I started off 2012 this morning with a dream in which, amongst many good and bad things, I hosted an Elaine Stritch concert at the end of the frozen food aisle of a suburban grocery store. Her encore of the concert was a serenade to me, “You Took Advantage of Me” natch. A pretty good foot on which to start the year off, no? I’m 99.9% sure the dream happened because yesterday Sean sent me the link to this Stritchy appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, circa 1996 (the year of A Delicate Balance.). It’s not just an appearance though. It’s a full-fledged—more-than-surreal—skit, in which Stritchy thinks Letterman is her poolboy “Skippy” and even asks him where he put her riding crop. It extends over four segments of the show. The dream-inducing segment:
ES: Where have you been hiding?DL: I just wasn’t hiding, it’s more…
ES: Now, I said to, um, Eleanor, when you first started to clean the pool—Eleanor’s my closest friend. I said, “Eleanor, would you get of the load of the cut of that man’s gib.” I said, “Eleanor, it looks like I’m gonna have to make a man outta him.” Uh, Skip or [DL: Yeah] Biff [DL: Right] or Zip or whatever your name is… Would you, uh, care to freshen me up?DL: Well, uh, uh, yeah, yeah, I don’t think, I’m not exactly sure…
ES: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! No, no, don’t be shy. You, uh, you meet me in my cabana in five minutes?! I didn’t hear you?DL: Uh yeah, five minutes.
ES: Haha, FIVE minutes!
I can only hope 2012 is as kind to me as 1996 was to Stritchy (no Tony and all).
