February 05, 2006

Betty Friedan - Al Lewis

Betty Friedan is dead. She lived for 85 years and then she died. While she was living she wrote the Feminine Mystique and started the National Organization for Women and now men and women in their 20's and 30's are so confused about gender roles, they don't know whether to wind their asses or scratch their watches. Every day I read several accounts on people's random blogs kept by both men and women about the difficulties and confusion of dating. I believe that a lot of the confusion about how to behave on dates comes from changes in the culture resulting from the feminist movement of the 60's and 70's. Don't get me started. This is an obit post- not a social psychology post.

Grandpa Al Lewis also died - Grandpa because he played Grandpa on The Munsters - a TV show about a fake monster family - perhaps you've heard of it. About 10 years ago, I had a friend that lived on Roosevelt Island where Al Lewis was living. He used to go out every day and talk to people on the island and acted like the local celebrity that he was - very outgoing, very friendly. His nickname was "The Mayor of Roosevelt Island." Capitalizing on his fame, he ran for NY Governor in 1998.

I'm not sure how old he was when he died. According to some accounts he was in his mid-90's while according to others, he died in his early 80's. Now, if you've seen him - he looked like he was in his mid 90's for the last 15 years or so. So, I don't know who to believe. If you look at his bio on the official Munsters website he was born in 1910 but his kid says he was born in the 1920's. If you're like me, you've seen old people of all ranges. He definitely looked like he was in his 90's.

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