, was killed in another terrorist attack, this one at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

Then he spoke about the images of the suffering children of Israel and Palestine, admitting it took him back to his own suffering and that no one in this world deserves to suffer like that, especially not kids.

He followed that with a couple of anecdotes of life without his Dad, noting that in his case he realized sometimes comedy is the only way forward in the face of tragedy.

And with that being his case he planned on doing what he’s always done in the face of tragedy, try to be funny, adding:

Remember, I said try.

For the next 90 minutes there were times he succeeded and others where, well, okay, at least he tried.

But in the end that’s all any of us can do, right?

Try.

Then try to be better.

On that note, here’s a look at his opening:

And here, just for a laugh, is the silliest, most ridiculous SNL sketch I could find that you likely have NEVER seen, since it was cut for time from one long ago episode.

Shalom.

notes from a chair

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