"That Hardy guy was born in Harlem"

- Kid at the gas station, when I asked him, "What's the deal with the Laurel and Hardy Museum in Harlem?"
...
Oliver Norvell Hardy was born in Georgia. His father died the year he was born, and is buried in Harlem Cemetery not far west of Augusta. Hardy's mother managed the Baldwin Hotel in Milledgeville after the family moved from Harlem, and Hardy later managed Milledgeville's first movie theater.

He became very famous in Hollywood, and has a star on the walk of fame there. He died in 1957.

I went to the museum while it was closed. So you know I'm recommending it. I think the sign said Open Tuesday through Saturday.



Harlem High School teams are the Bulldogs, by the way. 2008 Baseball Regional Champs. Perhaps that bodes well.

I wish I could remember, verbatim, something Vonnegut said about Laurel and Hardy. Something about them being so sweet, that they could easily be killed in the situations they got into.

It may have been in Slapstick, where he's quoted as saying this:

The fundamental joke with Laurel and Hardy, it seems to me, was that they did their best with every test. They never failed to bargain in good faith with their destinies...

So may we all.

AND: I found the quote online.

I don't consider Bob Hope a humorist, really. He's a comedian. It's very thin stuff; nothing troubling is mentioned. I used to laugh my head off at Laurel and Hardy and could still do it now. And there's terrible tragedy there somehow, as these people are too sweet to survive in this world and they are in terrible danger all the time. They could be so easily killed.

- Kurt Vonnegut, 1976 or 1977

Jan. 18, 1892, Harlem, Georgia, baby.