Jackie Gleason
Sat Aug 29 2009 at 22:55:37
What's also not noted is that he had one of the best private libraries of classical literature in the non-Hispanic Western hemisphere. He noted that thin people were beautiful, but fat people were adorable! Also that he was buried in the style of the early Christians, that is, his monument includes a banquet table in the Late Greek style, with effigies of himself and his wife reclining on couches. The message being, "We are still here. Let us eat and drink together, and so, rejoice!" (I find that incredibly moving.)
Yup. You are invited to take your picnic baskets and eat and drink with the Great One. Why is he called so? Because Orson Welles once quoted a Greek poet to him, and he replied "It's not so, it's..."(apparently repeating a Jesuit education)...on for several verses of Brooklyn-inflected Attic Greek.