Whipped Cream Difficulties

Jimmy Elidrissi.

This is another one of those NYT style obits for someone who wasn’t so famous, but was still a figure worth noting. Mr. Elidrissi emigrated from Morocco to the United States in 1966 and got a job as a bellhop at the Waldorf Astoria…

…where he worked until 2017.

On the day he retired after 51 years, he was its longest-serving employee and probably the longest-serving living bellhop in Manhattan, according to his union, the Hotel Trades Council.

…

He remembered encountering Ronald Reagan during the 1980 presidential campaign against Jimmy Carter.
“‘Here you go, Mr. President,’” he recalled saying in greeting the candidate, “and he goes, ‘No, no, don’t call me that yet!’ So I say, ‘Look, Mr. President, you’re going to win and when you win send me something for my son.’ Later that year, he sent us a signed picture made out to my son.”
When Reagan returned to the hotel years after leaving office, he greeted Mr. Elidrissi by saying, “‘You’re still here, Jim!’”

Stretching the definition of an obit just a wee bit…

Five high-ranking military leaders died in the span of just 10 days, according to the Cuban government — though it’s remained mum on the causes.

Spoiler: it looks like pretty much all of these guys were older than dirt.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 28th, 2021 at 12:22 pm and is filed under History, Obits, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.