Mork and 'Mnesia

Dear Mr. Williams,

We think it's only fair to warn you that we are writing today's post in something of a small fit of panic. A couple of days ago, after much back and forth, we decided the time was right to do a "Mork and Mindy"-themed post for the blog. We were ready to compare ourselves to your character of Mork, who at the end of each episode would communicate with Orson, his supervisor from the planet Ork, and update him on Mork's Earth-based adventures. As it was always our favorite part of the show, we recalled with great detail Mork's one-sided conversations with the face-less and voice-less Orson. In our analogy we were keen to cast you as our Orson -- in that we have yet to see your face (a picture) or hear your voice (an e-mail or phone-call), and cast ourselves as Mork -- tirelessly reporting to you our thoughts and opinions in the hope to one day make verifiable contact with you.

"But guys," you may say, "Orson DID speak – he was voiced by actor Ralph James. He talked back to Mork all the time." And you would be right, Mr. Williams. It turns out we were misremembering the show – and that is what has us so panicked. You see RW, we pride ourselves on our encyclopedic knowledge of your work. Sure, we sometimes will re-watch a film of yours to verify our facts for a post, but that's only done for safety –we have always assumed that our posts need only be fact-checked by our brains. But not anymore! A check of (shudder) Wikipedia showed just how incorrect our memories of your show were. We are so ashamed.

How could this happen? Did we mix up a Charlie Brown special, which had faceless adults voiced only by trombones, with "Mork & Mindy?" Both are fondly recalled programs from our youth, but are so different that it seems unlikely we could confuse the two. The truth, we worry, may be far more sinister. We're not as young as we used to be, Mr. Williams – it's likely the cause is medical. Perhaps our brains are shrinking, or we've developed early onset dementia. Maybe we have suffered a head injury so powerful that it has not only erased our "Mork & Mindy" memories, but also the very accident that caused the head injury in the first place.

With thoughts like these racing through our increasingly enfeebled brains you can obviously see why we're distraught, Mr. Williams. We'll probably need to see a doctor about this (oh, man). So, please, hurry and send us send us a photo of yourself looking at our blog to djayek@yahoo.com. Before we forget that we have a blog. Or who Robin Williams even is.

Sincerely,

What were we going to type just now?

written by Andrew Morton