Talk Like Slip Mahoney Day gets a landswell of popular support.

Yes, despite the move, we're all busy at Fred Central making our plans for the first annual Talk Like Slip Mahoney Day, to be celebrated on June 2, the day Leo Gorcey passed away. (Earlier reports had him born on that date, but he was actually born June 3 and died on June 2.) So get the Slip-shaped cakes and parade floats ready.

 

Celebrate or I'll punch yez.

You know who would be a great spokesman for the holiday? The great Norm Crosby, that's who. You kids won't remember, but back in the 1970's you could not turn on the television without seeing Norm Crosby on it. And we watched him. Why? No Internet, that's why! And we only had three channels---two if we ran out of tinfoil. (Ask your grandma to explain that joke.)

Norm Crosby is still around, glad to say, 86 years old and still working. His schtick was a streetwise kind of guy with a constant stream of malapropisms, just like Slip. He might thank an audience for giving him "a standing ovulation." He'll insist on "decapitated coffee." As Mr. C said in this interview, "I used proper words that didn't belong in the sentence. It was close enough that it sounded like the proper word. 'Women need love and affliction.'"

But the interview also reveals that Mr. C has only a passing professional connection to Slip Mahoney:

Kliph Nesteroff: Were you familiar with Leo Gorcey's character in the Bowery Boys films? He did a lot with malapropisms. 

Norm Crosby: Oh, right. No, I was not familiar with him, but a lot of people have told me about that. I narrated once a whole tribute to them. I think it was for HBO.

Well, maybe he'd like to jump in anyway. If he's not otherwise engraved.