In the NY Times, I read the obit for "Meinhardt Raabe, 94, Famous Munchkin." No, it's not that he's a little person who's being called a Munchkin. Although that doesn't seem very PC. Or that he's mostly remembered for his one-time film role, at age 23, as the Munchkin coroner who declared the Wicked Witch of the East dead in the Wizard of Oz.
C'mon, warble it with me...
"As coroner, I must aver
I thoroughly examined her.
And she's not only merely dead,
She's really most sincerely dead."
My pet peeve is that it's not until I had mispronounced Rabbe 7 times, that the author decided to clue me in. "...Rabbe (pronounced Robby)..." I had to start from the top and read it the right way.
Why not place that parenthetical after the 1st mention, or sheesh how about at the end...after I've said Rab and Rabby 15 times?!
Glad I read all the way through, though, because I learned that not only was Meinhardt a pop culture favorite from Oz, he was a wartime aviator and he also toured the US in the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile (pronounced ween-er mo-beel) for 30 years as "Little Oscar, the World's Smallest Chef."
Meinhardt Rabbe had quite the hefty moniker and wasn't widely known by name. Note to reporters--give us the name up FRONT!!
That lil' feller could sure hold up that sign next to Dorothy!
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