Favorites lines from Shmuel Kunda Z"L tapes

In the car yesterday my son turned on When Zaidy Was Young 2. I must have listened to it literally a few hundred times, but I still found it so enjoyable. The lines are the lines, and some of our favorites are below, but the characterizations are hysterical and true to life. We have all encountered people like Mr. Osborne (mainly at the DMV), like Mr. Farzammelt, like Mr. Genugshoin. Maybe I am reading too deeply into it, but when Mr. Genugshoin yells in his heavy (and yet untraceable) accent about the the Bullzoders coming up to the shul, one wonders whether he flashed back to his formative experiences of anti-semitism in Europe. The invocation of the saying “mayors never go to bar mitzvahs” is pitch-perfect, leaving Hyman and Zelda constantly on the line where we can’t tell if they are as comically foolish as the rest of the characters, or if they appreciate as well as we do the preposterousness of the goings on.

The story is so entertaining that you almost forget that the plot is this: some people daven in a run down building. They get an eviction notice. Instead of looking for alternate accommodations to rent, they do nothing. One of my favorite lines is when Eli asks Zaidy whether they did anything about the notice, and Zaidy says, “for the next two weeks, the Chevra Mishnayos and Free Loan Society met every night!” The bar mitzvah approaches, and still they do nothing. The only people doing anything are Heshy and Manny, and their plan has several flaws.

Finally, as the bar mitzvah is about to begin and the bulldozers are about to tear down the building, the mayor arrives, and threatens to prosecute a city worker for doing his job. But the characters are so endearing and the story so entertaining that the nonsensical story line doesn’t even register.

Some favorite lines:

“But by unz yidden, our hopes and our dreams and our dreams are our hopes. Do you know what I mean kinderlach?” “I hope so”.

“I imagine so, Zaidy, I imagine so…”

“Heshy and Manny are tearing up the city?”

“With deepest regards, Mr. Untervelt”

“There was a little nice hall where you could leave your coat.”

“Of course there were stains on the glass on the windows. And on the tables and chairs too!”

The absurdity of “Searching for the Magic Yarmulke” struck me recently.

It is set in the same world as “The Magic Yarmulke,” and in that

same world itself, “The Magic Yarmulke” exists as a story tape!

4yo thread

Please pay my post no mind.

In 2016, I became the unofficial Year-Poster for revived older threads.

I did the same to that 7-letter word game thread that I wanted revived. Even if I didn’t revive other older threads, you may see that I added a post about its year of origin.

Recently, this position came about thanks to iacisrmma. Iacisrmma told us how to pronounce iacisrmma’s username. In return, I promised to acknowledge the dated thread.

Dating revived threads has been an exciting journey thus far.

If you want to join in on this archeological discovery, please feel free to date any threads that you revive.

Surely iacisrmma and more posters will appreciate it 🙂

Thanks for flying El Al

Just heard Rav Fischel Schechter’s shiur from last week on Torah Anytime. He quoted When Zaidy was Young tale I, when the little girl (someone remind me her name please) said “Why don’t you tell dem you got tummyache?”, and Zaidy replies “I won’t even tell a lie when it’s the truth”. – Great line