We could spend our time together here detailing the ideas that separate the Right and the Left, but if Maureen Dowd has taught us anything, it’s that it’s more fun to cast things in the terms of fatuous, ancient pop-culture references. The other day she used Star Wars — something about Obama was once a Jedi, and then the Tea Party took his lightsaber away. Wow! That’ll get the kids reading the paper. Next week: Is Obama more like Fonzie or Scooby-Doo?
So let’s get really hip ’n’ current and go back to The Odd Couple. Not the sitcom, but the movie. Oscar and Felix are having the Pigeon sisters down for supper. Felix — played with twitchy peevish perfection by Jack Lemmon — has been slaving over a meat loaf, timed to come out at eight. Oscar — Walter Matthau at his slovenly best — cruises in late with a wolfish grin, ready for a night of meat, liquor, single entendres, and some slap-and-tickle with the ripe and flighty neighbors. Felix is incensed: You’re late, the meat loaf’s ruined. Oscar tells him to pour gravy on it. Felix snaps: Where the hell am I going to get gravy at eight o’clock at night? Oscar: I don’t know. I thought it just comes when you cook the meat. Felix: You’re an idiot. You have to make gravy. It doesn’t just come.
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