Back before my senior year of college, I went to London with some friends for the summer to take some classes in art and drama. Before we left the States, one of the teachers had us read some plays, in preparation for the many dramas, musicals, comedies and just plain weird theatrical experiences we would encounter in London. The very first play we read was Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter, which offers the classic line, “Scampi!”
That line became a repeating theme throughout our trip. On our first day in London, after a sleepless night on the plane and then a morning on train, subway, and finally on foot, getting from the airport to our lodgings, we staggered around our little neighborhood, exhausted, hungry and completely disoriented, searching for something to eat. We finally stumbled into a pub and asked if they served food and — wouldn’t you know it? — scampi was on the menu. One of my friends coughed out the line in his excitement at finally finding any kind of nosh. For the rest of the summer, it became one of those words that people spitted and shouted as punctuation, or like a tic. “Scampi!”
It’s a great little play, and it’s become all the more memorable for me because I associate it with all the fun I had that summer, traipsing about London and its environs (along with Paris and Amsterdam).
So, that was the time that came to my mind when I heard that the great Harold Pinter died yesterday, at the age of 78. He was not only a great writer, but also a gifted actor, director and activist. What a loss.
Oh, what a sad day. Paul Newman was one of those rare souls who really was able to have it all.
I’m a little slow on this one. The man who gave us Cledus Snow — Buford T. Justice’s favorite truck driver — is dead at 71.
Activist and married woman (at last!), Del Martin died at the age of 87 in a San Francisco hospice today. I’m so glad she and Phyllis Lyon were able to make it legal before she died. Hopefully soon, all people will have the right to marry the people with whom they share their lives (more: PHB, PHB, SFGate, TR, PHB).
UPDATE: in lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to defeat the California marriage ban through NCLR’s No On 8 PAC.
Chattanooga School Board member Debra Matthews died at a local hospital this morning, just weeks after winning reelection to her District 4 seat, fighting off a challenge from Gregg Juster.
What a rough weekend. Isaac Hayes died in his home in Tennessee today. The cause of death is not yet known.
Damn. The guy was only 50 years old.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, courageous gulag resident, nobel laureate, and 16-year exile, lost at 89.
He lost his battle with cancer today, at the age of 53.
Jesse Helms, North Carolina’s long-time senator and famous racist, misogynist, and homophobe, died today at 86.
More: dead, dead, dead, dead at 86, DEAD, whitewash, quite a legacy, ta ta, finally dead, a lot of crackers…, ding dong, happy 4th, hell is a little more crowded today, ding dong, the Guardian’s obit, American garbage.
UPDATE — one more link with an autobiographical note: Lest We Forget… it was during the 1984 campaign mentioned here that I moved to Chapel Hill, NC with my new hubby. That campaign was what turned me, a girl raised in rural western New York, where all good country people were Republicans, into the activist Democrat that I’ve been ever since. I suppose Jesse, who was such an unbelievable asshole, should get some of the credit for that.
