Jewish/Hebrew Holiday?

[Guest ncm2169]

One of Tom Lehrer's best songs (he, of math fame at Harvard) was Hanukkah in Santa Monica:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZUgr1zh878

 

Play it, you'll love it!!

 

Anyhoo, in his list of holidays, he says something about spending "Shibuis" in East St. Louis.

 

I feel ignorant, having grown up and lived with Jews and Jewish friends most my life, but I DO NOT know what that holidays is, and I can't find it by googling.

 

Help!!

[+ purplekow]

Shavuot or Shavuos The day the Ten Commandments were given to the Jewish People.

[Guest ncm2169]

Thanks, PK!!

 

Did you like the song?

[Guest]

I was surprised to look him up on Wikipedia and discover he's still alive! His works were already quite classic when I was a tiny tot!

[Guest ncm2169]

God, weren't Lehrer's verbal and musical satire AWESOME???

 

IMO, his work was equal to or better than Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl and eventually the watered-down versions by Chad Mitchell.

 

The thing about Lehrer was that he not only ran the gamut from clever to satire to macabre humor, he did it with his trademark piano.

 

He was a genius, and I hope he has a comeback!! :D

[+ honcho]

I had the impression that he was one of the writers for a TV series in the late 60's called "That was the week that was" ... Maybe "Saturday Night, Live" got some of its culture from the earlier show?

 

I also had the impression that he also was a math professor at UC Santa Cruz for a while.

[+ purplekow]

Thanks, PK!!

 

Did you like the song?

 

 

I did enjoy the song. I have heard of this person but I don't recall ever seeing anything he had done. I do recall TW3 as That Was The Week That Was called when it was on the air. It was very funny and way too topical for the times. The times they were a changin' but the people watching TV were changin' the channel to that kind of hippie humor just yet.

[+ Charlie]

I had all Tom Lehrer's LPs when I was a teenager. I still sometimes sing "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" to myself.

[+ purplekow]

I had all Tom Lehrer's LPs when I was a teenager. I still sometimes sing "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" to myself.

With that kind of title, best to sing that song to yourself, singing it out loud might result in getting splashed by PETA

[+ glutes]

I thought the song was catchy and funny!

NCM, didn't know you were Kosher.

[AdamSmith]

Lehrer is still very much alive & kicking. Divides his time between California & Cambridge, MA. Seems heartily sick of Being Tom Lehrer; I have seen him dragooned into performing 1 or 2 of his songs at parties, but he clearly despises doing so.

 

I read a very brief interview with him dating from the Reagan era. Someone asked him why, with all the great material around, he didn't return to political satire. He responded to the effect that, compared with the early to mid-'60s, the world scene had now gotten so dire that such requests make him feel "like a citizen of Pompeii being asked for some humorous remarks on lava."

 

Also: http://www.avclub.com/articles/tom-lehrer,13660/

[AdamSmith]

This too:

 

http://www.youtube.com/6funswede#play/user/1C68974C982CBA68/0/CgASBVMyVFI

 

Und a particular fave:

 

http://www.youtube.com/6funswede#play/user/1C68974C982CBA68/5/TytGOeiW0aE

 

AND possibly of special relevance here:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKZR3Bcj4jw

 

...Closest to what he looks like today:

 

[Guest ncm2169]

< NCM, didn't know you were Kosher.

 

Huh??

 

I'm not Kosher, but get me within 100 yards of a good Kosher Deli, and I'll pig out on corned beef.

 

(Oops, I probably shouldn't use "pig out" when talking Kosher foods ).

 

FWIW, you won't hear it from Garrison Keillor -- who only talks about casserole at Lutheran pot luck suppers -- but we are blessed with a number of excellent authentic Kosher Delis here in Lake Wobegon.

[Rick Munroe]

Shavuot or Shavuos The day the Ten Commandments were given to the Jewish People.

 

But there was no receipt so they had a hard time when they went to Bloomie's and tried to return them.