Odd Men Outed

If Memory Swerves™, 'twas on this day in history, November 13th, that portrait photographer Felix Unger was asked to remove himself from his place of residence. That request came from his missus. Mind you, Unger was no deadbeat martini-swiller and photography was a respectable wage-earning career back then, when prominent studios like Olan Mills® boasted strong books of business on either side of the pond, but out on his elephantine ear he went, nonetheless. Deep down Unger knew that wife Gloria was right, but he also knew that some day he would return to her, but not before a series of Sansa-Belted® night clubbers had their filthy way with her. With nowhere else to go, Unger appeared at the home of his childhood mate, sportswriter Oscar Madison. Several years earlier, Madison's missus, Match Game® foil Brett Somers, had thrown HIM out, requesting that HE never return. The question was whether these two divorced men could share an apartment without driving each other crazy and one tossing the other out a window to his death on the street below. As it turned out, this Odd Couple® of New York gents complemented one another famously, one doing the cooking and cleaning, the other, the belching and farting. Today, men of advancing years who find themselves in an arrangement such as this are more than likely a couple in every sense of the word and why the hell not, with rents being what they are, a one bedroom is more manageable than two. In any case, we remember the trailblazing Messrs. Unger and Madison with fondness on this day and whistle their oddly melancholy theme song as we go about our business.