Beautiful Cynicism III

An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language.

-Martin Buber

Photo: hergestridge.com

A peg leg never looked so good, or seemed so inconsequential.

To live in hearts we leave behind
Is not to die.

Thomas Campbell

Photo: hergestridge.com

Requiscat in Pace, little guy.

Photo: antithesiscommon.com

Older? Yes. Wiser? Perhaps. So much has happened, so much has changed, so many experiences have been undertaken… it’s hard to believe that one could still be in just about the same place in which one started.

‘Separate ways’ indeed, that yet ended up being not so separate after all, in many ways.

Photo: hln.be

How did I miss this in the news? Two months ago today, Wendy Richards passed away… I had no idea until this evening. While she may be best-known for her role on Eastenders, she will always be Miss Brahms to me. Are You Being Served is one of my favourite television shows of all time, and although it wrapped up when I was still a young child and many of its eclectic cast have already passed on, I still feel a little loss with each death. Because I still watch the show regularly, the characters still feel so alive to me, as if the show was still in production – despite the dated wardrobe and set design.

I believe that Trevor Bannister, Mollie Sugden and Frank Thornton (Mr. Lucas, Mrs. Slocombe and Captain Peacock) are the only regular cast members still alive today – and all are still actively performing on stage and screen.

My favourite Golden Girl, Dorothy, is no more. Bea Arthur was 50 years old before being “discovered” for television. After having spent the first part of her life doing stage work on and off Broadway, she started a second career as an actress on the small screen. Tall and with a deep voice, she was often cast as a strong-minded, independent woman who needed no man to get by. Her two main TV characters fit that mold to a T: Maude (who began as a guest character on the excellent All in the Family, as Edith’s cousin, before getting her own show) and Dorothy (on The Golden Girls). Her cutting wit and biting sarcasm caught my attention even as a child, when I used to watch The Golden Girls in the evening as I ate my bedtime snack…

Below, a few clips. Be entertained.

Triste anniversaire: toute une année sans ma petite Daisy…

Actress Estelle Getty died this morning, three days before her 85th birthday. Above, a clip of one of my favourite shows, The Golden Girls, featuring Estelle as the aged Sophia, telling one of her famous (and often wildly embellished) stories.

Photo: montereyjazzfestival.org

“I believe in using the entire piano as a single instrument capable of expressing every possible musical idea.”

Quelle tristesse, en ce jour de fête…

Photo: msnbc.msn.com

The thing that’s funny is that everyone thinks I’m dead.

For more on this ribald, groundbreaking actor, director and writer, visit his official website and his MySpace page.

Photo: scc-csc.gc.ca

“Madam, we have no room here for dilettantes. Why don’t you just go home and take up crocheting?”

Bertha Wilson died on the weekend after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Photo: cbc.ca/thehour/blog

June Callwood, la “conscience du Canada”, est morte ce matin après un long combat contre le cancer. She was a journalist, broadcaster, writer, and human rights activist who advocated on behalf of the disenfranchised, the young, the poor, the sick, the underprivileged. Casey House, Jessie’s Centre for Teenagers, Digger House, Nellie’s hostel for abused women, PEN Canada, the Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation, and Feminists Against Censorship are just some of the various hospices, charities and advocacy groups Callwood founded.

(PS: The above photo, taken by a portrait artist several years ago, is said to be Callwood’s favourite photograph of herself.)

Photo: repos-fs.matrix.msu.edu

“All time is time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we all are, as I’ve said before, bugs in amber.”