Anx said:

Actually, the Commendatore kind of does that at the end...

EmancipationLover said:

clearly, judy was impatient.

From 'Remembering Needleman' originally published in the New Yorker:


It has been four weeks, and it is still hard for me to believe Sandor Needleman is dead. I was present at the cremation, and at his son’s request, brought the marshmallows, but few of us could think of anything but our pain.

Needleman was constantly obsessing over his funeral plans and once told me, ‘I much prefer cremation to burial in the earth, and both to a weekend with Mrs. Needleman.'

Needleman had always been obsessed by the problem of evil and argued
quite eloquently that true evil was only possible if its perpetrator was named
Blackie or Pete. His own flirtation with National Socialism caused a scandal
in academic circles, though despite everything from gymnastics to dance
lessons, he could not master the goose step.

Nazism was for him merely a reaction against academic philosophy, a
position he always attempted to impress on friends and then would grab at
their faces with feigned excitement and say, "Aha! Got your nose."

Human freedom for Needleman consisted of being aware of the absurdity of life. "God is silent," he was fond of saying, "now if we can only get Man to shut up."
[Edited 4/16/06 14:25pm]