Jeff Garlin and Larry David

Some years ago, in California, when my job took me out that way with a couple of days to spare, I decided to rent a car from Ontario, CA and drive to the coast---to Santa Monica!

On the way I drove down Vine St., Rodeo Dr., past the Beverly Hills Hotel to Malibu and sat on the beach for an hour. Then to Venice Beach, where I saw some very eccentric and interesting people,...then to Santa Monica where I parked near the Ocean Front Walk, a winding sidewalk between Santa Monica downtown and the ocean. Actually from the ocean there's beach, then a row of small shacks, then a cliff, then up the cliff to a flat grassy area where the walk is.

I was walking southeast and two guys were walking toward me going northwest, and I thought I might have recognized one of them. He was a rather tall, very heavy set fellow with dark brown curly hair walking next to a shorter, skinny fellow with large glasses grey sideburns and almost a Larry Fine (Three Stooges) type hair, bald on top. The rest of his hair was ash-brown.

When they got close I must've looked like I was trying to figure out who he was (the large guy), so he suddenly got very animated and angry, flapping his arms, and moving toward me like he was going to knock me down, shouting "WHAT...WHAAAAT...WHAAAAAAT!?!?"

Catching me off guard I stammered a bit and told him he looked like the comedian from Chicago who did a stand-up act called I Just Want Someone to Eat Cheese With. This just seemed to get him more angry, for some reason. He then leaned into me and shouted "Jeeeeesusss!" and continued walking. The other fellow turned toward me after they passed and said only somewhat sincerely, "We're sorry!"

This last part got me quite angry....very angry by that point. So I turned toward the fat guy and snapped "FAT F&%K!!!" This got his attention,...he stopped but didn't turn toward me. Then I heard the skinny guy say to him, "you like that???" And I saw the fat guy's profile (he was laughing) as he turned toward his friend, and he answered "I like the way it sounded." And that was that as they kept walking.

I realized at the time that I had run into Jeff Garlin, but I had not then recognized Larry David (but after seeing Curb Your Enthusiasm, was 95% certain it was him). I wonder if Mr. Garlin is any nicer to his fans these days.....