Neil Simon died last week. He passed from this life to that special place in heaven reserved for the funny men. The thump that the world felt, sadly wasn't the same as, say, had it been a tragedian (somehow, comedians have never commanded the same gravitas as the serious playwrights. Never understood that). When Arthur Millerji passed on, the world grieved. For Neilsaab, there was some mourning, but it wasn't like a giant of the theatre had fallen. This man was a legend, at least for me.

There have been many areas of influence that this New Yorker had on me. The first was in the craft of comedy. No playwright, frankly, wrote a gag like him. (save maybe David Mamet) His funny lines always stemmed from the plot, not merely one liners. Simon was the master of this. Gags and punchlines were his patent.