A very long week last week meant I spent last night catching up on news. From Celebrity Death Beeper, I found that Dave Allen had passed away last week. When I was dating my first wife, we often sat at her parents' home watching British comedies. She and her mom liked Benny Hill, but right after that came on Dave Allen At Large, which was one of the funnier shows I've ever seen. Classic Dave Allen was a cigarette, a whiskey on the rocks and a stool, on which he would tell you jokes. Much of his humor lampooned religion and Irish culture. Some of them appear on a tribute page here, but here's one I can still tell by heart after nearly 30 years.

Seems there was a priest who bicycled along a rode each morning, and on another bicycle coming the other way was the bishop. "G'morning, Father," the bishop would say. "Good morning, my lord bishop," replied the priest.

One morning the bishop is bicycling and sees the priest walking on the road. "Good morning, Father. What happen'd to your bicycle?" "It's a terrible thing, my lord bishop. It seems to have been stolen." "Stolen, what a terrible thing," said the bishop. "Here's what you do. This Sunday at Mass, you give a sermon on the Ten Commandments. When you get to 'thou shalt not steal', the guilty thief will be overcome and return your bicycle." "Why thank you, Bishop! I shall do this on the very next Sunday!" the priest replied.

The next Monday the bishop was bicycling and sees the priest on his bicycle coming in the other direction. "Good morning, Father! I see our little plan worked and you got your bicycle back. Did you find out who stole it?" "Not exactly, my lord bishop," said the priest. "I was going through the Ten Commandments and I got to 'thou shalt not commit adultery' ... and I remembered where I left my bicycle."

At which point Dave would sip the whiskey, look over the rim and smile. I'll have to get the DVD; hope that one is on it!