Farewell to Tom...

One night while sitting around in 411 Lyon Hall at Cornell with my then roomate Cynthia from Maine, I received an odd phone call. Cynthy had answered the phone and in a rare moment of clarity introduced herself with her full name and home town/state. It was the Late Late Show with Tom Snyder-- Live. Nancy Cartwright (aka the voice of Bart Simspon) was the guest. I don't remember the exact specifics now (and alas, I didn't have cable at the time, so I didn't see the show as it happened), but Cynthy handed me the phone and I was called upon to sing like Ethel Merman. Truly there is no business like show business.

(This was all coordinated by my mother, you see, who had written to Tom letting him know that I watched the show religiously before heading off to college and was now without TV-- somehow or another the whole Ethel Merman impersonation came out, as well... noting that, anyone, really can impersonate old Ethel... but I digress).

There I was, on late night TV on CBS chatting it up for a few moments with Tom, Nancy and singing like Ethel.

In an interesting turn of events, 410e9th, while still a high schooler at the time, claims to have seen the show.

Tom passed away this week and will be missed.

As he would have said, for the rest of us-- "Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air."