So Chuck Schumer is calling for a new government in Israel. So maybe it's time for a little civics lesson. The last Israeli election was in Nov 22. The coalition of the Right got 64 seats--3 more than needed to have a majority in the 120-seat Knesset. That doesn't sound like a lot, but it was the largest majority in a decade in an Israeli election. It's a parliamentary system, so unlike here, a government can collapse before its tenure is reached, but the full term of an Israeli government is four years.

I have a story to tell about what happened today at the matinee of Merrily We Roll Along on Broadway. (The production is spectacular, one of the best I've ever seen, and I've seen two previous horrible versions of it.) An understudy went on for the female lead, Lindsay Mendez. 1/ Her name is Sherz Aletaha. And she was great. Really, really great. I've seen many bad or mediocre understudies in my life. She was maybe the best ever. Anyway, there's a scene in the play in which the stars, Daniel Radcliffe and Jonathan Groff, type stuff on a typewriter. 2/