July 6, 2005

Things

Things change.

The Lambeth Walk used to be a walking dance done in a jaunty, strutting fashion. It was an old English step performed in the Limehouse district of London and danced to the song “Doing the Lambeth Walk.” This dance was introduced into the United States about 1937.

Not far away in time, guys were using the Windsor report as a crib sheet for the way to tie one’s tie after Edward, the Duke of Windsor, who ran off with Wally, the Duchess of Simpson, who tied his knot royally and, though a commoner, is of no known relation to the television series that bears her family’s name.

Staying with the era, “The Road to Singapore” is a 1940 movie starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour. Quite a few years later, the same road was taken by a couple of wannabe bishops who gottobe after their fashion and in their way and then stirred up a bunch. The road’s still open, but not nearly so full of whimsy as when Hope and Crosby were chasing Lamour.

“Network” was another movie in which a television personality said he was “mad as hell” about the state of affairs, then shot himself on live camera, but not before he advised everybody to throw their TV sets out the window, which, of course, they did.

Things not only change, they get different. People sure seem more serious.

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