Robert Lipkin’s Sweeter Than Justice Has Final Staged Reading Before Regional Premiere

 

Robert Lipkin’s Sweeter Than Justice has its Final Staged Reading at the Glenridge Performing Arts Center, in Sarasota, Friday, Feb 5th & Saturday Feb 6th, before its fully staged Regional Premiere at the Asolo Rep’s Cook Theatre May 12-22, 2016.

After each February reading there will be an Audience Talk-back & Meet The Cast/Director/Playwright.

 

More Info about the play and advance ticket purchase at: PageTostageProductions.com

A compelling psychological drama, Sweeter Than Justice unfolds in a world where choices are never simple, the lines between right and wrong are blurred, and it’s hard to tell heroes from villains.

“Though set in 1963, in Philly’s then cloistered Italian community, the play offers a view of ourselves today,” says the playwright, Robert Lipkin. “It examines how the healing powers of friendship, love, and justice are too often tainted by the more irresistible power of vengeance.” This drama leaves audiences wondering what they would do were they in Geanina’s place?”

The play is directed by Carole Kleinberg,  who is thrilled to have,  “A wonderful cast starring Amanda Schachter, Joseph Parra (both included in the above picture), and Rafael Petlock.”

More Info about the play, Cast/Direct/Composer/Playwright Bios and advance ticket purchase at: PageToStageProductions.com

THAT FICKLE THING (An Ode To Us)

(Note: Dedicated to a friend, stuck at a fork in the road).

Came early for us.
Soon after we met.
Just appeared one day.
Caught it like a cold; still, it felt warm, coming at us, on tiptoe, like a storm.
We welcomed it.
I recognized it, having had it when I was a kid.
We both did.

Neither of us spoke about it at first.
Neither wants to play the fool,
to dare
to see, and say, what really might not be there,
might not be shared.
Not willing to risk hearing,
“Oh, I care, but not like that.”
Fear’s the killer – murmuring it might not be, it might not last.

Early on, it was far too early to tell friends or family. What if it were just an aberration or an anomaly?
Oh, we talked around it, the way Beginners do, via banal metaphor or
simile:
You are sunshine, or this feels like a warm summer’s moonlit night.
Silly stuff.
Couldn’t get enough.

See, the thing about Beginnings is you don’t want to be first to say that Word.
Better, safer, to let it be, like a song well written but unheard.

We weren’t sure what to do with this Interloper, this thing between us, this
Colorless, odorless, tasteless thing that we couldn’t see, nor touch, but sensed was encompassing us;
Oh, it was there all right –
We awoke with it and bedded with it every night.

Then, at that “this is too good to be true” moment, that suspicious, inner-voice slowly awakened, questioning and dissecting this Mystery,
this thing without
History.
Next, Doubts pull into the Station,
with what sounds a lot like Cross-examination:
“Has this happened before to you?”
“Often?”
“Too often”?
“With whom and when?”, and
“How did it end?”
“Do you want this, now?”
“And, if you do, what do we do next, and how?”

And, if, somehow, it survives that full-frontal attack, the Doubts, the Inquisition, then the Beginning is no longer;
its roots take hold, gets stronger,
taking on a life of its own, writing its own
Memoir,
as it moves forward, giving birth to stories and memories of “us” and “we”.

For years we said surviving the bumps, and forks, in the road defined us, strengthened us.
Two halves had become one,
We were a couple,
a united and inseparable nation.
Then, over time, came a settling, a small crack in the foundation.
Something said, with regret,
something not really meant,
and there it was – it’s first Dent.
Now, that which was perfect was no more.
Cut and Bleedin’,
we were cast out of Eden.
How would we garnish,
this thing, now so indelibly tarnished?

Where did it go?
Why is it different?
Are we at a new Beginning, or the end of the Middle, or the Beginning of The End?
That fragile thing which survives on Faith alone cannot tolerate questions as to its validity, its permanence.
Do we have an appointment
with Disappointment?
And as the questions, the doubts, hammer on,
more Dents appear.
Is it a thing now weathered or a thing worn-out?
This is a time to choose words wisely,
miserly.
We dare not let the words be spoken:
“Is it broken?”

And then comes the inevitable Parade of Platitudes:
“This too shall pass.”
“That which does not kill us, makes us stronger”
“We will be better for this.”

Have we come full circle?
The “I” and “Me” return, replacing the “Us” and “We”:
“I don’t know who I am anymore”.
“If I don’t think of myself, who will?”
“I’ve lost me in us.”

That Fickle thing. That Fickle thing.
Is it forever lost or just misplaced?
Did we ever really have it, or was it just some illusion we both wanted?
At the fork in the road, lies that Fickle Thing.
That damned damaged Thing.
Do we hold on to it, or do we each start anew, somewhere else, with someone new?
Do we really want to travel again, and again, upon a new Beginning, a new Middle, a new End?
Only a Sisyphus
would want This.

