They Make Me Laugh

I'm tired tonight, folks, and I realized belatedly that I've already told most of the stories I had in mind for this entry. So I'm just going to link to some of these past stories and call it a night. You don't mind, do you? You do? Oh, well. I'm doing it anyway.

Funny Man John

I said last night that there are no "set pieces" that show John being funny. By that I meant that he's a banterer, not a practical joker or someone who does amusingly foolish things. But there is one exception to this: "The Cheese Story."

Aha! It turns out I haven't told the Michael Jordan Story, although I've alluded to it a few times. Okay, briefly: I think it was in the fall of 1994 that John's sister Martha invited us to her wedding. That same autumn, basketball legend Michael Jordan was trying his hand at baseball in the Arizona Fall League, much to the annoyance of Baseball Weekly's Lisa Winston. She expressed to me a concern that the excessive attention given to Jordan would detract from talented young baseball players (such as Michael Tucker) getting the respect they deserved and the playing time they needed.

Anyway, John bought a wedding card for Martie and Brad, and tried to get Michael Jordan to sign it. Jordan was too busy eating a burrito or something, and didn't even come to the fence to see what John wanted autographed. So we settled for giving Martie the card without the autograph, but with the story of how Michael Jordan had thwarted John's intention of giving the happy couple a card that said, Congratulations and best wishes from John, Karen, and Michael Jordan!

Jon and John

Two other funny people I've met over the years: the late Jon Pertwee and John Levene (a.k.a. John Anthony Blake), both from Doctor Who back in the 1970s. I only met Jon on one occasion, at Gallifrey One in 1990, but John is kind of a friend of mine. In an old AOL entry, I pay tribute to Jon Pertwee with a memorial joke, and tell a sample story from the John "Manynames" Blake collection.



I'll post something better once I get some serious sleep. Good night!

Karen

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