Herb Edelman Was My Samuel Beckett

No doubt you're asking, what's it all about, Cherches? What do Herb Edelman and Samuel Beckett have to do with each other? Some of you may even be asking, who is Herb Edelman, anyway?

It's like this. I recently became cognizant of the trivia tidbit that Samuel Beckett, one of my literary heroes, used to drive a neighbor's child to school. The child, Andre Rene Roussimov, suffered from a condition known as acromegaly and later gained fame as the wrestler Andre the Giant.

Well, Herb Edelman used to drive me to school. So Herb Edelman was to Pete Cherches as Samuel Beckett was to Andre the Giant. Herb was the uncle of a kid on my block. There was a car pool where a different parent or relative would drive three or four kids to and from kindergarten at P.S. 217 each day. Herb Edelman was the designated driver for one of the kids since, as an actor, he had a fairly flexible schedule.

Herb Edelman was an affable character actor who appeared on many television shows, but I remember him best as Murray the cop in the film version of "The Odd Couple." When he drove us to school he was a struggling thirtyish actor, and I remember him as an easygoing, likable guy. But why do I mention this on a food blog? Well, for one thing you've probably figured out by now that this blog is as much about me as it is about food. I could make a case for relevance by pointing out that one of Edelman's few starring roles was as the owner of a diner on the short-lived TV sitcom "The Good Guys." So there's your food connection. But the real reason for this entry is that writing about the inconsequential is my forte, and I like to keep in practice.