Friday, August 3, 2007

Friday Five

After yesterday's wild and raving rant, I promised a suitably silly Friday Five. Now, some might say this is a little macabre, but I ran it by my husband and he felt the possibilities with this topic were endless. And he was right, it was hard to narrow it down to just five. No pictures today, I'm feeling lazy. Sorry.

So.....

Five Dead People I Like

1. Julia Child (8/15/1912-8/13/2004)

Fun, warm, witty, and hell bent on teaching America that food was more than melted Velveeta. Very close to the end of her life, she did a guest shot on Emeril Live. Emeril had just destroyed something he took out of the oven, and Julia said "Don't worry over it. We're just going to get the pre-made pretty one out of the back anyway." Which at that time sort of broke the "taboo" on Emeril's set that he supposedly cooked "live". It was awesome, and felled everyone with laughter. She also worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during WWII, because the Navy said she was too tall.


2. Richard Harris (10/1/1930-10/25/2002)

Marvelous actor and hell-raiser extraordinaire. How Peter O'Toole outlived him, I'll never know, and he probably doesn't know either. Check out the movie The Molly McGuires from 1970. And of course, he originated the role of Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series. He played it exactly as I imagined Dumbledore to be, which is pretty amazing. Harris lived life by his own rules with his friends Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole, and Albert Finney. He had fun right up until the end.


3. Fred Rogers (3/20/1928-2/27/2003)

Mr. Rogers was awesome. While there has been some contention lately that he caused a generation of kids to grow up with feelings of entitlement, I think it's a bunch of hogwash. I was enthralled by this man when I was a kid, and whenever I was going through a period where other kids were picking on me, Mr. Rogers made me feel better. And, no, I don't have a sense of entitlement. I don't think anyone owes me anything, whether I'm special or not.


4. My Great-grandmother Dorothy Scott

She was fun, and she made the best Yorkshire pudding ever. As she got older, she would laugh so hard, she couldn't get up, and woe betide anyone she fell over on. She put up with a lot through her life. She lost a sister to disease, I think it was diphtheria. She had three daughters of her own, and helped raise my mother when my gran become a single mom. The best story about "Nanny" comes from my second cousin, Scott, who gave the eulogy at Nanny's funeral. Scott sometimes took Nan to her doctor's appointments, and she hated the waiting room. She always said they shouldn't bother showing up on time, since they never saw her until twenty minutes after her appointment should have been over. One day, she brought a cap gun, and fired it off after repeated attempts to get a nurses attention. She got in for all her appointments very quickly after that.


5. Albert Einstein (3/14/1879-4/18/1955)

Patent clerk, physicist and pacifist. Brilliant and tempermental. Not a perfect human being, but a an almost perfect mind. He wasn't always good to his wife, but he did love his children, and in the space of a very short time helped revolutionize the way we looked at the world and the universe. It just took a while for some of his ideas to catch on.


Honourable mentions: Ben Franklin (who is definitely dead) and Abe Vigoda who everyone seems to think is dead, but isn't.


Those are my five...show me yours! And have a good weekend, y'all, I'm working through mine.

15 comments:

rdwyer said...

Frederich Nietzsche, William S. Burroughs, Terrance McKenna, Ernie Coombs, Werner Heisenberg

Dumdad said...

Jen,

You're always getting us to think. Hard work!

Off the top of my now-healed-from-earwig-attack head:

1. James Stewart
2. George Best
3. Alec Guinness
4. My maternal grandmother Chree
5. Henry Miller

P.S. I'm pleased you spotted my Gary Larson reference. Shame he no longer cartoons.

www.ayewonder.com said...

Jen,
Because of the others on your list, I can easily take you at your word on your great grams. I have to go think long and hard now about mine.
Love these Friday Fives.
Mike

Saphyre Rose said...

Tennessee Williams
John Wayne
Sophocles
William Powell
Agatha Christie

the rotten correspondent said...

1. John Lennon
2. Gilda Radner
3. Arthur Ashe
4. Princess Diana
5. Steve Irwin

All affected me in different ways, but each held a special spot in my heart.

No family members were named in fear of ticking off those still living!

Rosie said...

Well that's the first time I've seen Albert Einstein mentioned in a blog! A very interesting post.
Jo Beaufoix wanted to let me know that her blog will be back online soon, I know you read it a lot. She has taken it on holiday with her and will be back on line once she has sorted out a few minor technical problems.
Great site by the way!

www.ayewonder.com said...

Ok after a round of golf where I could think of nothing but this post, I have come up with my version of the Friday Five:
1: Ernest Hemingway
2: Ronald Reagan
3: Herbert Warren Wind
4: Eddie Albert
5: Johnny Carson
By the way, Eddie Albert of Green Acres fame was one of the organizers of the first Earth Day celebration in 1970!!

