Wednesday, October 27, 2010

George Burns & Gracie Allen

George Burns and Gracie Allen met in Vaudeville in the 1930's and then went on to perform on Radio, and eventually had their own television show in the 1950s in front of a live audience.  Burns was the straight man to the scatterbrained but loveable Allen. 

They continued to play together until Gracie died in 1964 of a heart attack at age 62 while George lived until he reached 100 in 1996.   He never remarried saying Gracie was his partner for life.

This clip is a perfect example of Burns and Allen with a bit of Jack Benny tossed in there for laughs.  Although dated, the jokes are timeless and a great example of how the Gracie Allen and George Burns' chemistry worked to make audiences laugh for decades.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt1XwaJAr-w&feature=related

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Co-Dependency Once More

People who love to track co-dependent moments scored big time last week when news broke that Virginia Thomas ("Ginny" to her friends) had left a voice mail on Anita Hill's work phone asking her to please apologize to her husband (Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas) for the accusations she made during his Senate Confirmation Hearings regarding the sexual harassment charges she filed against him.

I wondered if Virginia was having an Ambien moment!  There are several things wrong with this picture:

1.  Was why Virgina calling Anita Hill asking for something for her husband?  Did she know he was in need of an apology?  Has she read his journal?  Does he often cry about those confirmation hearing moments from 1991?  Did he ask her to please make the phone call because he was busy doing his job at the Supreme Court?

2.  I remember watching those hearings and I think maybe Clarence Thomas should have been calling Anita apologizing for many things--if I had been having to deal with all the ugly questions and accusations those men who were on the Senate Confirmation Committee tossed at me I would have lost it and the television viewers would have had to deal with bleeping out most of my words.    Anita Hill never lost it even though she was clearly perceived by the Committee to be less than creditable.

3. Why would Anita have to apologize anyway?  Clarence was confirmed to the Supreme Court and now he makes a lot of money, gets to wear some lovely black robes and make decisions that impact the entire nation.  Did I miss something here?  How did Anita's testimony impact him?

In case you don't know the fine details...well, here they are.  I guess "Ginny" called Anita Hill's phone at Brandeis University and basically told Anita it was time she apologized to Clarence for that ugly confirmation hearing business about him sexually harassing her.  Now Anita has, no doubt, over the years received many phone calls or messages that were unfriendly, so when she got the message she reported it to the Brandeis Police, who turned it over the FBI and then the news broke, and then quickly died down.

However, rumor has it that Melody Beattie who wrote Co-Dependent No More is beyond excited because Virgina has committed a huge co-dependent no-no and that means it is time to get the movement up and running again.  I believe either a Lifetime movie will come out of this event, or Virginia will be asked to compete in Dancing With the Stars.