Aside from the many ups and downs in the career of this survivor of Iranian political intrigue, I thought I might remind y'all up north of my favorite memory of the late Banisadr:

It was circa 1981, and Saturday Night Live had a recurring segment--indeed, a show-within-a-show--called "The Frankin & Davis Show", with its own vaudeville-style intro placard even. The premise allowed those talented mostly-offscreen SNL writers Al* and the late Tom** to do totally their own thing..

And it was INSPIRED when Franken & Davis decided to lampoon Carson's signature act, with the Ayatollah cast as "Khomeini the Magnificent", along with Davis picking up McMahon's sidekick role as none other than Abolhassan Banisadr! (It was also the first time I'd heard the correct pronunciation of his given name, to wit: ABULL-has-SAN, rather than Abull-HAAS-an, as I'd been cluelessly using in conversation.****)

One memorable joke: (The ripped-envelope card's answer reading)

Ghotbzadeh ["goats bah dey "]

Question: "What does Iranian man do when his wife won't give him sex by night?"

Of course, perhaps Banisadr's greatest achievement is simply living to die in a Paris hospital after declining health. That is, rather than ending up a another victim of a Tehran-sponsored hit squad or, decades earlier, executed by, say, Islamic beheading...or, as would his onetime colleague Sadegh Ghotbzadeh*****, by firing squad, instantly expiring Wednesday, September 15, 1982******).

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
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* A relative, I'm informed, of the late Steve Franken, forever remembered as Chatsworth Osborne IV, schoolmate (but not one of the Many Loves) of the sitcom version of the character Dobie Gillis.
** Who died young on Thursday, July 19, 2021*** at 59, but not before he and Franken had long dissolved their comedic partnership; anyone herein know backstory there?
*** As it happened, on July 19, 2012, the very sameThursday when when the self-described "Joker" would do his mass-murderous thing at the cinema in Aurora out in suburban Denver.
**** What, you never discussed Banisadr with pals during the '80s, like I occasionally did?
***** An English-speaking guest-by-sattelite interviewed by Messrs. Will and Donaldson on "The Week with David Brinkley", you may remember!
****** That's the SAME WEEK American Hollywood exile Grace Kelly fatally crashed on Tuesday, off the SAME FRENCH RIVIERA ROAD she motored down in that scene with Cary Grant in "To Catch a Thief"...not to MENTION that Persian execution occurring right smack dab in the middle of the two-day mass violence in Lebanon now collectively known as Sabra & Shatila massacres, in the wake of the bombing assassination of Lebanese leader Bashir Gemayal, who had died on that eventful Tuesday...just like Princess Grace had elsewhere at the shores of The Mediterranean!

KINDLY PARDON MY OLD-GUY EYESIGHT:

The late comedian Tom Davis died prematurely nearly a DECADE ago on Thursday, July 19, 2012, definitely NOT 2021...as did all those unlucky Coloradans near near Aurora who thought they were just going to see another Batman movie that Thursday night.

I'll TRY to proofread more exhaustively next time.

STYBLE/Florida