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Happy Tax Day - Monday Update
(We experienced a sad moment the other day when we heard that the world had lost one of its best improvisational comedians, Jonathan Winters. I remember listening to Jonathan Winters records in my late teens and falling in love with his repeating characters such as Maudie Frickert and Elwood P. Suggins. Back in the 50's and early 60's, comedians were a bit different than now, a little more clownish and a lot less profane, and we bought their LP's to listen to over and over until we had them all but memorized. How many of us old guys can still do a Cosby bit? ("Noah!" "Is that you Lord?") One of my favorite Winters routines involved a boy named Lamar Jean who after telling everyone he was going to fly, scotched-taped 147 pigeons to his arms and jumped off a cliff. He was actually doing well until "some damned fool throw'd a bag of popcorn in the stone quarry and he bashed his brains out." While his style of improv never worked for a TV series, he guest starred on every talk show available. It was difficult for him to even star in movies, although those of us who knew him will never forget his roles in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," and "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming." While some comedians of that era played comedy a bit more sophisticated than Jonathan, i.e. Bob Newhart, Shelley Berman, and Mort Sahl, he was the only one who could take a plain stick and improv with it until tears rolled down your face in laughter. Of course part of the sadness I'm feeling is that Jonathan Winters was a part of my youth and early adult life, and his passing reminds me of our own mortality. Here's five of Jonathan's funniest bits. Rest in peace Jonathan. But we digress ...)
- Karen Brauer, president of something called Pharmacists for Life (and I don't even want to get into that one) was quoted as saying “When these [drugs] are right out there with the bubble gum, they’re going to be part of the date rape cocktail." What? What's this? Some sort of "roofie" drug to knock out an unsuspecting young lady at a party? Well, actually no, what Karen is so alarmed about is that a federal judge has finally ruled that emergency contraception (Plan B) be made available to all ages without a prescription. Available even to the under 17 set. Shocking, you say? About time, you say? Wait 'till you read what Mark Morford says. "Bubblegum and the Date Rape Cocktail."
- We're growing increasingly weary of gun ownership advocates who yammer on incessantly about how more gun laws "won't stop gun tragedies from happening," "won't stop crazy assholes from using assault rifles against classrooms full of small children," and who complain like it's the end of the world because stores are running out of ammunition to buy lately. A distant friend of mine wrote on FaceBook the other day that he was disgusted with whomever was "dragging the parents of the Newtown kids out and parading them in front of the cameras to further gun control legislation." I "unfriended" him, a satisfying tool that should be available in real life too. No one ever said controlling the flow of guns in this country would eliminate gun violence, any more than creating tough pollution laws would eliminate pollution in this country. The Second Amendment is obsolete, even the conservative New York Post thinks so, and those who constantly throw it in the face of concerned citizens to defend their insane obsession with high-capacity firearms are in need of counseling, at least.
- And while we're on the subject, here's a little item you may have missed. Apparently the National Rifle Association sponsored a NASCAR race the other day, and during it a drunken man in the infield pulled out a gun and committed suicide. Let's see, I believe that's called "Irony."
- From the I Really Wish I Hadn't Said That Dept.: From singer(?) heart-throb Justin Bieber, after visiting the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam the other day, "Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber." Cute.
- And finally, a Republican Congressman from Texas named Steve Stockman, has written a new bumper sticker for his campaign. It reads: "If Babies Had Guns, They Wouldn't Be Aborted." Seriously.
(We experienced a sad moment the other day when we heard that the world had lost one of its best improvisational comedians, Jonathan Winters. I remember listening to Jonathan Winters records in my late teens and falling in love with his repeating characters such as Maudie Frickert and Elwood P. Suggins. Back in the 50's and early 60's, comedians were a bit different than now, a little more clownish and a lot less profane, and we bought their LP's to listen to over and over until we had them all but memorized. How many of us old guys can still do a Cosby bit? ("Noah!" "Is that you Lord?") One of my favorite Winters routines involved a boy named Lamar Jean who after telling everyone he was going to fly, scotched-taped 147 pigeons to his arms and jumped off a cliff. He was actually doing well until "some damned fool throw'd a bag of popcorn in the stone quarry and he bashed his brains out." While his style of improv never worked for a TV series, he guest starred on every talk show available. It was difficult for him to even star in movies, although those of us who knew him will never forget his roles in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," and "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming." While some comedians of that era played comedy a bit more sophisticated than Jonathan, i.e. Bob Newhart, Shelley Berman, and Mort Sahl, he was the only one who could take a plain stick and improv with it until tears rolled down your face in laughter. Of course part of the sadness I'm feeling is that Jonathan Winters was a part of my youth and early adult life, and his passing reminds me of our own mortality. Here's five of Jonathan's funniest bits. Rest in peace Jonathan. But we digress ...)
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