The Avengers

A guest appearance on Frasier (US Comedy) by Patrick Macnee (John Steed) reminded me of the Avengers. Not the Hillman kind, you understand. When I lived in Palm Springs, California, I used to bump into Mr. Macnee regularly at one of our watering holes. I recall he used to drive an old Rolls-Royce, with the steering wheel on the right. He was always a very pleasant man to chat to.

Back to the Avengers. There was Honor Blackman. Every schoolboy in short pants' dream of a woman. In my Grammar School, we would spend hours in our lessons imagining what pleasure she could bestow. She's now over 80, and has a relationship with a 57 year old.... on a par with Norma, one of my neighbors, and her toy-boy Juan! She recently had major 'plumbing' surgery, and her concern was, "Will I still be able to have sex?" There's hope for me yet!

Then there is Diana Rigg. Spent much of her childhood in India, and is apparently still fluent in Hindi. Must be useful in Doncaster, England, where she was born. Many pundits claimed that she was/is a lesbian, but this has been dismissed by her several husbands. During her filming as James Bond's wife in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", she often refused to play the part opposite George Lazenby (Bond) as he had eaten garlic! She's gone up in my estimation! Saw her once in the West End of London.... no, she didn't remember me. But then again, that was Honor Blackman.....

Then there was the Chrysler 180 in the UK, an overgown Hillman Avenger, followed by the Chrysler 200, which had a two liter engine and came with an automatic gearbox as standard. One of my buddies in my previous life in the Woolwich Building Society had one. Wonder what happened to Roger. Rumor has it he moved to San Francisco.

Here endeth today's lesson.