From the CBC: Playwright Joseph Stein, who turned a Yiddish short story into the classic Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof and later wrote the screenplay for its successful movie adaptation, has died at age 98.
And it occurs to me now that in a schmear of assaults to throw on the godless Public School accents et al. buckets of schmaltz surely have a place along side more weighty existentialist reflection of which that lot seem to give little account.
A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn’t easy. You may ask ‘Why do we stay up there if it’s so dangerous?’ Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word: tradition!
Alex Anderson, creator of Rocky and Bullwinkle, has also died. Maybe there’s something from moose and squirrel to reference also.
Advertisement
