August 8, 2016

Boston. Late 1980s


A possible SAT "word problem": If my friend Dali (pictured, left) were alive today at 77, instead of having died of cancer at age 51 in 1990, what are the chances that advances in diagnosis and treatment would have kept her alive these past 26 years? Instead, she remains alive in so many memories of so many people -- larger than life sometimes and still making us laugh all these years later.

2 comments:

  1. How nice to see this pic of Dali - and of you! Hope you are thriving!

    Hunter

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  2. Dali gave you a "Bar None" candy bar on your first AA anniversary. She would wait until the end of the month when she was dead broke ... and then go to the Ritz for dinner. "Live From Lincoln Center" was repeated the next day on WGBH ... so she called it "Dead From Lincoln Center." When she was part of the ZOOM publicity team and organized a party with music for kiddies, she was not amused to see an organ grinder's monkey taking fancy hors d'oeuvres from the silver trays that were being passed around. She took you to Italy and, as you gaped in amazement, she explained that Fellini doesn't make up those things. When you arrived at Asisi in a driving rain, Dali got out of the car and ran into the church of St. Clare while you sat high and dry and waited. She ran back out with a big smile and announced, "St. Clare is a casa." So you both went in and touched your WGBH ID cards to her golden casket to ensure the blessings of the Patron Saint of Television. Dali had a theory (yet to be confirmed by science) that more people come out to their parents on Thanksgiving than on any other day of the year. Her argument, as you explained it to me, was that people go off to college and lose their virginity and then come home for Thanksgiving and exuberantly say: "Pass the cranberry, I'm gay." I barely knew Dali but, thanks to you, she is very much a part of my life.

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