Neil Simon (1927 - 2018) Tribute List

Neil Simon died on August 26, 2018, at the age of 91. Simon was one of the most successful playwrights and screenwriters of the latter half of the twentieth century. He was best known as a comedy writer, having written hits like The Odd Couple. Mr. Simon won the Tony for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1991 for Lost in Yonkers.
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words only definitions & notes
  1. alimony
    support paid by one spouse to another after separation
    Oscar Madison: Don't threaten me with jail, Blanche, because it's not a threat. With my expenses and my alimony, a prisoner takes home more pay than I do.
    - The Odd Couple
  2. clench
    squeeze together tightly
    Oscar Madison: Look at this. You're the only man in the world with clenched hair.
    - The Odd Couple
  3. criterion
    the ideal in terms of which something can be judged
    I firmly believe that if you follow a path that interests you, not to the exclusion of love, sensitivity, and cooperation with others, but with the strength of conviction that you can move others by your own efforts, and do not make success or failure the criteria by which you live, the chances are you'll be a person worthy of your own respects.
    - Rewrites (autobiography)
  4. eccentricity
    strange and unconventional behavior
    Never underestimate the stimulation of eccentricity.
    - Biloxi Blues
  5. ignoramus
    a person who lacks intelligence or sophistication
    Oscar Madison: Listen buddy, if you're going to argue with me, put down that spoon.

    Felix Ungar: Spoon? Haha, you dumb ignoramus, that is a ladle! You did not know that's a ladle!
    - The Odd Couple
  6. mediocrity
    ordinariness as a consequence of being average
    Once you start compromising your thoughts, you're a candidate for mediocrity.
    - Biloxi Blues
  7. metaphor
    a figure of speech that suggests a non-literal similarity
    A writer without confidence is like a metaphor without something to compare itself to.
    - Rewrites (autobiography)
  8. putrid
    morally corrupt or evil
    Elliot Garfield: I was "an Elizabethan fruit fly." I was "the Betty Boop of Stratford-on-Avon." I was "putrid." Capital P, capital U, capital TRID.
    - The Goodbye Girl
  9. vehemently
    in a forceful manner
    You will never investigate yourself as vehemently as you do when you put one word after another, one thought after another, one revelation after another, in the pages that make up your memoirs, and you will suddenly realize the person you are instead of the person you thought you were.
    - The Play Goes On (memoir)
  10. vocation
    the particular occupation for which you are trained
    You must realize that honorary degrees are given generally to people whose SAT scores were too low to get them into schools the regular way. As a matter of fact, it was my SAT scores that led me into my present vocation in life, comedy.
    - Upon receiving an honorary degree, 1984
Created on Sun Aug 26 15:56:51 EDT 2018 (updated Mon Aug 27 09:41:19 EDT 2018)

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