Ask Not for Whom the Balls Toll

I'm feeling deeply sad right now. I just saw Harvey Korman died yesterday. I remember him from The Carol Burnett Show and more specifically from Blazing Saddles and numerous supporting movie characters and guest spots on tv shows of the 60's and 70's. His character in Blazing Saddles, Hedley Lamarr, was someone you despised with loving relish and guffaws, and when you booed the screen you were in reality rooting for him. I'll watch it again this weekend. I'll really miss those daffy fellows, even if they were fiction. He brought us silly irreverence for the sake of silly. Something wonderful, and really needed right about now.

It's odd when someone unexpectedly affects you this way when you hear they are gone. I teared up a lot for Elizabeth Montgomery too. Maybe you recognize the distance between you and the innocent joy they brought you, and feel mortality in a more palpable way than we do most days. Or maybe they feel like friends you really should have met.