I'm waiting to board a flight back to Chicago from Paris and I just noticed that Anne Meara has died.
These days she is perhaps best known as the mother of Ben Stiller and the wife of Jerry Stiller (who intermittently appeared on Seinfeld). But many of the elders among us remember her vividly as the wife in the husband/wife comedy duo of Stiller and Meara.
I remember Stiller and Meara especially from Ed Sullivan show appearances and other TV and radio outings. She was the American-Irish-Catholic girl who trades cross-cultural jokes with the Jewish guy. Obviously they developed a lot of their material from their personal appearances.
Coming from an American-Irish-Catholic culture on the South Side of Chicago, I always got a kick out of her side of the jokes.
Later on they took to doing radio commercials for Blue Nun wine (not perhaps their most glorious hour).
And it was not least for her sake that I went to see the indie film The Daytrippers.
Turns out she was born the same year as both my parents (1929). Another reminder that I am fast moving up to the senior generation.
Sorry I don't have time to develop my thoughts a little more. But I didn't see anything posted and I'm sure the community will have some fond things to say about her.
Condolences, Jerry and Ben.