Til Life Do Us Part
Following on the heels of yesterday's enjoyable and illuminating comments, I wasn't planning to post this cartoon today but it seemed appropriate. In fact, the more I think about it the more appropriate it gets. It wasn't my original concept, but it now occurs to me these folks may be watching Dick Clark's New Year's Eve from New York. The focus of yesterday's discussion seemed to be on why people marry each other initially, and once married why they fail to stay together. What we didn't talk about was why people remain married. I've quoted my friend, the late producer Bruce Paltrow, on this in the past, but it's worth repeating here. On why his marriage to my old school classmate, actress Blythe Danner, worked, Bruce said, "we never wanted to get a divorce at the same time." Oh, and by the way, Albert Einstein was rather handsome and dashing as a young man. So much so that his friends and family were puzzled at why he would choose to marry Mileva. It probably helped that she was a brilliant physicist.
posted by John M Crowther @ 7:32 AM
14 Comments:
When Milev Maric chose to marry did not Albert have a steady job at the patent office in Bern? What’s more, even then he was a brilliant physicist and an accomplished fiddler. Many a marriage has begun with less. If Albert married a woman for non-aesthetic reasons, we can’t discount that his bride seemed to be one of the few people in the world who understood what he was talking about. She had studied mathematics, the only one in the department to do so, and must have been enormous support and inspiration in the years when he was in the wilderness.
Geez, John. Who do you pattern your cartoon couples after?
Can't be you, as you are a successful writer, director and artist married to a beautiful (aren't ALL Italian actresses beautiful?) Italian actress.
My marriage certainly isn't like that, nor is any of my relatives or friends.
We all work out regularly, are in shape, and have far too much going on to sit around watching tv and we certainly don't have the time to get drunk every night.
What's up with these people?
I've never even KNOWN any couples like that!
Kate asks: “Geez, John. Who do you pattern your cartoon couples after?”
Kate,
As a regular follower of these cartoons I turned to my wife the other day and said “has Mr. Crowther even been to our house?” Other than the fact that we don’t have a thin plasma TV set as yet, this latest drawing is about as accurate a portrait of us as the one by Mr. Grant Wood did of another farming couple. By the way, Christmas day my darling wife gave me a pair of slippers just like the one she’s wearing in Mr. Crowther’s art.
wow. really?
So what do you do when you're NOT sitting around the tv drinking?
And does your wife really cook you spam?
If my husband ever gave me a pair of slippers as a gift he'd be eating them!
Holy Hannah, Kate, what planet do you live on, the one I live on has all sorts of people. Beautiful, ugly, skinny, fat, just right size for height, bald, too much hair, thin hair, old people with warts, young people with pimples, middle aged people with pot bellies, young or old with perfect figures, rich people, poor people, middle class people, people on the street, some who wear their clothes too tight, some who wear their clothes too loose and even some who prefer not to wear clothes at all. It takes all kinds of people to make up the world as we know it. What a shame if you judge people only by their looks, style of clothing or whatever. What counts is the soul (call it by any name one wishes) of people.
I'd have to agree Lee... and couldn't have said it better!
What a god-awful boring world it would be if we were all subject to such a rigid criterion! But that's just me... "to each his own"
Kate, just because some of us like to sit around the house in our slippers and watch re-runs of Lucy or the Honeymooners don’t mean that we’re ignorant. My wife don’t feed me Spam. As a matter of fact she took a cooking class at the community college and she can whip up a gourmet dish that would put some of those tv chefs to shame. Mr. Crowther here is doing a public service showing the world how real Americans live. If there was a Noble prize for cartooning he sure deserves it!
It seems to me that John stays so busy and meets all kinds of people that he has no problem coming up with inspirations for his work. He is not one to sit in front of the TV (unless it is to watch the news). When you are "out and about" you meet all kinds of people and he sketches constantly now, catching the attitude and posture of people which tells the story of their way of life. His acting skills have taught him that words are not always needed.
kat
TRhanks for the vote of confidence, Kat. I even have trouble watching a video at home, and must see movies in the theatre. At home I'm constantly thinking of something else I need to do.
So, John, are you and Kat related?
I don't think that even the two people I live with could answer so accurately how I spend my time as Kat did you. Nor I them.
Do most of the regulars of this blogspace meet for tea and biscuits often? I remember times people have invited each other to visit. I just didn't realize how close you must be.
That would certainly explain why I feel so out of step with everyone else.
We're not related, Kate, nor is there a relationship. No tea parties either, at least not that I've been invited to join. You're sounding just a little bit like the mother at the parade who said, "look, my son is the only one in step."
How am I like that? Sorry, that analogy is lost on me.
Explaining an analogy, Kate, is like explaining a joke, a lot gets lost in the translation. Suffice it to say, the good people here and I are not a cabal. And after 425 posts a lot about me has appeared in my commentaries.
Kate, if I choose to march to a different drummer, which of course is my prerogative, I make sure that drummer is playing my parade. If others are marching differently elsewhere and appear to me to be out of step, I just let them. Voltaire said “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” I believe the same philosophy applies to those who gather here electronically. As they seem to be living in various distant parts of the globe, it is physically impossible to get together for tea and biscuits, but we can all partake of John’s moveable feast of ideas and drawings whether we chose to digest them all or not.
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