Bob Newhart

George and I spent Friday night at Spirit Mountain Casino.  Don't worry we neither lost the retirement fund nor became sudden millionaires! What we did was laugh for 1 1/2 hours at Bob Newhart.

If you are too young to remember the Bob Newhart show or his stand up comedic routines, then you might know him as Buddy's Dad in the movie "Elf"! 

Because George had a Bob Newhart record and because George has an amazing memory, he has quoted Bob Newhart routines to me for the last 38 years!  And they are still funny! 

Over the years we've seen the airlines become more and more like "Mrs. Grace L Ferguson Airline and Storm Door" company!   Here's a little excerpt from the pilot's speech to the passengers on a flight to Hawaii: 

"Good evening, I'd like to welcome you aboard the Mrs. Grace L. Ferguson Airline and Storm Door Co.  I don't know how much you know about our airlines, we've only been in business about a week.  Uh, our airline was founded on the philosophy that what the American public was really looking for was low cost overseas transportation.  We have attempted to eliminate what we call in the airline business 'frills and extras' like uh....maintenance, and ...uh radar, and a whole bunch of technical looking instruments up in the cockpit.  Oh incidentally I want to apologize for your having to stand all the way..uh...if I can give you a little tip there, every oh, half hour or so, you want to alternate your arms through those straps above you head.  Uh...you folks flying tourist don't have any straps...so don't bother looking for them."  

Sounds almost too close to the truth about flying these days!

As the kids learned to drive or we've encountered bad drivers on the roads, we've remembered the 'driving instructor'.  In this one, Bob is giving a lesson to Mrs. Webb.  

Let's practice some turns. Um, the important thing on turns is not to make them too sharp,

just kind of make a gradual....Now that was fine....That was a wonderful turn....It's hard for   me to believe you only had two lessons after you make a turn like that....Are you sure you haven't had more lessons? I find that very difficult to believe...One little thing....This is a one way street....Well, no, no actually it was partially my fault, you see, but uh, you were in the left hand lane and you were signaling left, and I just more or less assumed you were going to turn left.

The sold out auditorium was filled with grey haired people laughing hysterically as Bob delivered his routine in his typical dead pan style. I'm so glad we got to see this man that will go down in history as one of the greatest comedians of our lifetimes.