For years, “The
Nanny” was a laugh-out-loud guilty pleasure of mine. The only other
person on the show I paid any attention to aside from the butler Daniel
Davis was, of course, Fran
Drescher whose voice at what she projected to be her most sultry (I’m
sure) was fingernails on a chalkboard. Ah, the reassuring nasality of “tall
Paul poured water.”
I hadn’t thought about her in many years and, catching up
on my research, I am delighted that her career hasn’t suffered as a result of my
neglect. A cancer survivor she has earned every ounce of happiness she has and so I was pleased to read
over the past weekend she had gotten married to (and this was the part that most
piqued my curiosity), the “Inventor of Email”, Shiva
Ayyadurai.
In light of the fact that I persist in claiming to be the
inventor of both texting and electricity, and the co-inventor of that
lifesaving device used by divers who get the bends, the hyperbolic chamber (or something
like it), far be it from me to rain on the newlyweds’ parade in contesting the
invention of email (lower case deliberate).
Instead, allow me to quote from a passage of the book of
Python, Monty; and good luck you crazy kids, burrowing
through that elephant.
-bill kenny
