On the docket today at
the station house: Tuesdays With Morrie™. Yes, long before
that mellow, dramatic inkspiller from Michigan, USA — sportswriter Mitch
Albom — commenced to cavorting with his ill and aging professor Morrie Schwartz, Yours Truly Dooley® and the team would huddle ‘round the telly to watch the
inimitable Morrie Amsterdam put his office mates through their paces. Mel
Cooley, Alan Brady, Rose Marie, Mary Richards and, of course, Dick Van Patten
were all targets for his wile. Van P. got top billing, but make no mistake,
‘twas Morrie — the unlikely Dutchman, Amsterdam born and bred — who ruled the
roost. Whether regaling us with tales of home hijinks with wife Pickles or
excoriating the befuddled Cooley, Morrie was a whirling dervish who delighted
all on either side of the pond. Unlike Master Albom, we didn’t pretend to look
for — or find — great meaning in our time together, nor did we endeavor to put our
feelings to paper. What we did then — and still do when time allows — is laugh our
fool arses off. And if we catch back-to-back episodes, ‘tis Two-fer Tuesdays
With Morrie™. Amsterdam, right!
