DAWDLING WITH DORIS

 So Doris Roberts has died, the “mother in law in Everybody Loves Raymond,” as she was generally known.  She was aged 90 so it was hardly premature but I’m still very sorry to see her go.

The great and improbable thing about her performance in “Raymond” was that if anybody had behaved in real life the way she behaved in the show you would have truly despised and wanted to kill her, but within the show, even as the behavior still seemed both completely believable and despicable, you came away with a great fondness for her.

I didn’t know much about Doris Roberts except for that show, but I gather she’s been in a great many TV shows and movies including Remington Steele, and The Honeymoon Killers.  In the latter she played Bunny.

Since I didn’t know much about her, I obviously didn’t know that she was a walker but it seems she was.  The LA Times obituary has this quotation from a 2000 interview with her:

“Sometimes what I do for fun with friends is go on a ramble … My life is always planned.  When you ramble you choose north, south, east or west and you just go.  And when you see something you like, you stop.  It could be anything – a flea market, a restaurant.  And if you don’t like it you can just leave.”

Not just a rambler, but a psychogeographer!