Then Came Bronson

Any mixtape or list of 80's hits invariably includes "Neutron Dance, " by the Pointer Sisters. It was a catchy, jumpy sort of tune, it went to #6 in Billboard in 1984, and it showed scenes from the Eddie Murphy picture Beverly Hills Cop intertwined with video of the Pointer Sisters parading around in movie usher-miniskirts. Great fun, and a really good movie. I'd recommend it! Two hearty thumbs up!

One of the co-stars was Bronson Pinchot, as talented a performer as there could be in the category of playing a possibly-foreign, definitely-odd sort of foreign oddball. He would reprise the character of Serge, from this movie, in the tv show "Perfect Strangers," which I never once watched. Whereas Serge's gag line was "Don't be stupid," he turned it around neatly and had Balki say, "Don't be ridiculous." Subtly nuanced, yet funny either way.

And so I guess it is in the spirit of tribute to Mr Pinchot that I do one of the things I do. I mean, if Lynyrd Skynyrd and Led Zeppelin can have tribute bands, why can't Bronson have a tribute gagster? So what I like to do is go into a grocery store where I don't usually shop and walk up to someone who works there, and say, in a fey, vaguely European manner, "Pleazzze to tell, where are po-tay-to cheeeeeeps?" Palms upraised, eyebrows hoisted skyward, head slightly atilt...you can picture that, right?

Sizing me up as European, the clerk will then figure I am also hearing-challenged (for the same reason that people holler to the visually-impaired) and bark back something like "AISLE SIX, SIR!"

And then I say, "OK dere, thanks a lot, buddy, y'hear?" And strut away giggling.

It's a small thing, but I do what I can.

TOMORROW: Is your refrigerator running?