TOP TWENTY

We all love "Top Twenty" lists. I know that I do. "Top Twenty" lists are near the top of my list of  "My Favourite Things". Right after "Snowdrops that melt on my face and eyelashes". Last night I was making a list of my Top Twenty people of all time.

WILL

1.  WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (playwright, England) (and first mayor of Stratford, ON, I think... you see his face EVERYWHERE in that town)

2.  GORDON LIGHTFOOT (folksinger, Canada) (only Canadian born folksinger to have song featured in a Seinfeld episode)

3.  SIR ISAAC NEWTON (inventor of gravity, and fig-filled cookies, England)

4.  LARRY ROBINSON (greatest defence man in hockey history, Canada, of course)

5.  GATES MCFADDEN (actress, U.S.A.)    


5.  MARGOT COULTER (my wife, my sweetie, my muse, Canada)

6.  LOUIS RIEL (Metis leader, deceased, Canada) (He's French, and he's edgy)

7.  GROUCHO MARX (comedian, U.S.A.) (Tossing a bone to the U.S..... AND he was VERY funny!)

8., 9., & 10.  THE OTHER MARX BROTHERS (comedians, and a mute harpist, U.S.A.)

Gen. Bill Slim

11.  GENERAL WILLIAM "BILL" SLIM ("The Savior of Burma", England) (some people call ME... "Slim". And that's why. Because I once saved a Burmese cat from a Fisher.)

12.  & 13. A tie between: LEONARDO DA VINCI (painter, sculptor, inventor, code talker, Italy) and JUNIOR FELIX (right-field, son of Senior Felix, U.S.A.) It was felt that, while The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper are both exquisite paintings, Junior Felix had more speed going first to second on a triple. The number of times that Leonardo got thrown out at second boggles the mind, somehow.

Mona Lisa

Junior

14.  PETER THE GREAT (Tsar, Czar, Russia) (Only number 14... pretty good, but not GREAT)

15.  STEPHEN LEACOCK (humourist, economics professor, author, Canada) (NEVER, however, won the Leacock Prize for best work of humour published in Canada.Weird.)

16.  RICK MERCER (television personality, comedian, Canada)(the thinking man's Don Cherry)

17.  SUPERMAN (super hero, Krypton)

18.  FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE (philosopher, Germany) (CREATED Superman)(GREAT name)

19.  GEORGE BERNARD SHAW (play wright, Ireland) (WROTE "Man and Superman")

20.  SPALDING GRAY (actor, story-teller, U.S.A.)