My Impromptus today has a typical mélange: politics, world affairs, sports, etc. Toward the end, I have a mini-rant about electric bikes — or rather, rude and reckless folk who ride them. For this column, go here.
On Monday, I began my column with Martin Short — and an extraordinary display of manners he showed on television. A reader writes,
Mr. Nordlinger,
. . . I don’t know why, but I started tearing up while reading your note on Martin Short to my wife. She quickly and accurately identified my reaction: We are moved by humble acts of human greatness, rising above the grime of the world.
Another reader writes,
Jay,
You and Kevin Williamson say that manners have to do with making the other person comfortable — rather than knowing which fork to use, etc. I think of the second great commandment: the Golden Rule.
A subsequent item in Monday’s column focused on Jeff Daniels. I have a tale from my friend Vivek Dave, whom listeners to my Q&A podcast know as a sports guru. (I routinely introduce him as “the corporate high-flyer and Motor City Bad Boy.”) (The Detroit Pistons from the mid ’80s to the early ’90s were known as the “Bad Boys.”)
Here’s Vivek:
Back in the summer of 2020, when many of us were stuck in quarantine, I joined a pretty competitive virtual trivia league with teams competing from all across the country. Every week the winning team would receive a cash prize and typically donate it to the charity or cause of their choice.
Long story short, Vivek & Co. got Jeff Daniels — who lives in Chelsea, Mich., where he grew up — to contribute some trivia questions. About himself. In his own voice, via an audio clip.
Jeff asked four questions, which I will paraphrase:
(1) I played Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway. What is the name of the defendant in that story, falsely accused?
(2) In 1991, I founded the Purple Rose Theater, in Chelsea. I named it after one of the first films I acted in. Which one?
(3) The second film I ever acted in won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Name the film.
(4) In Dumb and Dumber, I say, “You know, Lloyd, just when I think you couldn’t possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this . . .” What do I say next?
I will put the answers at the bottom of this post.
Daniels, like all of us Michiganders, is a fan of Al Kaline, the great and noble Detroit Tiger. This came up in Monday’s column. A reader writes,
I have a friend who grew up in the New York area but was a Detroit Red Wings fan. He didn’t know or care much about the other Detroit sports teams.
One time in the early ’70s, when my friend was around 15, there was an auto show in New York, and one of the car companies brought in Gordie Howe [the great Red Wing] for promotion.
My friend went to the show and struck up a conversation with another Detroit athlete, a Tiger, who had also been brought in. After talking to the man for a bit, my friend asked, “What position do you play?” The guy answered, “Right field.” My friend said, “Wow. Say, do you know where I can find Gordie Howe?”
Okay, those answers to Jeff Daniels’s questions:
(1) Tom Robinson
(2) The Purple Rose of Cairo
(3) Terms of Endearment
(4) “. . . and totally redeem yourself!”