Ring Lardner Tonight: Part 5 of "Champion" - Back in his hometown, the champ knows how to deal with a sponger

Eh bien, c'est Le Champion!

"'And I want the deed done before I come back,' said Grace as she rose from the table. 'You won't fall down on me, will you, hon?'"

-- Grace, to Midge, in tonight's installment of "Champion"

by Ken

Hugh Laurie was on The Graham Norton Show recently (well, it was last week that we got the show -- assuming I haven't lost a week -- which means that with a favoring wind it was taped a week or so before that), just back from the continent promoting his new New Orleans-recorded blues CD, and Graham asked him about the popularity of House in Europe, which it seems is enormous. This rather surprises Hugh, who explained that he would have thought the show awfully "wordy" to survive translation, making clear that he meant "wordy" in a the best possible way, referring to the writing that makes the show so satisfying for him.

(Hugh also told a wonderful story about his last stop in Germany, where he was thronged by fans trying to get him to autograph pictures while he was trying to catch a train. When they realized that no, he wasn't going to sign any more pictures, they started tearing them up and booing -- which he was startled to discover in German comes out "Ooh! Ooh!" -- and shouted for him to leave the country, which he explained was the very thing he was trying to do.)

Now if we imagine that House is too "wordy" for non-English-speakers, what would a rational translator make of Ring Lardner -- with, say, a line like: "I'm willin' to hear what you think is fair. I don't want nobody callin' me a Sherlock." His son Bill (aka Ring Jr.) touches on this in The Lardners. We'll have that with tomorrow night's Part 6.

FOR PART 5 OF "CHAMPION," CLICK HERE.

RING'S "CHAMPION" -- THE WHOLE STORY

Part 1: We make the acquaintance of young Michael Kelly
Part 2: In Milwaukee, Midge makes connections
Part 3: In Boston, Midge makes his mark
Part 4: In New Orleans, Midge reads some mail
Part 5: Back in his hometown, the champ knows how to deal with a sponger
Part 6: Back in Milwaukee, the champ rearranges more old arrangements
Part 7: In New York, the champ meets the press
Postscript: How "Champion" found its way into book form

THURBER TONIGHT (including BENCHLEY, WILL CUPPY, WOLCOTT GIBBS, RING LARDNER, BOB AND RAY, E. B. WHITE, and JEAN SHEPHERD TONIGHT): Check out the series to date

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