We were back up in Sharon last weekend.
We spent Shabbat afternoon with Eliana and Julia, and then Saturday night
headed up to the Maimonides vs. Gann Academy varsity basketball game which was
held at the Gosman Athletic Center at Brandeis University in Waltham. Our
M-Cats won! On Sunday, we headed up to Brookline and met Simmie and Eliana for
lunch at Pure Cold Press in Brookline (https://www.purecoldpress.com/), a really terrific
restaurant. Simmie headed back to Sharon while we went with Eliana to see the
M-Cats play Cristo Rey at a beautiful, relatively new (opened in 2011) venue, The
Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center, not far from the
restaurant. Cristo Rey was a tough team with a lot of very tall players and the
M-Cats played hard but could not get out ahead.
On Tuesday evening we headed over to
the 92nd Street Y for this:
Paul Krugman in
Conversation with Samantha Bee: Arguing with Zombies
Join Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist
Paul Krugman for a conversation about his new book, Arguing with
Zombies—along with the most crystal-clear crash course in contemporary
economics, politics and public policy you’re likely to get ahead of the 2020
election.
As the Trump administration rolls back nearly every New
Deal-era law America has relied upon for a century, Krugman breaks down the
myths surrounding public policy issues at home and abroad—from tax reform to
healthcare to Brexit—with the characteristic intelligence, wit and passion that
have been on display for two decades in his writing for The New York
Times.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable hour,
in some ways rather surprising to me. I really enjoy reading Krugman’s Op-Ed
pieces in the New York Times, and was heartened to see that even with his
amazing resume, he comes off as being very down-to-earth. But Samantha Bee was
the big surprise. She is certainly very funny but she is also impressively well-read
and smart, and really held her own quite well with this Nobel Laureate.
I suppose that because we had tickets
for this event, a few hours before it I received an e-mail about tickets being
available to see a taping of Samantha Bee’s show, “Full Frontal,” for the
following evening. After ensuring handicap accessibility at the CBS Studio
where it is taped, we decided to go for it and ordered the tickets. Chatting
with another audience member before the show, I was reminded that we had done
this sort of thing just once before, when we had gone to see a taping of the “Colbert
Report.” I cannot remember just when that was, but it must have been before I
started blogging in 2012 because I cannot seem to find any mention of it here. That
show aired for 1,447 episodes between October 2005 and December 2014. It no
longer seems possible to obtain tickets to see Colbert since he took over hosting
“The Late Show;” believe me, I have tried!
It was a lot of fun, but to be honest,
as performances go, we really enjoyed the 92nd Street Y talk far
more. However, there was one highlight of that taping that will stick with me
forever. Because I was in a wheelchair, they sat me at a designated spot right
in the front on the far left. And when the taping ended, Samantha Bee made a
point of coming over to me and shaking my hand. Wow! I really did not imagine
she would have even noticed this old grey-haired lady with the oxygen
sitting in a wheelchair, let alone come over to thank her for coming. But she
did. And all I can say is that although I may find her raunchiness a bit much
at times, she now has an enormous fan for life!
Here is the full
episode.
We all need to laugh as much as we can!
Love,
Rebecca
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