"I think comedy is good. When people are laughing they're generally not killing each other." Alan Alda
This was a memorable day! Alan Alda's appearance did not disappoint. He is one of the quickest, wittiest, most profound, and most articulate humans I have had the pleasure of hearing. It's still hard to separate him from "Hawkeye" because his delivery and jokes are completely Hawkeye-ish. Although in answer to this question, he swears that every single line on M*A*S*H* was scripted and memorized. It must have been the delivery!
He and Roger Rosenblatt must be very good friends. They were a hoot together. Alda told about how, at breakfast in the dining room this morning he was feeling a little philosophical and said to Rosenblatt: "Do you realize that every single person in this room is going to die?" To which Roger Rosenblatt replied, "Let's get out of here!"
All of Rosenblatt's friends this week are here because they are authors. The fact that they might be newscasters or actors in the mix is just icing. So Alan Alda read from one of his books. . . he chose to read the speech he gave at his daughter's college graduation. It was some of the most profound and moving writing I've heard. I think I need to get his books.
After lunch I decided to leave the house and see where the wind blew me. At first it blew me to the Starbuck's kiosk for ice coffee (which was strange since it has been cold all day and everyone is all bundled up. I'm the only one who bought ICED coffee!). I planted myself on a bench and watched Alan and Arlene Alda sign books for awhile. When he was done, I decided to keep moving. Strolling down by the book store I came across Roger Rosenblatt in the facing backward seat of a golfcart they were using to shuttle him around. Since he was just sitting there, I went up and asked him if he would sing "Boppo The Great" for me. This is a song mentioned in his book, Making Toast. He made it up to sing to his grandchildren. As you might guess, he is Boppo. He proceeded to sing the song to me. I told him that at tomorrow's lecture he should get the whole Chautauqua audience to sing Boppo the Great (anyone who has read the book will see why I asked him this). He said it was a great idea and asked if I was coming to the lecture so that I could ask that question. So I'll try to do that. Crowds being what they are, I may or may not succeed. As I was chatting with him, up came Alan and Arlene to join him in the cart. That was pretty cool!
From there I headed down to the lake. I had not walked down there yet this season. I came across a group of people doing lawn bowling. I had never seen this before. . . . .it's a little like Bocce I guess but with bigger balls that are not completely round which makes them veer off. I guess the object of the game is to get your balls as close to the little white ball as possible. It's a large area, so it's longer than a bowling ally in distance, and completely covered in closely cropped grass, much like a putting green. I watched this game in fascination for about 20 minutes, asking questions where I could. I felt like I was watching a scene from Dirty Dancing at that great old resort hotel where people still did old fashioned stuff.
Then I got back up to the quad area and sat on a bench by the fountain where one of the student musicians was sitting on another bench playing Bach on his violin. He was quite the artist and I sat there with the blue sky and clouds and the kids playing in the fountains and the Bach wafting on the air and was so grateful that the wind blew me in all these directions!
Tonight I went to Classic Movie Night at the theater. They were showing Dinner at 8 starring Jean Harlowe (the blonde bombshell), John and Lionel Barrymore (this was years before LB was Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life. He plays a good guy in this movie, but you could see it was the same guy.) Also Billie Burke (?) who played Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz. Her voice was the same but she played Lionel Barrymore's wife. I kept expecting her to warble, "You can come out now!" to the munchkins! This was a great melodramatic movie from the 30's. I love me some old movies!!!!!
Skipped the Chinese acrobats in the Amphitheater tonight. But still, my day was Rich and Full (as we say in Chautauqua!).
Last year I related stories about my friend Sandy, who celebrated her 70th birthday by walking the Appalachian Trail the length of Shenandoah National Park (110 miles) in 10 days BY HERSELF!!!! Well, as of today, Sandy is in Egypt on her way to Uganda to visit the village of a little girl she sponsors. She'll be there for over a week I believe, and then is going on a three day hike into the forest to see the gorillas in the wild. I won't be getting daily updates this year, but I'll be thinking about her and will be anxious to hear all the details when she gets back. I will admire her from afar up here in my little safe bubble! What an adventurer she is!!!!
That's all for now. Signing off!
