I’m not on the podcast this week, but Dr. Rusty Shackleford of the Jawa Report is, with an interview by Tom Paine on the fake Reuters photos (now known as Fauxtography). Also the usual suspects. And some unusual ones.

I have been trying to write a parody of “I’m Still Here” using events from Jewish history, but have been unable to get anything going.

Here’s what I need you from my readers: Summaries of events in Jewish history in short phrases, like, “Crossing the Red Sea,” “the Inquisition,” etc. If you can just list them in the comments, I can pull them together into the song parody that I’ve been wanting to do for ages.

And yes, this has everything to do with having seen “Follies” last night and heard the song again.

Events from ancient to modern times, up to and including “Rockets in Haifa.”

In a few days, when the Lebanese front calms down, the internal politics will kick in. Some grievances will be aired, some accounts will be paid - as usual after our regular helter-skelter manner of going into wars.

Bradley Burston (who but Bradley, indeed?) offers a sober look at what is already trumpeted as a victory by both Nasrallah and Olmert. The article starts with:

It went into the war as the best equipped guerrilla force in history, with sophisticated laser-guided anti-tank missile weaponry, with bunkers built with reinforced concrete walls four meters (12 feet) thick, with more than 13,000 rockets, a launcher for every eight of them, command and control networks built with Iranian advice and Iranian advisors, and a string of fortifications, some of them originally built by Israel, up to the very edge of Israel’s northern border.

And ends with:

When this war is over and Israel’s troops are gone from Lebanon, and when the rage at Israel begins to subside, it will be Nasrallah’s turn - like Nasser’s four decades ago - to answer to fellow Arabs for his actions.

And you should read everything in-between by yourselves, it is worth your time.

Cross-posted on SimplyJews

Two of my friends from NJ drove down to visit for the weekend. They’ve got a brand-new Prius hybrid, and boy, what a cool car. And what great gas mileage!

I took them around Richmond today, but did not make them suffer through the Civil War Center’s film on how poor, sweet, innocent little Richmond was just minding her own business when suddenly, from the North, the whole army came down and burned Richmond to the ground! Oh, and the mud ran red with blood, or something like that. Tom Paine gives a much better rendition of it than I. He saw it three years ago and still laughs about it.

But I took them down Monument Avenue, where the most pertinent question was, “Why are we looking at that guy’s butt?” Stonewall Jackson is the only one facing north. You’d think they might have, I dunno, had Lee facing north, not the guy who was killed early in the war, but what do I know about the War of Northern Agression? (Tom, I did show them the Jeff Davis monument, and the words that had you livid.)

We did a grand tour of Richmond, starting with Carytown. “Any town you can think of that this reminds you of?” I asked. “Montclair,” they answered. I’m convinced that if you teleported someone from Montclair to Richmond, they’d say, “Ooh, look, a new store!” and keep on shopping. Then I took them downtown to Shockoe Bottom and the historic district. We went over three of the bridges over the James. I think there are seven. But they’re going home tomorrow, so we won’t be going on the other four anytime soon.

Dinner at Extra Billy’s, then off to Dogwood Dell for a free evening of musical theater. This week was Steven Sondheim’s “Follies,” and the production was simply excellent. It was the best production I’ve seen yet at the Dell, and I’ve been going there most years since 1991.

I’m so glad. Now I need to find a production of “Company” and I will have seen all of the plays to the Sondheim CDs that I own.

Off to bed. Getting up for breakfast with Kim and Bob before they go home. A nice visit, but too short!