World Enough and Time

Only a few days ago I listed Christopher Plummer as a teenage crush. That was because of
The Sound of Music, but as time went by there were any number of other great things to add to my list of things which I'd loved, which he was in. The latest of them was Caesar and Cleopatra by George Bernard Shaw at Stratford last summer. And remember General Chang?

Today I got to see him again, and to get his autograph. He recently wrote his autobiography, In Spite of Myself, and came to Chapters in Ottawa to sign it.

I'd been wanting to buy it. What better opportunity.

So I got my book, and stood in line (a line as long behind me as ahead of me), and got an autograph. I noticed he had a delightful smile and a word for each person. I said, "I loved seeing you as Julius Caesar last year," and he said, "In Caesar and Cleopatra? Thank you so much."

( Christopher Plummer signing an autograph. )

( Christopher Plummer signing another autograph. )

( This is the one he signed for me. )

I was impressed by the charm with which he smiled at each person as if he were truly pleased to see them, truly happy to have pleased them with his work.

And I love the way his book begins:

I was brought up by an Airedale. I won't deny it, 'tis the truth and nothing bug, Your Honour--a bumbling, over-sized shaggy great Airedale. The earliest memory I have of anything resembling a pater familiar, bouncer, male-nurse or God is that dear slobbering old Airedale....