creve coeur
The 1950s, arguably, were the greatest era of Jewish humor. Take my wife. Please. With apologies to Henny Youngman, Jack Benny, George Burns, Jerry Lewis et al., if the best humor comes from pain, that is certainly understandable, considering the unspeakable horrors visited on the Jews in the 1930s and 1940s. But in the post-war years, no Nazis remained to force anyone to wear a Star of David on their sleeve. It was time for a collective sigh of relief. For a while. There was an altogether different type of discrimination in the 1950s, which a new play evokes. Poking fun at the notorious McCarthy hearings of the 1950s, a one-man show—A Jewish Joke, a New Jewish Theatre production—runs Nov. 29 to Dec. 10 at The J in Creve Coeur. So, what’s it all about? The havoc wreaked by ‘Tail-gunner Joe’ and his ilk, mostly. U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy created the infamous blacklist to ferret out alleged Communists in all aspects of American life. (And, to exhume McCarthy: Weren’t many Jews also stinkin’ Reds?) Hollywood was a particularly nasty target for McCarthyism, and in this play, we meet irascible comedy screenwriter Bernie Lutz (Phil Johnson), who is about to open a big movie. Oy, gevalt! Much to his surprise and chagrin, Bernie finds that he’s been blacklisted. He’s confronted with the dilemma of naming names and implicating his writing partner in order to save himself and his career. (If this feels eerily familiar, just switch out Judaism or Islam—and it’s today.) Written by Phil Johnson and Marni Freedman, the production will be staged at Wool Studio Theater in the A&E Building on the Jewish Community Center’s Staenberg Family Complex, 2 Millstone Campus Drive. Q&As will be held with cast and a local expert; dates TBD. You can thank us later.
kirkwood
If you feel the need to hail a cab just to get around downtown Kirkwood when public parking is at a premium, check this out: The electric ones are free now thanks to a pilot program called Downtown Kirkwood Connector. (Although city employees will need to make sure they are charged overnight!) On Thursdays and Fridays from 5 to 9 p.m. and Saturdays from 1 to 9 p.m, service by Electric Cab North America will be offered at no charge to downtown Kirkwood visitors. Drivers will not expect payment or tips. Based on demand, the timing of the service is subject to change. The pilot program is scheduled to operate through Nov. 18, with tentative plans to extend service until Dec. 30. For service, hail the driver or phone in a request (314.252.8889). Thanks to Downtown Kirkwood Special Business District, you don’t have to walk, or at least walk very far. During hours the service operates, there usually are open public parking spaces at Kirkwood City Hall, the Station Plaza garages and customer parking in the northern end of the district. Connector drivers will pick up and drop off at those locations. Down the road, additional stops could be added. The method to all this free transportation madness? City officials say it will help diners, shoppers and the curious find public parking that’s not obviously available; first-timers can be frustrated by the unavailability of street parking. This, of course, is as much a problem for businesses as it is the uninitiated.
midtown (SLU)
Hours add up. Just ask anyone who’s been sentenced to doing so many dozens or hundreds of community service hours. As punishment for a crime, it may seem like it takes forever. But for a group? Well, let’s see whether SLU students, staff and faculty—plus anyone in the metro, and the world at large—can log 200 years of service within one year. That’s 1.75 million hours of service! To celebrate its bicentennial, SLU has unveiled a large, illuminated digital clock at Grand and Lindell boulevards (across from St. Francis Xavier Church) to keep track of just how much we can do for one another in 12 months. The goal is to reach the total by Nov. 14, 2018, the 200th anniversary of the Jesuit institution. It won’t be much of a stretch for the SLU community alone; typically they log 1.6 million volunteer hours a year. The clock was ‘started’ yesterday—Tuesday, Nov. 14—by a student who entered volunteer hours dedicated to SLU’s Campus Kitchens. (The program rescues food that would otherwise be discarded, as well as goods from grocery stores and food banks. Students then prepare meals that are delivered to homeless shelters, transitional living homes, low-income families and senior citizens.) The clock will update in real time as volunteer hours are submitted. We can all join in; there’s an app for that! (Meanwhile, your faithful scribe wonders whether there are enough places to the left of the decimal point to accommodate all of the volunteer hours entered. Let’s hope they exceed even their own expectations!)
