For Better or For Worse

I offer this cartoon to the memory of my late friend Bruce Paltrow, the producer. He was a very funny man, but this had to have been his best line ever, referring to his marriage to actress Blythe Danner, whom I've known since high school. I was visiting their house years ago when their then 4-year old daughter Gwyneth fell out of a tree and broke her arm. I accompanied Bruce to the UCLA hospital, holding Gwyneth, who sobbed in pain the entire drive, on my lap. It's the only time I ever had an Academy Award winning actress on my lap. Who knew? It reminds me of the story about the elderly German doctor back in the 18th century. His wife made him promise to make no more house calls, but one night, in the middle of winter with the wind howling and snow falling, he was roused out of bed and rushed to attend to a woman giving birth. When he finally got home at the crack of dawn his wife was furious. "You promised," she wailed. "But," the old doctor answered, "dis baby vas different, dis baby vas Ludwig Von Beethoven."