Or, perhaps, is this our Intermezzo?
A pause to compose a new Libretto
for Our Second-Act Concerto.
Perhaps, from our cloistered cocoon, there’s a butterfly awaiting us, still fragile, but more beautiful, more wise, more mature, than ever we thought or hoped possible.
Isn’t that dented Fickle Thing our priceless antique, built with our own hands, most worthy of polishing, protecting, and possessing together?
Answer this: aren’t we worth the risk?

by
Robert Lipkin

NFL COMMISSIONER SUFFERED BRAIN-ECTOMY BEFORE SAYING KNOCKING WIFE UNCONSCIOUS NOT OKAY WHENEVER “INSTANT REPLAY” VIDEO AVAILABLE

Goodell, The Human Weathervane

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following up on our story of July, 2013 (nominating Goodell for Horse’s Ass of The Year) and the hell that has broken loose since Roger Goodell suspended player Ray Rice for two games for knocking his fiancé  unconscious, we can now report that surgeon Dr. Oops has, today, publicly apologized for inadvertently removing NFL Commissioner Goodell’s brain, last year, during what had been scheduled as minor surgery to remove the Commissioner’s foot from his mouth.

Dr. Oops compared Goodell’s unfortunate brain-ectomy to a tonsillectomy, stating, “Fortunately, Goodell won’t miss his brain because, like most politicians, he hardly uses it.”

To prove his point that Goodell is doing just fine, Dr. Oops referenced some recent Goodell decisions (occurring both before and after his brain-ectomy):

1. This July, Goodell announced his “Zero Tolerance” for players’ on-field use of racial slurs or abusive language relating to sexual orientation. Goodell said, “Such conduct will not be tolerated in the NFL.”  Penalty to be imposed: 15-yards.

2.Smoke two joints: Penalty: Suspension for one year.

3.Under Goodell’s New Domestic Violence Policy, knock your wife unconscious without video evidence confirming same: never happened (no penalty).

4.Knock someone else’s wife, or fiancé, unconscious with, or without, video confirmation: no penalty (“Since the victim ain’t a wife, fiancé, or partner,” Goodell explained gleefully, “such conduct fails to fall within NFL’s strict definition of Domestic Violence”).

Goodell, the Human Weathervane

Dr. Oops did admit, during his press conference, that he alone is solely responsible for Goodell failing to ask the Atlantic City casino for a copy of the in-elevator video footage of Ray Rice knocking his fiancé unconscious after Goodell viewed the video of Rice dragging his unconscious fiancé out of the elevator. “Let’s be honest,” Oops said, “only someone without a brain would fail to do that.”

In a related story, Commissioner Goodell announced, today, that he is suspending himself indefinitely for “conduct unbecoming to the NFL and human beings everywhere.”  Goodell added, “During my suspension, which may well last until the heat gets out of the kitchen, or until I say, or do, something not patently offensive to women or Native Americans. I will continue, of course, to receive my $44 million annual salary, as my team owners love the job I’m doing.”

In a Bold Move Obama Hits Putin Where It Hurts

Mulling Their OptionsIn retaliation for Vladimir Putin’s March 28th annexation of Crimea and threats to annex all of Eastern Ukraine, President Obama has moved quickly and decisively to punish the Russian President.

According to a May 5th New York Times article, Obama has pressured the top executives of PepsiCo, Morgan Stanley, and Alcoa to cancel plans to attend a party, in St Petersburg, hosted by Putin.  In a related story, the President has sent 10,000 federal troops to surround The Russian Tea Room in Manhattan and has encouraged his Cabinet members to abstain from eating Russian Dressing.

The immediate economic impact of these surgical strikes on the Russian economy is still being determined by the Office of Budget & Management, however, in an apparent act of reconciliation and contrition, according to not too reliable White House sources, Putin has sent a hand-written note to Obama promising to cancel plans to annex Detroit, Michigan and Camden, New Jersey.

“As much as we consider the annexation of Detroit and Camden as an immediate way to increase the mean income of the Russian people,” Putin wrote, “We will forego these plans if you allow PepsiCo to attend my party.”

The mood, today, has lightened dramatically at the White House, as the economic noose tightens around the Russian President.  Obama was quoted, screaming defiantly, from the Oval Office, “Let them drink Coke.  We’ll see how long they can hold out.”

In an unrelated story, President Obama’s approval rating has fallen further into single digits; and now rests between Comcast and liver cancer.