Anonymous said...

Jen,
I'm so pleased that you included Nanny. Both her and Granddad (who by the way taught me to roll my own cigarettes) were wonderful and loving characters.
So I will add them to my list as well as;
My Granny Browder
Ted Long (One of the truely nicest people I have ever met and he fathered my 2 very best friends in the world)
James Dean
Theodore Roosevelt

Sorry I haven't called back. I've been busy with a new venture. I will call next week

Dan said...

Abe Vigoda's not dead?? You're kidding right?

Nice list. For some reason I have always liked dead people. For instance, they never talk back. :)

Anonymous said...

Wow - my top five dead people.

1) Papa. No, not dad - but he'll be in this list. I mean Papa - Dad's Dad. I never got to meet him, but I've heard amazing stories about him. He'd have been a cool Papa, I think. Now he's busy giving my Dad a good what-for for wrecking everyone's vacation. :)

2) Nana. Nana was awesome. She made the best, and I mean *T*H*E* best sticky buns in the entire world. Always kept them in a long plastic bag so that when we wanted to get one, we'd get covered in the most delicious and sticky cinnamon/sugar mixture you've ever tasted in your life. Nana didn't take any crap from anyone - and she certainly wasn't one to splurge on the compliments - but she gave credit where credit was due - thanks Nana. :) That and she did a mean french braid that would have end results which resulted in a mini face-lift. :P

3) You guessed it, my Dad. Dad wasn't around much when I was a kid - being a cop made things very tense at home sometimes - even into Dad's retirement. However, not a day goes by when I don't miss my Dad. I'm just glad I've got such a great picture of us together. I'll send it Jen's way and maybe she'll post it. :)

4) Granny - my Maternal unit's mom. (My mother doesn't acknowledge me, nor does the rest of my family so she's known as the maternal unit). Granny was awesome. She would make me dresses when I was a little girl that would rival any fashion designer of today. Beautiful clothes - so talented Granny was. She taught me to knit - granted right now I can only do one type of stitch, but she got the ball rolling, so to speak.

5) Grandpa (the maternal unit's dad). Grandpa was great. He had the best stuff happen to him - which I won't bore you all with. However - I remember one thing in particular that makes me smile to this day. I had a rough childhood - I was hyperactive - which today would be clinically described at ADHD I suppose... but meds just weren't around and I really don't think I would have taken them anyway. Anyway, Grandpa and Granny lived in our basement in Pickering, and it was summertime. I was pretty much a loner of a kid - played with my imaginary friends, my old yoghurt containers, a wooden spoon and my sandbox. It was the life. One day, Grandpa came home with a new red tricycle. Mom said "who's that for?" He said "Gilligan" (that's what he called me) Mom said "What for?" Grandpa said "Because I thought she would like it." How cool was my Grandpa?!?!

Anyway - my five are all my passed relatives. They were all pretty cool for who they were. Miss ya!

Poetess said...

Hi Jen

1. Elvis
2. Princess Diana
3. Queen Mother
4. Gene Pitney
5. Emily Pankhurst

Anonymous said...

Jen,
Thanks for including Nanny, she was such a special person there isn't space to explain what her presence in my life meant to me. Granddad, too, of course, and even now when things seem to be too much I hear their voices and their wisdom coming through. I will also add:
3. My step-dad, wonderful, patient , loving, and always there
4. GaGa, my great-grandmother. Tiny little Cockney lady, funny, loving and tough as nails when necessary.
5. Tom Snyder. He was funny, comfortable and made more sense than most people. To paraphrase one of his comments, all the fad diets and life-style recommendations didn't save anybody, they all died, so live and enjoy your life!

Jo Beaufoix said...

Hi hon

I'm back.

Visited yesterday but my post must have succumbed to the word check thingy and I didn't see.

Five dead people I like...

1. My amazing Gran Booth.
2. Spike Milligan.
3. Tommy Cooper.
4. Steve Irwin. (so sad when he died)
5. Eric Morecambe.

My blog is still not back from her holiday (due to exploding server) but I'd love you to come and see me at Virb where I'll be blogging till my site is still up and running.

Holiday was fab.

http://virb.com/1154530061135349

x

Jen said...

Wow, I go away and work for a couple of days and I come back to all of this!

Glad you all came by, and weren't put off by "dead people".

Jo Welcome back from your hols, dear. I went over to Virb to see your blog, but it won't let me comment without signing up. I may just sign up anyway.

I'll be back to blogging tomorrow!

J~

Anonymous said...

Well, now you've got me thinking... No about my own list because I'm too tired right now. But if my son changes his mind about building that tomb, now I've got a whole host of dead folks to consider inviting to join the army that we'll need to guard it.