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By Jeff and Judy

On the wild side

We're taught never to assume how other people might react in a given situation - be it terrifying or pleasurable - but I think I'm skating on thick ice here by saying without danger of contradiction we've all experienced moments when there was no alternative but to laugh loudly at ourselves.

I'll go further and paraphrase the opening sentence in "Blood Simple" a terrific 1984 Coen Brothers movie by saying, "No matter if you're the Queen of England or the Pope in Rome."

Taking for granted both of them do it too because it must be awfully dull being a Queen or a Pope if you can't occasionally aim a good guffaw at yourself. And to heck with your stunned onlookers if they can't believe their eyes and ears.

Like the Paris hotel porter who no doubt thought he'd seen it all, but hadn't, before he ushered Jeff and myself into a splendid room within touching distance of the Eiffel Tower on the first French leg - if you'll forgive the expression - of our current pan-European four-poster-bed tour.

As he opened the door and we both mercifully sensed the place hadn't changed one iota since our last trysting-time here twelve years ago Jeff and I made a sudden mad dash for the bed, wrestling vigorously over occupancy rights to the left side, the one nearest the tower. Like kids fighting for the chance to sit up front on a supermarket run.

Tossing and turning I finally got my husband in a rigid hammerlock and while making him submit unwillingly to my uncompromising side-of-the-bed demands I saw the poor hotel man switching awkwardly from one foot to the other.

Eyeing the bucket of ice and welcoming champagne, probably contemplating cooling us off with the whole lot, bucket, ice, champagne and all.

That's when my laughing fit kicked in. I don't think I've chortled so much since I first saw namesake Peter Sellers in "Dr. Strangelove" and the more the people in the cinema hissed and booed the more I couldn't stop.

How was our first night back again in the City of Light?

I can't honestly say. We laughed so much, long after the porter and champagne had gone, compromising on the 'tower view' dilemma by lying across the bed so we each had a perfect sighting.

And as Hemingway might have written, but, of course, mercifully didn't, "Only as dawn broke did the laughter finally subside."

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Just who are Jeff and Judy? Judy and Jeff Sellers are a US couple who love sunsets, world travel, fine wines, good food and each other. As often as possible and not necessarily in that order. They currently seek a congenial publisher for their "Frisky after Sixty" book ('A Good in Bed Read') and after many requests from friends all over the world waiting impatiently for their local newspapers to carry this column. To find out more go to Frisky After Sixty.




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