Shalom, How Have You Wronged Me?

As usual, lots happened while Stephen was gone last week. Some of it not so good. Stephen talked about the death of Christopher Stevens and passed along his condolences.

Mitt Romney criticized President Obama over comments that he said the President made. President Obama did not make those comments at all. Because of that, many conservatives are now criticizing Mitt Romney. Probably because he spoke before he knew what was going on.

Stephen felt the need to explain to Muslims watching the show that here in American, the Constitution gives us freedom of speech and therefore, we can't stop people from making movies that are stupid.

Even as all that was happening, what with the apologies, and the non-apologies (Stephen mentioned Mitt Romney's book "No Apology"), Stephen started talking about Rosh Hashanah. (Or Rosh Hashashananh or something like that. He kind of mangled it.) That's right, it's Rosh Hashanah again. My how time flies. What that means is that it is time for Stephen's Atone Phone Hotline.

Dial 1-888-667-7539, then press 2. That is the hotline for Oops Jew. Be sure to press 2 and not some other number or you will get someone, but not Stephen. Here's the other hotlines you get if you press a different extension after dialing Oops Jew.

1 = Mops Key
3 = Moss Lew
4 = Mos Plex
5 = Nors Lez
6 = O Mrs Lex

So dial carefully. And speaking of dialing carefully, the Atone Phone started ringing. Surprisingly, it was Ira Glass, yes, that Ira Glass. He gave a quick apology to Stephen for not having him on his radio show, This American Life, and then shamelessly plugged his movie, "Sleepwalk With Me." I think we can plan on hearing from Ira Glass next year during Rosh Hashanah when he again calls the Atone Phone Hotline and apologizes for shamelessly plugging his movie, "Sleepwalk With Me."

Stephen's guest was Drew Gilpin Faust, president of Harvard University and author of "This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War." She told Stephen, "It's never dumb to get an education." He accused her of being prejudiced against dumb people, but then went on to other topics. Her book has been made into a documentary by Ric Burns - no relation to Ken Burns, no wait, they're brothers!

You know how sometimes Stephen seemingly monopolizes the conversation and other times he lets his guest do a lot of the talking? Yeah, well this was one of the nights when he let his guest do a lot of the talking. Good for him.