Sundown: Bernie, She Hardly Knew Ya

Hadara Graubart — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:29:15 +0000

• “When you spend hundreds of millions of dollars with someone, you think you know him.” Comedian Andy Borowitz imagines a more satisfying apology from Ruth Madoff. [HuffPo]
• French president Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly advised Israeli P.M. Netanyahu to ditch his ultra-right-wing foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman in favor of centrist Tzipi Livni. Although this bold suggestion has caused a fracas, a former Knesset member shrugs it off thusly: “There’s hardly a world leader who does not say this.” [NYT]
• Perhaps because of their preponderance of death-defying stunts, circuses traditionally have religious chaplains. Thus, Vermont-based Circus Smirkus recruited Rabbi Ira Schiffer to bless their ring as a “sacred space.” [JTA]
• JewEL, a social organization in Las Vegas, brings together Jews to mingle, eat, and do charity work; it’s the perfect setting, says one member, “whether I want to talk about Israel and be serious or about bagels and lox and be funny.” [LV Weekly]
• A new book by Mitch Albom is forthcoming this September, this one about the friendship between a poor black Christian and an “uppity” Jew. It is, as the Lexington Books Examiner says, “sure to succeed.” [LBE]

Tablet Magazine » Andy Borowitz

Sundown: Bernie, She Hardly Knew Ya