Sybil Adelman Sage
By Sybil Adelman Sage
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Community Who gets a ventilator is the new Sophie’s Choice
Prior to the pandemic, I didn’t think of myself as “elderly.” But COVID-19 insists I am, compensating me with early morning, old-people grocery shopping. I’ve come to terms with that but my husband and I, both in our 70s, had been enjoying life before all this tragedy, so I’ve been stewing over being seen as…
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Culture I’m self-isolating as fast as I can: My 8 days of quarantine
I assumed that Donald Trump’s “Fifteen Days to Slow the Spread” was the new “30 Days to Thinner Thighs,” a plan for the country to use coronavirus as a shape-up opportunity, until I discovered he was rebranding self-isolation. However upsetting it was to small business owners and those involved in extra-marital affairs, for me it…
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Culture How I Grew Up With ‘Fiddler On The Roof’
“They’re doing ‘Fiddler’ in Yiddish,” a friend recently told my husband and me. “You both speak it, right?” “Only what I picked up from my parents,” I said. “Household Yiddish,” Martin joked. “We know the words for complaining.” “There are subtitles,” she said, offering to get tickets for us to join her and her husband….
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Culture How I Stumped The Mikveh Lady
Though neither of us was as observant as our parents, because both families belonged to the orthodox Fifth Avenue Synagogue on New York’s Upper East Side, that’s where my fiancé and I would soon be getting married. “I’ll have to get a get,” Martin told me, which sounded redundant until he explained that, despite being…
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Culture What The Feminist Seder Meant To Me
Single until the age of 38, I’d had no shortage of getting together with women, but I was excited when I was invited to the New York Feminist Seder. This was the real deal, the one launched in the 70’s by Esther Broner, who with Naomi Nimrod had written “The Women’s Haggadah.” I was aware…
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Culture Stormy Daniels Is The Quintessential Donald Trump Type — Not Jewish
Our president continually stirs up controversy, but one thing we can all agree on is that he’s faithful — not to one woman, but to a particular type. He requires a shapely body with ample breasts, topped by a face that almost demands to be photographed, and he seems disinterested in those who are Jewish….
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Culture Why Carl Reiner Was The Dreamiest Boss I Ever Had
At 26, after taking dictation and guff from assorted people in show business with egos ranging from inflated to absurdly inflated, I met Carl Reiner. On talk shows he’d seemed like an incredible mensch, so when I heard from a friend that his secretary was leaving, I desperately wanted her job. Reiner would be respectful…
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Culture Comedy Is Easy, Dying Is Hard
‘I don’t want to be buried in Jersey,” my husband quipped the first time I raised the issue of an exit plan. We’re comedy writers, and though I had always enjoyed Martin’s jokes, I needed him to take this seriously. “Where do you want to be?” I asked. “Here,” he answered. “I plan on staying…
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