11-08-2012, 09:16 AM
Brings back memories of my younger years when I used to hang out a lot with John Holmes. Few people know what a great conversationalist he was. We'd go to bars, hit the bowling alley, see a movie, and all the while he would tell anecdotes -- funny and insightful ones.
Then one day I was watching Monty Python and this line jumped out at me. "Is that a canoe in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" It seemed like such a strange thing to be asking someone. The thing is, early into our friendship I'd asked John what he had in his pocket, because clearly he had something in there. He told me it was a canoe. I took it at face value, believed him, though it seemed an odd place to be keeping a canoe. A lot of his anecdotes had to do with canoeing trips in the LA area, so that I came to visualize LA as this spelunker's wonderland of tunnels and underground passages that were perfect for exploration by canoe.
But anyway, after that Monty Python skit, I did a search on the web for, "Is that a canoe in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" Of course, back then PCs were spring-powered and the internet was all 1-inch thick copper wire. But anyway, that's when I discovered what that saying really meant, and a lot of John's idiosyncrasies and a lot of the things that John had told me suddenly took on a whole different meaning.
Wherever we were headed, John would see a store and want to stop and buy KY jelly. I can't recall how many times this happened. It seemed like every time we went anywhere. And he didn't buy just a little. He'd buy all they had in stock. When I asked what it was for, he told me it was for the old canoe.
That led me to tell another friend who had a real canoe, and who was suggesting I get into the sport, that I just couldn't afford all that KY jelly. He gave me a strange look like I was crazy, and I didn't see much of him after that. No, not crazy. Just very naive back then.
Soon after that Monty Python skit, I started drifting away from John. He just had way too much going on in his pocket for me to deal with anymore. And I was starting to get interested in platypuses.
Then one day I was watching Monty Python and this line jumped out at me. "Is that a canoe in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" It seemed like such a strange thing to be asking someone. The thing is, early into our friendship I'd asked John what he had in his pocket, because clearly he had something in there. He told me it was a canoe. I took it at face value, believed him, though it seemed an odd place to be keeping a canoe. A lot of his anecdotes had to do with canoeing trips in the LA area, so that I came to visualize LA as this spelunker's wonderland of tunnels and underground passages that were perfect for exploration by canoe.
But anyway, after that Monty Python skit, I did a search on the web for, "Is that a canoe in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" Of course, back then PCs were spring-powered and the internet was all 1-inch thick copper wire. But anyway, that's when I discovered what that saying really meant, and a lot of John's idiosyncrasies and a lot of the things that John had told me suddenly took on a whole different meaning.
Wherever we were headed, John would see a store and want to stop and buy KY jelly. I can't recall how many times this happened. It seemed like every time we went anywhere. And he didn't buy just a little. He'd buy all they had in stock. When I asked what it was for, he told me it was for the old canoe.
That led me to tell another friend who had a real canoe, and who was suggesting I get into the sport, that I just couldn't afford all that KY jelly. He gave me a strange look like I was crazy, and I didn't see much of him after that. No, not crazy. Just very naive back then.
Soon after that Monty Python skit, I started drifting away from John. He just had way too much going on in his pocket for me to deal with anymore. And I was starting to get interested in platypuses.