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Frogs, and Locusts, and Lice, Oh My!

JL;DR SUMMARY Steven Weitzman's book, "Disasters of Biblical Proportions: The Ten Plagues Then, Now, and at the End of the World," explores the varied interpretations and cultural depictions of the Biblical plagues throughout history. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish CultureFilmMidrashExodusTen PlaguesSteven WeitzmanBiblical NarrativeCultural InterpretationCecil B. DemilleModern Depictions

Places mentioned

New York, United States
"In 1975, the Zionist group Betar threw blood on the floor (as well as live frogs, locusts, and mice, for good measure) at the Pan American World Airways New York headquarters."
Israel
"With the establishment of the State of Israel, there have been many variations on the statement that the country (not God) will be the one meting out the punishment against the Jews enemies."
Northampton, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom
"In 1749, Weitzman informs us, in the town of Northampton [England], the minister Samuel King delivered a sermon."
Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir, India
"a young Kashmiri actress named Zaira Wasim quote-tweeted the Quran."
This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 78545
Cairo Source ID 11
Retrieved 2026-03-26 05:32:09 UTC
Curated 2026-03-26 08:32:36 UTC