'Grandpa Munster' lucky to be alive

Newsday ^ | 9/16/03 | Ellis Henican

[lowbridge]

"Look at this," Grandpa Al Lewis was saying Monday, pulling back the sheet on his hospital bed.

"All that's left of my leg."

I made myself look.

Damned if the doctors hadn't amputated Grandpa's right leg, just below the knee! They also whacked the five toes off his left foot. And they did it while Grandpa was deep in a month-long coma at Manhattan's Mount Sinai Hospital, near-fatal complications from what was supposed to be a routine heart procedure. Now, one of America's most beloved TV actors is at Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital on Roosevelt Island, shaking off the coma, building his strength and learning to get around again.

[lowbridge]

[BradyLS]

That's terrible! This isn't some Onion article I'm being fished in by, is it? I hope he rovers well otherwise. He's always come across as a feisty character.

[strela]

Damned if the doctors hadn't amputated Grandpa's right leg, just below the knee! They also whacked the five toes off his left foot.

One total whackjob deserves another, I guess.

Al Lewis ran for city office as a socialist a couple of times and still is one as far as I know.

[lowbridge]

This isn't some Onion article I'm being fished in by, is it?

Nope. Serious article.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

"Nope. Serious article."

Impossible, it is by clinton's numero ono lewensky he did not have sex with that woman supporter and world class liar, one Ellis Henican. End of story, it cannot possibly be serious.

[catonsville]

Remarkable life story. Worked in every medium of show business, from the circus to vaudaville to radio, movies, TV and theatre. A talmudic scholar, he was a labor organizer for John L Lewis, was shot at a few times during labor strife in the 30's and while in the South working for civil rights Torpedoed twice while serving in the Merchant Marine during WWII.

Lewis is an old fashioned socialist, really interested in helping the poor and disadvantaged. But the time of American Socialism is long gone. Lewis knows this , but persists because he has to.
A colorful , good guy, he is now 93. What happened to him is very sad, I wish him well.

[Phsstpok]

Lewis is an old fashioned socialist, really interested in helping the poor and disadvantaged. But the time of American Socialism is long gone. Lewis knows this , but persists because he has to.

A colorful , good guy, he is now 93. What happened to him is very sad, I wish him well.

Nicely stated. Tom Joad would be pleased with him.

Churchill, among others, said that "if you're not a liberal (socialist) when you're young, then you have no heart. And if you're not a conservative when you're older, you have no head." Lewis just never grew up. I like that in a light comic actor.

Zero Mostel and many others from similar backgrounds lived their lives the same way, usually without being self important asses, at least in public. Would that their modern brethren would show as much common sense.

Jackie Mason is someone from the same background who did grow up. I enjoy Mason a lot, but I have a feeling he's not as happy an individual as he would be if he simply ignored reality, the way these others did.

[speedy]

Al Lewis is indeed a whacko and a dirty old man to boot (as recently as three years ago he was hosting nudie "specials" in LA), but he has the virtue of not taking his own crap seriously. He gets at least some slack for being hilarious not only as Grandpa Munster but as Leo Schnauzer on "Car 54, Where Are You."

[BibChr]

I am going to make a totally unrelated guess at your screen name, which I am just seeing for the first time.

Is that the sound of doors opening and closing on the original Enterprise?

Dan

[Phsstpok]

Is that the sound of doors opening and closing on the original Enterprise?

Nope, though now that I think about it I bet it is pronounced something like that sounded. I pronounce it (in my head, I don't think I've ever said it aloud) "fist pok."

Instead it's the name of an alien character from a Larry Niven book called Protector

[BibChr]

Oh well. I would have even put money on it! Well, not much....

I think I've read one Niven book, and I think it was co-written. Footfall? Some cool concepts in it.

Dan

[Phsstpok]

I think I've read one Niven book, and I think it was co-written. Footfall? Some cool concepts in it.

that was co-written with his usual collaborater, Jerry Pournelle. I consider that the ultimate "someone invades Earth" book. They were ripped off horribly for Independance Day. I'd love to have them go back and find out what that world was like 10 or 15 years later. Now there's a good use for Project Orion. In a discussion on several other threads we've refered to that book and some of the concepts, such as the "crowbars from God" that are used by the aliens so effectively, and that we're now talking about (again) seriously.

If you enjoyed Footfall then I'd also suggest Lucifer's Hammer. It's the ultimate "something big hits the Earth." Some of the science seems dated, like not being able to predict the impact, but overall it holds up pretty well. What I particularly love is the fact that it has the traditional parts of such a story, the build up to the impending impact followed by the impact and all of the disasters it causes, but then they go on and show what happens afterwards. All the messy bits that go along with being a survivor. Some of it is a bit un PC by current multicultural standards, though, so do be aware of that before going in.

I like Niven's solo works, particularly his "Known Space" stories, which all take place in one, consistent, universe. He writes what I consider to be some of the best hard science science-fiction. His short stories are particularly good at taking an idea, such as a transporter type device for instant travel, and then writing a story that asks what effect that will have on society. What about cars? What about car companies? What about roads or airports? What effect does it have on things like allibi's? Then he'll write an essay explaining the science of the story and explain or explore the gaps. In the case of the transporter he points out that if you get in a transporter booth at New York and get out at the equator you better have a way of compensating for the law of conservation of momentum or you'd best come out of the booth running at something like 300 MPH, which would be the relative velocity difference between those two points on Earth.

My favorite essay by him, which is available on-line, is about why Lois Lane and Superman can never have children. It's titled "Man Of Steel, Woman of Kleenex."

[r9etb]

Man Of Steel, Woman of Kleenex.

"... ripping her open from crotch to sternum, gutting her like a trout."

Truly a classic.

[Lurking Libertarian]

I heartily endorse the recommendation of Lucifer's Hammer, and I would add a recommendation of another Niven-Pournelle novel, The Mote in God's Eye. I personally prefer the collaborations to the solo Niven works I've read.

[wtc911]

He's not Grandpa Munster. He's Al Lewis, communist (not socialist) to the core. His recent hero, about whom he gushes praise, is Mumia. He's a self-hating Jew and a stone cold anti-American.

[CholeraJoe]

That would explain why Ellis Hennican wrote this article. I was just getting ready to post that this is pretty tame fare for uber-liberal Hennican. He must have gone to visit one of his Communist heroes.

[dead]

"F#*K the FCC!"
"F#*K the FCC!"
"F#*K the FCC!"
"F#*K the FCC!"

[wtc911]

Exactly. Hennican is himself nothing but a leftist mouth piece....way past being liberal.....that Fox has him on so often keeps me glued to other channels.

[Lurking Libertarian]

Al Lewis ran for city office as a socialist a couple of times

He ran for Governor of New York on the Green Party, and sued (unsuccessfully?) to be listed on the ballot as "Grandpa."

[miss marmelstein]

Hey, you think he's bad, try talking to Professor Irwin Corey!