Actors who have given me much pleasure - we lost one this morning - Saeed Jaffrey - a Jewel of the International Cinema

I grew up; a child of the movies  having much love and respect for many foreign actors, especially ones whose voice and diction thrilled me to no end. Such actors as Philip Ahn, Phillippe Noiret, Alistair Sim, Terry-Thomas, Jean Rochefort, Sydney Greenstreet and so many others. The death this morning of the British/Indian actor, Saeed Jaffrey has sadden my life a bit more.
Mr. Jaffrey was a character actor of enormous accomplishment, urbane wit and avuncular charm.  His very unparochial career let him straddle two different kinds of cinema - Hindi and English language and to all her brought intelligence, a lifetimes' accumulation of technique and style and a seduction, resonant voice. I shall miss him,, but was happy that I was alive to experience his screen performances. 

I am off to France on Saturday............What ho!, What Joy!

And as one of my favorite childhood literary characters ( Mr. Toad of Toad Hall) put it so well, I leave you with this:
"AH! The open road, the dusty highway, the heath, the common, the hedgerows, the rolling downs! Camps, villages, towns, cities! Here to-day, up and off to somewhere else to-morrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before you, and a horizon that’s always changing!

The Full English - One of Life's Simple Pleasures

Sid Caesar rembered

Today is the 1st anniversary of Sid Caesar's death.
I grew up watching in the early 1950's his ' Your Show Of Shows' and still to this day , I find him one if not one of the funnest performers I ever saw. His classic sketch ( done in April of 1954) a take of on 'This is Your Life"; still remains one of the funnest moments in television.
But looking back this morning. Sid Caesar did more than just make you laugh.

When people remember the shows, they not only remember the comedy, they remember their parents, grandparents, brothers, sister, aunts and uncles.
They remember a time when everyone was together and everyone was laughing.
...whatever was going on at home,for at least an hour and a half on Saturday night, people got to laugh and they got to see their parents laugh.
A shared laughter that we don't see anymore.