Laughter

Carol Burnett met Tim Conway nearly five decades ago when she was a regular on the CBS musical-variety series "The Garry Moore Show" and he was an up-and-coming comedic talent doing a guest stint on the popular Sunday evening show. "I had seen Carol and thought she was a scream," recalls Conway, 76. Burnett, 77, was similarly impressed with Conway, so when she and her then-producer-husband Joe Hamilton began the classic "The Carol Burnett Show" on CBS in 1967, Conway would be a frequent guest star.

Wally watched the steady rain stream on the basketball net attached to his garage. The net looked limp and defeated. That's how Wally felt. He'd sprained his ankle in a fall the week before and now spent his time in a chair. He was glad his friend George visited him every day to keep him company and to help him with his homework. "You need to keep this propped for a while," George said, tucking a pillow under Wally's foot. Wally glared at his wrapped ankle. "How will I ever be able to help our neighborhood basketball team if I can't practice?"

All this talk about Locke dying on "Lost" or whether he's still around as a spirit or not dead because he's alive in the dual world got us thinking about the great TV episodes that have dealt with death. There're too many terrific dramatic shows with people dying in them -- any show with Dennis Franz or Michael C. Hall in it, for example -- for us to make a list of those best episodes, so we concentrated on comedies. Besides, paraphrasing that famous quote, dying is easy (except if you're Tony or the Russian)

Hey, did you hear the joke about the Great Recession of 2008-10? You'll be laughing all the way to the poorhouse, or the federal penitentiary in Bernie Madoff's case. ( Bah-DUM-bum? ) Oh, we've got a billion of 'em, folks. Make that 700 billion if you're a banker with powerful friends in Washington. For instance, take Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers -- please. For the tens of millions of Americans who've lost their jobs, homes and dreams in the current economic downturn and the millions more who've witnessed the disaster with mounting anxiety and fury, there's nothing very funny about the financial crash of 2008 and its roiling aftermath.

The ideals of Aristotle are alive and thriving in a gritty corner of Baldwin Hills. Bordered by the concrete expanse where La Brea Avenue meets Rodeo Road lies a 64-acre oasis. Its vast lawns and towering trees are rimmed by modest apartments, which, by their very nature, create community. This is Village Green, built in 1941, a celebrated example of a utopian movement in multi-family development. Based on the Radburn plan, a community idea that drew inspiration from the Garden City movement of the late 19th century, it was a revolution in urban planning.

4 So, a man and a woman walk into a theater with a budget of $25. . . . That was the opening of the evening my pal Jevon and I had planned for an informal night of cheap laughs. We had intended to hit the Second City improv, but we walked into the wrong theater on Hollywood Boulevard. We unwittingly stumbled into comedic relationship therapy at iO West -- a date that killed two birds with $10 each.

We've got Thanksgiving this week, but no big deal, I give thanks every day of my life that I don't live in Angryville. I spend most days giving thanks. Thanks to the wife and daughter, for example, who will pack pillows on our five-hour drive to Arizona today, which will encourage them to fall asleep. Thanks for peace and quiet. I give thanks Hometown Buffet will be open to serve dinner Thursday knowing the other daughter will be trying to cook a turkey for the first time.