Wednesday, January 16, 2008
My Swishy Icon
Comedian Paul Lynde (1926-1982) was certainly the first flamboyantly, obviously queeny figure I was exposed to. It's a retro, pre-liberation gay stereotype persona, but it was the only gay anything around in the 1960s - though I didn't get then that it had to do with sex.Lynde's guest appearances on sitcoms, notably Uncle Arthur on 'Bewitched,' served up campy humor but with no mention or hint of his sexuality.
Another sitcom stared him as a husband and father and fell absolutely flat - it just didn't ring true.
Lynde's long-running 'Hollywood Squares' gig, where he was the 'Center Square' from 1968-1981, gave him more latitude for double entendre, wink wink nod nod. When I was 12, I went through a phase of imitating Paul Lynde's voice and mannerisms - this did not go over well at junior high school.
With this bio, we begin a festival of Lynde's infamous Hollywood Squares answers, some of them hilarious despite their stereotypicality....
We'll start with these two gems:
Q: Why do the Hell's Angels wear leather?
Lynde: Because chiffon wrinkles so easily.
Q: Why was Nathan Hale hung?
Lynde: Heredity.
This is 30 years, ago, mind you...
On Sunday I got together with Christi, who looks positively luminous with her new hairstyle. We ate healthy food while not watching a movie. : - )
We hadn't met up since December, so I got my Christmas present, one of my favorite audiobooks, 'The Time Traveler's Wife,' soon to be a major motion picture. : -)
Cartoons du Jour:
Turn Some Lights On
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