Whereas each month I try to showcase a unique blanket, I am breaking from tradition this one time to present an absolutely unique photograph of my friend of 45 years, the exceedingly anxious comic Richard Lewis. If you know Richard from “Curb Your Enthusiasm” or any of his hundreds of network TV appearances and concerts you know he ALWAYS wear black. Not in this picture, my friends. 

He stayed at my house last weekend and yes, those are his pajama bottoms.  He’s posing with my sons Ethan on the left and Matthew in the center – now about 7 years older than their photo on my Home Page. Matthew is autistic, yet sees things far more clearly than anyone I know. Before this picture was snapped Richard had just tried to dazzle the boys with his humor –  he had scored with Ethan, but Matthew was clearly unimpressed.

“Seriously, Matthew, what do you think of me?,” Richard asked.

“Freakish,” my son replied.

When you’re the most neurotic man in the world it is not an easy thing to be destroyed by an 11 year old boy. What ensued was a classic Lewis rant.

“Wasn’t that a little bit harsh? Must you be so judgmental? Could you be funny if there was a 7 foot cardboard Indian standing behind you making anti-Semitic remarks? Don’t I already have low self-esteem? When I was your age my mother put up a Jewish satellite dish – it brought in problems from other families. And did I mention my parents didn’t want me? When I was born didn’t my mother charge me for labor?”

Matthew rolled his eyes and looked sorrowfully at me, then Ethan and finally turned his gaze to Richard and said, “I’m autistic. What’s wrong with you?”