But my favorites were his "Anal Retentive" skits. He was an anal retentive fisherman who was super well organized and kept his uniformly cut bait in separate baggies, etc. But he never got around to fishing. He was an anal retentive carpenter who had his tool belt perfectly organized and alphabetized. But my favorite was "Cooking with the Anal Retentive Chef."
This guy loved plastic bags and aluminum foil. In this photo he's holding up some celery he's just sliced but discovered that a few of the pieces weren't perfect so he had to throw them away. He did this by sealing them in a baggie and wrapping the baggie in aluminum foil, then placing all that in a brown paper bag that he secured with scotch tape. But then he discovered the bag had a little tear so he had to start over, but, of course, his time was up so he never got around to cooking.
Why am I telling you this?
I think about him often when I'm preparing my meals. Yesterday I had my favorite, a cookie sheet meal consisting of two chicken wings, potatoes, onions and carrots. After I got this all assembled and in the oven, I clean the kitchen, using the plastic baggie the chicken was wrapped in for the residue of onion skins and potato peelings. After I'd eaten I scraped the chicken bones, etc. back on to the foil lined cookie sheet and carefully folded it for the garbage.
All the while I'm thinking that I have become the Anal Retentive Chef. And I don't feel so bad about it. Why would I do this at my age and stage? Because I can. And it makes me happy.
It's difficult to find Youtube videos of Phil Hartman. Possibly because he died tragically while he was at the top of his game. His wife killed him and then killed herself. We all can relate to messy, tragic, out of control parts of our lives but at this age and stage I'm just grateful for all of the things I can keep neat and tidy.
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