CHRISTIE SAYS SHUT-UP TO 3 YEAR-OLD & Taps Putin

 

Chris Christy Bullies Three Year-Old

Chris Christy Bullies Three Year-Old

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning, in a desperate attempt to restore his increasingly damaged image from “Bridgegate”, Governor Chris Christie met with angry and undecided voters in Fort Lee, New Jersey. When told she would not vote for him because he was a “schoolyard bully”, Christie interrupted the three year-old and told her to “Shut-up”. Later, Christie explained his outburst as follows, “I never took any shit from three year-olds when I was teenager, and I see no reason to start now.”

 

Hang Down Your Head Chris Christie, Hang Down Your Head And Cry

Hang Down Your Head Chris Christie, Hang Down Your Head And Cry

In an unrelated story, a cell-phone video recorded Christie saying, ” I’d be honored to run for President of The United States on the same ticket with Vladimir Putin. I admire his in-your-face, New Jersey style, take-no-prisoners attitude. While I continue to deny any responsibility for shutting down the George Washington Bridge, I admit, now, it would have sent a much clearer message, to Democrats and all my enemies, to simply beat them with horse-whips.  And, yes, I confirm rumors that I requested, from Russian President Putin, a plane-load of Cossacks, who will join my administration upon arrival.”

Putting his verbal attack on the three year-old child and comments about Putin in a more favorable context, a spokesperson for Governor Christie said, “The Governor, as always, consistently and adamantly takes no responsibility for what goes in, or comes out of, his mouth.”

Homophobe Refuses to Tip Server Gets Surprise Tweet From God

Credit Card Invoice

 

 

 

 

Last week Dayna Morales, a former Marine and current waitress at a Bridgewater, NJ restaurant, shared an incident on Facebook’s Have a Gay Day Page.  Dayna presented a $93 dinner tab to Mom, Pop and their two young children. Mom, later identified as Mrs. Bigot, wrote on her credit card Invoice, in lieu of a tip,

“Sorry I cannot tip because I do not agree with your lifestyle & the way you live your life.”

Satire-ish.com caught up with the Bigots’ and interviewed Mom.

Satire-ish.com: Must be exhausting deciding how much to tip based on the status, appearance, or lifestyle, of your server?

Mrs. Bigot: It is. We used to tip 8% for excellent service, but, you know, the math was tricky and, frankly, expensive. Now, we just Eyeball our server. We’ve been lucky. We always find a reason to hate.

Satire-ish.com: Did you know that over 15,000 people have expressed support for the woman you refused to tip?

Mrs. Bigot: Yea, I was shocked to read that. Don’t know what’s happening in this country. It’s getting to be a Bigot isn’t safe speaking their mind anymore. What’s going to happen to us? I mean, yesterday, I got a Tweet from God. God used almost the same words I used with that waitress. I printed it out. I’ll read it to you. God tweeted this:

“Sorry I cannot let the Bigots into Heaven because I do not agree with the way they live their lives.”

 

Later, we asked God to elaborate. God texted the following to us:

Going to Church is not a ticket to Heaven. Tell your readers God said no one is getting into Heaven who does not object to every joke that begins with, ‘This Polish guy walks up to two Jews in a bowling alley…’, or ‘Two fags walk up to a priest…,’ or “This drunk Irishman walks into a bar…’, or …  Damn, damn, damn. It’s too wordy. Here’s my Rule:

‘The Pearly Gates to Heaven are closed to anybody who acts like they are better than someone else.  That’ll work.”

Barneys CEO Shocked By Barneys “Guilty While Shopping Black” Policy

BARNEYS CEOJust when we all have come so far, getting along so, so well together, in this post racial Kumbaya society,  we discover that New York City’s iconic department store retailer – good old Barneys – has been enforcing a policy of “Guilty while shopping Black“.  At a hastily arranged press conference, Barneys‘ CEO, Mark Lee, quickly gathered together as many influential African Americans as he could on such short notice, to announce, “We, at Barneys, are as color-blind as white folks like me can be.”

Barneys‘ CEO Lee later told Satire-ish.com’s Inna Fakina that, “Some of my very, very best friends – well, maybe, just casual contacts –  are African Americans; others, less affluent, are Negro, and a few – those receiving food stamps or Medicare – are indeed Colored but in a very, very good  and decent way; and all are welcome, this upcoming holiday season, to shop at Barneys without being harassed or racially profiled as they might be at Macy’s or Saks Fifth Avenue.”

Lee categorically denied stories, reported in the New York Times, and elsewhere, that Barneys’ African American customers have been singled out for, as the Rev. Al Sharpton described, Shop & Frisk policies.

