Sunday Morning Post (V.2, #15) - RIP, Lady Constance

This weekend marks the 20th anniversary that Warrior Queen and I made settlement on our present abode in Southeast Pennsylvania.  We moved in on April 18, 2000 and our first meal in our forever home was a cheesesteak from a local pizza shop. This started a tradition for our moving in anniversary: a cheesesteak dinner. 

We returned to the same pizza shop for years until I discovered one time that they microwaved the meat instead of frying it fresh on the grill.  I was shocked, shocked I tell you.  Warrior Queen was even more shocked and determined that we would never return to that pizza shop.  So, the tradition continues, but at a different location.

The ensuing years have been, overall, good to us.  We don’t have as many trees as we used to have on our 1/3-acre property.  At least two blew down, one died by lightning strike, and at least four others had to be cut down when they died by disease.  The house hasn’t fared as well, but this is normal for an aging structure.  We still have four sturdy walls and a roof over our heads.  The appliance death toll goes something like this: we are on our third water heater (hard water in our area); second heating system; second refrigerator; fourth dishwasher; and now in the market for our second cd player.

Most importantly, we are still able to stand each other and, if we manage to survive this current leadership and health crisis, we look forward to paying off our mortgage in 2040!

The weekend is not all cheesesteaks and cheers.  I learned that we lost British comedian Tim Brooke-Taylor to the Covid19 pandemic earlier this week.

Bummer and Drat!

I first became a fan of Brooke-Taylor’s when our local Public Radio station (WVIA in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, PA) played reruns of I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again. In ISIRTA, he had a wide range of characters from the young, slightly prissy male (Timsey Whimsey) to the over-sexed septuagenarian/octogenarian Lady Constance de Coverlet.  Later cast member John Cleese and occasional script contributors Graham Chapman and Eric Idle found fame as Pythons.  Taylor, Graeme Garden, and “Wee” Bill Oddie formed The Goodies.  America was able to see The Goodies for a few years, but in the ensuing years we were able to watch Fawlty Towers, Black Adder, Benny Hill, Fry and Laurie, and more recently in the 1990’s Ab Fab.  I seldom watched these later shows, but I always made time to view the pioneers of surreal, stream-of-consciousness comedy.

I found this sketch featuring Brooke-Taylor and three other pioneers in the At Last, The 1948 Show.   Farewell Lady Constance!

(Thank you for reading.  In this space next week: even more tidings of great depression.)