Alan Zweibel’s “Laugh Lines”
They have a new thing now called sperm banks. It’s like an ordinary bank except here, after you make a deposit, you lose interest. Alan Zweibel wrote that joke in 1972 for a comedian performing in the nightclub of Kutscher’s, a hotel in the Catskills. At...
Woody Looks Back
I had a great time reading Woody Allen’s autobiography, “Apropos of Nothing.” It was one of the rare times I had to put a book down because I was laughing so hard. Although it would be hard to prove if the evidence were only his last few movies, the...
Charles Brandt, “I Hear You Paint Houses”
Martin Scorsese’s new movie is “The Irishman,” starring Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino, as well as lots of other names you’ll recognize (Joe Pesci, Anna Paquin, Bobby Cannavale, Jesse Plemons, Harvey Keitel, and Ray Romano). It will be open in...
Letters From An Astrophysicist
I have long been a fan of Neil deGrasse Tyson, currently America’s best explainer of all things scientific. When I interviewed him in 2017, I mentioned how happy I was to have seen him do an appearance before 3,000 people who all went to see and hear him discuss...