“At Barneys, cash is, and always has been, King,” said CEO Lee. “And speaking of Kings… I, like Martin Luther King, Jr., also have a dream that we may look forward to the day when we all may be judged simply by the content of our character. But until that day comes, we will continue to muddle along, in our imperfect way, trying to distinguish between those who come to Barneys to shop and those who come to Barneys to shoplift with the assistance of the always racially neutral New York Police Department.”

al Qaeda Declares “Mission Accomplished” And Sends Thank-You Note To U.S. Congress

US_vs_al_Qaeda_Terrorism

 

In shocking news, with ramifications to financial markets around the globe, al Qaeda today announced “Mission Accomplished” in its obsessive quest to destroy the United States.  “We did it,” an al Qaeda spokesperson said today, with tears of joy in his eyes, “but we must acknowledge that we couldn’t have brought down this once world power without the aid, support, and assistance of the U.S. Congress. The Congress has worked tirelessly to destroy itself and the United States. To the Tea Party, we will always be especially grateful.”

 

 

 

In a brief announcement, from the Rose Garden, President Obama said, “Al Qaeda could never destroy the United States.  It always lacked the willpower, the single-minded determination, and resources necessary to bring down this great, great nation.  Only Americans, with single digit I.Q.’s and an infant’s grasp of worldwide financial consequences, could have pulled this off.  In the end, al Qaeda realized, at its highest levels of command, that only Americans could destroy America.”

 

Michele BachmannWhen told that al Qaeda singled her out for special thanks, U.S. House Representative Michele Bachmann, with her usual uniquely keen grasp of the issues, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer,  “When I was a little girl, my daddy told me that we were better off ‘Red than Dead’, and today I tell you, Wolf, that we are better off Dead than Alive with every American saddled with health care.”

“Who knew,” said the al Qaeda spokesperson, “that good old Americans, like Michele Bachman, were our greatest deeply embedded weapons.”

Surveyed Catholics Believe Pope’s Mandate To ‘Love Thy Neighbor’ More Surprising Than Lou Gehrig Dying From Lou Gehrig’s Disease

pope_francisAfter Pope Francis called, this week, for a more inclusive Church, a bigger tent – “a home for all”, 1.2 Billion shocked Roman Catholics tweeted “WTF?” to the new Pontiff.

One tweeter, from Tupelo, Mississippi, Beauregard Ooopson, raised questions on the lips of Roman Catholics around the world. “Love Thy Neighbor? Pope Francis wants me to love my neighbor. Mister, have you seen my neighbors? Mostly funny looking people, oddly dressed, born in countries I’ve never heard of. Never knew people came in so many shades of brown and yellow.”

Mrs. Ooopson, interrupted her husband, reminding him, “Darling, honey, tell this here reporter ’bout the women we see in this town buying bagfuls of contraceptives at the checkout counter at Walmart like they was buying chewing gum. And tell him ’bout them women we see keeping company with other women – as if the men in this county ain’t good enough for them. Now just last Sunday, from the pulpit, I was told that Jesus himself frowns upon such peculiar conduct. But today, today, I’m asked, ‘Who are you to judge another human being?’ This here, new Pope Francis says we’re obsessed in our Church with abortion, contraception and opposition to gay marriage. Well, what does his Holiness want us to be for, to be about, if not the things, and people, that we are against that unite all of us?”

Another tweeter, from Cambridge, Massachussets, a tenured Harvard professor, said, “Pope Francis argues we’re at risk of creating a small nest ‘protecting our mediocrity’. What’s suddenly wrong with small nests and fences? Why bother building fences if there’s nobody to keep out.”

Back in Rome, Pope Francis knelt in prayer and asked his heavenly Father to explain, “Why is it so much easier to say “them” than “we“, to be against than for?”

Obama & Putin Agree to Couples Counseling

Obama Putin Agree To Couples  Counseling

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – At the G20 Summit, today, Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin announced they have agreed to submit immediately to Couples Counseling.

While both leaders point to “irreconcilable differences”, Putin said, “Counseling is our last chance to avoid an ugly, tear-filled scene quarreling over whether to “bomb the shit out of Syria” or simply to kick the chemical weapons “red line” down the road a bit.”

According to a story by Peter Baker, appearing in today’s NYTimes, “… Mr. Obama acknowledged that ‘we’ve kind of hit a wall’ in relations and “… we should …not sugarcoat them.'”

Couples Counselors R USCommenting on the announcement, close friends of the Super-Couple are thrilled but expressed shock and awe that Obama and Putin have selected Bill Clinton and disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner to mediate their relationship issues.

When asked to comment, Mr. Obama shouted to the crowd of assembled reporters, as he and Putin took off, hand-in-hand, down a secluded garden path, “Clinton and Weiner have both demonstrated magical, manipulative powers at saving their own marriages that seemed, to most, beyond hope. Puttie and I are confident they can save us from each other.”

As the world’s most powerful couple exited, this reporter overheard Putin whispering sofly in Obama’s hear,”Poisen shmoisen. Poisen shmoisen. Your baseball World Series starts soon in October, honey-bunch, and, believe me, nobody will remember where your red line used to be.”