Four

Faithful Readers may recall that tonight marks the fourth anniversary of my mother's passing.

Tonight I am remembering the many, many evenings spent in noisy, smoke-filled bars of the 60's. I went to a lot of them with my mom, mostly in hotels, before I was even old enough to go to school.

One of her favorite things to do was a riff on the old "trained animal" routine - she would have her new-found friend at the bar ask me what another name for "Elephant" was. To which I had been trained to reply, "Pachyderm." This retort was met with unfailing gales of laughter, and potentially free drinks for my mom, I'm not sure.

Anyway, tonight I will play Laura Fygi (and if I can stand it, maybe the The Carpenters) and raise a glass in your memory, Mom. You were truly one of a kind.

And I will try my best to work "pachyderm" into a conversation...